Succoth

Succoth, 1

Suc´coth (Booths), the first encampment of the Israelites on the Egyptian side of the Red Sea (Exo 12:37; Exo 13:20; Num 33:5 [EXODUS].

Succoth, 2

Suc´coth, a town in the tribe of Gad (Jos 13:27), on the east of the Jordan (Jdg 8:5; 1Ki 7:6). The spot in which the town stood is called ’the valley of Succoth,’ and must have been part of the valley of the Jordan. The place derived its name from Jacob having tarried some time there on his return from Padan-aram, and made booths for his cattle (Gen 33:17).

Booths,\par 1. A spot in the valley of the Jordan and near the Jabbok, where Jacob set up his tents on his return from Mesopotamia, Gen 33:17 . Joshua assigned the city subsequently built here to the tribe of Gad, Jos 13:27 . Gideon tore the flesh of the principal men of Succoth with thorn and briars, because they returned him a haughty answer when pursuing the Midianites, Jdg 8:5 . It seems to have lain on the east side of the Jordan; but may possibly have been on the west side, at the place now called Sakut. Compare 1Ki 7:46 ; Psa 60:6 .\par 2. The first encampment of the Israelites, on their way out of Egypt, Exo 12:37 .\par

Suc’coth. (booths).

1. An ancient town, first heard of in the account of the homeward journey of Jacob from Padan-aram. Gen 35:17. The name is derived from the fact of Jacob’s having there put up "booths," (succoth), for his cattle, as well as a house for himself. From the itinerary of Jacob’s return, it seems that Succoth lay between Peniel, near the ford of the torrent Jabbok and Shechem. Compare Gen 32:30 and Gen 33:18.

In accordance with this, is the mention of Succoth in the narrative of Gideon’s pursuit of Zebah and Zalluunna. Jdg 5:5-17. It would appear from this passage that, it lay east of the Jordan, which is corroborated by the fact that, it was allotted to the tribe of Gad. Jos 13:27.

Succoth is named once again after this -- in 1Ki 7:46; 2Ch 4:17 -- as marking the spot, at which the brass founderies were placed, for casting the metal work of the Temple. (Dr. Merrill identifies it with a site called Tell Darala, one mile north of the Jabbok. -- Editor).

2. The first camping place of the Israelites when they left Egypt. Exo 12:37; Exo 13:20; Num 33:5-6. This place was apparently reached at the close of the first days march. Rameses, the starting place, was probably near the western end of the Wadi-t-Tumeylat. The distance traversed in each day’s journey was about fifteen miles.

("booths"), from saakak "to entwine" or "shelter."

1. Jerome places it "beyond Jordan" (Quaest. Hebrew). In Jos 13:27-28 Succoth is assigned to Gad. The mention of the "house" and "booths" marks that Jacob stayed there for long, in contrast to his previous pilgrim life in tents, Succoth lay on the route between Pentel on the E. of Jordan and Shechem on the W. of Jordan (Gen 32:30; Gen 33:17-18). (See PENUEL; SHALEM.) Subsequently, in Gideon’s days Succoth had 77 chiefs and elders (zeqeenim, "sheikhs", i.e. headmen, literally, old men). See also 1Ki 7:46; 2Ch 4:17. The Talmud makes Succoth a district (so Psa 60:6, "the valley of Succoth") as well as a town, called Ter’alah; this corresponds to the tell or mound Der’ala, thickly strewed with pottery, in the great plain N. of the Jabbok, one mile from the river and three miles from where it leaves the hills. Close by is a smaller mound with ruins. The Bedouin say a city existed formerly on the large mound. E. of tell Der’ala is the ford of the Jabbok, "Mashra’a Canaan," i.e. Canaan’s crossing.

The route into Canaan which the nomadic tribes, as Midian, always took ("the way of them that dwell in tents," Jdg 8:11) was along the course of the Jabbok and so across Jordan opposite Bethshean, thence spreading over the Esdraelon plain. Gideon (Jdg 8:4-17) in pursuing Midian took the same course in reverse order until he reached Succoth. The men of Succoth, as living on this great army route between Canaan and the East, and having regard only to self and no concern for Israel’s deliverance and no compassion for the sufferings of Gideon’s gallant little band, would give no bread to their brethren lest they should incur the vengeance of Midian; nay more, they added insolence to unkindness. As then they classed themselves with the wicked, of whom thorns are the symbol, their retributive punishment was to be chastised with thorns of the wilderness (the strongest thorns: Isa 5:6; Isa 27:4; Amo 1:3; 2Sa 23:6-7). (See Palestine Exploation Quarterly Statement, April 1878, p. 81.)

