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BeeliadaAid to Bible Understanding
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name simply for brevity’s sake, a common practice even today the world over.
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BeelzebubAid to Bible Understanding
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BEELZEBUB
(Be·elʹze·bub) [alternately, Beelzeboul and Beezeboul; possibly meaning, “Lord of the habitation”; or, if a play on the late Hebrew word zeʹvel (dung), “lord of dung.” The name may also be an alteration of Baal-zebub, the Baal worshiped by the Philistines at Ekron.]
“Beelzebub” is a designation applied to Satan the prince or ruler of the demons. The religious leaders blasphemously accused Jesus Christ of expelling demons by means of Beelzebub.—Matt. 10:25; 12:24-29; Mark 3:22-27; Luke 11:15-19.
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Beer, IAid to Bible Understanding
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BEER, I
(Beʹer) [well or pit].
The Hebrew word beʼerʹ usually refers to a well in contrast to a natural spring (Heb., ʽaʹyin). It commonly occurs in place-names as a prefix.—Compare BEER-ELIM, BEER-SHEBA.
1. After passing the Arnon River on their approach to the Promised Land, the Israelites came to Beer. (Num. 21:13-16) Here a well was dug, apparently by the princely heads of the tribes, using their own staffs, and water sprang up. This event was cause for the poetic song set forth in verses 17, 18.
Due to the part played by the princes in the digging of the well, some suggest that this is the same place as Beer-elim (well of the foremost men or chiefs). (Isa. 15:8) The location is uncertain, but it is considered likely to have been in the torrent valley called the Wadi eth-Thamad, N of the Arnon and some thirty-five miles (56 kilometers) E of the Dead Sea. Water is often found here quite easily by scooping out the soil.
2. A place to which Jotham, Gideon’s (Jerubbaal’s) son, fled after exposing Abimelech’s treachery. (Judg. 9:3-5, 21) El-Bireh, about seven miles (11 kilometers) N of Beth-shan and SE of Mount Tabor, is suggested by some as the probable location; others connect it with Beeroth. (see BEEROTH.) In view of the absence of any indication of the direction of Jotham’s flight from Mount Gerizim, however, the identification is uncertain.
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Beer, IIAid to Bible Understanding
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BEER, II
A beverage rather low in alcohol content, brewed by slow fermentation from wheat or other grain.
Cuneiform tablets reveal that the art of brewing beer from grain was practiced in ancient Mesopotamia as early as the third millennium B.C.E. When Abraham first arrived in Egypt he probably found that beer was already a common drink there. At a later date, it is said, Ramses III prized beer so highly that he offered up 30,000 gallons (113,560 liters) a year to his gods. Many Philistine beer mugs with their strainer spouts have been found. Those various nations, it seems, had a great variety of beers to suit every taste—sweet beer, dark beer, perfumed beer, sparkling beer, spiced beer—served either hot or cold, watered down or thick and sticky.—Isa. 1:22; Hos. 4:18; Nah. 1:10; see WINE AND STRONG DRINK.
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BeeraAid to Bible Understanding
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BEERA
(Be·eʹra) [a well].
A family head and descendant of Asher.—1 Chron. 7:30, 37, 40.
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BeerahAid to Bible Understanding
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BEERAH
(Be·erʹah) [a well].
A Reubenite chieftain taken into exile by Assyrian King Tiglath-pileser apparently during the reign of Pekah (778-758 B.C.E.).—1 Chron. 5:6.
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Beer-elimAid to Bible Understanding
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BEER-ELIM
(Beʹer-eʹlim) [well of the foremost men or chiefs].
A place named in Isaiah’s pronouncement against Moab. (Isa. 15:8) The foretold desolation is to cause “howling” clear to Eglaim and to Beer-elim. The location is unknown; many scholars relate it to Beer, mentioned at Numbers 21:16.—See BEER, I, No. 1.
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BeeriAid to Bible Understanding
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BEERI
(Be·eʹri) [my well].
