Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

AZEKAH

(Heb. ʿăzēqâ)

A city of the Shephelah of Judah (Josh. 15:35). The five Amorite kings Joshua defeated at Gibeon fled as far as Azekah (Josh. 10:10-11). The Philistines camped between Azekah and Socoh in the prelude to the David-Goliath battle (1 Sam. 17:1), illustrating the strategic importance of the city in the border region between Judah and Philistia. It appears among the places fortified by Rehoboam (2 Chr. 11:9).

Azekah is confidently identified with Tell Zakariya (143123), a triangular, flat-topped mound atop a prominent ridge 117 m. (384 ft.) above the valley of Elah (cf. 1 Sam. 17:2). A cuneiform text attributed to Sennacherib’s 701 b.c.e. invasion of Judah boasts of taking “the city of Azekah, his [Hezekiah’s] stronghold . . . located on a mountain ridge, like pointed iron(?) daggers without number reaching high to heaven.” Despite its apparent destruction by Assyria, Azekah’s strategic importance continued until the end of the Monarchy. During the 587 invasion of Babylon Jeremiah named Azekah and Lachish as the last remaining fortified cities of Judah (Jer. 34:7). In a contemporary ostracon letter, a field commander writes to his superior at Lachish, “we are watching for the signals of Lachish . . . for we cannot see Azekah.”

Judeans returning from exile settled in Azekah (Neh. 11:30), and occupation continued through the Second Temple period. Eusebius (Onom. 18:10) locates Azekah between Eleutheropolis (Beth Guvrin) and Jerusalem. The 6th-century c.e. Madeba Map pictures a settlement Bethzachar and a shrine for “for St. Zechariah” on the Jerusalem-Eleutheropolis road; adjacent to these features appears an unnamed village on a distinct mountain, probably a depiction of Azekah to which the name Tell Zakariya was transferred.

Excavating Tell Zakariya for the Palestine Exploration Fund in 1898-99, Frederick J. Bliss and R. A. S. Macalister discovered a rectangular fortress at the summit and separate defensive towers at the edge of the mound, perhaps originating with Rehoboam and continuing in several phases to the Roman period. One phase contained jar handles impressed with seals of winged scarabs and the word lmlk (“belonging to the king”) known to date to the period of Hezekiah and Sennacherib’s invasion in 701. Various finds suggest the settlement of the mound, with interruptions, from ca. 1500 to the Byzantine period.

Bibliography. E. Stern, “Azekah,” NEAEHL 1:123-24.

Daniel C. Browning, Jr.

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

AZEKAH

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)