Azekah (Hebrew: עֲזֵקָה, ʿazēqā) was an ancient town in the Shephela ("lowlands of Judea") guarding the upper reaches of the Valley of Elah, about 26 km (16 mi) northwest of Hebron.

The current tell (ruin) by that name, also known as Tel Azeka (Hebrew: תל עזקה, ʿtel azēqā) or Tell Zakariya, has been identified with the biblical Azekah,[1] dating back to the Canaanite period.

Due to its location in the Elah Valley it functioned as one of the main Judahite border cities, sitting on the boundary between the lower and higher Shfela.

[5] In a clay tablet inscribed in Assyrian script Azekah is mentioned as being a fortified town, during the time of Sennacherib's military excursion in the country.

[10] In 1838, British-American explorer Edward Robinson passed by the site of Tell Zakariyeh, which stood to the left of the modern village bearing the same name (Az-Zakariyya, which was depopulated in 1948 and later settled by the moshav Zekharia).

[27] Theodosius, archdeacon and pilgrim to the Holy Land, produced a Latin map and itinerary of his travels in Palestine, entitled De Situ Terrae Sanctae ca.

518-530, in which he wrote: "De Eleutheropoli usque in locum, ubi iacet sanctus Zacharias, milia VI" [= "From Beit Gubrin, as far as to the place where lies the holy [prophet], Zechariah, there are 6 milestones"].

[28] Israeli archaeologist Yoram Tsafrir has identified this "resting place of the holy Zechariah" with the nearby Arab village of the same name, Az-Zakariyya, north of Beit Gubrin.

[29] Tsafrir notes that Theodosius' location corresponds with the "Beth Zechariah" inscribed on the Madaba Map, and which site is placed alongside of Saphitha (now Kh.

[31] Robinson thought that Zakariyeh, as applied to a village, referred here to the site of the Caphar Zechariæ mentioned by Sozomen in the region of Eleutheropolis.

[34] Excavations by the English archaeologists Frederick J. Bliss and R. A. Stewart Macalister in the period 1897-1900 at Tel Azekah revealed a fortress, water systems, hideout caves used during Bar Kokhba revolt and other antiquities, such as LMLK seals.

[36] In 2008 and 2010, a survey of the site was conducted by Oded Lipschits, Yuval Gadot, and Shatil Imanuelov, on behalf of Tel-Aviv University's Institute of Archaeology.