A town named Baalath-Beer is mentioned in the

Masoretic Text The Masoretic Text (MT or 𝕸; ) is the authoritative Hebrew and Aramaic text of the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible (''Tanakh'') in Rabbinic Judaism. The Masoretic Text defines the Jewish canon and its precise letter-text, with its vocaliz ...

of Joshua 19:8, which places near the end of a list of towns belonging to the

Tribe of Simeon According to the Hebrew Bible, the Tribe of Simeon (; ''Šīm‘ōn'', "hearkening/listening/understanding/empathizing") was one of the twelve tribes of Israel. The Book of Joshua locates its territory inside the boundaries of the Tribe of Judah ...

(19:1-9). Where the Masoretic Text reads "Baalath-beer Ramath-negeb", one version of the

Septuagint The Septuagint ( ), sometimes referred to as the Greek Old Testament or The Translation of the Seventy (), and abbreviated as LXX, is the earliest extant Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible from the original Biblical Hebrew. The full Greek ...

reads "Baalath as you come to Ramath-negeb." It is unclear which is the earlier reading. For Ramath-negeb, various biblical translations render the Hebrew ''rmt ngb'' as "Ramah of the South", "Ramah in the Negev", "Ramah of the Negev", and so on. Modern archaeologists have not agreed on whether the site of Baalath-Beer can be identified. The existing evidence is ambiguous as to whether or not Baalath-beer is the same town as Ramath-negeb, and Baalath-beer may be the same as the location referred to elsewhere as Baal.

References

Hebrew Bible cities {{Tanakh-stub