Zior

Zior appears once in Scripture in Joshua's catalog of Judah's sixth hill country district: "Arab, and Dumah, and Eshean, And Janum, and Beth-tappuah, and Aphekah, And Humtah, and Kiriath-arba, which is Hebron, and Zior; nine cities with their villages" (Joshua 15:52-54). The town occupied the rugged Judean highlands south of Hebron in the Calebite heartland that David would later flee through during his fugitive years from Saul. Zior is generally identified with the modern village of Sair about five miles northeast of Hebron, where the Arabic name preserves the ancient form and Iron Age remains have been excavated.