place
Beth-Ashtoreth
בֵּית עַשְׁתָּרוֹת
Beth-Ashtoreth was a Philistine city where Saul's armor was put in the temple of Ashtoreth after his death. (1Sa.31.10)
- verses
- 1
- first named
- 1 Samuel 31:10
- last named
- 1 Samuel 31:10
Description
Beth-Ashtoreth in the text
Beth-Ashtoreth, meaning "house of Ashtoreth" in Hebrew, was a Philistine city mentioned in 1Sa.31.10. After King Saul's death in the battle against the Philistines on Mount Gilboa, the Philistines found his body and cut off his head. They then sent messengers throughout their land to proclaim the news in the temples of their idols and among the people.
As part of this victory celebration, the Philistines put Saul's armor in the temple of Ashtoreth at Beth-Ashtoreth. Ashtoreth, also known as Astarte, was a Canaanite goddess of love, fertility, and war, often associated with the Mesopotamian goddess Ishtar and the Greek goddess Aphrodite.
The exact location of Beth-Ashtoreth is not specified in the Bible, but it was likely a significant Philistine city with a prominent temple dedicated to Ashtoreth. The placement of Saul's armor in the temple was a way for the Philistines to celebrate their victory over Israel and to attribute their success to their goddess.
The event also highlights the tragic end of Saul's reign and the humiliation that befell him and Israel as a result of their defeat at the hands of the Philistines. In contrast, 1Ch.10.10 mentions that Saul's head was put in the temple of Dagon, another Philistine deity, showing the widespread celebration of the Philistine victory.
Relations
Direct connections
Every entity the graph places in a stated relation with this one, grouped by the kind of link. Each relation is authored once and its inverse derived, so both ends always agree. Rows marked “registry” come from the identity spine rather than from a verse, and a row marked “which bearer is the source’s decision” is one where the name could have meant more than one person. The last group is not a relation at all — it counts the events two entities stand in together.
Stands in the same events as
- Philistia1 event
The pattern
Where Beth-Ashtoreth is named
Every book of the corpus in the order it is read, each as wide as the chapters it holds. A bar is the verses of that book which write the name, and the flat stretches are as much of the answer as the bars.
1 verse across 1 of 66 books; 65 write the name nowhere. Named in 1 Samuel (1).
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Where to read it
Every verse of the text carried here that names this entity — one, across 1 book.
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Sources