Bozkath is a town in the Kingdom of Judah mentioned in the Hebrew Bible

Hebrew Bible

The Hebrew Bible is a term used by biblical scholars outside of Judaism to refer to the Tanakh , a canonical collection of Jewish texts, and the common textual antecedent of the several canonical editions of the Christian Old Testament...

/Old Testament. The town was located in the lowland hills of Judah

Tribe of Judah

According to the Hebrew Bible, the Tribe of Judah was one of the Tribes of Israel.Following the completion of the conquest of Canaan by the Israelite tribes after about 1200 BCE, Joshua allocated the land among the twelve tribes....

, otherwise known as the Shephelah

Shephelah

The Shephelah is a designation usually applied to the region in south-central Israel of 10-15 km of low hills between the central Mount Hebron and the coastal plains of Philistia within the area of the Judea, at an altitude of 120-450 metres above sea level. The area is fertile, and a temperate...

, and its location is presently unknown.

Ancient name

The toponym Bozkath is derived from the root בצק, meaning “elevation”. In the Greek versions of the Hebrew Bible, Bozkath is transcribed as Βασηδωθ in LXX-A

Codex Alexandrinus

The Codex Alexandrinus is a 5th century manuscript of the Greek Bible,The Greek Bible in this context refers to the Bible used by Greek-speaking Christians who lived in Egypt and elsewhere during the early history of Christianity...

 but is written Βαζκαθ in LXX-B

Codex Vaticanus

The Codex Vaticanus , is one of the oldest extant manuscripts of the Greek Bible , one of the four great uncial codices. The Codex is named for the residence in the Vatican Library, where it has been stored since at least the 15th century...

.

Location and identification

The town of Bozkath is listed along with sixteen other towns and related settlements in the third district of the Shephelah of Judah (Josh 15:61-62), in the southern part of the lowland hills. F.-M. Abel had located Bozkath at the site of ed-Dawa'ime, which is located southeast of Lachish by roughly 15 km., however this identification is not followed today. Based on the identification of Lachish with Tell ed-Duweir and the plausible identification of Eglon with Tell Aitun to the east, Bozkath's position between both towns may suggest that it is located in the southeastern Shephelah. Beyond this general observation, it is not possible to suggest a more precise location for Bozkath with any certainty.