Around Jerusalem and the Dead Sea Places

Ella Valley

The Ella Valley is one of those delightful places—not uncommon in Israel—where you can relate the scenery to a specific biblical text and confirm the maxim that once you've visited this country, you'll never read the Bible the same way again. Beyond the junction of Route 38 with Route 383, and up to the right above the pine-wood slopes, is a distinctively bald flattop hill, Tel Azekah, the site of an ancient Israelite town. The hills are especially delightful in March and April when the wildflowers are out.

In the Ella Valley, the road crosses a usually dry streambed; 200 yards beyond it is a place to pull off and park. If you have a Bible, open it to I Samuel 17 and read about the dramatic duel between Israelite shepherd David and the Philistine champion Goliath. The battle probably took place close to where you're standing. Skeptical? Review the following passage:

Now the Philistines gathered their armies for battle; and they were gathered at Socoh, which belongs to Judah [identified by a mound 800 yards east of the junction ahead of you], and encamped between Socoh and Azekah ... And Saul and the men of Israel were gathered, and encamped in the valley of Ella, and drew up in line of battle against the Philistines. And the Philistines stood on the mountain on the one side, and Israel stood on the mountain on the other side, with a valley between them.

Look east up the valley (across the road) to the mountains of Judah in the distance and the road from Bethlehem—the same road by which David reached the battlefield. The white northern ridge, a spur of the mountains of Judah, may have been the camp of the Israelite army. The southern ridge (where the gas station is today)—including Tel Socoh, where the Philistines gathered—ascends from the Philistine territory to the west. The creek is the only one in the valley: "And David... chose five smooth stones from the brook...; his sling was in his hand, and he drew near to the Philistine." The rest, as they say, is history: Goliath was slain, the Philistines were routed, and David went on to become the darling of the nation and eventually its king.