Tini'nah (Ileb. Timnali', f'>i^Pi.porHo7i), the name of several places in Palestine, which appears in the orig- inal, either simple or compounded, in several forms, not always accurately represented in the A. V. We treat under this head only the simple name, reserving the com|)ounds for a separate article. See also Timna.
1. The place near which Tamar entrapped Judah into intercourse with her (Gen. xxxviii, 12, 13, 1-4; Heb. with n directive, Timnathah, nr3-R; Sept. Ha/ii'«; Vulg. Tkamnathu ; A. V. "to Timuath"). It had a road leading to it ( ver. 14), and as it lay on high ground (ver. 12), it probably was the same with the Timnah in the mountain district of the tribe of Judah (Josh, xv, 57; Sept. Qa^ivd v. r. Ga/n'oSn ; Vulg. Thumna). As it lay in the same group with Maon, Ziph, and Carmel, south-east of Hebron (Keil, Comment, ad loc), it may perhaps be identical with a ruined site upon a low hill on the west of the road be- tween Ziph and Carmel, " called Um el- A mod (' mother of the pillar'). Foundations and heaps of stones, with some cisterns, cover a small tract of ground, while two or three coarse colimins mark the site probably of a vil- lage church, and give occasion fur the name" (Kobinson, Hibl. Res. u, 192 ; comp. p. 629).
2. A town near the north-west border of Judah, be- tween Beth-shemesh and Ekron (Josh, xv, 10; Sept. Aiip V. r. Norof; Vulg. Thamn(i). It is doubtless the same with the place of the same name in Dan (Josh. xix, 43, Ileb. with H paragogic, Timnathah, nriliGFl; Sept. GfTjiu'rt; Vulg. Themna ; A. V. " Thimnathah"), which lay in the vicinity of Ekron; and likewise with tlie residence of Samson's tirst wife (Judg. xiv, 1,2, 5; Ileb. likewise with !! appended; Sept. Bajui'aS'w ; Vulg. Thumnatha ; A. V. "Timnath ;" Josephus, Qaixva, Ant. V, 8, 5), which lay on the Philistine edge of the Shephe- lah (Judg. xiv, 1 ) ; and both are therefore the same place that was invaded by the Philistines in the time of Ahaz (2 Chron. xxviii, 18; Sept. 6«jUi'a; Vulg. Thamnun'). At this last date it had suburbs adjoining ("villages"); and in Samson's day it contained vine- yards, haunted, however, by such savage animals as in- dicate that the population was but sparse. It was on higher ground than Ashkelon (Judg. xiv, 19), but lower than Zorah, which we may presume was Samson's start- ing-point (xiii, 25). After the Danites had deserted their original allotment for the north, their towns would naturally fall into the hands of Judah, or of the Philis- tines, as the continual struggle between them might happen to fluctuate. In the later history of the Jews, 'J'imnah must have been a conspicuous place. It was fortified by Bacchides as one of the most important military posts of Judsea (GajuvfiS-a, 1 Mace, ix, 50), and it became the head of a district or toparchy, which was called after its name, and was reckoned the fourth in or- der f)f importance among the fourteen into which the whole country was divided at the time of Vespasian's invasion (9ajuva, Josephus, War, iii, 3, 5; see Plin}', V, 14). Eusebius and Jerome (Onomast. s. v. Qaiiva, '•Thamna") confound it with the Timnah of Judah's adventure with Tamar, but say that it still existed as a large village near Diospolis on the road to Jerusalem.
According to Schwarz ( Palest, p. 106 ), it is likewise mentioned in the Talmud (Sotah, fol. 10 b). The mod- ern representative of all these various forms of the same name is probably Tibiich, a deserted village about two miles west of Ain Shenis (Beth-shemesh), among the broken undulating country by which the central moun- tains of this part of Palestine descend to the maritime plain (Robinson, Bihl. Res. ii, 342 ; Thomson, Lund and Book, ii, 361).
