Chisloth-tabor
Chisloth-tabor is an ancient city mentioned in the Old Testament, located in the region of Galilee in modern-day Israel. Known today as Iksal. It appears across 1 verse in Scripture.
Biblical History
Chisloth-tabor was a town in the tribal territory of Zebulun, mentioned once in Joshua 19:12 as a point on the eastern border of Zebulun's allotment. The name means "the flanks of Tabor," indicating a settlement at the foot or slope of the famous Mount Tabor, the prominent isolated hill that rises from the Jezreel Valley floor in Lower Galilee. The town is generally equated with Chesulloth of Issachar (Josh 19:18), suggesting that this settlement sat at the boundary between the two tribes of Zebulun and Issachar, perhaps bearing slightly different names in each tribe's records. Mount Tabor itself was a major landmark in Israelite history: it was the rallying point for Deborah and Barak's forces against the Canaanite general Sisera (Judg 4:6), and later tradition associated it with the Transfiguration of Jesus. The town's proximity to this sacred mountain ensured its continued significance throughout the Old Testament period.
Archaeological & Historical Notes
Chisloth-tabor, like Chesulloth, is identified with modern Iksal, an Arab village at the southwestern base of the Nazareth ridge near Mount Tabor in the Lower Galilee. The dual identification with both a Zebulunite and Issacharite town list reflects the site's position at the tribal boundary. Surface surveys at Iksal have confirmed Iron Age pottery assemblages consistent with Israelite-period occupation, and the site's geographic position at the foot of Mount Tabor aligns well with the biblical description. The Arabic name Iksal may preserve a linguistic trace of the ancient toponym. Mount Tabor itself has been archaeologically surveyed, yielding Bronze Age and Iron Age remains that confirm its long history as a significant landmark and cultic site.
Verse Appearances (1)
Josh
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]