[3] Khirbet er-Ra'i is situated on a hill on the Lachish River's southern bank, between the upper and lower parts of the Shfela (Shephelah).

[4] The site was noted on the PEF Survey of Palestine maps as Tôr el Hiry, meaning "The mount of the granary; a cliff formed apparently by a landslip" according to E.H. Palmer, 1881.

[1] It was noted by Yehudah Dagan in 1992, and first excavated in October 2015 and April 2016 on behalf of the Institute of Archaeology at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Israel Antiquities Authority and under the direction of by Yosef Garfinkel and Saar Ganor.

[5] Khirbet er-Ra'i appears to have been the main site in the region after the fall of Canaanite Lachish in the late 12th and early 11th centuries BCE.

[6] In 2021, archaeologists Garfinkel and Ganor announced the discovery of a proto-Canaanite inscription dating to the 12th century BCE in Khirbet ar-Ra'i, a time period seen by many as the historical setting for the Biblical Book of Judges.