ZEMARAIM (DrOV ; Mapd.; Alex. Zeppfa ; Senzaraim), one of the ancient towns in the teni tory allotted to Benjamin. It is only once men tioned, and is grouped between Beth-Arabah and Bethel (Josh. xviii. 22) ; and it would therefore appear to have been situated either in the Jordan valley (Arabah), or on the mountain declivities be tween it ar.d Bethel. About five miles north of Jericho, in the valley of the Jordan, are the ruins of a small town or village, strewn over a low hill, and called Khurbet es-Sunzrah, the ruins of Sumrah.' The name (3j4,4 is radically identical with Zemaraim ; and as the site corresponds to the Scripture notice of that town it may be re garded as the modern representative of the old town of Benjamin (Robinson, B. i. 569 ; 292, note ; Van de Velde, llfemoir, 355).
2. A mountain of this name is mentioned ill 2 Chron. xiii. 4.:—‘ And Abijah stood up upon , Mount Zemamim, which is in Mount Ephraim, and said, IIear me, thou Jeroboam, and all Israel.'
(Though the Hebrew word is the same, the LXX. has here Zogopa:' v, and the Vulg. Senzeron). Its geographical position is not farther defined. Re land and others (Pal. p. io5,8) suppose that it stood near the town of Zemaraim, and took its name from it. This, however, is impossible, if Zemarairn be identified with es-Sumrah, because Mount Zemamim was situated in the mountainous region of Ephraim, whereas es-Sumrah is in the Jordan valley. Others would identify Mount Zemaraim with the hill on which Samaria was built, and which is called Shimron in the Hebrew (i'llt:V). The names, however, are different ; and the conference between Ahijah and Jeroboam, before the great battle, was evidently at some place much farther south than Samaria (see Reland, Pal. 344), and probably not far distant from the borders of the two kingdoms at Bethel (Keil and Bertheau, ati toe. )—j. L. P.