Beth-arabah

Beth-arabah (meaning: house of the desert or house of the Arabah) was a city situated in the sunken rift valley of the Jordan and the Dead Sea—the region known as the Arabah. It lay on the boundary between the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, appearing in the boundary lists of both tribes in Joshua 15 and 18. The town thus occupied a strategically sensitive position at the tribal frontier in the Jordan valley.

The location of Beth-arabah is associated with the eastern fringe of Benjamin's territory, near the crossing points of the lower Jordan. It was listed among the six cities of Judah in the wilderness district alongside Nibshan, the City of Salt, and En-gedi. The description of the Arabah as a wilderness region—hot, arid, and lying well below sea level—makes Beth-arabah one of the most geographically distinctive of the Judean lowland settlements, situated in territory quite different from the hill country towns that characterize most of Judah's inheritance.