CHINNERETH

(Chinʹne·reth) [perhaps, lute, harp].

1. A fortified city of Naphtali. (Josh. 19:32, 35) It is presently identified with Khirbet el-ʽOreimeh, situated on a mound about two miles (3.2 kilometers) SW of Capernaum, overlooking the NW portion of the Sea of Galilee. The name el-ʽOreimeh means “harp” or “lyre.” Chinnereth appears on the temple walls of Karnak at Thebes, Egypt, in the list of Canaanite cities conquered by Thutmose III (whose reign historians assign to the sixteenth century B.C.E.).

2. A district or region of Israel attacked by Syrian King Ben-hadad at the instigation of King Asa of Judah. (c 962/961 B.C.E.) (1 Ki. 15:20; compare 2 Chronicles 16:4.) The expression “all Chinnereth” is usually considered to refer to the fertile Plain of Gennesaret, a small, well-watered triangular area extending S of the suggested site of the city of Chinnereth.

3. The early name of the Sea of Galilee. (Num. 34:11) Associating the name with the Hebrew word for harp (kin·nohrʹ), some suggest that it is applied to the lake because of the harp-shaped form of this body of water. Gennesaret, probably the Greek form of the name, was used when Jesus was on earth (Luke 5:1), as well as the names Sea of Galilee and Sea of Tiberias.—John 6:1.

In addition to being included among the boundaries of the Promised Land (Num. 34:11), the lake formed part of the W boundary of the Amorite kingdom of Og, and, following the Israelite conquest, figured in the W boundary of the tribe of Gad. (Deut. 3:16, 17; Josh. 13:24-27) The reference to “the desert plains [Heb., ʽara·vahʹ] south of Chinnereth” (Josh. 11:2) evidently means the section of the Jordan valley S of the Sea of Galilee, known as the Ghor.—See GALILEE, SEA OF.