Elath

Elath (also spelled Eloth) is a port-city on the northern shore of the Red Sea, paired throughout the UPDV with its neighbour Ezion-geber on the Gulf of Aqaba. The texts locate it in Edomite territory ("in the land of Edom"), and its history in scripture follows a pattern of repeated possession and loss as Israel, Judah, Edom, and Syria each take and lose it in turn.

A waypoint on the Arabah road

The earliest UPDV mention places Elath on Israel's wilderness route. As the people pass east of the sons of Esau, Moses recalls the turn the nation made: "So we passed by from our brothers the sons of Esau, who dwell in Seir, from the way of the Arabah from Elath and from Ezion-geber. And we turned and passed by the way of the wilderness of Moab" (Deut 2:8). Elath stands here as a named waypoint of the Arabah road, paired with Ezion-geber, marking the southern hinge of the journey before the turn toward Moab.

Solomon's Red-Sea shipping base

Under Solomon, Elath becomes a working seaport. The Kings narrative ties his merchant fleet to the location directly: "And King Solomon made a navy of ships in Ezion-geber, which is beside Eloth, on the shore of the Red Sea, in the land of Edom" (1Ki 9:26). The appositional locator "which is beside Eloth" fixes Eloth as the adjacent settlement to the Ezion-geber shipyard, with the whole installation set "on the shore of the Red Sea" inside Edomite territory.

The Chronicler echoes the picture with Solomon present in person: "Then Solomon went to Ezion-geber, and to Eloth, on the seashore in the land of Edom" (2Ch 8:17). The two cities are exhibited again as twin ports — Ezion-geber the shipyard, Eloth its neighbour on the same gulf — both serving Solomon's southern-sea-trade base.

Uzziah rebuilds Eloth for Judah

Centuries later Uzziah (Azariah) of Judah recovers the city. The Chronicler frames it as the new king's first reported act: "He built Eloth, and restored it to Judah, after that the king slept with his fathers" (2Ch 26:2). The verb "built" carries the sense of a rebuild and refortification — the city had passed out of Judahite control in the intervening period, and Uzziah brings it back into the Judahite orbit at the start of his reign.

Rezin and the Edomite return

Judah's hold on Elath does not last. In the days of Ahaz the city is taken by force in the Syro-Ephraimite pressure on Judah: "At that time Rezin king of Syria recovered Elath to Syria, and drove the Jews from Elath; and the Edomites came to Elath, and dwelt there, to this day" (2Ki 16:6). The verse names three actions in sequence — Rezin recovers the city to Syria, the Jews are driven out, and the Edomites move in and settle. The closing "to this day" register marks the Edomite repossession as the standing situation at the time the narrative was composed; from this point Elath drops out of the UPDV record.