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Israel Familiarization Trip
January 7-17, 2015
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Rain and Snow and Four Sites
Through the rain and snow (that’s right, it snowed this morning), we made it to four locations on day one of our sprint through the Holy Land.
We started the day off in Kiriath Jearim, an area in the mountains not too far east of Jerusalem, where the Ark of the covenant stayed for twenty years when it was returned from the Philistines. Today, there is a garden designed to be similar to what would have existed in the first century including a wine press, an olive press, a watch tower, a tomb, and a mikveh (a bath used for ritual cleansing).
Kiriath-Jearim
The biblical city of Kiriath Jearim is best known for the house of Abinadab which held the Ark of the Covenant from the time of Samuel until the time of David (about 120 years). Kiriath Jearim was originally a Gibeonite city that fell within the tribal territory of Judah near the borders of Benjamin and Dan. The prophet Uriah, a contemporary of Jeremiah, was from Kiriath Jearim.
Beit Shemesh was the second stop where we walked up the tel and then down into a cistern. From the top of the tel we were able to see where the story of Samson unfolded. Underground in the cistern we read Jeremiah 2:13.
“For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.”
Beth Shemesh
A border city between Judah and Dan, Beth Shemesh was given to the Levites. Beth Shemesh was the most important Israelite city in the Sorek Valley as it watched both east-west traffic through the Sorek Valley and north-south traffic along the “Diagonal Route.” Recent excavations have shown a thriving city here from the Middle Bronze Age through the Iron II period.
With rain coming down, we stopped in Azekah to walk into the valley where David fought Goliath. The rain made for a messy muddy walk, but it also filled the stream that was normally dry – the same stream where David could have grabbed his stones before facing Goliath.
Tel Azekah and Elah Valley
The Brook Elah is famous for the five stones it contributed to the young slinger, David. Some surmise that David chose five stones instead of the one needed in case he needed to face Goliath’s four brothers.
Be’er Sheva was the last stop of the day. The tel of Be’er Sheva was pretty interesting, but the highlight of the location was definitely the large underground cistern. Check out the pictures – and then think how much better it would have been to have seen that with your own eyes.
One day down....
Charles Homer
Beersheba
Beer-Sheva (/bɪərˈʃiːbə/; Hebrew: בְּאֵר שֶׁבַע About this sound Be'er Sheva [beʔeʁˈʃeva]; Arabic: بئر السبع About this sound Bi'ir as-Sab [biːr esˈsabeʕ]) is the largest city in the Negev desert of southern Israel. Often referred to as the "Capital of the Negev", it is the center of the fourth most populous metropolitan area in Israel, the eighth most populous city in Israel with a population of 203,604, and the second largest city with a total of 117,500 dunams (after Jerusalem).
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