This is the first monograph dedicated to the site of Socoh in the Judean Shephelah. Our research was initiated in 2010 as an intensive survey by the Institute of Archaeology, Southern Adventist University, and the Institute of Archaeology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The study incorporates historical sources that are listed and analyzed, including the Bible, ancient Near Eastern, Byzantine, and Medieval records. A history of the research conducted over the past 190 years by explorers, geographers, and archaeologists is compiled, before providing the full report on the results of an intensive site survey conducted at Socoh in 2010. Finally, specialized studies of the finds and a report of recent salvage excavations of burial caves, looted by antiquity robbers nearby, give a state-of-the-art presentation of the latest information known about this important biblical site in southern Judah.

"The Socoh Intensive Survey was initiated in 2010 by the Institute of Archaeology, Southern Adventist University, and the Institute of Archaeology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, with the intent to conduct a large-scale excavation of the site beginning in 2011. The goal of the anticipated project was to expand the work of the Khirbet Qeiyafa Archaeological Project into a regional study focusing on the history of the Elah Valley and the expansion of Judah in the Early Iron Age. Specific research questions to be addressed were (1) the geopolitical interplay between the cities of Tell Zakariya-Azekah, Khirbet Qeiyafa-Sha'arayim and Khirbet Shuweikeh-Socoh within Judah and the border of Philistia; (2) Socoh's stratigraphic and historical occupation; (3) its fortification history as a border garrison town; (4) its relationship to the major military history of the region (Philistine, Assyrian and Babylonian incursions); and (5) its larger significance in the development of the Shephelah"--

Journal for the Evangelical Study of the Old Testament (JESOT) is a peer-reviewed journal devoted to the academic and evangelical study of the Old Testament. The journal seeks to fill a need in academia by providing a venue for high-level scholarship on the Old Testament from an evangelical standpoint. The journal is not affiliated with any particular academic institution, and with an international editorial board, open access format, and multi-language submissions, JESOT cultivates and promotes Old Testament scholarship in the evangelical global community. The journal differs from many evangelical journals in that it seeks to publish current academic research in the areas of ancient Near Eastern backgrounds, Dead Sea Scrolls, Rabbinics, Linguistics, Septuagint, Research Methodology, Literary Analysis, Exegesis, Text Criticism, and Theology as they pertain only to the Old Testament. JESOT also includes up-to-date book reviews on various academic studies of the Old Testament. Table of Contents ARTICLES Poetry and Emotion in Psalm 22, Part One Joel Atwood (Mis)understanding Sailhamer Kevin Chen The Non-Royal Portrayal of Moses in the Pentateuch Gregory Goswell Connecting Khirbet Qeiyafa to the Proper Israelite King: Sauline Stronghold or Davidic Fortress? Douglas Petrovich BOOK REVIEWS

Jerusalem is the center of the universe, the hub of the three great monotheistic religions, yet how did a city located on the desert fringe, in the semi-arid southern highlands of Israel with little tillable land achieve such dominance? To provide answers to this enduring riddle, Israel Finkelstein has collected twenty-four of his best articles and essays covering the Middle Bronze Age to the late Hellenistic period. With critical and well-informed care, he analyzes archaeological evidence that often stands in tension with the biblical text. Topics of particular interest include the archaeology of the tenth century BCE; Saul, David, and Solomon in the Bible and archaeology; the first expansion of the city in the ninth century; its full growth in the late eighth to seventh centuries; Jerusalem and Judah under the Assyrian Empire; the days of King Josiah; and transformations in the Persian-Hellenistic era. Short addenda update the reader on recent developments.

This two-volume book presents cutting-edge archaeological research, primarily as practiced in the Eastern Mediterranean region. These volumes’ key foci are inspired by the work of Thomas E. Levy. Volume 1 provides an in-depth look at new archaeological research in the southern Levant (primarily in modern Israel and Jordan) inspired by Levy’s commitment to understanding social, political, and economic processes in a long-term or “deep time” perspective. Volume 2 focuses on new research in several key areas of 21st century anthropological archaeology and archaeological science. Volume 1 is organized around two major themes: 1) the later prehistory of the southern Levant, or the Neolithic, Chalcolithic, and Bronze Age, and 2) new research in biblical archaeology, or the historical archaeology of the Iron Age. Each section contains a combination of new perspectives on key debates and studies introducing new research questions and directions. Volume 2 is organized around five major themes: 1) the archaeology of the Faynan copper ore district of southern Jordan, a key region for archaeometallurgical research in West Asia where Levy conducted field research for over a decade, 2) new research in archaeometallurgy beyond the Faynan region, 3) marine and maritime archaeology, focusing on issues of trade and environmental change, 4) cyber-archaeology, an important 21st century field Levy conceived as “the marriage of archaeology, engineering, computer science, and the natural sciences,” and 5) key issues in anthropological archaeological theory. In addition to presenting the reader with an up-to-date view of research in each of these areas, the volume also has chapters exploring the connections between these themes, e.g. the maritime trade of metals and cyber-/digital archaeological approaches to metallurgy. The work contains contributions from both up-and-coming early career researchers and key established figures in their fields. This book is an essential reference for archaeologists and scholars in related disciplines working in the southern Levant and the Eastern Mediterranean.

