Bahurim (etymology uncertainMcKenzie, John, ''Dictionary of the Bible'', Simon & Schuster, 1995, p77) was a village mentioned in the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. Hebrew: ''Tān ...

east of

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

, on the road to the

Jordan valley The Jordan Valley ( ar, غور الأردن, ''Ghor al-Urdun''; he, עֵמֶק הַיַרְדֵּן, ''Emek HaYarden'') forms part of the larger Jordan Rift Valley. Unlike most other river valleys, the term "Jordan Valley" often applies just to ...

, close to the

Mount of Olives The Mount of Olives or Mount Olivet ( he, הַר הַזֵּיתִים, Har ha-Zeitim; ar, جبل الزيتون, Jabal az-Zaytūn; both lit. 'Mount of Olives'; in Arabic also , , 'the Mountain') is a mountain ridge east of and adjacent to Jerus ...

Biblical references

Bahurim is the place where Palti, son of Laish turned back as he cried after his wife,

Michal Michal (; he, מיכל , gr, Μιχάλ) was, according to the first Book of Samuel, a princess of the United Kingdom of Israel; the younger daughter of King Saul, she was the first wife of David (), who later became king, first of Jud ...

, when she was brought back to her first husband, King David. It is also mentioned during David's flight from Absalom: :When King David came to Bahurim, there came out a man of the family of the house of

Saul Saul (; he, , ; , ; ) was, according to the Hebrew Bible, the first monarch of the United Kingdom of Israel. His reign, traditionally placed in the late 11th century BCE, supposedly marked the transition of Israel and Judah from a scattered t ...

whose name was Shimei, the son of

Gera Gera is a city in the German state of Thuringia. With around 93,000 inhabitants, it is the third-largest city in Thuringia after Erfurt and Jena as well as the easternmost city of the ''Thüringer Städtekette'', an almost straight string of cit ...

; and as he came he cursed continually. And he threw stones at David, and at all the servants of King David; and all the people and all the mighty men were on his right hand and on his left. And Shimei said as he cursed, "Begone, begone, you man of blood, you worthless fellow! The Lord has avenged upon you all the blood of the house of Saul, in whose place you have reigned; and The Lord has given the kingdom into the hand of your son Absalom. See, your ruin is on you; for you are a man of blood." -- ( RSV) Here also the

Cohanim Kohen ( he, , ''kōhēn'', , "priest", pl. , ''kōhănīm'', , "priests") is the Hebrew word for " priest", used in reference to the Aaronic priesthood, also called Aaronites or Aaronides. Levitical priests or ''kohanim'' are traditionally be ...

Jonathan and

Ahimaaz Ahimaaz ( he, ''ʾĂḥīmaʿaṣ'', "My Brother Is Counselor") was son of the high priest Zadok. He first appears in the reign of King David (reigned c. 1000-962 BCE). During Absalom's revolt he remained faithful to David, and assisted him ...

hid themselves (). Azmaveth, one of David's heroes, is also mentioned as a native of Bahurim (; ).

Identification

A Jewish tradition in the

Targum A targum ( arc, תרגום 'interpretation, translation, version') was an originally spoken translation of the Hebrew Bible (also called the ''Tanakh'') that a professional translator ( ''mǝturgǝmān'') would give in the common language of the ...

identifies Bahurim with ''Almon'' (), later called ''Almît'', about 4 miles N.E. of Jerusalem, and a mile beyond Anathoth (Anâta).Kirkpatrick, Alexander (1884). ''The Second Book of Samuel.'' Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
p. 70
It has also been identified with ''Râs et-Tumein'', north-east of the Mount of Olives. ''Râs et-Tumein'' is located at 1744.1333 (

Palestine grid The Palestine grid was the geographic coordinate system used by the Survey Department of Palestine. The system was chosen by the Survey Department of the Government of Palestine in 1922. The projection used was the Cassini-Soldner projection. T ...

coordinates). :de:Wolfgang Zwickel, ''Bahurim und Nob'', de:Biblische Notizen, Vol. 61, 1992, p84-93 However, it seems to be more likely that Bahurim was located at a place known as ''Barruka'', located at 1750.1318 (

coordinates) which disengages Ras et Tmim for the identification with Nob. French archaeologist and historical geographer,

Victor Guérin Victor Guérin (15 September 1821 – 21 Septembe 1890) was a French intellectual, explorer and amateur archaeologist. He published books describing the geography, archeology and history of the areas he explored, which included Greece, Asia Min ...

, identified the site Bahurim with

Abu Dis Abu Dis or Abu Deis ( ar, أبو ديس) is a Palestinian village in the West Bank, in the Jerusalem Governorate of the State of Palestine, bordering Jerusalem. Since the 1995 Oslo II Accord, Abu Dis land has been mostly part of " Area B", un ...

, a village 3 km, south-east of Jerusalem, before the suburbs of Jerusalem began to expand.{{cite book, last1=Amar, first1=Z., author-link1=Zohar Amar, last2=Serri, first2=Yaron, year=2004, title=The Land of Israel and Syria as Described by al-Tamimi – Jerusalem Physician of the 10th Century, publisher=Bar-Ilan University, location=Ramat-Gan, pages=79-80 (note 262), language=he, isbn=965-226-252-8 , oclc=607157392, citing

's ''Description géographique, historique et archéologique de la Palestine'', vol. 4, pp. 106–108, published in French in 1868. The village Abu Dis is also mentioned in the chronicles of the Judean desert monks from the 6th-century of the

Common era Common Era (CE) and Before the Common Era (BCE) are year notations for the Gregorian calendar (and its predecessor, the Julian calendar), the world's most widely used calendar era. Common Era and Before the Common Era are alternatives to the ...

. The village, he argues, underwent a metamorphosis in name change; the name evolving from ''Būrīs'', or ''Wadīs'' by another account, to what it is today. According to

Zohar Amar Zohar Amar (born 1960) is a professor in the Department of Land of Israel Studies at Bar-Ilan University, whose research specialties are: natural history in ancient times; the identification of the flora of the Land of Israel and identification ...

, the name can be traced back, etymologically, to its earlier

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

pronunciation ''Baoureis'' (''Baoureim'') (with the absence of the voiceless pharyngeal fricative "chet", which has a slight aspirated sound in Hebrew, but does not exist in Greek pronunciation).

References

Ancient history of Jerusalem Hebrew Bible places Biblical geography