Joshua’s Northern Campaign

Chronology of the Kings of Israel and Judah – Part 66

Part 1

The Waters of Merom

In the last article, we saw that there was little concrete evidence for the historicity of Joshua’s Southern Campaign as recounted in Chapter 10 of the _Book of Joshua. In this article we will turn our attention to Joshua’s Northern Campaign, which is related in Chapter 11. Jabin, the King of Hazor, musters a coalition of Canaanite tribes and gives battle at a place called the Waters of Merom:

And it came to pass, when Jabin king of Hazor had heard those things, that he sent to Jobab king of Madon, and to the king of Shimron, and to the king of Achshaph, And to the kings that were on the north of the mountains, and of the plains south of Chinneroth, and in the valley, and in the borders of Dor on the west, And to the Canaanite on the east and on the west, and to the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Jebusite in the mountains, and to the Hivite under Hermon in the land of Mizpeh.

And they went out, they and all their hosts with them, much people, even as the sand that is upon the sea shore in multitude, with horses and chariots very many. And when all these kings were met together, they came and pitched together at the waters of Merom, to fight against Israel.

And the Lord said unto Joshua, Be not afraid because of them: for to morrow about this time will I deliver them up all slain before Israel: thou shalt hough their horses, and burn their chariots with fire.

So Joshua came, and all the people of war with him, against them by the waters of Merom suddenly; and they fell upon them. And the Lord delivered them into the hand of Israel, who smote them, and chased them unto great Zidon, and unto Misrephothmaim, and unto the valley of Mizpeh eastward; and they smote them, until they left them none remaining. And Joshua did unto them as the Lord bade him: he houghed their horses, and burnt their chariots with fire. (Joshua 11:1-9)

Joshua’s Northern Campaign

The toponym Waters of Merom refers to a lake that lay about 20 km north of the Sea of Chinneroth (Sea of Galilee). In the 1950s, in an attempt to control the spread of malaria, it was drained and converted into agricultural land. Some of the wetlands were preserved, however, and flooding of these in the 1990s led to the creation of a new lake. The Egyptians referred to the ancient lake as Samchuna. Josephus called it Sēmechonitis (Σημεχωνίτις), and in the Talmud it is called the Sea of Sumchi. Its modern name is Lake Hula.

Not far from its southwestern shores there is a considerable plain which seems to be the most probable location of the great battle between Joshua and the North-Canaanitish allies ... The only hint as to Joshua’s method of attack is the statement that he came against the enemy suddenly, and fell upon them. This probably indicates a night march and early morning attack as at Gibeon (Josh. x. 9, 10). (Singer 501)

Strong’s 4791, 4792 (Strong 72)

Waters of Merom may specify a high plain, suitable for chariot warfare, because “merom” can mean “elevated.” (Berlin & Brettler 483)

Locations

Joshua 11:1-9 mentions several places besides the Waters of Merom. Not all of these have been identified:

Joshua 11Candidates
HazorTel el-Qedah (Tel Hazor)
MadonMeiron
ShimronTell Samunia
AchshaphTell Keisan, Tell Regev, Tell Harbaj, Tell an-Nakhl
DorKhirbet el-Burj
HermonMount Hermon
MizpehMetullah
ZidonSidon
MisrephothmaimRas el-Musheirifeh, Khirbat al-Mushayrifa, ’Ain Mesherfi, River Litani

The last-named place has been emended in some editions of the Old Testament to Misrephoth. The final element -maim can be vocalized as mi-yam, meaning on the sea, or in the west, which is then balanced by the Valley of Mizpeh in the east in the next phrase. (Berlin & Brettler 484)

Archaeology

After the battle, Joshua turns his attention to Hazor and the other cities:

