Joshua’s Defeat of Libnah

October 9, 2012

We read in Joshua 10:29,30:

29 Then Joshua and all Israel with him passed on from Makkedah to Libnah, and fought against Libnah. 30 The LORD gave it also with its king into the hands of Israel, and he struck it and every person who was in it with the edge of the sword. He left no survivor in it. Thus he did to its king just as he had done to the king of Jericho.

We had the occasion last year to visit Tel Burna, in Israel’s Shephelah, a location which many believe to be biblical Libnah.

Tel Burna, believed to be biblical Libnah. Photo by Leon Mauldin.

The Tel Burna Excavation Project is devoted to this site and may be viewed here.

Another biblical reference to Libnah is found in 2 Kgs. 19:8, contextually speaking of the Assyrian invasion of Judah, 701 BC: “Then Rabshakeh returned and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, for he had heard that the king had left Lachish.”


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