BETH-HACCEREM:
According to Neh. iii. 14, a Judean city; described in Jer. vi. 1 as a high place visible at a great distance. Jerome (on the passage) speaks of Beth-haccerem as a village still existing on the road between Jerusalem and Tekoa. This coincides with the so-called "Mount of the Franks" (Jebel Furêdis), a high peak south of Jerusalem. But since it was on this hill that Herod the Great built a fort called "Herodion," it could hardly have become a mere village in the days of Jerome. If the statement of Jerome be true (and there is no sufficient reason to doubt it), Beth-haccerem can not be the 'Ain Karim, west of Jerusalem, as Cheyne ("Encyc. Bibl." i. 556) has it. This latter is rather to be identified with the "Kerem" mentioned in the Septuagint to Josh. xv. 59. However, the village Beth-Kerem, which, according to the Mishnah (Niddah ii. 7), had a reddish color, may be identical with the Biblical Beth-haccerem.
