Mount Tabor is an isolated, dome shaped hill that rises abruptly in the middle of the Jezreel Valley, in the Lower Galilee. Its rounded silhouette, visible from a great distance, has always made it a natural landmark in Israel’s landscape.
In the time of the judges, the prophetess Deborah ordered Barak to gather ten thousand men there before going down to face the war chariots of the Canaanite commander Sisera. Israel’s victory that day is celebrated in the Song of Deborah, in Judges 5.
The mountain is also mentioned as a boundary marker between the tribes of Zebulun, Issachar, and Naphtali, and it appears in poetic and prophetic texts of the Old Testament, at times as a symbol of strength, at times as an image of spiritual entrapment.
Centuries later, Christian tradition began identifying Tabor as the mountain of Jesus’ Transfiguration, when Peter, James, and John saw him shine with glory alongside Moses and Elijah. The Gospels do not name the mountain, and some scholars prefer Mount Hermon as an alternative site.
