1 Samuel 17:1

1 Samuel 17:1-3. The Philistine invasion

1. at Shochoh The scene of David's memorable combat is fixed with great exactness. The Philistine army marched up the wide valley of Elah to their rendezvous at Sochoh, and pitched their camp in Ephes-dammim (cp. 1 Chronicles 11:13). The valley of Elah is almost certainly the present Wady-es-Sunt, which runs in a N. W. direction from the hills of Judah near Hebron past the probable site of Gath (see note on ch. 1 Samuel 5:8) to the sea near Ashdod. "It took its name Elah of old from the Terebinth, of which the largest specimen we saw in Palestine still stands in the vicinity; just as it now takes its name es-Sunt from the acacias which are scattered in it." Robinson, Bibl, Res. II. 21. Sochoh is the modern Shuweikeh, about 16 miles S.W. of Jerusalem on the road to Gaza. Azekah is mentioned in Joshua 10:10 in connexion with the rout of the Philistines in the battle of Beth-horon, but the site is uncertain. "Of the name Ephes-dammim we have perhaps a trace In the modern Beit Fased, or -House of Bleeding," near Sochoh." Conder's Tent Work, II. 160. The name, which signifies "boundary of blood," was probably due to its being the scene of frequent skirmishes with the Philistines.