Beit Shemesh

Beit Shemesh is a city placed about 30 kilometres west of Jerusalem in Israel's Jerusalem District, with a populace of 114,371 in 2017. The history of Beit Shemesh is going returned to pre-biblical instances. The current metropolis of Beit Shemesh became founded in 1950. The ancient city of Beit Shemesh "house of the sun" or "temple of the solar" in Hebrew turned into in the beginning named after the Canaanite solar-goddess Shemesh, who was worshipped there in antiquity. The ruins of the historical biblical town are positioned at a site referred to as Tel Beit Shemesh, a tell located close to the modern-day city.

In the Amarna letters Shamash is cited numerous instances, at the side of Addu, as one of the greatest gods: the Pharaoh is "like Addu and Shamash". The name Beth-Shemesh turned into shared by means of different locations in Palestine and one more in Egypt. Beit Shemesh is first noted in the Hebrew Bible in the Book of Joshua, 5 as a town within the territory of the tribe of Judah at the border between their territory and that of the tribe of Dan. In Joshua 21:16, this town was set aside as one of the 13 Kohanic towns for the monks of the tribe of Levi, the Kohanim.