Taralah
Taralah is an ancient city mentioned in the Old Testament, located in the region of Judea in modern-day Israel. Known today as Khirbet Erha. It appears across 1 verse in Scripture.
Biblical History
Taralah was one of the cities assigned to the tribe of Benjamin in the tribal allotment described in the book of Joshua. It appears in Joshua 18:27 as part of a list of fourteen cities given to Benjamin in the second group of towns allocated by lot at Shiloh under Joshua's leadership. The Benjaminite tribal territory occupied a strategically important corridor in the central hill country between Judah to the south and Ephraim to the north, and its cities collectively controlled the highland approaches to Jerusalem and the major north-south routes through the land. Taralah itself appears only in this single verse of Scripture, making it among the more obscure of the Benjaminite towns, but its inclusion in the divinely ordered allotment underscores the biblical conviction that every community, however small or little-known, had a designated place within the ordered structure of the covenant people. The identification with Khirbet Erha places Taralah in the Benjaminite highlands northwest of Jerusalem. Benjaminite territory would later be contested during the divided monarchy, as this region straddled the border between the northern and southern kingdoms following Solomon's death.
Archaeological & Historical Notes
Taralah is tentatively identified with Khirbet Erha in the Benjaminite highlands northwest of Jerusalem. The site has not been excavated systematically, and identification rests primarily on geographic proximity to other known Benjaminite sites and the approximate phonetic correspondence of ancient and modern toponyms. Surface surveys of the wider Benjaminite plateau have identified numerous Iron Age sites, demonstrating the relatively dense settlement of this region during the period of the Israelite monarchy. The highland terrain of Benjamin, with its rocky ridges and defensible positions, supported a pattern of small fortified towns controlling key travel routes — consistent with the character of the cities listed in Joshua 18's Benjaminite allotment.
Verse Appearances (1)
Josh
Sources: ISBE Encyclopedia · OpenBible Geocoding (CC BY) · Pleiades Gazetteer View all →