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Bethlehem is only six miles south of Jerusalem. Amarna letter
# 290 refers to it as "a town of the land of Urusalim" and complains that it has
joined the enemy of Pharaoh. Jerusalem was the important city in the region, and
Bethlehem was important to it for strategic reasons. Despite its natural
defenses, Jerusalem had to worry about the armies of Egypt or Mesopotamia, which
would likely approach from the Great Trunk Road on the coast.
There were two likely approaches from this road; both were
ridges unbroken by wadis. (See map below.) One ascends through lower and upper
Beth Horon (the Beth Ur's of today) to the central Benjamin plateau, north of
Jerusalem; here it meets the single north-south road of the central range. The
second ridge ascends from the Valley of Elah, intersecting the main road
southwest of Bethlehem. (It is the ridge that Saul is defending in 1 Samuel
17:1-3.) Jerusalem needed a buffer in the area between itself and this
intersection. It did not always control Bethlehem (e.g., in its Jebusite
period), but it thought it should: hence the complaint in the Amarna letter.
Thus, Bethlehem always had the strategic value that Solomon's son Rehoboam
recognized when including it in the belt of fortified cities protecting his
capital. (2 Chronicles 11:5-10) It was a last-chance bulwark in the
south.
Once the decision has been taken to establish a bulwark
between Jerusalem and the intersection, a small population would naturally
choose this mound for its strength and its commercial advantages. Bethlehem
projects eastward into the Judean desert, picking up secondary roads that cross
it. It had immediate access to the desert's herding industry, as well as Bedouin
commerce. On its eastern flank, its people cultivated grain and olives. On the
west they had vineyards and orchards.
Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE(r),
(c) Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The
Lockman Foundation. (www.Lockman.org)
© 2003 Near East Tourist
Agency (NET)
Text © 2003 Stephen Langfur
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