Bealoth
Bealoth is an ancient city mentioned in the Old Testament, located in the region of Judea in modern-day Israel. Known today as Beer Yeroham. It appears across 1 verse in Scripture.
Biblical History
Bealoth appears in the Old Testament in a single administrative context, listed in 1 Kings 4:16 as part of Solomon's district system. The text indicates that Baana son of Hushai was the officer responsible for Asher and Bealoth, one of twelve administrative districts Solomon established to supply provisions for the royal household, each district being responsible for one month of the year. The inclusion of Bealoth within the Asherite district suggests a location in the northwestern part of Canaan, though some scholars identify a southern Bealoth in the Negev territory, referenced in Joshua 15:24 as a town in the southernmost portion of Judah's allotment. If the two Bealoth references denote the same place, the town had a complex history of association with different tribal territories across different periods. The name itself, a plural form related to Baal, reflects the linguistic legacy of Canaanite religious geography even in towns that came under Israelite control. Bealoth's administrative role in the Solomonic system demonstrates how completely Solomon reorganized the tribal territories into a rationalized imperial bureaucracy.
Archaeological & Historical Notes
The identification of Bealoth remains uncertain, with scholars proposing several candidate sites. For the southern Judahite Bealoth of Joshua 15:24, the area around Beer Yeroham in the Negev highlands has been suggested, though no conclusive identification has been established. Archaeological surveys of the Negev highlands have revealed numerous Iron Age settlements consistent with the period of Israelite habitation, including sites with pottery assemblages spanning the Iron Age I-II transition. The Solomonic administrative district system referenced in 1 Kings 4 has been partially corroborated by the discovery of administrative ostraca at sites such as Samaria, which document similar provisioning systems in later periods, providing indirect support for the historical plausibility of Solomon's bureaucratic organization.
Verse Appearances (1)
Josh
References
- Orr, J. (ed.) (1915) The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. Chicago: Howard-Severance Company. [Public Domain]
- OpenBible.info (n.d.) Bible Geocoding. Available at: https://www.openbible.info/geo/. [CC BY 4.0]
- Bagnall, R. et al. (eds.) (n.d.) Pleiades: A Gazetteer of Past Places. Available at: https://pleiades.stoa.org. [CC BY 3.0]
- Church of England (1769) The Holy Bible, Authorized (King James) Version. [Public Domain]