BAAL-MEON (also BETH BAAL MEON and BETH MEON). A city in the tribal territory of Reuben (Num 32:38; Josh 13:17), somewhere to the east of the Dead Sea. It was fortified by Mesha of Moab in the middle of the ninth century but probably returned to Israelite control if the Baal-Meon of the Samaria Ostraca refers to the same site. The prophet Jeremiah considered it a Moabite city (Jer 48:23).
BAASHA. King of Israel (c. 910-887), the son of Ahijah of the tribe of Issachar. He murdered King Nadab who was besieging the Philistine (see Philistines) town of Gibbethon, and extinguished the royal house of Jeroboam I (1 Kgs 15:27-32). The Old Testament has few details about his long reign, except that he competed with King Asa of Judah for many years over the control of the passes to the north of Jerusalem. Thus he fortified Ramah only a few kilometers north of Jerusalem. Asa approached the crisis by allying himself with Bar-Hadad (see Ben-Hadad) of Damascus—Baasha’s former ally—and encouraged Bar-Hadad to attack Israel, advice the Aramaean king was all too ready to follow. As a consequence Baasha was forced to retreat from Judah to his royal city Tirzah (1 Kgs 15:16-22). The evaluation of Baasha’s reign in the Old Testament is highly negative. He was no better a king than Jeroboam, and according to a prophecy formulated by Jehu the son of Hanani the fate of his family was going to be the same as the one he measured out for Jeroboam’s dynasty (1 Kgs 16:1-4). Baasha died peacefully and was buried at Tirzah.
BABEL, TOWER. In Genesis 11 it is told how humankind aspired to enter God’s world by constructing a tower that reached to heaven. God thwarted human scheming and dispersed humankind all over the earth. Although the tale of the tower of Babel has no historical foundation, the idea of Babel as housing a mighty tower may reflect the temple towers of old Mesopotamia, including the famous tower of the temple of Marduk at Babylon itself. These towers were called ziggurats, and their remains can still be seen, for example, at Babylon and Ur.
BABYLON, BABEL. The center of Mesopotamian culture, a famous city of central Mesopotamia that rose to power and glory under the Amorite dynasty in the beginning of the second millennium B.C.E., especially under King Hammurabi (1792-1750 B.C.E.) who founded the first Babylonian Empire. For most of its history, Babylon was ruled by dynasties of foreign extraction, either directly by Amorite or Kassite dynasties residing in the city itself, or by Assyrian overlords, ruling the city by help of Assyrian vice kings. The city was destroyed by Sennacherib at the beginning of the seventh century B.C.E but reestablished and partly rebuilt by Esarhaddon after Sennacherib’s death. It remained in existence for another 400 years and became the center of the Neo-Babylonian Empire (605-639 B.C.E.). It continued its existence as a famous cultural and administrative center under the Persians and was visited by Alexander the Great who died there in 323 B.C.E. After Alexander’s death, his successor Seleuchus I founded a new city (Seleucia alias Baghdad of modern times) near old Babylon. The old city was given up by its inhabitants who moved to the more comfortable quarters in the Hellenistic city. That was the end of Babylon and its glory. The city was left, never sacked, and became a memory of the past—a fate probably reflected in the story of the tower of Babel (Gen 11).
BABYLONIA. See ASSYRIA AND BABYLONIA.
BABYLONIA AND THE KINGDOM OF JUDAH. In spite of Babylonia’s (see Assyria and Babylonia) position as the center of the ancient world, and in spite of the biblical tradition about the patriarchs as coming out of Mesopotamia, historical relations between Babylonia and Israel were late. The first historically feasible connection was established in the days of Hezekiah, when negotiations were held between Hezekiah, himself an instigator of a rebellion against the Assyrians, and the fierce Babylonian opponent of the Assyrians, Merodak-Baladan, in the very last years of the eighth century B.C.E. (2 Kgs 20:12-13). Nothing came of the negotiations; Hezekiah had to surrender to Assyrian power, and in the end Merodak-Baladan lost his prolonged fight against Sennacherib. A century later, the Neo-Babylonian Empire was to spell the end of the independent Kingdom of Judah. It began in 597 B.C.E. when Nebuchadnezzar for the first time conquered Jerusalem and removed King Jehoiachin, installing Zedekiah, in the wording of the Babylonian Chronicle “a king of his own liking.” Ten years later, when Zedekiah joined an anti-Babylonian rebellion, Nebuchadnezzar wiped out the Kingdom of Judah, destroyed the capital with its temple, and removed a part of its population to Mesopotamia (see Babylonian Exile). Less than 50 years later, Babylonia itself lost its independence to the Persians.
