Hazor

Biblical Text and Content

Hazor appears chiefly as a royal city, the seat of a king, in northern Canaan.

• Joshua's northern conquest: Jabin king of Hazor gathered several northern kings to oppose Israel. Joshua defeated them at the waters of Merom (Joshua 11:1-9). Scripture records that "Hazor beforetime was the head of all those kingdoms" (Joshua 11:10). According to the account, Israel did not burn the other cities that stood on their mounds but burned Hazor alone (Joshua 11:11-13). When the land was divided, Hazor was allotted to the tribe of Naphtali (Joshua 19:36).
• Period of the judges: Judges 4 mentions "Jabin king of Canaan, that reigned in Hazor" and Sisera, the captain of his host. Deborah and Barak defeated them (Judges 4:2, 23-24). The event is recalled in 1 Samuel 12:9 and Psalm 83:9.
• Period of the monarchy: Solomon built Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer (1 Kings 9:15). In the days of Pekah king of Israel, Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria captured Hazor and carried its inhabitants into captivity (2 Kings 15:29).

The name "Hazor" also appears in Joshua 15, Nehemiah 11:33, and Jeremiah 49:28-33. These references, however, are regarded as places distinct from the Galilean Hazor; they are generally identified as place names in southern Judah, in the territory of Benjamin, and in the region of Arabia.

Background

Hazor lay north of the Sea of Galilee, at the edge of the Huleh Valley. The site stood on the route linking Egypt to the south with Damascus and Mesopotamia to the north. Many scholars relate the name to a Hebrew word meaning "enclosure" or "settlement."

Hazor is also mentioned in ancient documents outside the Bible, such as the Mari texts from Mesopotamia and the Amarna letters from Egypt, which show that it was an important city from an early period. The modern archaeological site, Tel Hazor, consists of an upper city and a lower city and is known as one of the largest sites in the region of Canaan. Yigael Yadin excavated it in the 1950s, and Amnon Ben-Tor resumed excavations in the 1990s. In 2005, together with Megiddo and Beersheba, it was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site under the title "Biblical Tels."

Significance in Scripture as a Whole

Hazor was a powerful city that represented northern Canaan. For this reason Joshua 11 portrays its conquest as the climax of the northern campaign. In Judges 4 it appears as the center of the power that oppressed Israel.

The New Testament does not mention Hazor directly. Hebrews 11:32, however, lists Barak, who defeated the army of the king of Hazor, among those commended for their faith.

Interpretive Issues

• Two Jabins: Jabin king of Hazor, who is killed in Joshua 11, appears again in Judges 4. Several explanations have been offered: that Jabin was a royal title used by successive kings of Hazor; that Hazor was rebuilt and a later king bore the same name; or that two traditions have been combined.
• Dating the burned city: Evidence of a massive destruction by fire of the Late Bronze Age city has been found at Tel Hazor. Yadin and Ben-Tor connected it with the Israelite conquest. Other scholars, by contrast, attribute it to an attack by Egypt or the Sea Peoples, or to an internal revolt. How the destruction is correlated with the biblical account also depends on whether one holds an early or a late date for the Exodus.
• The Solomonic gates: Gates of similar design have been found at Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer. Yadin connected them with Solomon's building activity in 1 Kings 9:15. Israel Finkelstein and others, however, date these gates later, to around the time of the Omride dynasty of the northern kingdom of Israel. The question remains under debate.