And Joshua at that time turned back, and took Hazor, and smote the king thereof with the sword: for Hazor beforetime was the head of all those kingdoms. And they smote all the souls that were therein with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying them: there was not any left to breathe: and he burnt Hazor with fire. And all the cities of those kings, and all the kings of them, did Joshua take, and smote them with the edge of the sword, and he utterly destroyed them, as Moses the servant of the Lord commanded. But as for the cities that stood still in their strength, Israel burned none of them, save Hazor only; that did Joshua burn. And all the spoil of these cities, and the cattle, the children of Israel took for a prey unto themselves; but every man they smote with the edge of the sword, until they had destroyed them, neither left they any to breathe. As the Lord commanded Moses his servant, so did Moses command Joshua, and so did Joshua; he left nothing undone of all that the Lord commanded Moses. (Joshua 11:10-15)

Tel Hazor (Tel el-Qedah)

What does the archaeology tell us? Was Hazor burnt down at the beginning of the Late Bronze Age, where I place Joshua’s campaign? Were the other cities sacked at the same time?

Hazor

In an earlier article, we looked at the archaeological evidence from Hazor to see whether or not it supported the account in the Book of Joshua and the Short Chronology, which places Joshua’s Conquest of Canaan at the beginning of the Late Bronze Age. Here is a brief recapitulation:

Hazor is another site whose archaeology supports the Short Chronology’s placement of Joshua’s Conquest at the end of the Middle Bronze Age or the beginning of the Late Bronze Age. The ruins of this ancient city are confidently identified with Tel Hazor, or Tel el-Qedah, which lies about 10 km north of the Sea of Galilee in northern Israel. The settlement comprised an Upper and a Lower City, and has been extensively excavated by John Garstang (1926, 1928), Yigael Yadin (1955-58) and Amnon Ben-Tor (since 1990).

Stratum 3 of the Lower City, which is dated to the end of the Middle Bronze Age, was destroyed by fire. The Upper City also preserves evidence of destruction at the end of the Middle Bronze Age:

The Late Bronze Age strata (upper city: Strata XV–XIII; lower city: Strata 2–1A) were separated from the preceding Middle Bronze Age city by a substantial destruction layer (Stratum post-XVI). (Jewish Virtual Library)

During the Middle Bronze Age (ca. 1900-1550 B.C.E.) Hazor became one of the great Canaanite cities, comparable in size to important centers of the day including Qatna, Ebla, and Mari. MB IIB (1800/1750-1650 B.C.E.) shows a substantial buildup, with massive fortifications in the upper and lower city. Also, its king, Ibni-Addu (meaning “Son of Hadad,” the Canaanite storm god and perhaps the patron deity of Hazor), played an important role in the politics of the Fertile Crescent. Inhabited for the first time, the lower city increased the settled area by tenfold. While Garstang interpreted the lower city as an enclosed infantry or chariot camp, Yadin’s excavations demonstrated that it was a proper city with temples, public buildings and domestic structures. The foundation of the lower city at Hazor around 1800 B.C.E. was one of the most important phenomena of this period. Hazor is a superb example of grand-scale town planning. Its total area (Upper and Lower City), almost two hundred acres [~81 hectares], was unrivaled in the history of Palestine, and it was to remain the largest city in the country until the thirteenth century B.C.E. Four gates of “Syrian” direct axis style allowed access to the city. In MB IIC (1660-1550) strata were found a wealth of buildings, most noteworthy those of a cultic nature. Hazor, along with many other cities in Palestine, was destroyed in a fire ending its MB occupation (ca. 1550). (Thompson 27-28)

The royal names Ibni and Ibni-Addu were found on cuneiform tablets dating to the Middle Bronze Age which were recovered respectively from Hazor and Mari. They recall that of Jabin [יבין] in the Book of Joshua. Could the latter be a corruption of the former (Finkelstein 81)?

Kitchen, who places Joshua’s Conquest in the late 13th century (conventional chronology), also finds support for his thesis in the archaeology of Hazor:

In the second millennium Hazor consisted of an upper citadel (on a high mound) which dominated a large “lower city” on its north side—a vast site, certainly then “head of all [Canaan’s] kingdoms.” Both areas were destroyed along with a massive conflagration in the thirteenth century, probably toward its end (citadel, stratum XIII; lower city, stratum Ia). Insofar as the results of Yadin’s work are confirmed by the new excavations under Ben-Tor, then it will seem very probable (as it did to Yadin, long ago) that the massive destruction of greater Hazor was that wrought by Joshua. (Kitchen 185)

