Rivers of Israel

The Land of Israel’s numerous rivers sustain life—human, animal, and plant—as they channel through valleys, mountain ranges, and deserts into larger watercourses, lakes, or the sea. The main river in Israel is the famed Jordan, into which many important headwaters and tributaries flow. Most of Israel’s watercourses are perennial or intermittent streams with considerably less volume output in seasons other than winter.

From the outset of ancient Near Eastern civilization, rivers served as ready-made borders dividing nations, tribes, and clans, and many important cities, towns, and villages developed alongside them. Good rivers made good neighbors. Such definitional watercourses were to be shared, and egregious deviations from this principle were grounds for war. Key battles, unsurprisingly, occurred at various rivers, and fording a river signaled the crossing of a threshold, perhaps even a point of no return.

Yet the rivers of Israel played a prominent part as a precious resource not only in the lives and times of the Israelites and their several neighbors, but in the rich ecology and biodiversity of the country. Here is a précis offering a glimpse at the most geographically and historically significant watercourses in Israel.

1. Hermon – A stream descending from Mount Hermon through the conjunction of the Golan (western Bashan) and the Hulah Valley, the Hermon courses for more than two miles along a steep basalt gorge and through the classical city of Caesarea Philippi (Paneas) southward to the Banias waterfall—a 10-meter-high cascade, the most powerful in Israel—and beyond. The perennial stream derives from the rain and snowmelt that percolates through the limestone of Mount Hermon then emerges as springs at the base of the Grotto of Pan (Paneas Cave), and supplies the Jordan River with much of its water.
2. Dan – The largest headwater tributary of the Jordan River, rising from a plentiful karstic spring in the ancient Israelite city of Dan (Tel Dan), formerly known as La’yish/Leshem. Rainwater and snowmelt trickling down from Mount Hermon feed the stream, which courses for about 12 miles through a shady wetland forest of laurel and ash trees and plants such as buckthorn and marsh fern. The vicinity, within the Galilee Panhandle (“The Finger of Galilee”), is also home to Near Eastern fire salamanders, otters, wild boars, river crabs, dragonflies, and damselflies. The cool stream features several rivulets that combine with Hermon Stream and Snir Stream, and is spanned by several wooden bridges. Kibbutz Dan and Kibbutz Dafnah are nearby.
3. Snir (Hasbani) – The longest tributary of the Jordan River, the perennial Snir Stream courses through a plane tree forest and yellowish travertine rock walls, and is subject to annual flooding. The Snir (another biblical name for Mount Hermon) descends that peak’s western slope and flows for more than 37 miles mostly in Lebanon (where it passes by the Druze town of Hasbaya, hence its Arabic name Hasbani), and for more than three miles through an Israeli nature reserve in the Galilee Panhandle (“The Finger of Galilee”). Denizens of the stream include otters, porcupines, wild boars, mongooses, badgers, river crabs, dragonflies, and damselflies.
4. Iyon/Ayun – A stream originating in Lebanon and flowing through a gorge in the Galilee Panhandle (“The Finger of Galilee”) from the Iyon/Ayun Valley to the Hulah Valley, passing by en route the ancient ruins of Aveil Beit Ma’akhah and the modern town of Metulah, the northernmost town in the State of Israel. In his war against King Basha of Israel, King Asa of Judah bribed King Ben-Haddad of Aram with silver and gold to wage war against Basha in the north; Ben-Haddad obliged and attacked the northern sites of Iyon, Dan, Aveil Beit Ma’akhah, etc. During the reign of King Pekah of Israel (734–732 BCE), Emperor Tiglat-Pileser III of Assyria conquered Iyon, Aveil Beit Ma’akhah, Hatzor, and other northern towns in the tribal territory of Naphtali, and exiled their inhabitants to Assyria. The scenic stream includes four waterfalls: Tanur, Tahanah, Iyon, and Eshed. In classical rabbinical literature, the stream and its gorge are referred to in Aramaic as “Nekuvta D’Iyon”/“Nukvata D’Iyon” (e.g., Sif. Deuteronomy 51; Tos. Shvi’it 4:5; JT Shvi’it 16a).
