Valley of Succoth
Valley of Succoth is a location mentioned in the Old Testament, located in the region of Transjordan in modern-day Israel. Known today as Tell Deir Alla. It appears across 2 verses in Scripture.
Biblical History
The Valley of Succoth derives its name from Succoth, the town situated in the Jordan Valley east of the river in Transjordan. The valley appears in the Psalms as a poetic geographical reference: in Psalm 60:6 and its parallel in Psalm 108:7, God declares triumphantly, "I will divide up Shechem and measure out the Valley of Succoth," signaling divine sovereignty over the entire land from the Mediterranean to the Transjordanian territories. These liturgical texts, likely composed in the context of David's military campaigns, use Succoth's valley as a symbol of the full territorial scope of God's covenantal grant to Israel. The town of Succoth itself has a longer narrative history: Jacob camped there on his return from Paddan Aram and built booths for his livestock (Genesis 33:17). Gideon passed through Succoth after his victory over the Midianites and punished its leaders for refusing to aid his weary troops (Judges 8:5-16). The valley's productive agricultural character, it lay in the well-watered Jordan Valley near the confluence with the Jabbok, made it a place of settlement, and its Bronze and Iron Age occupation is well attested.
Archaeological & Historical Notes
The Valley of Succoth is associated with the site of Tell Deir Alla, located in the eastern Jordan Valley near the mouth of the Jabbok River (Wadi Zarqa). Excavations at Tell Deir Alla, conducted primarily by Dutch archaeologists from the 1960s onward, have revealed continuous occupation from the Late Bronze Age through the Iron Age and beyond. Among the most significant discoveries was the Deir Alla Inscription (circa 9th-8th century BCE), a plaster text mentioning Balaam son of Beor, a figure also found in Numbers 22-24. The site's fertile setting and strategic position at a Jabbok ford confirm its importance in the biblical period.
Verse Appearances (2)
References
- Orr, J. (ed.) (1915) The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. Chicago: Howard-Severance Company. [Public Domain]
- OpenBible.info (n.d.) Bible Geocoding. Available at: https://www.openbible.info/geo/. [CC BY 4.0]
- Bagnall, R. et al. (eds.) (n.d.) Pleiades: A Gazetteer of Past Places. Available at: https://pleiades.stoa.org. [CC BY 3.0]
- Wikidata contributors (n.d.) Wikidata. Available at: https://www.wikidata.org. [CC0]
- Lawrence, D. et al. (2025) Villages to Empires: a settlement dataset for the Southern Levant. doi:10.5281/zenodo.15111732. [CC BY 4.0]
- Church of England (1769) The Holy Bible, Authorized (King James) Version. [Public Domain]