Judea and Lod remained within the borders of the Samarian province. This did not prevent many Jews from continuing to live in the city. The change in Lod's status as a city followed the Hasmonean revolt against Greek rule.

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

In 166 BCE, the Jews, led by Mattathias the Hasmonean and his five sons, rebelled against the foreign Greek rule and restored Israel's independence and the Temple service. They began the revolt in their hometown of Modi'in, near Lod, and from there it spread to the nearby city of Lod and throughout the Judean hills. After Judah Maccabee fell in battle against the Greeks in 161 BCE, his brother Jonathan continued the revolt with great success. In 152 BCE, Jonathan the Hasmonean annexed Lod to the territory he had conquered and liberated from the Greeks. The action was retroactively approved by the Seleucid ruler Alexander Balas and later received additional approval from the ruler Demetrius II.

In an official letter to Jonathan, as recorded in the books of Josephus, he wrote: "King Demetrius to Jonathan his brother and to the people of the Jews, peace. We have sent you a copy of the letter that I wrote to Lasthenes our relative, so that you may know. King Demetrius to Lasthenes his father, peace. I have decided to show kindness to the Jewish people, who are our friends and fulfill their obligations to us, because of their love for us. I hereby return to them the three cities of Ephraim, Lod, and Ramathaim, which were annexed to Judea from the land of Samaria, along with all that belongs to them and what was taken by the kings who preceded me from those who offered sacrifices in Jerusalem..." (From: Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book XIII).

The Maccabees' victories and the establishment of their state led to the flourishing and prosperity of the Hasmonean State: the population grew, cities expanded, and new villages were founded. Entire provinces: Samaria, Edom, Galilee, the Golan, and the Negev were annexed to the Hasmonean State. Technology advanced: sophisticated oil presses, improvements in construction, minting coins, imports of new varieties of vegetables and fruits from Egypt, and large exports of olive oil and honey. With its annexation to the Judean region, Lod became a provincial city in Judea and was no longer considered part of Samaria, as it had been at the beginning of the period.

The Jewish population of Lod grew, as did the many villages that surrounded it in the Lowlands (Shefela) and the Lod Valley. These were the conditions in Jewish Lod at the beginning of the Roman period, which lasted six hundred years.

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