The Philistines also came But the Philistines came. Taking a different route, perhaps by the Wady-es-Surârand Beth-shemesh (see note on 1 Samuel 6:9), so as to avoid David and his army, they came up and occupied "the valley of Rephaim," an open plain or upland valley, stretching in a S.W. direction from the neighbourhood of Jerusalem towards Bethlehem. Cp. Joshua 15:8; Joshua 18:16 (E. V. the valley of the giants). It was famous for its fertile corn-fields (Isaiah 17:5). The name preserves a trace of the ancient gigantic race of the Rephaim, to which Og the king of Bashan belonged (Deuteronomy 3:11. Cp. Genesis 14:5; Joshua 17:15).

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