Bathzacharias

Bath-zachari'as (Βαιθζαχαρία v. r. Josephus Βεθζαχαρία; for the Hebrews בֵּית זכִריָה, House of Zechariah), a place named only in 1 Maccabees 6:32, 33, to which Judas Maccabaeus marched from Jerusalem, and where he encamped for the relief of Bethsura (Bethzur) when the latter was besieged by Antiochus Eupator. The two places were seventy stadia apart (Joseph. Ant. 12:9, 4), and the approaches to Bath-zacharias were intricate and confined (Joseph. War, 1:1, 5; and compare the passage cited above, from which it is evident that Josephus knew the spot). This description is met in every respect by the modern Beit-Sakarieh, which has been discovered by Robinson at nine miles north of Beit-Sur, "on an almost isolated promontory or tell, jutting out between two deep valleys, and connected with the high ground south by a low neck between the heads of the valleys, the neck forming the only place of access to what must have been an almost impregnable position" (Later Researches, p. 283, 284). The place lies in the entangled country west of the Hebron road, between four and five miles south of Hebron. SEE BETHZUR.

⇒See also the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia.