📖 Biblical Definition
Major Canaanite city in Upper Galilee, north of the Sea of Galilee (Joshua 11:1-13; 12:19; 19:36; Judges 4-5; 1 Samuel 12:9; 1 Kings 9:15; 2 Kings 15:29). Hazor is described as the head of all those kingdoms in the period of the Joshua conquest (Joshua 11:10) — the principal Canaanite city of the northern coalition. King Jabin of Hazor headed the great northern Canaanite coalition that fought Joshua at the waters of Merom; Joshua's pursuit destroyed the coalition; Joshua then took Hazor, smote her king and all her people with the edge of the sword, and burned Hazor with fire (Joshua 11:10-11). Centuries later, another King Jabin of Hazor (Judges 4-5) oppressed Israel for twenty years; Deborah the prophetess summoned Barak the son of Abinoam; Barak with ten thousand men of Naphtali and Zebulun defeated Jabin's general Sisera at the Kishon River; Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite drove a tent-peg through Sisera's temple as he slept; Deborah sang her great song of victory (Judges 5). Hazor was rebuilt and refortified by Solomon as one of the three great strategic cities (Hazor, Megiddo, Gezer; 1 Kings 9:15). Tiglath-Pileser III of Assyria captured Hazor in 732 BC and carried its inhabitants into exile (2 Kings 15:29). Modern archaeological excavation has confirmed Hazor's massive size and strategic significance; the tell at Tel Hatzor remains one of the great archaeological sites of the Holy Land.
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
Major Canaanite city in Upper Galilee; head of all those kingdoms at Joshua conquest (Joshua 11:10); Deborah's victory over Jabin's general Sisera (Judges 4-5); Solomonic refortification.
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HAZOR, proper n. (OT place) Major Canaanite city in Upper Galilee, north of the Sea of Galilee. Described as the head of all those kingdoms at Joshua conquest (Joshua 11:10). Northern Canaanite coalition led by King Jabin of Hazor defeated by Joshua at waters of Merom (Joshua 11:1-13); Joshua burned Hazor. Later King Jabin of Hazor (Judges 4-5): Deborah and Barak's victory over Jabin's general Sisera at the Kishon; Jael's tent-peg. Solomon rebuilt Hazor with Megiddo and Gezer (1 Kings 9:15). Tiglath-Pileser III of Assyria captured Hazor in 732 BC (2 Kings 15:29). One of the great archaeological tells of the Holy Land.
📖 Key Scripture
Joshua 11:10-11 — "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."
Judges 4:2 — "And the LORD sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, that reigned in Hazor; the captain of whose host was Sisera, which dwelt in Harosheth of the Gentiles."
1 Kings 9:15 — "And this is the reason of the levy which king Solomon raised; for to build the house of the LORD, and his own house, and Millo, and the wall of Jerusalem, and Hazor, and Megiddo, and Gezer."
2 Kings 15:29 — "In the days of Pekah king of Israel came Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, and took Ijon, and Abel-beth-maachah, and Janoah, and Kedesh, and Hazor, and Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali, and carried them captive to Assyria."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
No major postmodern redefinition. Hazor is a major archaeologically attested OT city; the principal recovery is the integration of biblical narrative with archaeological evidence.
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Hazor as a place name does not undergo lexical corruption. The principal contemporary recovery is the integration of biblical narrative with archaeological evidence: Hazor's massive size (200 acres at its peak, one of the largest cities of the Bronze Age Levant) and its strategic position at the headwaters of trade routes northeast of the Sea of Galilee make sense of its biblical description as the head of all those kingdoms. Modern excavation has confirmed the burn-layer from Joshua's destruction and the subsequent Solomonic rebuilding. The patriarchal-Reformed reader holds the biblical narrative and the archaeological evidence together as mutually illuminating.
🔗 Greek & Hebrew Roots
Joshua 11; Judges 4-5; 1 Kings 9:15; 2 Kings 15:29; major Canaanite-Israelite city; massive archaeological tell.
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['Hebrew', 'H2674', 'Chatsor', 'place-name; possibly enclosure']
['Hebrew', 'H2985', 'Yavin', 'Jabin, two kings of Hazor']
['Hebrew', 'H5516', 'Sisera', "Jabin's general (Judges 4-5)"]
Usage
"Hazor: major Canaanite city; head of all those kingdoms at Joshua conquest."
"Deborah and Barak's victory over Jabin's general Sisera (Judges 4-5)."
"Solomonic refortification (1 Kings 9:15); Tiglath-Pileser's exile 732 BC."