bethbarah Summary and Overview

("house of the passage") (Judges 7:24). The point to which Ephraim took, before the Midianites, "the waters" (the streams wady Maleh, Fyadh, Jamel, Tubas, etc., descending from the E. side of the highlands of Ephraim toward the Jordan, and flowing through the Ghor to Bethbarah). Possibly, though not probably, identical with Bethbara where John baptized. Ephraim's intercepting of Midian was probably not so far S. as Bethabara, whither people flocked from Judaea, Jerusalem, and the "region round about." frontBETHBARA.) Grove supposes Bethbarah to be the ford Jacob crossed in returning from Mesopotamia, and at which Jephthah slew the Ephraimites.