Bith-ron

Bith-ron (meaning: the broken or divided place or the gorge) was a district in the Arabah or Jordan valley region east of the river, through which Abner and his men passed during their retreat from the battle at Gibeon. After the violent encounter between Joab's men and Abner's men of Israel at the Pool of Gibeon—which resulted in the death of Asahel and twenty of David's servants—Abner and his Benjamites fled through the Arabah toward the Jordan and crossed over, passing through all Bith-ron before reaching Mahanaim.

The district of Bith-ron has not been positively identified, but it appears to designate a section of the Jordan valley cleft or a tributary wadi on the east side of the river, between the Jordan crossing and Mahanaim in Gilead. The name, suggesting a divided or cut-through landscape, fits a ravine or gorge cut by one of the tributaries flowing into the Jordan from the eastern plateau. It appears only in this single reference in 2 Samuel 2:29, serving as a geographical waypoint in Abner's retreat narrative during the civil conflict between the houses of Saul and David.