Some departed from it, and indeed in that manner and for that cause which will be explained afterward (ch. 19). Some also acceded [to it] in the progress of time, as “Bethlehem,” or “Ephrata” — which, since it already existed of old, one may deservedly wonder [was] here passed over. But Arias thus begins to recount those [places] in his “Caleb”:
“[The places] which, after the death of Joshua, are noted [as] commemorated at various times, are: Medemena (and, nearest to it, Memnon’s [Hazzab]); and Bethdagon, not far from Iamia; and Gabaath; Ceila, so near [to the border] that Habakkuk the prophet’s sepulchre both [cities] claim for themselves; Halul, a village nearest to Hebron; and the valley of Eschol, with [its] torrent; the town Thecora, of which we already spoke; and the vast forests between Jerusalem and Engaddi, and in that territory the lake Asphar; and above Thecua, toward the East, the valley of Ieruel; Beth-anabal; and Aqrabi, in the borders of Judaea toward the East; and Arath, not far from the territory of Cades (whose king Israel once felt [to be] hostile); and in the same place Barath; Arith, in Daroma, a place notable for David’s garrison, and next to it Asthemech; and in the territory of Jerusalem, Bethsam, or the village Asain; the Well, or ‘the spring of him that seeth me,’ between Cades and Arath; Eare, or Bera, or Beroëa, a city between Ascalon, Azotus, and Jerusalem — which gave hiding-places to Jotham the son of Jerubbaal, fleeing the savagery of [his] brother Abimelech; and in the same tract, the village Baaldezel, near Bethsemes, or the city of the Sun; Berat-Bethur; and Bezech of the Palestinians, or Bezedim; and the city Challis; and the rock Ethan, whence Samson was let down against the Philistines; and near the rock, the place Ebezinthia; and the village Phatura, not far from Gaza; and Sephir, near Ascalon; Befferon, afterward [called] Bethsura, a garrison of the Jerusalemites, situated in the mountains at the valley of Rephaim; Bethacaris, signifying in Syriac ‘the house of the vineyards,’ between Befferon and Jerusalem — the same, corruptly, Bedus-Carith; and Bergazura; and the castle Dessan, to the North of the city; and the village Carnea, ten miles distant from Jerusalem. In the territory of Gerara, Beer-Dan (in the same [place] Gerara is called a metropolis), and Gurbaal, and that great valley of Gerar itself, and Jacob’s wells, many in that valley. Between Jerusalem and Jericho, Bethagan, by which Zedechias sought flight into the desert; and the village Lacabus, in the territory of Jerusalem; and Salem, over against the rising [east] of Jerusalem, in that very tract and the neighborhood of Jerusalem; Bethania, a village toward the South of the Mount of Olives, two miles distant from the city; and alongside the village Bethphage — between which and the city is the hill of the mountain; and the Tower of the flock, or Geder, not far from Bethlehem-Ephratha — once the monument of the crime of Reuben, committed against the chastity of [his] paternal house. Here the Angel announced to the shepherds [that] Christ was born; in the same region [is] the place Rama, between Techoa and Hebron; Gebrata, the place which was allotted the sepulchre of Rachel. But in the territory of Hebron [is] Luza, and a region once of the Canaanites, where Hagar of Abraham is said to have been settled. And the city Malatha, and Maseroth, where once David hid in caves; in the same place [is] Siphemoth; and Abel-Misraim, that is, ‘the mourning of the Egyptians.’ And Asedoth, or Asdoth, a place: in that region the Enakim were, whose remnants remained in Gad and Asdod. Toward the Southern borders, Petra, an ancient city — other than the Arabs’ Petra, on the border of Egypt. Param, a desert, looked, in the circuit of the mountains Maon and Carmel, toward the South. There are also other places of lesser note, yet celebrated either by [some] commemoration, or by the monument of a deed done in them — as Bethsalisa, in the Tamnitic region; and Bozor, a torrent toward the South of Siceleg. After Cariathiarim [are] the camps of Dan toward Jerusalem, whose name is also Bethmaacha. Nobe too was a city ascribed to the Priests, between Ramath of Benjamin and Joppa — which witnessed Saul’s cruelty against the Priests. In the territory of Maresa [there] was the valley Zaphatha, by others called Sephala from [its] lowness, the same also called the valley Rophaim; in the same valley [is] the city Adiada. Near Bethsames, the place of the Philistines’ camps was indicated by the name Aphech. Ebenhazer, ‘the stone of help,’ [was] so called near Bethur. Around the sea of Salt [is] Sohar, or Sebor, which Lot, fleeing the Sodomitic conflagration, sought. Next to it, toward the North, was Nimrim, or Benamrim; and in the mountains of Juda, which ascend to Seir, as far as Baalgad, was a mountain called ‘Lenaeus [of Bacchus]’; Casphim, a most fortified city, above Iabnia toward the east, in the tribe of Dan; and in the western border of the same tribe, Eleutheropolis — which we think was once called Eltola — notable by the notation of the Hieronymian itinerary; in the same tribe of Dan, toward the East, toward Jerusalem, was Malatha.”
St. Jerome (on Micah ch. 5): “We read,” he says, “according to the LXX Interpreters only, in [the book of] Jesus [Joshua] Nave — where the cities and towns of the tribe of Juda are described — among the rest, this also [is] written: Theca, and Ephratha (this is Bethlehem), and Phagor, and Aetham, and Culon, and Tami, and Soris, and Carem, and Gallim, and Bether, and Monacho — 11 cities, and their little-villages. Which is found neither in the Hebrew, nor in any other Interpreter; and whether concerning
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…and whether [these cities] were erased from the old books by the malice of the Jews — lest CHRIST should seem to have arisen from the tribe of Juda — or [whether they were] added by the 70: by no means clearly knowing [which], we know nothing certain.”