Reading the land enables us to read the Bible with greater insight. Though the truths of the Bible transcend time and place, they are rooted in them. Geographical data inform our understanding of activity in the land of the Bible, while the Bible’s own description of these events, embedded deeply in the realia of the land itself, helps us better understand the living context in which these events took place. When we develop a skill set that allows us to read the land of the Bible as fluently as we might read the text, we stand not only to gain a better appreciation of the divine-human events of Scripture, we also gain an understanding of how these events become relevant to us in our own particular living contexts. Chapters include: Exploring the World of the Bible Building Blocks of Biblical Geography The Land of Ancient Israel: The Southern Regions (Judah/Judea) The Land of Ancient Israel: The Central Regions (Israel/Samaria) The Land of Ancient Israel: The Northern Regions (Galilee) Transjordan Afterword: Geography of the Heart Biblical geography has great apologetic value. The biblical writers had to be accurate when presenting geographical material. Unlike some matters of history and doctrine, their assertions about the realities of land forms and climate, or about the relation of one city to another, or about the use of strategic routes could easily be verified both by their first readers as well as by contemporary readers. Verifiable geographic information provides a solid foundation on which to place and evaluate the veracity of other truth claims in the biblical text.

The collection of essays in this book represents more than twenty years of research on the history and archeology of Judah, as well as the study of the Biblical literature written in and about the period that might be called the “Age of Empires”. This 600-year-long period, when Judah was a vassal Assyrian, Egyptian and Babylonian kingdom and then a province under the consecutive rule of the Babylonian, Persian, Ptolemaic and Seleucid empires, was the longest and the most influential in Judean history and historiography. The administration that was shaped and developed during this period, the rural economy, the settlement pattern and the place of Jerusalem as a small temple, surrounded by a small settlement of (mainly) priests, Levites and other temple servants, characterize Judah during most of its history. This is the formative period when most of the Hebrew Bible was written and edited, when the main features of Judaism were shaped and when Judean cult and theology were created and developed. The 36 papers contained in this book present a broad picture of the Hebrew Bible against the background of the Biblical history and the archeology of Judah throughout the six centuries of the “Age of Empires”.

Throughout the past three decades, Nadav Na’aman has repeatedly proved that he is one of the most careful historians of ancient Canaan and Israel. With broad expertise, he has brought together archaeology, text, and the inscriptional material from all of the ancient Near East to bear on the history of ancient Israel and the land of Canaan during the second and first millenniums B.C.E. Many of his studies have been published as journal articles or notes and yet, together, they constitute one of the most important bodies of literature on the subject in recent years, particularly because of the careful attention to methodology that Na’aman always has brought to his work. Collected here are 25 essays that focus particularly on ancient Israel’s relations with its neighbors and the forces inside the ancient nation that governed those relationships. Subjects range from the battle of Qarqar to the archaeology of the monarchy to the status of governors during the Persian Period.

The area of the Judean Foothills – the biblical Shephelah – has in recent years become one of the most intensively excavated regions in the world. Numerous projects, at sites of different types and utilizing various methodological approaches, are actively excavating in this region. Of particular importance are the discoveries dating to the Iron Age, a period when this region was a transition zone between various cultures—Philistine, Canaanite, Judahite, and Israelite. The current volume includes reports from eight of the excavations currently being conducted in the region (Azekah, Beth Shemesh, Gezer, Khirbet Qeiyafa, Tel Burna, Tel Halif, Tell es-Safi/Gath, and Tel Zayit), as well as a general study of the region by Ido Koch. The importance of this volume lies not only in the fact that it collects up-to-date reports on most of the current excavations in the region but also demonstrates the lively, at times even boisterous, scholarly discussions taking place on various issues relating to the archaeology and history of the Iron Age Shephelah and its immediate environs. This volume serves as an excellent introduction to current research on the Iron Age in this crucial zone and also serves as a reflection of current trends, methodologies, and approaches in the archaeology of the Southern Levant.