5. Kziv – A perennial stream flowing for more than 12 miles through Upper Galilee from Mount Meiron to Akhziv, and the longest watercourse in Galilee. The ruined crusader fortress of Montfort (Starkenberg), erstwhile stronghold of Teutonic knights, perches on a spur overlooking the Kziv. The stream features several springs along its course.
6. M’shushim – A perennial stream almost 22 miles in length—the longest in the Golan (western Bashan)—coursing through a deep basalt canyon within the Yehudiyah Forest amid the central Golan. The M’shushim originates at Mount Avital and terminates in Lake Kinneret (the Sea of Galilee), where it forms an estuary lagoon. The stream leads to the sizable M’shushim pool surrounded by a cliff of hexagonal basalt pillars. The area is replete with oak, eucalyptus, mastic, styrax, jujube, and almond trees, and is also noted for its population of wild boars, eagles, vultures, kestrels, buzzards, mountain gazelles, and hyraxes, among other species of fauna. The M’shushim, one of four streams in the Yehudiyah Forest (the others being Zavitan, Yehudiyah, and Daliyot), flows near the ancient Jewish town of Gamla, a salient mountain site famous for its dramatic battle and mass suicide during the Great Revolt (66–73 CE) against Rome, and the ancient Jewish village of Yehudiyah, whose ruined synagogues remain in evidence.
7. Ammud – A stream in eastern Galilee that flows southward for more than 15 miles and descends into Lake Kinneret (the Sea of Galilee) at the Plain of Ginosar (Plain of Gennesaret). The watercourse is named after an isolated limestone pillar (in Hebrew, Ammud denotes “pillar”) about 22 yards tall that stands upright along the streambed, beside which rises the seasonal spring Ein Ammud. Ammud is especially known for its adjacent caves (Dovecote, Ammud, Skull/Zutiyeh, Amira), all of which have been excavated, and which were found to contain the remains of Neanderthals and other prehistoric humans, as well as for its cliff-dwelling vultures, eagles, kestrels, falcons, and buzzards. In the stream swim Levantine scraper fish, and its springs feature river crabs, dragonflies, and damselflies. Along the stream can be found lush riparian vegetation and a diverse array of trees: oak, terebinth, carob, styrax, mastic, almond, walnut, jujube, plane, willow, and eastern strawberry. Nearby are the remnants of a pagan temple on Mount Mitzpeih HaYammim dating to the Hellenistic era (332–167 BCE), and of the Jewish village Kfar Hananiah dating to the Roman era (63 BCE–313 CE), as are the eastern slopes of Mount Meiron, whereon the renowned tanna Shimon bar Yohai and his son Elazar ben Shimon are entombed. Alongside the stream are the ruins of more than two dozen flour and fulling mills dating to the 1500s and attesting to early modern Tzfat’s wool industry, introduced by Sephardic exiles post-Spanish expulsion (1492). The National Water Carrier traverses the Ammud Stream in a camouflaged siphon pipe.
8. Kishon – A river originating south of the Gilboa mountain range and flowing northwestward through the Jezreel Valley and north of the Kharmel mountain range, reaching its outlet, the Mediterranean Sea, just north of The river extends for more than 43 miles. In Joshua, it is referred to as “the river before Yokn’am” (19:11); in Judges, for its role in the battle won by the Israelite prophetess Dvorah and the Israelite Judge Barak against the Canaanite ruler King Yavin of Hatzor and his general Sisera, it is celebrated thusly: “Kings came; they fought. Yes, the kings of Canaan fought at Ta’anakh, by the waters of Megiddo; but they took no spoil of silver. They fought from heaven, the stars in their courses; yes, they fought against Sisera. The Kishon River swept them away, that ancient river, the Kishon River. O my soul, march on with strength!” (5:19-21). The river is also cited in Psalms. The prophet Elijah subsequently had the 450 defeated prophets of Ba’al seized and taken down from the Kharmel mountain range to the Kishon, where they were slain with the sword. In winter the Kishon is often flooded, rendering its fords impassable. In the modern era, the mouth of the river was deepened and developed to establish an auxiliary port near Haifa Bay. In recent decades the river was chemically polluted by industrial effluents and municipal wastewater, but a major cleanup was undertaken.
