ABSTRACT
Biblical Timnah has been identified with Tel Batash, a 6-acre mound located in the northern Shephelah (see Figure 74) in the Sorek Valley. This identification seems generally accepted today by most authorities. The city is mentioned 12 times in the Bible. All but one reference come from the three books of Genesis (38: 12-14), Joshua (15: 10, 57; 19: 43) and Judges (14: 1-2, 5). The exception is in 2 Chronicles 28: 18. The story in Genesis is the very familiar one of Tamar deceiving her father-in-law, Judah, into believing she is a prostitute. Judah finds her sitting beside the road on his way to
“Timnah” in this story is the same town mentioned in the Samson narrative, the excavator concluded that it “probably” is; A. Mazar, “Batash, Tel,” OEANE, 1: 281). From a broader historical perspective, this story raises questions of social and economic as well as political relationships between “Israel” and the people who inhabited the northern Shephelah prior to the Monarchy.
