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Place · City

Bethlehem

Also known as Bethlehem Ephrathah, Ephrath

Named in 32 verses across 12 books, first in Genesis 35:19.

In these stories

In the Bible

All 32 verses, in Bible order. Text from the Berean Standard Bible; verse numbers follow the KJV.

Genesis

  • Genesis 35:19

    So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem).

  • Genesis 48:7

    Now as for me, when I was returning from Paddan, to my sorrow Rachel died along the way in the land of Canaan, some distance from Ephrath. So I buried her there beside the road to Ephrath” (that is, Bethlehem).

Judges

  • Judges 12:8

    After Jephthah, Ibzan of Bethlehem judged Israel.

  • Judges 12:10

    Then Ibzan died, and he was buried in Bethlehem.

Ruth

  • Ruth 1:19

    So Naomi and Ruth traveled until they came to Bethlehem. When they entered Bethlehem, the whole city was stirred because of them, and the women of the city exclaimed, “Can this be Naomi?”

  • Ruth 1:22

    So Naomi returned from the land of Moab with her daughter-in-law Ruth the Moabitess. And they arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.

  • Ruth 2:4

    Just then Boaz arrived from Bethlehem and said to the harvesters, “The LORD be with you.” “The LORD bless you,” they replied.

  • Ruth 4:11

    “We are witnesses,” said the elders and all the people at the gate. “May the LORD make the woman entering your home like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel. May you be prosperous in Ephrathah and famous in Bethlehem.

1 Samuel

  • 1 Samuel 16:4

    So Samuel did what the LORD had said and went to Bethlehem. When the elders of the town met him, they trembled and asked, “Do you come in peace?”

  • 1 Samuel 17:15

    but David went back and forth from Saul to tend his father’s sheep in Bethlehem.

  • 1 Samuel 20:6

    If your father misses me at all, tell him, ‘David urgently requested my permission to hurry to Bethlehem, his hometown, because there is an annual sacrifice for his whole clan.’

  • 1 Samuel 20:28

    Jonathan answered, “David urgently requested my permission to go to Bethlehem,

2 Samuel

  • 2 Samuel 2:32

    Later, they took Asahel and buried him in his father’s tomb in Bethlehem. Then Joab and his men marched all night and reached Hebron at daybreak.

  • 2 Samuel 23:14

    At that time David was in the stronghold, and the garrison of the Philistines was at Bethlehem.

  • 2 Samuel 23:15

    David longed for water and said, “Oh, that someone would get me a drink of water from the well near the gate of Bethlehem!”

  • 2 Samuel 23:16

    So the three mighty men broke through the Philistine camp, drew water from the well near the gate of Bethlehem, and brought it back to David. But he refused to drink it; instead, he poured it out to the LORD,

  • 2 Samuel 23:24

    Now these were members of the Thirty: Asahel the brother of Joab, Elhanan son of Dodo of Bethlehem,

1 Chronicles

  • 1 Chronicles 11:16

    At that time David was in the stronghold, and the garrison of the Philistines was at Bethlehem.

  • 1 Chronicles 11:17

    David longed for water and said, “Oh, that someone would get me a drink of water from the well near the gate of Bethlehem!”

  • 1 Chronicles 11:18

    So the Three broke through the Philistine camp, drew water from the well at the gate of Bethlehem, and brought it back to David. But he refused to drink it; instead, he poured it out to the LORD,

  • 1 Chronicles 11:26

    Now these were the mighty men: Asahel the brother of Joab, Elhanan son of Dodo of Bethlehem,

2 Chronicles

Ezra

Nehemiah

Jeremiah

  • Jeremiah 41:17

    And they went and stayed in Geruth Chimham, near Bethlehem, in order to proceed into Egypt

Matthew

  • Matthew 2:1

    After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem,

  • Matthew 2:5

    “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:

  • Matthew 2:6

    ‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah, for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of My people Israel.’”

  • Matthew 2:8

    And sending them to Bethlehem, he said: “Go and search carefully for the Child, and when you find Him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship Him.”

  • Matthew 2:16

    When Herod saw that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was filled with rage. Sending orders, he put to death all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, according to the time he had learned from the Magi.

Luke

  • Luke 2:4

    So Joseph also went up from Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, since he was from the house and line of David.

  • Luke 2:15

    When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.”

Events here

Events the dataset sets at Bethlehem. Dates follow its Ussher–Jones reckoning (one of several traditional counts), not established history.

  1. c. 4 BC
    Wise Men Visit JesusMatthew 2:9–12
  2. c. 4 BC
    Herod slays male childrenMatthew 2:16–18
  3. c. 4 BC
    Birth of JesusLuke 2:1–20

Dictionary

From Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897), as attached to this record by Theographic. Its geography and “modern” descriptions date from the 1890s. Easton wrote in 1897, and some of his views are now debated.

Read Easton’s entry

A city in the “hill country” of Judah. It was originally called Ephrath (Gen. 35:16, 19; 48:7; Ruth 4:11). It was also called Beth-lehem Ephratah (Micah 5:2), Beth-lehem-judah (1 Sam. 17:12), and “the city of David” (Luke 2:4). It is first noticed in Scripture as the place where Rachel died and was buried “by the wayside,” directly to the north of the city (Gen. 48:7). The valley to the east was the scene of the story of Ruth the Moabitess. There are the fields in which she gleaned, and the path by which she and Naomi returned to the town. Here was David’s birth-place, and here also, in after years, he was anointed as king by Samuel (1 Sam. 16:4-13); and it was from the well of Bethlehem that three of his heroes brought water for him at the risk of their lives when he was in the cave of Adullam (2 Sam. 23:13-17). But it was distinguished above every other city as the birth-place of “Him whose goings forth have been of old” (Matt. 2:6; comp. Micah 5:2). Afterwards Herod, “when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men,” sent and slew “all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under” (Matt. 2:16, 18; Jer. 31:15).

Bethlehem bears the modern name of Beit-Lahm, i.e., “house of flesh.” It is about 5 miles south of Jerusalem, standing at an elevation of about 2,550 feet above the sea, thus 100 feet higher than Jerusalem.

There is a church still existing, built by Constantine the Great (A.D. 330), called the “Church of the Nativity,” over a grotto or cave called the “holy crypt,” and said to be the “stable” in which Jesus was born. This is perhaps the oldest existing Christian church in the world. Close to it is another grotto, where Jerome the Latin father is said to have spent thirty years of his life in translating the Scriptures into Latin.

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