A town named Baalath-Beer is mentioned in the

Masoretic Text The Masoretic Text (MT or 𝕸; he, נֻסָּח הַמָּסוֹרָה, Nūssāḥ Hammāsōrā, lit. 'Text of the Tradition') is the authoritative Hebrew and Aramaic text of the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) in Rabbinic Judaism. ...

of Joshua 19:8, which places near the end of a list of towns belonging to the

Tribe of Simeon According to the Hebrew Bible, the Tribe of Simeon (; he, ''Šīm‘ōn'', "hearkening/listening/understanding/empathizing") was one of the twelve tribes of Israel. The Book of Judges locates its territory inside the boundaries of the Tribe of ...

(19:1-9). Where the Masoretic Text reads "Baalath-beer Ramath-negeb", one version of the

Septuagint The Greek Old Testament, or Septuagint (, ; from the la, septuaginta, lit=seventy; often abbreviated ''70''; in Roman numerals, LXX), is the earliest extant Greek translation of books from the Hebrew Bible. It includes several books beyond ...

reads "Baalath as you come to Ramath-negeb." It is unclear which is the earlier reading. For Ramath-negeb, various biblical translations render the Hebrew ''rmt ngb'' as "Ramah of the South", "Ramah in the Negev", "Ramah of the Negev", and so on. Modern archaeologists have not agreed on whether the site of Baalath-Beer can be identified. The existing evidence is ambiguous as to whether or not Baalath-beer is the same town as Ramath-negeb, and Baalath-beer may be the same as the location referred to elsewhere as Baal.

References

Hebrew Bible cities {{Tanakh-stub