Hazor
Hazor is an ancient city mentioned in the Old Testament, located in the region of Judea in modern-day Israel. Known today as Khirbet el Qaryatein. It appears across 1 verse in Scripture.
Biblical History
This Hazor, located in the Negev hill country of Judah and identified with Khirbet el Qaryatein, is one of several places bearing the name Hazor recorded in the tribal allotments of Joshua. It appears in Joshua 15:23 within the extensive list of towns allocated to the tribe of Judah in the southernmost portion of their inheritance, placed alongside cities such as Kedesh and Ithnan. The name Hazor simply means 'enclosure' or 'settlement,' making it a common toponym applied to various locations throughout Canaan. This Judahite Hazor is significant primarily as testimony to the thorough geographic organization of tribal territories in ancient Israel. The book of Joshua's detailed boundary and city lists reflect the ideal of a fully apportioned land fulfilling God's covenant promise to the patriarchs. Though this specific settlement receives no further narrative attention, its inclusion in the tribal inheritance list underscores the biblical insistence that every portion of the promised land belonged to God's people by divine grant.
Archaeological & Historical Notes
Khirbet el Qaryatein has been proposed as the location of this Judahite Hazor based on its position in the southern Hebron hills, consistent with the geographical sequence of towns listed in Joshua 15. The site has received limited archaeological investigation. Surface surveys in the area have identified Iron Age pottery, supporting the possibility of an Israelite-period settlement. The southern Judean highlands contain numerous small Iron Age sites that correspond to the many towns named in Joshua's tribal allotment lists, though definitively linking specific ruins to individual biblical place names in this region remains challenging without targeted excavation.
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]