9. Tanninim – A sparkling coastal stream running for almost 16 miles between the Menasheh Heights of the Kharmel mountain range and the Mediterranean Sea, and named after the former reptile residents (in Hebrew, tanninim denotes “crocodiles”) of the proximate Kebara swamp. The stream is ornamented with yellow water lilies on its surface and contains fish such as tilapia, catfish, and gray mullet, as well as Caspian turtles, below its surface. An extant dam from late in the Roman era (63 BCE–313 CE) or from early in the Byzantine era (324–638 CE) was constructed to raise the stream’s water level so that it could be channeled southward to Caesarea (Caesarea Maritima), which was built by King Herod the Great of Judea and which served as the Roman administrative capital in the Land of Israel. A by-product of the dam was a small lake. Tanninim is regarded as the cleanest coastal watercourse in Israel, and it delimits the southern extent of the Kharmel Coast Plain (Hof HaKharmel). The remnants of a city dating either to the Persian era (539–332 BCE) or to the Hellenistic era (332–167 BCE) and once known as Crocodilopolis (Tel Tanninim) rest at the confluence of the stream and the sea.
10. Alexander – A coastal flood stream in the central Coastal Plain (the Sharon Plain), flowing for almost 20 miles from the western slopes of Samaria westward then northwestward through the Heipher Plain until it reaches the Mediterranean Sea, with its estuary between Beit Yannai beach and Mikhmoret. The stream channels through eucalyptus trees, reeds, bulrushes, and brambles, and is home to an abundance of giant soft-shelled turtles, as well as specimens of tilapia, catfish, mullet, and river eel. Its riverbanks feature rich riparian wildlife, including green sea turtles, loggerhead sea turtles, coypus, and mongooses. The terrain near the mouth of the stream consists of calcareous sandstone (kurkar) ridges and sand dunes. Close by lie the remnants of a structure dating to the late 1800s, Horvat Samara. In June 1948, the Irgun Tzvai L’Umi (Etzel/the Irgun) vessel Altalena anchored at a nearby port before sailing onward to Tel Aviv.
11. Kanah (Qana) – An intermittent stream and the Yarkon River’s northernmost tributary, rising from the vicinity of Mount Gerizim in Samaria and flowing southwestward into the central Coastal Plain (the Sharon Plain). The Kanah has its own tributary, Nahal Hadar, which courses east and south of the mound of Tel Qana, where ancient wine presses have been excavated. The Kanah served as the boundary between the tribal territories of western Menasheh to the north and Ephraim to the south. Today the stream passes by numerous communities including Karnei Shomron, Kfar Saba, and Hod HaSharon.
