BETHULIA bĭ thoŏ lĭ ə (Βαιθουλουα). A town mentioned only in the Book of Judith. In Judith 4:6 it is described as a town located in such a way as to prevent the enemy led by Holofernes from penetrating the plain directly into the hill country. It is opposite (the plain of) Esdraelon near a second plain in which Dothan was located. In Judith 7:3 the site is described more closely if two textual changes are accepted, viz. “breathwise from (ἀπό, G608, instead of ἐπί, G2093, as in the parallelism) Dothaim unto Belbaim and lengthwise from Belbaim” (LXX reading Bethulia). Therefore, J. Simons concludes that our city of Bethulia “was situated between the upright sides of a triangle, the top of which is the twice mentioned site of Kirbet bel’ameh, while its base was a line from Tell dōtān to el-jāmūn” (p. 499). This leads to an identification of Bethulia with Sheih Shibil on the top of ğebel el-'āsi. This site does block the “approach to Judaea” by which “it was possible to get to Jerusalem” (Judg 4:6, 7). It is also on top of the hill (Judg 7:8; 10:10) and near a spring which served as the city’s water supply (Judg 6:11; 7:7, 12, 17). At Sheih Shibil there are several springs, but the one at SE foot of the hill is prob. referred to here. From the top of Sheih Shibil (c. 475 meters above sea level) a good view of the hills of Samaria and the plains of Esdraelon was possible. At this site Judith’s husband was buried (Judg 8:3) and it is defined as being “between Dothaim and Balamon” (another form of Jibleam or Bileam of 1 Chron 6:55 which again fits Sheih Shibil).

Whether Bethulia was the real and actual name of a place or a symbolic one is not known. The case for the former is pressed by noting the fact that Bethul or Bethuel is a Simeonite place name which agrees with Judith’s origin (9:2; 6:15), but the latter is conjectured since “house of God” would be an appropriate name for a fictitious city that held true to faith in God despite the mounting dangers.

Bibliography J. Simons, The Geographical and Topographical Texts of the OT (1959), 498-500.