Nahalal

Na'halal (Heb. Nahalal', נִהֲלָל, pasture; Sept. Νααλώλ v.r. Ναβάαλ, and even Σελλά; Vulg. Na1lol; Auth. Vers. once "Nahallal," Jos 19:15), a city, in the tribe of Zebulun, on the border of Issachar (Jos 19:15), but inhabited by Canaanites tributary to Israel (Jg 1:30, where the name is "Nahalol"), given with its "suburbs" to the Merarite Levites (Jos 21:35). It is mentioned between Kithlish and Shimron. Eusebius erroneously locates it E. of the Jordan (Onomast. s.v. Νειλά). "The Jerusalem Talmud (Megillah, chapter 1; Maaser Sheni, chapter 5), as quoted by Schwarz (Palest. page 172) and Reland (Palest. page 717), asserts that Nahalal (or Mahalal, as it is in some copies) was in postBiblical times called Maohlul; and this Schwarz identifies with the modern Malul, a village in the plain of Esdraelon under the, mountains which enclose the plain on the north, four miles west of Nazareth, and two from Japhia; an identification concurred in by Van de Velde (Memoir, s.v.). One Hebrew MS. (30 Kennicott) lends countenance to it by reading מהלל, i.e. Mahalal, in Jos 21:35. If the town was in the great plain, we can understand why the Israelites were unable to drive out the Canaanites from it, since their chariots must have been extremely formidable as long as they remained on level or smooth ground." This site, however, has been appropriated by Porter to that of the ancient MARALAH SEE MARALAH (q.v.).