12. Yarkon – A perennial river rising from springs near Apheik (Pegae/Arethusa/Antipatris) and Rosh HaAyin and winding for 17 miles westward until in northern Tel Aviv it spills into the Mediterranean Sea. Its name is derived from its greenish hue (in Hebrew, yarok denotes “green”); the name Apheik, incidentally, derives from the Akkadian word for springs (apheik/apheikum), whence the Hebrew word for riverbed/streambed (apheek). The river’s source is by the narrow Apheik Passage, through which the ancient Derekh HaYam (The Way of the Sea/The Coastal Highway) international trade route connecting Egypt and Syria passed so as to circumvent the former marshes. The Yarkon marks the boundary between the central Coastal Plain (the Sharon Plain) and the southern Coastal Plain, and served as the boundary between the original (southwestern) tribal territory of Dan and Ephraim. It receives a number of tributaries from north and south. The stream’s water sometimes runs red due to its sandy loam soil (hamra), and according to the Mishnah, where it is referred to as mei pugah, its water was deemed unfit for ritual service in the Temple because it was marshy. The modern Yarkon Park, through which the stream courses, is replete with oak, carob, and eucalyptus trees. Yellow water lilies grow in the pond near the stream’s source, and silver Yarkon bream swim in the stream and in a discrete pool near its spring. Other denizens of the stream include Nile soft-shelled turtles, tilapias, catfish, mosquito fish, coypus, terrapins, mallards, moorhens, swamp cats, and porcupines. Vestiges of Canaanite palaces and of a Roman odeon (music theater) are found at Tel Apheik, and a 16^th century Turkish fortress, Pinar Basha, crowns Tel Apheik near the stream. In the modern era, cities that have cropped up in the vicinity include Petah Tikvah, Bnei Brak, Ramat Gan, and Tel Aviv. The British Army under General Edmund Allenby crossed the stream during his military campaign against the Ottoman Turks in 1917. From the 1950s, the stream became increasingly polluted, but hydrological rehabilitation efforts have meliorated the water quality in recent years. Since 1955, much of the Yarkon’s headwaters has been diverted via the National Water Carrier to the Negev Desert for irrigation purposes.
13. Sorek – A perennial stream flowing through the Sorek Valley in the tribal territory of Judah, where the Israelite Judge and strongman Samson encountered the duplicitous Philistiness, Delilah. Several of its affluents feature waterfalls. The Sorek served as the boundary between the original (southwestern) tribal territory of Dan and Philistia, and the Philistine city of Ekron and the Israelite city of Beit Shemesh (Ir Shemesh) were sited proximate to the stream. Today the old Jerusalem-Tel Aviv railway parallels the watercourse.
14. Kisalon – A Judean river flowing for more than 12 miles through the Jerusalem Hills from Mount Addar to the outskirts of Beit Shemesh (Ir Shemesh) in the Sorek Valley. The Kisalon features the picturesque spring of Ein Hemmed (Aqua Bella), where a crusader farmhouse dating to the 1100s and probably belonging to the Knights Hospitaler is preserved. Today the Kisalon passes by Martyrs’ Forest, whose 6 million trees commemorate Jewish victims of the Holocaust.
15. Gerar – A brook that rises from the southwest foothills of the Judean Hills and courses westward through rich pastoral country in the northwestern Negev Desert and past several ancient Egyptian archaeological sites dating to the Bronze Age (3300–1200 BCE). During the Iron Age (1200–550 BCE), the Gerar Brook and the royal city of the same name were under Philistine control. The Philistine ruler, King Avimelekh of Gerar, took captive the matriarch Sarah when the patriarch Abraham had to sojourn in Gerar due to famine; later, the patriarch Isaac likewise sojourned in Gerar for identical reasons, and soon dwelt in the river valley and unstopped the wells of his father Abraham that the Philistines had since filled up with earth. Here Isaac’s servants dug two new wells of living water, called Esek and Sitnah, of which the Philistines contested ownership, then a third well called Rehovot that went uncontested. The brook also flowed near the Philistine fortress of Tziklag, where David and his followers sojourned while hunted by an unstable King Saul. Thereafter King Asa of Judah battled against Zerah the Kushite’s vast Egyptian army and hundreds of chariots, pursuing the fleeing invaders from Mareshah to Gerar, routing them and despoiling the local towns. During the Hasmonean era (167–63 BCE), in a hasty treaty between Emperor Antiochus V Eupator of Syria (and his regent Lysias) and the Hasmonean hero Judah Maccabee, Gerar served as the southern border of the coastal region under Seleucid control. The city of Gerar has been identified with several ruins, especially the large mound known as Tel Haror/Tel Abu Hurayra. Today the Gerar Brook passes by the Bedouin town of Rahat, as well as the town of Ntivot and the kibbutz Re’im.
