IDENTIFYING THE BIBLICAL CITY OF MITZPE - מצפה

 

There are a couple of touring groups that I have joined in the past few years. They are led by knowledgeable guides, who tour throughout the cooler winter months, and I learn about the research into sites described in the Tanach (the Bible). By visiting these sites physically, one gains a better appreciation for the topography and vegetation. This exercise often adds to the understanding of the Biblical text and can be often quite illuminating.

On one such tour, the group tour was designed to circumscribe the borders of the territory of the tribe of Benjamin. We started off the day on a mountain (albeit a small mountain) generally referred to as Nebi Samuel. At the top of the mountain or hill there is a large plateau, excavated remains from the Greek period (Bayit Sheni)and also there are remains of a very large crusader castle. The addition of a minaret and a mosque to the castle structure occurred centuries later, and there is a grave marker that is attributed to Shmuel the prophet (Likely not authentic), a flowing spring, and a glorious view of the entire area to the northwest of Jerusalem. Truly, on a clear day you can see forever.  

According to some researchers, this site was the location of a place mentioned several times in the Bible. They identify this site with the place called Mitzpe (מצפה), where many very significant things happened. For Instance, this is the site where all the tribes of Israel gathered to bring to justice the criminal elements of the tribe of Binyamin in the tragic story of Pilegesh Begivah (the concubine of Givah). It is also the site where that same prophet Samuel gather the tribes of Israel in order to convince them to repent from idol worship and where they defeated their Philistines overlords in battle. In the 9^th century BCE, the King of Judah, Assa, rebuilt and fortified the city. After the destruction of the First Temple and the exile of thousands east to Babylon, Mitzpe was the location of the Jewish Governor appointed by the Babylonians, Gedaliah Ben Ahikam, to administer the Babylonian province of Judea. It was also here that he was assassinated by a rival, whereupon the Jews that had remained in Judea fled in fear of a cruel retribution from the Babylonians who controlled Judea at the time. It was also the site where many years later, Judah the Maccabee gathered his troops in order to organize a preemptive strike on the Greek Syrian army that was gathering in the Lowlands west of Jerusalem. The site is truly steeped in Jewish History. Its identification with the city of Mitzpe comes from its location north west of Yerushalayim, and the glorious view which is an appropriate attribute for a city called Mitzpe (the lookout). One of the drawbacks of this identification is the lack of remains from the First Temple period. Supporters of this view argue that these were removed before the construction during the Second Temple Period. 

Interestingly, the tour guide, a Rabbi by the name of Rav Yoel Bin Nun, cited and promoted an archaeological study from the 1930’s published by The Department of Religious Studies in Berkely, California, that identified the town of Mitzpe not with Nebe Samuel, but rather with a site by the name of Tel a-Nasba about 5 km to the north east of Nebe Samuel in the middle of the Arab city of Ramallah (An aerial photo appears below). 

Why did Rabbi Bin Nun not take us to the site that in his opinion was the true location of Mitzpe. The answer should be obvious. Israelis are not permitted to enter Ramallah and visit the site of the Tel for obvious reasons. Instead, Rabbi Bin Nun chose to take us the nearest alternate possibility and talk to us there about the reasons for his opinion that the biblical town of Mitzpe, with all of its history, was actually located at Tel A-Nasba. This is what Tel A-Nasba looks like today. It is a large flat topped classic Tel which contains plentiful remains from the appropriate time period, The First Temple Period. Unfortunately Rav Bin Nun did not explain his preference for the second site. Both alternatives fit the various texts and he did say that it is difficult to determine which is correct. However, after some subsequent reading, I did find a detail that might tilt the argument in favour of Tel a-Nasba

However before I get to that detail, please bear with me while I take you on a bit of a tangent. When I was actively guiding families in Israel, often families with children, one of my favorite excursions was to the City of David and the archaeological site termed Area G. This area contained the ruins of buildings destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE, approximately 2,600 years ago. In the dirt and rubble of the floor of one of the rooms, the excavations uncovered Bulae, clay seals that had been placed on the strings that were wrapped around all kinds of documents from the period of the Babylonian destruction 586 BCE. The documents themselves and the string wrapped around them had long since deteriorated and turned to dust.

However, in the fires that engulfed the building during the destruction of Jerusalem, these clay seals were actually hardened into a state that allowed them to remain intact virtually unchanged until the present day. It is fascinating that these personal seals were also Imprinted with the names of scribes or officers in the court of one of the Kings of Yehuda. 40 or so of these Bulae were discovered. The names were written in the ancient Hebrew script and not using the Hebrew letters that we are familiar with today. For instance, one of these Bulae contained the name of a man named  גמריהו בן שפן, transliterated, Gmaryahu Ben Shafan. I would hand out an enlarged printed copy of the seal with the letters highlighted for clarity. Then I would hand out a sheet with the modern Hebrew letters matched up against the ancient Hebrew letters and ask them to decipher the name into modern Hebrew letters and to try to read the name.

