For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. Romans 15:4 One of our stops today was Tel Mareshah, a site I’ve been to a few times before. We signed up for something different for the visit: a program called Dig for a Day. For a chunk of the afternoon, a group does a little archaeological digging in one of the 5000 caves around the site, which is closed to the public. Then we gathered our buckets of dirt and rocks and […]
Tag Archives: Mareshah
Shephelah
Then Jeremiah the prophet told all this to Zedekiah king of Judah, in Jerusalem, while the army of the king of Babylon was fighting against Jerusalem and the other cities of Judah that were still holding out–Lachish and Azekah. These were the only fortified cities left in Judah. Jeremish 34:6-7 We continued our journey west, emerging from the hill country to the shephelah, the low foothills. This region is characterized by low, rolling hills and wide valleys. The Sorek valley (mentioned last time) opened up as we crossed the limestone line. Sitting near the border is the ancient site of […]
Signal Fires
And may (my lord) be apprised that we are watching for the fire signals of Lachish according to all the signs which my lord has given, because we cannot see Azekah. Lachish Letter 4 Saturday was another field study, but for another class than Physical Settings. We visited Lachish and Mareshah, two cities in the Shephelah. Lachish was probably the second most important city in the kingdom of Judah, having large fortifications. The Assyrians (c. 701 BC) and Babylonians (c. 587 BC) both besieged here and destroyed the city. There were ostraca (potsherds with writing on them) found here which […]