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Hazor - location profile

Location and Setting

Hazor was located ten miles northwest of the Sea of Galilee, about five miles southwest of Lake Huleh (now drained) and approximately fifteen miles southwest of Dan. The site includes an upper city that extends over thirty acres and a lower city on the north side of the tell that covers about 175 acres. The upper city rises 120 feet above the surrounding plain and the lower city about sixty feet. At its peak, Hazor was home to some forty thousand people.
Hazor was located at a strategic point on the International trade route. The topography of the land allowed the residents a full view to the north, northeast and the southwest. With the high hills of Upper Galilee behind it on the west and the swampy valley before it on the east, travelers and armies were forced to pass through the narrow plain below Hazor. Whoever controlled Hazor controlled entrance into Galilee and the land of Israel from the north.
Hazor was located in one of the most fertile and productive agricultural regions in Israel. An abundance of water supported crops of grain, fruits, and grazing lands for sheep.
First settled in the mid-eighteenth century B.C., twenty layers of subsequent cities have been uncovered in the tell. Today, the Israeli army still considers Hazor a strategic location.

Historical and Biblical Significance

Archaeological remains at the site of Hazor indicate that it was the leading Canaanite city in the northern area of Galilee during most of the Middle Bronze and Late Bronze periods. The biblical record reflects this fact. Joshua took Hazor and killed its king "for Hazor was formerly the head of all those kingdoms" (Josh 11:10). After the Conquest, the city was allotted to the tribe of Naphtali (Josh 19:36).
King Solomon rebuilt and fortified the city as witnessed by the "Solomonic gate" still visible there (1 Kgs 9:15-17). Hazor was probably destroyed by Ben-hadad I of Syria in 885 B.C. (1 Kgs 15:20).
The city was demolished five more times before the Assyrian, Tiglath Pileser III, destroyed the last major settlement at Hazor in 732 B.C. (2 Kgs 15:29).

Coker, W.B. "Hazor" The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible. Ed. Merrill C. Tenney. 5 vols. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1976.
DeVries, LaMoine F. Cities of the Biblical World. Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, 1997.