Azekah

A border fortress in Judah's Shephelah guarding the Valley of Elah — one of the last fortified cities to fall before Jerusalem.

Azekah stood about 25 km west of Bethlehem and 30 km SW of Jerusalem, on a hill rising some 120 m above the valley floor in the Shephelah; the site is today Tell ez-Zakariya (Tel Azekah). It commanded the Valley of Elah and the main route from the coastal plain into Judah's highlands, and was already a fortified city before the 13th century BCE. When Joshua defeated the southern Amorite coalition, he pursued them from Gibeon down the descent of Beth-horon 'as far as Azekah and Makkedah'; as they fled, Jehovah hurled great hailstones from heaven 'as far as Azekah,' and more died from the hail than by the sword (Josh 10:10, 11). At the land allotment Azekah was assigned to Judah (Josh 15:35). The young David met the Philistine giant Goliath in the Valley of Elah, 'between Socoh and Azekah' (1 Sam 17:1). King Rehoboam fortified it among his fifteen strong cities (2 Chron 11:9). In the Azekah Inscription, Sennacherib boasts that the city sat on a ridge with walls rivaling the highest mountains, before taking it with assault ramps and battering rams. Under Nebuchadnezzar, Lachish and Azekah were the last fortified cities to fall before Jerusalem (Jer 34:7); the Lachish Letters' cry that the signal of Azekah could no longer be seen captures that final hour. After the exile, Jews again lived at Azekah and its settlements (Neh 11:30).