VALLEY OF ELAH. (WADY ES-SŬMT.) SCRIPTURE NOTICES. "Now the Philistines gathered together their armies to battle, and were gathered together at Shochoh, which belongeth to Judah, and pitched between Shochoh and Azekah, in Ephes-Dammin. And Saul and the men of Israel were gathered together, and pitched by the valley of Elah, and set the battle in array against the Philistines. And the Philistines stood on a mountain on the one side, and Israel stood on a mountain on the other side: and there was a valley between them. And (David) took his staff in his hand, and chose him five smooth stones out of the brook (valley), and put them in a shepherd's bag which he had, even in a scrip; and his sling was in his hand: and he drew near to the Philistine."-1 Samuel xvii. See whole chapter. (xxi. 9.) "We left Beit Nettîf at seven o'clock, descending immediately south-westerly into Wady es-Sumt, in order to strike again the Askelon branch of the ancient road, which passes down this valley. The hill-side was covered with fine groves of olive-trees, some of them planted in rows like a regular orchard, which is not usually the case. Twenty minutes brought us to the bottom, and we now followed down Wady es-Sumt on a course west by north. This valley is formed by the junction of three (others1), at a point directly south of Beit Nettîf.... The bottom is a fine fertile plain, with moderate hills on each side. It was now covered with fields of grain, except towards the western part, where are a good many of the (thorny) trees, here called Sumt, from which the valley takes its name. We crossed the 1 Wady el-Musŭrr, coming from the east-north-east; Wady esSur, a large valley from the south, and a smaller one from the north-north-east, just under Beit Netuîf. water-bed of the valley, now dry, and soon came upor the ancient road, which had followed down Wady elMusurr. The other, or Gaza branch, goes off more to the left, and crosses Wady es-Sûr near an immense Butm-tree, about twenty minutes south of the junction of the vallies. On our left, in a gap of the southern hill, we now had the ruins of Shuweikeh, the Socoh of the plain of Judah, which is enumerated with Jarmuth, Adullam, and Azekah,' and lay nine Roman miles from Eleutheropolis, towards Jerusalem. It was therefore not far from Jarmuth, as it now also lies not far distant from Yarmûk, about half an hour. "Another mention of Socoh enables us to determin the ancient name of this fine valley, and fixes it as the scene of a memorable event in Scripture history, the combat of David and Goliath. We are told that the Philistines were gathered together at Socoh, which belongeth to Judah, and pitched between Socoh and Azekah. And Saul and the men of Israel were gathered together and pitched by the valley of Elah, and set the battle in array against the Philistines. And the Philistines stood on a mountain on the one side, and Israel stood on a mountain on the other side; and there was a valley between them. "The mention of Azekah shows that the Socoh meant can only be this place; and the valley between the armies, the valley of Elah, in which the combat took place, could well be no other than the present Wady es-Sumt." It took its name Elah, of old, from the Terebinth (Butm), of which the largest specimen we saw in Palestine still stands in the vicinity; just as now it takes its name Es-Sumt (Sunt) from the acacias which are scattered in it. "We now pursued our way down the valley, re 1 Joshua xv. 35. 2 Monastic tradition points out the place of David's combat as a spot not less than five or six hours distant from Socoh, and few, if any, travellers before Dr. Robinson discovered the mistake. joicing in having thus been able to discover and visit the spot were the youthful warrior, in firm reliance on the God of Israel, made his first glorious essay as the champion of his people."-ROBINSON's Researches, vol. ii. ZORAH, SOCOH, GIBEAH, GEDOR, ZANOAH, TIM- SCRIPTURE NOTICES. ... "AND there was a certain man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah; and his wife was barren And the angel of the Lord appeared unto the woman, and said unto her... Lo, thou shalt conceive, and bear a son; and no razor shall come upon his head . . . and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines. . . And the woman bare a son, and called his name Samson . . . And the Spirit of the Lord began to move him at times in the camp of Dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol."Judges xiii. 2, &c. ... "Then his brethren . . . buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol, in the burying place of Manoah his father."-Judges xvi. 31. [Josh. xv. 33, xix. 41; Judges xviii. 2, 11; 2 Chron. xi. 10.] SOCOH, OR SHOCHOH. (SHUWEIKEH.) SCRIPTURE NOTICE. "Now the Philistines gathered together their armies to battle, and were gathered at Shochoh, which belongeth to Judah, and pitched between Shochoh and Azekah, in Ephes-dammin."-1 Samuel xvii. 1. [2 Chron. xxviii. 18.] 66 GIBEAH (JEB’AH), GEDOR (JEDÛR), ZANOAH (ZÂNŬ'A). (AMONG the cities of Judah in the mountains) Gibeah... Gedor."—Joshua xv. 57, 58. "(In the valley) Zanoah."-Joshua xv. 34. [1 Chron. xii. 7; Neh. xi. 30.] TIMNATH. (TIBNEH.) SCRIPTURE NOTICE. "AND Samson went down to Timnath, and saw a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines. And he came up, and told his father and his mother, and said, I have seen a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines, now, therefore, get her for me to wife."-Judges xix. 1, &c. (See the whole of this and the following chapter.) [2 Chron. xxviii. 18.] JARMUTH. (YARMUK.) SCRIPTURE NOTICES. "AND they brought forth those five kings unto (Joshua) out of the cave, the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmuth, the king of Lachish, and the king of Eglon... and... Joshua smote them, and slew them. . ."-Joshua x. 23, 26, &c. 66 [Neh. xi. 29.] (In the valley) Jarmuth..."-Joshua xv. 35. Dr. Robinson visited two lofty eminences, Beit 'Atâb and Beit Nettîf, the latter in the neighbourhood of 1 It is doubtful whether the narrative in 1 Chron. iv. 39 refers to this place. 66 Wady Sumt, the former further north, in hope of being able to identify from their summits several ancient places in the surrounding country, which, he says, "is full of sites of ruins and villages, some inhabited, and some deserted, at least for portions in the year." From Beit 'Atâb we could see the mouth of Wady esSurâr, as it issued from the mountains and turned across the plain beyond. It was here a fine deep valley, with a ruin in it called 'Ain Shems, which we afterwards visited and identified with Bethshemesh,' while on the high ground north of it was seen the site of Sur'ah, in which we could not but recognise the ancient Zorah, the birth-place of Samson, first given to Judah, but afterwards assigned to Dan." The village of Beit-Nettîf lies upon the highest part of the high ridge situated between the two great vallies of Sumt and Sur'âr, which were spread out like fertile plains, full of fields of grain. "We found the view from this high spot to embrace a larger number of villages and sites than almost any other we visited. At about one hour's distance, upon the hills south of Wady es-Sumt, lies Shuweikeh, answering to the Socoh of the plain of Judah. The village of Jeb'ah, situated upon an isolated hill in the midst of Wady elMusŭrr, on the south side of its bed and near the mountains, is doubtless the Gibeah of the mountains of Judah; and Jedûr, a place with ruins on the brow of the high mountain ridge towards the south, is the Gedor of the same mountains. In Sur'ah and 'Ain Shems, we have the Zorah and Bethshemesh of Scripture. Not far from Zorah lay also Zanoah,3 which was re-inhabited after the exile; and to this the name and 1 See Bethshemesh. 2 See more of this Socoh under "Valley of Elah." There was also a Socoh of the mountains, mentioned under "Maon." 3 Another Zanoah, and also another Timnah, lay upon the mountains of Judah, (Joshua xv. 56, 57;) and a third Timnah, or Thamna, lay not far from Lydda. |