Kirjath-jearim (Josh, ix, 17). Beeroth was with the rest of these towns allotted to Benjamin (Josh, xviii, 25), in Avhose possession it continued at the time of David, the murderers of Ishbosheth being named as belonging to it (2 Sam. iv, 2). From the notice in this place (ver. 2, 3), it would appear that the original inhabitants had been forced from the town, and had taken refuge at Gittaim (Neh. xi, 34), possibly a Phi- listine city. Beeroth is once more named witli Che- phirah and Kirjath-jearim in the list of those who re- turned from Babylon (Ezra ii, 25; Neh. vii, 29; 1 Esdr. v. 19). Besides Baanah and Rechab, the mur- derers of Ishbosheth, with their father Rimmon, we find Nahari "the Beerothite'' (2 Sam. xxiii, 37), or "the Berothite" (1 Chron. xi, 39), one of the " mighty
men" of David's guard Smith, s. v. See also Bee-
roth-Bene-Jaakan.
The name of Beeroth is the plural of Beer, and it has therefore been taken by many for the same place. Eusebius and Jerome, however, both distinguish it from Beer (Onomast. s. v. BijpwB), although there has been much misunderstanding of their language respecting it (see Eeland, Palcest. p. 618, 619). The former says that it could be seen in passing from Jerusalem to Nicopolis, at the seventh mile; a description that to this day is true of a place still bearing the correspond- ing name of el-Bireh, which, since Maundrell's time, has been identified with this locality (Journey, March 25). According to Robinson (Researches, ii, 132), the traveller in that direction sees el-Bireh on his right after a little more than two hours from Jerusalem. Jerome, on the other hand, apparently misconceiving Eusebius as meaning that Beeroth was on the road, from which he says it is visible, changes " Nicopolis" to "Neapolis," which still leaves the distance and di- rection sufficiently exact. Bireh is mentioned under the name of Bira by Brocard (vii, 278), in whose time it was held by the Templars. By the Crusaders and the later ecclesiastics it was erroneously confounded with the ancient Michmash. Bireh is situated on the ridge, running from east to west, which bounds the northern prospect, as behe'd from Jerusalem and its vicinity, and may be seen '■'rom a great distance north and south. It is now a large village, with a popula- tion of 700 Moslems. The houses are low, and many of them half underground. Many large stones and various substructions evince the antiquity of the site ; and there are remains of a fine old church of the time of the Crusades (Richter, WaVfahrten, p. 54). Ac- cording to modern local tradition it was the place at which the parents of "the child Jesus" discovered that he was not among their "company" (Luke ii, 43-45) ; and it is a fact that the spring of el-Bireh is even to this day the customary resting-place for caravans go- ing northward, at the end of the first day's journey from Jerusalem (Stanlev, Palest, p. 215; Lord Nugent, ii, 112).
Bee'roth-be'ne- Ja'akan (Heb. Beeroth' Beney'-
}',!,i I:,
\ir~-
■PX2, wells of the so7is of Jaa-
Ican; Sept. Br)pw3 v'iSiV 'Iaici/t), a place through which the Israelites twice passed in the desert, being their twenty-seventh and thirty-third station on the way from Egypt to Canaan (Num. xxxiii, 31, 32 ; Deut. x, 6). See Exode. From a comparison of these pas- sages (in the former of which it is called simply Bune- Jaakan, and in the latter partly translated "Beeroth of the children of Jaakan"), it appears to have been situated in the vallej' of the Arabah, not far from Mount Ilor (Mosera or Moseroth) in the direction of Kadesh-Barnea, and may therefore have well repre- sented the tract including the modern fountains in that region, called Ain el-Ghamr, Ain el-Weibeh, el- Hufeiry, el-Buweirideh, etc., lying within a short dis- tance of each other. Jaakan (or Aran) was a de- scendant of Seir the Horite (Gen. xxxvi, 27; 1 Chr. i, 42), and the territory designated by the name of his
BEER0TfflT3
children may therefore naturally be sought in this vicinity (see Browne's nr.l, Soeclorum, p. 270). Dr. Robinson (Researches, ii, 583J inclines to identify this place with Moseroth, on account of the statement of Eusebius and Jerome (Onomast. s. v.) that Beeroth Bene Jaakan was extant in their day ten Roman miles from 1'etra, on the top of the mountain — probably a conjectural tradition. Schwarz's confusion of Wady and Jebel Araif en-Ndkah in the interior of the desert ct- l'ih with this place, under the name of Anoka (Pa- ' -'. p. 213), is unworthy of farther notice.
Bee'rotliite (Ileb. Beerothi', WhKS; Sept. Brj- owSaToc v. r. BqSwpaio •), an inhabitant of Beeroth (q. v.) of Benjamin f2 8am. iv, 2 ; xxiii, 37).
Beer'-siieba (Ileb. Be/ She'la, "3V3 1X3, in pause B( i / Shaba, 2nd "^2, well of swearing, or well of Si D( n ; Sept. in Gen. Optap rov uoKtai-iov or rov op- kov; in Josh, and later books, B^ptyajitt ; Josephus, 4»<. i, 12, 1, Bqoffovfiai, which he immediately inter- prets by opKiov (ppsap), the name of one of the oldest places in Palestine, and which formed the southern limit of the country. There are two accounts of the origin of the name. According to the first, the well was dug by Abraham, and the name given, because there he and Abimelech, the king of the Philistines, '•sware" (WSttJS) both of them (Gen. xxi, 31). But the compact was ratified by the setting apart of " seven ewe lambs;" and as the Hebrew word for "seven" is 53ttJ, 8heba, it is equally possible that this is the mean- ing of the name. The other narrative ascribes the ori- gin of the name to an occurrence almost precisely sim- ilar, in which both Abimelech, the king of the Philis- tines, and Phichol, his chief captain, are again concern- ed, with the difference that the person on the Hebrew side of the transaction is Isaac instead of Abraham (lien, xxvi, 31-33). Here there is no reference to the "seven" lambs, and we are left to infer the derivation of Skibeah (lnS3\a, Shibah', not "Shcbah," as in the Auth. Vers.) from the mention of the "swearing" l/'^'-V" I m v«'r- 31. Thcst two accounts, however, ap- pear to be adjusted by the statement in ver. 18 that this was one of the wells originally dug by Abraham, to Which Isaac, on reopening them, assigned the same names given them by his father.