End Times and Current Events

Discovering the largest city of ancient Canaan

Before the conquest under Joshua, “Hazor formerly was the head of all these kingdoms” (Joshua 11:10). Hazor was the only city Joshua burned in the northern campaign (Joshua 11:1–15). Modern archeologists have uncovered a Canaanite temple with a central niche where a male deity figurine sat on a throne. Stratum XIII of the tell had a large burn layer that corresponds with Joshua’s destruction of Hazor around 1400 BC.

Two hundred years after Joshua, Hazor rose again to prominence during the years of the Judges of Israel. Deborah and Barak defeated Hazor’s general, Sisera, in the Valley of Jezreel and burned Hazor once again (Judges 4-5).

Because of the city’s strategic location, King Solomon later fortified Hazor—as well as Megiddo and Gezer (1 Kings 9:15). The tripartite city gates that Solomon built in these cities still stand. All three gates are nearly identical. During the time of the divided kingdom, the Israelites at Hazor dug a forty-meter deep shaft that reached the water table.

In 885 BC, Ben-hadad of Aram invaded Israel via Hazor. As the first line of defense for the north, Hazor was also one of the first cities to fall when the Assyrians invaded (2 Kings 15:29). Under the boot of the Assyrian leader, Tiglath-Pileser III, Hazor was razed in 732 BC. It never recovered.

By the first century when Jesus passed Hazor on His way north to Caesarea Philippi, Tel Hazor stood as a mere police fort.

Today, even helicopter pilots struggle to find it.

full story + video: http://www.jpost.com/VideoArticles/Video/Article.aspx?id=234738&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+delicious%2Fgqlf+%28Christian+Headlines+Top+Headlines%29