Three places called Etam are noticed in the Old Testament. One a town of the south country (1 Chron. iv. 32), probably the place which we discovered in 1874, called ’Aitûn; the second, a city fortified by Rehoboam (2 Chron. xi. 6), near Bethlehem and Tekoa, and which has probably left its name in the spring called ’Ain ’Atân, near the so-called Solomon’s Pools. The third Etam does not seem to have been a town at all, but “a strong rock,” as Josephus calls it, in the territory of Judah, and is to be sought in that part of the country to which most of Samson’s exploits are confined. (Judg. xv. 8.) About two miles west of Beit ’Atâb, a valley, running north and south, separates the high rugged mountains of the ’Arkûb from the low rolling hills of the Shephelah district, beyond which is the Philistine plain. This valley joins the great gorge which bounded Judah on the north, and forms a broad vale, half a mile across, filled with luxuriant corn, with a pebbly torrent-bed in the middle, and low white hills on either side. The vale is called Wâdy Sŭrâr (a Hebrew word, meaning “pebbles”), and is the ancient Valley of Sorek. The ruins of Bethshemesh lie on a knoll surrounded by olive-groves, near the junction of the two valleys above mentioned. On the south is Timnah, where Samson slew the lion; and on the north are the little mud villages, Sŭr’a and Eshû’a--the ancient Zoreah and Eshtaol--the hero’s home. The scene, looking up the great corn valley to the high and rugged hills above, is extremely picturesque, and is that which was spread before the eyes of the five lords of the Philistines, as they followed the lowing oxen, which bore the ark on the “straight way” from Ekron to Bethshemesh. Here also, at the edge of the mountains, is the village of Deir Abân, supposed, by the early Christians, to mark the site of Ebenezer, the boundary of Samuel’s pursuit of the Philistines, and of the land held by the Jews at that period. On the north brink of the Vale of Sorek (in which also Delilah lived) there is a conspicuous white chapel on the hill, dedicated to Neby Samit, and close to the village of Zoreah. Confused traditions--which are, however, probably of Christian origin--connect this prophet with Samson, whose name is recognisable in other parts of this district Under the forms Shemshûn, Sanasîn, and ’Aly (as at Gaza), and also a little farther south as Shemsîn and Samat. It appears probable that the tomb now shown at Zoreah, is that known, to the Jews, in the fourteenth century as Samson’s; and the tradition, thus traced to other than monkish origin, is very possibly as genuine as that which fixes the tombs of Joseph and Phinehas near Shechem. Here, then, we are in Samson’s country, and close to Zoreah we should naturally look for the Rock Etam.