Korzhenkov and Mazor (2014) suggest that an earthquake destroyed Rehovot-ba-Negev and led to its abandonment, dating the event to "the end of Byzantine sovereignty" in the region.

They describe a range of seismic damage patterns observed at the site, including tilted and shifted walls, rotations of individual stones, and cases where one wall appears to have pushed against an adjacent perpendicular wall. They also note openings between perpendicular walls, throughgoing joints, and a crack that cuts across the water reservoir. In addition, they report the collapse of the strong layer that covered the water reservoir.