Bible Lands

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“Few travelers who rush across the [coastal] plain realize that the first conspicuous hill they pass in Palestine is also one the most thickly haunted, even in that narrow land into which history has crowded itself.”

Gazing on the modest hill that Tel Gezer, gateway to the Aijalon Valley, the great geographer of the Holy Land, George Adam Smith,¹ continued his reflections about all those who passed through or fell in the Shephelah (pronounced shfay-lá in modern Hebrew, and ha shfay-lá if preceded by the definite article, as almost always in the Bible;² the term is still in use):

“Shade of King Horam [king of Gezer, vanquished by Joshua; Joshua 10:33], what hosts of men have fallen round that citadel of yours! On what camps and columns has it looked down through the centuries, since first you saw the strange Hebrews burst with the sunrise across the hills, and chase your countrymen down Aijalon—that day when the victors the very sun conspire with them to achieve the unexampled length of battle …. If all could rise who have fallen around its base—Ethiopians, Hebrews, Assyrians, Arabs, Turcomans, Greeks, Romans, Celts, Saxons, Mongols, and English—what a rehearsal of the Judgement Day it would be!”

Smith evokes the day when Joshua routed the five Amorite kings and “chased them along the road that goes to Beth-horon, and struck them down as far as Azekah Makkedah” (Joshua 10:10).

But what exactly is this region called “the Shephelah” in the Bible and often translated (perhaps mistranslated) as “lowlands”? Why were so many important biblical sites located there? How can one visualize this landscape so as to see more clearly in the mind’s eye the dramatic biblical events that occurred there?

The importance of the Shephelah depends largely on its relationship to the coastal plain in the west, and to the Judean plateau and wilderness in the east. To the north, beyond the valley of Aijalon, the distinctiveness of the topography of the Shephelah is quickly lost, and to the south below the latitude of Gaza, the Shephelah the merges with the Negev.

The heart of the land of the Bible is Judea, an isolated plateau, shaped roughly like a long rectangle, running north to south. Judea is on average about 15 miles wide and 50 miles long, extending from the hills near Bethel in the north almost to Beer-Sheva in the south. The chief cities on the Judean plateau are Jerusalem in the north and Hebron in the south. Elevations on the plateau range from about 2,000 to 3,300 feet. A modest dip in elevation near Jerusalem provides a saddle in the plateau, convenient for east-west travel across country and consequently important in Jerusalem’s development. East of the Judean plateau, the elevation drops off precipitously—about 4,000 feet in a distance of 10 miles—to the Dead Sea, 1,300 feet below sea level.^a The plateau of Judea forms a barrier that deprives Judea’s eastern flank—after the precipitation drops off—of the moisture carried by the Mediterranean winds; consequently, this eastern flank is a desert—the Wilderness of Judah.

West of Judea lies the Shephelah, a more verdant region, where the moist winds from the west drop an average of 18 inches of rain each year, mostly during the winter growing season. The Shephelah consists of lower lying, rounded hills ranging from 300 to 1,300 feet in elevation. The Shephelah may be pictured as another long rectangle lying parallel to the Judean plateau. About 10 miles wide, the Shephelah is bounded on the west by a rather featureless coastal plain (about 15 miles wide) that extends to the Mediterranean Sea.

Therefore, from east to west, one can distinguish four physiographic provinces: the Judean wilderness, the Judean plateau, the Shephelah, and the coastal plain, in strips of about 10, 15, 10 and 15 miles wide, respectively. These roughly parallel strips occupy a total area about 50 miles long by 50 miles wide between the Mediterranean Sea and the Dead Sea.

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The Judean plateau consists mainly of hard limestones and dolomites resistant to erosion and attractive as a building stone in Jerusalem and elsewhere. But in the geologic past, during Cretaceous time—ending some 65 million years ago—this area was covered by a shallow sea, on the bottom of which accumulated limy muds. These limy muds were then subjected to pressure, became indurated and were warped into a broad arch with steep, down-folded flanks. This folding occurred gradually, culminating about 25 million years ago. The deformation was mild compared to more dramatic mountain-building occurring at about this time elsewhere—in the Alps and Himalayas. On the folded flanks of the Judean plateau, the limestone formation dips to the west and to the east, but is succeeded by a younger (Senonian) formation of softer, more easily erodable chalk. On the western flank of the Judean plateau, this chalk formation is extensively eroded to form a narrow longitudinal valley parallel to the formidable limestone escarpment. What we see here now is a natural moat adjacent to the limestone bulwarks of the Judean plateau.

