Beth-horon
Encyclopedia
Bethoron was the name for two adjacent towns, Bethoron Elyon ("Upper Bethoron"), and Bethoron Tahton ("Lower Bethoron"), named for the Egypto
-Canaanite
deity
Horon mentioned in Ugarit
ic literature and other texts. Strategically located on the Gibeon-Aijalon road, the towns guarded the important "ascent of Beth-Horon." Both towns are mentioned in the Old Testament
: Upper Bethoron in Joshua
and Lower Bethoron in . According to 1 Chronicles
, Lower Bethoron was built by Sheerah, the daughter of Beriah, son of Ephraim
. Eusebius' Onomasticon also mentions the 'twin villages' and St. Jerome describes them as 'little hamlets' which it seems they have always been.
The two Palestinian
Muslim
villages of Beit Ur al-Foqa
and Beit Ur al-Tahta
preserve part of the original Canaanite name for the towns, and have been identified as the sites of Upper and Lower Bethoron. Archaeological
finds indicate that the Lower town was established before the Upper one; potsherds from the Late Bronze Age
onward were discovered at Lower Beit Ur, whereas those in Upper Beit Ur date only from the Iron Age
onward.
An Israeli community named Beit Horon
was founded in 1977 on a site adjacent to the two towns.
ian sources (Muller, As. und Europa, etc.) it appears that Bethoron was one of the places conquered by Shishak
of Egypt from Rehoboam
.
and Ephraim
passed alongside the two Bethorons (Joshua 16:5; 21:22) who belonged to the latter tribe and therefore, later on, to the Northern Kingdom. Solomon
"built Beth-horon the upper, and Beth-horon the nether, fortified cities, with walls, gates, and bars" (2 Chronicles 8:5; 1 Kings
9:17). One or both of the towns was a city of Levite
s (Josh. 21:22; I Chron. 6:53).
Again, many centuries later, Bacchides repaired Beth-horon, "with high walls, with gates and with bars and in them he set a garrison
, that they might work malice upon ("vex") Israel" (1 Macc.
9:50,51), and at another time the Jews fortified it against Holofernes
(Judith 4:4,5).
discomfited the kings of the Amorite
s "he slew them with a great slaughter at Gibeon, and chased them by the way of the 'Ascent of Beth-horon.'" When the Philistines
opposed King Saul
at Michmash
they sent a company of their men to hold "the way of Beth-horon."
This pass ascends from the plain of Ajalon
(now Yalo) and climbs in about 3/4 hr. to Beit Ur al Tahta (1,210 ft.); it then ascends along the ridge, with valleys lying to north and south, and reaches Beit Ur al-Foqa (2,022 ft.), and pursuing the same ridge arrives in another 4½ miles at the plateau to the north of al-Jib (Gibeon). At intervals along this historic route, traces of the ancient Roman
paving are visible. The great highroad into the heart of the land from the earliest times, along this route came Canaan
ites, Israelites, Philistines, Egyptians, Syria
ns, Romans, Saracen
s and Crusaders. Since the days of Joshua (Joshua 10:10) it has frequently been the scene of a rout. Here the Syria
n general Seron was defeated by Judas Maccabeus
(1 Macc. 3:13-24) at the Battle of Beth Horon
, and six years later Nicanor, retreating from Jerusalem, was defeated and slain and the nearby Adasa
. (1 Macc. 7:39; Josephus
, Ant. XII, x, 5). Along this pass in 66
AD the Roman general Cestius Gallus
was driven in headlong flight before the Jews.
A 1915 reference to the road by the Palestine Exploration Fund
(III, 86, Sh XVII) noted that the changed direction of the highroad to Jerusalem had left the route "forsaken" and "almost forgotten". The modern Highway 443
follows part of the ancient road.
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh...
-Canaanite
Canaanite religion
Canaanite religion is the name for the group of Ancient Semitic religions practiced by the Canaanites living in the ancient Levant from at least the early Bronze Age through the first centuries of the Common Era....
deity
Deity
A deity is a recognized preternatural or supernatural immortal being, who may be thought of as holy, divine, or sacred, held in high regard, and respected by believers....
