Baal Hazor
בַּעַל חָצוֹר · “Mt. Baal Hatzor” on the map
Where is Baal Hazor? Tell 'Asur, near Taybeh, northeast of Beit El, about 25 km north of Jerusalem. I mark it very likely.
Absalom waited two full years to avenge his sister Tamar. Then he threw a sheep-shearing feast on these high slopes, invited all the king's sons, and gave his servants the signal to strike down his brother Amnon.
By Aaron Shaffier, licensed Israel tour guide and mapmaker · About the mapmaker
- Site today
- Tell 'Asur, near Taybeh, northeast of Beit El
- How sure
- Very likely Strong evidence, with no serious rival.
- Other names
- Baal-hazor, Ba'al Hatzor, Tall Asur, Tell 'Asur, Jebel 'Asur, Ramat Hazor, Genesis Apocryphon
- Location
- 31.9794° N, 35.2794° E (Google Maps)
How we know where it was
The Bible gives one clue. Baal Hatzor is "near Ephraim," and that town is commonly taken as nearby Taybeh. This is sheep country north of Jerusalem, the right setting for a shearing.
The name does most of the work. The summit is called Tell 'Asur in Arabic, and 'Asur still carries Hatzor. The mountain is also hard to miss. At about 1,016 meters it is the highest peak in the hills of Benjamin and Samaria.
The first half of the name has its own story. Baal means lord or master. A name like this suggests the peak once held a shrine to a local lord of the mountain, which is what you would expect on the highest point in the region.
There is old testimony too. The Genesis Apocryphon, one of the Dead Sea Scrolls, retells the life of Abraham and sends him up to a Ramat Hatzor, north of Beit El, to look out over the land. So in Second Temple times this name already belonged to a lookout summit in these hills.
The mountain saw a later tragedy as well. In 160 BCE Judah the Maccabee fought his last battle in these hills, badly outnumbered by the Greek army. He broke the enemy's right wing and chased it as far as the mountain the Book of Maccabees calls Mount Azotus, which many identify with Baal Hatzor. Then the rest of the Greek army closed in behind him, and Judah fell.
No excavation proves the identification. But the name, the height and the location all agree.
Visiting today
The summit is not a developed site. A military installation sits on the peak and access is restricted, though a grove of old trees on top is still kept as a local holy place.
Read it in the Bible
Verse numbers follow the Hebrew Bible. In a handful of chapters English Bibles count one verse off.
See Mt. Baal Hatzor on the interactive map →
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- Ophrah 3 km southeast
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- Ai 7 km south
- Shiloh 8 km north
- Mizpah 12 km southwest
- Michmash 12 km south