Tim'nath-he'res (Heb. Timnath Cheres, Wrn G*in, Timnah ofUeres; Se\)t. Bctf^iuiSrapki; y. r. Qiifi- I'd^up fwt,'; Vulg. Thamnatsare ; Judg. ii, 9),()r Tim'- nath-se'iah (Ileb. 77wHa//^-.S(j/•«c/^^■^D-^:":^l,7'H«- wn/t of Serah; Sept. Hafiva^aapa and iin^va^au^ai;, V. r. Bafii'aaapux and Qcififiaxapnc or Bajxvn^aaa- Xnpa ; Vulg. Thamnath Sarua and Thamnath Save ; Josh, xix, 5; xxiv, 30 : Josephus, Ocij^wa, Ant. v, 1, 29), the name (varied only by the transpositi<ni of the last two consonants of the latter part) by which the city and burial-place of Joshua was known. The Jews adopt IJeres as the real name ; interpret it to mean " the sun ;" and see in it a reference to the act of making the sun stand still, which is to them the greatest exploit of Joshua's life, as they state that the figure of the sun {temunath ha-chcres) was carved upon the sepulchre ( Rashi, Comment, ad loc. ). Others ( as Fiirst, i, 442 ), while accepting Heres as the original form, interpret that word as "clay," and as originating in the character of the soil. Others, again, like Ewald (Gesch. ii. 347, 8) and Bertheau {On Judges), take Serah to be the orig- inal form, and Heres an ancient but unintentional errqf. It was the spot which at his own request was presented to Joshua after the partition of the country was com- pleted (Josh, xix, 50), and in " the border" of which he was buried (xxiv, 30). It is specified as "in Mount Ephraim on the north side of Mount Gaash." Timnath- serah and the tomb of its illustrious owner were shown in the time of Jerome, who mentions them in the Epi- taphium Panlce (§ 13). Beyond its being south of She- chem, he gives no indication of its position, but he dis- misses it with the following characteristic remark, a fit- ting tribute to the simfile self-denial of the great soldier of Israel : " Satisque mirata est, quod distributor posses- sionimi sibi montana et aspera delegisset.'' Hebrew tradition, in accordance with the above Rabbinical inter- pretation, identifies the place with Kefar Cheres, which is said by rabbi Jacob (Carmoly, Itineraires, etc. p. 186), Hap-Parchi (Asher, /?f/y'. ofTudela, p. 434), and other Jewish travellers down to Schwarz in our own day {Palest, p. 151). to be about five miles south of Shechem (Nabliis). This is doubtless the present KeJ'r-Harit, or Kefr-Haris, which, however, is more nearly double that distance S.S.VV. of Nablus. The modern village has three sacred places — one of Ncbi Nun, i.e. the tomb of Nun ; the second, Nebi Lusha, i. e. the tomb of Joshua; and the third, Nebi Kifl, i. e. the tomb of the " division by lot" (Conder, Tent-Work in Palest, i, 78). Another and more promising identification has, however, been suggested in our own day by Dr. Smith (Bibl. Sacra [1843], p. 478 sq.). In his journey from Jifna to Mej- del-Yaba, about six miles from the former, he discovered the ruins of a considerable town by the name of Tibneh on a gentle hill on the left (south) of the road. Oppo- site the town (apparently to the south) was a much higher hill, in the north side of which are several ex- cavated sepulchres, which in size and in the richness and character of their decorations rescndde the so-called " Tombs of the Kings" at Jerusalem. The mound or tell stands on the south bank of a deep valley, surrounded by desolate mountains; by it a clear spring issues from a cave; to the south-west is a beautiful and iinmense oak-tree, called by the natives Sheik ct-Teim, "the chief, the servant of God." South of the tell the hill- side is hollowed out with many tombs, most of which are choked up. One of these has a porch with two rude pilasters, and along the facade are over two hundred