HAZEROTH

HAZEROTH (Heb. חֲצֵרוֹת, ḥaẓerot). (1) The second station of the Israelites on their journey eastward from Mount Sinai to Ezion-Geber between Kibroth-Hattaavah and Rithmah in the wilderness of Paran (Num. 11:35; 33:17–18). At Hazeroth, Miriam and Aaron "spoke against" Moses because he had married "a Cushite woman," and in punishment Miriam was "shut up" for seven days, during which the people waited there (ibid. 12:16). Hazeroth is also mentioned in the Bible together with Di-Zahab (Deut. 1:1). Its identification is dependent on the location of Mount Sinai. Those scholars who accept the traditional view of Mount Sinai at Jebel Musa identify Hazeroth with the oasis of ʿAyn al-Ḥaḍra, northwest of Dhahab (Di-Zahab?). Others who identify Mount Sinai with Jebel Ḥilāl locate Hazeroth at another ʿAyn al-Ḥaḍra in its vicinity. (2) A Hazeroth is mentioned on the Samaria ostraca among the places paying tribute of wine and oil to Samaria in the time of the Israelite kingdom. It is possibly identical with ʿAṣīra al-Shamāliyya, 3 mi. (5 km.) north of Shechem. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: (1) Ms. W.M.F. Petrie, Researches in Sinai (1906), 262; Abel, Geog, 2 (1938), 214, 344; C.S. Jarvis, Yesterday and Today in Sinai (1931), 161, 171f.; (2) Ms. G.A. Reisner, et al., Harvard Excavations at Samaria, 1 (1924), 228ff. (Michael Avi-Yonah)