Bible Dictionaries
Dothan

Holman Bible Dictionary

(doh' than) Place name of uncertain meaning, also known as Dothaim. A city of the tribe of Manasseh, west of the Jordan, northeast of Samaria, southeast of Megiddo, and now identified as Tell Dotha. It was located in an area less productive for agriculture and was traversed by roads used for commerce. Dothan is the area to which Joseph traveled to find his brothers (Genesis 37:17 ). From there, Joseph was sold to a caravan of Ishmaelites and carried to Egypt, following an ancient trade route over the Plain of Dothan to Egypt. Dothan was the place Elisha stayed (2 Kings 6:13 ). The king of Syria sought to capture Elisha by laying siege to the city. Elisha then led the Syrian army away from Dothan to Samaria and defeat. Dothan Isaiah 5 miles southwest of Genin, 11 miles northeast of Samaria, and 13 miles north of Shechem.

In 1953, excavations were begun by Joseph E. Free under the sponsorship of Wheaton College. Excavations of tell Dotha, an isolated mound, determined that there was occupation of the site from the end of the Chalcolithic Age through the Hellenistic Roman Period (3200 B.C. through A.D. 300-400) with a break from 700 to 330. It became a walled city about 3000 B.C. The importance of Dothan was its placement upon the roads in the hill country of Ephraim and the resulting commercial trade. It controlled all traffic going between the hills and the Jezreel Valley.

David M. Fleming