Earlier in the week at the SBL meeting I visited a few minutes with Prof. Aren Maeir, excavator of Tell es-Safi/Gath. He is back home in Israel, and writes this morning about the cease fire between Gaza and Israel.
Well, thank g-d a cease fire has been declared and that it appears to be holding.
I have heard an unconfirmed report that the Palestinians even shot a missile at Tell es-Safi/Gath! I’ll have to check this out, but perhaps someone in the Hamas does not like what we are finding at the site? (is nothing sacred? 🙂
UPDATE: Uri Kaizer, the warden for the Tell es-Safi/Gath region from the Israel Nature and Parks Authority has informed me that the missile did not hit the site, but rather fell a km or two to the west.
In any case, I pray that things will stay quiet and we can all get back to living our regular lives.
I would be nice if in the future, when describing the period following this last round of fighting, the following could be said: “The land was quiet for forty years”…
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You will recognize the last phrase in Maeir’s post as the common refrain from the book of Judges.
So the land had rest forty years. (Judges 3:11a ESV)
The following photo of Tel es-Safi/Gath shows the abundant wheat fields in the plain to the west of the tel.
Tel es-Safi/Gath with wheat fields in the plain to the west. Photo by Ferrell Jenkins.
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