Probably the largest city in ancient Palestine, and head of a huge alliance of smaller kingdoms at the time of Joshua's conquest, Hazor's power was dealt a decisive blow by Israel. Though she continued to be a thorn in Israel's life, she appears in most later references in the OT only of glory lost.
Hazor is located about 15km north of the Sea of Galilee, located on a gourd-shaped tel (Tell al-Qedah) of about 49m high. The city was divided into an upper city of about 25-30 acres and a lower that ranged to about 200. Hazor reached its height of power in the 15-14th Cent BC, when, it is estimated, she had a population of about 40,000 (huge by Canaanite standards).
Hazor was ruled by a king named Jabin (possibly a dynastic name) at the time of the Israelite conquest. With the prospect of battle with Joshua he sent out summons to his vassals or allies from all around Canaan ("Jobab king of Madon, to the kings of Shimron and Acshaph, and to the northern kings who were in the mountains, in the Arabah south of Kinnereth, in the western foothills and in Naphoth Dor on the west; to the Canaanites in the east and west; to the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites and Jebusites in the hill country; and to the Hivites below Hermon in the region of Mizpah," Jos 11:1) Their massive force of chariots were, however, subdued by Israel, though the account does say how the Israelites manage to hamstring, i.e., cut off the tendon on the legs, of the horses). The city put to the cherem, which meant, of course, that it could not then be occupied by Israel, having become a devoted thing.
Israel's settlement in the land after the death of Joshua had been difficult. Many of the Canaanites who survived the battles of the conquests had regrouped and reocuppied much of what Israel could not fend. This seems to have happened at Hazor, whose new kings seem to have revitalized. Judg 4:1 reports thow "after Ehud died, the Israelites once again did evil in the eyes of the Lord. So the Lord sold them into the hands of Jabin, a king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor." After twenty-years of servitude to Jabin, Deborah's leadership led them again to freedom.
We do not hear again of Hazor (except for once when Samuel, in his farewell address, warned the people of their past servitude to the city, 1 Sam 12:9) until we hear that Solomon had fortified its walls, possibly to guard the northern approach to Israel (1 Ki 9:15). It was one of the cities captured by the Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser when he came to subdue the south (2 Ki 15:29).
Hazor has been excavated extensively, first by John Garstang, and then by Yigael Yadin. The findings so far suggests that the city was first occupied in the mid-18th Cent and finally destroyed about 1230 BC and never reoccupied. Archaeologists debate whether this was the work of Joshua or Deborah; the date is consistent with either and the conclusion depends much on one's view of the date of the exodus.
Hazor is mentioned twice more in the OT after the periods above—Jer 49:28-33; Neh 11:33—but these seem to refer to two other insignificant places, the former somewhere in the east (possibly in Arabia) and the latter somewhere in the territory of Benjamin (see v31).
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