TIMNATH / TIMNITE tĭm’ năth / tĭm’ nīt, a noun derived from Heb. תִּמְנָ֑ה, a portion, and widely distributed as a place name in the OT. The word does not seem to have cognates in the other Near Eastern texts, and so may be assumed to be of W Sem. origin. In popular parlance the name Timnah/th was applied without qualification and so the confusion as to actual location exists. The name is compounded in Timnath-heres (Judg 2:9) and Timnath-serah (Josh 19:50; 24:30) and Y. Aharoni has proposed the term Timnath-ekron for the place name in Joshua 19:43 (The Land of The Bible [1967], p. 267). The LXX reads this place name as Θαμναθα, which the KJV incorrectly transliterates as Thimnathah. There are at least two important Timnaths in the historical narratives of the OT. 1. A village mentioned in the boundaries of Judah (Josh 15:10) between Beth-Shemesh and “the shoulder of the hill” N of Ekron. This is apparently the same Timnath of Joshua 19:43 where it is assigned to Dan. It is identified as modern Tell el-Baṭashi by some authorities, but more likely Khirbet Tibneh. It is probable that this is the same village mentioned in Judges 14:1, 2, 5 and 2 Chronicles 28:18, where it is called Timnah. It was from this place that Samson took a Philistine wife (Judg 14:1) and it is in connection with this woman’s father that the term Timnite appears (Judg 15:6). This is its only occurrence in the OT. The form is a common Hebraic gentilic; e.g. Hittite, Jebusite and others.

2. A village in the hill country of Judah (Josh 15:57) SE of Hebron stated to be near Gibeah and mentioned also in Genesis 38:12-14 as the destination of Judah when he met Tamar. The frequency and difficulty of the term is compounded by the variations in spelling which possibly can be attributed to minor variations in the speech of the Israelite tribes.