First, they “received a great slaughter at Gabaon” (verse 10) — that is, at Gabaon, or in the territory of Gabaon, as above at chapter 5, verse 13. Then, where flight lay open, they began to flee toward Beth-horon, which, set upon a high place, had an ascent by which one climbed up to it, [and] a descent by which one went thence toward Azeca and Maceda. Whence at verse 10 there is mention of an ascent, [and] at verse 11 of a descent — just as also in 1 Maccabees 3, verse 24 [the descent of Beth-horon].
Now Beth-horon is twofold, the upper and the lower; and that [upper one] is placed by some in the tribe of Ephraim, but both — by St. Jerome (in the Epitaph of Paula) — in the tribe of Judah, near Emmaus. And of both again afterward: chapter 16, verses 2 & 5; chapter 18, [verses] 13, 14; chapter 21, [verse] 22; 1 Kings [1 Samuel] 13, verse 18; 2 Kings [2 Samuel] 2, verse 29. Both are said to have been founded by Sheerah, daughter of Ephraim (1 Chronicles 7, verse 24), and both restored and fortified by Solomon (2 Chronicles 8, verse 5). Whence, in the passage cited, St. Jerome [says]: “Thence (that is, from Nicopolis, or Emmaus) setting out, he ascends to lower and upper Beth-horon, cities built by Solomon but afterward destroyed by the varied tempest of wars, looking to the right toward Aijalon and Gabaon, where Jesus [Joshua] the son of Nun fought against the five kings, and commanded the sun and the moon.”
Neither [of these] is the Betoro or Bethoro concerning which [there is mention] in the Itinerary of Antoninus, as Masius teaches against Ziegler. That Maceda is at the eighth milestone from Eleutheropolis, Eusebius writes in his little book On Places. And between it and Beth-horon was Azeca, as is clear from this passage; concerning which [see] below, chapter 15 [of Joshua], verse 35; 1 Kings [1 Samuel] 17, verse 7; 1 Chronicles 12, [verse] 36; 2 Chronicles 2, verse 9; 2 Esdras [Nehemiah] 2, [verse] 30; Jeremiah 34, verse 7.