1. I Sept. li,,--,-,,;,,/,,. v. r. BayaoHjX.) A city in the Iowcountry(5Af/efaA)0fJudah (Josh, xv, 41, where il i- oamed between Gederoth and Naamah), and there. for.- not f.„- from the Philistine territory, with which it- name implies o connection. From the absence of the copulative conjunction bofore this name, ii has liecn d that it should be taken with the preceding, " ' sroth-Bethdagon ;" In that case, probably, distin- guishing Gederoth from thu two place:, uf similar name
in the neighborhood. But this would leave the enu- meration "sixteen cities" in ver. 41 deficient; and the conjunction is similarly omitted frequently in the same list (e. g. between ver. 38 and 39, etc.). The indica- tions of site and name correspond quite well to those of Bt it-J( rja, marked on Van de Yelde's Map 5| miles S.E. of Ashkelon.
i 2. (Sept. Br/SrSaywv v. r. BaiSreyeviSt.") A city near the S.E. border of the tribe of A sher, between the mouth of the Shihor-libnath and Zebulon (Josh, xix, 27) ; a position which agrees with that of the modern ruined village Bqjeli, marked on Van de Yelde's Map about 3i miles S.E. of Athlit. See Tkibe. The name and the proximity to the coast point to its being a Philis- tine colony. Schwarz's attempt at a location (Palest. p. 192) is utterly destitute of foundation.
3. Eusebius and Jerome (Onomast. s. v. Bicaywv, Bethdagon) speak of a "large village" by this name (llapaSaywv, Caphardago) as extant in their day be- tween Diospolis (Lydda) and Jamnia ; without doubt
I the present Beit-Dejan (Robinson, Researches, iii, 30 ; Tobler, Topiog. ii, 405 ; yet Schwarz says [Palest, p.
I 104], " not a vestige can be found!").
Betli-diblatha'im (Heb. Beyth Diblatha'yim, tVa E^rsiH, house of Diblathahn ; Sept. o7«>e AifiXaSaifi [v. r. A«//3Art3«i'/(]), a city of Moab upon which the prophet denounces destruction (Jer. xlviii, 22). It is called Almon-Diblathaim in Num. xxxiii, 46. It is different from the Diblath of Ezek. vi, 14. Sec Di- elatiiaim; Riblah.
Beth-e'den (Heb. Beyth E'den, )"}" fl*»a, house of pleasantness; Sept. confusedly translates civvptg \appdv; Vulg. clomus voluntatis), apparently a city of Syria, situated on Mount Lebanon, the seat of a na- tive king, threatened with destruction by the prophet
I (Amos i, 5, where the Auth. Vers, renders it " house of Eden"); probably the name of a country residence of the kings of Damascus. Michaelis (Suppl. ad Leg. Hebr. s. v.), following Laroque's description, and mis- led by an apparent resemblance in name, identified it with Ehdeh, about a day's journey from Baalbek, on the eastern slope of the Libanus, and near the old cedars of Bshirrai. Baur (Amos, p. 224), in accord- ance with the Mohammedan tradition that one of the four terrestrial paradises was in the valley between the ranges of the Libanus and Anti-Libanus, is in- clined to favor the same hypothesis. But Grotius, with greater appearance of probability, pointed to the Paradise (nanactiaoc, park) of Ptolemy (v, 15) as the locality of Eden. The village Jushh el-Kadimeh, a
: site with extensive ruins, about H hour S.E. of Kib- lah, near the Orontes, but now a paradise no longer, is supposed by Dr. Robinson (Later Researches, p.
| 556) to mark the site of the ancient Paradisus ; and his suggestion is approved by Mr. Porter (Hondo, p. 577), but doubted by Bitter (Erdh. xvii, 997-999).
! Again, it has been conjectured that Beth-Eden is no
| other than Beit-Jenn, "the house of Paradise," not far to the south-west of Damascus, on the eastern
j slope of the Hermon, and a short distance from Medjel. It stands on a branch of the ancient Pharpar, near its source (Bosenmuller, Bill. Alt. ii, 291; Hitzig, Amos, in loc. ; Porter, Damascus, i, :'<!! ).
Beth-e'ked (Heb, Beyth-E'Iced, -<\:?—-Z. house of the binding, se. of sheep ; Sept. BaSrcucc'tZ- ; Vulg. camera; Targum X;~" "'■t"? ~"5? place of shep- herds' gathering), the name of a place near Samaria. being the "shearing-bouse" at the pit or well ("12) of which the forty-two brethren of Ahaziah were slain by Jehu (•_' Kings x, 12, 14, in the former of which oc- curr nees it is fully Br.Tii-E'KED-IlARo'iM, having the addition Dh5*li1, h'i-Itii>in'. <f the shepherds, Sept. -o,v —Di/i \vtov, for which no equivalent appears in the Auth. Vers.). It lay between Jezrccl and Samaria, acconl-
BETHEL
115
BETH-EL
ing to Eusebius and Jerome (Onomast. s. v. BaiSaicaS, ' Bethachad), 15 miles from the town of Legio, and in the plain of Esdraelon. It is doubtless the Beit-Kad noticed by Robinson {Researches, iii, 157) on the edge of "the j^reat plain," east of Jenin, and located on Van de Velde's Map along the south face of Mt. Gilboa, 5i miles west of Beisan, at the exact distance (in Roman miles) from Lejjun indicated in the Onamastkon.
Beth'-el (lleb. Btyth-El' , S^TPS, house of God [see below] ; Sept. usually haiSrfjX ; Josephus [r«] lii)Si]\a, or [</] H;y.j/;,\;y), the name of one or two towns.