BERACAH

(Berʹa·cah) [blessing].

1. One of the mighty men skilled in the use of the bow, from the tribe of Benjamin, who joined up with David at Ziklag. This was at the time David was still under restrictions because of Saul.—1 Chron. 12:1-3.

2. A low plain in Judah lying between Bethlehem and Hebron. It is presently identified with the Wadi el-ʽArrub, and the ruins of the nearby village of Bereikut seem to preserve evidence of the original name. This valley runs E-W, connecting the hill country of Judah with the wilderness area W of the Salt Sea.

Following the miraculous victory over the combined forces of Ammon, Moab and Edom, Jehoshaphat congregated the people at this low plain there to bless Jehovah, hence the name of the Low Plain of Beracah (blessing).—2 Chron. 20:26.

BERAIAH

(Be·raʹiah) [Jah has created].

Son of Shimei, and head of a paternal house of Benjamites living in Jerusalem.—1 Chron. 8:21, 28.

BERECHIAH

(Ber·e·chiʹah) [blessed by Jehovah].

1. The son of Shimea, in the line of descent from Levi through Gershom. Berechiah’s son Asaph was the principal leader of the singers appointed by King David, and through him sprang many succeeding generations of temple singers. This Berechiah may have been the same as No. 2 below.—1 Chron. 6:39; 15:17; 25:1-9; Ezra 2:41; Neh. 7:44.

2. One of the four Levite gatekeepers for the Ark when David was king. He may have been the same as No. 1 above.—1 Chron. 15:23, 24.

3. The son of Meshillemoth. (2 Chron. 28:12) At the time that Ahaz was king of Judah this southern kingdom suffered a terrible defeat at the hands of the northern kingdom, but when 200,000 were being taken captive to Samaria, Berechiah and three other headmen of Ephraim acted quickly on the counsel of Jehovah’s prophet Oded. Not only did they prevent the victors from enslaving their brothers; they went so far as to clothe, feed and assist in returning the captives.—2 Chron. 28:6-15.

4. A descendant of David through Solomon.—1 Chron. 3:1, 10, 20.

5. A Levite who lived after the Babylonian exile; the son of Asa.—1 Chron. 9:16.

6. The son of Meshezabel. Berechiah’s son Meshullam worked on the rebuilding of Jerusalem’s walls in Nehemiah’s time, and his granddaughter married the son of Tobiah.—Neh. 3:4, 30; 6:18.

7. The son of the prophet Iddo and the father of the prophet Zechariah.—Zech. 1:1, 7.

BERED

(Beʹred) [hail, seed place].

1. A grandson of Ephraim through Shuthelah.—1 Chron. 7:20.

2. A place in southern Palestine mentioned in the account of Hagar’s fleeing from Sarai. (Gen. 16:14) The well of Beer-lahai-roi, at which Hagar stopped, lay in the wilderness between Bered and Kadesh, on the way to Shur. (Gen. 16:7) The wilderness of Shur is a region SW of Philistia and on the way to Egypt, which may indicate that Hagar was heading back to her homeland.—Ex. 15:22.

The present site of Bered is indefinite, although the name may be preserved in that of the Wadi Umm el-Bared.

BERI

(Beʹri) [possibly, belonging to a well].

Son of Zophah and family head in the tribe of Asher.—1 Chron. 7:36, 40.

BERIAH

(Be·riʹah).

The meaning of this name is obscure. If derived from Hebrew, it would mean “evil” or “calamity,” and that would explain why Ephraim so named his son. (See No. 2 below.) Some authorities, however, think it is of Arabic origin and means “prominent” or “excellent,” and that the name of Ephraim’s son was a play upon words due to similarity with the Hebrew.

1. The fourth-listed son of Asher who, perhaps with his own two sons Heber and Malchiel, came to Egypt with Jacob’s household in 1728 B.C.E. (Gen. 46:8, 17) He and his two sons are listed as ancestral family heads, his descendants being Beriites.—Num. 26:44, 45; 1 Chron. 7:30, 31.

2. A son of Ephraim, born after men of Gath had killed his older brothers. Ephraim “called his name Beriah, because it was with calamity that she [Beriah’s mother] happened to be in his house.”—1 Chron. 7:20-23; see first paragraph above.

3. One of the five sons of Elpaal and one of the Benjamite family heads who chased away the inhabitants of Gath.—1 Chron. 8:12, 13.

4. The last-named son of Shimei, a Levite descendant of Gershon. Beriah and his brother Jeush “did not have many sons; so they became a paternal house for one official class.”—1 Chron. 23:6-11.

BERIITES

(Be·riʹites).

An Asherite family descended from Beriah.—Num. 26:44.