Cuneiform Tablets from Tel Hazor

In other words, there is evidence for two major conflagrations at Hazor: one at the end of the Middle Bronze Age, and one towards the end of the Late Bronze Age. In the conventional chronology, the former is dated to around 1550 BCE and the latter to the 13th century. Kitchen seizes upon the latter as hard archaeological evidence for Joshua’s campaign. In the Short Chronology, however, it is the former which supports the Bible. Of course, I reject the absolute dates which conventional archaeologists assign to the divisions of the Bronze Age. In the Short Chronology, the Middle Bronze Age ended around 763 BCE and Joshua’s Campaign took place around 760 BCE.

After sacking Hazor and burning it to the ground, Joshua turned his attention to Jabin’s northern allies:

And all the cities of those kings, and all the kings of them, did Joshua take, and smote them with the edge of the sword, and he utterly destroyed them, as Moses the servant of the Lord commanded. But as for the cities that stood still in their strength, Israel burned none of them, save Hazor only; that did Joshua burn.

Joshua 11 mentions by name four specific cities in addition to Hazor:

Joshua 11Candidates
HazorTel el-Qedah (Tel Hazor)
MadonMeiron
ShimronTell Samunia
AchshaphTell Keisan (Tel Kisson), Tell Regev (Tell al-Harbaj, Khirbat Harbaj), Tell an-Nakhl (Tel Nahal)
DorKhirbet el-Burj

What does archaeology have to say about these cities?

Madon

Madon is of uncertain identity. Even the name of this city is doubtful:

Madon (Orr 1961)

Unfortunately, the site of Meiron has never been extensively excavated. Soundings indicate that the site has been occupied since the Early Bronze Age, but only Iron Age strata have been properly excavated. The site is identified with the Canaanite city of Merom, which is mentioned in Egyptian and Neo-Assyrian sources. Presumably, the nearby Waters of Merom were named for this city. Without proper excavation of the Bronze Age strata, it is impossible to say whether it supports or contradicts the historicity of Joshua’s Northern Campaign.

Shimron

Shimron is identified with Tell Samunia (Tel Shimron), which lies about 48 km southwest of Hazor. In 2004 and 2008, archaeological excavations were conducted at the site by Nurit Feig on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA):

During November–December 2004, a salvage excavation was conducted at Tel Shimron ... Tel Shimron is located in the Yizra’el Valley [Jezreel Valley], at the foot of the southwestern end of the Nazareth Range ... Excavations were conducted on and around the tell in the past ... The tell has traditionally been identified with the biblical site of Shimron ... Four squares ... were opened ... Square D: A layer of small stones (0.8 × 2.0 m) whose nature is unclear was exposed in the middle of the square, which was not entirely excavated due to danger of collapse. Pottery vessels from the Chalcolithic period, the Early and Middle Bronze Ages and the Roman period were found in the fill overlying the stones.(Feig)

The site, therefore, has been occupied since the Chalcolithic, but that is all we can conclude from Feig’s initial excavations. In 2008, Feig returned to the site and carried out another salvage excavation. Once again, little was learned about the history of settlement at the start of the Late Bronze Age:

During January 2008, a salvage excavation was conducted at Tel Shimron ... The excavation area (c. 30 sq m) was along the southwestern fringe of the tell and remains of walls and habitation levels were exposed in five strata ... Stratum V: Two sub-layers (Vb, Va) were discerned. Layer Vb (Loci 112, 115 116) consisted of alluvium, in which small stream pebbles and a large quantity of potsherds were mixed. The potsherds mostly comprised jars, thumb-indented ledge handles and fragments of red-slipped bowls from Early Bronze I and a few pottery fragments from the Intermediate Bronze Age [Early Bronze Age IV or Middle Bronze Age I]. This alluvium soil was apparent throughout the excavation area (thickness 0.2–0.3 m) and it seems that it slid from the top of the tell down to its foot. Layer Va (Loci 109, 114) comprised heavy brown soil (thickness 7 cm) and lying directly above it was another layer of alluvium mixed with dense stream pebbles, some of which were large, and potsherds from EB I, the Intermediate Bronze Age, Iron II and the Persian period. (Feig)

