opinion more generally received among commentators, that the circumstance now quoted, of Mary anointing the feet of Jesus, is distinct from that related at Matt. xxvi. 7, and Mark xiv. 3. This event was six days before the Passover, that, two days; this occurred in the house of Lazarus, that in the house of Simon the leper. In this Mary anoints the feet of Jesus; in that a woman not named, but supposed to have been Mary, pours ointment on his head. It appears from St John's narrative, that the entry into Jerusalem took place on the following day, John xii. 12.

The village of Bethany is still in existence, or rather its site is now occupied by a village inhabited by some Arab families, and it is described as pleasantly situated on the shady side of the Mount of Olives, which abounds in vines and long grass. Tradition has not been wanting in reference to the sacred localities of this interesting village, and the house of Lazarus, his grave, and the house of Simon the leper, are still pointed out. The building shown as the house of Lazarus, but which is evidently the ruin of a Turkish castle, is situated at the entrance into the village. Near it is the tomb of Lazarus, held in great veneration by the Turks, and used by them as an oratory for prayer. Descending into the sepulchre by twentyfive steps, a small square room presents itself, and thence another of less dimensions, and about five feet deep, in which it is said the body of Lazarus was placed. Not far from this tomb is shown the site of Mary Magdalene's residence, and farther, descending a steep hill, is a fountain called The Fountain of the Apostles, so designated because they were accustomed to refresh themselves at it in their journeys between Jerusalem and Jericho. See JERUSALEM and MOUNT OF OLIVES.

BETH-ARABAH, a city first allotted to the tribe of Judah, Josh. xv. 6, and afterwards given to the tribe of Benjamin, Josh. xviii. 22.

BETH-ARAMPHTHA, a town of Galilee on the right bank of the River Jordan, on the western side of the Lake

Gennesareth, at the influx of the Jordan into that Lake. Dr Lightfoot places it on the left bank of the Jordan in Peræa. It was fortified and ornamented by Herod the Tetrarch, and called Julias, in honour of Julia, the daughter of Augustus, and wife of Tiberius. See BETHSAIDA.

BETHARAM, BETHHARAN, or BETHARA, the name of a town fortified by the tribe of Gad, Numb. xxxii. 36, and afterwards allotted to that tribe, Josh. xiii. 27. It was also called Betharamphtha by the Syrians, and Libias, or Livias, by Herod, in honour of Livia, the wife of Augustus. Josephus confounds it with the town Betharamphtha just mentioned. It was situated on a rivulet called the Nimrim, about five miles east from the Jordan. Ptolemy says that it lay in the same latitude with Jerusalem, in the vicinity of the Dead Sea, the mountainous ridge Abarim, and the city of Heshbon.

BETH-ARBEL, a name mentioned by the Prophet Hosea, who alludes to some great military exploit well known in his day, but not recorded in the Scriptures. St Jerome inserts Jerubbaal instead of Beth-Arbel in this verse, and interprets it as referring to Gideon's victory over Zalmunna, Judges viii. 12. Other commentators understand the verse to relate to Shalman, or Shalmanezer, who gained a battle at Beth-Arbel against Hoshea, king of Israel. There were various towns called Arbela, which Josephus and Eusebius mention. See ARBELA.

BETHAVEN, the house of iniquity, of vanity, of trouble, of strength, the name of a town three miles distant from Ai, and six miles east from Bethel, Josh. vii. 2. It was situated in the allotment of the tribe of Benjamin, and gave name to the Wilderness in its neighbourhood, Josh. xviii. 12. Also a name applied to Bethel. See BETHEL.

BETH-AZMAVETH. See AZMA

BETH-BIREI, the house of my Creator, or the temple of my Creator, a city which belonged to the Simeonites unto the reign of David, 1 Chron. iv. 31.

BETH-CAR, the house of the lamb, or the house of knowledge, a town belonging to the tribe of Dan, to which the Israelites pursued the Philistines, and near which, as a memorial of the great deliverance from the enemy, Samuel erected the pillar or stone called Ebenezer, or The Stone of Help, 1 Sam vii. 11, 12.

