ANATOT

Anatot (Almon) courtesy binyamin.co.il

The ancient Jewish village of Anatot is today, the town of Almon, population, 270 families. (Anatot was the original name while Almon was named after a nearby village on a mountaintop.) It is located about 2 ½ miles northeast of Jerusalem and under the authority of the Mattei Binyamin Regional Council. In the Book of Joshua, Anatot and Almon were usually mentioned together, possibly as twin cities. Nowadays, the two names are used interchangeably.  

Anatot, located in the tribal territory of Benjamin, was the name of one of the Levitical cities given to the children of Aaron the first High Priest of Israel and brother of Moses (Joshua 21:13–18; 1 Chronicles 6:54–60). It is mentioned as the native place of Abiezer the Anetothite, one of David's "thirty" (2 Samuel 23:27), and of Jehu, another of his mighty men (1 Chr 12:3). Abiathar the Priest of Israel and native of Anatot, was banished there by King Solomon. It is however best known as the home town of the prophet Jeremiah (Jer 1:1; 29:27; 32:7-9) who delivered a prophecy of tribulation by the sword against the residents for plotting against him (Jer 11:21-23).

During the siege of Jerusalem by the Babylonian emperor Nebuchadnezzar in 588–87 BCE, Jeremiah purchased land in Anatot from his uncle in order to preserve the family patrimony (Lev. 25:25), thus demonstrating his faith in the eventual return of the Judeans to their land (Jer. 32:7). In 538 BCE, Cyrus ruled Babylonia and Jeremiah’s faith bore fruit with Cyrus’ decree permitting the Jews to return. Among those who took advantage of this, were 128 "men of Anatot" (Ezra 2:23; Neh. 7:27) who rebuilt the village.

Banished from the region once again, this time by the Romans in the 1^st century, Anatot was destroyed, but it was later settled by Christian, then by Arab, settlers who called the ancient town “Anata” (which still exists to this day). In 1838, American archaeologist Edward Robinson identified the site as the Biblical Anatot and by 1982, the Jews returned once again and rebuilt the town in an area nearby with the help of the Amana land development organisation. In 1988, the HBO movie Steal the Sky, starring Mariel Hemingway and Ben Cross, was partially filmed in Anatot, which was used as a location substitute for Iraq.

Various sites in and around Anatot/Almon include: Anatot Wineries, the Herzl Bar, Nahal Prat (otherwise known as Wadi Kelt), Ein Prat and Ein Prat Nature Reserve, the Jerusalem suburb of Pisgat Zeev approximately 3 miles to the west, and the villages of Nofei Prat and Kfar Adumim about 3 miles to the east, and the town of Alon about a mile further.