Elah (Man living at the time of Divided Monarchy)

The Valley of Elah, named for the terebinth trees that grew there, lies in the lowlands of Judah and is where the young David killed Goliath while the Israelite and Philistine armies faced off on opposite slopes. The same word names an Edomite chief in Genesis, a son of Caleb, and two kings of Israel: Elah son of Baasha, assassinated while drunk by his own chariot commander Zimri, and Elah father of Hoshea, Israel's last king before Assyria's conquest. Excavations at Khirbet Qeiyafa, a fortified site overlooking the valley, have uncovered a tenth century BC settlement with one of the earliest known Hebrew inscriptions, physical evidence of an organized kingdom in Judah near the time and place tradition assigns to David.