Құдай кітабындағы Бeт-Хорон қалалары

Biblical town

Bethoron (בֵית־חוֹרֹ֔ן; Ὡρωνείν), also Beth Horon, were two neighboring towns in ancient Israel, situated on the Gibeon–Aijalon road. They served as strategic points along the road, guarding the "ascent of Bethoron". While the Hebrew Bible sometimes distinguishes between the two towns—Upper and Lower Bethoron—it often refers to both simply as Bethoron. The towns are mentioned in the Bible and in other ancient sources: Upper Bethoron appears in Joshua, Lower Bethoron in Joshua, both in 1 Chronicles,

Hiero|1=bꜣtꜣ(j) ḥwꜣrwn The city is mentioned among the cities and towns smitten by Sheshonq I in his inscription at the Temple of Karnak as Batae Houarn.

The biblical "way of Beth horon", also known as "the ascent of Beth horon", is a pass which ascends from the plain of Aijalon (now Ayalon Canada Park) and climbs to Beit Ur al Tahta (1,210 ft.). It then ascends along the ridge, with valleys lying to north and south, and reaches Beit Ur al Fauqa (2,022 ft.). Al tahta means 'the lower', and al fauqa (fawqa) means 'the upper' in Arabic. The ascent is an ancient east west trade route connecting two broadly north south routes, the Via Maris along the Mediterranean coastline, and the Way of the Patriarchs, which follows the crest of the central mountain range of Samaria in the north and Judah in the south.

Upper Bethoron is first mentioned in the Book of Joshua as a city on the border between the Israelite tribes of Benjamin and Ephraim (16:5 HE ). The borderline passed alongside the two Bethorons (Joshua 16:5; 21:22) who belonged to the latter Israelite tribe and therefore, later on, to the Northern Kingdom of Israel, while the tribe of Benjamin belonged to the Kingdom of Judah. One or both of the towns was a Levitical city (Joshua 21:22; 2 Chronicles 6:53). 1 Kings 9:17). According to 1 Chronicles 7:24, Lower Bethoron was built by She'era, daughter of Beriah, son of Ephraim.) in the Battle of Beth Horon. Six years later Nicanor, retreating from Jerusalem, was defeated and slain (1 Macc. 7:39; Josephus, Antiquities Bk12 Ch10:5.) Bacchides repaired Beth horon "with high walls, with gates and with bars and in them he set a garrison, that they might work malice upon ("vex") Israel" (1 Macc. 9:50–51). Later, the Jews fortified it against Holofernes (Judith 4:4–5).

There are traces of an ancient Roman paving still visible. In the battle of Beth Horon in the year 66 CE, the first decisive Jewish victory in the First Jewish–Roman War the Roman general Cestius Gallus was driven in headlong flight before the Jews.

Eusebius' Onomasticon mentions the 'twin villages' and St. Jerome describes them as 'little hamlets.' Jerome (late 4th to early 5th centuries) noted that Bethoron was just a little village at his time. In his eulogy for Saint Paula, he describes Lower and Upper Bethoron as cities founded by Solomon and destroyed by war.

The two Palestinian Arab Muslim villages of Beit Ur el Fauqa and Beit Ur et Tahta preserve the Hebrew–Canaanite name, and have been identified as the sites of Upper and Lower Bethoron.

In 1915, the Palestine Exploration Fund wrote that changes in the main road to Jerusalem had left the Bethoron route "forsaken" and "almost forgotten". The Israeli settlement of Beit Horon was founded in 1977 on a site adjacent to the two Arab towns. Highway 443 follows part of the ancient road.

Archaeological finds indicate that the lower town was established before the upper one. Potsherds from the Late Bronze Age onward were discovered at Lower Beit Ur, whereas those in Upper Beit Ur date only from the Iron Age onward.