Shaaraim

Shaaraim (meaning "two gates") was a city in the Shephelah (lowlands) of Judah, listed in Joshua 15:36 among the cities of the second district. It is mentioned in the account of the rout of the Philistines following David's defeat of Goliath: "the wounded Philistines fell on the way from Shaaraim as far as Gath and Ekron" (1 Sam. 17:52), establishing the direction of the Philistine flight. The city appears again in 1 Chronicles 4:31 as a place associated with descendants of Simeon who settled in the region before David's reign. Its precise identification among the sites of the Shephelah is uncertain.