BABYLONIAN CHRONICLE. A Babylonian historical chronicle that covers the period from 626-594 B.C.E. It includes important information about Nebuchadnezzar’s first conquest of Jerusalem in 597 B.C.E. but, alas, is broken before it comes to his second and final conquest and destruction of the city.
BABYLONIAN EXILE. The rulers of the Neo-Babylonian Empire continued the practices of the Assyrians to deport parts of the conquered populations (see Deportation). When the Babylonians conquered Jerusalem in 597 B.C.E., they removed 7,000 persons of substance to Mesopotamia (2 Kgs 24:16), among them the prophet Ezekiel. More deportations followed the destruction of Jerusalem in 597 B.C.E (2 Kgs 25:11). The exiled Judeans were settled in agricultural colonies. The best known was Tel-Abib close to the ancient Mesopotamian city of Nippur where the exiled Judeans enjoyed a life hardly less prosperous than the one they were used to in their homeland. Although the traditions of the Old Testament prefer to talk about Jews being persecuted in Mesopotamia and remember the exile as a time of distress (e.g., Ps 137), living conditions were generally preferable in the fertile river valley of ancient Mesopotamia to the ones to be found in the barren Judean hill land. The Old Testament presents very little in the way of historical information concerning the Babylonian exile. The final note of the 2 Book of Kings mentions the release of King Jehoiachin from his prison after the death of Nebuchadnezzar (2 Kings 25:27-30). The second part of the Book of Isaiah is attributed to an anonymous prophet who prophesied about Cyrus’s conquest of Babylon and the impending return of the Jews to Jerusalem, but it has little to say about the living conditions of the Jews in Mesopotamia.
The official date of the end of the Babylonian Exile is 538 B.C.E., when Cyrus after his conquest of Babylonia allowed the Jews to return to their homeland. The Book of Ezra states that following Cyrus’s decree of freedom, 42,360 persons returned from the exile (Ezra 2:64). However, it is well documented from Mesopotamian and Jewish sources that a large part of the Jews in Mesopotamia chose to remain in Mesopotamia, where a large Jewish community—belonging to the golah, the “Dispersal” of later Judaism—was continuously present until modern times. However, in Jewish tradition, the Babylonian Exile became the great divide between ancient Israel and the Jewish society that emerged from the ruins of the former Kingdom of Judah.
BALAAM. Son of Beor. A seer or prophet from Peor in Aram-Naharaim who was invited by the Moabite King Balak to curse the Israelite tribes during their migration in Transjordan (Num 22-24). As it turned out, Balaam did not curse but blessed Israel. Other traditions associate Balaam with the apostasy of the Israelites with the Midianite women at Peor (Num 31:16; see also Num 25), and it is recorded that the Israelites killed him in a battle against the Midianites (Num 31:8). An Aramaic inscription from Deir ‘Allah in Transjordan dating from the eighth or seventh century B.C.E. provides a different and imaginative image of Balaam who may have been a traditional religious figure from Transjordan.
BALAK. King of Moab and son of Zippor, who according to the Old Testament invited the seer Balaam to curse Israel during its camping at the plains of Moab. As it turned out, Balaam blessed Israel to Balak’s frustration (Num 22-24). Apart from this story and a few references to it in other parts of the Old Testament (e.g., Josh 24:9-10; Judg 11:25; Mic 6:5), nothing is known about Balak.
BARAK. The son of Abinoam, from Kedesh-Naphtali, called upon by the prophetess Deborah to oppose the Canaanite forces of Sisera of Haroshet-of-the-Gentiles (Judg 4). When he hesitated, Deborah promised to assist him but at the cost of the glory of victory: The enemy leader will be killed by a woman. Barak’s forces met the Canaanites at the spring of Kishon—in the version of the battle given in the “Song of Deborah” (Judg 5), the battle took place at Taanach at the waters of Megiddo—and routed them in spite of their huge force of chariots. Sisera fled from the battle and looked for refuge in the tent of the Kenite woman Jael, who killed him in his sleep.
