Mount Heres
Mount Heres is an ancient city mentioned in the Old Testament, located in the region of Judea in modern-day Israel. Known today as Tel Bet Shemesh. It appears across 1 verse in Scripture.
Biblical History
Mount Heres (meaning "mountain of the sun") is mentioned in Judges 1:35 as a location where the Amorites persisted in dwelling despite the presence of the tribe of Dan. The passage states that the Amorites were determined to dwell in Mount Heres, Aijalon, and Shaalbim, but the hand of the house of Joseph prevailed over them, and they were subjected to forced labor. This notice appears in the broader context of Judges 1, which catalogs the incomplete nature of Israel's conquest, listing the Canaanite enclaves that each tribe failed to fully dispossess. The name "mountain of the sun" likely connects this site to Beth-shemesh ("house of the sun"), a priestly city in the Shephelah. The Amorite persistence in this region reflects the recurring biblical theme of Israel's failure to fully obey God's command to drive out the inhabitants of the land, a failure that would lead to ongoing spiritual compromise and the cycles of apostasy described throughout the book of Judges.
Archaeological & Historical Notes
Mount Heres is widely identified with the area around Beth-shemesh, modern Tel Bet Shemesh, located in the Sorek Valley of the Shephelah. The linguistic connection between Heres ("sun") and Beth-shemesh ("house of the sun") strongly supports this identification. Tel Bet Shemesh has been extensively excavated, first by Duncan Mackenzie in 1911-12, then by Elihu Grant in the 1930s, and more recently by Shlomo Bunimovitz and Zvi Lederman since 1990. These excavations have revealed continuous occupation from the Middle Bronze Age through the Iron Age, including evidence of both Canaanite and Israelite settlement layers, consistent with the biblical description of contested territory.
Verse Appearances (1)
Judg
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]