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"
''

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 Jeru ...

Biblical references

Bahurim is the place where

Palti, son of Laish Palti (or Paltiel), son of Laish, who was from Gallim, was the second husband of Michal, Saul's daughter. Where other versions read "Palti" (1 Samuel 25:44) and "Paltiel" (2 Samuel 3:5), the KJV has Phalti and Phaltiel, respectively. Michal was o ...

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 Judah ...

, when she was brought back to her first husband,

King David David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...

. It is also mentioned during David's flight from

Absalom Absalom ( he, ''ʾAḇšālōm'', "father of peace") was the third son of David, King of Israel with Maacah, daughter of Talmai, King of Geshur. 2 Samuel 14:25 describes him as the handsomest man in the kingdom. Absalom eventually rebelled ag ...

: :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 Shimei ( ''Šīmʿī'') is the name of a number of persons referenced in the Hebrew Bible and Rabbinical literature. *The second son of Gershon and grandson of Levi (; ; ). The family of the Shimeites, as a branch of the tribe of Levi, is mentione ...

, 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

. See, your ruin is on you; for you are a man of blood." -- ( RSV) Here also the Cohanim 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 b ...

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 Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

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 Mino ...

, 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", under ...

, 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 or ...

. 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, 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 The voiceless pharyngeal fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is an h-bar, , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is X\. In the transc ...

"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