Azekah (, ''ʿazēqā'') was an ancient town in the Shephela ("lowlands of Judea") guarding the upper reaches of the

Valley of Elah The Valley of Elah, Ella Valley ("Valley of the terebinth"; from the ), or Wadi es-Sunt (), is a long, shallow valley in the Shephelah area of Israel. It is best-known from the Hebrew Bible incident where David defeated Goliath ( 1 Samuel 17:2 a ...

, about 26 km (16 mi) northwest of

Hebron Hebron (; , or ; , ) is a Palestinian city in the southern West Bank, south of Jerusalem. Hebron is capital of the Hebron Governorate, the largest Governorates of Palestine, governorate in the West Bank. With a population of 201,063 in ...

. The current '' tell'' (ruin) by that name, also known as Tel Azeka (, ''ʿtel azēqā'') or Tell Zakariya, has been identified with the biblical Azekah, dating back to the

Canaan CanaanThe current scholarly edition of the Septuagint, Greek Old Testament spells the word without any accents, cf. Septuaginta : id est Vetus Testamentum graece iuxta LXX interprets. 2. ed. / recogn. et emendavit Robert Hanhart. Stuttgart : D ...

ite period. Today, the site lies on the purlieu of Britannia Park. According to

Epiphanius of Salamis Epiphanius of Salamis (; – 403) was the bishop of Salamis, Cyprus, at the end of the Christianity in the 4th century, 4th century. He is considered a saint and a Church Father by the Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox, Catholic Churche ...

, the name meant "white" in Hebrew. The ''tell'' is pear shaped with the tip pointing northward. Due to its location in the Elah Valley it functioned as one of the main Judahite border cities, sitting on the boundary between the lower and higher Shfela.Gadot, ''et al.'' (2012), pp. 196–206 Although listed in Joshua 15:35 as being a city in the plain, it is actually partly in the hill country, partly in the plain.

Biblical history

In the

Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

, it is said to be one of the places where the

Amorite The Amorites () were an ancient Northwest Semitic-speaking Bronze Age people from the Levant. Initially appearing in Sumerian records c. 2500 BC, they expanded and ruled most of the Levant, Mesopotamia and parts of Egypt from the 21st century BC ...

kings were defeated by

Joshua Joshua ( ), also known as Yehoshua ( ''Yəhōšuaʿ'', Tiberian Hebrew, Tiberian: ''Yŏhōšuaʿ,'' Literal translation, lit. 'Yahweh is salvation'), Jehoshua, or Josue, functioned as Moses' assistant in the books of Book of Exodus, Exodus and ...

, and one of the places their army was destroyed by a hailstorm (). It was given to the

tribe of Judah According to the Hebrew Bible, the tribe of Judah (, ''Shevet Yehudah'') was one of the twelve Tribes of Israel, named after Judah (son of Jacob), Judah, the son of Jacob. Judah was one of the tribes to take its place in Canaan, occupying it ...

().Amit (n.d.), pp. 333–334 In the time of

Saul Saul (; , ; , ; ) was a monarch of ancient Israel and Judah and, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament, the first king of the United Monarchy, a polity of uncertain historicity. His reign, traditionally placed in the late eleventh c ...

, the

Philistines Philistines (; LXX: ; ) were ancient people who lived on the south coast of Canaan during the Iron Age in a confederation of city-states generally referred to as Philistia. There is compelling evidence to suggest that the Philistines origi ...

massed their forces between

Sokho Sokho (alternate spellings: Sokhoh, Sochoh, Soco, Sokoh; ) is the name given to two ancient towns in the territorial domain of Judah as mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, west of the Judean hills. Both towns were given the name ''Shuweikah'' in A ...

and Azekah, putting forth

Goliath Goliath ( ) was a Philistines, Philistine giant in the Book of Samuel. Descriptions of Goliath's giant, immense stature vary among biblical sources, with texts describing him as either or tall. According to the text, Goliath issued a challen ...

as their champion ().

