HAZOR

(Haʹzor) [an enclosure].

1. The chief city of northern Canaan at the time of Israel’s conquest under Joshua. (Josh. 11:10) Hazor has been identified with Tell el-Qedah located about four miles (6.4 kilometers) SW of Lake Huleh (now mostly drained). According to archaeologist Yigael Yadin, under whose direction excavations were carried out at the site from 1955 to 1958, the Hazor of Joshua’s time covered an area of approximately 150 acres (61 hectares) and could have accommodated from 25,000 to 30,000 inhabitants.

Jabin the king of Hazor led the united forces of northern Canaan against Joshua, but suffered a humiliating defeat. Hazor itself was burned, the only city in that area built on a mound to be so treated. (Josh. 11:1-13) Although later assigned to the tribe of Naphtali (Josh. 19:32, 35, 36), Hazor, in the time of Deborah and Barak, was the seat of another powerful Canaanite king, also called Jabin.—Judg. 4:2, 17; 1 Sam. 12:9.

At a later period, Hazar, like Gezer and Megiddo, was fortified by King Solomon. (1 Ki. 9:15) Archaeological finds indicate that the gates of these three cities were of similar construction. Reporting on the excavations at Hazor, Yadin, in his work The Art of Warfare in Biblical Lands (Vol. II, p. 288), writes: “As the first sign of the gate of this wall began to emerge from the dust and earth that were gently being scooped away, we were struck by its similarity to the ‘Gate of Solomon’ which had been discovered at Megiddo. Before proceeding further with the excavation, we made tentative markings of the ground following our estimate of the plan of the gate on the basis of the Megiddo gate. And then we told the laborers to go ahead and continue removing the debris. When they had finished, they looked at us with astonishment, as if we were magicians or fortunetellers. For there, before us, was the gate whose outline we had marked, a replica of the Megiddo gate. This proved not only that both gates had been built by Solomon but that both had followed a single master plan.”

Over two hundred years after Solomon’s death, during the reign of Israelite King Pekah, the Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser III conquered Hazor and carried its inhabitants into exile.—2 Ki. 15:29.

2. A Judean city in the Negeb, perhaps to be linked with el-Jebariyeh, located some fifteen miles (24 kilometers) E-NE of the suggested site of Kadesh-barnea (likely the same as Kedesh).—Josh. 15:21, 23

3. Another name for Kerioth-hezron, a town of Judah that has generally been identified with Khirbet el-Qaryatein located about 12.5 miles (20 kilometers) S of Hebron.—Josh. 15:21, 25.

4. A town located in the territory of Benjamin. (Neh. 11:31, 33) El-Burj, situated about four miles (6.4 kilometers) NW of Jerusalem, has been suggested as a probable site. The name “Hazor” is still preserved in nearby Khirbet Hazzur.

5. A region in the Arabian Desert E of the Jordan mentioned in the prophecy of Jeremiah as being due for despoiling by King Nebuchadrezzar (Nebuchadnezzar) of Babylon.—Jer. 49:28-33.

[Picture on page 723]

Two levels of the ruins thought to represent ancient Hazor (Tell el-Qedah). The older, lower level is in the foreground