Beth-mar'caboth (Heb. Beyth Markaboth', F^S iTYiaa'HTa, house of chariots, in Chron. ; Sept. Ba&uap- \<i;)c'j v. r. Bat$uapiuii& ; or with the art. in Josh., 7)'< th-hara-marhaboth' , ra2"i"sn~n*a, house of the char- iots; Sept. B/;5<(/(tpY«/3oj^ v. r. BaiSrf.iaxto.ij'i, and Bai&afxuapxdafiwSi), one of the towns of Simeon, sit. uated to the extreme south of Judah, with Ziklag and Ilormah (Josh, xix, 5; 1 Chron. iv, 31). What "chariots"' can have been in use i:i this rough and
BETHMAUS
785
BETIIPIIAGE
thinly-inhabited part of the country, at a time so early as that at which these lists of towns purport to have been made out, we know not. At a later period — that of Solomon — "chariot cities" are named, and a regu- lar trade with Egypt in chariots was carried on (1 Kings ix, 19 ; 2 Chron. viii, G ; 1 Kings x, 29 ; 2 Chron. i, 17), which would naturally require depots or stop- ping-places on the road " up" to Palestine (Stanley, p. ICO). In the parallel list, Josh, xv, 30, 31,3Iadman- H.VH (q. v.) occurs in place of Beth-marcaboth ; possi- bly the latter was substituted for the former after the town had become the resort of chariots. — Smith, s. v. Comp. Hazar-SUSAH.
Bethmaiis (B/puaouc), a place located by Jose- phus {Life, § 12) at '12 stadia from Tiberias, toward Sepphoris, and thought by Lightfoot (Chorogr. eh. 78) to be the Beth-Maon (-,1310 Pl-D) of the Talmud (Tot- sephath Shebiith, ch. vii), in Lower Galilee ; probably the present ruins Kulat Ibn-Maan, a little west of Mejdel (Magdala), alont; the S?a of Galilee (comp. Schwarz, p. 177). Comp. Beth-meon ; Maon.
Beth-ms'on (Heb. Beyth Meon', "jiSB nn2, house of habitation or of Baal-J/core; Sept. oIkoq Mawv v. r. MaiitB), a place in the tribe of Reuben (Jer. xlviii, 23) ; elsewhere (Josh, xiii, 17) ^riven in the full form Betii- baal-meon (q. v.). See also Betiim vi'p.
Beth-mer'hak (Heb. Beyth him-Merchak', rVi2 pni"2ll, house of the remoteness; Sept. translates oIkoc, 6 fiaicpdv, Vulg. procul a domo; A. V. "a place that was far off"), apparently the proper name of a locality near Jerusalem, and not far beyond the brook Kidron, where King David first halted in his exit from the city on the rebellion of Absalom (2 Sam. xv, 17); doubtless a designation of the environs outside the city wall, in the valley of Jehoshaphat, as being the extreme limit of the houses.
Beth-mil'lo (Heb. Beyth Mlllo , afea r.^2, [or S<2"2,] wall-house; Sept. oIkoq Maakw or MprWw; Villi-, oppidum [or domus] Mello; Auth. Vers, "house of Millo"), the name of two localities. See Millo.
1. A fortress (or, according to the Turgum, a vil- lage) near Shechem (Judg. ix, 20); apparenth' the same with the citadel (5^5 "3, tower) of the place (Judg. ix, 46 49). See Shechem.
2. A castle or fortification of Jerusalem, where King Jehoash was slain (2 Kings xii, 20, where it is defined as being situated " on the descent to Sillo," q. v.) ; proba- bly in the quarter of the same name. See Jerusalem.
Beth-nim'rah (Heb. Beyth Nimrah', tVvgi r"H2, house of limpid water ; Sept. »'/ Nn/i/3p« and BrjSrva/jipci, with many var. readings), one of the " fenced cities" on the east of the Jordan taken and "built" by the tribe of Gad (Num. xxxii, 36), and described as lying "in the valley" (paSS) beside Bsth-haran (Josh, xiii, 27). In Num. xxxii, 3, it is named simply Nim- rah (q. v.). The "Waters of Nimrim," which are named in the denunciations of Moab by Isaiah (xv, C) and Jeremiah (xlviii, 34), must, from the context, be in the same locality. Sec Nimrim. By Eusebius and Jerome (Onom. s. v. BrjSvaPpav, Bethamnaram) the village (called by them Bethnabris, Bi^vojioiv, Beth- amnaris) is said to have been still standing five miles north of Livias (Beth-haran). The Talmudists call it also Beth Nimrin ("p"i~3 T^2, comp. Targum on Num. xxxii, 3) or Beth-Xamer ("ir3 rn3, ?" panther-house," Penh, iv, 5 ; comp. Schwarz, p. 232). The name still survives in the Nahr-Nimrln, the Arab appellation of the lower end of the Wady Shoaib, where the waters of that valley discharge themselves into the Jordan close to one of the regular fords a few miles above Jericho (Burckhardt, Syria, p. 355). It has been seen by Seetzen (Reisen, 1854, ii, 318) and Robinson (Re- searches, ii, 279), but does not appear to have been ex- I
D D D
plored, and all that is known is that the vegetation is very thick, betokening an abundance of water. The Wady Shoaib runs back up into the eastern moun- tains as far as es-Salt. Its name (the modern fomi of Hobab?) connects it with the wanderings of the children of Israel, and a tradition still clings to the neighborhood that it was down this valley they de- scended to the Jordan (Seetzen, ii, 377).
It seems to have escaped notice how nearly the re- quirements of Beth aba k a (q. v.) are met in the cir- cumstances of Bethnimrah — its abundance of water and its situation close to " the region round al out Jor- dan" (// Trtpi\i.opo(; tov 'lopddvov, i. e. the ClCCAR of the 0. T., the Oasis of Jericho), immediately accessi- ble to "Jerusalem and all Judaea" (John i, 28 ; -Matt. iii, 5 ; Mark i, 5) by the direct and ordinary road from the capital. Add to this that in the Sept. the name of Bethnimrah is found very nearly assuming the form of Bethabara — Bai&av«/3j)d, Bifiafiiid, BtSrapufid (see Holmes and Parsons' text). — Smith, s. v.