BETH-DAGON, the house of corn, or the habitation of the fish, or the temple of the god Dayon, the name of two towns, the one in the allotment of the tribe of Judah, Josh. xv. 41, and the other in that of the tribe of Asher, or rather perhaps the boundary of that tribe, Josh. xix. 27. The name doubtless originated from a temple of the idol Dagon being erected there. This was the name of the temple of Dagon at Gaza (Judges xvi.), which Samson brought to the ground in an extraordinary manner, when im mense numbers of the Philistines were killed, and himself buried in the ruins. It was also the name of a temple dedicated to the same idol at Ashdod, in which the Philistines deposited the ark of God, 1 Sam. v. 2.

BETH-DIBLATHAIM, the house of dry figs, a town in the country of the Moabites denounced by the Prophet Jeremiah (xlviii. 22).

BETH-DIBON. See BAJITH.

BETHEL, the house of God, called also BETHAVEN, the house of iniquity, by the Prophet Hosea, after the introduction of the golden calves which were first set up here by Jeroboam, Hos. iv. 15, x. 5, the name of a city formerly called Luz, until it received the designation of Bethel by Jacob, after his celebrated dream which afforded him great consolation, and was of the most serious import, Gen. xxviii. 19. Luz and Bethel seem to be distinguished as separate places, Josh. xvi. 2; yet in the Book of Judges we are positively assured that the ancient name

confirming the Mosaic statement. It is probable, therefore, that Luz, so called from the numerous almond-trees in the neighbourhood, and also Bethel, were in Joshua's time contiguous places, and that the name of the former merged into that of the latter. It was situated in Samaria, on the confines of the tribes of Benjamin and Ephraim, and, according to Eusebius, was twelve miles distant from Jerusalem on the way to Sichem.

Bethel is repeatedly mentioned in the Sacred Scriptures as a place of considerable importance. The first notice of it is that connected with Jacob, who was on his way to Laban, his mother's brother, when he saw the vision of the ladder, and the angels of God ascending and descending on it, and the promise was given him by Jehovah, "I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed; and thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south; and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. And behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land, for I will not leave thee until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of." When Jacob awoke, impressed with this important vision, he exclaimed, "Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not ;" his sense of the Divine Presence made him afraid, and he said, "How dreadful is this place! This is none other but the house of God, this is the gate of heaven." He immediately rose, and took the stone which had served him for a pillow, and set it up for a pillar, poured oil upon it, and called the name of the place Bethel, or the house of God.

This curious procedure of setting up a stone and pouring oil upon the top of it by Jacob, has induced Bochart to assert that it was the origin of that superstitious respect paid by the ancients to

to their great men after their death. These stones were called Batylos or Batyli, and were worshipped among the Greeks, the Phrygians, and other Eastern nations. In some parts of Egypt they were planted on both sides of the road. As to Jacob's stone or pillar, numerous have been the traditions respecting its travels and destination. Every reader of English history is aware, that it is pretended this very stone, which Jacob used as his pillow at Bethel, is now in the chair in which the British monarchs are crowned at Westminster Abbey, that same chair or stone having been carried from the palace of Scone in Perthshire by Edward I. when he invaded Scotland. The Rabbins allege that it was put into the sanctuary of that Temple which was erected after the return of the Jews from the Babylonish Captivity-that the Ark of the Covenant was placed on this stone— and that long after the ruin of that Temple, the Jews were accustomed to lament on it their calamities. The Mahometans, on the other hand, pretend that the Temple at Mecca is founded on that very stone, and profess for it the utmost veneration. Dr Clarke thus describes the vicinity of Bethel, as seen by him in his route from Napolose to Jerusalem: "The first part of our journey led through the valley lying between the two mountains Ebal and Gerizim. We passed the Sepulchre of Joseph and the Well of Jacob, where the valley of Sichem opens into a fruitful plain, watered by a stream which runs near the town. This is allowed by all writers to be the piece of land mentioned by St John (iv. 5), which Jacob bought at the hand of the Children of Emmor, and where he erected his altar to the God of Israel, Gen. xxxiii. 20. We passed without notice a place called Leban by Maundrel, the Lebonah of Scripture; also, about six hours' distance from Napolose, in a narrow valley between two high rocky hills, the ruins of a village and of a monastery situated where the Bethel of Jacob is supposed to have been. The nature of the soil is an existing comment upon the Record, of the

stony territory, where he took of the stones of the place, and put them for his pillow."

