the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Dictionaries
Zoan
People's Dictionary of the Bible
or Zoan (zô'am), low region? or place of departure? A city of lower Egypt; called by the Greeks Tanis—now San. Zoan was an exceedingly ancient city, built seven years after Hebron. Numbers 13:22. The "field of Zoan" was the place of God's wonders. Psalms 78:12; Psalms 78:43. When Isaiah wrote, it would appear to have been one of the chief cities in Egypt, as he speaks of "the princes of Zoan." Isaiah 19:11; Isaiah 19:13; Isaiah 30:4. Ezekiel foretells the fate of the city in the words: "I will set fire in Zoan." Ezekiel 30:14. There are no other Scripture references to Zoan. Zoan has been satisfactorily identified with the ancient Avaris and Tanis and the modern San. Very interesting discoveries have been made there within a few years. Among the inscriptions has been found one with the expression Sechet Tanet, which exactly corresponds to the "field of Zoan." Psalms 78:43. The mounds which mark the site of the town are remarkable for their height and extent, and cover an area a mile in length by three-fourths of a mile in width. The sacred enclosure of the great temple was 1500 feet long and 1250 feet wide. This temple was adorned by Rameses H. There are some dozen obelisks of great size, all fallen and broken, with numerous statues. "The whole constitutes," says Macgregor, "one of the grandest and oldest ruins in the world."
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Rice, Edwin Wilbur, DD. Entry for 'Zoan'. People's Dictionary of the Bible. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/rpd/z/zoan.html. 1893.
