En-Dor

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EN-DOR

EN-DOR (Heb. עֵין דּאׁר ,עֵין דּוֹר).

(1) A city in the territory of Issachar that was occupied by the strong Manasseh tribe (Josh. 17:11). The biblical statement that Gideon's triumph over the Midianites took place at En-Dor (Ps. 83:11) corresponds well with its location north of the hill of Moreh (Gibeath-Moreh, Judg. 7:1). The city's notoriety is mainly due to Saul's visit to "the woman that divineth by a ghost" – the famous witch of En-Dor (i Sam. 28:7). Saul disguised himself because he and his army were then at Gilboa and the Philistines at Shunem and he had to pass near the enemy camp to reach En-Dor. Eusebius describes it as a very large village 4 m. (6½ km.) south of Mount Tabor and north of the Little Hermon (al-Nabī Daḥī), and also mentions its proximity to Na'im, near Scythopolis (Onom. 34:8; 94:20). En-Dor seems to have been originally part of the district of Sepphoris and was detached from it with Na'im to form a separate district. The name is preserved in ʿIndūr, east of Na'im and north of the hill of Moreh. Tell al-ʿAjjūl or Khirbat al-Ṣafṣāfa, two tells in the vicinity of Na'im containing Iron Age remains, have been suggested as possible sites of the ancient city.

[Michael Avi-Yonah]

(2) The modern kibbutz of En Dor, S.E. of Mt. Tabor, was founded on June 16, 1948, a few days after the region was secured by Israel forces in the War of Independence. It is affiliated to Kibbutz Arẓi ha-Shomer ha-Ẓa'ir. Its settlers include Israel-born pioneers and immigrants from the United States, Bulgaria, Turkey, Germany, and South America. Its economy was based on field crops, poultry, dairy cattle, and a factory for modern electronic equipment. The kibbutz also operated a station for seed development. In the mid-1990s the population was approximately 635, rising to 783 in 2002.

[Efraim Orni /

Shaked Gilboa (2^nd ed.)]