BARUCH. The son of Neriah, Jeremiah’s scribe, who according to biblical tradition is the author of a large part of the Book of Jeremiah. His name appears among the seals found in Jerusalem.
BARZILLAI. The name of three men in the Old Testament. Two are of historical interest.
1. Barzillai, a wealthy man from Gilead, who supported David with food and materials during his flight from Absalom (2 Sam 17:27-29). As a reward he was invited by David to accompany the king to his residence in Jerusalem. Barzillai declined with a reference to his old age and sent his son. In his instructions to Solomon toward the end of his life, David expressly ordered Solomon not to harm Barzillai or his family.
2. Barzillai from Abel-Mehola and the father of Adriel the husband of Saul’s daughter Merab (1 Sam 18:19) whose children were executed by the Gibeonites with David’s assistance (2 Sam 21:1-14).
BASHAN. A geographical name of the plateau east of Lake Kinnereth. It appears for the first time in a Sumerian text from the third millennium. In the Late Bronze Age it appears in Egyptian sources as part of the Egyptian Empire. It was inhabited at least since the fourth millennium. It is said to be the territory of King Og of Edrei (modern Der’a), who was defeated together with all his men by Moses (Num 21:33-35; Deut 3:1-9). Bashan was later a contested area, the scene of many battles between the Israelites and the Aramaeans until matters were settled by Tiglath-pileser III, who removed Bashan from Israel. One of the cities of Bashan was Golan (Deut 4:43) from which the modern name of the region, the Golan Heights, derives.
BATHSHEBA. The daughter of Eliam and wife first of the Hittite Uriah, and secondly of David king of Israel, and the mother of King Solomon. She was destined to become the scandalous source of the troubles that plagued the latter part of David’s reign. The story about David and Bathsheba in 2 Sam 11-12 reports how the king seduced the wife of one of his officers and made her pregnant. When her husband on leave from the army declined to have intercourse with her, the scandal was complete, and the only way to escape an open scandal left to the king was to have Uriah killed. Joab, David’s faithful general, made it sure that it happened, but David was properly condemned by the prophet Nathan. The firstborn son of David and Bathsheba died, but Bathsheba played a decisive role at David’s death when she secured the kingship for her second son, Solomon (1 Kgs 1:11-31). She was also the mastermind behind the death of Solomon’s brother Adonijah when she revealed his wish to marry the handsome Abishag from Shunem, one of David’s concubines, to the king, who had Adonijah executed as a pretender to the throne (1 Kgs 2:13-25). The portrayal of Bathsheba in the Old Testament is a highly literary one and should not be confused with a historical report. Whoever she was, she has been a great inspiration of art and literature to this very day.
BEERSHEBA. A city in the northern Negeb, the place of a royal city in the Iron Age II—roughly the period of the Israelite monarchy. Settlements in the vicinity of the modern city of Beersheba go back to the fourth millennium B.C.E., but after that followed a gap that lasted until the Iron Age. In the Iron Age it is necessary at Beersheba to distinguish between two types of settlement: 1. a settlement of uncertain extension partly uncovered beneath the city limits of the modern city and only excavated by rescue operations in combination with construction work relating to the modern city. This settlement seems to have existed in the Iron Age. 2. The fortified city on Tell es-Saba’ at the eastern outskirts of modern Beersheba, extensively excavated between 1969 and 1976. The excavations uncovered a city of many strata that developed on the place of an unfortified village settlement in the early part of Iron Age I. In the 10th century it became the place of a major, well-planned fortresslike city with strong walls, a well dug out within the city confines (see also fortifications), and a centralistic layout of the city. It existed for most of Iron Age II but was sacked and burned, probably by Sennacherib, in 701 B.C.E. No city was ever reestablished in this place.
In the Old Testament, Beersheba is located at the southern end of Israelite territory sometimes summarized as going from Dan in the north to Beersheba in the south. Its name is differently explained in the patriarchal narratives as “the seven wells” or “the well of the oath” (see Gen 21:31; 26:33). It was reckoned as originally belonging to Judah but later was transferred to the tribe of Simeon (Josh 19:9).
