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•BETH-ARAM house of the height; i.e., “mountain-house”, one of the towns of Gad, 3 miles east of Jordan, opposite Jericho (Joshua 13:27). Probably the same as Beth-haran in Numbers 32:36. It was called by king Herod, Julias, or Livias, after Livia, the wife of Augustus. It is now called Beit-haran.
•BETH-ARBEL house of God’s court, a place alluded to by Hosea (10:14) as the scene of some great military exploit, but not otherwise mentioned in Scripture. The Shalman here named was probably Shalmaneser, the king of Assyria (2 Kings 17:3).
•BETH-AVEN house of nothingness; i.e., “of idols”, a place in the mountains of Benjamin, east of Bethel (Joshua 7:2; 18:12; 1 Samuel 13:5). In Hos. 4:15; 5:8; 10:5 it stands for “Bethel” (q.v.), and it is so called because it was no longer the “house of God,” but “the house of idols,” referring to the calves there worshipped.
•BETH-BARAH house of crossing, a place south of the scene of Gideon’s victory (Judges 7:24). It was probably the chief ford of the Jordan in that district, and may have been that by which Jacob crossed when he returned from Mesopotamia, near the Jabbok (Genesis 32:22), and at which Jephthah slew the Ephraimites (Judges 12:4). Nothing, however, is certainly known of it. (See BETHABARA.)
•BETH-CAR sheep-house, a place to which the Israelites pursued the Philistines west from Mizpeh (1 Samuel 7:11).
•BETH-DAGON house of Dagon. (1.) A city in the low country or plain of Judah, near Philistia (Joshua 15:41); the modern Beit Degan, about 5 miles from Lydda.
(2.) A city near the south-east border of Asher (Joshua 19:27). It was a Philistine colony. It is identical with the modern ruined village of Tell D’auk.
•BETH-DIBLATHAIM house of two cakes of figs, a city of Moab, upon which Jeremiah (48:22) denounced destruction. It is called also
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