by
Damien F. Mackey
“When she died in Bethulia at
the age of 105 [Judith] … was buried beside her husband,
and the people of Israel
mourned her death for seven days”.
Judith 16:24
Introduction
The Book of Judith
8:2-3 informs us briefly about Judith’s husband and his sudden death: “Judith’s husband Manasseh, who belonged to the same tribe
and clan, had died during the barley harvest. He had suffered a sunstroke while in the fields
supervising the farm workers and later died in bed at home in Bethulia”. V. 3
continues, informing us further of Manasseh’s place of burial: “He was buried in the family tomb in the field between Dothan and
Balamon”. Since the aged Judith “was buried beside her husband”, then we can
know from a comparison of Judith 8:3 and 16:24 that she must have been “buried
in the family tomb in the field between Dothan and Balamon”.
Location of ‘Balamon’
Various sites
have been suggested for the location of Balamon. The fact that the family tomb
lay “between Dothan and Balamon” considerably limits the geographical scope,
since Dothan, at least, is known.
Marvin A.
Sweeney pinpoints it precisely as follows (I and II Kings: A Commentary, p. 308):
Ancient Dothan is
identified with Tel Dothan, located near modern Jenin some
twelve miles north of Samaria and thirteen and a half miles
north of Shechem at the point where the
Emeq Dothan
(Dothan Valley) opens into the Jezreel Valley. Emeq Dothan provides access to the Jezreel
from Samaria, which makes it possible to control the Jezreel. Samaria's
strategic location near the head of the Emeq Dothan was
one of the major reasons to shift the capital from Tirzah. Of course, if the Emeq
Dothan provides access to the Jezreel from Samaria, it
also provides access to Samaria from the Jezreel.
[End
of quote]
I had cause to
consider the geography of this region when writing of the progress of the army
of “Holofernes” in the direction of Bethulia, in the section “Assyrian Advance on
Bethulia” (Volume Two, pp. 61-62) of my university thesis:
A Revised History
of the Era of King Hezekiah of Judah
and its Background
BOJ [Book of Judith] 7:1: “The next day Holofernes ordered his whole
army, and all the allies who had joined him, to break camp and to move against
Bethulia, and to seize the passes up into the hill country and make war on the
Israelites”. The Assyrian fighting forces, “170,000
infantry and 12,000 cavalry, not counting the baggage and the foot
soldiers handling it” (v. 2), now numbered that fateful figure of 180,000 plus.1288 “When
the Israelites saw their vast numbers, they were greatly terrified and said to
one another, ‘They will now strip clean the whole land; neither the high
mountains nor the valleys nor the hills will bear their weight’.” (v. 4). One
can now fully appreciate the appropriateness of Joel’s ‘locust’ imagery.
BOJ provides the reader with a precise location for the Assyrian army
prior to its assault of the fortified towns of Israel facing Dothan.
- I give firstly the Douay version of it (7:3):
All these [Assyrian footmen and cavalry] prepared themselves together to
fight against the children of Israel. And they came by the hillside to the top,
which looketh toward Dothain [Dothan], from the place which is called Belma,
unto Chelmon, which is over against Esdraelon.
- Next the Greek version, which importantly mentions Bethulia (v. 3):
They encamped in the valley near Bethulia, beside the spring, and they
spread out in breadth over Dothan as far as Balbaim and in length from Bethulia
to Cyamon, which faces Esdraelon.
The combination of the well-known Dothan (var. Dothain) and
Esdraelon in both versions presents no problem, and fixes the area where the
Assyrian army massed. The identification of Bethulia will
be discussed separately, in the next chapter (section: “Identification of
Bethulia”, beginning on p. 69). The only other geographical elements named are
‘Belma’ (Douay)/ ‘Balbaim’ (Greek); and ‘Chelmon’ (Douay)/ ‘Cyamon’ (Greek).
Charles has, not illogically, linked the first of these names, which he gives
as ‘Belmaim’ (var. Abelmain),1289 with the ‘Belmaim’ listed in 4:4.1290 And he
tells that, in the Syrian version, this appears as ‘Abelmeholah’.1291 But both
this location, and “Cyamon, Syr Kadmûn, VL Chelmona”, he claims to be
“unknown”.1292
Leahy and Simons, on the other hand, have both ventured identifications
for these two locations. And they have each in fact arrived at the same
conclusion for ‘Belbaim’ (‘Belma’);1293 though Simons will reject the identification of
‘Cyamon’ (‘Chelmon’) that we shall now see that Leahy has favoured. Here
firstly, then, is Leahy’s account of it, in which he also connects ‘Belbaim’
with the ‘Balamon’ of 8:3 (pertaining to the burial place of Judith’s husband,
Manasseh):1294
Holofernes had given orders to break up camp and march against Bethulia.
