SHEPHELAH (Heb. Haš-Šephēlāh "Lowland"). - Term (often translated by the Septuagint as ἡ πεδινὴ [τῆ] = Vulgate 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 that extends from the south, Lachish and Eglon, as far as the plain of Ahialon to the north; the course of broad valleys separates it from the edge of the Judaean plateau to the east and from the coastal plain of Sharon and from Philistia to the west.

The Philistines move from their lands to occupy villages of the Shephelah (II Chron. 28:18; Zech. 7:7); the Syrian troops defeated by the Jews in the Shephelah take refuge in the cities of the coast and of Philistia (I Macc. 3:24; 4:45; 5:66, 68).

In a much broader sense the term Shephelah was used to designate the whole 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 Shephelah (I Kings 10:27). In the list of the cities assigned to Judah in the Shephelah (Josh. 15:45) some localities, even considering the insertion of Gaza, Ashdod and Ekron ('Eqrôn') suspect, are geographically outside the hill zone. In this broad sense Eusebius (Onom., 162) attributes to the Shephelah the whole territory that extends north and west from Eleutheropolis (Beit Guvrin).

Rich in natural resources (oil, wine, grain), the Shephelah was always contested between the Jews and the Philistines, especially for the possession of the valleys, a natural route to the center of the country of Judaea.

Bibliography2 works

BIBL.: S. A. Smith, The historical geography of the Holy Land, London 1931, pp. 197-240; F.-M. Abel, Géographie de la Palestine, I, Paris 1933, p. 416 ff.

Donato Baldi

@incollection{ec11_sephela_ebr_has_sephelah_basso, author = {Baldi, Donato}, title = {Sephela (Ebr. HaŠ-ŠEphĒLah « Bassopiano »)}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {XI}, pages = {356--357}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1953}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/sephela-ebr-has-sephelah-bassopiano} }

One of some 20,000 entries brought back from the twelve printed volumes (1948–54). Spotted something? Help us improve it.

About this entry