Bible Dictionary
BETHBASI
A fortified place in the Judean wilderness repaired by Jonathan and Simon during the Maccabean period. Its name and exact location are uncertain, with several proposed readings and identifications.
Definition
Bethbasi was a fortified place in the Judean wilderness. Its name and exact location are uncertain, and proposed explanations include “place of marshes.”
Biblical Usage
Jonathan and Simon repaired the ruins of Bethbasi during the Maccabean period.
Historical Background
The site has been associated with Wady el-Bassah east of Tekoa, while other readings identify it with Beth-hoglah or Jeshanah. The origin of the name and the town’s location remain conjectural.
Historical Bible Dictionaries
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
<p>beth-ba'-si (Baithbasi): The name may mean "place of marshes" = Hebrew beth-betsi. According to G. A. Smith there is a Wady el-Bassah East of Tekoa in the wilderness of Judea. The name means "marsh," which Dr. Smith thinks impossible, and really "an echo of an ancient name." Jonathan and Simon repaired the ruins of the fortified place "in the desert" (1 Macc 9:62,64). Josephus reads Bethalaga, i.e. Beth-hoglah (Ant., XIII, i, 5). Peshitta version reads Beth-Yashan (see JESHANAH), which Dr. Cheyne thinks is probably correct. Thus the origin of the name and the site of the town are merely conjectural.</p><p>S. F. Hunter</p>