Rehoboam Rehoboam (; , , ; , ; ) was, according to the Hebrew Bible, the first monarch of the Kingdom of Judah after the split of the united Kingdom of Israel. He was a son of and the successor to Solomon and a grandson of David. In the account of I Ki ...

fortified the town in his reign, along with

Lachish Lachish (; ; ) was an ancient Canaanite and later Israelite city in the Shephelah ("lowlands of Judea") region of Canaan on the south bank of the Lakhish River mentioned several times in the Hebrew Bible. The current '' tell'' by that name, kn ...

and other strategic sites (). In a clay tablet inscribed in Assyrian script Azekah is mentioned as being a fortified town, during the time of

Sennacherib Sennacherib ( or , meaning "Sin (mythology), Sîn has replaced the brothers") was the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 705BC until his assassination in 681BC. The second king of the Sargonid dynasty, Sennacherib is one of the most famous A ...

's military excursion in the country. Lachish and Azekah were the last two towns to fall to the

Babylonians Babylonia (; , ) was an ancient Akkadian-speaking state and cultural area based in the city of Babylon in central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq and parts of Kuwait, Syria and Iran). It emerged as an Akkadian-populated but Amorite-ru ...

before the overthrow of

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

itself (). It was one of the places re-occupied by the people on the return from the Captivity ().

Identification

Although the hill is now widely known as the Tel (ruin) of Azekah, in the early 19th-century the hilltop ruin was known locally by the name of ''Tell Zakariyeh''. J. Schwartz was the first to identify the hilltop ruin of ''Tell-Zakariyeh'' as the site of Azekah on the basis of written sources. Schwartz's view was supported by archaeologist

William F. Albright William Foxwell Albright (May 24, 1891 – September 19, 1971) was an American archaeologist, biblical scholar, philologist, and expert on ceramics. He is considered "one of the twentieth century's most influential American biblical scholars ...

, by R.A. Stewart Macalister, and by 1953, the

Government Naming Committee Government Naming Committee (, sometimes referred as National Naming Committee or Government Names Committee) is a public committee appointed by the Government of Israel, which deals with the designation of names for communities and other points ...

in Israel had already decided upon giving the name "Tel Azekah" to ''Khirbet Tall Zakariya''. In 1838, British-American explorer Edward Robinson passed by the site of ''Tell Zakariyeh'', which stood to the left of the modern village bearing the same name (

Az-Zakariyya Zekharia () is a moshav in central Israel. It was formerly a Palestinian village, whose inhabitants were expelled in 1948-9. Located near Beit Shemesh, it falls under the jurisdiction of Mateh Yehuda Regional Council. In it had a population of . ...

, which was depopulated in 1948 and later settled by the moshav Zekharia). French explorer

Victor Guérin Victor Guérin (; 15 September 1821 – 21 September 1890) was a French people, French intellectual, explorer and amateur archaeologist. He published books describing the geography, archeology and history of the areas he explored, which included ...

thought another "Beit Zecharias" to be the village mentioned in the Book of I Maccabees (6:32), and which he locates further to the east at a place called '' Beit Zakaria'' (Beit Skaria), a view also held by C.R. Conder who thought the site of the battle between

Judas Maccabeus Judas Maccabaeus or Maccabeus ( ), also known as Judah Maccabee (), was a Jewish priest (''kohen'') and a son of the priest Mattathias. He led the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire (167–160 BCE). The Jewish holiday of Hanukkah ("Ded ...

and the Grecian army was in none other than the more easterly ''Beit Skaria''. C.W.M. van de Velde who visited the site between 1851–1852 held the view that this Tell Zakariya and its adjacent Kefr Zakariya are not the same as Josephus' Beit Zacharia, where Judas Maccabeus engaged the invading Grecian army. The matter, however, remains disputed. "As for Azekah," Guérin writes, "it has not yet been found with certainty, this name appearing to have disappeared." Scholars believe that the town's old namesake (Azekah) can be seen in its modern-day corruption, "az-Zakariyeh". In contrast, Conder of the

