Beth-arabah

Beth-arabah ("house of the Arabah" or "house of the desert plain") was a town in the harsh wilderness depression north of the Dead Sea, on the formal border between Judah and Benjamin. Joshua's border descriptions trace the line through Beth-arabah twice: as a northern Judean boundary marker (Joshua 15:6, 61) and again as a Benjamite city (Joshua 18:22). The double assignment reflects the fact that the precise tribal line was somewhat fluid in this remote, sparsely-inhabited wilderness zone above the Dead Sea, where Beth-hoglah and Beth-arabah sat together as small wilderness outposts. Identified by some scholars with Ain el-Gharabeh.