1. Hittite father of Esau’s wife Judith.—Gen. 26:34.
2. Father of the prophet Hosea.—Hos. 1:1.
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Beer-lachai-roiAid to Bible Understanding
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BEER-LAHAI-ROI
(Beʹer-laʹhai·roi) [well of the living one who sees me].
Hagar, Sarai’s Egyptian maidservant, when fleeing from her mistress’ wrath followed the “way to Shur,” leading through the Negeb down to Egypt. Reaching a certain fountain (Heb., ʽaʹyin), however, she was reassured by an angel, instructed to return to her mistress, and told of the birth and future of Ishmael (whose name means “God hears”). Therefore, the well there was called “Beer-lahai-roi,” Hagar saying of Jehovah, “You are a God of sight.”—Gen. 16.7-14.
Later, Isaac was coming from “the way that goes to Beer-lahai-roi” in the Negeb when he caught sight of the camel caravan bringing his future bride Rebekah. (Gen. 24:62, 63) Following Abraham’s death Isaac resided “close by Beer-lahai-roi.”—Gen. 25:11.
Beer-lahai-roi is stated to have been “between Kadesh and Bered.” (Gen. 16:14) A Bedouin tradition places it at ʽAin Muweileh, about twelve miles (19 kilometers) NW of ʽAin Qedeis (the probable site of Kadesh-barnea), but the absence of any clear identification of the site of Bered leaves the matter uncertain.
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BeerothAid to Bible Understanding
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BEEROTH
(Be·er’oth) [wells].
One of four Hivite cities that astutely arranged a covenant with Joshua, the men of the city of Gibeon apparently taking the lead in the matter. (Josh. 9:3-17) The city thereafter was included within the inheritance of the tribe of Benjamin. (Josh. 18:21, 25) In describing the assassination of Saul’s son Ish-bosheth by men from Beeroth, the statement is made that “Beeroth, too, used to be counted as part of Benjamin.” This may indicate that the city lay near the border line of a neighboring tribe, hence the need to specify the tribal territory in which it was situated. (2 Sam. 4:2-6) Mention is made of the flight of its residents to Gittaim, but the reason is not explained; it may have been due to Philistine raids following their victory over Saul’s forces at Mount Gilboa or it may have taken place after the assassination of Ish-bosheth, the flight being to avoid acts of vengeance in reprisal for that murder. However, following the exile in Babylon, men of Beeroth are listed among those returning to Palestine.—Ezra 2:1, 25; Neh. 7:29.
Though some suggest a site farther S, Beeroth is generally identified with el-Bireh, a neighboring town of modern Ramallah, located about nine miles (14.5 kilometers) N of Jerusalem and about four and a half miles (7 kilometers) N-NE of Gibeon, hence, near the border of Ephraim. A spring there provides a fine supply of water. Traces of an old caravansary indicate that it was a stopping place for caravans.
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Beeroth Bene-jaakanAid to Bible Understanding
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BEEROTH BENE-JAAKAN
(Be·erʹoth Benʹe-jaʹa-kan) [wells of the sons of Jaakan].
A place at which the Israelites camped perhaps more than once during their wanderings in the wilderness, the last time being shortly before Aaron’s death on Mount Hor. (Deut. 10:6) It is tentatively identified with el-Birein, about forty miles (approximately 65 kilometers) SW of Beer-sheba. There are wells here and the probable location of Kadesh-barnea is but a few miles S. Archaeologist Nelson Glueck comments that there are a “strikingly large number of antiquity sites in this district.” (Rivers in the Desert, p. 97) Beeroth Bene-jaakan is evidently referred to as simply Bene-jaakan at Numbers 33:31.—See BENE-JAAKAN.
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BeerothiteAid to Bible Understanding
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BEEROTHITE
(Be·erʹoth·ite).
A resident or native of Beeroth. At the time of the Israelites’ entry into Canaan its inhabitants were Hivites. The territory was thereafter assigned to Benjamin, and the Hivite residents became “gatherers of wood and drawers of water.” (Josh. 9:17, 27; 18:21, 25; see BEEROTH.) The assassins of Ish-bosheth, namely, Baanah and Rechab,
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