Horon mentioned in Ugarit
Ugarit
Ugarit was an ancient port city in the eastern Mediterranean at the Ras Shamra headland near Latakia, Syria. It is located near Minet el-Beida in northern Syria. It is some seven miles north of Laodicea ad Mare and approximately fifty miles east of Cyprus...
ic literature and other texts. Strategically located on the Gibeon-Aijalon road, the towns guarded the important "ascent of Beth-Horon." Both towns are mentioned in the Old Testament
Old Testament
The Old Testament, of which Christians hold different views, is a Christian term for the religious writings of ancient Israel held sacred and inspired by Christians which overlaps with the 24-book canon of the Masoretic Text of Judaism...
: Upper Bethoron in Joshua
Book of Joshua
The Book of Joshua is the sixth book in the Hebrew Bible and of the Old Testament. Its 24 chapters tell of the entry of the Israelites into Canaan, their conquest and division of the land under the leadership of Joshua, and of serving God in the land....
and Lower Bethoron in . According to 1 Chronicles
Books of Chronicles
The Books of Chronicles are part of the Hebrew Bible. In the Masoretic Text, it appears as the first or last book of the Ketuvim . Chronicles largely parallels the Davidic narratives in the Books of Samuel and the Books of Kings...
, Lower Bethoron was built by Sheerah, the daughter of Beriah, son of Ephraim
Ephraim
Ephraim ; was, according to the Book of Genesis, the second son of Joseph and Asenath. Asenath was an Egyptian woman whom Pharaoh gave to Joseph as wife, and the daughter of Potipherah, a priest of On. Ephraim was born in Egypt before the arrival of the children of Israel from Canaan...
. Eusebius' Onomasticon also mentions the 'twin villages' and St. Jerome describes them as 'little hamlets' which it seems they have always been.
The two Palestinian
Palestinian people
The Palestinian people, also referred to as Palestinians or Palestinian Arabs , are an Arabic-speaking people with origins in Palestine. Despite various wars and exoduses, roughly one third of the world's Palestinian population continues to reside in the area encompassing the West Bank, the Gaza...
Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
villages of Beit Ur al-Foqa
Beit Ur al-Fauqa
Beit Ur al-Fauqa is a Palestinian village located in the Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate in the northern West Bank, east of Ramallah and southeast of Beit Ur al-Tahta...
and Beit Ur al-Tahta
Beit Ur al-Tahta
Beit Ur al-Tahta is a Palestinian village located in the Seam Zone in the central West Bank, in the Ramallah and Al-Bireh Governorate. The village is located on the site of the biblical Bethoron, on a hilltop facing Beit Ur al-Foqa...
preserve part of the original Canaanite name for the towns, and have been identified as the sites of Upper and Lower Bethoron. Archaeological
Archaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...
finds indicate that the Lower town was established before the Upper one; potsherds from the Late Bronze Age
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...
onward were discovered at Lower Beit Ur, whereas those in Upper Beit Ur date only from the Iron Age
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the archaeological period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron. The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing...
onward.
An Israeli community named Beit Horon
Beit Horon
Beit Horon is an Israeli settlement and communal village bordering Route 443, the biblical pass of Beit Horon, between Modi'in and Jerusalem. Beit Horon receives municipal services from the Matte Binyamin Regional Council...
was founded in 1977 on a site adjacent to the two towns.
History
From EgyptEgypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
ian sources (Muller, As. und Europa, etc.) it appears that Bethoron was one of the places conquered by Shishak
Shishak
Shishak or Susac or Shishaq is the biblical Hebrew form of the first ancient Egyptian name of a pharaoh mentioned in the Bible.-Shishak's Reign:...
of Egypt from Rehoboam
Rehoboam
Rehoboam was initially king of the United Monarchy of Israel but after the ten northern tribes of Israel rebelled in 932/931 BC to form the independent Kingdom of Israel he was king of the Kingdom of Judah, or southern kingdom. He was a son of Solomon and a grandson of David...
