Hazor
Hazor is an ancient city mentioned in the Old Testament, located in the region of Samaria in modern-day Israel. Known today as Khirbet Hazzur. It appears across 1 verse in Scripture.
Biblical History
This Hazor, located in the hill country of Benjamin near Jerusalem and identified with Khirbet Hazzur, is distinct from the more famous northern city. It appears in Nehemiah 11:33 as one of the towns resettled by Benjaminites following the return from Babylonian exile. The passage lists Hazor among a group of communities including Ramah, Gittaim, and Anathoth that were repopulated as the restored community sought to reestablish Israelite life across the land. Though this Hazor receives only passing mention in Scripture, its inclusion in the resettlement list attests to the deliberate and organized nature of the post-exilic restoration under Nehemiah's leadership. The town's proximity to Jerusalem would have made it strategically valuable as the returned exiles sought to secure settlements around the holy city. Its role in Nehemiah's narrative reflects the broader theological theme of God's faithfulness in restoring His people to their ancestral inheritance after the devastation of exile, fulfilling promises made through the prophets.
Archaeological & Historical Notes
The site identified as Khirbet Hazzur lies northwest of Jerusalem in the Benjaminite highlands. Surface surveys have recorded pottery from various periods including Iron Age II and Persian-period sherds, which would be consistent with the resettlement activity described in Nehemiah 11. The site has not undergone extensive formal excavation, and its identification with the biblical Hazor of Benjamin remains a scholarly proposal based primarily on geographical positioning and name similarity. The broader Benjamin plateau has yielded substantial evidence of Persian-period occupation at nearby sites such as Mizpah and Gibeon, supporting the general picture of post-exilic resettlement in the region.
Verse Appearances (1)
Neh
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]