SOCO sō’ kō (שׂﯴכֹ֔ו ; LXX Σωχων, Σοκχωθ, Σωχω perhaps thorny place; 1 Chron 4:18; 2 Chron 11:7; 28:18); SOCOH (שׂﯴכֹ֖ה, שֹׂכֹ֖ה LXX Σαωχω, Σωχω, Σοκχωθ; Josh 15:35, 48; 1 Sam 17:1; 1 Kings 4:10); KJV SOCOH (Josh 15:35, 48); SOCHOH (1 Kings 4:10); SOCHO (1 Chron 4:18); SHOCHOH (1 Sam 17:1); SHOCO (2 Chron 11:7; 28:18). A place name. 1. One of eleven towns in the Eshtemoh or southernmost district of the hill country of Judah (Josh 15:48). It can be identified with Khirbet Shuweikeh, E of modern Dahariyeh and about ten m. SW of Hebron.

2. A town in the Shephelah near Azekah (Josh 15:35) on the Valley of Elah, modern Wadi es-Sant. The name is preserved in another Khirbet Shuweikeh, although the actual site is prob. Khirbet ’Abbad, slightly to the W. 1 Samuel 17:1 relates how the Philistines, with Goliath, took over Socoh and then “encamped between Socoh and Azekah, in Ephes-dammim,” when preparing to attack the armies of Israel. Soco was one of the cities that Rehoboam repossessed and fortified after the revolt of the northern tribes (2 Chron 11:7). It was retaken by the Philistines in the reign of Ahaz (2 Chron 28:18).

3. A city in the Sharon Plain under the administration of Ben-hesed in the time of Solomon (1 Kings 4:10). This Socoh is prob. no. 67 in the topographical list of Thut-mose III and no. 38 in the list of Shishak. It has been identified with modern Khirbet Shuweikeh, a little N of modern Tul-Karem.

4. In 1 Chronicles 4:18 it is difficult to know whether Soco is the name of a person or place. It occurs in a genealogy of the “sons of Judah,” yet some of the other names listed are place names in S Judah (cf. Josh 15:48-58). Either the person took his name from the town (see 1 above), or “the sons of various clans are mentioned along with the names of their respective settlements in such a way that a clansman becomes the father of the place occupied” (Y. Aharoni, The Land of the Bible, 225).

Bibliography G. A. Smith, The Historical Geography of the Holy Land (1931, 1966), 143-162, 460-463; IDB, R-Z (1962), 395; Y. Aharoni, The Land of The Bible, A Historical Geography (1962, 1967), 22f., 45-55, 98-110, 149-155, 226f., 250-255, 288-300, 328-364.