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SHARON.—1. ha-shârôn, lit. ‘the plain,’ 1Ch_27:29, Son_2:1, Isa_33:9; Isa_35:2; Isa_65:10; Gr. ho Sarôn, whence AV [Note: Authorized Version.] Saron, Act_9:35. This is the great Maritime Plain extending from Jaffa, or a little south of it, to Mount Carmel in the north. Though called a plain, it is of an undulating character, and was in parts, particularly towards the N., a forest of oaks (Isa_35:2). Although hut poorly cultivated, it has a great depth of rich soil and is capable of much development; left now largely to weeds, it yields annually a magnificent crop of beautiful wild flowers. It has always been a pasturage of flocks (1Ch_27:29, Isa_65:10). Around Ramleh and Ludd are forests of olives, and the orange gardens of Jaffa are too well known to need more than a passing reference; wherever the hand of man has been diligent, there the soil has bounteously responded. Over a great part of the plain, especially near the sea, water may be tapped at no great depth. Its rivers are the marshy Nahr Zerka or Crocodile River, just below Carmel, Nahr el-Mufjir, Nahr Iskanderuneh, and Nahr el-Aujeh, the last mentioned close to Jaffa. The chief town of Sharon was in ancient days Dor (Jos_11:2; Jos_12:23, 1Ki_4:11), in NT times Cæsarea, and in later Crusading times (1218–1291) the fortified port of Athlît. In Jos_12:13 Lassharon is mentioned as one of the royal cities of Canaan; as ‘the king of’ is omitted in the original, the passage may read ‘king of Aphek in the Sharon.’ For ‘rose of Sharon’ See Rose.
2. A second Sharon (Saronas) is mentioned by Eusebius and Jerome as between Mt. Tahor and Tiberias, and this is to-day represented by the village of Sârôna in the Ard el-Hamma N.E. of Tabor. This may he the place mentioned in Jos_12:13 (see above).
3. The suburbs (RVm [Note: Revised Version margin.] ‘pasture lands’) of Sharon (1Ch_5:16) are mentioned as among the possessions of Gad along with Gilead and Bashan.
E. W. G. Masterman.