In the previous post, I briefly mentioned that below the 1st Century town of Bethsaida lay several earlier cities and civilizations, including the capital city of the kingdom of Geshur. Since that is the level that this year’s excavations will be working on, here is some more information on that.
The Kingdom of Geshur is first mentioned in Deuteronomy 3:14, noting it as a border nation of the tribes of Manasseh. It lay on the north-east of the Sea of Galilee and east of the River Jordan.
Geshur is mentioned again in Joshua 12:4-5, as bordering the territory of King Og of Bashan, and in Joshua 13:13 as one of the kingdoms that the Israelites did not defeat in their conquest of the land.
There are non-biblical references to Geshur in the Amarna Letters (clay tablets found in Egypt in 1887 containing the correspondence between Egypt and other nations dating to approx. 1,350B.C.) which indicate that it was a kingdom of some note.
But the most significant biblical connection is found in 2 Samuel. In Chapter 3:3 we read that King David, no doubt for political reasons, married Ma’achah, the daughter of the King Talmai of Gehsur. Her son by David was Absalom, who after murdering one of his half-brothers, fled to safety with his grandfather in Geshur and then led a rebellion against David (See 2 Samuel 13-18). His rebellion was no doubt fueled by his connection to the powerful kingdom of Geshur which led him to believe that he should be the rightful successor to the throne of Israel. He was wrong and died in the rebellion.
However, Absalom’s daughter, also named Ma’achah, married Solomon’s son, Rehoboam (See 1 Kings 15:2, and try not to think too much about the severely twisted yet frighteningly straight family tree!). Rehoboam took the kingdom on Solomon’s death, and sadly oversaw its split into two separate kingdoms, the northern kingdom of Israel, and the southern kingdom of Judah (over which Rehoboam ruled.)
The Kingdom of Geshur was conquered by the Assyrian’s during an invasion in 732B.C. Archaelogical evidence indicates that there was a lengthy siege followed by a final successful attack. The city was destroyed and remained deserted for 300 years.