Azekah was a town in the hill country of Judah, and its name keeps turning up where something large is happening. In Joshua 10 the Lord “cast down great stones from heaven” on fleeing enemies as far as Azekah. In 1 Samuel 17:1 the Philistines pitch their camp between Shochoh and Azekah. Centuries later, Jeremiah 34:7 says the king of Babylon’s army fought against “Lachish, and against Azekah,” the last of Judah’s fortified cities still standing. The town itself is never the story; it marks the ground where Judah’s battles were fought.
7 verses
And the LORD discomfited them before Israel, and slew them with a great slaughter at Gibeon, and chased them along the way that goeth up to Bethhoron, and smote them to Azekah, and unto Makkedah.
And it came to pass, as they fled from before Israel, and were in the going down to Bethhoron, that the LORD cast down great stones from heaven upon them unto Azekah, and they died: they were more which died with hailstones than they whom the children of Israel slew with the sword.
Jarmuth, and Adullam, Socoh, and Azekah,
Now the Philistines gathered together their armies to battle, and were gathered together at Shochoh, which belongeth to Judah, and pitched between Shochoh and Azekah, in Ephesdammim.
And Adoraim, and Lachish, and Azekah,
Zanoah, Adullam, and in their villages, at Lachish, and the fields thereof, at Azekah, and in the villages thereof. And they dwelt from Beersheba unto the valley of Hinnom.
When the king of Babylon's army fought against Jerusalem, and against all the cities of Judah that were left, against Lachish, and against Azekah: for these defenced cities remained of the cities of Judah.
Matthew George Easton, 1897
Dug over, a town in the Shephelah or low hills of Judah (Josh. 15:35), where the five confederated Amoritish kings were defeated by Joshua and their army destroyed by a hailstrom (10:10, 11). It was one of the places re-occupied by the Jews on their return from the Captivity (Neh. 11:30).
William Smith, 1884
(dugover), a town of Judah, with dependent villages, lying in the Shefelah or rich agricultural plain. It is most clearly defined as being near Shochoh, (1 Samuel 17:1) but its position has not yet been recognized.