Then, according to the Gk, the army camped in the valley near Bethulia, and
spread itself in breadth in the direction over against Dothan and on to Belbaim
(Balamon of Gk 8:3, Belma of Vg, Jible´am of Jos 17:11, the modern Khirbet
Bel´ame), and in length from Bethulia to Kyamon (Chelmon of Vg, Jokne´am of Jos
12:22, the modern Tell Qaimun).
Simons will instead prefer for ‘Cyamon’, modern el-jâmûn.1295 Here is his geographical assessment of the final
location of the Assyrian army as given in the Greek version:1296
Judith vii 3b describes the location of BETHULIA more closely. The clause is easily understandable
on the condition that two changes are made, viz. “breadthwise ‘from’ … DOTHAIM unto BELBAIM and
lengthwise from ‘BELBAIM’ (LXX reads “BETHULIA”. However, the besieged city itself cannot have been at the extremity
of the besieging army) unto CYAMON
which is opposite (the plain of)
Esdrelon” or in terms of modern geography; from tell dôtân unto hirbet bel’ameh
and from hirbet bel’ameh unto el-jâmûn. The disposition of Holofernes’ army
thus described is perfectly comprehensible, if BETHULIA was situated between the upright sides
of a triangle, the top of which was the twice mentioned site of hirbet
bel’ameh, while its base was a line from tell dôtân to el-jâmûn.
[End of quotes]
“Jible´am” above is perhaps better known as
Ibleam, which is, as Marvin Sweeney confirms, the modern Khirbet Bel´ameh (op.
cit., p. 335): “Ibleam
is identified with Khirbet Bel'ameh, located just over a mile south of Beth
ha-Gan/Jenin, where it too guards the western side of the pass into the
Dothan Valley ….
This site has been identified by some
as both the Balamon of Judith (8:3) and the Baal Hamon of the Song of Songs
(8:11): “Solomon had a vineyard in Baal Hamon
…”.
For instance, in the article “Set Me as a Seal Upon Your
Heart" (Song of Solomon 8:5-14)”, we read (http://bible.ucg.org/bible-commentary/Song-of-Solomon/(4-Days)-The-nature-of-love,-reminiscences-and-anticipation/default.aspx):
In this scenario, Baal Hamon in verse 11
would be a literal place—though it is probably also a figurative reference. On
the literal side, we should note that even though "Baal-hamon" is not
specifically attested to elsewhere, there are other geographic names in
Scripture beginning with Baal—for example, Baal-hermon, Baal-meon, Baal-peor,
Baal-perazim, Baal-hazor. Some see a resemblance to a place mentioned in the
Apocrypha, which is written in Greek: "As pointed out by a number of commentators,
Judith 8:3 mentions a place called Balamon, possibly a Greek equivalent to
Baal-hamon, which is near Dothan. In this regard, it is interesting that the
Septuagint translates the Song of Songs' reference as Beelamon" (New
International Commentary on the Old Testament, p. 219, note on Song 8:11).
This is the same as "Khirbet Balama, modern Ibleam...about a mile
south-west of Janin [in the northern West Bank].... This site was occupied as
early as the pre-conquest Canaanite period" (Lloyd Carr, The Song of
Solomon, Tyndale Commentaries, p. 174, note on verse 11). This being taken
as the location of the vineyard in which the Shulamite worked is thought by
some to buttress the view of the word Shulamite being equivalent to Shunammite,
since Shunem was about 15 miles away. But that's quite a distance for people
without modern cars. It certainly doesn't make sense as a daily commute.
[End of quote]
And similarly,
in their article “Baal-Hamon”, M. Jastrow and F. Buhl have briefly noted (http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/2240-baal-hamon):
A place mentioned in Cant.
viii. 11, in which passage Solomon is said to have had a vineyard there: its
identity is unknown. Graetz proposes to read "Baal-hermon" for
"Baalhamon"; but this is mere conjecture. Balamon (Judith viii. 3),
with which Delitzsch and others have sought to identify it, is apparently the
Old Testament Ibleam, or Bileam, and the modern Bel'ame, a moderately fruitful
valley south of the great plain of Jezreel.
[End of quote]
One might hope that the new
satellite technology - that has even from outer space been finding lost
pyramids in Egypt - ought to have the capacity as well to detect the ancestral
burial place of the Simeonite family of Judith and her husband, Manasseh.
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