.
Biblical
The borderline between BenjaminTribe of Benjamin
According to the Hebrew Bible, the Tribe of Benjamin בִּנְיָמִין was one of the Tribes of Israel.From after the conquest of the land by Joshua until the formation of the first Kingdom of Israel in c. 1050 BCE, the Tribe of Benjamin was a part of a loose confederation of Israelite tribes...
and Ephraim
Tribe of Ephraim
According to the Hebrew Bible, the Tribe of Ephraim was one of the Tribes of Israel. The Tribe of Manasseh together with Ephraim also formed the House of Joseph....
passed alongside the two Bethorons (Joshua 16:5; 21:22) who belonged to the latter tribe and therefore, later on, to the Northern Kingdom. Solomon
Solomon
Solomon , according to the Book of Kings and the Book of Chronicles, a King of Israel and according to the Talmud one of the 48 prophets, is identified as the son of David, also called Jedidiah in 2 Samuel 12:25, and is described as the third king of the United Monarchy, and the final king before...
"built Beth-horon the upper, and Beth-horon the nether, fortified cities, with walls, gates, and bars" (2 Chronicles 8:5; 1 Kings
Books of Kings
The Book of Kings presents a narrative history of ancient Israel and Judah from the death of David to the release of his successor Jehoiachin from imprisonment in Babylon, a period of some 400 years...
9:17). One or both of the towns was a city of Levite
Levite
In Jewish tradition, a Levite is a member of the Hebrew tribe of Levi. When Joshua led the Israelites into the land of Canaan, the Levites were the only Israelite tribe that received cities but were not allowed to be landowners "because the Lord the God of Israel himself is their inheritance"...
s (Josh. 21:22; I Chron. 6:53).
Again, many centuries later, Bacchides repaired Beth-horon, "with high walls, with gates and with bars and in them he set a garrison
Garrison
Garrison is the collective term for a body of troops stationed in a particular location, originally to guard it, but now often simply using it as a home base....
, that they might work malice upon ("vex") Israel" (1 Macc.
Maccabees
The Maccabees were a Jewish rebel army who took control of Judea, which had been a client state of the Seleucid Empire. They founded the Hasmonean dynasty, which ruled from 164 BCE to 63 BCE, reasserting the Jewish religion, expanding the boundaries of the Land of Israel and reducing the influence...
9:50,51), and at another time the Jews fortified it against Holofernes
Holofernes
In the deuterocanonical Book of Judith Holofernes was an invading general of Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar dispatched Holofernes to take vengeance on the nations of the west that had withheld their assistance to his reign...
(Judith 4:4,5).
Pass of the Bethorons
When (Joshua 10:10) JoshuaJoshua
Joshua , is a minor figure in the Torah, being one of the spies for Israel and in few passages as Moses's assistant. He turns to be the central character in the Hebrew Bible's Book of Joshua...
discomfited the kings of the Amorite
Amorite
Amorite refers to an ancient Semitic people who occupied large parts of Mesopotamia from the 21st Century BC...
s "he slew them with a great slaughter at Gibeon, and chased them by the way of the 'Ascent of Beth-horon.'" When the Philistines
Philistines
Philistines , Pleshet or Peleset, were a people who occupied the southern coast of Canaan at the beginning of the Iron Age . According to the Bible, they ruled the five city-states of Gaza, Askelon, Ashdod, Ekron and Gath, from the Wadi Gaza in the south to the Yarqon River in the north, but with...
opposed King Saul
Saul
-People:Saul is a given/first name in English, the Anglicized form of the Hebrew name Shaul from the Hebrew Bible:* Saul , including people with this given namein the Bible:* Saul , a king of Edom...
at Michmash
Michmash
Michmash - "Laid Up [that is, concealed] Place"; a town of Benjamin, east of Bethel and south of Migron, on the road to Jerusalem.-Location:...
they sent a company of their men to hold "the way of Beth-horon."
