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Sokho
Sokho (alternate spellings: Sokhoh, Sochoh, Soco, Sokoh; Hebrew: שׂוֹכֹה ,שׂוֹכוֹ ,שֹׂכֹה) is the name given to two ancient towns in the territorial domain of Judah as mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, west of the Judean hills. Both towns were given the name Shuweikah in Arabic, a diminutive of the Arabic shawk, meaning "thorn". The remains of both have since been identified.
One is located about 10 miles (16 km) southwest of Hebron and has been identified with the twin ruins known as Khirbet Shuwaikah Fauka and Tahta (Upper and Lower Shuwaikah), 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) southwest of As-Samu in the Hebron Hills district (grid position 150/091 PAL)(Joshua 15:48). Eusebius makes mention of this twin site in his Onomasticon.
The other ruin is situated on a hilltop overlooking the Elah Valley between Adullam and Azekah (Joshua 15:35), in the lower stratum of the Judaean foothills (grid position 147/121 PAL). Today it is a popular tourist attraction better known as Givat HaTurmusim. The site, occupied as early as the Iron Age, was visited by Claude Conder in 1881, who writes that it was already a ruin in his days, with two wells in the valley towards the west.
A third town by this name, Shuwaykah, was located in the Hefer region (1 Kings 4:10), north of Tulkarm (grid position 153/194 PAL).
Although it is listed in Joshua 15:35 as being a city in the plain, Socho is actually partly in the hill country and partly in the plain. The biblical account states that the Philistines encamped between Sokho and Azekah in the Valley of Elah before Goliath's historic encounter with David, the son of Jesse (1 Samuel 17:1). David slew the Philistine giant with a stone slung from a shepherd's sling. Rehoboam fortified the place (2 Chronicles 11:7), but it is not clear which of the two sites is referred to. Socho was one of the cities occupied temporarily by the Philistines in the time of Ahaz (2 Chronicles 28:18).
The word "Sokho" appears on certain LMLK seals during the Judean monarchy. It is believed by many scholars to be one of four cities that acted in some administrative capacity.
The Mishnaic Rabbi Antigonus of Sokho, mentioned in Ethics of the Fathers (Pirkei Avot 1:3), likely came from the Hebron-region town. Rabbi Levi Sukia, of the first generation of Amoraim, also came from Sokho (Jerusalem Talmud, Eruvim).
In Byzantine times, Eusebius described Sokho (Σοκχωθ) as a double village at the ninth milestone between Eleutheropolis (Bet Guvrin) and Jerusalem (Eusebius, Onomasticon 156:18 ff.), which would correspond to the Elah Valley location. The 6th-century Madaba Map also depicts Sokho (Σωκω).
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Sokho
Sokho (alternate spellings: Sokhoh, Sochoh, Soco, Sokoh; Hebrew: שׂוֹכֹה ,שׂוֹכוֹ ,שֹׂכֹה) is the name given to two ancient towns in the territorial domain of Judah as mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, west of the Judean hills. Both towns were given the name Shuweikah in Arabic, a diminutive of the Arabic shawk, meaning "thorn". The remains of both have since been identified.
One is located about 10 miles (16 km) southwest of Hebron and has been identified with the twin ruins known as Khirbet Shuwaikah Fauka and Tahta (Upper and Lower Shuwaikah), 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) southwest of As-Samu in the Hebron Hills district (grid position 150/091 PAL)(Joshua 15:48). Eusebius makes mention of this twin site in his Onomasticon.
The other ruin is situated on a hilltop overlooking the Elah Valley between Adullam and Azekah (Joshua 15:35), in the lower stratum of the Judaean foothills (grid position 147/121 PAL). Today it is a popular tourist attraction better known as Givat HaTurmusim. The site, occupied as early as the Iron Age, was visited by Claude Conder in 1881, who writes that it was already a ruin in his days, with two wells in the valley towards the west.
A third town by this name, Shuwaykah, was located in the Hefer region (1 Kings 4:10), north of Tulkarm (grid position 153/194 PAL).
Although it is listed in Joshua 15:35 as being a city in the plain, Socho is actually partly in the hill country and partly in the plain. The biblical account states that the Philistines encamped between Sokho and Azekah in the Valley of Elah before Goliath's historic encounter with David, the son of Jesse (1 Samuel 17:1). David slew the Philistine giant with a stone slung from a shepherd's sling. Rehoboam fortified the place (2 Chronicles 11:7), but it is not clear which of the two sites is referred to. Socho was one of the cities occupied temporarily by the Philistines in the time of Ahaz (2 Chronicles 28:18).
The word "Sokho" appears on certain LMLK seals during the Judean monarchy. It is believed by many scholars to be one of four cities that acted in some administrative capacity.
The Mishnaic Rabbi Antigonus of Sokho, mentioned in Ethics of the Fathers (Pirkei Avot 1:3), likely came from the Hebron-region town. Rabbi Levi Sukia, of the first generation of Amoraim, also came from Sokho (Jerusalem Talmud, Eruvim).
In Byzantine times, Eusebius described Sokho (Σοκχωθ) as a double village at the ninth milestone between Eleutheropolis (Bet Guvrin) and Jerusalem (Eusebius, Onomasticon 156:18 ff.), which would correspond to the Elah Valley location. The 6th-century Madaba Map also depicts Sokho (Σωκω).