JOKNEAM (C3./)1),, ` possessed by the people ;' It ,:7 '1€K6,a, 'lmudv, Math, ; Alex. 'lecopth.t, ge.a,d,a; ywhanan, .yeehonam, .Yeenam), an ancient royal Canaanitish city, situated at the base of Mount Carmel ; whence its name, yokneam of Carmel osh. xii. 22). It was given to the Levites out of the tribe of Zebulun (xxi. 34). Two other pas sages in which it is mentioned tend to define its exact position. In describing the border of Zebu tun, Joshua says : ' It went up toward the sea and Maralah, and reached to Dabbasheth, and reached to the river that is befbre Yakneam' (xix. II). This river was doubtless the Kishon. Again, in Kings iV. I 2, the district of one of Solomon's purveyors is thus described : To Baana pertained Taanach and Megiddo, and all Beth-shean, which is by Zartanah beneath Jezreel, from Beth-shean to Abelmeholah, even unto beyond Yakneam (nzvn Baana thus held the great plain from Beth-shean at the eastern extremity, to Jokneam at the western. It is true the Hebrew text in this passage reads 7okneeam, but from the passage it is evident reference is made to the city at the base of Carmel, and not to yokmearn of Ephraim [ JOK MEAM]. The letters 7: and are often inter
changed in Hebrew.
Dr. Robinson has satisfactorily identified Jok neam with Tell Xaimen, a conspicuous little hill, covered with ruins, situated at the western ex tremity of Esdraelon, on the south bank of the Kishon, and dose to the base of Carmel. It commands the main pass leading through the hills from Esdraelon to Sharon. The Arabic name Kaimen is evidently identical with the Kagutevci. of Eusebius, which lay in the great plain, six miles from Legio, on the way to Ptolemais (Onomast. s.v. Camon); and it is a corruption of the Hebrew om. The Yod is dropped, as in Zerin for yezreel ; the Nun is changed to Mem ; the .../yin probably was omitted in the Galilean dialea—thus the change was effected (Lightfoot, Opera, ii. 233 ; Robinson, E. R., iii. its). The corruption must have taken place at at early date, for in the book of Judith (vii. 3) we have limbed:1, (see Van de Velde, Travels, i. 331; Memoir, p. 326).—J. L. P.