Tell Halif Identification

Tell Halif Arabic Khuweilifeh: "little caliph") is the modern name of a seven acre site whose ancient identity is uncertain. Halif has been variously identified as Ziklag (Abel 1938; Seger 1984). Tilla of Eusebius' Onomasticon (Abel 1938), Goshen (Aharoni 1967), Hormah, and Rimmon (Kloner 1980.) While none of these attempts has enjoyed consensus, circumstantial evidence supports the Biblical era name En Rimmon mentioned in Joshua 19, and the Byzantine era Rimmon (or Tilla), which Eusebius located 30 km. south of Beit Guvrin:

(a) the location of Halif matches generally the region of the list in Joshua 19 and Eusebius' Onomasticon;

(b) lacking Philistine remains, Halif is likely not biblical Ziklag (Oren 1982);

(c) because Hurvat Rimmon (two km. south of Halif) contains no Iron Age remains, it cannot have been biblical En Rimmon; Halif, on the other hand, has produced substantial Iron age remains. Kloner (1980) argues that the name Rimmon had been borrowed from the tell to designate the Byzantine village, while the name Tilla ("the tell") was applied to the original site of Rimmon (i.e., Halif.)

Bibliography

Abel, M. 1938. Geographie de la Palestine. II. Paris.
Aharoni, Y. 1967. The Land of the Bible: A Historical Geography. London: Burns and Oates.
Kloner, A. 1980. Hurvat Rimmon, 1979, Israel Exploration Journal 30: 226-228.
Seger, J.D. 1984. The Location of Biblical Ziklag: An Identity Crisis, Biblical Archaeologist 47: 47-53.