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Matthew George Easton
Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Third Edition (1897) · 3,964 entries on site
Having a courtyard, or Baal’s village, the place on the borders of Ephraim and Benjamin where Absalom held the feast of sheep-shearing when Amnon was assassinated ( 2 Sam. 13:23 ). Probably it is the same with Hazor ( Neh. 11:33 ), now Tell’ Asur, 5 miles north-east of Bethel.
Son of my right hand. (1.) The younger son of Jacob by Rachel ( Gen. 35:18 ). His birth took place at Ephrath, on the road between Bethel and Bethlehem, at a short distance from the latter place. His mother died in giving him birth, and with her last breath named him Ben-oni, son of my pain, a name which was changed by his father into Benjamin. His posterity are called Benjamites ( Gen. 49:27 ; Deut. 33:12 ; Josh. 18:21 ). The tribe of Benjamin at the Exodus was the smallest but one ( Num. 1:36 , 37 ; Ps. 68:27 ). During the march its place was along with Manasseh and Ephraim on the west of the tabernacle. At the entrance into Canaan it counted 45,600 warriors. It has been inferred by some from the words of Jacob ( Gen. 49:27 ) that the figure of a wolf was on the tribal standard. This tribe is mentioned in Rom. 11:1 ; Phil. 3:5 . The inheritance of this tribe lay immediately to the south of that of Ephraim, and was about 26 miles in length and 12 in breadth. Its eastern boundary was the Jordan. Dan intervened between it and the Philistines. Its chief towns are named in Josh. 18:21-28 . The history of the tribe contains a sad record of a desolating civil war in which they were engaged with the other eleven tribes. By it they were almost exterminated ( Judg. 20:20 , 21 ; 21:10). (See GIBEAH .) The first king of the Jews was Saul, a Benjamite. A close alliance was formed between this tribe and that of Judah in the time of David ( 2 Sam. 19:16 , 17 ), which continued after his death ( 1 Kings 11:13 ; 12:20 ). After the Exile these two tribes formed the great body of the Jewish nation ( Ezra 1:5 ; 10:9 ). The tribe of Benjamin was famous for its archers ( 1 Sam. 20:20 , 36 ; 2 Sam. 1:22 ; 1 Chr. 8:40 ; 12:2 ) and slingers (Judge. 20:6). The gate of Benjamin, on the north side of Jerusalem ( Jer. 37:13 ; 38:7 ; Zech. 14:10 ), was so called because it led in the direction of the territory of the tribe of Benjamin. It is called by Jeremiah (20:2) “the high gate of Benjamin;” also “the gate of the children of the people” (17:19). (Comp. 2 Kings 14:13 .)
House of nothingness; i.e., “of idols”, a place in the mountains of Benjamin, east of Bethel ( Josh. 7:2 ; 18:12 ; 1 Sam. 13:5 ). In Hos. 4:15 ; 5:8 ; 10:5 it stands for “Bethel” (q.v.), and it is so called because it was no longer the “house of God,” but “the house of idols,” referring to the calves there worshipped.
House of God. (1.) A place in Central Palestine, about 10 miles north of Jerusalem, at the head of the pass of Michmash and Ai. It was originally the royal Canaanite city of Luz ( Gen. 28:19 ). The name Bethel was at first apparently given to the sanctuary in the neighbourhood of Luz, and was not given to the city itself till after its conquest by the tribe of Ephraim. When Abram entered Canaan he formed his second encampment between Bethel and Hai ( Gen. 12:8 ); and on his return from Egypt he came back to it, and again “called upon the name of the Lord” (13:4). Here Jacob, on his way from Beersheba to Haran, had a vision of the angels of God ascending and descending on the ladder whose top reached unto heaven (28:10, 19); and on his return he again visited this place, “where God talked with him” (35:1-15), and there he “built an altar, and called the place El-beth-el” (q.v.). To this second occasion of God’s speaking with Jacob at Bethel, Hosea (12:4, 5) makes reference. In troublous times the people went to Bethel to ask counsel of God ( Judg. 20:18 , 31 ; 21:2). Here the ark of the covenant was kept for a long time under the care of Phinehas, the grandson of Aaron (20:26-28). Here also Samuel held in rotation his court of justice ( 1 Sam. 7:16 ). It was included in Israel after the kingdom was divided, and it became one of the seats of the worship of the golden calf ( 1 Kings 12:28-33 ; 13:1 ). Hence the prophet Hosea ( Hos. 4:15 ; 5:8 ; 10:5 , 8 ) calls it in contempt Beth-aven, i.e., “house of idols.” Bethel remained an abode of priests even after the kingdom of Israel was desolated by the king of Assyria ( 2 Kings 17:28 , 29 ). At length all traces of the idolatries were extirpated by Josiah, king of Judah ( 2 Kings 23:15-18 ); and the place was still in existence after the Captivity ( Ezra 2:28 ; Neh. 7:32 ). It has been identified with the ruins of Beitin, a small village amid extensive ruins some 9 miles south of Shiloh. (2.) Mount Bethel was a hilly district near Bethel ( Josh. 16:1 ; 1 Sam. 13:2 ). (3.) A town in the south of Judah ( Josh. 8:17 ; 12:16 ).
