The Shephelah |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
Written by Stephen Langfur |
||||
Page 1 of 2 The word "Shephelah" means "low place" in Hebrew. The region was low, indeed, from the viewpoint of people on the mountain of Judah. It consists of hills and valleys, the hills reaching 1500 feet above sea level (whereas the mountain reaches 3000 feet).
In the Bible the Shephelah functions as an in-between land. It lay between Judah's section of the central mountain range and the part of the Great Trunk Road that ran near the coast. It appears, therefore, as the debating ground between the Philistines, who straddled the southern part of the Trunk Road, and the Israelites on the mountain.
There were four main passages from the Trunk Road through valleys of the Shephelah and up Judah's mountain . Cities sat on these passages according to a pattern: (1) there was a city on the coastal Trunk Road where it meets a broad valley leading east; (2) there was a city near this valley's eastern end, where an unbroken ridge or defile begins to ascend the mountain; and (3) there was a city on top. We devote a separate article to this pattern.
After the Assyrians came the Babylonians. In the century between them, however, much of the First Testament was crystallized. The Babylonians did take Jerusalem and Judah, but unlike the Assyrians, they kept the exiles together. The exiled Judeans (and, starting in 538 BC, those among them who returned) were called yehudim in Hebrew, i.e. Jews. They preserved the Biblical texts.
|
Related Locations
Holy Land
Galilee: Arbel cliff | Mount of Beatitudes | Capernaum | Dan | Hammat Tiberias | Kursi | Beth Shean | Nazareth | Sepphoris | Banias (Caesarea Philippi) | Bethsaida | Chorazin | Gamla | Hazor | Tabgha | Cana | Megiddo | Mount Tabor
Coast : Caesarea Maritima
Highlands : Bethlehem | Jerusalem | Shechem (Nablus) | Muhraka on Mount Carmel | Hebron | Herodium | Mamre | Solomon's Pools
Jerusalem : Jerusalem: Introduction | Mount of Olives | Gethsemane | St. Peter in Gallicantu | Mount Zion | The Upper Room | Via Dolorosa | Church of the Holy Sepulcher | The Cemeteries of Jerusalem | St. Anne's Church and Pool of Bethesda | Pater Noster Church and Mosque of Ascension | Excavations around the Temple platform | Ein Kerem | City of David | Western Wall | Temple Mount | Al-Aqsa Mosque | Dome of the Rock | Shrine of the Book | Yad va Shem
Shephelah : The Shephelah: An Introduction | Emmaus | The Valley of Elah | Maresha | Lachish
Dead Sea : Dead Sea | Jericho | Qumran | Ein Gedi | Masada
Negev : Beersheba | Arad | Avdat | Timna
JORDAN
Northern Section : Gadara | Pella | Ajloun | Jerash | Umm el-Jimal
Central Section : Iraq al-Amir | Baptismal | Mount Nebo | Madaba | Machaerus | Um ar-Rasas
Grazing Land : Karak
Desert : Desert Retreats | Tafilah | Shobak | Little Pettra | Patra | Aqaba | Wadi Rum