Tel Shimron

In 2010-2011, Yardenna Alexandre conducted excavations at Tel Shimron West, a site next to Tel Shimron itself:

In December 2010 and January 2011, a trial excavation was carried out near Nahalal Junction, within the boundaries of Tel Shimron West ... The site is located 500 m southwest of Tel Shimron ... The Middle Bronze Age rural site of Tel Shimron West, which was situated near the intersection of Nahal Shimron and the Jezreel Valley, must have been a satellite settlement of the adjacent Tel Shimron, the large tell that controlled the major overland trade route from the Mediterranean coast to the Jezreel Valley ... The extensive archaeological survey that was carried out in the 1970s recorded occupational remains at Tel Shimron from the Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods, from the Early, Intermediate, Middle and Late Bronze Ages, as well as from the Iron Age, and from the Persian, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Early Islamic and Crusader periods. A small-scale excavation documented the massive fortifications of the Middle Bronze Age city ... and salvage excavations over the past fifteen years have revealed remains from several early periods around the western and southern periphery of the tell, including small stone-paved areas from the Early Bronze Age and burial areas from the Middle Bronze Age.

Once again, this reveals nothing of the transition from the Middle Bronze Age to the Late Bronze Age. There was continuity of settlement, and the site was large and fortified, which would have made it an obvious military target. But this neither confirms nor contradicts the Biblical account of Joshua’s Northern Campaign.

Achshaph

Achshaph is another Canaanite city of uncertain identity. Several candidates have been proposed. All of them lie in the vicinity of the coastal port of Acre (Akko):

  • Tell Keisan (Tel Kisson) William Fox Albright favoured this site, which lies about 8 km southeast of the coastal port of Acre or 42 km southwest of Hazor (Albright 33). It is now thought that this settlement was part of the small polity of Akko, so it is unlikely to have been the Biblical Achshaph (Lehmann 85).

  • Tel Regev This site lies about 14 km south-southwest of Tell Keisan. It is also known as Tell al-Harbaj and Khirbat Harbaj.

  • Tell an-Nakhl (Tel Nahal) This tell lies about 5 km north-northwest of Tel Regev, close to Haifa International Airport.

  • Kesaf or Yasif, a ruined village about 10 km east-northeast of Acre.

Acre and Its Environs

Late Bronze Age texts mention the independent city of Achshaph (Akshapa) in the vicinity of Akko ... This city is also mentioned in the Bible and is situated within the area of the tribe of Asher. According to the papyrus Anastasi I, Achshaph seems to have been immediately south of Akko. Since both Tell Keisan and Tell Kurdana (Aphek) were apparently part of the city-state of Akko it is difficult to identify them with Achshaph. Benjamin Mazar and Yohanan Aharoni located Achshaph at Tell Harbaj ... Lipinski looks for this site in the immediate hinterland of Tell Abu Hawam, at Tell an-Nakhl ... or in its vicinity ... Both Tell Harbaj (25 dunam) and Tell an-Nakhl (14 dunam) seem to be rather small even for a tiny Late Bronze Age city-state, but there are no other larger tells in the southern Akko plain. However, if one assumes with Mazar, Aharoni, Bunimovitz and Lipinski that Achshaph was at the southern edge of the Akko plain, then this state encompassed only a very small territory ...

Apparently, there were two harbours at both edges of the Akko bay, Akko and Tell Abu Hawam. These harbours are specialized sites in the settlement hierarchy of the Akko plain ... Since Tell Abu Hawam is situated at the extreme southern edge of the plain, it was probably already outside of the territory of Akko and may have been the harbour of the city state of Achshaph. (Lehmann 85 ... 86)

With so much uncertainty concerning the identity and precise location of Achshaph, no conclusions can be safely drawn that bear upon the veracity of Joshua 11.

