Bethoron, also Beth-Horon meaning "House of Horon" was an ancient biblical town strategically located on the Gibeon-Aijalon road, guarding the "ascent of Beth-Horon". Upper Bethoron appears in Joshua and Lower Bethoron in Joshua and 1 Chronicles and I Maccabees 3:16.
Etymology
The Hebrew name Bethoron is derived from the name of an Egypto-Canaanite deity, Horon, mentioned in Ugaritic literature. The city is mentioned among the cities and towns smitten by Sheshonq I in his inscription at the Temple of Karnak as Batae Houarn.
History
According to 1 Chronicles 7:24, Lower Bethoron was built by She'era, daughter of Beriah, son of Ephraim. Eusebius' Onomasticon mentions the 'twin villages' and St. Jerome describes them as 'little hamlets.' From Egyptian sources it appears that Bethoron was one of the places conquered by Shishak of Egypt from Rehoboam. The borderline between Benjamin and Ephraim passed alongside the two Bethorons who belonged to the latter Israelite tribe and therefore, later on, to the Northern Kingdom of Israel, while the tribe of Benjamin adhered to the Kingdom of Judah. Solomon "built Beth-horon the upper, and Beth-horon the nether, fortified cities, with walls, gates, and bars". One or both of the towns was a Levitical city. When Joshua utterly defeated the kings of the Amorites "he killed a large number of them at Gibeon, and chased them by the way of the 'Ascent of Beth-horon.' When the Philistines opposed King Saul at Michmash they sent a company of their men to hold "the way of Beth-horon." This pass ascends from the plain of Aijalon and climbs to Beit Ur al Tahta. It then ascends along the ridge, with valleys lying to north and south, and reaches Beit Ur al-Fauqa. Traces of the ancient Roman paving are visible. Since the days of Joshua the region has been the scene of many battles. The Syrian general Seron was defeated here by Judas Maccabeus in the Battle of Beth Horon. Six years later Nicanor, retreating from Jerusalem, was defeated and slain. ; Bacchides repaired Beth-horon, "with high walls, with gates and with bars and in them he set a garrison, that they might work malice upon Israel". Later, the Jews fortified it against Holofernes. In the Battle of Beth Horon in the year 66 CE, the first decisive Jewish victory in the First Jewish-Roman War the Roman generalCestius Gallus was driven in headlong flight before the Jews. Eusebius mentions the two Bethorons in their Biblical contexts, noting Joshua's victory and the fortification by King Solomon. The two Palestinian Arab Muslim villages of Beit Ur al-Fauqa and Beit Ur al-Tahta preserve the Hebrew-Canaanite name, and have been identified as the sites of Upper and Lower Bethoron. In 1915, the Palestine Exploration Fund wrote that changes in the main road to Jerusalem had left the Bethoron route "forsaken" and "almost forgotten". The Israeli settlement of Beit Horon was founded in 1977 on a site adjacent to the two towns. Highway 443 follows part of the ancient road.
Archaeology
finds indicate that the lower town was established before the upper one. Potsherds from the Late Bronze Age onward were discovered at Lower Beit Ur, whereas those in Upper Beit Ur date only from the Iron Age onward.
