Bezek

Bezek functions in two distinct narratives as a place of military gathering — first as the residence of the Canaanite king Adoni-bezek, struck down in Judah's opening campaign after the death of Joshua, and later as the rendezvous where Saul musters Israel for the relief of Jabesh-gilead.

The Defeat of Adoni-bezek

After Joshua's death, Judah's first action against the Canaanites is fought at Bezek: "And Judah went up; and Yahweh delivered the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hand: and they struck of them in Bezek ten thousand men. And they found Adoni-bezek in Bezek; and they fought against him, and they struck the Canaanites and the Perizzites" (Jdg 1:4-5). The king who gives Bezek its dynastic name flees but is captured: "But Adoni-bezek fled; and they pursued after him, and caught him, and cut off his thumbs and his great toes. And Adoni-bezek said, Seventy kings, having their thumbs and their great toes cut off, gathered [their food] under my table: as I have done, so God has repaid me. And they brought him to Jerusalem, and he died there" (Jdg 1:6-7). The fate Adoni-bezek had inflicted on seventy other kings he himself confesses as God's measured repayment.

Saul's Mustering Point

In the days of Saul, Bezek serves as the assembly site for the army marching against the Ammonites who threaten Jabesh-gilead: "And he numbered them in Bezek; and the sons of Israel were three hundred thousand, and the men of Judah thirty thousand" (1Sa 11:8). The town here is the place where Israel and Judah are counted out as a single force before crossing to deliver Jabesh.