JIPHTHAH-EL *rim Goa' opens ; rat cint0 and cDS-ar7X ; Alex. 'Ir09-ahX ; 7phtakel and yephthae/). The Vatican text of the LXX., in Josh. xix. 14, joins the word 91, valley,' with the proper name, thus making PanpailX ; and in ver. 27 the translators appear to have read '):1 instead of '1:,Z1 (` and in the valley'), and made it a proper name, 'EK-yrit The valley of Jiphthah-el formed part of the boundary between Asher and Zebulun. It has been identified as follows.
Yotopata was a celebrated fortress of Galilee [J0TAPATA]. It stood upon the hill now called Tell .7fat, about two miles north-west of Cana of Galilee. The name was written by the rabbins, N1111t1,1, Nren, nvir, etc. (Reland, Pal., pp. 816, 868). Now we know that the Hebrew letters Yod and Gimel are sometimes interchanged (Ge senius, Thesaurus, pp. 252, 557); and by the Galileans the gutturals (N and 17) were often con founded (Lightfoot, Opera, p. 232); hence we can see bow simply rim+ might be corrupted into Nr.v. etc., from which came the Greek 'Icerchrara, and the Arabic yjfill.
It is evident also, from the topographical details, that the valley of Jiphthah-el could not have been far distant from Jefat ; since the border of Asher passed from the promontory of Carmel to Zebulun, then to the valley of Jiphthah-el, and so to Cabul, which is about lour miles north - west of Jerk (Robinson, B. R., iii. 107 ; see Van de Velde's
Map). We are thus warranted in concluding that there was both a local and etymological connection between 7phthah-el and Yotapata. Near Jefat the great valley of Abilin takes its rise, and runs south-westward into the plain of Acre ; and there is every reason to believe that it is the Jiphthah-el of Scripture, and that it thus forms a most im portant landmark by which to define thc boundaries of Asher and Zebulun (Van de Velde, Memoir, 326; Ritter, Pal. und Syr., iii. 768).
Dr. Thomson mentions a very ancicnt ruin called Wtah, or Giftah,' lying at the junction of the vale of Kefr Kenna with the plain of Turan, about five miles north-east of Nazareth. Guided by this, he identifies the plain of Turan with Jiphthah-el (The Lana' and the Book, p. 426). This theory is inadmissible, for two reasons--i. Turan is a plain, to which the Hebrew word would not be applicable ; it would be called pnr or nypz. 2. The territory of Asher could never have extended so far eastward.—J. L. P.