Palestine Exploration Fund The Palestine Exploration Fund is a British society based in London. It was founded in 1865, shortly after the completion of the Ordnance Survey of Jerusalem by Royal Engineers of the War Department. The Fund is the oldest known organization i ...

had strong reservations about connecting the site ''Tell Zakariya'' with the biblical Azekah. In the mosaic layout of the

Madaba Map The Madaba Map, also known as the Madaba Mosaic Map, is part of a floor mosaic in the early Byzantine church of Saint George in Madaba, Jordan. The mosaic map depicts an area from Lebanon in the north to the Nile Delta in the south, and fro ...

of the 6th century CE (ca. 565 CE), the site is mentioned in conjoined

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

uncials: Το �οθεσίατου Αγίου Ζαχαρίου, Βεθζαχαρ �ου(= hesite of St. Zacharias, Beth Zachar as.

writes that, in his day, Azekah was already called by the Syriac name ''Ḥǝwarta''. Modern Israeli archaeologists have noted that, because of the existence of an adjacent ruin now known as ''

Khirbet Qeiyafa Khirbet Qeiyafa (), also known as Elah Fortress and in Hebrew as Horbat Qayafa (), is the site of an ancient fortress city overlooking the Valley of Elah and dated to the first half of the 10th century BCE. The ruins of the fortress were uncove ...

'', and which is situated opposite Socho, not to mention the site's "unusual size and the nature of the fortifications," that there are good grounds to suggest that the site in question may actually point to the biblical Azekah.

Non-Biblical mention

Azekah, known to have been built on a mountain ridge, is mentioned in two sources outside of the Bible. A text from the

Assyria Assyria (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , ''māt Aššur'') was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization that existed as a city-state from the 21st century BC to the 14th century BC and eventually expanded into an empire from the 14th century BC t ...

n king

describes Azekah and its destruction during his military campaign. :(3) ��Ashur, my lord, encouraged me and against the land of Ju ah I marched. Inthe course of my campaign, the tribute of the kings of Philistia? I received… :(4) ��with the migt of Ashur, my lord, the province of ezekah of Judah like �� :(5) […the city of Azekah, his stronghold, which is between my ��">�� :(5) […the city of Azekah, his stronghold, which is between my [boder and the land of Judah [… :(6) [like the nest of the eagle? ">o">��">�� :(5) […the city of Azekah, his stronghold, which is between my [boder and the land of Judah [… :(6) [like the nest of the eagle? located on a mountain ridge, like pointed iron daggers without number reaching high to heaven [… :(7) [Its walls] were strong and rivaled the highest mountains, to the (mere) sight, as if from the sky [appears its head? … :(8) [by means of beaten (earth) ra]mps, mighty? battering rams brought near, the work of �� with the attack by foot soldiers, ywa riors… :(9) ��">riors… :(9) […they had seen [the approach of my cavlry and they had heard the roar of the mighty troops of the god Ashur and [their">��they had seen [the approach of my cav">��">riors… :(9) […they had seen [the approach of my cavlry and they had heard the roar of the mighty troops of the god Ashur and [theirhe[arts] became afraid [… :(10) [The city Azekah I besieged,] I captured, I carried off its spoil, I destroyed, I devastated, [I burned] with fire… Valley of Elah from Tel Azeka

Azekah is also mentioned in one of the

Lachish letters The Lachish Letters are a series of letters written in carbon ink containing ancient Israelite inscriptions in Ancient Hebrew on clay ostraca. The letters were discovered at the excavations at Lachish (Tell ed-Duweir). The ostraca were discov ...

. Lachish Letter 4 suggests that Azekah was destroyed, as they were no longer visible to the exporter of the letter. Part of the otracon reads: :"And inasmuch as my lord sent to me concerning the matter of Bet Harapid, there is no one there. And as for Semakyahu, Semayahu took him and brought him up to the city. And your servant is not sending him there any ore - but when morning comes round And may (my lord) be apprised that we are watching for the fire signals of Lachish according to all the signs which my lord has given, because we cannot see Azeqah."

