Students visit the hometown of Samson, see where the Ark of the Covenant was brought to and the brook of Elah where David slew Goliath.
By ASHLEIGH ZELLERlachish 224.88(photo credit: Rory Kress)
Today we visited the Shephelah, the foothills west of Jerusalem. Short drives from site to site enabled us to contemplate an incredible amount of biblical history.
Beth-Shemesh is a border city between Dan and Judah. From the tel (ancient ruin), we could see Zorah, Eshtaol, and the Sorek Valley, though Timnah, the home of Samson's girlfriend, was just out of sight. Samson is the most familiar Bible character from this area. He was born in Zorah. While Sorek means "choice vine," because of his Nazarite vow, Samson was prohibited from anything that comes from the vine. The "Lord began to stir him (Samson)…between Zorah and Eshtaol," (Judges 14:25) in the Sorek Valley in the Shephelah. At the end of Samson's life, which was certainly not wholly exemplary, he killed 3,000 men and women in Gaza when he caused a Philistine building to collapse. But his brothers and family brought him back to the Sorek Valley region and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol (Judges 16:31).
We considered another biblical event at the same location. The Philistines had captured the Ark of the Covenant and brought it to Ashdod on the coast. They moved it to Gath and then Ekron, but the Ark caused difficulty for the Philistine gods and people wherever it came. So the men of Ekron put the Ark in a cart and let two milk cows take it where they would. The milk cows would normally not go far from their calves. However, the cows went in a straight line up the Sorek Valley where the Israelites of Beth-Shemesh brought it to the city (1 Samuel 6:1-16). We could see the route the Ark took from where we stood.
Nearby, in the Elah Valley, the site of Azekah was an important city in biblical times. It is another site rich in biblical history. The Amorites were fleeing toward Azekah, and Makkedah (location unknown), as they ran down the Beth Horon ridge route, being pummeled by hailstones (Joshua 10:10). From Azekah's summit, there is a great view down the Elah Valley with Socoh on the south, where the Philistines camped in 1 Samuel 17. Though the Elah Valley separated the camps, it was narrow enough that shouts could be heard from one side to the other. Later, Rehoboam fortified Azekah to protect against Egyptian conquest (2 Chronicles 11:7), but it didn't work: "And [Shishak] took the fortified cities of Judah and came as far as Jerusalem" (2 Chronicles 12:4). Even later, both the Assyrians and the Babylonians destroyed Azekah heading toward Jerusalem.
The Brook Elah flows past Azekah. This is the brook, dry in summer time, where David picked his five smooth stones with which he killed Goliath (1 Samuel 17). David's defeat of Goliath had political and practical implications. The Elah Valley is in Judah's territory. Politically, if Saul, from the tribe of Benjamin, could defeat the Philistines, then Judah would "owe Saul" for his protection. But the real victory went not to Saul of Benjamin, but to David of Judah. Practically, Goliath was dressed with a spear and a sword - close combat weapons. David used a weapon that allowed him to stand at a distance from Goliath. As David did centuries ago, I selected five smooth stones from the Brook Elah to give to my mom who loves the life of David.
Mareshet-gath was, by far, my favorite stop of all the fieldtrips this semester. Micah, a contemporary of Isaiah, was possibly from Mareshet-gath. But, the hill also holds caves that were connected by tunnels carved during the 2nd Jewish revolt (132-135 AD) led by Bar Kochva. Some of the tunnels were so small that even I was forced to army crawl in order to get through parts of them. Most of the tunnels, however, were large enough for me to crawl on my hands and knees, though my back and shoulders at times would touch the sides of the cave. I thought I might get claustrophobic, but decided to forgo my fears and face the bowels of the tunnels, and I do not regret my choice at all! It was great fun!
For lunch we stopped at Bet-guvrin, but before we were given permission to consume our meal, we walked a short way to a Roman amphitheater (small coliseum). Many martyrs were killed in coliseums such as this one. However, by the Byzantine era, gladiatorial games ceased as a form of entertainment.
Lachish was our first stop after lunch. Lachish and Azekah were perhaps the two most important defense cities in the Shephelah, the low foothills flanking Jerusalem's western side. These two sites controlled traffic and armies coming from the west and southwest into Jerusalem. Both Lachish and Azekah were fortified by Rehoboam to guard against Egyptian encroachment (Pharoah Shishak, 2 Chronicles 11:5-12). Later, the Assyrians successfully conquered and exiled the northern kingdom. Hoping to do the same to Judah, they sieged Azekah and Lachish. The siege ramp built at Lachish by the Assyrians has been found and excavated by archaeologists. The Assyrian King Sennacherib was so proud of the conquest of this city that he built a "Lachish Room" in his palace in Nineveh to boast of his victory. Later in biblical history (c. 586 BC), both Lachish and Azekah were mentioned by the prophet Jeremiah (Jeremiah 34:6-7), and in a striking parallel to the biblical account, on an inscription discovered in the gate-room at Lachish dating to that period.
Maresha, yet another city fortified by Rehoboam, was a quick stop where we could see bell-shaped caves carved out of chalk. The chalk walls were so soft that even cut fingernails could scratch the surface. It truly was the consistency of sidewalk chalk. Caves in this region are mentioned in Scripture (Joshua 10:16).
The last spot of the day was also the most rigorous, in my opinion. Gath (Tel Safit) was one of the five primary cities of the Philistines (1 Samuel 6:17-18). In recent archaeological excavations at the site, a potsherd bearing the name "Goliath" was discovered. This shows a cultural parallel to the Goliath of 1 Samuel 17, even though the potsherd dates to 100 years or so after the famous giant. David eventually tried to find refuge from Saul at Gath, but was captured by the Philistine king there. He wrote two Psalms as a result of this experience (Psalms 34 and 56). Second Kings 12:17-18 tells how the king of Syria conquered Gath and then went to Jerusalem where Jehoash, Judah's king, paid tribute to him. Recent excavations show evidence of destruction at Gath that may be the result of this Syrian invasion.
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