Beeroth (; Be'erot, lit. "wells";
in LXX ) was a
Biblical
The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) biblical languages ...
city seven miles northwest of
Jerusalem
Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...
. The city was an ancient
Hivite settlement, and is mentioned in
Joshua
Joshua ( ), also known as Yehoshua ( ''Yəhōšuaʿ'', Tiberian Hebrew, Tiberian: ''Yŏhōšuaʿ,'' Literal translation, lit. 'Yahweh is salvation'), Jehoshua, or Josue, functioned as Moses' assistant in the books of Book of Exodus, Exodus and ...
9:17, 18:25,
2 Samuel
The Book of Samuel () is a book in the Hebrew Bible, found as two books (1–2 Samuel) in the Old Testament. The book is part of the Deuteronomistic history, a series of books (Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings) that constitute a theological ...
4:2-3,
Ezra
Ezra ( fl. fifth or fourth century BCE) is the main character of the Book of Ezra. According to the Hebrew Bible, he was an important Jewish scribe (''sofer'') and priest (''kohen'') in the early Second Temple period. In the Greek Septuagint, t ...
2:25 and
Nehemiah
Nehemiah (; ''Nəḥemyā'', "Yahweh, Yah comforts") is the central figure of the Book of Nehemiah, which describes his work in rebuilding Jerusalem during the Second Temple period as the governor of Yehud Medinata, Persian Judea under Artaxer ...
7:29. Another town named Beeroth is mentioned in
Deuteronomy
Deuteronomy (; ) is the fifth book of the Torah (in Judaism), where it is called () which makes it the fifth book of the Hebrew Bible and Christian Old Testament.
Chapters 1–30 of the book consist of three sermons or speeches delivered to ...
10:6.
Identification
Because there are no known ruins for Beeroth, the location of the city is disputed. The most noted source materials are the texts of the Bible, the
Onomastikon of
Eusebius
Eusebius of Caesarea (30 May AD 339), also known as Eusebius Pamphilius, was a historian of Christianity, exegete, and Christian polemicist from the Roman province of Syria Palaestina. In about AD 314 he became the bishop of Caesarea Maritima. ...
, the annotations of this same text by Jerome, and the
Madaba Map
The Madaba Map, also known as the Madaba Mosaic Map, is part of a floor mosaic in the early Byzantine church of Saint George in Madaba, Jordan.
The mosaic map depicts an area from Lebanon in the north to the Nile Delta in the south, and fro ...
The distance Eusebius gives puts Beeroth somewhere between modern Biddu and
Nebi Samwil. The city was part of an Hivite confederacy under the apparent rule of Gibeon, "a royal city" that sued for peace after the Hebrews destroyed Jericho and Ai as described in
Joshua 9. Later much of the area taken in this initial campaign (including Beeroth) was given to Benjamin as inheritance in Joshua 18. Beeroth may have been the place to which
Gideon
Gideon (; ) also named Jerubbaal and Jerubbesheth, was a military leader, judge and prophet whose calling and victory over the Midianites is recounted in of the Book of Judges in both the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Bible.
Gideon was th ...
's youngest son,
Joatham or Jotham, fled to escape from
Abimelech
Abimelech (also spelled Abimelek or Avimelech; ) was the generic name given to all Philistine kings in the Hebrew Bible from the time of Abraham through King David. In the Book of Judges, Abimelech, son of Gideon, of the Tribe of Manasseh, is ...
after his 69 brothers had been killed (Judges 9:21).
Pulpit Commentary
on Judges 9, accessed 30 October 2016
The town was then inhabited until the Babylonian captivity
The Babylonian captivity or Babylonian exile was the period in Jewish history during which a large number of Judeans from the ancient Kingdom of Judah were forcibly relocated to Babylonia by the Neo-Babylonian Empire. The deportations occurred ...
in 586 BCE, and the people of this town returned to the area 70 years later as referenced in Ezra and Nehemiah. Whether they re-built and inhabited the town is not described in the text.
Edward Robinson in the early 19th century thought Al-Bireh was the site of Be'eroth,[Robinson and Smith, 1841, pp]
130
- 133[ but modern scholars believe Be'eroth should be identified with Khirbet el-Burj near Beit Iksa.][Finkelstein et al., 1997, p. 510] Other scholars suggested that it may be modern Biddu
Biddu Appaiah (born 8 February 1945) is a British-Indian singer-songwriter, composer, and music producer who composed and produced many worldwide hit records during a career spanning five decades. Considered one of the pioneers of disco, Euro ...
, or slightly east of Biddu.
See also
* Cities in the Book of Joshua
References
Hebrew Bible cities
Canaanite cities
{{AncientNearEast-stub