Tell Zakariya

Conder and Kitchener, citing Sozomenus (''Rel. Pal.'', p. 753), mention the non-biblical site of ''Caphar Zachariah'' () being in the region of

Eleutheropolis Bayt Jibrin or Beit Jibrin ( lit. 'House of the Powerful') was an Arab village in the Hebron Subdistrict of British Mandatory Palestine, in what is today the State of Israel, which was depopulated during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. It was ...

, and conclude that this would point to the village Zakariya near Tell Zakariya. Theodosius, archdeacon and pilgrim to the Holy Land, produced a Latin map and itinerary of his travels in Palestine, entitled ''

De Situ Terrae Sanctae ''De situ terrae sanctae'' is a short 6th-century report of a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Its author is identified in a 9th-century manuscript (Codex Vaticanus 6018) as a German archdeacon named Theodosius. The work includes a list of places an ...

'' ca. 518–530, in which he wrote: "De Eleutheropoli usque in locum, ubi iacet sanctus Zacharias, milia VI" "From Beit Gubrin, as far as to the place where lies the holy [prophet Zechariah, there are 6 milestones"]. Israeli archaeologist Yoram Tsafrir has identified this "resting place of the holy Zechariah" with the nearby Arab village of the same name,

, north of Beit Gubrin. Tsafrir notes that Theodosius' location corresponds with the "Beth Zechariah" inscribed on the

, and which site is placed alongside of ''Saphitha'' (now Kh. es-Safi). J. Gildemeister reasons that one can ask whether it (Kefar Zakariah) is the same place that appears in distorted forms (e.g. Beit Zachariah) in other writings.

Robinson Robinson may refer to: People and names * Robinson (name) Fictional characters * Robinson Crusoe, the main character, and title of a novel by Daniel Defoe, published in 1719 Geography * Robinson projection, a map projection used since the 19 ...

thought that Zakariyeh, as applied to a village, referred here to the site of the Caphar Zechariæ mentioned by

Sozomen Salamanes Hermias Sozomenos (; ; c. 400 – c. 450 AD), also known as Sozomen, was a Roman lawyer and historian of the Christian Church. Family and home Sozoman was born around 400 in Bethelia, a small town near Gaza, into a wealthy Christia ...

in the region of

. Most scholars point to the other Khirbet Beit Zakariyyah, towards the east (grid 1617.1190), as the burial place of the said Zachariah, having been found there the ruins of a Byzantine church now turned mosque, and which church is thought to be featured in the

Archaeological findings

PEF researcher, C.W. Wilson, concluded in 1899 that ''Tell Zakariya'' was occupied at an early pre-Israelite period, and that it was probably deserted soon after the Roman occupation. Wilson (1899), pp
334–336
/ref> The wall which encircles the old ruin shows signs of having been several times rebuilt. In cut and design, the stones appear to have been of Maccabean construction. PEF surveyors, Conder and Kitchener, described the ruin in their ''

magnum opus A masterpiece, , or ; ; ) is a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or a work of outstanding creativity, skill, profundity, or workmanship. Historically, ...

'', the ''

Survey of Western Palestine The PEF Survey of Palestine was a series of surveys carried out by the Palestine Exploration Fund (PEF) between 1872 and 1877 for the completed Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) and in 1880 for the soon abandoned Survey of Eastern Palestine. The ...

