Succoth
סֻכּוֹת · “Sukkot” on the map
Where was biblical Succoth? At Tell Deir Alla, Jordan Valley, in Jordan, about 40 km northwest of Amman. I mark it probable.
Jacob parted from Esau and stopped here. He built himself a house and made booths, sukkot, for his cattle, and the place kept the name.
By Aaron Shaffier, licensed Israel tour guide and mapmaker · About the mapmaker
- Site today
- Tell Deir Alla, Jordan Valley, in Jordan
- How sure
- Probable The best case we have, with real alternatives.
- Other names
- Sukkoth, Tell Deir Alla, Dar'ala, Tar'ala
- Location
- 32.1875° N, 35.6217° E (Google Maps)
How we know where it was
The Bible gives a tight address. Sukkot lies in the Jordan Valley, east of the river, near the mouth of the Jabbok. Jacob came down to it from Penuel. Generations later Gideon came through chasing two Midianite kings with three hundred exhausted men. The elders of Sukkot refused him bread. He came back victorious and taught them a lesson with desert thorns and briers. Solomon cast the bronze vessels of the Temple nearby, "in the clay ground between Sukkot and Zarethan."
The Jerusalem Talmud, explaining the tribal lists, says plainly that Sukkot is Tar'ala. Tar'ala was a Roman-era town, and scholars place it at Deir Alla, a high mound north of the Jabbok. The geography agrees with the Talmud. Deir Alla sits in the valley, east of the river, on the road Jacob and Gideon both traveled.
The digging adds weight. Excavators found Late Bronze and Iron Age towns full of metalworking, which suits Solomon's foundries in this valley. They also found a plaster wall inscription telling a vision of "Balaam son of Beor," the same seer who looked down on Israel's camp in the plains of Moab.
Still, no inscription names the town Sukkot, and the excavator himself doubted the match. A smaller mound nearby, Tell el-Ekhsas, has an Arabic name meaning "mound of the booths," and other mounds in the valley have been proposed too. The map stays with Deir Alla, where the Talmud and the geography point.
Visiting today
In Jordan, a high mound with excavation areas beside the town of Deir Alla. The Balaam inscription is on display in the Jordan Museum in Amman.
Read it in the Bible
Verse numbers follow the Hebrew Bible. In a handful of chapters English Bibles count one verse off.
See Sukkot on the interactive map →
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Get the print + free ebookNearby places
- Mahanaim 8 km east
- Penuel (Peniel) 9 km east
- Adam 12 km southwest
- Abel Meholah 22 km north
- Jabesh Gilead 24 km north
- Tirzah 29 km west