BIBLE HISTORY DAILY

Cities in the Bible

Rethinking translations in light of archaeology

When we read the Bible, it is easy for our modern conceptions of words to influence how we understand the text. A perfect example is the word “city.” With rare exceptions, Biblical Hebrew has only one word for a permanent settlement, ‘ir, and it is used for anything from the smallest rural village to the most bustling metropolis. More often than not, English translators will follow their ancient forebears and simply use the catch-all word “city” in place of ‘ir. This, in turn, lead to false impressions about cities in the Bible, as well as the stories and events that occurred in and around them.

As John W. Herbst writes in his article “Big City, Small Town—Why Size Matters” in the Winter 2025 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review, the Bible uses ‘ir to describe some of the best known cities of the ancient world, including Nineveh, Babylon, Memphis, and Thebes, which housed populations of 100,000 or more. By contrast, according to the archaeological evidence, Jerusalem at its peak during the eighth century BCE was somewhere between 12,000 and 25,000 residents. The second largest Israelite settlement, Dan, housed roughly 5,000 people. As Herbst writes, “No other Israelite settlement had more than 3,000 residents, and fewer than 20 had as many as 1,000.”

These population figures might immediately draw to mind the various numerical claims recorded in the biblical text. For instance, if Dan’s population was roughly 5,000, how could 28,600 equipped fighting men from the tribe of Dan join David’s army (1 Chronicles 12:35)? While we can jump through various mental hoops to try and make the text work with the archaeological data, it is more likely that the Hebrew word often translated as “thousand,” eleph, had a range of different meanings related to military units and even cattle. A related word, alluph, is used for the chiefs of Edom (Genesis 36:15–19).

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In light of the archaeological evidence, it seems that the vast majority of the “cities” in the Bible were in fact what we would call “villages.” A few of the larger settlements might even be considered “towns.” The Bible itself testifies to this. For instance, even though Bethlehem is designated as an ‘ir, it is clear from the story of David’s beginnings that his hometown was considered small—a tradition that remained alive in the prophetic literature as well (Micah 5:2). Though small, Bethlehem was evidently still considered strategic enough for the Philistines to station a garrison there (2 Samuel 23:14–17).

Language is organic and constantly changing. For instance, the words “city” and “town” convey different ideas in modern English than they did in centuries past. In England, settlements weren’t traditionally designated “cities” unless they were home to a cathedral, regardless of population, whereas “town” was used to designate settlements that had markets. The word “village” or “borough” was used to designate most everything else. Even today, many large cities in England are still officially designated villages and boroughs.

As the example of the Hebrew word ‘ir demonstrates, translating the Bible into other languages is not as easy a task as some might think. Many factors need to be taken into consideration, including the archaeological data—valuable contextual information that simply did not exist when some of the more famous Bible translations first came into being. Translations—and our conceptions of the texts—should always be able to change when new information comes to light.

For more on how scholars have translated words for towns, villages, and cities in the Hebrew Bible, read John W. Herbst’s article “Big City, Small Town—Why Size Matters” in the Winter 2025 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.

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Subscribers: Read the full article “Big City, Small Town—Why Size Matters” by John W. Herbst in the Winter 2025 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.

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