Judges 4:2 associates Jabin with Hazor, rather than with Kishon: At the beginning of the story, the Israelites have been oppressed by Jabin, king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. This is doubtless a mistaken association introduced by the final editor of the passage, as indicated by the fact that Baraq, Deborahs general, went to Qedesh (Judges 4:9, 10) rather than to Hazor to meet Jabins general Sisera. Qedesh is another name for Qishon, as is clear from the parallel lists of priestly cities in Issachar in 1 Chronicles 6:5758 = Joshua 21:2829: the former calls the city Qedesh, the latter calls it Qishion (that is, Qishon). The story in Judges 4 is of an Israelite military campaign against Qedesh/Qishon: Deborah went with Baraq against Qedesh (verse 9); Baraq called out Zebulun and Naphtali against Qedesh (verse 10). The possible reason why Jabin of Qedesh/Qishon is called the king of Hazor in the story may be because he was confused with an earlier (Middle Bronze Age) king of Hazor named Yabni-Hadda; on the latter, see Abraham Malamat, Mari and the Early Israelite Experience, Schweich Lectures (Oxford: British Academy, 1989), p. 58.
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