Beeroth

Beeroth (or Beer) was a Hivite city that later became part of the territory allotted to the tribe of Benjamin.

Beeroth, also known as Beer, was a city originally inhabited by the Hivites, one of the Canaanite tribes. During the Israelite conquest of Canaan, the people of Beeroth, along with those of Gibeon, Chephirah, and Kiriath-jearim, deceived Joshua and the Israelites into making a peace treaty with them by pretending to be from a distant land (Joshua 9:17).

After the treaty was made, Beeroth was allotted to the tribe of Benjamin as part of their inheritance in the Promised Land (Joshua 18:25). The city was located in the region north of Jerusalem, near Gibeon and Kiriath-jearim.

Beeroth is mentioned in connection with several events in the Bible. It was the hometown of two of David's mighty men, Naharai (2Sa.23.37; 1Ch.11.39) and Rechab and Baanah, who murdered Ish-bosheth, Saul's son (2Sa.4.2-3, 5, 9). After the Babylonian exile, some of the people of Beeroth returned to Judah (Ezra 2:25; Nehemiah 7:29).

In Judges 9:21, Jotham, the youngest son of Gideon, fled to Beer (possibly another name for Beeroth) for safety after confronting the people of Shechem about their support for his half-brother Abimelech, who had killed Jotham's brothers.

The city of Beeroth played a role in the early history of Israel, first as a Canaanite city that deceived the Israelites, then as part of the tribe of Benjamin's inheritance, and later as the hometown of some of David's mighty men and a place of refuge for Jotham.

Wells, one of the four cities of the Hivites which entered by fraud into a league with Joshua. It belonged to Benjamin (Josh. 18:25). It has by some been identified with el-Bireh on the way to Nablus, 10 miles north of Jerusalem.