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SHAARAIM

(Heb. šaʿărayim)

1. A town in the Shephelah, or lowland, of Judah and part of that tribe’s inheritance (Josh. 15:36). It is located in the northern part of the valley of Elah, NW of Socoh and Azekah. After David conquered Goliath, the Israelites chased the Philistines from the valley of Elah northwestward toward Gath and Ekron via the road to Shaaraim (1 Sam. 17:52; LXX “. . . the wounded of the Philistines fell on the road of the gates to Gath and to Ekron” is not widely accepted). Khirbet es-Saʿīreh, ESE of Beth-shemesh, has been proposed as the site, but a location further west seems more likely.

2. A Negeb town in the tribal inheritance of Simeon (1 Chr. 4:31). The parallel list in Josh. 19:6 does not mention Shaaraim, but includes Sharuhen; 15:32, which lists towns in the Judean Negeb, includes Shilhim but not Shaaraim or Sharuhen. These may represent three separate sites, two sites, or three different names for the same location, but most likely the variations reflect different political or historical situations. Most likely Shaaraim is to be linked with Sharuhen because the lists in 1 Chr. 4; Josh. 19 are so similar in other respects. Alternatively, the use of Sharuhen may be based on an Egyptian transcription of Shilhim which was later corrupted to Shaaraim, which suggests there was only one Negeb site. Sharuhen is commonly identified with Tell el-Farʿah (South; 100076) or Tell el-Ajjul (0934.0976), both located along the southern bank of Naḥal Besor.

Bibliography. Y. Aharoni, The Land of the Bible, 2nd ed. (Philadelphia, 1979); S. Ahituv, Canaanite Toponyms in Ancient Egyptian Documents (Jerusalem, 1984); N. Naʾaman, “The Kingdom of Judah under Josiah,” Tel Aviv 18 (1991): 3-71; A. F. Rainey, “The Administrative Division of the Shephelah,” Tel Aviv 7 (1980): 194-202; “The Biblical Shephelah of Judah,” BASOR 251 (1983): 1-22.

Jennifer L. Groves

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

SHAARAIM

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)