2 others in the registry answer to the name Beth-shemesh. Every Beth-shemesh in the Bible
place · also Ir-shemesh
Beth-shemesh
בֵּית שֶׁ֫מֶשׁ
Beth-shemesh was a city allotted to Judah and the Levites, associated with the return of the Ark of the Covenant from the Philistines. (Multiple references, see article for details)
- verses
- 19
- first named
- Joshua 15:10
- last named
- 2 Chronicles 28:18
- feature
- settlement
- coordinates
- 31.75°N · 34.97°E
Tel Bet Shemesh (OpenBible)
Scholarship offers 4 identifications for this place. The leading one is shown; the others are recorded in the gazetteer.
Description
Beth-shemesh in the text
Beth-shemesh, meaning "house of the sun" in Hebrew, was a city located in the Shephelah region, the western foothills of Judah. It was allotted to the tribe of Judah (Joshua 15:10) and later given to the Levites of the family of Aaron (Joshua 21:16; 1Ch.6.59).
Beth-shemesh is primarily known for its association with the return of the Ark of the Covenant from the Philistines (1Samuel 6). After the Ark had been captured by the Philistines, they sent it back on a cart, guided by two milk cows. The cows miraculously went straight to Beth-shemesh, where the people were reaping their wheat harvest in the valley (1Sa.6.9, 12-13).
The men of Beth-shemesh rejoiced when they saw the Ark, offering the cows as a burnt offering and sacrificing to the Lord (1Sa.6.14-15). However, some of the men looked inside the Ark, and as a result, God struck down 70 men (some manuscripts say 50,070) for their irreverence (1Sa.6.19-20).
During the reign of King Solomon, Beth-shemesh was included in the second administrative district overseen by Ben-Deker (1Ki.4.9).
Later, during the reign of King Amaziah of Judah, a battle took place between Amaziah and King Jehoash of Israel at Beth-shemesh. Amaziah was defeated and captured by Jehoash, who then proceeded to break down a section of the wall of Jerusalem (2Ki.14.11-13; 2Ch.25.21-23).
In the time of King Ahaz of Judah, the Philistines invaded the cities of the Shephelah, including Beth-shemesh, capturing and occupying them (2Ch.28.18).
The city of Beth-shemesh is also mentioned in Judges 1:35, where it is stated that the Amorites persisted in dwelling in Mount Heres, Aijalon, and Shaalbim, but the hand of the house of Joseph rested heavily on them, and they became subject to forced labor. Mount Heres, meaning "mount of the sun," is likely another name for Beth-shemesh or the hill on which it was located.
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.
The pattern
Where Beth-shemesh 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.
19 verses across 7 of 66 books; 59 write the name nowhere. Named in Joshua (3), Judges (1), 1 Samuel (8), 1 Kings (1), 2 Kings (2), 1 Chronicles (1) and 2 Chronicles (3).
Read it
Where to read it
Every verse of the text carried here that names this entity — 19, across 7 books. The name is written 20 times in them.
Onward
Where this page goes
Not the direct relations above — these are one hop further out, ranked so that a rare shared connection outweighs a common one. Descriptions by STEPBible TIPNR.
Where they appear
What happened here
Atlas's reading of each chapter this place appears in, in canonical order. One line per chapter, and each leads to the whole of it.
Sources