2. A great-grandson of Benjamin (1 Ch 7'°). 3. One of those who had married a foreign wife (Ezr 10", prob. same as B. of Neh 3" 1'2").
A. S. Peake. BENJAMIN, GATE.— See Jerusalem.
BENO CiJ? * his son ').— In both AV and RV a proper name in 1 Ch 24*' ", but we shoiild perhaps render, ' of Joaziah Aw ton, even the sons of Merari by Joaziah his son ' {Ox/. Heb. Lex. s.v.).
J. A. Selbie.
BENONI.— See Benjamin.
BEN-ZOHETH (nn'in?).— A man of Jndah (1 Ch 4*>). The text appears to be corrupt.
BEON (IV?), Nu 32*.— See Baal-Meon.
BEOR (i^y? 'a burning,' Beup).— 1. Father of Balojim, Nu 22» 24»- '• J, Jos 24» E (1,.X.\ omits), also Nu 31», Dt 23*, Jos 13", Mic 6», 2 P 2"'(l!osor, A V and KVm). 2. Father of Bela, king of Edoni, Gn 3G»» J, I Ch 1". G. U. Battersby.
BERA (JDf, etym. and meaning unknown). — King of Sodom at time of Chedorlaomer'a invasion (Gn I4»).
BERACAH (ij-jf 'blessing,' AVBerachah).^One of Saul's brethren who joined David at Ziklai- (1 Ch 1'2»).
BERACAH, Valley (.i;n?), 2 Ch 20" only.— 'The valley of blessing,' where Jehoshaphat gave thanks
274
BERAIAH
BEEITES
for victory over the Ammonites, Moabites, and Edomites, who had marched from Engedi to Tekoa (yy 2. 3U) "pfjg name survives at the ruin Breikiit on the main road from Jerusalem to Hebron, west of Tekoa. See further in Kobinson, BR ii. 189 ; Thomson, Land and Book, \. 317 ; G. A. Smith, Eist. Gcug. uJ'Holy Land, 272; and SWP vol. iii. sheet xxi.
C. R. CONDER.
BERAIAH (:t;k-!3 'J" hath created ').— A man of Benjamin (1 Ch 8^).
BEREA CSepia, 1 Mac 9*).— See Bercea.
BEREAVE, now restricted to the loss of relatives or friends, once meant to deprive of any possession. Thus Ec 4* ' For whom do I labour, and b. (RV ' deprive,' Heb. -"O") my soul of good ? ' In this sense ' bereft," an alternative past tense and past ptcp. with ' bereaved,' is still used. Bereft, not in AV, is given by RV at I Ti 6"' b. of the truth ' (AV ' destitute, Gr. air^aTepTuxivo^). RV also introduces bereavement. Is 49-" ' The children of thy b.' (xhi^ '}3, that is, says Cheyne, who adopts the same rendering, ' those born wliile Zion tliought herself bereft of all her children ' ; AV ' the children which thou shalt have, after thou hast lost the other '). RV introduces further the very rare word bereaver, Ezk 36" ' a b. of thy nation,' of which the latest e.xample found by Oxf. E)tg. Diet, is in W. Hall, Man's Gt. Eiicmy (1624): ' Of soule and bodie's good hee's a bereauer.'
J. Hastings.
BERECHIAH (n;r-i3, abbrev. from in-in- 'J' blesseth ').—!. Father of Asaph (1 Ch 6^' AV Berachiah). 2. Son of Zerubbabel (1 Ch S""). 3. Father of Meshullam, one of Nehemiah's chiefs (Neh 3<-»> 6'»). 4. A Levite guard of the ark (1 Ch 9'" 15^). 5. Father of the propliet Zechariah (Zee l'). 6. An Ephraimite chief (2 Ch 28'-). See Genealogy. J. A. Selbie.
BERED (Person).— See Bechee.
BERED (Ti? 'hail'(?), Gn 16").— I. A place be- tween Beersheba and Beer-lahai-roi. The Targum of pseudo - Jonathan identifies it with Kaluga, now Halasah, the Elusa of Ptolemy, where there are extensive ruins 13 miles south of Beersheba. The ecclesiastical history of Elusa in this era is given by Robinson, i. 201, 202. Jerome says the inhabitants in his time called it Barec. Possibly this was the correct name, as such a change is not likely to occur in .speech, but could very easily indeed be made in writing by the change of 1 into n. At Hnlasnh there is a distinct bend on the hills and the valley between them, such as might most naturally suggest the name -i3 ' a knee.' See map in Trumbull's Kndesh Barnea.
