Archaeology

Hazor and Fire

What has been discovered confirms in a striking way what the Bible has to say about the powerful role that Hazor played in Canaan at the time of the Israelite conquest. Hazor was in fact not only one of the largest settlements of the country but also one of the strongest fortresses. In the 13th century B.C. it was destroyed, as the Book of Joshua records. A layer of burnt rubble indicates a great conflagration about that time. Many scholars do not hesitate to attribute this burnt rubble to Joshua and his hosts.
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Hazor and Fire

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There is no book like the majority-text Bible. The answers to all of life’s questions are found in it. It is correct in its every assertion. It is a lamp to all those who honor it. It holds the literal Words of the living God, who breathed up our nostrils the breath of life, causing us to become living souls. In the past, we have been accused of worshiping the Bible, and from that accusation we do not shrink. The Bible is not inert printer’s ink and paper. It is Spirit and life. The Word of God is God. John 1:1:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

The Word of God is alive. Let it be alive in you. If you haven’t made a decision to serve the Lord Jesus Christ, do it today and today will be the best day of your life, and tomorrow will be better (Romans 8:28, Proverbs 4:18). Click onto "Further With Jesus" on this website. NOW FOR TODAY’S SUBJECT.

GOD SAID, Joshua 11:10-11:

10 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.

11 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.

MAN SAID: The Bible is hand-me-down stories written by mere men, of accounts that never really happened or are hugely exaggerated. It is not a reliable historic account. And, by the way, there is no God.

Now THE RECORD. The Bible’s detractors are simply in a state of denial and for a very specific reason. They’ve rejected the Bible’s record of Noah’s Ark, which is buttressed with literal mountains of scientific and academic support from the fields of geology, sociology, paleontology, mathematics, archaeology, theology, and logic. The detractors challenged the miraculous Genesis account of the Tower of Babel in spite of its historic record. They challenged the Exodus account of Israel’s sojourning in Egypt and the parting of the Red Sea. They discredited the book of Joshua’s account of the great general Joshua who fit the battle of Jericho where the walls came tumbling down. The famed archaeologist Garstang, with a team of renowned professionals, stood up and certified the Jericho account, yet the anti-Christs rejected it still. They rejoiced when another archaeologist discredited Garstang’s research. The critics touted Garstang’s purported demise with glee, but much to their consternation, the challenging archaeologists later reversed their critical position and confirmed Garstang’s discovery. Critics challenged the Bible’s record of King Hezekiah and the famed aquaduct he built, which has been fully accredited.  In spite of the evidence, many still refuse to endorse the Scriptures.

The reason that the Bible’s detractors are so vociferous—so incensed against God and His Word—has nothing to do with truth but everything to do with their sin. Jesus Christ declares in John 3:19-21:

19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.

21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.

Some time after the conquest of the impregnable city of Jericho by Joshua and the Israelites, Joshua, by God’s command, attacked the great economic and military power of King Jabin’s city, Hazor. That’s what God said. According to the magazine Archaeology, "Critics argue that the Biblical account is a mythic saga written centuries after the events it describes." [End of quote] Let’s see how the critics have fared.

G. Frederick Owen describes Hazor prior to its destruction by Joshua in the "Archaeological Supplement" to the Thompson Chain-Reference Bible. It reads:

HAZOR, the home of Jabin "King of Hazor," was located four miles southwest of the "waters of Merom," on a magnificent mound of some 200 acres. Situated at the crossroads of two international trade routes, its position was commanding enough for it to be styled "the head of all" the northern kingdoms of the Canaanites (Josh. 11:10). Joshua destroyed the place, but it was rebuilt by Solomon, along with Megiddo and Gezer (I Kings 9:15). Tiglath-pileser III of Assyria destroyed it in 733 B.C.

Garstang carried on preliminary examinations of the mound (now called Tell-el-Qedah) in 1928, and concluded that Hazor was destroyed by Joshua about 1400 B.C., but his examinations were too brief to be considered conclusive.

In 1955, Professor Yigael Yadin began excavations of Hazor under the sponsorship of James A. de Rothschild. These excavations have been carried on for many years by as many as 200 laborers, directed by Dr. Yadin and his staff of forty-five archaeologists, architects, photographers, draftsmen, and students of archaeology.

The site comprises two distinct areas. The citadel is 120 feet high and covers 25 acres, while at its foot on the north lies a large rectangular plateau comprising about 175 acres which at times was used as a "camp area," and at other times as a residential area. The entire city was fortified by great walls and wide "beaten-earth" ramparts, strong enough to give confidence to any who may have held the place. [End of quote]

The first mention of Hazor in secular history is cited by archaeologist and professor Yigael Yadin in his book, Hazor—The Rediscovery of a Great Citadel of the Bible. He writes:

The first mention of Hazor in any historical document is contained in the so-called Egyptian Execration Texts. In the first half of the second millennium B.C., the Egyptians practiced a strange magical rite in which they cursed their actual or potential enemies. Two sets of testimonies of this practice are preserved. In the first, the names of Egypt’s enemies in the west, south and east (including those in Canaan) were written on pottery vessels that were then broken, in the belief that this act, performed in ceremony, might bring evil upon the enemy. This set of Execration Texts is most probably from the period of the 12th Dynasty, about the beginning of the eighteenth century B.C. From these vessels we learn that there were as yet no fortified cities proper to Canaan.

It is in the second group of these Execration Texts that Hazor is mentioned for the first time, among other potential enemies of Egypt in Canaan.

Researcher and author of The Bible As History, Werner Keller, writes this concerning Hazor:

What has been discovered confirms in a striking way what the Bible has to say about the powerful role that Hazor played in Canaan at the time of the Israelite conquest. Hazor was in fact not only one of the largest settlements of the country but also one of the strongest fortresses. In the 13th century B.C. it was destroyed, as the Book of Joshua records. A layer of burnt rubble indicates a great conflagration about that time. Many scholars do not hesitate to attribute this burnt rubble to Joshua and his hosts.  [End of quote]

Again, Professor Yadin writes:

The striking similarity between the size of Hazor as revealed by the excavations and its description in the Bible as "the head of all those kingdoms," plus the insistence of the Biblical narrator that Hazor—and only Hazor—had been destroyed by Joshua and burned, leave little doubt, it seems, that we actually found the Canaanite city of Jabin that was destroyed by Joshua. In that case, the excavations of Hazor provided, for the first time, decisive archaeological data for fixing both Joshua’s dates and, indirectly, the date of the Exodus from Egypt.  [End of quote]

To reiterate what was just mentioned, Yadin again writes:

This evidence is substantiated in all the other areas of the lower city and is, indeed, among the most important and decisive archaeological testimonies ever uncovered in excavations concerning the date of the conquest of Joshua and, indirectly, of the Exodus itself.

The Bible is a reliable history book. Dr. Yadin said, concerning the excavations at Hazor, "Holding the Bible in one hand and a spade in the other, seemed to be the most successful method of discovering the relics of that biblical city."

God’s Word is always true. It is a sure foundation. Remember, God is never wrong and God never loses. Seek Him while He may be found.

GOD SAID, Joshua 11:10-11:

10 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.

11 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.

MAN SAID: The Bible is hand-me-down stories from mere men with accounts that never really happened or are hugely exaggerated. It’s not a reliable historic account. And, by the way, there is no God.

Now you have THE RECORD.




References:

King James Bible

www.archaeology.org

Keller, W., The Bible As History, William Morrow & Company, Inc., 1981

Yadin, Y., Hazor—The Rediscovery of a Great Citadel of the Bible

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