Shilhim
Shilhim is an ancient city mentioned in the Old Testament, located in the region of Negev in modern-day Israel. Known today as Tall al Ajjul. It appears across 1 verse in Scripture.
Biblical History
Shilhim appears only once in the Old Testament, in Joshua 15:32, listed among the southernmost cities of Judah in the Negev district. It appears alongside Lebaoth and Ain as part of the final enumeration of cities in Judah's southernmost allotment, a region bordering the desert frontier. The city seems to be identical with Sharuhen mentioned in Joshua 19:6 and Shaaraim in 1 Chronicles 4:31, suggesting a variant spelling of the same settlement. If this identification is correct, Shilhim/Sharuhen held considerable historical significance as an important Canaanite city in the western Negev. Sharuhen was the last stronghold of the Hyksos after their expulsion from Egypt around 1550 BCE, the pharaoh Ahmose I besieged the city for three years following the fall of Avaris. In its Judean context, Shilhim represents the southwestern frontier of tribal settlement, a zone where Judah's territory met the desert and where memories of earlier Canaanite and Egyptian power struggles persisted in the landscape. The Negev cities of Joshua 15 are generally understood as reflecting Iron Age administrative records.
Archaeological & Historical Notes
Shilhim is tentatively identified with Tell el-Ajjul (Tall al Ajjul), located southwest of modern Gaza along a coastal wadi. Tell el-Ajjul was extensively excavated by Sir Flinders Petrie in the 1930s, who identified it as ancient Gaza, though this identification has been largely rejected. The site revealed remarkable Bronze Age remains including a large Middle Bronze Age palatial building, substantial gold hoards of jewelry and ornaments (among the finest Bronze Age gold collections from the Levant), and evidence of significant Hyksos-period occupation. The site's identification with Sharuhen/Shilhim is widely accepted by many scholars and would align the archaeological evidence of Hyksos occupation with the biblical and Egyptian textual record of Sharuhen's fall.
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]