In the Buffer Zone

Heading down to the Shephelah it was easy to see how the terrain changed from deep narrow valleys and tall hills to the wider valleys and descending hills as they pointed to the coastal plain. In this buffer zone between the hill country and the coastal plain there are five main valleys to use as passage between these two different types of terrain.
Our first stop was at Beth-shemesh, which is in the Sorek Valley. This was the land that Samson was born and grew up in—the tribe of Dan. Although the valley produces good wine Samson could not have any because he had taken the Nasserite vow. Samson took the road through the Sorek to go to Ashkelon to kill the one thousand Philistines to pay for the bet he had. Then when his fiancé is given to another man he goes and burns the Philistinian fields and vineyards. He also took the gates of the city from Gaza to Hebron, which is about a forty mile walk in a straight line. Therefore, we can easily see that it is the Spirit of the Lord that energizes Samson. It was in the Sorek Valley, when he was going to see his girlfriend, Timnah, where he killed a lion (Judges 14:1-9). The woman Delilah, who turned him over to the Philistines, was from the Sorek too. Another major thing that might have happened right after the time of Samson was the return of the Ark of the Covenant from the Philistines. The Israelites took the Ark to battle against the Philistines, thinking that they could manipulate God like other people did with their gods, but it was taken. After it had gone to Ashdod, Gath and Ekron the Philistines sent it back because of all the havoc it was causing in those cities. They put it on a cart and the two cows took it through the Sorek Valley over to Beth-shemesh.
The next stop was south from the Sorek Valley at Azekah, in the Valley of Elah. When the Amorites were escaping from Joshua it says in Joshua 10:11 that the hail stones that were shooting down on them fell “as far as Azekah”. In Sennacherib’s boasting about conquering cities in Judah, he stated that Azekah was an “eagle’s nest”. From the hilltop that the city is on, it is easy to see the coastal plain and the hill country, thus making it a vital defensive spot when holding against those coming from the coastal plain. 1 Samuel 17 describes one of the most told stories that is always the template of a comeback. The event between David and Goliath happened in the middle part of the Elah Valley between Azekah and Socoh.
From there we went to caves that were built in 135 AD during the second revolt. The entrance ways were tiny and would have to be crawled through to get to a bigger room. It was very small, the claustrophobic could probably not even look into the crawling space it was that small. They would get their enemy in there and kill them as they came in, not making it easy for them to escape. We then went over to a Roman period amphitheater in Bet-guvrim where plays were held and gladiators fought.

We then went to the prized possession of Sennacherib, Lacish. When the city was conquered by the Israelites they were told not to destroy any of the buildings, so there is no clear distinction, in the archeology, from the Canaanite and Israelite periods. This city was boasted about by Sennacherib because he could not take Jerusalem since God killed one hundred eighty-five thousand men in one night. It was taken again by Nebuchadnezzar in 501 BC. In some pieces of writing found in the city Azekah and Lacish were the last two cities standing.
While we were driving back to the Elah Valley, we were pointed to the area where Asa repelled an attack by an Ethiopian named Zerah (2 Chon 14:9-15). We then went to a brook where David would have taken the five stones and Bill showed us how the people would have slung the stones. Then we went up to an early excavation site that could be either Aphas Damim or Sharime (meaning ‘two gates’)(I'm not sure if that is how you spell them), in the Elah Valley. This town, dating back to the time of David (900 BC), had two gates and was strongly fortified. There are only a few areas where they have dug since they started excavating only a year ago. One of the guys, Josh, showed me and Jon a small cave in the ground where they had thrown all the pot shards and there were tons of pieces that had been discarded. I found a whole handle attached to the pot, but not the whole pot, pretty cool find. This is the only excavation that they have done.