Israel: Parat Springs Hike

This was a very eye opening hike. It was my favorite so far. The whole time we could look out and see the country of Jordan in the horizon. That was cool. I didn't realize how close we were to Jordan but we were very close. We were also in the west bank. This didn't seem to matter much. There were certain towns we didn't go in but besides that it seems pretty peaceful. There wasn't any point at which i was nervous. This was a great blessing to be on this one, even though i had to get up early. I hope you enjoy! If you have questions or what pictures of different sort, or anything i could do better just let me know and i will do my best! Thanks for reading!

This is a map of where we went. We started at at Geba (upper left) and went through the Suwenit canyon and made our way over the mountain to the Parat Springs.

We started our day with a quick stop at what seems to be a good option for the tomb of Rachel. To someone who knows something about Rachel’s burial place and the region we were in this may seem like an odd statement. Genesis 35:19 tells us that Rachel was buried in Bethlehem. We were not near Bethlehem, but we were on the Central Benjamin Plateau which is north of Bethlehem. The “traditional site” for Rachel’s tomb is in the Bethlehem that we all know and love, but if there is one thing I have learned at IBEX it is not to trust the “traditional site” of an event, and that applies here. We know that the place of Rachel’s tomb must be in the tribal allotment of Benjamin and not in Judea (which is where the Bethlehem we know is) because in 1 Samuel 10: 2 we read about a meeting that will happen at “Rachel’s tomb in the territory of Benjamin.” There is more mention of a Bethlehem in Benjamin in Ezra and Nehemiah so we know that there is one there. Middle Bronze Age tombs have been found in Benjamin, so the dating of the tombs agrees with the time period Rachel would have died in. We do not know for sure if these are the tombs of Rachel, but it is a very good chance that they are because it would have been on a route that Jacob probably would have taken. He would have gone through this place in order to avoid some fortified and possibly troublesome cities that lie along the main route, and this route is also on the way to a spring, which he would have needed to his animals. The evidence lines up with the facts we know about Rachel’s death and burial, so I feel that it is safe to say that we stopped at Rachel’s Tomb on our way to the beginning of our hike.

We started our hike in Geba. Geba is a city that sits on one side of the Wadi Suwenit, while Michmash s the city that sits on the other side of this wadi. There was some significant event that involved these two cities at this wadi. The most notable is in 1 Samuel 13-14. This is the event involving Jonathon and the Philistine army. Jonathon was camped with his army at Geba and the Philistines were camped just across the valley at Michmash. They are in eye contact of each other and both armies are waiting and anticipating a battle. Saul is in Gibeah of Saul, which is a few mile behind Geba. Due to height of Gibeah of Saul, Saul would be able to see the Philistines and his army lead by Jonathon. One day Saul sees that the Philistine army is in uproar and moving all about. He doesn’t quite know what is going on so he calls to see who from his army is gone. Turn out that Jonathon had climbed down the steep side of the Wadi with and amour bearer and climbed up to surprise attack the Philistine army. He kills twenty of their men before God send a great earthquake which scares the Philistines back out of the hill country. The bible is very specific in naming these cliffs that Jonathon Climbed down. They are called Bozez and Seneh. We climbed down into the valley and stood at a place in which you could see Geba to your right, Michmash to your left and the rocky slopes that Jonathan climbed through right in front of you. This was amazing to see and a great story to learn about while looking at the place it happened. We even did our own reenactment of the story.

Just north of the rocky slopes in the Wadi Suwenit is a placed the called “The Pass.” The Pass is a low point in the Wadi in which people could easily walk through and get from one side to the other. The rest of the valley was far too steep to be traveling through, so this natural bridge seems rather divine. The Pass in mentioned a few places in the bible. When Joshua traveled all night from Gilgal (down by Jericho and the Jordan River) to Gibeon (in the hill country just west of Geba) he most likely went through the pass. In would be in line with his route that would connect these two destinations. Most notably in Isaiah 10: 28-32 Isaiah tells us that “at Michmash he stores his baggage; they have crossed over THE PASS; at Geba they lodged for the night.” This is talking about the Assyrians coming down into the heart of Israel, and the town that they passed along the way.

We began to head down Wadi Suwenit. We didn’t walk in the Wadi itself but walked on the ridge above it. This is how you generally travel in the Hill country because the Wadis are too steep to travel in. On the hill we saw lots of flowers and lots of green grass. This is unusual for the desert but it does happen during this time of the year. Isaiah 40:8 says, “the grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.” This is evident as we walked through the grass and the flowers because I know that they will fade but that God’s word will not fade but will “stand forever.” We could also see and were in the Judean Wilderness. This was most likely the wilderness that Jesus was tempted in and also the wilderness that John the Baptist ministered in. This is truly a baron place. We didn’t get to see how dramatic it is because it is spring time and the grass and flowers are out, but we did see that this place is not occupied by many cities and is not a friendly environment to live in. We made our way over the top of the ridge and got away from the Wadi Suwenit and toward the Wadi Parat. As we were walking we saw a few shepherds and even stopped in at their home. They were friendly, but being that we were in the West Bank which is dominated by Arabs, we saw only men. When Bill asked where the women were they told him that they were inside because it wasn’t culturally acceptable for them to be seen by us. I thought that was interesting. After trying to pet there donkey (which wasn’t very friendly) we continued on our way. From this place we could see the city of Anathoth. This was the place that the prophet of Jeremiah was born. We made our way over to a Canaanites Tel which was from the Early Bronze Age (3200-2300). Then we went down to our final destination, Parat Springs. In Jeremiah 31:1-11 the Lord tells Jeremiah to put his loin cloth in the Parat Springs, and when he told Jeremiah to come back to got the loin cloth he found that it was ruined. God told him that the same would happen to the pride of Judah. Also Psalm 1 talks about being a tree firmly planted by steams of water. This was very evident as we saw the trees arching over the springs and being feed by the waters. This spring was in the Wadi Parat and is an active place on Sabbath. The spring is gushing from the hill and creating these pools of water which are fun to swim in. We took at refreshing swim in the pools and then got some ice cream to end the day. We got to explore a bit more. We saw a monastery that was built right in the side of the mountain. Bill gave a devotional about the streams and trees being firmly planted as it talks about in Psalm and Jeremiah. Then, after Jon slipped on a rock and put a nice cut in his toe, we boarded the bus and went home.

Possibly Rachel Tomb?

Not Rachel though

This video scans from Geba to Michmash. This was the best way to show the whole view. The Pass would be in about the middle of the video in between the two cities.

This is normal. Just a shepherd taking his sheep out. We usually talk to these guys. We talked to this guy but he wasn't the most friendliest guy. 1 sheep costs about $350. See all those sheep? do the math.