Sokho

Sokhoh or Soco (Sokho; Biblical Hebrew: שוכו, שוכה, Mishna Hebrew סוכו), meaning perhaps related to "fence" or "hedge", is the name of two towns in Judah from Biblical times, one in the mountain district, and one in the lowlands (the Shephelah of Judah), situated between Adullam and Azekah (Josh. 15:35).

The Philistines camped between the latter Sokho 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 sarved as an administrative or storage center, being one of the four cities named on the la-melekh stamps of the Judean monarchy.

The Mishnaic Rabbi Antigonus of Sokho, mentioned in Ethics of the Fathers (Pirkei Avot 1:3) came from Sokho.

In Byzantine times, the name applied to a double village (Eusebius, Onom. 156:18ff.), which was steel a center for pottery manufacture. It is identified with the twin mounds of Khirbat Abbād (the site of the earlier occupation) and the lowland Khirbat Shuwayka (occupied in the Iron Age), overlooking Wadi al-Samt (the valley of Elah), East of Azekah.

Today, the tel of Sokho is known as the "Hill of the Lupins," Givat Ha-Turmusim" because of the beautiful annual growth of lupins in March.