Lasharon
Lash'aron
[many Lasha'ron] (Heb. Lashsharon', לִשָּׁרוֹן, signif. unknown; Sept. Λεσαρών, but almost all copies omit; Vulg. Sarmon, but in the Benedictine text Lassaron), one of the Canaanitish towns whose kings were killed by Joshua (Jos 12:18). "Some difference of opinion has been expressed as to whether the first syllable is an integral part of the name or the Hebrew preposition with the art. implied (see Keil, Josua, ad loc.). But there seems to be no warrant for supposing the existence of a particle before this one name, which certainly does not exist before either of the other thirty names in the list. Such, at least, is the conclusion of Bochart (Hieroz. 1, chapter 31), Reland (Palaest. 871), and others, a conclusion supported by the reading of the Targum, and the Arabic Version, and also by Jerome, if the Benedictine text can be relied on. The opposite conclusion of the Vulgate, given above, is adopted by Gesenius (Thesaurus, page 642, b), but not on very clear grounds, his chief argument being apparently that, as the name of a town, Sharon would not require the article affixed, which, as that of a district, it always bears. The name has vanished from both the Vat. and Alex. MSS. of the Sept., unless a trace exists in the Ο᾿φεκτησαρώκ of the Vat." (Smith). Masius supposes Lasharon to be the place mentioned in Ac 9:35, where the reading of some MSS. is Α᾿σσάρωνα instead of Σάρωνα; but there is no evidence to support such a view. From the fact that in Joshua it is named between Aphek and Madon, a writer in Fairbairn's Dictionary argues for a position at the modern Saruneh, south-east of Tiberias (Robinson, Bibl. Res. 3, Appendix, page 131); but the reasoning is wholly inconclusive, and the location utterly out of the question. Lasharon was possibly the same place with the LASHA of Ge 10:19.