2. Israel’s first camping place after leaving Egypt, half way between Rameses and Etham, Succoth of the Birket Timseh ("the lake of crocodiles") on the road which led by the shortest way to the edge of the wilderness. Possibly from Hebrew sukowt "booths," but probably from the Egyptian sechet or sochot, the "domain of an officer of state" in Lower Egypt not far from Memphis, in the time of Chufu (Exo 12:37; Exo 13:20; Num 33:5-6).

Succoth (suk’koth), booths. 1. An ancient town on the journey of Jacob from Padan-aram. Gen 33:17. Succoth lay between Peniel, near the ford of the torrent Jabbok and Shechem. Comp. Gen 32:30; Gen 33:18. In accordance with this is the mention of Succoth in the narrative of Gideon’s pursuit of Zeba and Zalmunna. Jdg 8:6-17. It was allotted to the tribe of Gad. Jos 13:27. Succoth is named once again after this—in 1Ki 7:46; 2Ch 4:17—as marking the spot at which the brass founderies were placed for casting the metal work of the temple. 2. The first camping-place of the Israelites when they left Egypt. Exo 12:37; Exo 13:20; Num 33:5-6.

[Suc’coth]

1. Canaanite city on the east of the Jordan, allotted to the tribe of Gad. Here Jacob built a house for himself and booths for his cattle. The elders of the city were punished by Gideon for not helping him when he was faint in pursuing the Midianites. Gen 33:17; Jos 13:27; Jdg 8:5-16; 1Ki 7:46; 2Ch 4:17; Psa 60:6; Psa 108:7. Identified by some with Tell Darala, 32° 12’ N, 35° 38’ E.

2. First halting place of the Israelites when they left Rameses. Exo 12:37; Exo 13:20; Num 33:5-6. Not identified.

By: Emil G. Hirsch, Immanuel Benzinger

1. The first stopping-place of the Israelites on their way out of Egypt (Ex. xii. 37, xiii. 20; Num. xxxiii. 5 et seq.); probably the Egyptian Thuku, name of the district of Pithom and also of the fortress itself (see Ebers in "Zeit. für Egyptische Sprache und Altertum," 1885, p. 49).

2. City in Palestine east of the Jordan, in the territory of Gad (Joshua xiii. 27). The name (="huts") is derived from Jacob's settling there on his return from the country of the Arameans. Jacob came from Penuel; while Gideon, pursuing the Midianites from the west, reached first Succoth and then Penuel (Judges viii. 5 et seq., 14 et seq.). Succoth, therefore, was nearer to the Jordan (comp. Judges viii. 4 et seq.). It lay in the valley, according to Joshua xiii. 27. The "valley of Succoth" mentioned in Ps. lx. 8 (A. V. 6), cviii. 8 (A. V. 7) is, therefore, the valley of the Jordan at Succoth. Jerome says, in a comment on Gen. xxxiii. 17, that Sukkoy belongs to the territory of Scythopolis (Baisan). Hence it probably lay north, not south, of the Jabbok (=Nahr al-Zarḳa). According to the Talmud, it was subsequently called Tar'ala (comp. Neubauer, "G. T." 1868, p. 248); and S. Merill identifies the place and the Talmudic name with the artificial hill Der Allah, 20 meters high, and somewhat to the north of the place where the Jabbok emerges from the mountains and seeks the plain (Merill, "East of the Jordan," 1881, p. 387). But this does not agree with the statements of Eusebius. This Succoth is identical with that mentioned in I Kings vii. 46 and II Chron. iv. 17. According to these passages, Hiram's foundry, in which he cast the vessels for the Temple, lay between Succoth and Zeredah in the valley of the Jordan.E. G. H. I. Be.

