Antiquity Ancient Yodfat, , which was situated to the southeast of the modern moshav, is mentioned in the
Mishnah as a walled
Israelite village dating from the time of
Joshua corresponding with the
Iron Age. "Jotapata may be the same as Jotbah which was the birthplace of
Meshullemeth ... the mother of
Amon, king of Judah (2 Kgs. 21:19)." Archaeological explorations of the site, however, have thus far revealed a modest village established sometime during the
Hellenistic period between the fourth and third centuries BCE. As the
Hasmonean kings extended their influence into the Galilee during the last decades of the second century BCE, a change of population occurred at Yodfat and the village was populated by
Jews.
First Jewish–Roman War By the first century CE Yodfat had expanded to encompass an area of 50 dunams (13 acres). Its siege and subsequent destruction in 67 CE are described in
Josephus'
The Jewish War, his chronicle of the
First Jewish–Roman War. Led by future emperor
Vespasian, three
Roman legions—
Legio V Macedonica,
X Fretensis, and
XV Apollinaris—besieged Yodfat, meeting strong Jewish resistance. After 47 days the city fell by treachery, and Josephus describes the death of 40,000 Jews and the enslavement of 1200 women and children. Yodfat was razed and burnt on the
first of the Hebrew month of
Tammuz (July 20, 67). While a few dozen remaining fighters committed suicide, Josephus managed to survive this pact and was captured by the Romans. After its capture by the Romans, Yodfat was re-established at a nearby site by refugees from
Jerusalem, among them the priestly family of Miyamin (). Inscriptions describe it as the sixth
miśmār or
priestly division of the era. "[A]n inscription bearing the names of the
miśmarōṯ (priestly wards), which was initially discovered in September 1970 by
W. Müller and then, independently, by P. Grjaznevitch within a mosque in
Bayt al-Ḥāḍir, a village situated near Tan‘im, east of
Ṣanʻā’."). During the 2025
Twelve-Day War between Iran and Israel, an agricultural building in Yodfat was hit by shrapnel from a ballistic missile fired by Iran after the ceasefire began. ==Economy==