Arad: the Israelite Fortress

Whenever the Kingdom of Judah sought to extend its reach to the Red Sea in quest of the "gold of Ophir," it depended on two military bases at the gates of the desert: one at Beersheba, the other at Arad.  What determined their exact placement? First, each stood in the east-west basin separating the Judean highlands in the north from the Negev desert in the south. Second, the main north-south road from Jerusalem stretched down the central mountain range, splitting into two branches near Hebron. At the intersection of its western branch with the east-west basin arose Beersheba. At the intersection of its eastern branch with the basin arose Arad. (More at Tell Arad and Beersheba.)

 

 

 

The temple takes up about a fifth of the precious space in the fortress. The motive for its building must have been to ensure God's presence on the border to protect the kingdom. (An earlier Kenite sanctuary?) Accordingly, we also find a sanctuary at Beersheba. On Judah's northern border stood, of course, the Jerusalem temple. The northern kingdom of Israel likewise had border sanctuaries: at Dan in the north and Bethel in the south. On a more local scale, cities had shrines in their gates.

 

The Arad temple faces west, like the one in Jerusalem and like the original "Temple of the Lord" at Shechem. In contrast, Canaanite temples from the Late Bronze Age had a north-south axis.

 

 

In front of the Holy of Holies are the remains of a broad room with plastered benches on the sides, probably for offerings. Coming from the east, one entered it between two pillars reminiscent of Boaz and Jachin in the Jerusalem temple; the archaeologists found their bases (not visible today). This room measures 2.7 meters from east to west and 9 meters from north to south. The latter figure is significant. Taking the common cubit at 17.5 inches, 9 meters make 20 cubits: exactly the breadth of the sanctuary in Jerusalem. (The length of 2.7 meters equals 6 cubits, compared to 60 for the length in Jerusalem.)

 

East of the broad room are the remains of an open courtyard containing an altar built of unhewn stones. It measures 2.40 X 2.20 meters and stood 1.20 meters above the floor of Jehoshaphat's temple. (Uzziah later raised the floor.) These dimensions are tantalizingly close to those prescribed for the altar in Exodus 27:1. (The altar in the Jerusalem temple was much bigger.) On its top lies a flint flagstone sloping downward to the east. Plastered channels surround it: no doubt to collect the blood of the sacrifice.

 

 

To secure the water supply, the builders dug reservoirs inside south of the temple. The inhabitants brought water from cisterns in the area, especially one at the site of the natural catch-basin that had served the Early Bronze city. They poured it into an opening, still visible, in the lower part of the western wall.

During the reign of Uzziah's grandson Ahaz, there was war between Israel and Judah (i.e., the northern and southern kingdoms). Judah had to concentrate troops on its northern border, and the Edomites probably took advantage of its weakness in the south. They were the ones, probably, who destroyed the fortress at Arad around 734 BC. Ahaz survived - but in utter dependence on Assyria. Perhaps it was he who rebuilt the fortress and temple.

Or perhaps it was his son and successor, Hezekiah. In 715 BC, however, six years after coming to power, Hezekiah undertook a major religious reform as part of an effort to "homogenize" the realm in preparation for revolt against Assyria. He centralized religious activity in Jerusalem. "He removed the high places and broke down the sacred pillars and cut down the Asherah." (2 Kings 18:4). The temple at Arad was very carefully dismantled. "Unlike the other buildings, no indication of violent destruction is observable in the temple area. The vertical disposition of the altars and the stela and the superb preservation of the limestone incense altars and the top of the sacrificial altar indicate that the temple was intentionally dismantled. The upper parts of the walls were torn down and the whole area was buried under a thick layer of soil." (Herzog, p. 175. Compare Hezekiah's reform at Beersheba.)  

 

In 701 BC, the Assyrian Sennacherib, provoked, swept down to quell the revolt. He boasted of having destroyed 46 strong-walled cities of Judah. Among them were Beersheba and Arad. Hezekiah (and Jerusalem) survived, paying  tribute. His son and successor Manasseh fawned on Assyria, which let him rebuild the fortress at Arad to protect his southern border. There is no evidence that Manasseh or anyone ever rebuilt the temple.

 

This version of the fortress lasted, perhaps, through the reign of Josiah. When Pharaoh Neco had Josiah executed at Megiddo in 609, the Egyptians (concerned about the rising power of Babylon) made a last ditch effort at re-establishing power in the land. They were probably the ones who destroyed the fortress at Arad - for destroyed it was. The Judeans built it up again, with a casemate wall this time (it ran right through the former temple's broad room), in the hope of withstanding the Babylonians.

 

From this period come all or most of the Hebrew inscriptions at Arad, 131 in number. They include many inscriptions on potsherds written in carbon black ink (ostraca). There are 18 short messages to the fortress commander, Elyashib son of Eshiyahu. These date to a single month, called Tebet, which began on January 16, 597 BC, when Nebuchadnezzar "was either on his way to attack Jerusalem or was already besieging it. The month was probably the last in the fortress's existence." (Lemaire, p. 176.) Most of these letters order Elyashib to provide food for the "Kittim," probably Greek or Cypriot mercenaries in the Judean army. Judging from the amount of food (supplied about once a week), there were 25 or so Kittim at Arad.

 

 

Tell Malhata, also pictured above, is rich in wells. It too was a Judean city at the time of the Babylonian-Edomite invasion. A third of the pottery found there was Edomite. (Earlier, in the Middle Bronze Age, Tell Malhata was the south-easternmost city in the land, one of a line of urban centers along what we today call the Beersheba River, which begins NW of Tell Arad and reaches the Mediterranean (under the name Besor) near Gaza.)

 

The Edomites succeeded in occupying the Negev and the southern part of Judah, including Lachish, Maresha, and Hebron. The Judeans remembered their aggression and cursed them, along with Babylon, in Psalm 137: 

By the rivers of Babylon,

There we sat down and wept,

When we remembered Zion.

Upon the willows in the midst of it

We hung our harps.

For there our captors demanded of us songs,

And our tormentors mirth, saying,

"Sing us one of the songs of Zion."

How can we sing the Lord's song

In a foreign land?

If I forget you, O Jerusalem,

May my right hand forget her skill.

May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth

If I do not remember you,

If I do not exalt Jerusalem

Above my chief joy.

 

Remember, O Lord, against the sons of Edom

The day of Jerusalem,

Who said, "Raze it, raze it

To its very foundation."

O daughter of Babylon, you devastated one,

How blessed will be the one who repays you

With the recompense with which you have repaid us.

How blessed will be the one who seizes and dashes your little ones

Against the rock.

 

Negev

Tell Beersheba (Tell Sheva)

Beersheba and Abraham's Well