BELSHAZZAR. The son of Nabonidus and the last king of Babylonia (see Assyria and Babylonia) (556-539 B.C.E.), who acted at least for a period of three years as his father’s coregent and vice king during Nabonidus’s self-imposed exile at the oasis of Tema. After 543 B.C.E., the sources pertaining to Belshazzar and his administration come to an end. Thus it is not known what happened to him after the Persian conquest of Babylon (539 B.C.E.). He is the antihero of the story about the writing on the wall (Dan 5). According to the Book of Daniel he was killed when Darius the Median conquered Babylon (Dan 5:30-6:1), information that makes little sense, as there never was a Darius of the Medes, nor did any historical Darius of the Persian Empire conquer Babylon.
BENAIAH. One of David’s heroes, the commander of the Cherethite and Pelethite guards (2 Sam 8:18). He joined the party of Solomon during the struggle for the succession after David (1 Kgs 1:38), and acted as the king’s executioner in the killing of Adonijah and Joab (1 Kgs 2:25; 34). After Joab’s death, Benaiah was entrusted with the command of the army (1 Kgs 2:35).
BEN-HADAD. The Hebrew form of the Aramaic name Bar-Hadad (“Son of Hadad”). In the Old Testament, Ben-Hadad is used as the name of several Aramaean kings. Only two among these are historically verifiable. Other cases where the name of Ben-Hadad shows up may be in the form of pseudonyms—Ben-Hadad became a kind of common name attributed to Aramaean kings—or they are simply invented.
Such invented episodes involving a Ben-Hadad can be found in 1 Kings 20 and 22, the tale of unsuccessful wars against Aram Damascus, the leading Aramaean state of Syria. The king of Israel is said to be Ahab, but nothing indicates that the period of Ahab witnessed any serious confrontation between Israel and Damascus. On the contrary, Assyrian inscriptions make it clear that an alliance had been firmly established between Ahab and his Damascene colleague whose real name, however, was Hadadezer. The episodes of 1 Kings 20 and 22 are either misplaced and belong to the time of Jehoash of Israel, or they are simply invented.
Among the historical kings of Damascus of the name of Bar-Hadad, Bar-Hadad I ruled c. 900 B.C.E. He is said to have waged war against Baasha of Israel (1 Kgs 15:16-22). Bar-Hadad II, the son of Hazael, is better known from history. He ruled c. 800 B.C.E. but saw the realm of Hazael, his father, fall apart, torn by rebellions in Syria proper. Thus Hamath broke with Damascus as told by the Aramaic Zakur Inscription from Hamath. In the west, Jehoash of Israel reconquered the provinces lost to Hazael. Finally, Bar-Hadad II had to yield to Assyrian power after their conquest of Damascus in 796 B.C.E. which led to heavy taxation and vassalage. An inscription formerly attributed to a Bar-Hadad from Damascus may have nothing to do with either of these kings.
BENJAMIN. Meaning “son of the right side” or “son of the happy side.” An Israelite tribe whose eponymous ancestor was Benjamin, the youngest son of Jacob and Rachel (Gen 35:16-18). After having lost Joseph, Benjamin’s older full brother, Jacob kept Benjamin at home when his brothers were sent to Egypt to buy provisions, but they were asked by Joseph, whom they did not recognize, to return and bring their youngest brother. When they returned to Egypt, Benjamin was accused of stealing Joseph’s silver goblet. Benjamin was arrested and together with his brothers placed in front of Joseph who this time revealed his true identity to his brothers (Gen 42-45).
The territory of the tribe of Benjamin should be sought in the hill land to the north of Jerusalem. In the south it was bordering on Judah’s territory while in the north it shared borders with Ephraim. The traditions of the Old Testament provide a mixed picture of this tribe. In the Period of the Judges, Ehud, the son of Gera, one of the saviors of Israel, belonged to the tribe of Benjamin (Judg 3). However, the gruesome story about the rape of the Levite’s wife at Gibeah in Benjamin’s territory led to the almost total extinction of the tribe of Benjamin when the other Israelite tribes waged war against Benjamin who sided with the inhabitants of Gibeah. Only a remnant was spared in order to keep the number of tribes of Israel at twelve (see also Twelve tribe system) (Judg 19-21). Saul, the first king of Israel, was from Benjamin. In spite of a promising opening, Saul’s reign ended in disaster with a king forsaken by God and people. After the futile rebellion of Absalom against David, Sheba, a Benjaminite, united the Israelite tribes in a new rebellion against the house of David. It took Joab only a short time to crush the rebellion of Sheba, who was killed by the inhabitants of Abel-Beth-Maacah (see Abel). When the kingdom of David and Solomon was divided into two independent states after the death of Solomon, half of Benjamin sided with Rehoboam and Judah, the other half with Jeroboam. Little more is known about this tribe, except that it helped Judah in rebuilding the temple of Jerusalem (Ezra 1:5).
