ME-JARKON

(Me-jarʹkon) [waters of Jarkon, or, possibly, waters of pale (or yellowish) green].

Some scholars believe that Me-jarkon in the territory of Dan (Josh. 19:40, 41, 46) is the Nahr el-ʽAuja (“winding river”) that enters the Mediterranean Sea about four miles (6 kilometers) N of Joppa. Its headwaters, among the largest springs in Palestine, take their rise about nine miles (14 kilometers) inland near the suggested site of Aphek. Initially the waters flow through a swamp of reeds, rushes, willows and grasses. As the river carries away part of the soil its waters become yellowish. This may account for the name “Me-jarkon” (“waters of pale [or yellowish] green”).

Another view is that the original Hebrew text, like the Greek Septuagint, may have read ‘and on the west [or, on the sea] Jarkon,’ and Tell Qasileh, situated within the limits of Tel Aviv, has been presented as a possible identification for Jarkon.