Mearah, a place near Sidon, mentioned in the description of the land yet to be conquered by the Israelites (Joshua 13:4).
Also known as Arah
Mearah is mentioned in Joshua 13:4 as part of the description of the land that remained to be conquered by the Israelites. The verse states that the land of the Gebalites and all Lebanon, toward the sunrise, from Baal-gad below Mount Hermon to Lebo-hamath, including Mearah of the Sidonians, was yet to be taken. The exact location and nature of Mearah are not specified in the Bible, but it is associated with the Sidonians, suggesting it was in the vicinity of the city of Sidon.
Approximate location: 33.633, 35.433 · view on a map · on the Bible atlas
A cave, a place in the northern boundary of Palestine (Josh. 13:4). This may be the cave of Jezzin in Lebanon, 10 miles east of Sidon, on the Damascus road; or probably, as others think, Mogheirizeh, north-east of Sidon.
(a cave), a place named in (Joshua 13:4) only. The word means in Hebrew a cave, and it is commonly assumed that the reference is to some remarkable cavern in the neighborhood of Zidon.
den; cave; making empty
MEA'RAH (a cave, cavern). In Josh 13:4 this word occurs as the name of a cave not far from Sidon; the margin reads, "the cave." Robinson, in his journey from Tyre to Sidon, observed many sepulchral grottoes hewn out of the hard limestone rock. This may be the spot spoken of by William of Tyre as the Tyrian cave in the territory of Sidon; Keil makes Mearah "the cave of Jezzin," east of Sidon, in Lebanon, a hiding-place of the Druses now; Ritter refers it to a district of deep caves like the ravines near Sidon and Dan.
MEA'RAH (a cave, cavern). In Josh 13:4 this word occurs as the name of a cave not far from Sidon; the margin reads, "the cave." Robinson, in his journey from Tyre to Sidon, observed many sepulchral grottoes hewn out of the hard limestone rock. This may be the spot spoken of by William of Tyre as the Tyrian cave in the territory of Sidon; Keil makes Mearah "the cave of Jezzin," east of Sidon, in Lebanon, a hiding-place of the Druses now; Ritter refers it to a district of deep caves like the ravines near Sidon and Dan. MEASURES and WEIGHTS. The Jewish law contains two precepts respecting weights and measures. The first, Lev 19:35-36, refers to the standards kept in the sanctuary, and the second, Deut 25:13-15, to copies of them kept by every family for its own use. The models or standards of the weights and measures preserved in the temple were destroyed with the sacred edifice, and afterward the measures and weights of the people among whom the Jews dwelt were adopted; which, of course, adds to the perplexities of the subject. I. Measures of Length. - The Hebrews, like all other ancient nations, took the standard of their measures of length from the human body. They made use, however, only of the finger, the hand, and the arm, not of the foot or the pace. The handbreadth or palm, 1 Kgs 7:26, was four digits, or the breadth of the four fingers - from three to three and a half inches. A span. Lam 2:20, which expresses the distance across the hand from the extremity of the thumb to the extremity of the little finger, when they are stretched as far apart as possible, say nine to ten inches. A cubit, the distance from the elbow to the extremity of the middle finger, or
about eighteen inches. The different expressions used in the O.T. about this measure — such as "after the…
Easton (1897), Smith (1863), Hitchcock (1869), Hastings (1898) and Schaff are in the public domain. Parsed text: neuu-org/bible-dictionary-dataset (CC BY 4.0). Headwords and whitespace normalised for this site.
1 verse in 1 book · English text: BSB (change it from the menu at the top) · Strong’s H4632
to the south, all the land of the Canaanites, from Mearah of the Sidonians to Aphek, as far as the border of the Amorites;
Names, family links and references: STEPBible TIPNR (Tyndale House Cambridge, CC BY 4.0). Short descriptions were drafted with AI assistance by STEPBible. Family links follow STEPBible’s scholarly decisions where genealogies are ambiguous.