2 Chronicles 13:4 - Exposition

Mount Zemaraim . This mount is not mentioned elsewhere. Presumably it was a mountain or hill above the place called Zemaraim, mentioned in Joshua 18:22 as in Benjamin's allotment, and mentioned between the places called Beth ha-Arabah ( i.e. the Jordan valley) and Bethel. Accordingly, it may be that itself lay between these two, or near enough to them one or both. This will quite suit our connection as placing the hill near the borders of Benjamin and Ephraim. It is said to be in Mount Ephraim ; i.e. in the range of Mount Ephraim, which was one of considerable length, running through the midst of what was afterwards called Samaria, from the Plain of Esdraelon to Judah. Zemaraim may be so named from the Zemarite tribe, who were Hamites, and related to the Hittites and Amorites ( Genesis 10:18 ; 1 Chronicles 1:16 ), descendants of Canaan; there are some faint traces of their having wandered from their northern settlements into mid and south Palestine. The Septuagint render Zemaraim by the same Greek as Samaria, σομόρων .