{"id":5890,"date":"2022-07-11T13:12:34","date_gmt":"2022-07-11T18:12:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ccic-iowa.org\/?p=5890"},"modified":"2025-08-19T14:22:17","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T19:22:17","slug":"%e7%a4%ba%e9%9d%9e%e6%8b%89%e4%b8%98%e9%99%b5%e7%9a%84%e4%ba%94%e4%b8%aa%e5%b1%b1%e8%b0%b7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ccic-iowa.org\/en\/bible-faith\/devotional-notes\/2022\/07\/%e7%a4%ba%e9%9d%9e%e6%8b%89%e4%b8%98%e9%99%b5%e7%9a%84%e4%ba%94%e4%b8%aa%e5%b1%b1%e8%b0%b7\/","title":{"rendered":"The Five Valleys of the Shephelah Hills"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Shephelah hills are located between the Judean mountains and the Philistine coastal plain. Many seasonal riverbeds pass through here, flowing towards the plain, forming five major east-west oriented valleys. In ancient Israel, the Philistines were constant enemies of the Israelites. The Shephelah hills became a natural transportation route from the Philistine coastal plain into the Judean mountains, and thus a frequent battleground between the Israelites and the Philistines. These valleys provided easy access into the Judean highlands, making it very difficult to prevent the Philistines from invading along these valleys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Image: The five valleys of the Shephelah hills.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

These five valleys, from north to south, are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1\u3001Aijalon Valley: The upper reaches of the Aijalon Valley have two branch valleys. The northern branch leads to the central Benjamin plateau, and the southern branch leads to Jerusalem. Gezer guards the western entrance to the Aijalon Valley, while Upper Beth Horon and Lower Beth Horon are two important towns leading to Benjamin. Joshua 10:12: “On the day the LORD gave the Amorites over to Israel, Joshua prayed to the LORD in the sight of Israel: ‘Sun, stand still over Gibeon, and you, moon, over the Valley of Aijalon.'”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Image: The Aijalon Valley.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

2\u3001Sorek Valley: The Sorek Valley is the most gentle of the five valleys, making it the preferred route into the Judean mountains, leading towards Jerusalem and Bethlehem. The Sorek Valley is where Samson fought against the Philistines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Image: The winding Sorek Valley is an important passage from the coastal plain to Jerusalem. The Sorek Stream within the valley is the largest and most important watershed in the Judean mountains, flowing from the central highlands through the Shephelah hills to the Mediterranean Sea. This region is very suitable for grape cultivation and served as the dividing line between the Israelites and the Philistines during the period of the Judges.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

3\u3001Elah Valley: This is a crucial passage leading to Hebron and Bethlehem. Azekah guards the western entrance to the Elah Valley. The Elah Valley is where David fought his decisive battle with Goliath the giant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4\u3001Guvrin Valley: The Guvrin Valley leads to Hebron but is less frequently used.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Image: The Elah Valley.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Image: The location of the Elah Valley.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Image: The encampment positions of the Israelite and Philistine armies during the Battle of Elah.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

5\u3001Lachish Valley: The Lachish Valley provides access to Lachish and other important cities in the southern Judean mountains.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Shephelah hills are located between the Judean mountains and the Philistine coastal plain. Many seasonal riverbeds pass through here, flowing towards the plain, forming five major east-west oriented valleys. In ancient Israel, the Philistines were constant enemies of the Israelites. The Shephelah hills became a natural transportation route from the Philistine coastal plain into […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5895,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-devotional-notes"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ccic-iowa.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ccic-iowa.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ccic-iowa.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ccic-iowa.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ccic-iowa.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5890"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/ccic-iowa.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5890\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11492,"href":"https:\/\/ccic-iowa.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5890\/revisions\/11492"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ccic-iowa.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ccic-iowa.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ccic-iowa.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ccic-iowa.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}