Hill of Moreh

Hill of Moreh is the isolated ridge on the north side of the valley of Jezreel where the Midianite host lay encamped when Gideon drew up his men at the spring of Harod (Judges 7:1). Its name in Hebrew, Givat HaMoreh, means "hill of the teacher" or "hill of the one who gives direction," from the verb yarah, to teach or direct. It is not the oak of Moreh at Shechem (Genesis 12:6; Deuteronomy 11:30), which is a different site far to the south and has its own entry, Oak of Moreh.

Biblical Account

The hill is named once in the Old Testament. After the Midianites, the Amalekites and "the people of the East" crossed the Jordan and encamped in the valley of Jezreel (Judges 6:33), Jerubbaal, that is Gideon, rose early and encamped beside the spring of Harod, "and the camp of Midian was north of them, by the hill of Moreh, in the valley" (Judges 7:1). The text places the enemy "along the valley like locusts in abundance," with camels "without number" (Judges 7:12). Gideon's force was cut from thirty two thousand to three hundred at the water (Judges 7:3, 7:6, 7:7), and on the night of the attack he went "down" to the edge of the camp with his servant Purah (Judges 7:10, 7:11). The words "down" and "north of them" place Israel on higher ground to the south and the Midianite camp on the valley floor beneath the hill. The full narrative of the night attack and the pursuit belongs to the event entry Gideon and the Midianites, which the house chronology places about 1170 BC.

Geography and Identification

The hill of Moreh is identified with Jebel ed Dahi (Jebel Duhy), the modern Givat HaMoreh, a short ridge about six kilometres long rising to about 515 metres above sea level on the northeast side of the Jezreel Valley, east of the modern town of Afula. The valley floor around it lies at only 50 to 100 metres, so the ridge stands out sharply. To its south lies the valley of Harod, and beyond that Mount Gilboa; to its north lie the plains of Lower Galilee and Mount Tabor; to its east it joins the Issachar plateau that falls away toward the Jordan. Shunem, a town of Issachar (Joshua 19:18), sits at its western foot, and Endor and Nain lie on its northern side. The identification is generally accepted: the Well of Harod is equated with Ain Jalud, the large spring at the foot of Gilboa, and this is the ridge that rises "north of" that spring "in the valley", though the Pulpit Commentary took the "hill" to be no more than one of the low mounds of the plain. The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia notes that G. F. Moore once proposed reading the verse as a reference to the Moreh near Shechem, but concludes there is no good reason to doubt the tradition placing it at the eastern end of the plain of Esdraelon. Medieval Christian pilgrims called the hill Little Hermon, connecting it with Tabor in Psalm 89:12; the Arabic name Jebel ed Dahi comes from the tomb of the seventh century AD figure Dihyah al Kalbi on its summit.

Historical Context

The same ground was fought over again about a century and a half later. Before Saul's final battle, the Philistines "came and encamped at Shunem" while Saul gathered Israel on Gilboa (1 Samuel 28:4), and Saul crossed by night to the medium at Endor on the far side of the hill (1 Samuel 28:7-8); Israel's camp is described as "by the spring that is in Jezreel" (1 Samuel 29:1). Twice, then, an invading army lay at the foot of the hill of Moreh, in the valley beneath it, while Israel held the slopes of Gilboa across the Harod valley. The hill stands where the routes from the Jordan crossings near Beth-Shean enter the Jezreel Valley and run north into Galilee, and both the camel raiders from the east and the Philistine army from the coast camped on that ground.

Archaeology

The hill itself is a natural feature rather than a settlement, and no excavation of the ridge is associated with the Gideon narrative. Geologically it is mostly soft chalk with rounded slopes, with harder chalk on its steeper eastern face and black basalt flows that in places have filled cracks in the rock to form dikes. The biblical events attached to it are located by the named towns around its base, Shunem, Endor and Jezreel, rather than by any remains on the summit.