Hezron
Hezron is an ancient city mentioned in the Old Testament, located in the region of Negev in modern-day Israel. Known today as Ain el Qudeirat. It appears across 1 verse in Scripture.
Biblical History
Hezron is a city in the Negev region of Judah, mentioned in the context of the southern boundary description of the tribe of Judah's inheritance in Canaan. In Joshua 15:3, the border of Judah is traced southward from the Ascent of Akrabbim and is said to pass by Hezron on its way toward Addar and Kadesh-barnea. The city thus functioned as a boundary marker defining Judah's southern frontier with the wilderness of Zin and the Sinai desert. This placement along the southern border underscores its role as an outpost on the edge of settled territory, where the cultivable land of Judah gave way to the harsh expanses of the Negev and Sinai. Though Hezron appears only once in this boundary list and plays no further independent narrative role in Scripture, its inclusion reflects the careful geographic delineation of tribal territories that characterized Israel's settlement of the Promised Land under Joshua. The city's location in the extreme south placed it in a strategic defensive and administrative position.
Archaeological & Historical Notes
Hezron is often identified with Ain el-Qudeirat, the site of Tel Kadesh-barnea in the northeastern Sinai, though some scholars distinguish it from Kadesh-barnea itself and locate it nearby. The identification with this general region is supported by the boundary description in Joshua 15, which places Hezron in proximity to Kadesh-barnea and Addar. Tel Kadesh-barnea has been excavated and reveals significant Iron Age II fortresses, as well as earlier occupation levels. If Hezron is a distinct site in the vicinity, it has not been definitively identified through excavation. The broader region was an important waystation on ancient routes connecting Egypt, the Negev, and Transjordan.
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]