Place · City
Bethlehem
Also known as Bethlehem Ephrathah, Ephrath
Named in 32 verses across 12 books, first in 2 Samuel 2:32.
In these stories
In the Bible
All 5 verses in 2 Samuel, in Bible order. Text from the Berean Standard Bible; verse numbers follow the KJV.
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,
Events here
Events the dataset sets at Bethlehem. Dates follow its Ussher–Jones reckoning (one of several traditional counts), not established history.
- c. 4 BCWise Men Visit Jesus
- c. 4 BCHerod slays male children
- c. 4 BCBirth of Jesus
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.