Ayyah
Ayyah is an ancient city mentioned in the Old Testament, located in the region of Samaria in modern-day Israel. Known today as Et Tell. It appears across 1 verse in Scripture.
Biblical History
Ayyah appears in 1 Chronicles 7:28 within the genealogical and territorial records of the tribe of Ephraim, listed as one of the settlements in Ephraim's possession alongside Bethel to the east, Naaran to the east, Gezer to the west, and Shechem with its dependencies. The name Ayyah is likely a variant or alternate form of Ai (Hebrew: ha-Ay, "the ruin"), the city near Bethel that figures prominently in the conquest narrative of Joshua 7-8. Ai was the site of Israel's initial defeat due to Achan's sin and subsequent victory after the sin was addressed and dealt with. If Ayyah and Ai are the same location, which many scholars accept, then its inclusion in the Ephraimite territorial list in Chronicles reflects the town's continuing role as a settlement in the tribal territory even centuries after the conquest. The Chronicles passage suggests ongoing Ephraimite habitation and administration of this cluster of towns, consistent with the tribe's dominant position in the central highlands. Ayyah's eastern position relative to Bethel and its western connection to Gezer and the coastal plain indicate it was part of the important east-west corridor through the Ephraimite hill country that connected major trade and military routes.
Archaeological & Historical Notes
Ayyah is widely equated with biblical Ai, most commonly identified with Et Tell, a large mound approximately three kilometers southeast of Beitin (Bethel) in the West Bank. Excavations at Et Tell by Judith Marquet-Krause in the 1930s and Joseph Callaway in the 1960s-1970s revealed a major Early Bronze Age city destroyed around 2400 BCE and a smaller Iron Age I village. The absence of Late Bronze Age remains at Et Tell has generated sustained scholarly debate about the Joshua 7-8 conquest narrative. Some scholars propose alternative sites including Khirbet el-Maqatir, where excavations have found Late Bronze Age remains. The 1 Chronicles 7:28 reference to Ayyah indicates continued Iron Age occupation consistent with the Et Tell village phase.
Verse Appearances (1)
1Chr
References
- Orr, J. (ed.) (1915) The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. Chicago: Howard-Severance Company. [Public Domain]
- OpenBible.info (n.d.) Bible Geocoding. Available at: https://www.openbible.info/geo/. [CC BY 4.0]
- Bagnall, R. et al. (eds.) (n.d.) Pleiades: A Gazetteer of Past Places. Available at: https://pleiades.stoa.org. [CC BY 3.0]
- Wikidata contributors (n.d.) Wikidata. Available at: https://www.wikidata.org. [CC0]
- Lawrence, D. et al. (2025) Villages to Empires: a settlement dataset for the Southern Levant. doi:10.5281/zenodo.15111732. [CC BY 4.0]
- Church of England (1769) The Holy Bible, Authorized (King James) Version. [Public Domain]