Chezib
Chezib is an ancient city mentioned in the Old Testament, located in the region of Judea in modern-day Israel. Known today as Tel el Beida. It appears across 1 verse in Scripture.
Biblical History
Chezib is a town in the Shephelah region of Judah, mentioned once in the Old Testament in Genesis 38:5 in connection with the patriarch Judah and his Canaanite wife, the daughter of Shua. The text notes that Judah was at Chezib when his wife bore his third son, Shelah. This brief mention situates Judah among Canaanite settlements in the lowland regions west of Hebron during the patriarchal period, reflecting the complex social and geographic realities of Israelite ancestors before the conquest. Chezib is generally identified with Achzib (Josh 15:44), a Judahite town in the Shephelah district that later became part of the tribal allotment of Judah along with Mareshah and Keilah. Achzib itself appears in Micah 1:14 in a wordplay on its name, which sounds like the Hebrew word for deception, suggesting the town would prove a disappointment to the kings of Israel. The site connects patriarchal and later monarchic traditions.
Archaeological & Historical Notes
Chezib is commonly identified with Tel el-Beida (also known as Tell el-Akhzib), situated in the Shephelah foothills southwest of Beit Guvrin in Israel. This site corresponds to the Achzib of the Judean Shephelah district. Archaeological investigation of the broader region has confirmed Bronze Age and Iron Age occupation consistent with patriarchal and monarchic period habitation. The Shephelah was a densely settled agricultural zone during the Iron Age II period, with numerous tells reflecting prosperous town life. The site sits near fertile lowland terrain suitable for the agricultural and pastoral activities associated with the patriarchal narratives. Its identification with biblical Chezib/Achzib is widely accepted among biblical geographers.
Verse Appearances (1)
Gen
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]