Bible Word Study
בֵּית שֶׁמֶשׁ
Bêyth Shemesh · Beth-Shemesh, a place in Palestine
בֵּית שֶׁמֶשׁ
Beth-Shemesh, a place in Palestine
Definition
Beth-Shemesh (בֵּית שֶׁמֶשׁ) is a proper noun referring to several distinct locations in ancient Israel, all meaning 'house of the sun.' The most prominent is a Levitical city in the tribal territory of Judah (Joshua 15:10, 21:16), which played a key role in the return of the Ark of the Covenant after its capture by the Philistines (1 Samuel 6:9-15). Another Beth-Shemesh was located in the territory of Naphtali (Joshua 19:38). The name likely indicates these were sites of ancient sun worship or solar cults prior to Israelite occupation.
Biblical Usage
The name Beth-Shemesh is used 19 times in the Old Testament, primarily in historical and geographical contexts. It appears in Joshua during the allotment of land to the tribes (Joshua 15:10, 19:22, 19:38, 21:16), in Judges regarding the tribe of Dan's failure to fully dispossess the Amorites (Judges 1:33), and most narratively in 1 Samuel 6, where the Judahite city is the site where the Ark miraculously returns on a cart pulled by cows. Its usage consistently identifies specific, named locations.
Etymology
The name is a compound of two Hebrew words: בַּיִת (bayit, H1004), meaning 'house,' and שֶׁמֶשׁ (shemesh, H8121), meaning 'sun.' It is a straightforward construct chain meaning 'house of the sun.' This etymology points to a pre-Israelite, likely Canaanite, religious site dedicated to a sun deity, a practice common in the ancient Near East.
Semantic Range
Beth-Shemesh is theologically significant as the location where God sovereignly guided the Ark's return, demonstrating His power over the Philistine gods (1 Samuel 6:12). The judgment on the men of Beth-Shemesh for looking into the Ark (1 Samuel 6:19) underscores God's holiness and the proper reverence required for sacred objects. The name's pagan origins ('house of the sun') contrasted with its later status as a Levitical city illustrates God's redemption of places for His worship. In the Canaanite culture preceding Israel's settlement, places named 'house of the sun' were almost certainly centers for the worship of a sun god, possibly Shemesh or Shamash. For the Israelites, the name became a purely geographical identifier, but its original pagan connotation would have been understood, serving as a reminder of the land's history and the need for exclusive worship of Yahweh. Ir-Shemesh (עִיר שֶׁמֶשׁ, H5903) — A nearby city also meaning 'city of the sun,' possibly the same location (Joshua 19:41).
Word Details
How this works
Definitions are from the Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew Lexicon (BDB, 1906, public domain). Concordance and morphology data are from the OSHB (Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible).
Full methodology & sources →References
- Abbott-Smith, G. (1921) A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament. Edinburgh: T&T Clark. [Public Domain]
- Brown, F., Driver, S.R. and Briggs, C.A. (1906) A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament. Oxford: Clarendon Press. [Public Domain]
- Tyndale House, Cambridge (n.d.) Tyndale Brief lexicon of Extended Strongs for Greek (TBESG). STEPBible. Available at: https://www.stepbible.org. [CC BY 4.0]
- Tyndale House, Cambridge (n.d.) Translators Formatted full LSJ (TFLSJ). STEPBible. Available at: https://www.stepbible.org. [CC BY 4.0]
- Thayer, J.H. (1889) A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament. [Public Domain]
- Gesenius, W. (1846) Gesenius' Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament. [Public Domain]
- Dodson, J. (2010) Greek Lexicon. Biblical Humanities. [CC0]