SHARON shăr’ un (שָׁרֹ֑ון; Gr. Σαρών, Σαρῶνα). KJV SARON. 1. Hash-shārôn, “the plain” or level place. It is the largest of the coastal plains of northern Pal. from the Crocodile River in the N to the Valley of Aijalon and Joppa in the S, a distance of about fifty m. It has a variable width of nine to ten m. The relief is of Quaternary and Pleistocene origin, largely determined by ancient shorelines, sand dune deposits and the weathering of red sands that give a brilliant hue to much of its soil cover. The sand dunes, some of fossil character, tend to choke or divert the lower courses of the rivers, so that swampy conditions have tended to prevail in the past along the coast and valleys. The false bedded character of much of the surface geology and the encircling karstic nature of the hills to the interior explain the rich variety of aquifers and sources of subsurface water supply.
The red Quaternary sands that form a continuous belt for some twenty m. in the N in undulating relief that rises to 180 ft. above sea level, were thickly covered with oaks, prob. Quercus infectoria (Isa 35:2). With deforestation in Biblical times, there was extensive pasturage (1 Chron 5:16; Isa 65:10). It was here where Shitrai supervised the flocks of King David (1 Chron 27:29). The “excellency” of Sharon, like the “pride” of Jordan (Jer 12:5) suggests the dense vegetation originally associated with the whole plain. Its rich soil now utilized extensively under irrigation for citrus groves and other commercial farming, formerly yielded beautiful covers of wild flowers. The “rose of Sharon” (Song of Solomon 2:1) has been variously identified with Anemone fulgens, Cistus, Colchicum autumnale and Narcissus tazetta, or some other bulbous plant such as Tulipa sharonensis, which is the most likely candidate. The modern “rose of Sharon” (Hibiscus syriacus L.) is in fact native of China, not Syria.
In Canaanite times, the chief town of Sharon was Dor (Josh 11:2; 12:23; 1 Kings 4:11). It was at first one of the unconquered Canaanite cities within the border of Manasseh, impregnable because of its strong fortifications and use of chariots of iron (Josh 17:18; Judg 1:19 et al.). Later in Solomon’s time, Dor was a fiscal district on the Carmel coast. Later in Assyrian times, Dor was capital of an extended coastal province between Carmel and Aphek, that reflected the strategic importance of the “way of the sea,” the coast road between Egypt and Syria (Isa 9:1). Later the district appears to have become subservient to an extended province of Samaria.
Joppa was also a walled town in Canaanite Sharon, fortified at least as early as the reign of Pharaoh Thutmose III (1490-1435 b.c.), who mentions it. At the division of the land it was allotted theoretically to the tribe of Dan (Josh 19:46), but it did not come under Israelite control until David gained effective occupancy of the coast. Then Hiram of Tyre floated his timber from the forests of Lebanon to the seaport of Joppa for the building of the Temple at Jerusalem (2 Chron 2:16); likewise at the rebuilding of the Temple in the time of Cyrus, Joppa was the import center (Ezra 3:7).
In NT times the capital of the whole Rom. province of Judea was built by Augustus at Caesarea midway on the Sharon coast. Its port became a major Mediterranean harbor. The city was the Rom. showpiece of its culture in the Near E. It figures prominently in the early contacts between the apostles and the Gentiles (Acts 10:1, 24; 11:11; 18:22; 21:8; 23:23-35; 25:13).
2. Another Sharon (Saronas) is mentioned in Joshua 12:18, which may be the Sharon referred to by Jerome and Eusebius as lying between Mount Tabor and Tiberias.
3. Sharon is referred to as a pasture district E of the Jordan (1 Chron 5:16). These are referred to as among the possessions of God, along with Gilead and Bashan. Some think Sharon here may be a corruption of Sirion, the pasture lands of Hermon. Others believe it may be the mīshōr or plateau of Gilead between Heshbon and the Arnon Valley (Deut 3:10). See Joppa.