Sokho is the name of two towns in biblical Judah

Kingdom of Judah

The Kingdom of Judah was a Jewish state established in the Southern Levant during the Iron Age. It is often referred to as the "Southern Kingdom" to distinguish it from the northern Kingdom of Israel....

.

One town was in the Hebron

Hebron

Hebron , is located in the southern West Bank, south of Jerusalem. Nestled in the Judean Mountains, it lies 930 meters above sea level. It is the largest city in the West Bank and home to around 165,000 Palestinians, and over 500 Jewish settlers concentrated in and around the old quarter...

 hill district, in the double tel

Tell

A tell or tel, is a type of archaeological mound created by human occupation and abandonment of a geographical site over many centuries. A classic tell looks like a low, truncated cone with a flat top and sloping sides.-Archaeology:A tell is a hill created by different civilizations living and...

 called Khirbet Shuwaikah Fauka and Tahta (Upper and Lower Shuwaikah), 6 km southwest of Eshtamoa

As-Samu

As Samu or es-Samu is a town in the Hebron Governorate of the West Bank, 12 kilometers south of the city of Hebron. as-Samu is 60 kilometers south-west of Jerusalem. The area is a hilly, rocky area cut by some wadis. The Armistice Demarcation Line runs generally east to west approximately five...

 (Joshua 15:48). The other is in the lower hill country (the Shephelah

Shephelah

The Shephelah is a designation usually applied to the region in south-central Israel of 10-15 km of low hills between the central Mount Hebron and the coastal plains of Philistia within the area of the Judea, at an altitude of 120-450 metres above sea level. The area is fertile, and a temperate...

), in the Ela Valley between Adullam

Adullam

Adullam is a region of Israel near the Valley of Elah , west of Gush Etzion. The villages of Aderet, Neve Michael/Roglit, and Aviezer are located here. In the 1950s there were plans to set up Adullam as a formal political/economic region, on the model of Lachish, but the plans were not carried out...

 and Azekah

Azekah

Azekah was a town in the Shephelah guarding the upper reaches of the Valley of Elah, about 26 km northwest of Hebron. It has been identified with biblical Azeka.-Biblical history:...

 (Joshua 15:35).

The Bible also mentions a Sokho in the Hefer region in the Sharon (1 Kings 4:10).

History

The Philistines

Philistines

Philistines , Pleshet or Peleset, were a people who occupied the southern coast of Canaan at the beginning of the Iron Age . According to the Bible, they ruled the five city-states of Gaza, Askelon, Ashdod, Ekron and Gath, from the Wadi Gaza in the south to the Yarqon River in the north, but with...

 camped between the Ela Valley Sokho and Azekah before the encounter of David

David

David was the second king of the united Kingdom of Israel according to the Hebrew Bible and, according to the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, an ancestor of Jesus Christ through both Saint Joseph and Mary...

 and Goliath (1 Samuel 17:1). Rehoboam

Rehoboam

Rehoboam was initially king of the United Monarchy of Israel but after the ten northern tribes of Israel rebelled in 932/931 BC to form the independent Kingdom of Israel he was king of the Kingdom of Judah, or southern kingdom. He was a son of Solomon and a grandson of David...

 fortified the place (2 Chronicles 11:7). It was one of the cities occupied temporarily by the Philistines in the time of Ahaz

Ahaz

Ahaz was king of Judah, and the son and successor of Jotham. He is one of the kings mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew....

 (2 Chronicles 28:18).

The word "Sokho" appears on some LMLK seal

LMLK seal

LMLK seals were stamped on the handles of large storage jars mostly in and around Jerusalem during the reign of King Hezekiah based on several complete jars found in situ buried under a destruction layer caused by Sennacherib at Lachish...

s during the Judean monarchy, believed by many scholars to be one of four cities that acted in some administrative capacity.

The Mishnaic Rabbi Antigonus

Antigonus

Antigonus, a Greek name meaning "comparable to his father" or "worthy of his father", may refer to:* Three Macedonian kings of the Antigonid dynasty that succeeded Alexander the Great in Asia:** Antigonus I Monophthalmus...

 of Sokho, mentioned in Ethics of the Fathers (Pirkei Avot

Avot

Avot may refer to:* Pirkei Avot, a tractate of the Mishna composed of ethical maxims of the Rabbis of the Mishnaic period* The Patriarchs : Abraham, Isaac and Jacob* Avot, Côte-d'Or, a commune in France...

 1:3), likely came from the Hebron-region town. Rabbi Levi Sukia, of the first generation of Amoraim, also came from Sokho (Jerusalem Talmud, Eruvim).

In Byzantine

Byzantine

Byzantine usually refers to the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages.Byzantine may also refer to:* A citizen of the Byzantine Empire, or native Greek during the Middle Ages...

 times, Eusebius described Sokho (Σοκχωθ) as a double village at the ninth milestone between Eleutheropolis

Eleutheropolis

Eleutheropolis was the Greek name of a Roman city in Israel, some 53 km southwest of Jerusalem. Its remains still straddle the ancient road to Gaza. The site— already rendered as Baitogabra in Ptolemy's Geography— was called Beit Guvrin and Bet Gubrin in the Talmud...

 (Bet Guvrin) and Jerusalem (Eusebius, Onom. 156:18 ff.), which would correspond to the Elah Valley location. The Madaba Map

Madaba Map

The Madaba Map is part of a floor mosaic in the early Byzantine church of Saint George at Madaba, Jordan. The Madaba Map is a map of the Middle East. Part of it contains the oldest surviving original cartographic depiction of the Holy Land and especially Jerusalem...

 also depicts Sokho (Σωκω).

Today

Today, the Elah-Valey Tel Sokho is known as Givat HaTurmusim, or Lupin

Lupin

Lupinus, commonly known as Lupins or lupines , is a genus in the legume family . The genus comprises about 280 species , with major centers of diversity in South and western North America , and the Andes and secondary centers in the Mediterranean region and Africa Lupinus, commonly known as Lupins...

Hill. In late March, the entire hill is covered with wild blue Mountain lupins and becomes a popular outing destination for Israeli families.