S BETH-SHEMESH
of the abundance of water, and the exuberant fertility of the soil consequent thereon, as well as in the power of using their chariots, which the level nature of the country near the town conferred on them (Josh, xvii, 1G), resides the secret of the hold which the Canaan it es retained on the place. So great was this fertility, that it was said by the rabbins that if Paradise was in tie land of Israel, Beth-shean was the gate of it, for its fruits were the sweetest in all the land (sec Light- foot, Char. Cent. lx). If Jabesh-Gilead was where Dr. Robinson conjectures — at ed-Deir in Wady YaLii — the distance from thence to Beisan, which it took the men of Jabesh "all night" to traverse, cannot be much be- yond ten miles. The modern Beisan is a poor place containing not more than sixty cr seventy houses. The inhabitants are Moslems, and are described ly Richardson and others as a set of inhospitable and law- less fanatics. The ruins of the ancient city are of con- siderable extent. It was built along the banks of the rivulet which waters the town and in the valleys form- ed by its several branches, and must have been nearly three miles in circumference. The chief remains are large heaps of black hewn stones, with many founda- tions of houses and fragments of a few columns (Burck- hardt, p. 243). The principal olject is the theatre, which is quite distinct, but now completely filled up with weeds; it measures across the front al out 180 feet, and has the singularity of possessing three oval recesses half way up the building, which are men- tioned by Yitruvius as being constructed to contain the brass sounding-tubes. Pew theatres had such an apparatus even in the time of this author, and they are scarcely' ever met with now. The other remains are the tombs, which lie to the north-east of the Acrop- olis, without the walls. The sarcophagi still exist in some of them ; triangular niches for lamps have ab o been observed in them ; and some of the doors con- tinue hanging on the ancient hinges of stone in re- markable preservation. Two streams run through the ruins of the city, almost insulating the Acropolis. There is a fine Roman bridge over the one to the south- west of the Acropolis, and beyond it may be seen the paved way which led to the ancient Ptolcmais, now Acre. The Acropolis is a high circular hill, on the t< p of which are traces of the walls which encompassed it (Irby and Mangles, Travels, p. 301-203). See also Robinson, Later Bib. Res. p. 329 sq. ; Van de Velde, Narrative, ii, 359-3G3 ; Thomson, Lund and Boole, ii, 172 sq.
Beth'-shemesh(rleb. Z>p^ She'mesh, C5E13 r.^3, house ';/'the sun ,• in pause Beyth Sha'mesh, C£C3 ~" ; Sept. in Josh, xv, 10, ttoXiq yXiov, elsewhere in Josh, and Judg. B»;3r7«/<fc, inSam. and Chron: BaiSaa/jin?, in Kings BitiZau/ur, in Jer. 'H\ioi>-o\tc ; Josephrs Wifzoaju]. Ant. vi, 1, 3), the name of four places. See
HlCLIOPOLIS.
1. A sacerdotal city (Josh, xxi, 1G; 1 Sam. vi, 15,; 1 Chron. vi, 59) in the tribe of Dan, on the northern border (between Chcsalon and Timnath) of Judah (Josh, xv, 10), toward the land of the Philistines (1 Sam. vi, 9, 12), probably in a lowland plain (2 Kings xiv, 11), and placed by Eusebius and Jerome (Ono- mast. s. v. EtiSoa/ite, Bethsamis) ten Roman miles from Eleutheropolis, in the direction of the road to Xieopolis. The expression "went down" in Jcsh. xv, 10 ; 1 Sam. vi, 21, seems to indicate that the posi- tion of the town was lower than Kirjath-jearim ; and it is in accordance with the situation that there was a valley (p-OS) of corn-fields attache d to the place (1 Sam. v, 13). It was a "suburb city" (Josh. xxi'lG; 1 Chron. vi, 59), and it is named in one of Solomon's commissariat districts under the charge of Ben-Dekar (1 Kings iv, II). It was the scene of an encounter be- tween Jehoash, king of Israel, and Amaziah, king of Judah, in which the latter was worsted and made pris- oner (2 Kings xiv, 11, 13; 2 Chron. xxv, 21, 23).
BETII-SIIEMESH
789
BETHUEL
Later, in the days of Ahaz, it was tiken and occupied by the Philistines, together with several other places in this locality (2 Chron. xxviii, 18).
From Ekron to Beth-shemesh a road (""H, bdoc.) existed along which the Philistines sent back the ark by milch-kine after its calamitous residence in their country (1 Sam. vi, 9, 12) ; and it was in the field of "Joshua the Betk-shemite" (q. v.) that the " great j Abel" (whatever that may have been, prob. a stone ; ssa Abel-) was on which the ark was set down (1 Sain, vi, 18). On this occasion it was that, according to the present text, " fifty thousand and threescore and ten men" were miraculously slain for irreverently exploring the sacred shrine (1 Sam. vi, 19). This number has occasioned much discussion (see Schram, Deplaga Bethschemitarum, Herb. 17. .). The numeral in the text has probably been erroneous!}' transcribed. See Abbreviation. The Syriac a-nd Arabic have 5070 instead of 50070, and this statement agrees with i 1 Cod. Kennicott (comp. Gesenius, Gesch. der Ilebr. Sprache, p. 174). Even with this reduction, the num- ber, for a provincial town like Beth-shemesh, would j still be great. We may therefore suppose that the j number originally designated was 570 only, as the ab- sence of any intermediate denomination between the ] first two digits would seem to indicate. The fact it- self has been accounted for on natural principles by some German writers in a spirit at variance with that of Hebrew antiquity, and in which the miraculous part of the event has been explained away by ungram- matical interpretations. See Number.