Hazazon-tamar
Hazazon-tamar is an ancient city mentioned in the Old Testament, located in the region of Negev in modern-day Israel. Known today as En Hazeva. It appears across 1 verse in Scripture.
Biblical History
This instance of Hazazon-tamar, associated with En Hazeva in the Arabah rather than the Ein Gedi oasis, reflects the complex biblical use of the name across potentially distinct locations. The settlement in the Arabah, the great rift valley running south from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Aqaba, would have occupied a strategic position on the major north-south route connecting the Negev with the Red Sea. The Arabah Hazazon-tamar may be connected to the early narrative of Genesis 14:7, where Hazazon-tamar is described as the home of the Amorites and is attacked by the four kings under Chedorlaomer during the campaign that preceded Abraham's rescue of Lot. This early Genesis reference situates Hazazon-tamar within the pre-patriarchal landscape of the Transjordan and Arabah region, where Amorite settlements dotted the agricultural margins between the desert and the cultivable zones. The palm trees implied by the name's meaning are consistent with both the Ein Gedi and the Arabah locations, as date palms thrive in oasis environments throughout the rift valley. The site's Amorite associations in Genesis 14 place it within the complex pre-Israelite ethnic landscape of the southern Levant.
Archaeological & Historical Notes
En Hazeva, located in the southern Arabah in Israel near the Jordanian border, has been excavated by Rudolph Cohen and Yigal Yisrael, revealing a sequence of occupation spanning the Iron Age through the Hellenistic period. Notably, excavators discovered a remarkable hoard of smashed cult objects, altars, incense stands, and ceramic vessels, interpreted as evidence of an official destruction of a pagan shrine, possibly connected to Josiah's religious reforms. An Iron Age fortress at the site controlled the ancient road network crossing the Arabah. The Roman fort Tamara built at the same location preserves the ancient name, providing a direct link to the biblical Tamar and strengthening the identification with Hazazon-tamar.
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]