MIZPAH

ruins of ancient Mizpah, courtesy, Pinterest

The Biblical Mizpah is the name of several towns located around the Land of Israel. The location that this posting will concentrate on will be that in the tribal territory of Benjamin, north of Jerusalem as described in Joshua 18:26. On several occasions, this Mizpah served as the seat of assemblies at which the Israelites discussed their affairs. When a Levite traveler's concubine was raped and murdered by the men of nearby Gibeah, a town in Benjamin, the other tribes of Israel met at Mizpah where they decided to attack the men of Benjamin for this grievous sin. At the same time, the decision was made not to permit marriage between Israelite women and Benjaminite men. Later, Mizpah was a major meeting place in the time of Samuel who assembled the people there in order to fight against the Philistines who had stolen the Ark of the Covenant. After the return of the Ark, Samuel gathered all Israel at Mizpah to offer a sacrifice to the Lord and ask Him to forgive their sin. It was also at Mizpah that the people of Israel identified their first king – Saul – who was chosen by lot from all the tribes and families of Israel. During the time of the divided kingdom, King Asa of Judah fortified Mizpah against the attacks of the King of Israel (I Kings xv. 22; II Chron. xvi. 6). Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, established the capital of Judah there after the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem (II Kings xxv. 23; Jer. xl. 6 et seq., xli. 1); he was later assassinated by Ishmael, a surviving member of the House of David (ii Kings 25:22ff.; Jer. 40–41). The prophet Jeremiah settled there after his release from the Babylonian Captivity. Under Nehemiah, Mizpah served as a district capital (Neh. 3:7, 15, 19). Since the time of the Maccabees, it was a place of solemn assembly (I Macc. iii. 46) for the worship of god. In the 1^st century, it was a seat of learning and home to the Tanna Shimon of Mizpah.

According to the 12^th century Spanish rabbi and traveler Benjamin of Tudela, the town was identified with the town of “Nov” and it still contained a Jewish community. Yehoseph Schwarz, who explored the land in the mid 19^th century, found the site occupied by the Arab settlement of Tel al Safiyah. Modern archaeologists, however, have placed the location of ancient Mizpah at the ruins of, what the Arabs refer to as, “Tel en Nasbeh”, about 8 miles north of Jerusalem. Other archaeologists however, have identified one other site - Neby Samwil, a place of pilgrimage for Jews for thousands of years and located almost 600 feet above the plain of Gibeon.