SEPHELA (Heb. haš-Šephēlah "lowland"). - A term (often translated by the Septuaginta ἡ πεδινὴ [τῆ] = Vulgata campestris [*terra], or τὸ πεδίον = campus), which designates in the geography of Palestine (Deut. 1,7; Josh. 11,2; 1 Macc.* 3,24) the zone of hills extending from the south, Lachish and Eglon, as far as the plain of
The Philistines move from their lands to occupy villages of the S. (II Chron. 28,18; Zech. 7,7); the Syrian troops defeated by the Jews in the S. take refuge in the cities of the coast and Philistia (I Mach. 3,24; 4,45; 5,66,68).
In a much broader sense, the term S. was used to designate the entire territory from the hills to the sea coast. Thus, the sycamore, which grows mainly in the sandy soil of the coast, is considered a characteristic of the S. (I Kings 10,27). In the list of cities assigned to Judah in the S. (Josh. 15,45), some localities—even considering the inclusion of Gaza, Ashdod, and Ekron ('Eqrôn') to be suspect—are geographically outside the hill zone. In this broad sense, Eusebius (Onom., 162) attributes to the S. the entire territory extending north and west from Eleutheropolis (Beit Jibrin).
Rich in natural resources (oil, wine, cereals), the S. was always contested between the Jews and the Philistines, especially for the possession of the valleys, which are the natural highway to the center of the land of Judea.