Atlas  Beth-zur and surrounding region
Maps Created using Biblemapper 3.0Additional data from OpenBible.infoOccurrences Joshua 15:58 Halhul, Beth Zur, Gedor, 2 Chronicles 11:7 Beth Zur, and Soco, and Adullam, Nehemiah 3:16 After him repaired Nehemiah the son of Azbuk, the ruler of half the district of Beth Zur, to the place over against the tombs of David, and to the pool that was made, and to the house of the mighty men. Encyclopedia BETH-ZURbeth'-zur (beth-tsur; Baith-sour, "house of rock"; less probably "house of the god Zur"):
(1) Mentioned (Joshua 15:58) as near Halhul and Gedor in the hill country of Judah; fortified by Rehoboam (2 Chronicles 11:7). In Nehemiah 3:16 mention is made of "Nehemiah the son of Azbuk, the ruler of half the district of Beth-zur." During the Maccabean wars it (Bethsura) came into great importance (1 Maccabees 4:29, 61; 6:7, 26, 31, 49, 50; 9:52; 10:14; 0.503472222; 14:7, 33). Josephus describes it as the strongest place in all Judea (Ant., XIII, v, 6). It was inhabited in the days of Eusebius and Jerome.
(2) It is the ruined site Belt Cur, near the main road from Jerusalem to Hebron, and some 4 miles North of the latter. Its importance lay in its natural strength, on a hilltop dominating the highroad, and also in its guarding the one southerly approach for a hostile army by the Vale of Elah to the Judean plateau. The site today is conspicuous from a distance through the presence of a ruined medieval tower. (See PEF, III, 311, Sh XXI).
E. W. G. Masterman
BETH'-ZUR, now Beit Sur, only ruins, 4 ms. n. a little w. from Hebron and mentioned four times, first in Josh. 15:58, further history in 2 Chron. 11:7. Strong's Hebrew H1049: Beth-tsur"house of a rock," a place in Judah |
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