16. Bsor – The largest stream in the northern Negev Desert, extending for almost 50 miles from Mount Boker across the Agur-Halutzah sand dunes and the Gaza Strip to the Mediterranean Sea. In his pursuit of the Amalekites, who had attacked and burnt his haven of Tziklag, David left behind at the brook 200 of his 600 men, who safeguarded their possessions while the other 400 ventured off to war. The Bsor has numerous affluents and floods yearly after heavy rains.
17. Jordan (Yardein) – The primary watercourse in the Land of Israel, formed by the confluence of a quartet of headwaters (Iyon/Ayun, Snir/Hasbani, Dan, Hermon) at the southwestern base of Mount Hermon (today the Snir/Hasbani and the Dan converge on the grounds of Kibbutz Sdei Nehemiah). The Jordan (in Hebrew, yardein denotes “the descender”/“descending from Dan”) extends for about 225 miles southward through (the former) Lake Hulah, then between the Khorazim Plateau (Ramat Khorazim/the Khorazim Sill) and the southern Golan (Geshur), then through Lake Kinneret (the Sea of Galilee), and continues descending southward along a significant gradient until as a delta it empties into the northern shore of the Salt Sea (Dead Sea). Declining some 3,000 feet from its northern source to its southern mouth, the Jordan is shallow in summertime and profound in wintertime. Its usually swift current ferries considerable silt, and the salinity of its water increases as it nears the Salt Sea. Coursing through luxuriant vegetation, the river features some 31 fords, and possesses the lowest elevation of any river in the world. During the period of the Israelite repatriation to the Land of Israel (c. 1273–1245 BCE), Joshua and the Israelites forded the Jordan River via dry ground under miraculous circumstances reminiscent of their crossing of the Red Sea at the outset of the Exodus from Egypt (c. 1313–1273 BCE). When the men of Reuven, Gad, and eastern Menasheh departed from the rest of the Israelite tribes, they paused while still on the western riverbank of the Jordan and erected a large altar to serve as a symbolic “witness” attesting to the fact that they, too, had a share in the God of Israel. During the era of the Judges (c. 1228–1020 BCE), Gidon adjured the Ephraimites to capture the lower fords to prevent the Midianites and their chieftains Orev and Ze’ev from fording the Jordan, and later Yiftah and the Giladites secured the lower fords and slew 42,000 Ephraimites in battle after the Ammonites had been defeated. During the United Monarchy of Israel (1030–931 BCE), King Solomon established his brass-foundries in the clay ground of the Jordan Valley between Sukhot and Tzartan (on the eastern riverbank). The river’s water was deemed unfit for ritual use in the Temple due to its impurity. The prophets Elijah and Elisha both forded the riverbed dry-shod after striking the river with Elijah’s mantle, thereby dividing it. Elisha performed further riverine miracles when he directed the disease-ridden Aramean general Na’aman to immerse himself seven times in the Jordan’s waters, which healed Na’aman’s skin, and when he caused an iron axe blade to surface from the Jordan’s depths after one of his prophetic disciples had inadvertently dropped it into the river. During the Hasmonean era (167–63 BCE), Judah Maccabee and Jonathan Maccabee crossed the Jordan prior to their rescue campaign in Gilad; later, after Judah’s decease, Jonathan Maccabee, Shimon Maccabee, and their force of Maccabean freedom fighters bivouacked by the marshes and thickets of the Jordan during their military campaign against the formidable Seleucid general Bacchides, at one point swimming across the river after routing the enemy. Jewish reformer Jesus of Nazareth was baptized in the river by his relative John, who was perhaps a member of the Essene sect. In the modern era, half a dozen bridges were erected to span the river, including: Arik Bridge, between Galilee and the Golan (western Bashan); Jordan River Crossing/Sheikh Hussein Bridge, a border crossing, between Galilee and Jordan; Gesher Adam/Damiya Bridge, between Samaria and Jordan; and Allenby/King Hussein Bridge, another border crossing, between Judea and Jordan. The malign attempt by Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan to divert the river’s headwaters in 1965 was a contributing factor to the ensuing Six-Day War of 1967. Immortalized in the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible), the Jordan has been celebrated further in many spiritual hymns and folk songs. Today the river is used for irrigation to grow fruits and vegetables and for recreational rafting, and remains revered by Christians as a baptismal site.