A designation of Hiel (q.v.), who rebuilt Jericho and experienced the curse pronounced long before ( 1 Kings 16:34 ).
Man of God, or virgin of God, or house of God. (1.) The son of Nahor by Milcah; nephew of Abraham, and father of Rebekah ( Gen. 22:22 , 23 ; 24:15 , 24 , 47 ). He appears in person only once (24:50). (2.) A southern city of Judah ( 1 Chr. 4:30 ); called also Bethul ( Josh. 19:4 ) and Bethel (12:16; 1 Sam. 30:27 ).
The first burial we have an account of is that of Sarah ( Gen. 23 ). The first commercial transaction recorded is that of the purchase of a burial-place, for which Abraham weighed to Ephron “four hundred shekels of silver current money with the merchants.” Thus the patriarch became the owner of a part of the land of Canaan, the only part he ever possessed. When he himself died, “his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah,” beside Sarah his wife ( Gen. 25:9 ). Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, was buried under Allon-bachuth, “the oak of weeping” ( Gen. 35:8 ), near to Bethel. Rachel died, and was buried near Ephrath; “and Jacob set a pillar upon her grave” (16-20). Isaac was buried at Hebron, where he had died (27, 29). Jacob, when charging his sons to bury him in the cave of Machpelah, said, “There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah” (49:31). In compliance with the oath which he made him swear unto him (47:29-31), Joseph, assisted by his brethren, buried Jacob in the cave of Machpelah (50:2, 13). At the Exodus, Moses “took the bones of Joseph with him,” and they were buried in the “parcel of ground” which Jacob had bought of the sons of Hamor ( Josh. 24:32 ), which became Joseph’s inheritance ( Gen. 48:22 ; 1 Chr. 5:1 ; John 4:5 ). Two burials are mentioned as having taken place in the wilderness. That of Miriam ( Num. 20:1 ), and that of Moses, “in the land of Moab” ( Deut. 34:5 , 6 , 8 ). There is no account of the actual burial of Aaron, which probably, however, took place on the summit of Mount Hor ( Num. 20:28 , 29 ). Joshua was buried “in the border of his inheritance in Timnath-serah” ( Josh. 24 : 30). In Job we find a reference to burying-places, which were probably the Pyramids (3:14, 15). The Hebrew word for “waste places” here resembles in sound the Egyptian word for “pyramids.” Samuel, like Moses, was honoured with a national burial ( 1 Sam. 25:1 ). Joab ( 1 Kings 2:34 ) “was buried in his own house in the wilderness.” In connection with the burial of Saul and his three sons we meet for the first time with the practice of burning the dead ( 1 Sam. 31:11-13 ). The same practice is again referred to by Amos (6:10). Absalom was buried “in the wood” where he was slain ( 2 Sam. 18:17 , 18 ). The raising of the heap of stones over his grave was intended to mark abhorrence of the person buried (comp. Josh. 7:26 and 8:29). There was no fixed royal burying-place for the Hebrew kings. We find several royal burials taking place, however, “in the city of David” ( 1 Kings 2:10 ; 11:43 ; 15:8 ; 2 Kings 14:19 , 20 ; 15:38 ; 1 Kings 14:31 ; 22:50 ; 2 Chr. 21:19 , 20 ; 2 Chr. 24:25 , etc.). Hezekiah was buried in the mount of the sepulchres of the sons of David; “and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem did him honour at his death” ( 2 Chr. 32:33 ). Little is said regarding the burial of the kings of Israel. Some of them were buried in Samaria, the capital of their kingdom ( 2 Kings 10:35 ; 13:9 ; 14:16 ). Our Lord was buried in a new tomb, hewn out of the rock, which Joseph of Arimathea had prepared for himself ( Matt. 27:57-60 ; Mark 15:46 ; John 19:41 , 42 ). The grave of Lazarus was “a cave, and a stone lay on it” ( John 11:38 ). Graves were frequently either natural caverns or artificial excavations formed in the sides of rocks ( Gen. 23:9 ; Matt. 27:60 ); and coffins were seldom used, unless when the body was brought from a distance.
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