Beit HaKerem (Bible)

For other uses, see Beit HaKerem (disambiguation).

Beit HaKerem, Beth-haccerem (Hebrew: בית הכרם, lit. "house of the vineyard"; Beth HakKerem in Biblical Hebrew) is a biblical place associated with the Tribe of Judah (Nehemiah 3:14).

Possible location

Some identify Beit HaKerem with Ein Kerem.^[1] Others place Beit HaKerem south of Jerusalem, at Ramat Rachel, where cairns on the ridge may have served as beacons of old.^[2] Others say it was near Tekoa, later known as Herodium.^[3][4] Neubauer, citing the Church Father Jerome, writes that from Bethlehem one could see Bethacharma, thought to be the Beit HaKerem of Jeremiah.^[5] According to the Bible, the trumpet sounded against the invading army of Babylon at this place (Jeremiah 6:1).

Beit Hakerem was a district center during the Persian Period and is mentioned in the Book of Nehemiah as one of the towns resettled by the Jewish exiles returning from the Babylonian captivity and who helped to construct the walls of Jerusalem during the reign of Artaxerxes I (Xerxes).^[6][7] Nehemiah further records that those returnees were the very descendants of the people who had formerly resided in the town before their banishment from the country, who had all returned to live in their former places of residence.^[8]

The Mishnah, compiled in the 2nd-century CE, mentions "the valley of Beth-Kerem" being a place where there was reddish-brown earth.^[9] Likewise, the stones of the altar built in Jerusalem and the stones of the ramp that led up to the altar were taken from the valley of Beth Kerem, where they were quarried from below virgin soil and brought from thence as whole stones upon which no implement of iron had been lifted up.^[10]

Archaeological finds at Ramat Rachel have yielded dozens of seal impressions on jar handles from the 4th-3rd centuries BCE bearing the inscription yehud, the official name of the province of Judah in this period.^[2]

References

1. Conder, C.R.; Kitchener, H.H. (1883). The Survey of Western Palestine: Memoirs of the Topography, Orography, Hydrography, and Archaeology. Vol. 3. London: Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund. p. 20.
2. "Ramat Rahel - A Royal Citadel and a Palace of the Last Kings of Judah", Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs website, June 24 2001. Retrieved on September 9, 2011
3. "Bethhaccerem", Smith's Bible Dictionary. Retrieved on September 9, 2011.
4. Morris Jastrow Jr. and Frants Buhl. "BETH-HACCEREM", JewishEncyclopedia.com. Retrieved on September 9, 2011
5. Neubauer’s Geography: Adolphe Neubauer, La Géographie du Talmud, Paris 1868, pp. 131 – 132, s.v. Jerome, Comm. ad Amos, VI, 1
6. Nehemiah 3:14
7. Josephus (1981). Josephus Complete Works. Translated by William Whiston. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Kregel Publications. p. 236 (Antiquities 11.5.7.). ISBN 0-8254-2951-X.
8. Nehemiah 7:6
9. Danby, H., ed. (1977), The Mishnah, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 747 (Niddah 2:7), ISBN 0-19-815402-X, s.v. Niddah 2:7
10. Danby, H., ed. (1977), The Mishnah, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 594 (Middoth 3:4), ISBN 0-19-815402-X, s.v. Middoth 3:4