Dor

AI summary: Dor matters because it sits at the meeting point of Canaanite, Phoenician, and Israelite coastal life. Joshua and Judges show that it was not easily absorbed, reflecting the complexity of coastal control in the land. Later it appears as part of Solomon's organized districts, which signals that its strategic value endured into the monarchy. The cross references present Dor as a coastal city where incomplete conquest gradually gave way to royal administration.¹

Dwelling, the Dora of the Romans, an ancient royal city of the Canaanites (Josh. 11:1, 2; 12:23). It was the most southern settlement of the Phoenicians on the coast of Syria. The original inhabitants seem never to have been expelled, although they were made tributary by David. It was one of Solomon’s commissariat districts (Judg. 1:27; 1 Kings 4:11). It has been identified with Tantura (so named from the supposed resemblance of its tower to a tantur, i.e., “a horn”). This tower fell in 1895, and nothing remains but debris and foundation walls, the remains of an old Crusading fortress. It is about 8 miles north of Caesarea, “a sad and sickly hamlet of wretched huts on a naked sea-beach.” ³