HAZOR by JOHN GRAY Aberdeen Hazor Will Always Be Known As The

HAZOR

JOHN GRAY Aberdeen

Hazor will always be known as the seat oft abin the Canaanite king who exercised hegemony over a large part of Galilee before his defeat by the Hebrews at the Waters of Merom, apparently early in the main settlement of Israel in Palestine (Josh. xi 1-10). There are to be sure difficulties about associating this exploit with Joshua as the cul- mination of a campaign in the North corresponding to a combined operation in the South from Gilgal by Jericho to the plateau by Ai and Bethel, sweeping after the victory at Gibeon down the Descent of Beth-horon and the Shephelah to Lachish and Eglon in the Philistine plain. The question is one to be solved by literary criticism, and is no part of our immediate task. The account of the prelude and sequel to the battle of the Waters of Merom, however, is significant for the location of Hazor, which is associated with Madon 1), Shim- ron 2), Achshaph 3), the valley South of Kinnereth 4) (Josh. xi 1-2) and more particularly the people 'under Mount Hermon'. In the summary list of local rulers conquered by Joshua, which, apart from its questionable historical worth, is geographically valuable, Hazor is

1) Madon is feasibly identified with the LB and EI settlement at Qurn Hatt�n above Tiberias, famous as the scene of the decisive victory of Sal�hed-Din in 1187, the name probably surviving in Kh. Mad�nc. 0.5ml. S. of the height .mdn is mention- ed in Thothmes' Karnak list with Saruna, which is modern Sar�niych (Heb. Sharona) c. 5 ml. S. of Qurn Hattin on the trade-route E. of Mt. Tabor to the central plain. 2) Shimron may be Shimron-Meron of Josh. xii 20, which may be Marl�n er-Ržs c. 10 ml. NNW. of Safad rather than Shimron in Zebulun by Bethlehem in the foothills of Galilee (Josh, xix 15), which the Deuteronomic compiler evidently visualized in the summary lists of conquered kings in Josh. xii 20. 3) Thothmes III in his Karnak inscriptions mentions a place Achshaph in the vicinity of Akko, where various locations have been proposed, of which the most feasible are Tell Keis�nc. 4.5ml. SE. of Akko and et-Tell on the Nahr Mafšah, which may be a metathesis of Achshaph. In Josh. xi 1, however, another site in Upper Galilee may be visualized, modern Tell Iksif c. 5.5ml. E. of Mar�ner-R �s. 4) Kinnereth as well as the harp-shaped plain between the hills of Galilee and the lake was also the town on the higher ground to the N., modern Tell el-�oreimeh, which was occupied in the Late Bronze Age and is listed by Thothmes at Karnak. 27 again particularly associated with Madon, Shimron-meron, and Achshaph (Josh. xii 19-20). In the account of the tribal territory of Naphtali (Josh. xix 32-39), though this is a case where the list of settlements is incomplete, Hazor is associated with Qadesh, the well- known Tell £edeis on the present frontier some 10 ml. NNE. of Safad. In the account of the campaign and resulting deportations under Tiglath-pileser III in 734 (2 Kings xv 29) Hazor is again associated with Qadesh, Iyon (Merj 'LJwn) just beyond the frontier of Israel at Metulla, and Abel beth Maachah ('Ibl el-Qamb c.7 ml.S. of Merj 'U yfin. From those references there is little doubt that J. L. PORTER was right in identifying Hazor in 1875 with the impressive Tell el-Qedah on the N. bank of the Wddi Waqqds, which lies c.7 ml. SSE. of Qadesh and E. of Meirun and c.17 ml. S. of Abel beth Maac- hah with Hermon dominating the NE. horizon c. 25 ml. distant. Nature indeed had determined that a strong city should stand here. The route of trade and conquest from the N. by way of Damascus towards the coastal plain of Palestine and Egypt ran between the foothills of Hermon and the basalt outcrops SE. of Damascus towards the ford of the Jordan S. of Lake Huleh at Jisr Bandt Ya'qfib ('the Bridge of Jacob's Daughters' ) just under 4 ml. from Hazor. Marsh to the S. of Huleh and the rough basalt ridges of the Jordan Valley S. of the ford forced the road to the limestone foothills of Upper Galilee, where Hazor stood on a limestone outcrop of the foothills protected in the S. by the Wddi Waqqds and on the N. and E. by steep escarpments. Hazor thus dominated the trunk road S. to Kin- nereth and through the Wadi el Hammdm ('the Valley of Pigeons') and on Westwards through the Plain of the Batt,7f and the Wddi el-Malik to the Plain of Akko or Southwards to the Plain of Esdraelon and through the passes of Dothan, Taanach, Megiddo or Jokneam (Tell ?eimun) towards Egypt. Two letters from Tell el-Amarna from the king of Pihili 1) (Fihl beyond Jordan E. of Bethshean) indicate that Hazor was effectively dominating the N. part of the Jordan Valley, which suggests the historicity of the statement that in the campaign culminating in the battle of the Waters of Merom Hazor could call up the rulers of 'the Arabah S. of Kinnereth' (Josh. xi. 2). Hazor also dominated the road Northwards, forced towards the limestone foothills of Upper Galilee by the swamps about Huleh towards the

1) J. A. KNUDTZON,Die El-Amarna Ta feln,1908-15, 256 ; A. ALT, 'Neues über Palästina aus dem Archiv Amenophis IV', PJB XX, 1924, pp. 22-41; 29-34 (KS III, pp. 165 ff.)