West of this Senonian valley one finds still younger Eocene formations of mixed limestone and chalk that form the rounded and oval hills of the Shephelah. These hills are protected from rapid erosion by limestone cap rock. The hills are separated from each other by broad alluvial valleys formed by streams that descend from the plateau westward to the Mediterranean Sea. The almost north-south Senonian valley served to some extent as a boulevard connecting cities at the base of the plateau, while the east-west alluvial valleys served as avenues to the coastal cities and to the cities of the Judean plateau.

The coastal plain is also coated by stream alluvium, but underneath this alluvium are marine sediments from an emergent coast. The beaches are made up of sand transported during recent times by coastal currents from the Nile Delta.

The moat to the west of the Judean plateau escarpment is the key to understanding the Shephelah. The Shephelah is not simply a province of knobby or oval foothills, or lower-lands adjacent to the Judean plateau. The foothills of the Shephelah are separated from the plateau by a longitudinal valley. Thus it is not possible to climb up a hill in the Shephelah and follow a ridge line or terrace that will connect with the plateau to the east. To mount the Judean plateau, one must travel along the longitudinal valley or moat and, from there, find a streambed to use as a passage up to the plateau. Any active hiker 050knows that the easiest path up a mountain is along a gradually rising ridge line or ramp, rather than through the more tortuous and dangerous defile of a streambed. But only at the northern edge of the Shephelah, at the Aijalon Valley, where the moat curves around due to faulting, is there a route up to the plateau that at least partly follows a ridge. It is therefore understandable why this route—the way to Bethhoron—was always the one preferred by travelers and armies, who wanted to move from the coastal plain to the Judean plateau. When that route was not advisable—either because it was too strongly defended, too indirect, or for other reasons—the traveler or army had no choice but to follow a valley or streambed up to the Judean plateau.

For a moment now, let us stop and picture this landscape as it may have appeared in biblical times to a traveler on foot or with a donkey, or to an army of foot soldiers and chariots. As long as one stays on the coastal plain, one can find one’s way with ease. Climb any low hill in this coastal plain and one can look out on all sides for miles. The plains are, therefore, well suited for a type of warfare that requires large, well-equipped armies of the kind that imperial powers are good at assembling. From the plains, one can see the high Judean plateau, hazy and blue in the distance to the east, but nevertheless tantalizingly close—an easy day’s march. But one would not want to pursue an enemy force up to the plateau without adequate preparation. The valleys up the side of the plateau are narrow and steep. The streambeds turn this way and that, so at every bend one risks running into an ambush. The only way to assault the plateau is to establish a base camp below and carefully scout out the various paths leading up. The foothills (the Shephelah), therefore, lie in a transition zone, or buffer, between the plains and the plateau—a staging area for an offense, or the first line for a defense, and often the actual theater of a decisive conflict.

The importance of the coastal area in biblical times cannot be overestimated. It contained the vital land-bridge between Egypt and Mesopotamia, “the way of the sea” (Isaiah 9:1), the Via Maris, the great commercial land artery of the Levant. No superpower could rest content, however, with only a fragile control over this narrow strip of land. Up on the plateau, the fortress state of Judah could look down on this highway and recall the days of King Solomon, when greater control over this passageway brought wealth and power. Despite its sensitive position relative to the coastal highway, the southern kingdom of Judah maintained its independence for more than 100 years after the superpowers had succeeded in destroying the northern kingdom of Israel in 722 B.C. And this can be attributed, in part, to Judah’s comparative physical isolation on the Judean plateau. To the east and south of the plateau lay inhospitable desert lands; to the north was a narrow ridge line where fortress cities could block an enemy’s approach to Jerusalem. But to the west, the numerous stream valleys that cut into the plateau were like arrows pointed upward. An enemy army could ascend any of these routes from the Shephelah in a matter of six hours—difficult and dangerous as it might be. So these valley approaches had to be watched, and the first line of defense was at the gateway. In the Shephelah we find Gezer at the entrance to the Aijalon Valley, Bethshemesh by the Sorek Valley, Azekah and Socoh at the Elah Valley, and Maresha and Lachish farther south protecting the wadis (streambeds) that led up to Hebron. Control over the Shephelah was, therefore, vital to the defense of Judah, but it was equally vital to any nation that wanted unequivocal dominance over the coastal road.

In the Bible, we first hear of battles in the Shephelah when Joshua pursued the Amorites down the Valley of Aijalon as far east as Azekah, the Canaanite stronghold that later became one of the gateway defenses of Judah. But while Joshua was apparently able to smash the alliance of kings that threatened Gibeon, the Israelites did not, at the time, have sufficient strength to settle in that area. When the Israelite tribe of Dan later began to establish itself in the Shephelah, it met with competition from the Philistines who were expanding northward and eastward from the coast. The exploits of Samson, during the late 12th or early 11th century B.C., reflect the beginning of the clash over dominance of this territory. Toward the middle of the 11th century B.C., the Philistines were strong enough to encroach upon the Judean plateau. They even succeeded in capturing the Ark of the Covenant, which had been brought out of Shiloh (1 Samuel 4).

