Hebrew for KJV "the vale," "the plain," "the low country"; rather, as 1 Maccabees 12:38 proves, the low hills between the central mountains and the seacoast plain, compare Seville; for Adida on the shephelah answers to Haditheh, which is not in the plain but the low hills. The valleys amidst the shephelah are seldom more than 300 ft. deep, and the slopes much more gradual. Eusebius says that the country about Eleutheropolis was still called shephelah. It is the district of rolling hills, not spurs or shoulders from the main range, but between this and the plain below.
The article is always prefixed, the shephelah (ha-Shephelah), a "marked physical feature of the land"; like our phrase "the downs," "the wolds" (Zechariah 7:7; Joshua 15:33; Deuteronomy 1:7). The divisions are mountain, "hill" shephelah, and plain (Talmud, tract Shevith). Rabbi Jochanan says that from Bethhoron to Emmaus is "mountain" (har); from Emmaus to Lydda hill; and from Lydda to the sea plain. In Joshua 15:33-47 the shephelah contains 42 cities with their dependent hamlets, many of them in the mountains. The shephelah is most fruitful, receiving, as it does, the soil washed down from the mountains behind by the winter rains; and here were extensive tracts of grain land, the references to which and to the flails and other agricultural instruments are frequently met with.
Fausset's Bible Dictionary Home
Bible History Online Home
Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
Online Bible (KJV)
Naves Topical Bible
Smith's Bible Dictionary
Easton's Bible Dictionary
Schaff's Bible Dictionary
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
Matthew Henry Bible Commentary
Hitchcock's Bible Dictionary
Meaning and definition of fasting, what is fasting in the bible, fasting definition, why should I fast, the power of prayer and fasting, Location of Galilee, where was galilee in the bible?, fasting definition, Galilee region, cities of Galilee, Sea of Galilee, Definition of biblical fire, what is fire in the bible?, fire and brimstone, fire meaning, baking bread with fire, Definition of the biblical firmament in Genesis, what is the firmament in the bible?, was the firmament the third heaven, firmament meaning, did the firmament bring the flood of Noah?.