Sorek

Sorek (meaning: choice vine) was the name of a valley — properly a wadi or torrent-bed — now identified with the Wady Surar, the largest drainage basin of the Judean Shephelah running westward to the Mediterranean near modern Tel Aviv. It drains the western Judean hills, passing through the territories of Dan and the Philistine plain. The valley is famous in biblical narrative as the home of Delilah, the woman with whom Samson fell in love (Judg. 16:4), and it was through this corridor that the Philistines later brought the ark of the covenant back to Israel.

The name's connection to choice grapes reflects the valley's fertility; Isaiah may allude to it in his parable of the vineyard (Isa. 5:2). The Sorek valley's strategic position as the main route between the coast and Jerusalem made it the scene of repeated military action from the period of the Judges through modern times.