Adam, the city of

Adam was a city situated on the east bank of the Jordan River beside Zarethan, mentioned in Joshua 3:16 in connection with the miraculous crossing of Israel into Canaan. When the priests bearing the ark of the covenant entered the Jordan, the waters flowing downstream were cut off and stood in a heap a great way off, at the city Adam, that is beside Zaretan — allowing the entire nation to cross on dry ground. The site was evidently a significant geographic landmark used to measure the extent of the dam of water that piled up upstream.

The city is also referenced in 1 Kings 4:12 in Solomon's administrative divisions. Its exact location is debated by scholars, but it is generally identified with Tell ed-Damiyeh at the confluence of the Jabbok and Jordan rivers, where the banks have historically been prone to collapse and temporary blockage — a natural formation that may illuminate the mechanism by which the divine act was accomplished.