Lesson 4

Item

Explanation

Shephelah

Spiritual Lesson:  We learned that a shephelah is a valley that is open at both ends.  We face our spiritual and physical trials in spiritual and personal shephelahs.  Because they are open at both ends, we know that we have a way of escape.

1 Cor 10:13

There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

We learned that in a shephelah Christ is in front of us and the Holy Spirit is behind us. In our example, we saw that Jerusalem and the Temple at the high end of the shephelah.

SHEPHELAH

                3. The Five Valleys: The Shephelah is crossed by five wide valleys which furnish easy access from the plain. These are of importance chiefly because from each of them a way, crossing the "foss," enters one of the defiles by which alone armies could approach the uplands of Judaea. The hills of Judaea are much steeper on the east than on the west, where they fall toward Philistia in long-rolling hills, forming the Shephelah.
 

                (1) The most noteworthy of these is the Vale of Aijalon. It winds its way first in a northeasterly direction, past the Beth-horons, then, turning to the Southeast, it reaches the plateau at el-Jib, the ancient Gibeon, fully 5 miles Northwest of Jerusalem. This is the easiest of all the avenues leading from the plain to the heights, and it is the one along which the tides of battle most frequently rolled from the days of Joshua <Josh 10:12> to those of the Maccabees (1 Macc 3:16 ff, etc.). It occupies also a prominent place in the records of the Crusades.
 

                (2) Wady ec-Surar, the Valley of Sorek, crosses the Shephelah South of Gezer, and pursues a tortuous course past Beth-shemesh and Kiriath-jearim to the plateau Southwest of Jerusalem. This is the line followed by the Jaffa-Jerus Railway.
 

                (3) Wady ec-Sunt runs eastward from the North of Tell ec-Safieh (Gath) up the Vale of Elah to its confluence with Wady ec-Sur which comes in from the South near Khirbet Shuweikeh (Socoh); and from that point, as Wady el-Jindy, pursues its way South of Timnah to the uplands West of Bethlehem.
 

                (4) Wady el- `Afranj crosses the plain from Ashdod (Esdud), passes Beit Jibrin (Eleutheropolis), and winds up through the mountains toward Hebron.
 

                (5) Wady el-Chesy, from the sea about 7 miles North of Gaza, runs eastward with many windings, passes to the North of Lachish, and finds its way to the plateau some 6 miles Southwest of Hebron.
 

                From the Shephelah thus opened the gateways by which Judaea and Jerusalem might be assailed: and the course of these avenues determined the course of much of the history. It is evident that the shephelah lay open to attack from both sides, and for centuries it was the debatable land between Israel and the Philistines. The ark for a time sojourned in this region (<1 Sam 5:6> f). In this district is laid the scene of Samson's exploits <Judg 14-16>. The scene of David's memorable victory over the giant was in the Wady ec-Sunt, between Socoh and Azekah <1 Sam 17:1>. David found refuge here in the cave of Adullam <1 Sam 22:1>. For picturesque and vivid accounts of the Shephelah and of the part it played in history see Smith, Smith, Historical Geography of the Holy Land, 201 ff; A. Henderson, Palestine, Its Historical Geography, 1894.