A border city between Judah and Dan, Beth Shemesh was given to the Levites. Beth Shemesh was the most important Israelite city in the Sorek Valley as it watched both east-west traffic through the Sorek Valley and north-south traffic along the “Diagonal Route.” Recent excavations have shown a thriving city here from the Middle Bronze Age through the Iron II period (ca. 2200–586 BC).

On the north side of the Sorek Valley, across from Beth Shemesh, are the ancient villages of Zorah (top of ridge, center) and Eshtaol (off picture to the right). Samson’s prophesied birth was in this area (Judg 13) as was the location of his burial (Judg 16). Samson’s first “girlfriend” lived at Timnah a few miles west in the Sorek Valley. His last girlfriend, Delilah, lived somewhere in this same valley.

Excavations of Beth Shemesh are visible in the foreground and the Sorek Valley, to the west, is behind. Samson traveled down this valley numerous times, including the time when he killed the lion and later when he tied the tails of 300 foxes together (Judg 14–15).

This was the vantage point of the Israelites who watched the Ark of the Covenant return to Beth Shemesh on a cow-pulled cart from the land of the Philistines (1 Sam 6).

Israeli archaeologists recently uncovered the largest Iron Age reservoir known in Israel. With a capacity of 7,500 cubic feet (210 m3), this reservoir could have supplied the town’s inhabitants with water to survive a three-month siege. This underground storage basin is composed of two long rooms in the shape of a cross and according to the excavators is “one of the finest examples of water engineering and management in the kingdom of Judah.”

The importance of Beth Shemesh is largely owing to its situation along the route leading south to Lachish. Known by some as the “Diagonal Route” (no name is given in historical sources), this route was the major artery through the Shephelah in the historical periods. Travelers going south from Beth Shemesh will meet most of the major cities of the Shephelah along this route: Azekah, Moresheth Gath, Mareshah/Beth Guvrin, and Lachish.