Tappuah
TAPPUAH
TAPPUAH (Heb. ???????? ,?????????)
(1) a city of the tribe of Judah, located in the district of the northern Shephelah with Zanoah and Enam (Josh. 15:34). The Tappuah listed with the sons of Hebron (i Chron. 2:43) is perhaps identical with the Beth-Tappuah of Joshua 15:53. Its assumed identification with post-biblical Bethletepha (present-day Beit (Bayt) Natt?f) is doubtful.
(2) A city in Ephraim, the territory of which was in Manasseh. It was situated south of Shechem near the brook of Kanah (Josh. 16:8; 17:7, as En-Tappuah; 17:8). Although the king of Tappuah is listed among the kings defeated by Joshua (Josh. 12:17), and his territory fell to Manasseh, the stronger Ephraim was needed to capture the city itself. The suggested identification with the Tappuah fortified by Bacchides (i Macc. 9:50) is based on a misreading (see *Tekoa). The accepted identification is with Sheikh Abu Zarad near a spring called ?Ayn al-Tuff?? in the vicinity of the village of Y?s?f (the Yashub of lxx and perhaps of the Samaria Ostraca). Late Bronze and Iron Age pottery has been found on the site.
bibliography:
F.M. Abel, in: rb, 45 (1936), 103ff.
[Michael Avi-Yonah]