Hammath
חַמַּת
Where was biblical Hammath? At Hammat Tiberias National Park, south of Tiberias. I mark it probable.
Naphtali fortified a town here, on the lakeshore beside hot springs that are still flowing today.
By Aaron Shaffier, licensed Israel tour guide and mapmaker · About the mapmaker
- Site today
- Hammat Tiberias National Park, south of Tiberias
- How sure
- Probable The best case we have, with real alternatives.
- Other names
- Hammath Tiberias, Hammoth-dor, Hammon, Emmaus, Ammathus
- Location
- 32.7664° N, 35.5511° E (Google Maps)
How we know where it was
The name explains itself. Hammath means hot springs, and there are hot springs on this stretch of shore just south of Tiberias. The Bible lists Hammath beside Rakkath and Chinnereth among Naphtali's fortified cities, and all three sit on the western shore of the lake. In the Talmud Rabbi Yochanan ties Hammath to Tiberias for the obvious reason, its hot springs.
The name held on. In Second Temple and rabbinic times a separate walled town called Hammatha stood here, right beside Tiberias. Many scholars think the same town appears in the lists of Levitical cities. Joshua gives the Levites a town of Naphtali called Hammoth-dor, and the parallel list in Chronicles calls it Hammon.
Everything excavated in the national park is Roman to Early Islamic. The Iron Age town of Joshua's list has not been clearly found. The springs and the name make the case. The ground has not confirmed it yet, and that is why this one stays at probable.
Visiting today
Hammat Tiberias National Park shows the hot springs, an Ottoman bathhouse and a 4th-century synagogue with a zodiac mosaic on its floor, one of the best-known Jewish artworks from antiquity.
Read it in the Bible
Verse numbers follow the Hebrew Bible. In a handful of chapters English Bibles count one verse off.
See Hammat on the interactive map →
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Get the print + free ebookNearby places
- The Sea of Galilee (Kinneret) 4 km southeast
- Rakkath 5 km northwest
- Mount Tabor 18 km southwest
- Geshur 18 km northeast
- Endor 20 km southwest
- Shunem 27 km southwest