'', saying that they noted on the south-side of the summit an ancient olive-press, among other ruins. Excavations by the English archaeologists Frederick J. Bliss and

R. A. Stewart Macalister Robert Alexander Stewart Macalister (8 July 1870 – 26 April 1950) was an Irish archaeologist. Biography Macalister was born in Dublin, Ireland, the son of Alexander Macalister, then Professor of Zoology, University of Dublin. His father w ...

in the period 1897–1900 at Tel Azekah revealed a fortress, water systems, hideout caves used during

Bar Kokhba revolt The Bar Kokhba revolt (132–136 AD) was a major uprising by the Jews of Judaea (Roman province), Judaea against the Roman Empire, marking the final and most devastating of the Jewish–Roman wars. Led by Simon bar Kokhba, the rebels succeeded ...

and other antiquities, such as

LMLK seal The LMLK seal appears on the handles of several large storage jars from the Kingdom of Judah, where it was first issued during the reign of Hezekiah around 700 BCE. Seals bearing these four Hebrew letters have been discovered primarily on uneart ...

s. The principal areas of excavation were on the summit's southwestern extremity, where were found the foundations of three towers; the southeastern corner of the ''tell'', where the fortress was located and built primarily of hewn stones; and at an experimental pit located in the center of the summit. Azekah was one of the first sites excavated in the Holy Land and was excavated under the

for a period of 17 weeks over the course of three seasons. At the close of their excavation Bliss and Macalister refilled all of their excavation trenches in order to preserve the site. The site is located on the grounds of a

Jewish National Fund The Jewish National Fund (JNF; , ''Keren Kayemet LeYisrael''; previously , ''Ha Fund HaLeumi'') is a non-profit organizationProfessor Alon Tal, The Mitrani Department of Desert Ecology, The Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben Gurion ...

park, Britannia Park. In 2008 and 2010, a survey of the site was conducted by

Oded Lipschits Oded Lipschits (; born May 15, 1963) is an Israeli professor in the Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near East Studies at Tel Aviv University. In 1997 he earned his Ph.D. in Jewish History under the supervision of Nadav Na'aman. He has since ...

, Yuval Gadot, and Shatil Imanuelov, on behalf of

Tel-Aviv University Tel Aviv University (TAU) is a Public university, public research university in Tel Aviv, Israel. With over 30,000 students, it is the largest university in the country. Located in northwest Tel Aviv, the university is the center of teaching and ...

's Institute of Archaeology. The Lautenschläger Azekah Expedition, part of the regional

Elah Valley The Valley of Elah, Ella Valley ("Valley of the terebinth"; from the ), or Wadi es-Sunt (), is a long, shallow valley in the Shephelah area of Israel. It is best-known from the Hebrew Bible incident where David defeated Goliath (1 Samuel 17:2 an ...

Project, commenced in the summer of 2012. It is directed by Prof. Oded Lipschits of the Institute of Archaeology of

Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv University (TAU) is a Public university, public research university in Tel Aviv, Israel. With over 30,000 students, it is the largest university in the country. Located in northwest Tel Aviv, the university is the center of teaching and ...

, together with Dr Yuval Gadot of TAU and with Prof. Manfred Oeming of

Heidelberg University Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg (; ), is a public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Founded in 1386 on instruction of Pope Urban VI, Heidelberg is Germany's oldest unive ...

. and is a consortium of over a dozen universities from Europe, North America, and Australia. In its first season 300 volunteers worked for six weeks and uncovered walls, installations, and many hundreds of artifacts. As part of the Jewish National Fund park, whenever possible structures will be conserved and displayed to the public. In April, 2025, it was announced that a three-year-old Israeli toddler stumbled upon a 3,800 year old Canaanite seal near Tel Azeka.https://www.timesofisrael.com/three-year-old-girl-finds-canaanite-seal-where-bible-says-david-battled-goliath/

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * (from Lipschitz, Tel Azekah 113) * * * * * * * * * * *

External links

, Map 16:
IAAWikimedia commonsThe Lautenschläger Azekah Expedition- Current websiteThe Lautenschläger Azekah Expedition
{{Authority control Archaeological sites in Israel Tells (archaeology) Canaanite cities Ancient Jewish settlements of Judaea Hebrew Bible cities Biblical geography Ancient sites in Israel Valley of Elah Archaeology of Palestine (region) Iron Age sites in Israel