Achzib (Achziv)
אַכְזִיב
Where was biblical Achzib? At Tel Achziv, north of Nahariya, about 30 km north of Haifa. I mark it certain.
Achziv lay inside Asher's share of the coast, but the tribe never drove out its people. The Phoenicians stayed, traded by sea, and buried their dead in family tombs, as their neighbors in Tyre and Sidon did.
By Aaron Shaffier, licensed Israel tour guide and mapmaker · About the mapmaker
- Site today
- Tel Achziv, north of Nahariya
- How sure
- Certain The name, the sources and the finds all agree.
- Other names
- Akhziv, Ecdippa, Ekdippa, Akzibi
- Location
- 33.0484° N, 35.1022° E (Google Maps)
How we know where it was
The name was worn down but never lost. Until 1948 the Arab village on the mound was called ez-Zib, Achziv with its front clipped off. Greek and Roman writers called the town Ecdippa. Sennacherib's annals list Akzibi among the Phoenician coastal towns the Assyrian king captured in 701 BCE.
The Bible places it twice. Joshua runs Asher's border past Tyre and down to the sea at Achziv. Judges names it with Akko and Sidon in the list of towns Asher could not take.
The excavators confirmed that admission. Around the town they found large Iron Age Phoenician cemeteries, with tombstones and rich grave goods. In the biblical period Achziv was a Phoenician town, just as the Bible says. The Tanach does not pretend the conquest was complete. It names the places where it stalled, and Achziv is one of them.
There was a second Achziv, in Judah. It is a different town, and the prophet Micah mentions it. This one belongs to the north coast.
Visiting today
Achziv National Park sits on the shore, with the tel, the restored mosque and houses of ez-Zib, and tidal pools. The Phoenician cemeteries lie nearby.
Read it in the Bible
Verse numbers follow the Hebrew Bible. In a handful of chapters English Bibles count one verse off.
See Achziv on the interactive map →
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Get the print + free ebookNearby places
- Acco (Akko) 15 km south
- Aphek in Asher 22 km south
- Tyre 26 km north
- Mount Carmel 34 km south
- Kedesh Naphtali 40 km east
- Jokneam (Yokneam) 43 km south