Shearing House
Fausset's Bible Dictionary [1]
Beth 'Eqed . Between Jezreel and Samaria, where Jehu slew at the well or pit 42 of the royal family of Judah ( 2 Kings 10:12; 2 Kings 10:14). Literally, "the place where shepherds bound sheep when about to shear them," from 'Aaqad "to bind." Gesenius translated "the meeting place of shepherds." In the Esdraelon or Jezreel plain, 15 Roman miles from Legio (Lejun): Eusebius, Onomasticon. The village Beit Kad, though exactly this distance, is not on the plain but S. of Mount Gilboa. Conder suggests 'Akadah as the site, on the western side of the great plain.
Holman Bible Dictionary [2]
2 Kings 10:14Beth-Eked
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature [3]
(Heb. בֵּית עֵקֶד הָרֹעַי ם , Beyth E ' Ked ' Ha-Roim ; Sept. Βαιθακὰθ [v. r. Βαιθακὰδ ] Τῶν Ποιμένων ; Vulg. Camera Pastorum ) , a place on the road between Jezreel and Samaria, at which Jehu, on his way to the latter, encountered forty-two members of the royal family of Judah, whom he slaughtered at the well or pit attached to the place ( 2 Kings 10:12; 2 Kings 10:14). The translators of our version have given in the margin the literal meaning of the name — "house of binding of the shepherds," and in the text an interpretation perhaps adopted from Jos. Kimchi. Binding, however, is but a subordinate part of the operation of shearing, and the word Akad is not anywhere used in the Bible in connection therewith. (See Sheep Shearer). The interpretation of the Targum and Arabic version, adopted by Rashi, viz. "house of the meeting of shepherds," is accepted by Simonis (Onomast. p. 186 ) and Gesenius (Thesaur. p. 195 b). Other renderings are given by Aquila and Symmachus. None of them, however, seem satisfactory, and it is probable that the original meaning has escaped. By the Sept., Eusebius, and Jerome it is treated as a proper name, as they also treat the "garden house" of 9:27. Eusebius (Onomast. s.v.) mentions it as a village of Samaria "in the great plain [of Esdraelon] fifteen miles from Legeon." It is remarkable that at a distance of precisely fifteen Roman miles from Lejjun the name of Beth-Kad appears in Van de Velde's map (see also Robinson, Bib. Res. 2, 316); but this place, though coincident in point of distance, is not on the plain, nor can it either belong to Samaria or be on the road from Jezreel thither, being behind (south of) Mount Gilboa. The slaughter at the well recalls the massacre of the pilgrims by Ishmael ben-Nethaniah at Mizpah, and the recent tragedy at Cawnpore. (See Beth-Eked).
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia [4]
shēr´ing ( חּרעים עקר בּית , bēth ‛ēḳedh hā - rō‛ı̄m , "house of binding of the shepherds"; Codex Vaticanus Βαιθάκαθ , Baithákath (Codex Alexandrinus Βαιθάκαδ , Baithákad ) τῶν ποιμένων , tṓn poiménōn ): Here in the course of his extinction of the house of Ahab, Jehu met and destroyed 42 men, "the brethren of Ahaziah king of Judah" ( 2 Kings 10:12-14 ). Eusebius (in Onomasticon ) takes the phrase as a proper name, Bethacath, and locates the village 15 miles from Legio in the plain. This seems to point to identification with Beit Kād , about 3 miles East of Jenı̄n .
