2 Chronicles 11:6 - Exposition

Bethlehem . This was a case not of actual new building of a city, but of restoring and strengthening it. Bethlehem, originally Ephrath ( Genesis 35:16 ; Genesis 48:7 ), was one of the very oldest towns existent in Jacob's time. It was not called Bethlehem till long after the settlement of the tribes. It was six miles from Jerusalem, on the east of the road to Hebron. Etam . A place near Bethlehem; possibly the resort of Samson after his revenge on the Philistines ( 15:8 , 15:11 ). It was not the Etam mentioned as belonging to Simeon ( 1 Chronicles 4:32 ). Tekoa . According to Jerome, as also Eusebius, six Roman miles from Bethlehem, and nine from Jerusalem, or else, possibly by another road, twelve (Jerome's 'Pro-oemium in Amos,' and his 'Onomasticon'). It is absent from the Hebrew catalogue of Judah towns ( Joshua 15:49 ), but is in the Septuagint Version of it. It was the place of the "wise woman" of 2 Samuel 14:2 .