[Author’s note: This map and article assume that Ai was located at Khirbet al-Maqatir and Bethel was located at al-Bira. It is beyond the scope of this article to present all the convincing reasons for these assumptions, but they are well summarized in the following articles: “Traditional Site of Bethel Questioned,”“Location of Biblical Bethel and Ai Reconsidered,” and “The Khirbet el-Maqatir Excavations.” The expected locations for Roman mile markers are also included on this map, which confirm that al-Bira is located precisely at the twelfth mile marker from Jerusalem, as Eusebius and Jerome both asserted. All other maps in this Atlas have been recently updated to use these same locations for Ai and Bethel.
Soon after the Israelites entered the Promised Land and captured the city of Jericho, they sent a force of only three thousand men to capture the much smaller fortified town of Ai (Joshua 7). They suffered defeat, however, and the Lord revealed to them that this happened because a man named Achan had taken some of the devoted items from Jericho. So Joshua took Achan and his family to the Valley of Achor and executed them there (see Israel Enters the Promised Land map). Later the Lord told Joshua to attack Ai again, because this time he was going to give them the town. It appears that Ai, which had a direct line of sight to the more powerful city of Jerusalem to the south, must have served as a sort of early warning outpost for the larger city. Thus, capturing Ai was critical to staging an effective battle campaign throughout southern Canaan. So Joshua advanced with thirty thousand troops during the night and camped north of the city, and he positioned a force of five thousand men in ambush between Bethel and Ai, just to the west of Ai. The men in ambush were also just east of the mountain where Abraham had pitched his tent centuries earlier (Genesis 12:8). Joshua himself spent the night in the valley between Ai and the main Israelite camp. Early the next morning, the king of Ai led all the inhabitants of the town in an attack on the main camp of the Israelites, who feigned retreat into the wilderness. After the Israelite army had drawn the people of Ai away from the town, the Israelites hiding in ambush rose up and captured Ai. They set the town on fire, sending a signal to the the main army of Israelites to turn back upon the forces of Ai. The Israelites completely destroyed the people of Ai and reduced the town to a burning heap of ruins.
Throughout Bible times, the island city of Tyre was renowned for its extensive and prosperous international trade. Located immediately northwest of Galilee, Tyre was one of the most important cities of Phoenicia (see “Phoenicia and Tyre” map) and had ready access to the Mediterranean Sea as well as to the land routes leading to Egypt, Anatolia, and Mesopotamia. The city was established before the Great Pyramids of Egypt and no doubt took part in the Phoenician colonization of distant lands throughout the Mediterranean Sea, including Spain, Sardinia, and Carthage. Many of these colonies continued to trade with Tyre even after they established their independence from the Phoenicians. Tyre’s extensive trade led to immense wealth and international influence, but according to the prophet Ezekiel, this also led the city to be filled with arrogance and pride. Ezekiel 27 mentions all the locations shown on this map as providing goods to Tyre, but Ezekiel artistically foretells of Tyre’s coming destruction by portraying it as a heavily laden merchant ship that suffers a disastrous wreck after being caught in a storm on the high seas.
While the location of Mount Sinai is arguably the most significant unresolved debate remaining in Bible geography, it is this author’s estimation that the borders of Edom and Seir (also called “Mount Seir” and “the highlands of Seir”) have actually led to a greater amount of confusion regarding where related events took place. This confusion stems primarily from a key misunderstanding widely held about Edom and Seir: that Seir was located either solely or primarily on the eastern side of the Arabah (the low valley dividing virtually all of Israel from the northern end of the Jordan River to the city of Elath on the Red Sea). But this author is convinced that, prior to the later Old Testament, all biblical references to Seir regard it as a sub-region within the greater area of Edom, and it was located on the western side of the Arabah. To be clear, the biblical accounts consistently affirm that the nation of Edom (the descendants of Esau) occupied the eastern side of the Arabah and even had their own rulers before the Israelites had kings (Genesis 36), as shown on this map. But this area is not typically what is intended when the biblical writers use the term Seir. (A nearly exhaustive list of references to Seir as a geographical term includes: Genesis 14:6; 32-33; 36; Numbers 24:18; Deuteronomy 1:2, 44; 2:1-12, 22-29; 33:2; Joshua 11:17; 12:7; 24:4; Judges 5:4; 1 Chronicles 1:38; 4:42; 2 Chronicles 20:10-23; 25:11-14; Isaiah 21:11; Ezekiel 35:2-15.) Also, it should be noted that the assumption that Seir was located east of the Arabah is at least as old as the writings of Josephus (Ant., IV, iv, 7) immediately after the New Testament, for he seems to assume this. Yet, Josephus’s overall reliability regarding the location of the events of the wilderness wanderings (and thus Seir) is called into question by his misidentification of Mount Hor with Jebel Nebi Harun (see “The Israelites’ Journeys in the Wilderness” map), so it is very possible he was also mistaken about Seir. Similarly, though it is commonly concluded that the term Seir can be found in the name ash-Sharat, it should be noted that this Arabic term for the eastern mountains of Edom was likely applied to the region several hundred years after the close of the Old Testament era and the time of Josephus, so it is possible that the term Seir had long since shifted to the eastern mountains by this time. Also, while archeological data confirms that eastern Edom was populated with a settled civilization before western Edom, this data likely would not accurately reflect habitation by semi-nomadic peoples such as Esau and his earlier descendants, whose settlements would have been largely temporary