Hazor

Hazor (meaning enclosed or fortified) was the greatest Canaanite city in northern Palestine during the Late Bronze Age and the dominant power in the Galilee region. Joshua 11:1 records that Jabin king of Hazor rallied the northern coalition of Canaanite kings against Israel, assembling a force "with horses and chariots very many" at the waters of Merom. Joshua defeated them, pursued them, and burned Hazor — described as "the head of all those kingdoms" (Joshua 11:10). Archaeological excavations at Tell el-Qedah (Tell Hazor) in upper Galilee have confirmed a massive Bronze Age city of some 200 acres (one of the largest in Canaan) that shows evidence of violent destruction in the Late Bronze Age.

A second king Jabin of Hazor appears in the era of the judges (Judges 4:2), whose commander Sisera was defeated by Deborah and Barak and killed by Jael. Solomon rebuilt Hazor as one of his chariot cities along with Megiddo and Gezer (1 Kings 9:15). The Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser III captured Hazor during the campaign against Pekah king of Israel (2 Kings 15:29). Several other places named Hazor appear in the south of Judah (Joshua 15:23–25; Nehemiah 11:33), and Jeremiah 49:28–33 contains an oracle against the semi-nomadic peoples of Hazor in Arabia.