It is uncertain, although not totally impossible, that there existed some sort of relationship between the biblical Benjaminites and a nomadic tribe at the time of the Kingdom of Mari in the 18th century B.C.E. called the Binujaminu, although the character of such a relationship is totally unknown.
BETH-AVEN. A city in the tribal territory of Benjamin (Josh 18:12), mentioned in connection with Jonathan’s victory over the Philistines as close to Michmash. In the Book of Hosea a warning is issued to Beth-Aven together with Gibeah and Ramah of impending invasion, most likely from Assyria (Hos 5:8). Scholars have proposed many candidates for the location of Beth-Aven but so far no safe identification has been made. It is, however, highly possible in spite of the inclusion of Beth-Aven among the cities of Benjamin in the Book of Joshua that it—meaning “the house of wickedness”—is no more than a derogatory surname for Bethel, meaning “the House of God,” a surname reflecting the status of Bethel in the Deuteronomistic History as the home of Jeroboam’s golden calf and therefore a challenge to true Yahwism understood to be the legitimate religion of ancient Israel.
BETHEL. An important city c. 15 kilometers north of Jerusalem, situated on the crossroad of one of the most important roads of Palestine leading from the coastal plain to the Jordan Valley and the principal mountain route from north to south, close to the watershed. Apart from Jerusalem, no other city appears as frequently as Bethel in the Old Testament. Abraham is reported to have placed an altar at Bethel (Gen 12:8), Jacob had his famous dream at Bethel and set up a holy stone in commemoration of his dream, in which connection the ancient name of the place, Luz, is mentioned (Gen 28:10-22), and he established an altar there after his return from Aram (Gen 35:14-15). Later it became the subject of contest between the tribes of Benjamin and Ephraim (cf. Josh 18:22 and Judg 1:22). It was a religious center in the Period of the Judges, and the tribes assembled there after the war against Benjamin (Judg 21:2). Before the introduction of the monarchy, Samuel judged at Bethel. Later, King Jeroboam turned Bethel into a royal shrine and placed one of his golden calves at Bethel (see 1 Kgs 12:26-31 and Amos 7:13). Although the holy place at Bethel was condemned by the “Man of God,” a prophet from Judah (1 Kgs 13), it remained in function until King Josiah destroyed the sanctuary (2 Kgs 23:15-18). The city survived into Ezra’s time as a Judean city (Ezra 2:28).
Bethel is identified with the Arab town of Beitin, founded in the 19th century C.E. It was partially excavated in 1934 and again in 1954, 1957, and 1960. Remains of settlements at Bethel go back to the Chalcolithic Period and the Early Bronze Age. However, a fortified city was first built on this place in the Middle Bronze Age. There may have been a gap in the settlement sometime during the Late Bronze Age but the city was rebuilt and then—according to the excavators—again destroyed shortly before 1200 B.C.E., and again rebuilt. The historical implications of the excavations have recently been severely contested by other archaeologists.
BETH-HORON. The name of two cities overlooking the descent from Gibeon toward the coastal plain. The Old Testament sometimes distinguishes between the Upper Beth-Horon and the Lower Beth-Horon but just as often refers to both cities as simply Beth-Horon. Upper Beth-Horon was located on the border between Ephraim and Benjamin (Josh 16:5) and Lower Beth-Horon in the territory of Ephraim. The cities are said to have been conquered by the Israelites in Joshua’s time, when Joshua slew the five Amorite kings at Gibeon and pursued them down past Beth-Horon to Azekah and Makkedah (Josh 10:5-11). The Philistines let their attack on Saul follow the route via Beth-Horon (1 Sam 13:18). Beth-Horon was rebuilt by Solomon (1 Kgs 9:17). Beth-Horon is also mentioned in Chronicles when the disbanded Israelite mercenaries in Amaziah’s army plundered the towns of Judah “from Samaria to Beth-Horon” (2 Chron 25:13). Upper and Lower Beth-Horon is without doubt identical with the two Arab villages of Beit ‘Ur el-Foqa’ and Beit ‘Ur et-Tahta that preserve the names. They have never been excavated but surface surveys have discovered mostly Iron Age pottery here. Their situation is strategically important, commanding one of the major routes from the coastal plain into the central highland of Palestine.