Dor

According to Joshua 11, Jabin’s allies included kings that were ... in the borders of Dor on the west. The Canaanite city of Dor is now identified with Khirbet el-Burj, an archaeological site on Israel’s Mediterranean coast, about 25 km south of Haifa. It is also known as Tel Dor. This site was first excavated by John Garstang in the 1920s. Current excavations are being undertaken by Ilan Sharon of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Assaf Yasur-Landau of the University of Haifa, and S Rebecca Martin of Boston University.

Although Dor was founded in the Middle Bronze Age IIA, the periods covered by the excavations only run from the Late Bronze Age into the post-Roman era. Nothing has been discovered that bears upon the transition from the Middle to the Late Bronze Age.

Tel Dor

Judges 4

Another account of the defeat of a King of Hazor called Jabin is narrated in Judges 4, during the Judgeship of Deborah. The city, however, is not burned in that account. It is possible that this is the same King Jabin and that one of these stories is a doublet of the other. Alternatively, this may be a reference to the burning of the city towards the end of the Late Bronze Age, which Kenneth Kitchen attributed to Joshua.

In this chapter of the Book of Judges, we are told that the Israelites were subjugated by Jabin king of Canaan, that reigned in Hazor. Chronologically, this occurs more than 120 years after the death of Joshua (Guggenheimer 120-125).

Conclusions

The archaeology of Hazor provides support for our thesis that Joshua’s Northern Campaign was a genuine historical event and took place at the beginning of the Late Bronze Age. Similar evidence from other cities in Northern Canaan is currently lacking, but there is also no archaeological evidence from these sites that refutes our thesis.

The House of Pillars, Tel Hazor

And that’s a good place to stop.


References

  • William Fox Albright, The Land of Damascus between 1850 and 1750 B. C., Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, Number 83, Pages 30-36, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago (1941)
  • Yardenna Alexandre, Tel Shimron West, Hadashot Arkheologiyot: Excavations and Surveys in Israel, Volume 127, Israel Antiquities Authority, Online (2015)
  • Adele Berlin & Marc Zvi Brettler (editors), The Jewish Study Bible, Jewish Publication Society TANAKH Translation, Oxford University Press, Oxford (1999)
  • Israel Finkelstein, Neil Asher Silberman, The Bible Unearthed, Touchstone, Simon and Schuster, New York (2002)
  • Nurit Feig, Tel Shimron, Hadashot Arkheologiyot: Excavations and Surveys in Israel, Volume 119, Israel Antiquities Authority, Online (2007)
  • Nurit Feig, Tel Shimron, Hadashot Arkheologiyot: Excavations and Surveys in Israel, Volume 121, Israel Antiquities Authority, Online (2009)
  • Ayelet Gilboa, Ilan Sharon, Elisabetta Boaretto, Tel Dor and the Chronology of Phoenician ‛Pre-Colonisation’ Stages, Claudia Sagona (editor), Beyond the Homeland: Markers in Phoenician Chronology, Pages 113-204, Peeters, Louvain (2008)
  • Heinrich W Guggenheimer, Seder Olam: The Rabbinic View of Biblical Chronology, Rowman & Littlefield publishers, Inc, Lanham, MD (2005)
  • Kenneth A Kitchen, On the Reliability of the Old Testament, William B Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids MI (2003)
  • Gunnar Lehmann, Phoenicians in Western Galilee, in Amihai Mazar (editor), studies in the Archaeology of the iron Age in Israel and Jordan, Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, Supplement Series 331, Sheffield Academic Press, Sheffield (2001)
  • James Orr (General Editor), The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Volume 3, The Howard-Severance Company, Chicago (1915)
  • Isidore Singer (managing editor), The Jewish Encyclopedia, Volume 8, Funk & Wagnalls Co, New York (1904)
  • James Strong, Hebrew and Chaldee Dictionary, in The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Eaton & Mains, New York (1890)
  • John J T Thompson, Biblical Archaeology: Past, Present, and Future, Honors Theses 158, Ouachita Baptist University, Arkadelphia, AR (2003)
  • James M Weinstein, The Egyptian Empire in Palestine: A Reassessment, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, Volume 241, Pages 1–28, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago (1981)
  • Yigael Yadin, Hazor, Schweich Lectures, Oxford University Press, Oxford (1972)

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