BERNICE

(Ber·niʹce) [victorious].

Daughter of Herod Agrippa I by his wife Cypros; born about 28 C.E.; sister of Drusilla and Herod Agrippa II. (See HEROD.) Bernice and her brother Agrippa visited Governor Festus at Caesarea in 58 C.E., where the two of them, at the invitation of Festus, “came with much pompous show and entered into the audience chamber together with military commanders as well as men of eminence in the city.” The prisoner Paul was then brought in and allowed to make his powerful and eloquent defense before all these dignitaries.—Acts 25:13, 23; 26:1-30.

Secular history tells of the immoral life of this shameless woman. She was engaged to a certain Marcus at a very early age, but he died before the marriage, and at the age of thirteen she married her uncle. By him she had two boys before he died in 48 C.E. She then incestuously lived with her brother until public scandal pressured her into marrying Polemon the king of Cilicia. Soon, however, she deserted him and again became her brother’s consort, and it was during this time that she and Agrippa visited Caesarea. Though Bernice attempted to defend the Jews in 66, she did not hesitate in taking an oath of allegiance to the Romans with whom she had at least two affairs, first as the mistress of Vespasian and then as the mistress of his son Titus. The latter would have married Bernice except for Roman anti-Semitism.

BERODACH-BALADAN

See MERODACH-BALADAN.

BEROEA

(Be·roeʹa).

A populous city of the province of Macedonia visited by the apostle Paul during his second missionary journey. (Acts 17:10-14) Modernly called Verria, it was located in a fertile area at the base of Mount Bermios about fifty miles (80 kilometers) W-SW of Thessalonica. It thus lay some twenty-four miles (39 kilometers) inland from the Aegean Sea.

It was probably about 50 C.E. when Paul and Silas arrived at Beroea after a nighttime departure from Thessalonica made necessary by mob violence. Beroea had a Jewish community and a synagogue in which the two missionaries preached. The readiness of the Beroeans to give ear to their message, and their diligence in examining the Scriptures in search of confirmation of the things learned, earned them the commendation found at Acts 17:11. A number of converts resulted from among these “noble-minded” persons, both Jews and Greeks. Paul’s work was cut short, however, by the arrival of fanatical Jews from Thessalonica bent on causing further mob activity. He sailed for Athens, leaving Silas and Timothy behind to care for the new group of believers in Beroea.—Acts 17:12-15.

Paul doubtless passed through or near Beroea on his third missionary journey, which brought him again into Macedonia. Among his companions at that time was a Christian from Beroea, Sopater.—Acts 20:1-4.

BEROTHAH

(Be·roʹthah) [wells]; BEROTHAI (Beroʹthai) [my wells].

In Ezekiel’s vision concerning the territorial inheritance of Israel Berothah is listed as on the northern boundary in the area between Hamath and Damascus. (Ezek. 47:16) It appears to be the same as Berothai of 2 Samuel 8:8, a city belonging to Hadadezer king of Zobah, from which David carried away “copper in very great quantity.” In the parallel record at 1 Chronicles 18:8 the name Cun appears in its place. Berothah (or Berothai) is generally identified with modern Bereitan, about seven miles (11 kilometers) S of Baalbek in the valley known as the Beqa, lying between the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon mountains.—See CUN.

BEROTHITE

See BEEROTHITE.

BERYL

A translucent or opaque mineral composed of a silicate of aluminum and beryllium. It is harder than quartz and is usually yellow-green, but sometimes green, yellow, blue, white, pale red or colorless. Dark-green beryl is classed as emerald, the blue-green is aquamarine and the rose variety is called morganite. Beryl is found normally in granitic rocks in the form of six-sided crystals. Individual beryl crystals weighing over twenty-five tons have been discovered.

Beryl was a very popular gemstone in ancient times. The Greeks made fine intaglios from it and the Romans worked the natural crystals into ear pendants. Beryl is mentioned once in the Scriptures, it being the eighth foundation of the wall of New Jerusalem.—Rev. 21:2, 19, 20.

BESAI

(Beʹsai) [perhaps, downtrodden].

Forefather of certain Nethinim who returned to Jerusalem from Babylon, 537 B.C.E.—Ezra 2:1, 2, 43, 49; Neh. 7:6, 7, 46, 52.

BESODEIAH

(Bes·o·deiʹah) [in the secret council of Jah].

Father of the Meshullam who helped repair “the Gate of the Old City” under Nehemiah’s direction.—Neh. 3:6.

BESOR, TORRENT VALLEY OF

(Beʹsor) [perhaps, cold water].

