Chinnereth

Chinnereth shows up only when Scripture is drawing lines on a map. Numbers 34 traces Israel’s eastern border, where the coast “shall reach unto the side of the sea of Chinnereth eastward.” Joshua 12 speaks of the plain running to “the sea of Chinneroth on the east,” and Joshua 11 lists kings living to the south of Chinneroth. The two spellings point to the same sea, and in these verses it is a landmark, a place to measure from, rather than the scene of a story. Numbers 34 is the place to see how the border lines were laid out.

3 verses

Numbers

Numbers 34:11

And the coast shall go down from Shepham to Riblah, on the east side of Ain; and the border shall descend, and shall reach unto the side of the sea of Chinnereth eastward:

Joshua

Joshua 11:2

And to the kings that were on the north of the mountains, and of the plains south of Chinneroth, and in the valley, and in the borders of Dor on the west,

Joshua 12:3

And from the plain to the sea of Chinneroth on the east, and unto the sea of the plain, even the salt sea on the east, the way to Bethjeshimoth; and from the south, under Ashdothpisgah:

From Easton's Bible Dictionary

Matthew George Easton, 1897

Lyre, the singular form of the word (Deut. 3:17; Josh. 19:35), which is also used in the plural form, Chinneroth, the name of a fenced city which stood near the shore of the lake of Galilee, a little to the south of Tiberias. The town seems to have given its name to a district, as appears from 1 Kings 15:20, where the plural form of the word is used.

The Sea of Chinnereth (Num. 34:11; Josh. 13:27), or of Chinneroth (Josh. 12: 3), was the “lake of Gennesaret” or “sea of Tiberias” (Deut. 3:17; Josh. 11:2). Chinnereth was probably an ancient Canaanitish name adopted by the Israelites into their language.

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From Smith's Bible Dictionary

William Smith, 1884

(circuit), accurately Cinnareth, a fortified city in the tribe of Naphtali, (Joshua 19:35) only, of which no trace is found in later writers, and no remains by travellers.

Based on Nave's Topical Bible by Orville J. Nave (1896). Dictionary entries from Easton's Bible Dictionary and Smith's Bible Dictionary. Public domain. KJV scripture text, public domain.