BETH-ARAM House of the lofty; Sept. Bat.v0avappci). In describing the allotted ter ritory of the tribe of Gad (Josh. xiii. 24-25), Moses first mentions those towns which lay on the high plateau' east of the Jordan Valley, and afterwards those situated in the `valley' itself (ptnr), beginning at the southern end. The first of the latter towns is Beth-Aram (ver. 27). We conclude, therefore, that Beth-Aram was situated on the low flat plain on the east bank of the river, and not far from its mouth. The `valley' (Emek), mentioned in ver. 27, is manifestly the Jordan valley, sometimes called Arabah (Josh. xviii. and is to be distinguished from the plain' or plateau' (Mishor) of ver. 21. The ravine of Heshbon, which descends from the Moab moun tains into the Jordan valley, about three miles north of the Dead Sea, was the boundary between Reuben and Gad (comp. Josh. xiii. 17, 23, and 26) ; so that Beth-Aram, being a town of Gad, must have been to the north of Wady Heskibon. It is manifestly the same place which is called .Beth-haran (i-vz, Sept. BaiBapciv), in Num. xxxii. 36 ; the only difference in the Hebrew being the change of ? into 1, not an uncommon occur rence. Eusebius and Jerome tell us that the
Syrians called this town Bethramtha (it is so named also in the Talmud, see Reland. Palast., p. 642); but that Herod changed its name to Livia, in honour of the celebrated Livia, the wife of Augustus. (Onomast. s. v. Betharam.) We learn from Josephus, that when Livia took the name of elia, the name of this town was likewise changed (Ant. xviii. 2. 1). Jerome describes it as lying eastward of Jericho, on the road to Heshbon, five miles south of Bethnimrah (Onom. s. v. BnOpafipdv; see also Reland. Pal., pp. 496, 65o). The site of Beth-aram has never yet been accurately identified. The writer of this article heard of ruins a few miles east of the Jordan, near the place above indicated, to which, he was informed, the Arabs give the name er-Ram; but he was unable either to visit them, or to obtain any satisfactory descrip tion. They may probably be the ruins of Beth Aram. On Van de Velde's map of Palestine, Beth-haran (Livias) is laid down, on what authority does not appear.—J. L. P.