A torrent valley mentioned only in connection with David’s pursuit of the raiding Amalekites who had captured and burned the city of Ziklag. (1 Sam. 30:1, 10, 21) It is evident that the raiders then headed south toward their home territory in the Negeb, but their precise direction of movement is not stated. Hence, the torrent valley of Besor, the point at which two hundred of David’s army stopped due to exhaustion, cannot be identified with any certainty. Generally, however, it is considered likely to be connected with the Wadi Ghazzeh, a large wadi to the SW of Ziklag that empties into the Mediterranean below Gaza, or else with Wadi esh Sheriʽa, one of its tributaries.

David’s action, following his victory over the Amalekites, in sharing the spoils with those of his warriors who had remained in the valley guarding the baggage, evidently followed the principle stated earlier by Jehovah at Numbers 31:27, after the Israelite victory over Midian. David, thereafter, kept this practice “set as a regulation and a judicial decision for Israel.”—1 Sam. 30:21-25.

BESTIALITY

Unnatural sexual intercourse of a man or a woman with an animal. The Mosaic law emphatically condemned this perverted practice, sentencing the guilty person and the beast to death. “Where a man gives his seminal emission to a beast, he should be put to death without fail, and they should kill the beast. And where a woman approaches any beast to have a connection with it, you must kill the woman and the beast.”—Lev. 20:15, 16; 18:23; Ex. 22:19; Deut. 27:21.

This prohibition, together with the rest of God’s laws governing sex relations, lifted the Israelites to a much higher moral level than their neighbors. In Egypt, bestiality constituted a part of idolatrous animal worship; historians attest to the cohabitation of women with goats, for example. Similar practices were also prevalent among the Canaanites (Lev. 18:23-30), and reportedly in Rome.

Despite its depravity, bestiality is not the same as adultery or fornication, and hence does not constitute Scriptural grounds for divorce. (Matt. 19:9) However, anyone indulging in such filthy practice is morally unclean, and, if a member of the Christian congregation were to indulge in such a practice, that one would be subject to disfellowshiping.—Eph. 5:3; Col. 3:5.

BEʹTA

[Β, β].

The second letter in the Greek alphabet. A labial consonant that corresponds closely to the English “b.”

Beʹta is derived from the Hebrew behth. When it has an accent (βʹ) it means two or second, with a subscript (ιβ), 2,000.—See ALPHABET.

BETAH

(Beʹtah) [trust, security].

A town mentioned along with Berothai in connection with David’s defeat of Hadadezer, king of Zobah. (2 Sam. 8:8) The site is unknown, although the Aramaean kingdom of Zobah is considered to have been to the N of Damascus. In a parallel account of David’s victory, 1 Chronicles 18:8 refers to “Tibhath,” and some lexicographers consider Tibhath to be the more correct rendering. The Syriac version reads “Tebah” instead of Betah at 2 Samuel 8:8. It is to be noted that simply by an inversion of the first two Hebrew consonants Betah becomes Tebah. Since Betah (or Tibhath) was an Aramaean city, some scholars relate it with Tebah, the son of Nahor.—Gen. 22:24; see TEBAH; TIBHATH.

BETEN

(Beʹten) [belly, or, perhaps, basin].

A city named only at Joshua 19:25; one of the boundary towns of Asher. Its location is not certain, since the sites of several of the other towns mentioned in the list are unknown. However, it is generally identified with Khirbet Abtun, about eleven miles (18 kilometers) S of Acco and eight miles (13 kilometers) SE of Haifa, in the southern end of the Plain of Acco.

BETHABARA

(Beth·abʹa·ra) [house of the ford].

This name appears in the Authorized Version rendering of John 1:28 in place of Bethany. Some ancient manuscripts read thus, but it appears that the responsibility for this name rests primarily with Origen (c. 250 C.E.), who favored it over Bethany because this latter place was unknown to him as a site E of the Jordan. The oldest and most reliable manuscripts support the use of the name Bethany in this text. As for the Bethabara of Origen’s day, though known in his time, its identification has since also become uncertain. Most geographers recommend a site E of the Jordan opposite Jericho, while some suggest a ford called ʽAbarah some twelve miles (19 kilometers) S of the Sea of Galilee and a short distance NE of Beth-shean.—See BETHANY No. 2.

BETH-ANATH

(Beth-aʹnath) [house of (the goddess) Anath].

One of the fortified cities assigned to the tribe of Naphtali (Josh. 19:38, 39), but from which they did not drive out the Canaanite inhabitants, reducing them instead to forced labor. (Judg. 1:33) It is tentatively identified with el-Baʽneh, about twelve miles (19 kilometers) E of Acco on the edge of a fertile valley running between upper and lower Galilee. The town is mentioned in the lists of various Egyptian rulers of the “New Kingdom” period.