Bethshean Bethshan
Bethshean Bethshan [1]
City of Manasseh west of the Jordan, though situate in Issachar, Joshua 17:11,16; 1 Chronicles 7:29; from which the Canaanites were not driven out. Judges 1:27 . In the days of Saul the Philistines appear to have had possession of the town, for on their finding the dead body of Saul it was here that they hung it on the wall. 1 Samuel 31:10,12; 2 Samuel 21:12 . In the time of Solomon Beth-shean was under the charge of one of his commissariat officers. 1 Kings 4:12 . 1 , is identified with Beisan, 35 30' E 32 30' N . It must have been a place of note, from the extent of the ruins, which consist of black volcanic basalt. It is doubtless on the same spot as Scythopolis, mentioned in 2 Maccabees 12:29 , and which was one of the ten cities of Decapolis.
