Betar.

"Hadrian besieged Bether three years and a half.--And when they took it, they slew the men, the women, and the children, so that their blood flowed into the great sea. You will say, perhaps, that it was near the sea; but it was a mile distant. The tradition is, that R. Eliezer the Great saith, That there were two rivers in the valley of Jadaim, of which one flowed this way,--the other, that. And the Rabbins computed that the third part of them was blood, and two parts water. It was delivered also, that the heathen gathered the vintages, for the space of seven years, without dunging the land, because the vineyards were made fruitful enough by the blood of the Israelites."

The Jerusalem writers do hyperbolize enough concerning the distance of this city from the sea. "For if you say (say they) that it was near the sea, was it not distant forty miles? They say, that three hundred skulls of young children were found upon one stone: and that there were three chests of torn phylacteries, each chest containing nine bushels: but there are others that say, nine chests, each containing three bushels."

Josephus mentions "Betaris, and Cephartobas, two midland towns of Idumea":--where by Idumea he means the southern part of Judea, especially that that was mountainous: as appears by the context. He calls Idumea, properly so called, "Idumea the Great."