Mizpah
הַמִּצְפָּה · “Mitzpah” on the map
Where was biblical Mizpah? At Tell en-Nasbeh, north of Jerusalem near al-Bireh. I mark it very likely.
Samuel gathered all Israel here to fast, pour out water and repent. Later he called them back, and the lot fell on a young man hiding among the baggage. Saul became Israel's first king.
By Aaron Shaffier, licensed Israel tour guide and mapmaker · About the mapmaker
- Site today
- Tell en-Nasbeh, north of Jerusalem near al-Bireh
- How sure
- Very likely Strong evidence, with no serious rival.
- Other names
- Mitzpeh, Mizpeh, Tell en-Nasbeh
- Location
- 31.8851° N, 35.2164° E (Google Maps)
How we know where it was
Mitzpah means lookout, and the town had three lives. Under the Judges and Samuel, the tribes gathered here. King Asa of Judah turned it into a border fortress against Baasha of Israel, using the very stones Baasha had brought to fortify Ramah. And after the Babylonians burned Jerusalem, it became the seat of the governor Gedaliah, the center of Jewish life left in the land. Then Gedaliah was murdered here at a meal. Jews still mourn him on the Fast of Gedaliah.
Tell en-Nasbeh fits all three lives. People lived here in Iron Age I, the time of the Judges. The city has an unusually massive wall and gate, which suits Asa's fortress. And it kept going in the 6th century BCE, when Jerusalem lay in ruins. It sits on the border road north of Ramah, where Asa and Baasha fought.
Two kinds of finds point to the name. Excavators found a seal of "Jaazaniah, servant of the king." A Jaazaniah was one of the officers who came to Gedaliah at Mitzpah. And jar stamps from the Babylonian and Persian periods, reading MṢH in Hebrew letters, cluster at this site.
The rival is Nebi Samwil, the high hill long known as the tomb of the prophet Samuel. It has the height for a lookout. I filmed there for the Walking Tanach episode Mystery of the Mishkan, and the view takes in all of Jerusalem. But the hill has produced nothing from the two periods that matter for Mitzpah, the time of the Judges and the 6th century BCE.
Visiting today
Tell en-Nasbeh lies beside the main road at the southern edge of al-Bireh. Parts of the wall survive, but the site is neglected and rarely visited.
Read it in the Bible
Verse numbers follow the Hebrew Bible. In a handful of chapters English Bibles count one verse off.
See Mitzpah on the interactive map →
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Get the print + free ebookNearby places
- Ramah (Ramathaim Zophim) 4 km south
- Bethel (Beit El) 5 km northeast
- Gibeon 5 km southwest
- Ai 6 km northeast
- Michmash 6 km east
- Gibeah of Saul 7 km south