A. Henderson.
BERI (-13, perhaps=n(<3, Oxf. Heb. Lex., and connected with 1X3 ' a well '). — A division of the Asherite clan Zophah, 1 Ch 7^. See Berites.
W. H. Bennett.
BERIAH (iy-!3). — The etymology is quite un- certain, the root yi3 not being u.sed in Hebrew. The root occurs in Ara>)ic in the senses of mount, excel, be munifcent. The name may have meant distinijuvshed, hero, or chieftain. "The statement in 1 Ch 7'^ that Beriah 2 was so called ' because it went evil (.ij^-ia, lit. ' in evil ') with his house,' in- dicates what the name in course of time may have come to suggest, and does not give its original etymology. 1. A son of Asher, and the clan descended from him. Gn 46" (P, probably late stratum), \'u 26"-" (P), 1 Ch 7*'- »' include B. among the sons of Asher, and make him the ancestor of the clans of Heber and Malchiel, who i.re mentioned as his sons. In the LXX, how-
ever, of Nu 26" (LXX 29) the clause 'of the song of Beriah ' is omitted, probably by an oversight, so that Heber and AlaUhiel appear as direct de- scendants of Asher. In Nu 26**, B. Is the ancestoi of ' the clan of the Beriites' (•J,"13? nn=:;>p). 2. A son of Ephraim, and a clan descended from him. This clan in later times included large Benjamite elements. B. is not included in the list of Ephraimitic clans in Nu 26^-" (P); but in 1 Ch 7-""^ we read, 'And the sons of Ephraim ; Shuthelah, and Bered his son, and Tahath his son, and Eleadah his son, and Tahath his son, and Zabad his son, and Shuthelah his son, and Ezer, and Elead, whom the men of Gath that were born in the land slew, because they came down to take away their cattle. And Ephraim, theu father, mourned many days, and his brethren came in to comfort him. And he went in to his wife, and she conceived, and he called his name B., because it went evil with his house.' The mention of Ephraim at first sight suggests that this episode occurred at the beginning of the sojourn in Egypt ; but Ezer and Elead appear to be brothers of the second Shuthelah, and six generations are mentioned be- tween them and Ephraim. They came down to Gath, presumably from the neighbouring highlands of Ephraim. ' Ephraim ' and ' his brethren ' can scarcely mean the patriarchs, who lived and died in Egypt. Actual sons of Ephraim must have come n-om Egypt, across the desert, past PhU. and Can. towns. A simple and probable explanation seems to be that the chronicler is using a natural and common (cf. Jg 21'- ') figure to describe the distress in the tribe of Ephraim when two of its clans were cut off, the sympathy of the neighbour- ing tribes, and the fact that a new clan Beriah was formed to replace those that were cut off. This new clan was partly Benjamite. In 1 Ch 8" we read of two Benjamites, ' Beriah and Shema, who were heads of fathers' houses of the inhabitants of Aijalon, who put to flij'ht the inhabitants of Gath.' The episode was probably somewhat as follows : — Two Epliraimite clans, Ezer and Elead, set out to drive tlie cattle 'of the men of Gath, who were bom in the land,' i.e. of the aboriginal Avvites, who had been dispossessed by the Philistines, but still retained some pasture lands. The Ephraimites were defeated, and nearly all the fighting men of the two clans perished. The %'ictors invaded Ephraim, whose border districts, stripped of their defenders, lay at the mercy of the enemy. The Benjamite clans Beriah and Shema, then occupy- ing Aijalon, came to the rescue and drove back the invaders. "The grateful Ephraimites invited their allies to occupy the vacant territory, and, in all probability, to marry the widows and daughters of their slaughtered kinsmen. Hence B. is some- times reckoned as Ephraimite and sometimes as Benjamite. (Cf. Bertneau, also Expositor's Bible, on 1 Ch 7 and 8.) Z. A Levite of the clan Gershom, 1 Ch 23"'- ".