This pass ascends from the plain of Ajalon
Ajalon
Ajalon was a place in the lowland of Shephelah in the ancient Land of Israel, identified today as Yalo at the foot of the Bethoron pass, a Palestinian Arab village located southeast of Ramla in the West Bank. Its name is Hebrew for "place of gazelles".The place may have been the site of several...
(now Yalo) and climbs in about 3/4 hr. to Beit Ur al Tahta (1,210 ft.); it then ascends along the ridge, with valleys lying to north and south, and reaches Beit Ur al-Foqa (2,022 ft.), and pursuing the same ridge arrives in another 4½ miles at the plateau to the north of al-Jib (Gibeon). At intervals along this historic route, traces of the ancient Roman
Roman road
The Roman roads were a vital part of the development of the Roman state, from about 500 BC through the expansion during the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire. Roman roads enabled the Romans to move armies and trade goods and to communicate. The Roman road system spanned more than 400,000 km...
paving are visible. The great highroad into the heart of the land from the earliest times, along this route came Canaan
Canaan
Canaan is a historical region roughly corresponding to modern-day Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, and the western parts of Jordan...
ites, Israelites, Philistines, Egyptians, Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
ns, Romans, Saracen
Saracen
Saracen was a term used by the ancient Romans to refer to a people who lived in desert areas in and around the Roman province of Arabia, and who were distinguished from Arabs. In Europe during the Middle Ages the term was expanded to include Arabs, and then all who professed the religion of Islam...
s and Crusaders. Since the days of Joshua (Joshua 10:10) it has frequently been the scene of a rout. Here the Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
n general Seron was defeated by Judas Maccabeus
Judas Maccabeus
Judah Maccabee was a Kohen and a son of the Jewish priest Mattathias...
(1 Macc. 3:13-24) at the Battle of Beth Horon
Battle of Beth Horon
The Battle of Beth Horon was fought in 166 BC between Jewish forces led by Judas Maccabaeus and a Seleucid Empire force under the command of Seron....
, and six years later Nicanor, retreating from Jerusalem, was defeated and slain and the nearby Adasa
Adasa
Asada is a city referred to the Maccabees and the site of the Syrian-Seleucid General Nicanor's death and Judas Maccabeus's post during the Maccabean Revolt. It is said to be just opposite Beth-Horon ; a 3½ mile distance.-References:...
. (1 Macc. 7:39; Josephus
Josephus
Titus Flavius Josephus , also called Joseph ben Matityahu , was a 1st-century Romano-Jewish historian and hagiographer of priestly and royal ancestry who recorded Jewish history, with special emphasis on the 1st century AD and the First Jewish–Roman War, which resulted in the Destruction of...
, Ant. XII, x, 5). Along this pass in 66
66
Year 66 was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Telesinus and Paullinus...
AD the Roman general Cestius Gallus
Cestius Gallus
Gaius Cestius Gallus was the son of a consul in ancient Rome and himself a suffect consul in 42.He was legate of Syria from 63 or 65. He marched into Judea in 66 in an attempt to restore calm at the outset of the Great Jewish Revolt...
was driven in headlong flight before the Jews.
A 1915 reference to the road by the Palestine Exploration Fund
Palestine Exploration Fund
The Palestine Exploration Fund is a British society often simply known as the PEF. It was founded in 1865 and is still functioning today. Its initial object was to carry out surveys of the topography and ethnography of Ottoman Palestine with a remit that fell somewhere between an expeditionary...
(III, 86, Sh XVII) noted that the changed direction of the highroad to Jerusalem had left the route "forsaken" and "almost forgotten". The modern Highway 443
Highway 443 (Israel)
Route 443 , also Ma'ale Beit Horon , is the main highway connecting Modi'in with Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, and also serves as a secondary connection between the Tel Aviv area and Jerusalem...
follows part of the ancient road.
Books
- Masterman, E. W. G. (1915).BETH-HORON. International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. Eds. Orr, James, M.A., D.D. Retrieved December 9, 2005.
External links
- Report by Yuval Peleg for the Israeli Antiquities Authority on the discovery of a burial cave in Beit 'Ur al-Tahta