Biblical Archaeology Review

Josephus mentions another site named Herodium “on the Arabian frontier” (The Jewish War I, 419). The parallel passage in Josephus’s Jewish Antiquities (XV, 323–325) does not mention it, so its existence is doubtful, although possible.

On July 3, 1983, David Rosenfeld, a young Israeli guard at the Herodium excavations was brutally murdered by Bedouin who belonged to Fatah—the largest of the terrorist groups comprising the PLO. The murderers chose Friday to perpetrate their vicious crime because our regular Arab guards were observing the Moslem sabbath and David was alone. David was stabbed nearly 100 times. In their ecstasy, the murderers also managed to stab themselves and as a result they were apprehended.

i.e. the eastern Mediterranean.

Cf. Exodus 33:22.

A Roman mile is about 140 yards shorter than an English mile.

Kibroth-Hattaavah, where the Israelites were buried who had craved for the plenty of Egypt, Numbers 11:34

See Dan Cole, “How Water Tunnels Worked,” BAR 06:02, and Yigal Shiloh, “Jerusalem’s Water Supply During Siege—The Rediscovery of Warren’s Shaft,” BAR 07:04.

Abraham Heschel, The Sabbath: Its Meaning for Modern Man (New York, 1951), p. 8.

See “Did Yahweh Have a Consort?” BAR 05:02, by Ze’ev Meshel.

See “Answers at Lachish,” BAR 05:06, by David Ussishkin; “‘Lachish and Azekah Were the Only Fortified Cities of Judah That Remained’ (Jeremiah 34:1),” BAR 08:06, by Rodney Wright.