Zo’an, (Heb. Tso'an, צעִן; Sept. Τανίς; ,Vulg. Taais), an ancient city of Lower Egypt, situated on the eastern side of the Tanitic branch of the Nile, and mentioned several times in the Old Test. (Numbers 13:22; Psalms 78:12,43; Isaiah 19:11,13; 30:4; Ezekiel 30:14). Its ruins have lately been carefully explored (Petrie, Tanis, in “Mem. of Eg. Expl. Fund,’ Lond. 1884-8).
I. The name, preserved in the Coptic Jane, the Arabic San (a village still on the site), and the classical Tayit, Tanis (whence the Coptic transcription Taneos), comes from the root צָעִן “he moved tents” (Isaiah 33:20), cognate with טָעִן: “he loaded a beast of burden;” and thus signifies “a place of departure” (like Zaanannim, Joshua 19:33, or Zaanaim, Judges 4:11, on a similar thoroughfare). Zoan lay near the eastern border of Lower Egypt. The senses of departure or removing therefore, would seem not to indicate a mere resting place of caravans, but a place of departure from a country. The Egyptian-name Ha-awar or Pa-awar (Avaris, Α᾿ουαρίς) means “the abode” or “house” of “going out” or “departure.” Its more precise sense fixes that of the Shemitic equivalent.
1. From Manetho. — At a remote period, between the age when the pyramids were built and that of the empire, Egypt was invaded, overrun, and subdued by the strangers known as the Shepherds, who, or at least their first race, appear to have been Arabs cognate with the Phoenicians, ‘How they entered Egypt does not appear. After a time they made one of themselves king, a certain Salatis,’ who reigned at Memphis, exacting tribute of Upper and Lower Egypt, and garrisoning the fittest places with especial regard to the safety of the eastern provinces, which he foresaw the Assyrians’ would desire to invade. With this view, finding in the Saite (better elsewhere Sethroite) home, on the east of the Bubastite branch, a very fit city called Avaris, he rebuilt and very strongly walled it, garrisoning it with 240,000 men. He came hither in harvest-time (about the vernal equinox), to give corn and pay to the troops, and exercise them so as to terrify foreigners.
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Author: McClintock and Strong Cyclopedia
Keywords: Zoan, Nile, Nile river, Egypt
Bible reference(s): Ezekiel 30:14, Genesis 22:2, Isaiah 19:11, Isaiah 30:4, Isaiah 33:20, Joshua 19:33, Judges 4:11, Numbers 13:22, Psalms 78:12
Source: John McClintock and James Strong, Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature.
Page indexed by: inWORD Bible Software.