During the time of Samuel (mid- to late-11th century B.C.), the menace to the Israelites became increasingly more severe, 051especially when units of the Philistines established garrisons on the plateau itself. This expanded threat galvanized the loose confederacy of tribes into a national force led by the anointed King Saul. The Philistine garrison at Michmash was destroyed by Jonathan and Saul (1 Samuel 14), but the threat continued and, ultimately, Saul lost his life in a further struggle at Mt. Gilboa (1 Samuel 31).

The Shephelah was a stage for many events in the life of David. As a youth he defeated the Philistine Goliath in a duel in the valley of Elah (1 Samuel 17) in the Sephelah. After David became king, the Philistines tried to defeat him in the valley of Rephaim, but David’s knowledge of the climate and terrain was put to good use, and the Philistines were routed (2 Samuel 5:22–25). From then on, the Philistines never constituted a major threat to the Israelites, but they did not entirely give up either. During the reign of Ahaz (753–714 B.C.), the Philistines raided Judah and captured Beth-shemesh, Aijalon and Socoh in the Shephelah (2 Chronicles 28:18). But later, according to 2 Kings 18:8, King Hezekiah (715–687 B.C.) was able to penetrate past the Shephelah and conquer the 052Philistine coastal area as far as Gaza.

In 701 B.C., however, the 14th year of the reign of Hezekiah, Sennacherib, the Assyrian, led his army down and snatched a strip of Judahite territory in the Shephelah and gave it as a reward to his vassels in Ashdod, Ekron and Gaza. It was not until the time of Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon (604–561 B.C.) that the Philistines as a nation were destroyed and their rulers deported (c. 604 B.C.) (Zephaniah 2:4–7).

The Judeans, however, had little time to take comfort from the Philistines’ defeat. The Babylonians were apparently convinced that so long as a state of Judah existed, the coastal land-bridge between Mesopotamia and Egypt was not fully secure. Systematically, the Babylonians set about destroying the Judahite fortresses in the Shephelah. The largest of them, Lachish, was destroyed in 588/586 B.C. Jerusalem and the First Temple fell next (586 B.C.), and then Judah’s leaders were led into exile.

The Shephelah emerged again as “debatable” ground during the second century B.C. when the Jewish leader Judah Maccabee led his outnumbered forces to victory against the Seleucid army at Emmaus (165 B.C.). Once again, superior use of terrain weighed heavily in this battle.

The Shephelah was also fought over during the Crusader period, during Napoleon’s incursion into Palestine in 1799, during General Allenby’s World War I campaign against the Turks and, more recently, during the 1948 Israeli War of Independence.

Today, tourists pass through the Shephelah on the way from Ben-Gurion International Airport to Jerusalem. The distance is relatively short—only about 30 miles—and unless someone points it out, one is unlikely to realize that on the way, for about 8 miles, the highway passes through a stretch of the Aijalon Valley. Nor is it likely, unless a tourist searches out the archaeological remains of great cities such as Azekah and Lachish, that he or she will see more of the Shephelah than this. The scenery is just not that spectacular. Tourist facilities in the Shephelah are few, and the area receives little attention in even the thickest of guidebooks. If one is fond of caves, however, especially those carved out by man (remember the soft Senonian and Eocene chalks), one may make a side trip near Beth Guvrin to see some impressive examples carved underground. More like warrens, some of these caves were dug into the soft chalk of the Shephelah by Bar Kokhba’s forces, to use as hiding places from the Roman army during the Second Jewish Revolt (135/136 A.D.). Some caves contain crosses and were used by early Christians, also in hiding, or as places of hermitage. Farther south, near Tel Maresha are the ruins of a Crusader castle and ruins of the Church of St. Anna. But, on the whole, if the Shephelah is noticed at all it will be in passing, from a car window. The Prophet Isaiah (32:18–19)^b mentions the Shephelah in a vision of the future when its cities will, at last, know peace and quiet—even, perhaps, a tranquility undisturbed by the otherwise ubiquitous tourist.

“Few travelers who rush across the [coastal] plain realize that the first conspicuous hill they pass in Palestine is also one the most thickly haunted, even in that narrow land into which history has crowded itself.” Gazing on the modest hill that Tel Gezer, gateway to the Aijalon Valley, the great geographer of the Holy Land, George Adam Smith,1 continued his reflections about all those who passed through or fell in the Shephelah (pronounced shfay-lá in modern Hebrew, and ha shfay-lá if preceded by the definite article, as almost always in the Bible;2 the term is still in use): […]