BETH-SHEMESH
House of the sun,
1. A city of Judah given to the priests, Joshua 21:16; 1 Chronicles 6:59; 1 Samuel 6:15. It lay fifteen miles west of Jerusalem, near the border of Dan and of the Philistines, Joshua 15:10; 1 Samuel 6:12. Probably the same as Irshemesh, Joshua 19:41. It is memorable for a battle between Judah and Israel, in which Amaziah was defeated, 2 Kings 1:14; and for the return of the ark from among the Philistines, and the punishment of those who then profaned it, 1 Samuel 1:6-21. There is reason to suppose the numbers in 1 Samuel 6:19 should be translated "threescore and ten men, even fifty out of one thousand," or one in two hundred of the men of the city.
2. A celebrated city in Egypt, Jeremiah 43:13.