SUCCOTH.—A place first mentioned in Gen 33:17, where it is said to have been so called because Jacob, on his return from Haran to Canaan, halting at it after his wrestling with the angel at Penuel, built there ‘booths’ (Heb. succôth) for his cattle. Gideon also, after crossing the Jordan in his pursuit of the Midianites, passed Succoth, and afterwards ‘went up’ to Penuel (Jdg 8:5; Jdg 8:8). The name has not been preserved; and the site is thus matter of conjecture. From the passages quoted and other notices it is clear that it was E. of the Jordan; and it may further be inferred that, while Penuel was close to the Jabbok (Gen 32:22; Gen 32:30 f.), on higher ground than Succoth, and to the E. or S.E. (Jdg 8:5; Jdg 8:8, cf. v. 11), Succoth was on the route between Penuel and Shechem, which would pass most naturally over the ford ed-Dâmiyeh (a little S. of the point at which the Jabbok enters the Jordan), in the territory of Gad, in a ‘vale’ (Jos 13:27, Psa 60:5),—presumably, therefore, in that part of the Jordan valley through which the Jabbok flows into the Jordan, and which is very fertile. Jacob came from Mizpah (see No. 1 in art. s.v.), which is most naturally to be sought somewhere on the N. or N.E. of the Jebel ‘Ajlun; and any one journeying thence to the ford ed-Dâmiyeh would naturally descend as soon as possible into the Ghôr (or Jordan valley), and join the track which passes along it from N. to S. The rest of Jacob’s route would be consistent and intelligible, if Mahanaim (his last halting-place before Penuel, Gen 32:2) were (say) at Deir ‘Allâ, 4 miles N. of the ford by which the track down the Ghôr crosses the Jabbok, Penuel near where the same track crosses the route from es-Salt to ed-Dâmiyeh (see the map), and Succoth on one of the lower terraces of the Jordan valley (which here sinks from -500 ft. to -1000 ft.), W. of the point just suggested for Penuel, S. of the Jabbok, and in the territory of Gad (Jos 13:27). Whether towns actually stood at or near the sites thus indicated can, of course, be determined only by excavation.

Succoth is said in the Talmud to have been called in later times Tar‘alah or Dar‘alah; and hence it has often been identified with Deir ‘Allâ mentioned above. But it is very doubtful whether Deir ‘Allâ has any connexion with this Talm. name; for Deir is a Syriac and Arabic word (common in names of places) meaning ‘monastery,’ which there is no reason whatever for seeing in the Tar or Dar (without the yod) of the Talm. name. Nor does the geographical position of Deir ‘Allâ seem to agree with the narrative of either Jacob or Gideon. See, further, Driver in ExpT [Note: Expository Times.] xiii. (1902), p. 457 ff., more briefly in Gen. p. 300 ff.

S. R. Driver.

SUCCOTH (meaning in Heb. ‘booths’).—The name of the first encampment in the Exodus, which started from Rameses (Exo 12:37; Exo 13:20, Num 33:5-6). It is probably the Egyptian Thuke, the same as or near to Pithom (wh. see), capital of the 8th nome, and situated in the Wady Tumilat.

F. Ll. Griffith.

suk´oth, suk´ōth (סכּות, ṣukkōth, “booths”; Σκηναί, Skēnai, Σοκχώθ, Sokchṓth, etc.): After parting with Esau, Jacob journeyed to Succoth, a name which he gave to the place from the “booths” which he erected to shelter his cattle (Gen 33:17). It was in the territory of Gad, and is mentioned with Beth-nimrah (Jos 13:27). In his pursuit of Zeba and Zalmunnah, Gideon seems to have retraced the path followed by Jacob, passing Succoth before Penuel (Jdg 8:5 ff). Their churlishness on that occasion brought dire punishment upon the men of Succoth. Gideon on his return “taught them” with thorns and briers (Jdg 8:16). In the soil of the valley between Succoth and Zarethan, which was suitable for the purpose, the brass castings of the furniture for Solomon’s Temple were made (1Ki 7:46; 2Ch 4:17). Jerome (on Gen 33:17) says that in his day it was a city beyond Jordan in the district of Scythopolis. From the above data it is clear that Succoth lay on the East of the Jordan and North of the Jabbok. From Psa 60:6; Psa 108:7, we may infer that it was close to the Jordan valley, part of which was apparently known by its name. Neubauer (Geog. du Talmud, 248) gives the Talmudic name as Tar‛ala. Merrill (East of the Jordan, 386) and others compare this with Tell Deir ‛Allā, the name of an artificial mound about a mile North of the Jabbok, on the edge of the valley, fully 4 miles East of the Jordan. There is a place called Sākūt West of the Jordan, about 10 miles South of Beisān. This has been proposed by some; but it is evident that Succoth lay East of the river. No trace of the name has been found here.