zephath Summary and Overview

beacon; watch-tower, a Canaanite town; called also Hormah (q.v.), Judg. 1:17. It has been identified with the pass of es-Sufah, but with greater probability with S'beita.

(watch-tower), the earlier name, #Jud 1:17| of a Canaanite town, which after its capture and destruction was called by the Israelites Hormah. [HORMAH]

ZE'PHATH (watch-tower), a city and tower in the mountains of the Amorites, near Kadesh, Judg 1:17; identified by Palmer and Drake with the ruins of a city called Sebaitah, in the midst of a fertile plain. It was the same as Hormah, which see.

("watchtower") (Judges 1:17). A Canaanite town, called after its destruction by Israel (See HORMAH . In the extreme S. or wilderness of Judah. Now the pass es Sufa from the Arabah border up to the high level of the S. country (Robinson). But Speaker's Commentary, "Rakhmah," an anagram of Hormah, some miles E. of Sebatah which is on the road to Suez, quarter of an hour N. of Rohebeh or Ruheibeh.

Rowlands identifies Zephath with Sebata, whose ruins extend 500 yards in length, 300 in width, 20 miles from Ain Gadis which Palmer makes Kadesh. Then the fort el Meshrifeh would command the only pass to Sebaita. The name of the low mountains 15 miles S.W. of Meshrifeh; Ras Amir marks the hill country of the Amorites. Palmer makes Sebaita the city of Zephath, and Meshrifeh, three miles off, its protecting tower.