and unlikely to be recovered. In terms of biblical evidence, however, several verses support and even seem to require that Seir be located on the western side of the Arabah (Deuteronomy 2:1; Joshua 12:7; 1 Chronicles 4:42-43; see also Joshua 15:1) and also that Seir was only a sub-region within the larger Edomite nation (Ezekiel 35:15). And while some verses seem ambiguous regarding the location of Seir, none of them offer compelling testimony that it should be located east of the Arabah. A few passages (for example, 2 Chronicles 25; Ezekiel 35 [though see v. 15]) seem at times to use the term Seir to refer to all of Edom, but they never use it to refer only to eastern Edom. Instead, they appear to use the term in a similar way that the biblical writers sometimes symbolically use the term Ephraim to refer to all the northern Israelite tribes (Isaiah 7-11; Jeremiah 31; Hosea 5-14; Zechariah 9-10), though it was widely understood that Ephraim only occupied a specific portion of tribal territory within the land of Israel. If the borders of Seir, however, are relocated west of the Arabah, as shown here at the time of Joshua’s allotment of Canaan, several related stories in the Bible make better sense. For example, the journeys of Jacob and Esau as they meet each other and part once again make the best sense if Esau was arriving from a location on the west side of the Jordan River (Genesis 32-33; also see “Jacob Returns to Canaan” and “Jacob Travels to Southern Canaan” maps). Likewise it is easiest to envision the Israelites skirting the land of Seir after turning back from Kadesh (Deuteronomy 2:1; see “The Israelites’ Journeys in the Wilderness” map) if Seir was located west of the Arabah. Joshua’s description of Judah’s southern border also makes the most sense if Seir (and thus Edom) was located west of the Arabah (Joshua 15:1). In the time of Hezekiah, a western location for Seir makes it easiest to envision a company of 500 Simeonites exterminating a remnant of Amalekites there and settling in their place (1 Chronicles 4:42-43; see “Hezekiah Strengthens Judah” map). Finally, the prophet Ezekiel cursed the Edomites for encroaching far north of Judah’s southern border after the Babylonians ravaged the land (Ezekiel 35), and this is easiest to envision if the Edomites already occupied land immediately south of Judah. And by way of extrapolation, if it is to be assumed that the Horites, who formerly inhabited Seir (Deuteronomy 2:12), took their name from Mount Hor or that Mount Hor was named after them, then it is likely that this peak where Aaron died was located somewhere within the region of Seir as it is shown here (see “The Israelites’ Journeys in the Wilderness” map).
Throughout his reign, Hezekiah strengthened Judah by restoring proper worship of the Lord and preparing the nation for revolt against Assyria. Though the Bible does not clearly say, both of these aspects of Hezekiah’s reign may have been borne out of a desire to undo the detrimental choices of his father, Ahaz, who had promoted idolatry through Judah (2 Chronicles 28:1-4) and made Judah a vassal to the king of Assyria in exchange for help against Israel and Aram (2 Kings 16-17; 2 Chronicles 28; Isaiah 7-8; see also “The Final Days of the Northern Kingdom of Israel” map). Later, when Hezekiah was a teenager, he witnessed Assyria’s grueling three year siege to capture Samaria (2 Kings 17:1-6; 18:9-12), perhaps cementing his resolve to throw off Judah’s yolk of servitude to Assyria (2 Kings 18:7). Whatever the reasons for his actions as king, Hezekiah spent considerable resources promoting the worship of the Lord and preparing for the inevitable Assyrian attack that would follow Judah’s refusal to submit to Assyria any longer. Hezekiah began by directing the priests and Levites to consecrate themselves and restore ritual purity to the Temple and all its furnishings (2 Chronicles 29). He sent word throughout all Israel and Judah to come and celebrate Passover together once again in Jerusalem (2 Chronicles 30). Though only a few from Israel accepted Hezekiah’s invitation, the Passover was a time of great celebration and worship for all who did come from Israel and Judah. After this, the worshipers went throughout Israel and Judah and destroyed the pagan worship centers (2 Kings 18:4; 2 Chronicles 31:1). Hezekiah also conducted a series of actions to strengthen Judah against the coming Assyrian attack. On the west he attacked the Philistines as far as Gaza (2 Kings 18:8). Part of this effort may have included a Simeonite attack on some Meunites in the valley of Gerar (as in the Septuagint; the Hebrew reading Gedor is likely due to a misreading of the letter r as the similarly shaped letter d), which is recounted in 1 Chronicles 4:39-41. Elsewhere in Scripture the Meunites appear to have lived in the region of Seir (2 Chronicles 20), south of Judah, but a remnant of them may have fled toward Gerar during Uzziah’s time when he attacked them and likely took some of them captive to serve at the Temple of the Lord in Jerusalem (Ezra 2:50; Nehemiah 7:52; also see “Resurgence of Israel and Judah” map). Other Simeonites attacked a remnant of Amalekites living in Seir, thus providing increased protection on Judah’s southern border (1 Chronicles 4:39-43). Hezekiah also fortified Jerusalem and redirected various sources of water away from enemies who might lay siege to the city (2 Chronicles 32:1-8). As part of these preparations Hezekiah commissioned the hewing of a tunnel that channeled water from the Gihon spring (probably also called the “waters of Shiloah” in Isaiah 8:6) away from the eastern side of the city and deposited it in the Lower Pool (also called the Pool of Siloam) further inside the city walls. Hezekiah also repaired portions of the wall that were broken down and built a second wall outside it, likely in the Kidron Valley (see “Jerusalem during the Early Old Testament” map). He also produced many weapons and shields. The writer of Chronicles appears to portray these preparations as being in keeping with Hezekiah’s other acts of faithfulness and righteousness. Some scholars, however, suspect that Isaiah 22:1-14 may reflect another perspective regarding Hezekiah’s preparations, though it is not certain that this passage refers to Hezekiah’s efforts.
