In the Books of Joshua and Judges, which describe the conquest of the Land of Israel and the settlement of the tribes, the name Lod is not mentioned at all.

In the list of Kings of the Land of Israel who surrendered to Joshua (chapter 12), the names of the cities of Afek and Gezer appear, which are mentioned in the conquests of Thutmose III, but the name of Lod is not found.

The city is mentioned in the Bible in the Book of Chronicles I, Chapter 8, verse 12. There it is written, “...and Shemer built Ono and Lod and its towns.” According to Talmudic tradition, Lod was a walled city from the time of Joshua bin Nun, but was destroyed during the time of the Concubine in Gibeah. This period is known as a time of great moral decline among the people. According to the Book of Judges (Chapter 19), a Levite stayed with his concubine at her father's house in Bethlehem. The men of the city abused the concubine all night until she died. The Levite cut up his concubine's body and sent it to all the tribes of Israel to show them what had been done. This act led to war between the tribes and the tribe of Benjamin.

From: Vekart, Ora, 1977, Lod - Historical Geography, published by Goma and the Municipality of Lod - Cherikover.

According to archaeologist Benjamin Mazar, Canaanite Lod was destroyed even earlier and remained in ruins for a long time after the conquest, until it was rebuilt by the family of the children of Benjamin, who migrated westward from their land and settled in the Lod area.

The City of Lod was rebuilt by King Asa. When the exiles returned from Babylon during the return to Zion (in 539 BCE), the people of Lod settled once again in their city, which they had abandoned when they went into exile after the destruction of the First Temple (in 586 BCE). “The children of Lod, Hadid, and Ono were seven hundred and twenty five.” (Ezra 2:33).

During the Persian period, Lod was part of the province of Samaria, and this remained the case after Alexander the Great conquered the Land of Israel in 333 BCE. He probably passed through Lod, via Beit Horon, on his way to Jerusalem and from there to Persia and India.

From: Zohar Baram, From Emmaus to Lod: From the Lowlands (Shefela) to the Sea