Βηθλεέμ

The 2 distinct written forms G965 takes in the Greek New Testament, most frequent first — each parse links to that case’s occurrences in the concordance.

Form	Parsing	Example	Uses
Βηθλέεμ Bēthléem	Noun, Proper, indeclinable	Matthew 2:1	5
Βηθλεὲμ Bēthleèm	Noun, Proper, indeclinable	Matthew 2:16	3

Other Thayer's entries built from the same root as G965, grouped by Strong’s listed origin. These share a root / origin per the lexicon — not necessarily a shared meaning. Each links to that word’s own entry.

Derives from

• בית לחם Bêyth Lechem H1035 Bethlehem

Proper names from this root

People and places named from this root — a name, not an additional meaning of the word.

• בית הלחמי Bêyth hal-Lachmîy H1022 Bethlehemite

Compare all same-root words → 2 of the same-root words are proper names (people or places). They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.

Public-domain dictionary articles matched to this entry by name (Bethlehem). A biblical name can be shared by more than one person or place, so an article may treat several.

Easton's Bible Dictionary · M. G. Easton, 1897

House of bread. (1.) A city in the "hill country" of Judah. It was originally called Ephrath (Gen. 35:16, 19; 48:7; Ruth 4:11). It was also called Beth-lehem Ephratah (Micah 5:2), Beth-lehem-judah (1 Sam. 17:12), and "the city of David" (Luke 2:4). It is first noticed in Scripture as the place where Rachel died and was buried "by the wayside," directly to the north of the city (Gen. 48:7). The valley to the east was the scene of the story of Ruth the Moabitess. There are the fields in which she gleaned, and the path by which she and Naomi returned to the town. Here was David's birth-place, and here also, in after years, he was anointed as king by Samuel (1 Sam. 16:4-13); and it was from the well of Bethlehem that three of his heroes brought water for him at the risk of their lives when he was in the cave of Adullam (2 Sam. 23:13-17). But it was distinguished above every other city as the birth-place of "Him whose goings forth have been of old" (Matt. 2:6; comp. Micah 5:2). Afterwards Herod, "when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men," sent and slew "all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under" (Matt. 2:16, 18; Jer. 31:15).

Bethlehem bears the modern name of Beit-Lahm, i.e., "house of flesh." It is about 5 miles south of Jerusalem, standing at an elevation of about 2,550 feet above the sea, thus 100 feet higher than Jerusalem.

There is a church still existing, built by Constantine the Great (A.D. 330), called the "Church of the Nativity," over a grotto or cave called the "holy crypt," and said to be the "stable" in which Jesus was born. This is perhaps the oldest existing Christian church in the world. Close to it is another grotto, where Jerome the Latin father is said to have spent thirty years of his life in translating the Scriptures into Latin. (See VERSION.)

(2.) A city of Zebulun, mentioned only in Josh. 19:15. Now Beit-Lahm, a ruined village about 6 miles west-north-west of Nazareth.

Smith's Bible Dictionary · William Smith, 1863

(house of bread).

+ One of the oldest towns in Palestine, already in existence at the time of Jacob's return to the country. Its earliest name was Ephratah, Or Ephrath or EPHRATAH. See (Genesis 35:16,19; 48:7) After the conquest Bethlehem appears under its own name, BETHLEHEM-JUDAH. (Judges 17:7; 1 Samuel 17:12; Ruth 1:1,2) The book of Ruth is a page from the domestic history of Bethlehem. It was the home of Ruth, (Ruth 1:19) and of David. (1 Samuel 17:12) It was fortified by Rehoboam. (2 Chronicles 11:6) It was here that our Lord was born, (Matthew 2:1) and here that he was visited by the shepherds, (Luke 2:15-17) and the Magi. Matt 2. The modern town of Beit-lahm lies to the east of the main road from Jerusalem to Hebron, six miles from the former. It covers the east and northeast parts of the ridge of a long gray hill of Jura limestone, which stands nearly due east and west, and is about a mile in length. The hill has a deep valley on the north and another on the south. On the top lies the village in a kind of irregular triangle. The population is about 3000 souls, entirely Christians. The Church of the Nativity, built by the empress Helena A.D. 330, is the oldest Christian church in existence. It is built over the grotto where Christ is supposed to have been born. + A town in the portion of Zebulun, named nowhere but in (Joshua 19:15) Now known as Beit-lahm .

Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary · Roswell D. Hitchcock, 1869

house of bread

Classic public-domain reference works; full attribution on Sources.

The same Greek word Βηθλεεμ appears 13 times in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), across 12 verses in 5 books.

13

LXX occurrences

Tagged occurrences of this Greek word in the Septuagint.

12

verses

Distinct Septuagint verses containing this word.

5 / 39

OT books

The word appears in 5 of the 39 Old Testament books.

Sample Septuagint occurrences

• Genesis 35:19 βηθλεεμ
• Judges 17:7 βηθλεεμ
• 1 Samuel 16:1 βηθλεεμ
• Jeremiah 48:17 βηθλεεμ
• Micah 5:1 βηθλεεμ

Septuagint occurrences (same lexeme)

Every verse where the same Strong’s number (G965) appears in the Greek Septuagint. Verse text shown in the World English Bible for context; the Greek form is the matched word — the English is not keyword-highlighted.

• Genesis 35:19 βηθλεεμ Rachel died, and was buried in the way to Ephrath (the same is Bethlehem).
• Judges 17:7 βηθλεεμ There was a young man out of Bethlehem Judah, of the family of Judah, who was a Levite; and he sojourned there.
• Judges 17:8 βηθλεεμ The man departed out of the city, out of Bethlehem Judah, to sojourn where he could find [a place], and he came to the hill-country of Ephraim to the house of Micah, as he traveled.
• Judges 19:1 βηθλεεμ It happened in those days, when there was no king in Israel, that there was a certain Levite sojourning on the farther side of the hill-country of Ephraim, who took to him a concubine out of Bethlehem Judah.
• Judges 19:2 βηθλεεμ His concubine played the prostitute against him, and went away from him to her father's house to Bethlehem Judah, and was there the space of four months.
• Judges 19:18 βηθλεεμ He said to him, We are passing from Bethlehem Judah to the farther side of the hill-country of Ephraim; from there am I, and I went to Bethlehem Judah: and I am [now] going to the house of Yahweh; and there is no man who takes me into his house.
• 1 Samuel 16:1 βηθλεεμ Yahweh said to Samuel, How long will you mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from being king over Israel? fill your horn with oil, and go: I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite; for I have provided me a king among his sons.
• 1 Samuel 16:4 βηθλεεμ Samuel did that which Yahweh spoke, and came to Bethlehem. The elders of the city came to meet him trembling, and said, Come you peaceably?
• 1 Samuel 20:6 βηθλεεμ If your father miss me at all, then say, David earnestly asked leave of me that he might run to Bethlehem his city; for it is the yearly sacrifice there for all the family.
• 1 Samuel 20:28 βηθλεεμ Jonathan answered Saul, David earnestly asked leave of me to go to Bethlehem:
• Jeremiah 48:17 βηθλεεμ All you who are round about him, bemoan him, and all you who know his name; say, How is the strong staff broken, the beautiful rod!
• Micah 5:1 βηθλεεμ Now you shall gather yourself in troops, Daughter of troops. He has laid siege against us; They will strike the judge of Israel with a rod on the cheek.

These are occurrences of the same Greek lexeme (G965) in the Septuagint — not a translation of any one Hebrew word. The store carries no word-level Hebrew↔Greek alignment, so no Hebrew original is asserted here. Counts come from the recovered LXX Strong's tagging — high-frequency vocabulary is well covered, while rare or late forms may be untagged — so they reflect tagged occurrences and may slightly undercount.