BETII-JESIIIMOTH
780
BETH-LEIIEM
it parts into three, diverging north to Caphar-Saba (Antipatris), south to Gaza, and west to Jaffa (Joppa). Beth-jesh'imoth or (as it is less correctly Angli- cized in Num. xxxiii, 49) Beth-jes'imoth (Heb. Beyth h i-Yednmoth' , r'-Z-^Ti r"3 [in Num. xxxiii, 49, r^'w^n r*2~}, house of the wastes ; Sept. Ati/h.;3' [v. r. AioifHi&l, but BqSaeLfiwS in Josh, xiii, 20, and BtiSiaoi/xovS [v. r. 'laaifwiB, B>j3a<xi^oi''j] in Ezek. xxv. '.'), a town or place not far east of Jordan, near Abel-Shittim, in the "deserts" (TQ^S) of MoaL — that is, on the lower level at the south end of the Jordan valley (Num. xxxiii, 40) — and named with Ashdoth- pisgah and Beth-pcor. It was one of the limits of the encampment of Israel before crossing the Jordan. It lay within the territory of Sihon, king of the Amorites (Josh, xii, 3), and was allotted to Reuben (Josh, xiii, 20), but came at last into the hands of Moab, and form- ed one of the cities which were "the glory of the coun- try" (Ezek. xxv, 9). According to Eusebius and Je- rome (Onomast. s. v. ErjBaaifiovB, Bethsimutb) it was still called by the same name (juttoi rJ/c 'lafiovSr, Do- iraiM fsimutlt), being "opposite Jericho, 10 miles to the south, near the Dead Sea," meaning apparently south- east, and across the Jordan. It is evidently the Besi- moth (BtiaifiwS) captured by Placidus, the general of Vespasian (Josephus, War, iv, 7, 0). Schwarz (Pal- est, p. 228) states that there are still "the ruins of a Beih-Jisimuth situated on the north-easternmost point of the Dead Sea, half a mile from the Jordan ;" a lo- cality which, although reported by no other traveller, cannot be far from correct (Van dc Velde, Memoir, p. 290).
Beth-Joab. See Ataroth (beth-Joab).
Beth-leapb/rah (Heb. Beyth le-Aphrah', tVa rl^BS?, house [to, i. e.] of 'the fawn; Sept. and Vulg. falsely translate oIkoc; Kara yeXiora i/xiLv, domus pul- veris; Auth. Vers, "house of Aphrah"), a place named (only in Mic. i, 10, where there is evidently a play upon the word as if for IBS, dust) in connection with other places of the Philistine coast (e. g. Gath, Acclio ["weep ye"], Saphir, etc.), and not to be confounded (as by Henderson, in loc, after Gesenius and Winer) with the Benjamite Ophrah (Josh, xviii, 23), but prob- ably identical with the present village Beit-Afla, G miles south-east of Ashdod (Robinson's Researches, ii, 3C9 note ; Van de Velde, Map).
Beth-leb'aoth (Heb. Beyth Lebaotk', lTriK& n^S, house of lionesses, Sept. Bq&XEjSawS- v. r. Bcn&a\(3a& and BaSapwS), a town in the lot of Simeon (Josh, xix, 6), and therefore in the extreme south of Judah (xv, 32, where it is called simply Lebaoth [q. v.]), probably in the wild country to which its name bears witness. In the parallel list in 1 Chron. iv, 31, the name is given Beth-bikei. Reland (Palast. p. 648) conjectures that it may have been the "toparchy of Bethleptephse" (Bf&Xtiirrri^Ctv), mentioned by Jose- phus ( War, iv, 8, li and Pliny (Betlepiephene, v, 15), Boutfa of Jerusalem; but this is hardly probable (see also lb- improbable Burmise of Korb in Jahn's Jahrb. f. Phi!.,!, iv, 114 sq.).
Beth' lehem (Heb. Beylh-Le'chem, cnVn^S, housi of bread, perh, from the fertility of the region; Sept. and N. T. li#/'-.W/i [but v. r. BatSr/jiav in Josh, xix, 1"> ; btSXftft in Ezra ii, 21 ; Ba&aXefi in Neh. vii, 26]; Josephus, \>„^\f/l,<; Steph. Byz. B//-\f/<«), the name of two places.
1. One of the towns in Palestine, already in exist- ence at the time of Jacob's return to the country, when its nam.' was Ephrath or Ephratah (see Gen. xxxv, 10; xhiii, 7; Sept. at Josh, xv, 59), which seen s not only to have been the ancient name of the city itself, but also of the surrounding region; its in- habitants being likewise termed EphrathiteS (Ruth
l i, 2). It is also called " Beth-lehem-Epiiratah" (Mic. v, 2), and " Betii-lehem-Judah" (1 Sam. xvii,
I 12), and " Beth-leiiem of Judaea" (Matt, ii, 1), to distinguish it from another town of the same name in
j the tribe of Zebulun (Josh, xix, 15), and also " the city of David" (Luke ii, 4 ; John vii, 42). The inhab- itants are called Beth-lehemites (1 Sam. xvi, 1, 18; xvii, 58). It is not, however, till long after the occu-
1 pation of the country by the Israelites that we meet with it under its new name of Bethlehem. Here, as in other cases (comp. Bethmcon, Bethdiblathaim, Beth- peor), the "Beth" appears to mark the bestowal of a
i Hebrew appellation ; and, if the derivations of the lex-
! icons are to be trusted, the name in its present shape appears to have been an attempt to translate the ear-
I lier Ephrata into Hebrew language and idiom, just as the Arabs have, in their turn, with a further slight
I change of meaning, converted it into Beit-lakm (house of flesh). However this may be, the ancient name lin-
' gered as a familiar word in the mouths of the inhabit-
j ants of the place (Ruth i, 2 ; iv, 11 ; 1 Sam. xvii, 12), and in the poetry of the psalmists and prophets (Psa. exxxii, 6 ; Mic. v, 2) to a late period. In the genea- logical lists of 1 Chron. it recurs, and Ephrath appears