Beth-Haccherem

BETH-HACCHEREM

beth-ha-ke'-rem, beth-hak'-e-rem (the King James Version Beth-haccerem; beth ha-kerem; Bethachcharma (see DB), "place of the vineyard"):

A district (in Nehemiah 3:14) ruled over by one, Malchijah; mentioned in Jeremiah 6:1 as a suitable signal station. From its association with Tekoa (Jeremiah 6:1) and from the statement by Jerome that it was a village which he could see daily from Bethlehem, the Frank mountain (Herodium) has been suggested. It certainly would be a unique place for a beacon. More suitable is the fertile vineyard country around `Ain Karem (the "spring of the vineyard"). On the top of Jebel `Ali, above this village, are some remarkable cairns which, whatever their other uses, would appear to have been once beacons. `Ain Karem appears as Carem in the Septuagint (Joshua 15:59).

See BETH-CAR.

E. W. G. Masterman