18. Yarmukh – Historically the largest tributary of the Lower Jordan River, with its sources amid a lava plateau in the Golan (western Bashan). The narrow and shallow Yarmukh flows with many convolutions southwestward, widening and deepening as it joins the Jordan about five miles south of Lake Kinneret (the Sea of Galilee). The river has its own tributaries, which feature numerous waterfalls. The Yarmukh served as the boundary between the Bashan region to the north and the Gilad region to the south, and as the northern boundary of central Transjordan. Per the Mishnah, its water was deemed unfit for ritual use because it was “mixed”, which the medieval sage (Estori) Isaac HaParhi explained meant blended with the waters of Hammat Gader (Gadara), whose hot springs the river skirts. In the Talmud, the amora Yohanan bar Nappaha asserts that the Yarmukh is second (in volume) only to the Jordan among Israel’s rivers. The fateful Battle of Yarmukh (636 CE) eventuated in a decisive victory for the Muslim Arabs under Khalid ibn al-Walid against Theodorus Trithurius and the Byzantine Christians, whose Armenian and Christian Arab allies had deserted them. In 1946, during Operation Markolet (“The Night of the Bridges”), the Haganah bombed the Hejaz Railway bridge spanning the Yarmukh. For most of its length (approximately 50 miles) it serves as Israel’s northeastern border with Jordan.
19. Khireet (Cherith) – An eastern tributary of the Jordan River where Elijah the prophet was divinely directed to hide and dwell, there to be sustained by its water and fed by ravens that brought him bread and meat morning and evening. When the brook dried up during the drought that he had foretold, Elijah was directed to move on to be sustained by the widow of Tzarfat.
20. Yabbok (Jabbok) – The second-largest tributary of the Lower Jordan River, joining the latter between Lake Kinneret (the Sea of Galilee) and the Salt Sea (Dead Sea). Stretching some 62 miles, the Yabbok emanates from a spring proximate to Rabbah (Rabbat-Ammon), bisects the Gilad region, and divides central and southern Transjordan. After departing Harran, the patriarch Jacob forded the Yabbok en route to his long-awaited yet dreaded reunion with his brother Esau. He conveyed his household and its possessions across the Yabbok, and that night near the site known thereafter as Penu’el (Peni’el), a future capital of the Kingdom of Israel, he wrestled with a mysterious figure until daybreak. The Yabbok served as the Ammonite-Amorite boundary—the dominion of King Sihon of the Amorites extended between the Yabbok and Arnon rivers—until the Amorites were defeated by Moses and the Israelites near the close of the period of the Exodus from Egypt (c. 1313–1273 BCE). It subsequently served as the boundary between the Israelite tribes of Gad and Reuven (to the west and southwest) and Ammon (to the east and northeast), and coursed by the Israelite capitals of Penu’el and perhaps Mahanayim, and proximate to the town of Sukhot. During the Hellenistic era (332–167 BCE), the Yabbok also functioned as the border of the domain of a prominent Jewish clan, the Tobiads, based in Perea (most of Gilad and the Mishor). Thereafter the Romans erected a bridge spanning the river. The Yabbok is known in Arabic as the Zarqa.
