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Hazor

HAZOR (hā'zôr, Heb. hātsôr, an enclosed place). The name of at least five towns mentioned in the Bible:

2. A town in the extreme south of Judah, mentioned only in Josh.15.23.

3. Another town in the south of Judah (Josh.15.25). Its name, Hazor Hadattah, means simply New Hazor and indicates that some of the inhabitants of Hazor no. 2 had moved to a new location. KJV in Josh.15.25 makes it seem that Hazor and Hadattah were separate places, but see NIV, ASV.

4. A town north of Jerusalem, inhabited by Benjamites in the restoration (Neh.11.33).

5. A region in southern Arabia against which Jeremiah pronounced a “doom” (Jer.49.28-Jer.49.33).

The downfall of the Canaanite Hazor is dated in the 13th cent., corroborating the account in Joshua 11:1-11. Jabin, king of Hazor, formed a coalition with the kings of Madon, Shimron, Achshaph, the kings of the northern hill country and in the Arabah S of Chinneroth and in the lowlands to stop the advance of the Israelites. The coalition was defeated at the waters of Merom, and Joshua took Hazor and burned it. After its destruction, the lower city was never rebuilt, and the Israelite attempts to resettle the city during the 12th and 11th centuries were very poor and limited only to some parts of the tell. Excavations of the lower city have turned up a Canaanite temple and a small shrine. The Bible mentions a second battle between the Israelites and a Jabin of Hazor (a dynastic name?). Deborah and Barak led the troops of Israel against Sisera, the captain of Jabin’s army, who had 900 chariots of iron. Because of divine aid, Israel defeated the Canaanites and was relieved of the oppression under which they had suffered for twenty years (Judg 4 and 5).

The city was rebuilt in the 10th cent. by Solomon (c. 950 b.c.) as a fortress, evidently to protect the northern entrance to Pal. According to 1 Kings 9:15, he utilized forced labor to build Hazor, Megiddo and Gezer as well as other projects. The great gate found at Hazor has proven to be very similar to those at Megiddo and Gezer, suggesting even the possibility of the same architect. The city was again destroyed by fire, prob. by Ben-hadad I, c. 885 b.c. (cf. 1 Kings 15:20). Over the next two centuries, it was rebuilt and destroyed five different times. The last city of any significance is thought to have been demolished in the campaign of Tiglath-pileser III in 732 b.c. (2 Kings 15:29). In the ash layer of this level a fragment of a wine jar was found bearing the name of Pekah (pqh). There are evidences of further resettlements during the Assyrian, Persian and Hellenistic periods, but the citadels were quite small.

2. A Judean city in the Negeb (Josh 15:23). The site is unknown. 3. Hazor-hadattah (חָצֹ֤ור חֲדַתָּה, New Hazor), a place in southern Judah (15:25).

4. Another name for Kerioth-hezron (15:25). Its site is prob. somewhere in southern Judah. 5. A Benjamite city mentioned in Nehemiah 11:33. It was prob. the modern Khirbet Hazzur.

6. An area located somewhere in the Arabian Desert E of Pal. Jeremiah delivered an oracle concerning their destruction in 598 b.c. (Jer 49:28-33).
 

Bibliography

Preliminary report, IEJ, 6 (1956), 120-125; Y. Yadin, IEJ, 7 (1957), 118-123; 8 (1958), 1-14; 9 (1959), 74-88; Y. Yadin, BA, 21 (1958), 30-47; 22 (1959), 2-20; A. Malamat, JBL, 79 (1960), 12-19.
 

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915)

(chatsor; Nasor; Codex Sinaiticus, Asor, 1 Macc 11:67):
 

(2) A town, unidentified, in the South of Judah (Jos 15:23). (3) A town in the South of Judah (Jos 15:25). See Kerioth-hezron.

(4) A town in Benjamin (Ne 11:33) now represented by Khirbet Chazzar, not far to the East of Neby Samwil. (5) An unidentified place in Arabia, smitten by Nebuchadnezzar (Jer 49:28,33).