Janoah is a name found in the King James Bible, appearing 1 time in the text.
Who This Was
Janoah was a city in the territory of Ephraim, mentioned in the conquests of Joshua. Though the name appears only once in the King James Bible, that single appearance places Janoah within one of the most turbulent periods of Israel’s history—the days of Pekah, king of Israel, when the Assyrian empire was pressing hard against the northern kingdom.
The setting is 2 Kings 15:29. In the days of Pekah king of Israel came Tiglathpileser king of Assyria, and took Ijon, and Abelbethmaachah, and Janoah, and Kedesh, and Hazor, and Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali, and carried them captive to Assyria. Janoah is listed among the cities that fell to the Assyrian king during this campaign. The text records no ruler, no prophet, and no individual citizen of Janoah by name—only the city itself, caught up in the sweep of a foreign army moving through the land.
What Scripture says of Janoah, then, is chiefly this: it was taken. The verse does not tell us how its people responded, whether they resisted or surrendered, whether they repented or remained hardened. It tells us only that the city was among those captured and that its inhabitants were carried away captive to Assyria. Janoah stands as one of the many towns of Naphtali and Ephraim whose fate was sealed in that dark season of invasion. Its brief mention is a quiet witness to the fulfillment of warnings long given to Israel, and to the reality that judgment, when it came, reached even the smaller and less famous places.
The Name
The name Janoah is a Hebrew place name, and its meaning is not clearly recoverable from the text itself. Some suggest it may be related to a root carrying the sense of rest or quietness, but this is not established with certainty, and the King James Bible offers no gloss on the name. Because Scripture does not explain it and the etymology is debated among scholars, it is best to say plainly that the meaning of Janoah is uncertain rather than to assign it a confident definition it may not bear.
A Closing Thought
Janoah is a reminder that no place and no person is too small to matter in God’s account. The city is named only once, yet it is named—recorded in Scripture alongside the great and the famous. In a season of national decline, Janoah was simply one of many towns swept up in events far larger than itself. There is comfort here for those who feel forgotten or insignificant: God remembers the overlooked. He knows the towns without monuments and the lives without headlines, and He holds every one of them in His hands.
At a Glance
- Gender: Male
- Testament: Old
- Mentions in the KJV: 1
Where It Appears in Scripture
- 2 Kings 15:29 — In the days of Pekah king of Israel came Tiglathpileser king of Assyria, and took Ijon, and Abelbethmaachah, and Janoah, and Kedesh, and Hazor, and Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali, and carried them captive to Assyria.