This exercise was manageable even for young children. Once they were done, I would pull out the Book of Yirmiyahu (Jerimiah) and read to them the passage where it describes the scene of a man named Gemaryahu Ben Shafan listening to the terrifying prophecy of Yirmiyahu in the years before the destruction. Gemaryahu panicked. Gemaryahu advised Yirmiyahu to go into hiding before the King heard about the prophecy and throws them in jail or perhaps something worse. He is a supporter of Yirmiyahu, a good guy, but clearly they were surrounded by enemies who would love an excuse to do away with Yirmiyahu. Then I would ask them to imagine the feelings of the scientist who one day came into the laboratory carefully cleaned off the dust from the surface of the Bullae, and then transcribed the name into modern Hebrew letters just as they had done few minutes before, only to realize that this seal was set into the clay by a person whose name appears in the Tanach.  It represents the life of a real person who worked as an official in the court of the King of Yehudah almost 2,600 years ago. In fact, several bullae were found that contained names from the Tanach. I would take great pleasure in this little exercise and invariably it brought forth smiles of recognition as they internalized the message that I was trying to convey.

Now we have come around to the point that I would like to make about the correct location of the biblical city of Mitzpe.  The excavation took place from 1926 to 1936, almost 100 years ago, long before the Bullae were found in the city of David. However, something similar was found during the excavations that to my mind have a great impact on the discussion about the correct location of Mitzpe. The Bulae were made by seals pressed into clay and they survived because they were hardened in fire. At the excavation at Tel a-Nasba, one of the archaeological finds was an actual seal carved into onyx stone of the type that made the bullae that we described earlier.

When this stone seal was translated in a fashion similar to what we have described above, the inscription reads:

"יאזניהו עבד המלך" – transliterated to English – Yaazanyahu servant of the King. If we then turn to the text at the end of the Book of Kings, Kings 2, Chapter 25:23 we read as follows.

וַיִּשְׁמְעוּ֩ כׇל־שָׂרֵ֨י הַחֲיָלִ֜ים הֵ֣מָּה וְהָאֲנָשִׁ֗ים כִּֽי־הִפְקִ֤יד מֶֽלֶךְ־בָּבֶל֙ אֶת־גְּדַלְיָ֔הוּ וַיָּבֹ֥אוּ אֶל־גְּדַלְיָ֖הוּ הַמִּצְפָּ֑ה וְיִשְׁמָעֵ֣אל בֶּן־נְתַנְיָ֡ה וְיוֹחָנָ֣ן בֶּן־קָ֠רֵ֠חַ וּשְׂרָיָ֨ה בֶן־תַּנְחֻ֜מֶת הַנְּטֹפָתִ֗י וְיַאֲזַנְיָ֙הוּ֙ בֶּן־הַמַּ֣עֲכָתִ֔י הֵ֖מָּה וְאַנְשֵׁיהֶֽם׃

And all the army officers and their men heard the the King of Bavel had appointed Gedalyahu son of Ahikam (as governor), and they gathered around Gedalyahu at the city of Mitzpe. These included Yishmael ben Netanya, Yohanan ben Koreiach,  Seraya ben Tanhumet from Ntofah, and Yaazanyahu ben Hamaachati, them and all their men.

The text provides a list of the officers who joined Gedaliah ben Ahikam after the destruction of Jerusalem at the new administrative capital located at Mitzpe. The last name mentioned is none other than Yaazanhu son of the Maachati. 

What are the chances that the official seal that was found at Tel a-Nasba belongs to this same Yaazanyahu in the text of the book of Kings, and if it is the same man this indicates that the chances a very high that this is the true location of the city of Mitzpe. I have no idea why this seal was not brought up during the tour. I discovered it later while trying to read a bit more on the subject.  To my mind the chances are very high that it is the same man. I feel just as I did when I was guiding those children years ago.  For me personally that is enough to allow me to say that I agree with Rav Bin Nun. Mitzpe is Tel a Nasba.

Postscript: The name   יאזניהו  or   יאזניה  appears 3 other times in Tanach. All are different people based on their father’s names, and all appear in the same general time period at the end of the First Temple, so it can be argued that this was a common name and that the seal belonged to some other Yaazanyahu. I prefer to believe that they are the same man. See Jerimiah 35:3, Ezekiel 8:11, and Ezekiel 11:1.