Anim
עָנִים
Where was biblical Anim? At Horvat Anim, in Yatir Forest near Livne, about 50 km south of Jerusalem. I mark it probable.
Jews prayed in a synagogue on this hilltop for centuries after the Temple fell, in a town that Joshua lists among the hill towns of Judah.
By Aaron Shaffier, licensed Israel tour guide and mapmaker · About the mapmaker
- Site today
- Horvat Anim, in Yatir Forest near Livne
- How sure
- Probable The best case we have, with real alternatives.
- Other names
- Horvat Anim, Khirbet Ghuwein et-Tahta, Lower Anim, Anaea
- Location
- 31.3536° N, 35.0635° E (Google Maps)
How we know where it was
The Tanach names Anim only once, and gives almost nothing to go on. It sits in a list, beside Anab and Eshtemoa. So the first test is the neighborhood. Horvat Anim sits right in that cluster of the southern Hebron hills, a short distance from Eshtamoa.
The hilltop holds an Iron Age fortress, so people lived on the site in the age of the kings. That, with the location, led to the identification.
The strongest clue comes from Eusebius. In the 4th century he knew Anim as two villages, a Jewish one and a Christian one to the east. That matches the two ruins here. Lower Anim, with its synagogue, is the Jewish town. Upper Anim stands on the next hill. The biblical name may well have covered both.
That is why the confidence is "probable." The fit is good, but there is no surviving name and no inscription.
Visiting today
The synagogue ruins and Iron Age remains are in Yatir Forest, a short signed walk from the road.
Read it in the Bible
Verse numbers follow the Hebrew Bible. In a handful of chapters English Bibles count one verse off.
See Anim on the interactive map →
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Get the print + free ebookNearby places
- Jattir 4 km west
- Eshtemoa 5 km north
- Maon 9 km northeast
- Debir (Kiriath Sepher) 10 km northwest
- Arad 10 km southeast
- Carmel in Judah 10 km northeast