Question I. What [is] Asor, and its King?

In the Northern part of the promised land was the city of Asor, and indeed afterward in the tribe of Nephtali, as is said below (ch. 19, v. 35). Josephus seems to write [that] it was situated above the lake Samachonitis [Semechonitis] (bk. 5, ch. 6); but there he puts for it ἄσωρον [asōron], which in ch. 4 of Judges (v. 2) is called “Charoseth” [Haroseth]. But here (v. 10) Asor is celebrated for [its] power and dignity, because “of old, among all the kingdoms of Northern Canaan, it held the principate” — or, as in the Hebrew, “it was the head” — not only of the other cities, but of “the other kingdoms,” and indeed “of all those”; concerning which afterward in the 70 [LXX]: ἄρχουσα πασῶν τῶν βασιλειῶν τούτων [archousa pasōn tōn basileiōn toutōn, “ruling over all these kingdoms”]. And therefore the Latin Interpreter — or at least, in the margin (whence it crept into the text), some Glossator — called it “the best-fortified [munitissima].” And the Rabbis note (in Bereshith Rabba, ch. 35) [that] this [city] was [one] of the three cities which the Canaanites had chosen for making war on the Israelites. [That] it was situated on a high hill, [the text] shows (v. 13). But Brocardus says [that] it was not far distant from Libanus, and [that it was] only six miles from Caesarea Philippi, and eight from Tyre. Teglath-phalassar [Tiglath-pileser] took it (4 Kings [2 Kings] 15:29); and in its plain Jonathas [Jonathan] obtained a notable victory (1 Macc. 11:67). In the Hebrew it is written, with a rougher letter, “Chatsor” [Ḥatsor] — perhaps because it was constructed of many villages and hamlets, which are called “chetsarim” [ḥatserim]: as Plutarch relates of Athens (in [the life of] Theseus), [and] Arias Montanus of Arocium in Spain (Judg. 4). Or [so called] because it abounded in many villas and courts [atria]; whence also by Origen (hom. 15) it is expounded [as] “a court [aula].” More softly, the 70 [render it] ἀσώρ [asōr] — since certain Greeks seem to have wished to express the roughness of that letter by saying νασώρ [nasōr], or perhaps rather κασώρ [kasōr], just as in Luke 3 [a name] is called κωσάμ [kōsam, “Cosam”], and elsewhere τεβάκ [tebak]. In the following ch. 12 it is written ἀσώμ [asōm]. And its King [was] called “Jabin” — as [one] who “understands,” or “will make [others] understand”; but by the 70, ιαβίς [iabis]. And this [Jabin] is different from that one, concerning whom [in] Judges 4 and Psalm 82[83].