Wadi Qelt. As we visit the Wadi Qelt

we'll have cause to think about both

Psalm 23 and Jesus' story of the Good Samaritan

but first you may be wondering where is the wadi Qelt

well its a gash

in the land, that heads up from Jericho to Jerusalem

or that heads down from Jerusalem to Jericho depending on which way you look at it

butwith a side branch to Michmash

its one of those winding

steep-sided wadis that are cut by water into the limestone rocks

up the eastern side of the Judean Hills. Heading out of Jerusalem

to be East on the northern side not far past

the Hebrew University we were in the desert

dry

barren, not far still and we turned off

and arrived here the the Prat spring

the Nahal Prat - Prat Spring

provides a permanent water source for

the Wadi Qelt and here we're surrounded by

green and lush in the middle of the desert

a little oasis, as we move further

down the Wadi Qelt we will be returning

desert-like scenery. As we head

down the wadi it's winter time and there's water

at the bottom and plenty of grass and other growth

lush almost. And a Bedouin encampment, because they want to pasture their flocks with this

lush grass

as we moved down further

near the monastery the wadi he gets steeper and steeper

the water's cut a

narrower and narrower channel at the bottom

this is rugged territory

it's

also as we fly over the modern road from Jerusalem to Jericho

the setting of Jesus' story of the Good Samaritan

and you can see why such territory was dangerous in ancient times

even in modern times the road is precipitous enough

but the ancient track

was much more dangerous

even without the robbers and provided of course in ideal place for the robbers to

ambush

their prey!

Flying past the monastery we get a sense

of just how remote this region is, there are some caves

that were the ancient monastery before the modern one was built.

Down nearer to Jericho the

gash is deeper still, the water collects at the very bottom of

this canyon that we can't get down into in the helicopter

but just look down and imagine

the water flooding down you'll find links to

videos of flash floods in the Judean Desert

which may give you some idea of just how dangerous this kind of territory was

for sheep

so the sight of these flash floods

and the geography of the wadi throws light on many of the phrases in Psalm 23

and will be thinking of that as we make our visit to the wadi

Qelt