The Shfela

Today’s journey took us through the Shfela, or the low foothills between the Via Maris (way of the sea) and the Judean highlands. This would be similar to the foothills leading up to the mountains in North Carolina. All roads leading up to the interior highlands follow streams and valleys. Strong walled cities guard the entrance to each valley in order to control the travel corridor.

Five Valleys in Israel

The five valleys from north to south are the Ayalon, Sorek, Elah, Guvrin and Lachish valleys. The map above will show these clearly.

The Canaanite section of Tel Gezer

Our first stop of the day was at Tel Gezer, a site we are familiar with because Sarah participated in the dig for two years. (Video). Tel Gezer has a long history, with more than twenty levels within the tel. Gezer controls the Ayalon Valley. Excavations include a Middle Bronze period gate and water tunnel, and also a portion of the city from Solomonic times, when Pharaoh of Egypt gave the city to his daughter and his new son-in-law Solomon.

The Solomonic Gate at Gezer

From Gezer we traveled to Beit Shemesh in the Sorek Valley. This was the area where Samson lived. It is also the place where God returned the Ark of the Covenant to Israel after its capture by the Philistines. There is a new archeological dig at this site.

New Digs at Beit Shemesh

We then visited the Elah Valley, where a boy named David fought the giant Goliath. We were able to get a good view of the valley from Shaaraim or Shaaraim, a city with two gates which dates to the time period of King David. Our guide laid out the entire battle plan so we could see exactly where events took place.

Shaaraim, a village of Two Gates

We visited Gath, the city protecting the Elah Valley. This city is also the hometown of Goliath. It is a massive tel with a long history.

The Philistine Village of Gath

Our journey continued with a stop at Beit Guvrin, this is were King Herod grew up. There are multiple columbarium (caves for doves) that are carved out of the chalk to produce underground caves.

Dove Housing at Beit Guvrin

There are also massive caves left behind from the mining of chalk. These bell shaped caves are very beautiful and have great acoustics.

The Bell Caves at Maresha

We finished the day at the motel in Beer-Sheva.

When King Herod was Little

While Beit Guvrin and Maresha, towns not familiar to most people who study the Bible, knowing what happened in these towns will give clues to the formation of King Herod’s personality. In all probability King Herod the great was born and grew up in the region of these cities. Josephus contains a reference to this fact in the Antiquities of the Jews 14.13.9. The town of Maresha is very ancient, Joshua makes a note that this village was part of the inheritance of the tribe of Judah. (15:20, 44). Rehoboam fortified the city (2 Chronicles 11: 5-8) and later Nebuchadnezzar depopulated the region.

The Dove Farm at Beit Guvrin

When the people of Judah were away in captivity to Babylon, Nabateans, then Edomites (Idumeans), and finally Greeks entered the land in the Guvrin valley. These new people adopted the vacated olive groves (which originally drew them to the land), and brought with them textile and dove breeding industries which prospered in the valley.
   After the Maccabees came to power, Beit Guvrin and Maresha became a target for their new Hebrew state, because it was in the former territory of Judah. In battle they defeated the people who lived in the valley and once captured, Maresha became a regional capital for the Jews, who forcibly converted its inhabitants to Judaism. One of the Idumean inhabitants, Antipater, posed a challenge to the new Jewish rulers.

The Dove industry was large when Herod was a boy

Antipater was Herod’s father. History records he was a very rich, politically active, and seditious man who owned a great amount of property in Maresha (which is what the village was called at that time). He inherited these from his father, who carried the same name. Josephus wrote; ‘’Tis true, that Nicolaus of Damascus says, that Antipater was of the stock of the principal Jews who came out of Babylon into Judea. But that assertion of his was to gratify Herod, who was his son; and who, by certain revolutions of fortune, came afterward to be King of the Jews.” (Ant. 14.1.3)

The short stories in this book illustrate Herod's childhood

In my new book I develop a story about how the young boy Herod grew up in Maresha and received early training from his father in the textile and then the dove industry. He learned valuable lessons in leadership when his father placed in in management. The future king learned his cruelty by observing personality types while tending the doves his father owned. I share stories about how Herod’s childhood in Beit Guvrin and Maresha shaped events of the New Testament in my book, Israel: Stories for Your Journey, available on Amazon.com.