Bible Locations

Dothan was a town north of Samaria, at Tell Dothan, about 13 miles north of Shechem, at the edge of the Dothan Valley. The valley was good pasture, and a trade route passed through it from Gilead toward the coast and Egypt. Joseph found his brothers grazing their flocks there. They threw him into a dry cistern and sold him to Ishmaelite traders heading to Egypt with spices (Genesis 37). Centuries later, the king of Aram sent an army to capture Elisha at Dothan. When Elisha's servant saw the army surrounding the city, he panicked, but Elisha prayed, "Open his eyes, Lord," and the servant saw "the hills full of horses and chariots of fire" (2 Kings 6). The Arameans were struck blind and led to Samaria. Joseph Free excavated Tell Dothan from 1953 to 1964, finding a Bronze Age city with walls and Iron Age remains.