SUCCOTH
“booths” or “tabernacles.”
(a) Place east of the Jordan (Judges 8:4, 5). Upon returning from Mesopotamia, Jacob, once he had crossed the Jabbok (Gen. 32:22), built a house in this place, and cabins for his livestock. For this reason he gave this place the name Sukkot (booths) (Gen. 33:17).
Jacob next went to Shechem (Gen. 33:18).
Sukkot was in the Jordan Valley, near Zarethan (1 Kings 7:46; Ps. 60:6; 108:7). He was assigned to the tribe of Gad (Josh. 13:27).
In Gideon’s time it was an important city, governed by seventy-seven elders, who refused to give bread to Gideon and his men when they persecuted Zebah and Zalmunna, kings of Midian. When Gideon had achieved victory, he punished these elders of Sukkot (Judges 8:5-16).
Its location is in Tell Ahsãs, about 2 km north of the Nahr ez-Zerkã (the Jabbok) and 14 km northeast of Dãmiyeh. This is the place that the Talmud identifies with Sukkot.
(b) The first camp of the Israelites after Rameses (Ex. 12:37; 13:20; Num. 33:5, 6). Sometimes identified with Thuku, an open city that surrounded the sacred buildings of Pitón; more recently it is identified with Tell el-Maskhûtah.