Shepherd and goats by the riverbed of the Elah Valley below Azekah. Goliath : Sentries at Azekah would have cheered as they watched Goliath from Gath strut by to challenge the Israelites. Copyright by Gila Yudkin. Map of the Shephelah with Azekah overlooking the Elah Valley.
Hezekiah is mentioned in an inscription on two tablets found in Nineveh northern Iraq where the Assyrian king either Sargon II or Sennacherib bragged that he had captured the stronghold of Azekah:.
View from Tel Azekah towards the east. Courtesy of Professor Oded Lipschits. Professor Lipschits' team surveying Azekah in Also a town of Judah, but in the mountain district. Joshua It has been discovered about 10 miles southwest of Hebron; bearing, like the other Socoh, the name of esh-Shuweikeh. Joshua ; the Philistines "gathered together at Socoh, which belongeth to Judah, and encamped between Socoh and Azekah" 1 Samuel ; it is mentioned as one of the districts from which Solomon drew his supplies 1 Kings , the King James Version "Sochoh" ; the association of Socoh in this verse with Hepher is worth noticing in connection with 1 Chronicles "Heber".
Soco the King James Version "Shoco" was one of the cities fortified by Rehoboam for the defense of Judah 2 Chronicles ; it was captured by the Philistines in the time of Ahaz 2 Chronicles The site is, without doubt, Khirbet esh Shuweikeh Shuweikeh is a diminutive of Shaukeh, "a thorn" , a rounded, elongated hilltop, showing clear traces of ancient city walls. The situation is one of considerable natural strength on the south side of the Vale of Elah just where the Wady ec Cur makes a sweep to the West and becomes the Wady es Sunt.
In the left background is a eastern section of the valley of Elah. Behind are the mountains of Gush-Etzion and Hebron. A convenient place to start your hike is on the western side of the hill, where you can turn off the main road and leave you car. On your way up you may notice a large tree that planted itself into one of the underground cisterns.
You need to be careful while climbing up the hillside — not only due to the height difference of 70m from the bottom of the valley to the top of the hill, but also due to snakes such as this skin. On top of the hill are traces of walls, roughly hewn stones, ruins of houses, and cisterns. This site was not yet excavated , although excavation permits are in the pipeline. The antiquities get denser as you get closer to the top.
A view from the south side of the top of the hill, looking westwards. The major ruins cover the top of the western hill, with an area of about m wide south-north by m west-east.
Some parts on the south side are clear of visible structures, since they are buried underground. The top of the hill is at an altitude of m. An eastern view of the ruins in the center of the hill is shown in the following picture. Tell Sochoh ruins continue to the east, where they end in the middle of the hill top. The next picture shows a view from the top of the ancient site, looking eastwards to the eastern edge of the valley of Elah.
The Kibbutz Netiv Halamed-Hei is on the left side, while the satellite dishes are seen in the far center. On the far right side is where the valley of Elah turns to the south where the ancient site of Adullam is located it was also mentioned in the list of fortified cities by Rehobam. To the east of the ruins of Sochoh are the ruins of Khirbet Shuweikeh.
The Arabic name of the ruins — Shuweikeh — actually preserves the ancient Hebrew Biblical name, although Sochoh is located on the western hill. Damun, perhaps Ephes-dammim, is about the same distance to the east, and Azekah and Shaaraim, no doubt, were in this neighborhood. To complete the catalogue, the ruins which must be those of the upper one of Eusebius's two villages stand on the southern slope of the Wady es-Sumt, which with great probability is the Valley of Elah, the scene of Goliath's death see Tobler, Dritte Wanderung, p.
The ruins are extensive, with many caverns, "nearly half a mile above the bed of the wady, a kind of natural terrace covered with green fields in spring , and dotted with gray ruins" Porter, Handb. From this village probably came "Antigonus of Soco," who lived about the commencement of the 3d century B.
He was remarkable for being the earliest Jew who is known to have had a Greek name; for being the disciple of the great Simon, surnamed "the Just," whom he succeeded as president of the Sanhedrim; for being the master of Sadok, the reputed founder of the Sadducees; but most truly remarkable as the author of the following saying which is given in the Mishna Pirke Aboth, 1, 3 as the substance of his teaching, "Be not ye like servants who serve their lord that they may receive a reward.
But be ye like servants who serve their lord without hope of receiving a reward, but in the fear of heaven.
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