Judah's Hill Country, Shephelah (Sampson, David & Goliath)

October 26 (10:30 p.m.)

We were off to the bus again this morning at 7:30 a.m. Ready for another busy day. We left Jerusalem and traveled out of the city into Judah's Hill Country. It is the Jewish Sabbath and there are fewer cars on the street. Everywhere families are walking to the synagogue. Almost everything closes down for the Sabbath. Outside the city there are more things open, including many public parks and hiking trails. We began our day at a park above the deep Sorek canyon in the hill country.  This Is s really beautiful place with terraced gardens and streams that come down the side of the hills. Residents of the city can rent a terraced garden to grow vegetables and fruits.  There were all kinds of vegetation, including olive, fig, and almond trees. There were beautiful vineyards that would have taken an extreme amount of patience and effort to be fruitful. When you see these vineyards that were the reference for what Jesus said in  John 15 (I are the vine, you are the branches......), it makes you see what a great amount of time and effort The Lord  puts into us to make us fruitful.  We left there and drove through the Sorek Canyon down into the Shephelah which means "humble hills". We  stopped at the site of the ruins of a Byzantine monastery. The place is Beth-Shemesh. This is the home of Sampson. It is also the town to which the Philistines returned the captured Ark of the Covenant. They decided, shall we say it was  "too hot to handle". We did some field work there and Bible study.  We had a picnic lunch provided by the program. Lunch is set up and prepared by us and usually  is pita, hummus, carrots, peanut butter and jelly (my choice), and fruit. After lunch, we went to the Elah Valley which is the site of the David and Goliath story. We hiked up a steep hill to overlook the valley at an archeological site that is being studied. The name of the place is Shaaraim. It is known David and Solomon were here. They would have entered the city by stepping over the large door stone that is still there. It is awesome to know my feet have stood exactly where King David and King Solomon's have stood.

I am having trouble with my IPad and had to post from my phone. I hope to get it working soon. I will post pictures at that time.

Wifi has reawakened from a great sleep. So here is a picture .

The stone at the threshold of Shaariam