Socoh (Shephelah)

Socoh or Soco (Hebrew: שוכו, שוכה) was a town in the Shephelah of Judah, situated between Adullam and Azekah (Josh. 15:35).

The Philistines camped between Socoh and Azekah prior to the encounter of David and Goliath (Sam. 17:1). Rehoboam fortified the place (Chron. 11:7). It was one of the cities occupied temporarily by the Philistines in the time of Ahaz (Chron. 28:18). In that period it served as an administrative or storage center, being one of the four cities named on the la-melekh stamps of the Judean monarchy.

In Byzantine times, the name applied to a double village (Eusebius, Onom. 156:18ff.), which was still a center for pottery manufacture. The scholar Antigonus of Socoh (Avot. 1:3) was probably from this village or from . It is identified with the twin mounds of Khirbat Abbād (the site of the earlier occupation) and Khirbat Shuwayka (occupatied in the Iron Age), overlooking Wadi al-Samt (the valley of Elah), E. of Azekah.