21. Heshbon – An intermittent stream in Transjordan descending westward from the vicinity of the town of Heshbon atop the Mishor through a verdant ribbon toward the Valley of Shitim, modern Wadi al-Kafrein, whose stream it joins in the Plains of Moab north of the Salt Sea (Dead Sea). The Heshbon served as the boundary between the tribal territories of Gad to the north and Reuven to the south; as the boundary between the Gilad region to the north and the Mishor region to the south; and as the southern boundary of southern Transjordan. The often contested town of Heshbon first belonged to Moab, then became the capital of King Sihon of the Amorites, then was allotted by Moses to the tribal territory of Reuven, then became a Levitical city in the tribal territory of Gad, then was reclaimed by King Mesha of Moab, then was reconquered by the Hasmonean monarch King Yannai Alexander of Judea, then became a military veterans’ colony in Perea (most of Gilad and the Mishor) under King Herod the Great of Judea. In Song of Songs, the male persona romanticizes his beloved with the description, “your eyes [are] like the pools in Heshbon” (7:5). Ruins of a reservoir are extant at the town.
22. Arnon – The meandering Arnon flows northward then westward through limestone hills and a steep gorge into the eastern shore of the Salt Sea (Dead Sea), opposite Ein Gedi (Hatzitzon Tamar). It extends for approximately 50 miles, is alternately broad and narrow, and deepens considerably (down to about 10 feet) during winter. The Arnon served as the boundary between the Amorites in the north and the Moabites in the south; following the period of the Israelite repatriation to the Land of Israel (c. 1273–1245 BCE), it similarly divided the tribe of Reuven to the north and Moab to the south. King Mesha of Moab mentions the Arnon, and the roads (or fords) across it that he constructed, in his famous stela. The Arnon’s fords were indeed a critical link along the ancient Derekh HaMelekh (The King’s Highway/The Road to Bashan) international trade route connecting Egypt and Mesopotamia. The river figures in the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) when it cites “the masters of Arnon’s high places” (Numbers 21:28); when the prophet Isaiah avers that the “daughters of Moab at the fords of the Arnon are like fluttering birds pushed from the nest” (16:2); and when the prophet Jeremiah relates the divine prophecy declaring: “Proclaim it by the Arnon that Moab has been laid waste” (48:20). The largest ancient settlement in the vicinity was the city of Aro’er. During the Hasmonean era (167–63 BCE), the region was claimed by the Hasmonean ruler and high priest Yohanan Hyrkanos and his son King Yannai Alexander of Judea, with the Arnon again serving as a boundary, this time between Judea to the north and Nabatea to the south. During the Roman era (63 BCE–313 CE), a legion was stationed by the Arnon to secure the Eilat-Bostra road crossing it. Upon beholding the Arnon, and in commemoration of a legendary miracle that occurred when the Ark of the Testimony (Ark of the Covenant) caused the ambuscading Amorites to be crushed in their cavernous hideouts, allowing the Israelites to proceed unmolested northward across the highlands of Gilad, the Sages instituted a special blessing: “Blessed be He who performed miracles for our forefathers at this place” (BT Brakhot 54a-b). The Arnon also became renowned for its plentiful fish and diverse wildlife. The Arnon is known in Arabic as Wadi Mujib.
23. Zered – A verdant stream in northeastern Moab whose name denotes “lush”, the Zered was a camping site of the Israelites in their indirect approach to the Promised Land. The stream was long identified with Wadi al-Hasa (which served as the Moab-Edom border) but is likely either Wadi es-Sawaqa (the Arnon’s eastern tributary), Wadi Nukheile/an-Nukhayla (which discharges into the Arnon), or Wadi Tarfawiyye/e-Tarfawiya (which discharges into Wadi Nukheile).
24. Tze’elim – Named after its shady lotus trees, the Tze’elim Stream courses from the Hebron Hills through the Judean Desert toward the Salt Sea (Dead Sea) between Ein Gedi (Hatzitzon Tamar) and Masada. The stream passes by a trio of caves and four pools of water.
