The simple name of Tappuah was borne by another town of Judah, which lay in the rich lowland of the Shefela (Josh, xiv, 34). See Tappuah. Also by one on the border between Manasseh and Ephraim (Josh, xvi, 8). See En-tappuah.
Betlru'el (Heb. Bethuel' ', bx^a), the name of a man and also of a place.
1. (For ?X_:ir*0, individual of God [see Methu-] ; Sept. Ba&ovi]\, Josephus Ba$ovr}\oc.) The son of Nahor by Milcali, nephew of Abraham, and father of Rebekah (Gen. xxii, 22, 23; xxiv, 15, 24, 47 ; xxviii, 2). In xxv, 20, and xxviii, 5, he is called " Bethuel the Syrian" (i. e. Aramite). Though often referred to as above in the narrative of Rebekah's marriage, Bethuel only appears in person onco (xxiv, 50), fur
BETIH'L
790
BETHUXE
her brother Laban takes the leading part in the trans- (Robinson, ii, 172), but this is very much too far to the action. Upon this an ingenious conjecture is raised south to suit the narrative. Modern tradition has as- by Blunt (ficnmadimce.
4 i that he was the subject of sumed it to be Safed in North Galilee (Robinson, iii,
Borne imbecility «r other incapacity. The Jewish tra- dition, as given in the Targum l's. -Jonathan on Gen. xxiv. 55 (comp. 33), is that he died on the morning after the arrival of Abram's servant, owing to his hav- ing eaten a sauce containing poison at the meal the evening before, and that on that account Laban re- quested that his sister's departure might be delayed
for a year or ten months. Josephus was perhaps are on an "isolated rocky hill," wi aware of this tradition, since he speaks of Bethuel as siderable extent to the east, and, so dead {Ant. i, 16, 2). B.C. 2023.— Smith. See Sister. 2. (For ">X~r^2, house of God; Sept. Baiovi)\ v. r. BaBovX.) A southern city of Judah, i. e. Simeon ii Chron. iv, 30), elsewhere (Josh, xix, 4) called
BETHl l. (q. V.).
Beth'ul (Heb. Betkul', ^ra, contracted for Bethu- el; Sept. BaSovK v. r. BouXo),' a town of Simeon in the south, named with Eltolad and Hormah (Josh, xix, 4). In the parallel lists in Josh, xv, 30, and 1 Chron. iv, 9, the name appears under the forms of Chesil and Bethuel, and probably also under that of Bethel in Josh, xii, 16. Calmet incorrectly supposes it to be also the Bethulia of Judith (iv, 5 ; vi, 1). He has some- what greater probability, however, in identifying it with the Bethelia (BqSTjAia) of which Sozomen speaks (Eccl. Hist, v, 15), as a town belonging to the inhabi- tants of Gaza, well peopled, and having several temples I ruined village Beit-Ufa, on the northern declivity of remarkable for their structure and antiquity ; particu- Mt. Gilboa, containing rock graves, sarcophagi, and larlv a pantheon (or temple dedicated to all the gods), other marks of antiquity, and having a fountain near situated on an eminence made of earth, brought thith- (comp. Ritter, Erdk. xv, 423 sq. ; Gross, in the Zeitschr. er for the purpose, which commanded the whole city. d. mora. Gesch. iii, 58, 50). Dr. Robinson (Later Bib. He conjectures that it was named (house of God) from lies. p. 337), with his usual pertinacity, disputes this this temple. Jerome (Vita 8. Hilarionis, p. 84) al- conclusion. See BETii-LEniTEPHA. ludes to the same place (Betulhi) ; and it is perhaps the Bethune, George W., D.D., a Reformed Dutch episcopal city Betulium (BijtovXwv, Eeland, Palcest. p. minister and eminent orator, was born in the city of 639). There is a Beit-Ula extant a little south of the j New York in 1805. His father, Divie Bethune, was road from Jerusalem toward Gaza (Robinson's Res. ii, an eminent merchant, noted for his piety and philan- 342 note), about seven miles N.W. of Hebron (Van de thropy. His mother was the daughter of Isabella Velde's Map); but this is entirely too far north for Graham (q. v.), whose saintly virtues she inherited.
152), which again, if in other respects it would ;^gree with the story, is too far north. Von Eaumur (Pa 'list. p. 135) suggests Saniir, which is perhaps nearer to probability, especially since the discovery of Dothan (q. v.), which is probably meant by the Dothaim of Judith (see Schubert, iii, 161; Stewart, p. 421 ; Y;.n de Velde, Narrative, i, 367). The ruins of thtit town hill," with a plain of con- far as situation is concerned, naturally all but impregnable (Robinson, iii, 325). It is about three miles from Dothan, and some six or seven from Jenin (Engannim), which stand on the very edge of the great plain of Enlraelon. Though not absolutely commanding the pass which leads from Jenin to Sebustieh, and forms the only practicable ascent to the high country, it is yet suffi- ciently near to bear out the somewhat vague statement of Judith v, 6. Nor is it unimportant to remember that Saniir actually endured a siege of two months from Djezzar Pasha without yielding, and that on a subsequent occasion it was only taken after a three or four months' investment by a force very much out of proportion to the size of the place (Robinson, iii, 152). The most complete identification, however, is that by Schultz (in Williams's Holy City, i, Append, p. 46.1), who finds Bethulia in the still extant though