Hadattah

Hadattah (meaning new) was one of the towns in the extreme south of Judah, in the Negev district near the border with Edom (Josh. 15:25). Its name appears in conjunction with Hazor in the Judahite town list, and some interpreters read Hazor-Hadattah as a compound place-name meaning New Hazor, distinguishing it from other towns named Hazor in the region. The Negev settlement pattern reflected in Joshua 15 represents an arid but populated frontier zone that Israel inherited from prior Canaanite and Edomite occupation.

Like many of the obscure Negev sites in the Joshua town lists, Hadattah has not been definitively located archaeologically. The region was subject to shifting habitation patterns due to its dependence on seasonal rainfall and cistern water, and many settlements in the area appear and disappear from the biblical record across different periods of Israelite history.