Or Beth-Shan Beth-Shean
Or Beth-Shan Beth-Shean [1]
More generally known by the name of Scythopolis, was situated two miles west of the Jordan, at the extremity of the valley of Jezreel, and arm of the great plain of Esdraelon, running down from it to the valley of the Jordan in a southeasterly direction. It stood on the brow, just where the former valley drops down by a rather steep descent to the level of the latter. Bethshean was assigned to Manasseh, though not at once subdued,
Joshua 17:11,16; Judges 1:27 . The dead body of Saul was fastened to its walls, 1 Samuel 31:10,12; 2 Samuel 21:12; 1 Kings 4:12 . The place is now called Beisan, and is about twenty-four miles south of Tiberias. The present village contains seventy of eighty houses, the inhabitants of which are in a miserable condition, owing to the depredations of the Bedaween. The ruins of the ancient city are of considerable extent, along the banks of the rivulet which ran by it, and on the side of the valley; and bespeak to it have been nearly three miles in circuit.
