Mitzpah מצפה
A town in the portion of Binyamin where Shmuel gathered the people, where Shaul was chosen king, and where four centuries later the governor Gedalyah sat and was killed.
Mitzpah—"the watch-height"—lies north of Jerusalem, on the road into the portion of Ephraim. Here Shmuel gathered the people for a fast and repentance before the war with the Philistines, and here Shaul was chosen king by lot.
After the destruction of the First Temple, Mitzpah became what Jerusalem had ceased to be: the seat of authority. Here Gedalyah ben Achikam sat, here the refugees returned, and here Yishmael ben Netanyah killed him and those who were with him.
The site is identified with the mound of Tell en-Nasbeh, twelve kilometres north of Jerusalem; some researchers point to Nebi Samwil. We name both readings; archaeology does not yet decide between them.
On the timeline
Related
Sources
Tanakh
- Shmuel I 7:5–6 and 10:17–24 — the gathering of the people and the choosing of Shaul as king
- Melachim II 25:23–25 — Mitzpah as the seat of the governorship and the place of the murder
Scholarship
- The standard reference works and encyclopedias — the identification with Tell en-Nasbeh and the dispute over Nebi Samwil
Basis: documents and evidence.