Atlas Biblica

    place · also Eshtaolite

    Eshtaol

    אֶשְׁתָּאוֹל

    Eshtaol, a city allotted to Judah and Dan, was the hometown of Samson and the starting point of the Danite migration.

    Where the story of Eshtaol happensWhere the gazetteer locates Eshtaol, framed to them: Eshtaol. Each dot is a coordinate from the gazetteer. The coastline is a modern one, simplified; no border, road or settlement of any period is drawn, and no line joins two points, because the rows state where and not in what order.Eshtaol
    Where the gazetteer locates Eshtaol
    verses
    8
    first named
    Joshua 15:33
    last named
    1 Chronicles 2:53
    feature
    settlement
    coordinates
    31.80°N · 34.99°E
    settlement31.80°N · 34.99°E

    Khirbet Deir Shubeib (OpenBible)

    Scholarship offers 5 identifications for this place. The leading one is shown; the others are recorded in the gazetteer.

    Description

    Eshtaol in the text

    In the words of STEPBible TIPNR:

    Eshtaol was a city located in the Shephelah, or foothills, of Judah. It was initially allotted to the tribe of Judah (Joshua 15:33) but was later assigned to the tribe of Dan (Joshua 19:41).

    Eshtaol is particularly associated with the story of Samson, the legendary Israelite judge. Samson was born in the nearby town of Zorah and is described as moving between Zorah and Eshtaol, where the Spirit of the Lord began to stir him (Judges 13:25). After Samson's death, he was buried between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of his father, Manoah (Judges 16:31).

    Eshtaol also played a role in the Danite migration narrative. Due to limited territory and pressure from the Philistines, a group of Danites sent spies from Zorah and Eshtaol to search for a new land to settle (Judges 18:2). After the spies returned with a favorable report, six hundred men from the clan of the Danites set out from Zorah and Eshtaol to conquer the city of Laish in the north (Judges 18:8, 11).

    The descendants of the Eshtaolites, a clan from Eshtaol, are mentioned in 1Ch.2.53 among the descendants of Judah's son Shobal. This suggests that the city maintained its ties to the tribe of Judah even after being allotted to Dan.

    Relations

    Direct connections

    Every entity the graph places in a stated relation with this one, grouped by the kind of link. Each relation is authored once and its inverse derived, so both ends always agree. Rows marked “registry” come from the identity spine rather than from a verse, and a row marked “which bearer is the source’s decision” is one where the name could have meant more than one person. The last group is not a relation at all — it counts the events two entities stand in together.

    Stands in the same events as

    Read it

    Where to read it

    Every verse of the text carried here that names this entity — 8, across 3 books.

    1. Joshua2 verses

      15:3319:41

    2. Judges5 verses

      13:2516:3118:218:818:11

    3. 1 Chronicles1 verse

      2:53

    Onward

    Where this page goes

    Nothing in the graph stands one hop from this entity yet. These are the best-connected entities of the same type, so the page still ends somewhere. Descriptions by STEPBible TIPNR.

    ElsewhereJerusalemThe capital of Israel, a holy city for three religionsElsewhereEgyptAncient nation; Israelites enslaved there; plagues and ExodusElsewhereJordanA river and region, significant in Israel's history

    Where they appear

    What happened here

    Atlas's reading of each chapter this place appears in, in canonical order. One line per chapter, and each leads to the whole of it.

    Sources

    What this rests on