Ahlab

Ahlab appears only in Judges 1:31, in the candid list of Asher's failures: the tribe could not drive out Acco, Sidon, Ahlab, Achzib, Helbah, Aphik, or Rehob. The site is identified with Khirbet el-Mahalib about 6 km northeast of Tyre, on the northern coastal plain — well within Asher's allotted territory but where Phoenician urban culture was strongest. Sennacherib's annals mention an "Ahalab" he captured during his 701 BCE Phoenician campaign — probably the same site. Asher's incomplete conquest became the spiritual diagnosis Judges 2:3 names: the Canaanites left in the land would be "thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare unto you."