HAROSHETH OF THE GENTILES 0-0-1r, n,.;r1 ; Sept. 'Apecra)5-; Alex. 'Ao-cip60 reDv e51,6'2,), a town of northern Palestine, the home of Sisera (Judg. iv. 2). At Harosheth the army and chariots of Jabin were marshalled under the great captain before they invaded Israel, and defiled from the nor thern mountains into the broad battle-field of Es draelon (ver. 13). And after the terrible defeat and slaughter on the banks of the Kishon, to this place the fugitives of the army returned, a shattered and panic-strickcn remnant. Barak and his victorious troops followed them into the fastnesses of their own mountains, unto the gates of Harosheth (ver. 16). The city is not again mentioned in the Bible ; nor is it referred to by Josephus, Jerome, or any ancient writer. Its position is not stated ; but from the fact of its having been the gathering-place of Jabin's army, it could not have been far from Hazor ; and from the appellative inn it would seem to have been one of the towns of the region anciently called Galilee of the Gentiles' (cf. Is. ix. ; nr;
The etymology of the name Harosketh, wood cuttings,' joined with the above facts, ma!yjustify us in locating the city on the upland plains of Naphtali, probably on one of those ruin-crowned eminences still existing, from which the mother of Sisera, looking out at her latticed window, could see far along that road by which she expected her son to return in triumph (Judg. v. 28). Deborah in her beautiful ode doubtless depicted the whole features of the scene. Remnants of the old forests of oak and terebinth still wave here over the ruins of the ancient cities ; and the writer has seen the black tents of the Arabs—fit representatives of the Kenites (iv. 7)—pitched beneath their shade (Handbook for S. and P., ii. 442, sq. ; Stanley, Lectures on yewish Church, 318, sq.)—J. L. P.