Beth-Zur

BETH-ZUR, or Bethsura, a fortress of great consequence, principally in the time of the Maccabees. Rehoboam King of Judah2 Chron. xi. 7. had it fortified. Lysias, Regent of the Kingdom of Syria under young Antiochus, the Son of Antiochus Epiphanes, laid siege to Bethzur with an Army of sixty thousand foot and five thousand horse. Judas Maccabæus coming to succour the place, Lysias was obliged to raise the siege. Judas 1 Mac. iv. 28. vi. 7.put his Army to flight which was very strong, and afterwards making the best use of the arms and booty which were found in the enemy’s camp after their rout, the Jews hereupon became stronger and more 1 Mac. iv. 6.formidable.

Judas Maccabæus was too experienced a Observations on the rout of Lysias’s army by that of Judas Maccabæus.General not to engage Nicanor and Gorgias before their forces were joined; he attacked them therefore separately, and routed them: Lysias being in a consternation upon receiving so dishonourable a defeat, levied an Army of sixty thousand foot all chosen men, and five thousand horse in order to extirpate the Jews, says the Author of the Maccabees. This Army marched into Judæa, encamped near Bethsura¹, and Judas met them with ten thousand men. The party, my readers will say, was not equal; and I should think so too, if a General of but a moderate degree of courage and understanding had attacked another of greater skill than himself; but here the case is otherwise, and an excellent Commander, bold and enterprizing, attacks one of no capacity, tho’ six times stronger in the number of troops; and miracles of this kind are very common without there being any necessity for the interposition of the Deity to produce them. Ancient and modern History furnish us with Victories in great abundance of this sort, and much more surprizing than any obtained by the Maccabees. For the contempt of a weak enemy, whose forces are so disproportionate to the numerous Army which opposes them, is one of the greatest dangers that can be in War; because people are less upon their guard, and do not think their enemy capable of daring to undertake any thing against them, or even of appearing in the field; witness the Action of Uladus Prince of Walachia, who attacked Mahomet the Second’s Army, tho’ a hundred thousand strong, taking the advantage of a night, when the Moon did not shine, tho’ he had not more than between five and six thousand horse; notwithstanding which he struck a prodigious Army with terror and consternation, and put it into such confusion and disorder, that if a body of Janizaries had not stood their ground resolutely, and given the rest an opportunity to recover out of their fright, this Army had been routed.

Judas, who saw that Lysias had entered Judæa, marched directly to his camp under Bethsura. The Author, contrary to his custom in an affair of this importance, tells us nothing of the disposition and distribution of the troops in both armies; but as we cannot be mistaken in the method of the Jews, and in their manner of fighting, when their weakness would not allow them to attack with a front equal to the enemy’s, that is to say, with a perfect phalanx, and particularly the Maccabees, who were never at the head of such a number of troops as might be called an Army, we shall have recourse to their common method. Judas, it is probable, divided his ten thousand men into four or five bodies, drawn up very deep, as always was the practice of the Maccabees in all the battles they were concerned in. The Author makes no mention of horse; and it is certain that the Maccabees scarce ever had any, their way of fighting, as it were in columns, not making them so necessary. If Judas had been provided with cavalry, the Scripture would not have failed to have inform’d us of it, since it takes notice of that belonging to Lysias, and particularly specifies the number. As the people of Asia and others threw their horse upon the wings, and the infantry into the center, I range Lysias’s army in the same order; and it is probable that he covered the wings of his foot with his horse. They joined battle, says the Author, and five thousand men of Lysias’s Army were cut in pieces. To have only five thousand men killed in an army of sixty five thousand, is a very inconsiderable matter. This Victory has all the air of a defeat given to people levied in haste rather than true soldiers; which makes me suspect that the Author of the Maccabees, with respect to the number of the enemy, may enlarge a little.

The year following, being that of the world 3841. before J. C. 159. before the vulgar Æra 163. Lysias attacking it again, 1 Mac. vi. 31, 32. & seq. 1 Mac. xi. 65. 1 Mac. iv. 61. 2 Macc. xiii. 19.took it, and it continued in the possession of the Syrians, till the government of Jonathan Maccabæus, who by conquest got it from them, in the year of the world 3860. before J. C. 140. before the vulgar Æra 144.

Bethzur belonged to the Tribe of Judah, Joshua. xv. 38. It lay opposite to south Edom, that is to say, it defended the passages into Judea from the side of Edom. We read in the second book of Maccabees, Chap. xi. 5. that Bethzur was five furlongs from Jerusalem; but this is a visible mistake. Eusebius places it at the distance of twenty miles or seven leagues from Jerusalem, in the way towards Hebron. At the foot of Mount Bethzur there is a fountain shewn, wherein some assert, that Queen Candace’s Eunuch was baptized².

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