BETHLEHEM. A city in the territory of Judah about 10 kilometers south of Jerusalem, reported to be the burial place of Rachel (Gen 35:19) and the traditional home of the family of David, whose father Jesse lived there, and here David was anointed king by Samuel (1 Sam 16:1-13). Before that, in the Period of the Judges, the incident that led to the almost total annihilation of the tribe of Benjamin began when the wife of a person from Ephraim escaped to her family in Bethlehem (Judg 19). A note among the stories of David’s heroes reports that a Philistine garrison was present there in David’s days—a note hard to reconcile with other parts of the Davidic tradition (2 Sam 23:14). The city was fortified by Rehoboam (2 Chron 11:6). Not much is known about Bethlehem’s fate after that date. Its future greatness was foreseen by the Prophet Micaiah (Mic 5:1-5). It is sometimes also called Ephrata and in this way is genealogically related to Caleb. No proper excavation has ever been carried out in Bethlehem. But a surface survey has discovered pottery from the Bronze Age and Iron Age close to the Church of Nativity on a site where ancient Bethlehem may have been situated. Speculations about the name of Bethlehem, in Hebrew “the house of Bread,” relating the second part of the name to the Mesopotamian god Lahamu, have led to theories that it is mentioned in the Amarna letters from Jerusalem as Bît NIN.URTA. This reading has been rejected in recent studies.
BETH-PEOR. A place in Transjordan where the Israelites camped before the conquest of Canaan (Deut 3:29; 4:46; 34:6). The place was given to the tribe of Reuben (Josh 13:20). The name is related to a local deity, Baal-Peor, worshipped by Israelites as well as Moabites at Shittim (Num 25), and might well mean “the temple of Peor,” and to Peor described as a mountain in Moab from where Balaam is supposed to have cursed Israel (Num 23:27-30). There have been many proposals for the location of Beth-Peor but no agreement has been reached as to the exact place.
BETH-SHAN. A major city c. 23 kilometers south of the Sea of Galilee that has been continuously inhabited from the Chalcolithic period until modern times. The ancient site was located on the impressive Tell el-Husn overlooking the vast ruined Hellenistic-Roman city. It was part of Issachar’s tribal territory but was passed on to Manasseh (Josh 17:11), although it was never under Israelite control before the days of the monarchy (see also Judg 1:27). In the stories about the death of Saul, Beth-Shan was evidently under Philistine control, since the bodies of Saul and his sons were exposed by the Philistines on the walls of Beth-Shan (1 Sam 31:8-13). Beth-Shan was excavated in the 1920s and 1930s, and again in the 1990s. Extensively populated in the Early Bronze Age, it suffered the usual fate of Palestinian urban culture at the end of this period but reemerged as a major town with strong fortifications in the Middle Bronze Period. In the Late Bronze Period it was a center of Egyptian control, and is mentioned in an Amarna letter from Jerusalem.
Excavations at Beth-Shan have unearthed several remains from the time of the Egyptian Empire (see Egypt), including important inscriptions from the time of Seti I (c. 1290-1279 B.C.E.), Ramesses II (c. 1279-1213 B.C.E.), and Ramesses III (c. 1187-1156 B.C.E.). One of these inscriptions—from the time of Seti I—commemorates a victory over tribal people and the Habiru living in the vicinity of Beth-Shan. The Egyptians seem to have been in control of Beth-Shan at least until the end of the 11th century B.C.E. It has been guessed that the Philistines were also present, perhaps as mercenaries in Egyptian service. This proposition is based on the stories in the Old Testament about Saul’s death and on the discovery of a special type of anthropoid coffins found in burials at Beth-Shan and assumed to be Philistine. So far no other evidence supports this assumption, and—apart from a single shard—no Philistine pottery has so far been found at this site.
BETH-SHEMESH. City in the northern sector of the tribal territory of Judah bordering on Dan’s southern territory (Josh 15:10), c. 25 kilometers southeast of Jerusalem. When the Philistines had to give up the Ark of Yahweh that had destroyed the idol of Dagon in their temple at Ashdod, they let it go, dragged by oxen and unguided by men. It was carried to Beth-Shemesh where it was at first well received by the local population. Then it became a problem to the inhabitants of Beth-Shemesh who invited the people of Kiriath-jearim to take it away (1 Sam 6:7-16). At a later date, in the time of the Hebrew Monarchy, a battle was fought here between Amasiah of Judah and Joash of Israel, with the king of Israel leaving the field as victorious (2 Kgs 14:8-14). In the time of Ahaz, the Philistines conquered Beth-Shemesh. The city (the name means “the house of the son [god]”), has been located at Tell er-Rumeileh close to the Arab village of Ein Shems that preserved the name. It was excavated between 1928 and 1934, and remains turned up at this site of a fortified city dating back to the Middle Bronze Age.
