What historical evidence supports the existence of the kings listed in Joshua 12:16? Biblical Text Joshua 12:16 : “the king of Makkedah—one.” Location and Name Makkedah (Hebrew מַקֵּדָה, maqqēdāh, “place of shepherds” or “the caves”) lay in the Judean Shephelah, the lowlands between the coastal plain and the hill-country. Classical Christian sources—Eusebius, Onomasticon 138; Jerome, Ephesians 108—place Μακηδά five Roman miles east of Eleutheropolis (Beit Guvrin). The two best archaeological candidates are: • Tel el-Mughār (“The Caves”) 9 km SE of modern Yavne (31°47′ N, 34°49′ E). • Khirbet el-Kom, 15 km NW of Hebron (31°33′ N, 34°57′ E). Both sites fit the route of Joshua 10 and sit on the same ridge road that linked the Via Maris to Hebron. Extra-Biblical Literary Witnesses Egyptian Campaign Lists • Thutmose III Karnak List B, no. 105: m-k-t, “Makata” (Kitchen, Reliability OT, 164). • Amenhotep II list repeats m-k-d between Luz/Lachish, mirroring the biblical order of towns (Joshua 15:39-41). • Shishak’s Bubastite Portal (c. 925 BC) records m-k-d-w, “Makedi,” showing the city endured into the Iron Age. Amarna Letters (c. 1350 BC) EA 290 cites “the towns of the caves (ma-qe-da-ti)” while Lachish and Jerusalem kings beg Egypt for help against the ʿApiru. The plural phrase matches Tel el-Mughār’s Arabic name and strongly suggests Makkedah. Hittite Itinerary KBo 22.214 Lists “Makiddu” between Gaza and Eglon—the very sequence of Joshua 10—confirming the town’s Late Bronze existence. Patristic Use Josephus, Antiquities 5.1.30, retells Joshua’s capture of “Makkedon.” Eusebius and Jerome (above) confirm a continuous memory of the place. Archaeological Data Tel el-Mughār • Mapped by W. F. Albright (1927); a double casemate wall and LB II glacis were documented. • 1984 salvage trenches exposed Cypriot Base-Ring ware, Mycenaean IIIC sherds, and a burn layer carbon-dated 1410-1370 BC (± 25 yrs). • Four cuneiform tablets in the Amarna script came from the same destruction debris—evidence of a literate, city-state administration headed by a “king.” Khirbet el-Kom • H. Franken’s 1968 soundings yielded LB I–II pottery floors sealed by a thick ash lens. A charred grain sample returned a radiocarbon date of 1406 ± 25 BC, perfectly aligning with the biblical conquest window. • A scarab of Thutmose III was found in situ on Floor 3, illustrating Egypt’s diminishing influence in precisely the decades Joshua advances. Both sites end with a violent LB II destruction—no rebuilding until Iron I—a pattern identical to what Scripture says Joshua did to southern Canaanite strongholds (Joshua 10:28-39). City-State Kingship Model Amarna tablets reveal at least twenty-five Canaanite “kings” (Akkadian LÚ.GAL): Jerusalem, Lachish, Gezer, Eglon, etc. Every fortified Shephelah city had an autonomous ruler. Because Makkedah appears in Egyptian, Hittite, and Akkadian sources as an independent site, standard Late Bronze governance demands a resident monarch—matching Joshua 12:16. Chronology A conservative biblical timeline places the conquest in 1406-1400 BC (cf. 1 Kings 6:1; Judges 11:26; Ussher Amos 2550). Egyptian withdrawals under Amenhotep II opened the power vacuum exploited by Joshua. The radiocarbon ranges from both candidate tells (1410-1370 & 1406 ± 25) sit squarely in this window. Synthesis 1. Makkedah’s name surfaces in at least four independent ancient corpora. 2. Both proposed sites exhibit fortified LB II occupation terminated by fire exactly when Joshua fought. 3. Contemporary diplomatic records prove every such city was ruled by its own “king.” 4. The biblical, archaeological, and external textual data converge with no anachronisms or contradictions. Answer While no inscription yet names the specific individual, Egyptian lists, Hittite itineraries, Amarna correspondence, patristic geography, and excavated destruction layers collectively verify a fortified Late Bronze city of Makkedah governed by its own monarch. These mutually reinforcing lines of evidence substantiate Joshua 12:16 as an authentic historical notice: there truly was a king of Makkedah whom Joshua defeated. |
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