25. Tzin – The largest intermittent stream in the Negev Desert, rising in the northwest of the erosion cirque Makhteish Ramon and flowing northward then eastward for almost 75 miles through an arid limestone landscape. The watercourse meanders south of Kibbutz Sdei Boker through the narrow Ein Avdat canyon, which features springs, waterfalls, and pools, as well as poplar trees and saltbush shrubs. Ibexes forage for provender in the area, and birds of prey (eagles, hawks, vultures) and bulbul songbirds hunt and swoop overhead. The wilderness of Tzin was where the 12 Israelite scouts commenced their reconnaissance mission in Canaan; where the Israelites encamped after Etzion-Gever; where Miriam died and was buried; where at Kadesh (Meribat-Kadesh/Rekem/Petra) Moses twice struck the rock he was divinely instructed to speak to, which gushed forth the waters of Meribah; and whence the southern border of the Promised Land extended westward to Kadesh-Barnea. Today the stream is known for its surging flash floods after heavy rainfall in winter, and the area is popular among hikers.
26. Paran – Coursing for more than 93 miles through the Negev Desert and the Sinai Peninsula, the Paran Stream is the widest and the third longest watercourse in Israel. The Paran Desert is traversed by Wadi el-Arish’s eastern affluents. This beige desert landscape, southwest of Nahal Tzin and northwest of the Gulf of Eilat and the Red Sea, was where King Khedarlaomer of Elam and his royal alliance assailed the Horites. The patriarch Abraham’s concubine Hagar was dispatched from Be’ersheva to Paran with their son Ishmael, who in this locus became an archer and married an Egyptian wife. During the period of the Exodus from Egypt (c. 1313–1273 BCE), the Israelites traveled from the Sinai Desert and via Hatzeirot encamped at Paran. Moses dispatched the 12 Israelite scouts into Canaan from Paran, whereto they returned after reconnoitering for 40 days, and later he addressed the people “between Paran and Tophel and Lavan and Hatzeirot and Di Zahav” (Deuteronomy 1:1). Later the fugitive David, having effected a temporary truce with King Saul, retreated to Paran after the decease of the prophet Samuel. Thereafter the young prince of Edom, Haddad, fled from King David and Yo’av his general, escaping to Midian then crossing Paran and collecting local men there to join him in his flight to Egypt. During the Roman era (63 BCE–313 CE), a road traversed the area. Today the stream is known for its flash floods in wintertime, and the surrounding desert for its recently introduced population of Arabian oryxes.

Hebrew contains numerous words denoting watercourses, including: nahar (river); ziroa nahar (tributary); nahal (stream/brook/watercourse); yuval (tributary/affluent/creek); peleg (rivulet/stream/streamlet/brook/runnel); peleg kattan (rill); meephratzon (creek); arutz (creek/channel); ti’alla (canal/channel); apheek (trough/streambed/riverbed/watercourse); ntiv mayyim (waterway); zerem (stream/flow/flux/gush); sheteph (flow/flood/stream); shephekh (distributary/effluent/estuary); n’viah (effluent/spring/well); ayin (spring/well); and ma’ayan (spring/wellspring).

Without the life-sustaining watercourses of the Land of Israel, the history of the Jewish people would have been certainly different and almost certainly abbreviated.

The State of Israel’s sophisticated water usage allows for the irrigation of farmlands and arid desert, but such diversions of water must be delicately balanced with the ecological needs of riverine wildlife and riparian plants dependent upon the sustained flow of watercourses along their original channels. Toward this end, the Israel Nature and Parks Authority has designated many important rivers, riverbanks, springs, waterfalls, and pools protected nature reserves, and has facilitated the continuous or seasonal efflux, and when necessary the rehabilitation, of Israel’s cherished rivers.