On the occasion of setting up the stone at Bethel, Jacob made a vow, saying, "If God will be with me, and will keep me in the way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, so that I come again to my father's house in peace, then shall the Lord be my God; and this stone which I have set up for a pillar shall be God's house; and of all that thou shalt give me, I will surely give the tenth unto thee;" namely, for the maintenance of burnt-sacrifices and other pious purposes, perhaps also for the relief of the poor, for the priesthood was not then instituted. Some annotators have remarked that this vow, which Jacob performed on his return from Padan-aram (Gen. xxxv. 7, 14), is the first vow mentioned in the Scriptures; but Jacob appears to have done no more than his grandfather Abraham and his father Isaac had done before him; for when God is said to have made a covenant with Abraham, it must be supposed that Abraham on his part expressed his consent and acceptance; and not only so, but vowed and promised to perform the conditions, that he might obtain the benefits. Jacob, after his residence with Laban, his interview with his brother Esau, and the revenge of his sons Simeon and Levi on the Shechemites for the rape on their sister Dinah, repaired by the command of God to Bethel with all his family, having been absent from it thirty years, where he purged his household of all the strange gods, or the gods of the strangers, as the words may be rendered, probably meaning the idols of the Shechemites, which Jacob's sons had seized and brought into his family. These he hid under an oak which was near Shechem. Here he built an altar, which he called El-beth-el, or the God of Bethel, because God appeared to him there when he fled from his brother Esau. Here also died Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, who was buried near Bethel, at a place called Allon-Bachuth, or the oak of weeping.

We find the Patriarch subsequently removing from Bethel to Ephrath, or Ephratah, afterwards called Bethlehem, on the way to which place his favourite wife Rachel died, after having given birth to Benjamin. A monumental pillar, the first of which we read in the Scriptures to commemorate the dead, was erected by Jacob to mark the spot where her body was buried, which was in existence when Moses wrote, Gen. xxxv. 20. Maundrel tells us that the monument still shown near the site of Bethel, as indicating the spot of Rachel's sepulchre, is a modern Turkish structure; "the work is rude enough, and without any ornament, yet the whole is as entire as if it had just been made."

Bethel is again mentioned in the time of Joshua, who assigned it to the "Children of Joseph," or the Ephraimites, whose lot, with that of the half-tribe of Manasseh, "fell from Jordan by Jericho, unto the water of Jericho on the east, to the Wilderness that goeth up from Jericho throughout Mount Bethel," Josh. xvi. 1. Joshua took it along with Ai; but it appears that the Canaanites had regained possession of it, and fortified it in a strong manner. After the death of Joshua, when the other tribes began a campaign against the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the tribe of Ephraim resolved to besiege Bethel, and expel the inhabitants. A person belonging to the city pointed out to the spies sent by the Ephraimites a secret passage into the place, by which they entered and put the inhabitants to the sword, sparing only the informer and his family. This person, we are told, retired to Arabia-Petræa, or Edom, and founded another city which he called Luz. While Samuel judged Israel, he went from year to year "in circuit to Bethel, and Gilgal, and Mizpeh, and judged Israel in all these places, and his return was to Ramah, for there was his house," 1 Sam. vii. 16, 17. The city is mentioned as a place of religious worship connected with the anointing of Saul as the first king of Israel, 1 Sam. x. 1. David sent part of the spoils of the Amalekites, after his return to

Ziklag, as a present to the citizens of Bethel, 1 Sam. xxx. 27.

When the Ten Tribes revolted in the reign of Rehoboam, Bethel was included in the new kingdom of Israel. Jeroboam set up one of his golden calves at Bethel, and the other at Dan, the former being in the southern, and the latter in the northern boundary of Israel. At the first sacrifice to this idol, a prophet or "man of God" was sent to Bethel, who denounced the altar, and predicted that a "child would be born unto the house of David, Josiah by name, and upon thee shall he offer the priests of the high places that burn incense upon thee, and men's bones shall be burnt upon thee." This prophet then declared that a sign would be given that he had spoken by the command of God— the altar was to be immediately rent, and the ashes that were upon it would be poured out. Jeroboam, who was standing near the altar, ordered him to be seized, and stretched out his hand for that purpose, when his hand “dried up so that he could not pull it in again to him," and at that very moment the altar was rent, and the ashes were poured out. Alarmed at this manifestation, Jeroboam beseeched the prophet to pray that his hand might be restored, and the prayer was answered by the "king's hand becoming as it was before."

