Some places are known only from a boundary line. Betharabah is one of them: a point on the border between Judah and Benjamin, passed “by the north of Betharabah” (Joshua 15:6). Joshua also lists it among Judah’s cities “in the wilderness” (Joshua 15:61). The nearby verse in Joshua 18 follows the same border and speaks of the side “over against Arabah northward.” Nothing in these verses tells a story about it. The name simply helps mark where one tribe’s land ended and another’s began. Joshua 15:1-12 traces the line.
3 verses
And the border went up to Bethhogla, and passed along by the north of Betharabah; and the border went up to the stone of Bohan the son of Reuben:
In the wilderness, Betharabah, Middin, and Secacah,
And passed along toward the side over against Arabah northward, and went down unto Arabah:
Matthew George Easton, 1897
House of the desert, one of the six cities of Judah, situated in the sunk valley of the Jordan and Dead Sea (Josh. 18:22). In Josh. 15:61 it is said to have been “in the wilderness.” It was afterwards included in the towns of Benjamin. It is called Arabah (Josh. 18:18).
William Smith, 1884
(house of the desert), one of the six cities of Judah which were situated down in the Arabah, the sunk valley of the Jordan and Dead Sea, (Joshua 15:61) on the north border of the tribe. It is also included in the list of the towns of Benjamin. (Joshua 18:22)