Gederoth

Gederoth ("walls" or "sheepfolds") was one of the lowland towns of Judah, allotted to the tribe of Judah in the Shephelah district between the hill country and the Mediterranean coastal plain (Joshua 15:41). It later appears in 2 Chronicles 28:18 as one of six Shephelah and Negev cities that the Philistines captured from King Ahaz during the disastrous Syro-Ephraimite war crisis — along with Beth-shemesh, Aijalon, Soco, Timnah, and Gimzo. The Philistines invaded the western lowlands when Ahaz had stripped Judah's defenses to bribe Tiglath-pileser of Assyria into rescuing Jerusalem from Pekah of Israel and Rezin of Syria. The site of Gederoth is uncertain but is generally placed in the inner Shephelah, possibly at Qatra or Khirbet el-Gedrus. The cluster of similarly named villages (Geder, Gedor, Gederah, Gederoth, Gederothaim) suggests a broader region of stone-walled lowland farmsteads whose names all derive from the Hebrew root meaning "wall."