The prediction here uttered that “a child would be born, Josiah by name,” is one of the most remarkable prophecies recorded in the Scriptures. "It foretells an action," says Stackhouse, "that exactly came to pass above three hundred and forty years afterwards. It describes the circumstances of the action, and specifies the name of the person that was to do it, and therefore every Jew that lived at the time of its accomplishment must have been convinced of the divine authority of a religion founded on such prophecies as this, since none but God could foresee, and consequently none but God could foretell, events at a distance." Josiah, king of Judah, great-grandson of King Hezekiah, was the child here predicted, who was to offer "the priests of the high

places that burned incense upon the altar." He not only purged his kingdom of the idolatrous rites of Baal, burned their vessels, and "carried the ashes of them unto Bethel," but he broke down the altar at Bethel, and the high place, and burnt it, stamping it to powder, "and he slew all the priests of the high places that were there upon the altar, and burned men's bones upon them, and returned to Jerusalem."

Abijah, king of Judah, wrested Bethel from Jeroboam, but it was soon afterwards retaken, or restored to the kings of Israel, 2 Chron. xiii. 19. From the time of Jeroboam, "who made Israel to sin," it became a stronghold of idolatry, and hence it is often termed Bethaven, or the house of iniquity, by the Prophets. Elijah and his successor Elisha proceeded to Bethel immediately before the translation of the former into heaven, 2 Kings ii. 2, and there they were met by the " sons of the prophets," namely, scholars of the prophets, who were educated in religion and virtue, upon whom God by degrees bestowed the spirit of prophecy, and whom the superior prophets employed, in the same capacity as the Apostles did the Evangelists, to publish their predictions and instructions to the people in those places where they could not go themselves. After the, miraculous translation of Elijah on the banks of the Jordan, Elisha returned to Bethel, where a very melancholy circumstance occurred, which was signally punished by Omnipotence. As Elisha was approaching Bethel, a number of youths, who probably acted by the instigation of their parents, ran after him and mocked him, exclaiming, "Go up, thou bald head! go up, thou bald head!" -thus ridiculing not only the general custom of the prophets, which was to go with their heads bare, as the Eastern dervishes do at this day, but, as the town of Bethel was one of the principal nurseries of Ahab's idolatries, expressing their contempt for all such prophets as reproved them for their flagrant vices. The indignant prophet turned and uttered an imprecation on them "in the name of

the Lord," when two fierce bears rushed suddenly out of the adjoining forest, and destroyed forty-two of them. "The provocation," says Bishop Watson, "which Elisha received was an insult offered to him not as a man but as a prophet, and it was in his character of a prophet that he cursed them, which was followed by the divine infliction of destruction on the offenders. What impression this signal judgment had on the idolatrous inhabitants is no where stated, but it is probable it was not without a good effect."

Bethel was destroyed by the Assyrians, and the inhabitants shared the general fate of the Jews, and were carried into captivity. The men of Bethel and Ai amounted to two hundred and twentythree when the Jews returned from the Babylonian Captivity, Ezra ii. 28; but it is to be observed that Nehemiah gives the number one hundred less, Neh. vii. 32. The town was then rebuilt, but no traces of it now remain except those mentioned by Dr Clarke.

BETHEL, FOREST OF, near the town of Bethel, whence the bears issued which destroyed the young men who mocked Elisha, 2 Kings ii. 24.

BETHEL, MOUNT OF, the name of a hill near Bethel, on which one of the divisions of Saul's army encamped when he commenced a war with the Philistines, in the second year of his reign, 1 Sam. xiii. 2.

BETH-EMEK, a town in the allotment of the tribe of Asher, Josh. xix. 27.

BETH-ENNABRIS, a town of Peræa, into which the Jews retired who fled from Gadara after it was taken by Vespasian, and which was forced by the tribune Placidus before his complete reduction of Peræa.

BETHER, division, or in the dove, or in examination, or contemplation, MOUNTAINS OF, mentioned in the Song of Solomon (ii. 17), about which great diversity of opinion prevails among commentators. The word translated Bether in the second chapter of our authorised version and in the Vulgate, is rendered xowμara by the Septuagint. Le Clerc