BETH-ZUR. A city in the Judean Hills c. 35 kilometers south of Jerusalem. It is reckoned to be part of Judah (Josh 15:58) although other information relates it to Caleb (1 Chron 2:42-50). Excavations conducted at Khirbet et-Tubeiqeh—supposed to be ancient Beth-Zur—in 1931 and 1957 discovered remains from the Early Bronze Age and a fortified city from the Middle Bronze Age. The place was abandoned in most of the Late Bronze Age but a new settlement was established in the 12th century and destroyed again less than a hundred years later. It is remarkable that the city in spite of its commanding position on a hilltop was not fortified by Rehoboam. Thus it remained an unfortified settlement until it eventually became a victim of Sennacherib’s invasion in 701 B.C.E. Over the following centuries only small insignificant and short-lived settlements were occasionally founded at this site. Only in the Hellenistic period, when the border between Judea and Idomea ran close to Beth-Zur, did a city develop at this site.
BEZEK. 1. The place where the Israelites defeated the Canaanite King Adoni-bezek (Judg 1:4-5). Some scholars propose a place for this Bezek in the vicinity of Gezer; other scholars think of the episode of Adoni-Bezek as a corrupted duplicate of Joshua’s victory over Adoni-zedek from Jerusalem and his coalition of five Amorite kings (Josh 10). 2. The place where Saul mustered his troops before he went to the rescue of Jabesh (1 Sam 11:8). The usual location of this Bezek, at Khirbet Ibzik c. 25 kilometers southwest of Beth-Shan, has recently been challenged, and Khirbet Sallab, a couple of kilometers west of Khirbet Ibzik is proposed in its place.
BLESSING OF JACOB. A collection of sayings that describes the character of the tribes of Israel (Gen 49). The collection is generally supposed to be very old, and a useful source if not of a detailed history of the tribes of Israel, then at least of their general status within the Israelite tribal system. See also TWELVE TRIBE SYSTEM.
BLESSING OF MOSES. Like the Blessing of Jacob, a collection of sayings about the tribes of Israel (Deut 33). The collection is generally held to be somewhat younger than the Blessing of Jacob but is still a useful source of knowledge about the status of the various tribes of Israel.
BUREAUCRACY. See ADMINISTRATION.
BYBLOS. Ancient Gubla, Hebrew Gebal, and the modern Jubail (the name means “the Mountain”), an ancient Phoenician city on the coast of Lebanon c. 35 kilometers north of Beirut. Inhabited since the fifth millennium B.C.E, it developed into an important seaport in the third millennium when it became the principal trade partner of Egypt, exporting cedar, wine, oil, and leather. Although destroyed sometime during the latter part of the third millennium, it remained an important city of trade, and the Egyptians continued to consider Byblos an important asset of theirs. The city has gained notoriety in the Amarna letters as an Egyptian puppet state when one of its rulers, Rib-Adda, seemingly wrote more letters of complaint to Pharaoh than all Pharaoh’s other vassals put together, certainly too many for the comfort of the Egyptian court. The Egyptian story from c. 1100 B.C.E. about the servant of Amun in Thebes, Wen-Amon, who traveled to Byblos to buy trees for building activities at home but received a very cold and disdainful reception here, illustrates the consequences of the diminishing of Egypt’s power. In the Old Testament, the people of Byblos are known as skilled stonecutters (1 Kgs 5:18) and boatbuilders (Hez 27:9). Assyrian sources refer to Byblos as a member of the alliance of Syrian states who fought against the Assyrians at Qarqar in 853 B.C.E. A small series of inscriptions in Phoenician has been discovered at Byblos and dating from c. 1000 B.C.E. to the early Hellenistic period (c. 300 B.C.E.) makes it possible tentatively to set up a (fragmentary) list of kings of Byblos ranging from Ahiram c. 1000 B.C.E to Ayineel c. 333 B.C.E.