Bethshemesh (I)

1 Sam. xxxi. 10, &c. Jos. xxi. 16. 1 Sam. vi. 12. 2 Kings xiv. 11. 1 Kings iv. 9. 1 Chron. vi. 59.I. BETHSHEMESH, a city belonging to the Priests, and in the Tribe of Judah. In Eusebius’s¹ account, it is ten miles from Eleutheropolis, eastward, in the way to Nicopolis, or Emaüs. M. Reland thinks we should distinguish Hir-schemesh in the Tribe of Dan, from Beth-shemesh in the Tribe of Judah; but his reasons are not persuasive. The very passages which he produces out of Joshua, xix. 41. compared with 1 Kings iv. 7. where Hir-schemesh is placed as parallel to Beth-shemesh, convince us, that it is not the same city. Hir-shemesh, signifies the city of the Sun, and Bethshemesh, the House of the Sun. As the Tribes of Dan and Judah are adjacent, the same city is set down sometimes as belonging to one, sometimes to another. The Philistines having sent back the Ark of the Lord, it was brought to Beth-shemesh; and some of the people being desirous to look with too much curiosity into it, the Lord destroyed seventy of the principal men in the city, and fifty thousand of the common people.

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