Beth-Rehob

Beth-rehob is a place in the far north of the land, in the territory of Dan, also called simply Rehob.

A Place in Dan

When the Danites migrate north and seize Laish, the city's isolation is described by its setting near Beth-rehob: "And there was no deliverer, because it was far from Sidon, and they had no dealings with man; and it was in the valley that lies by Beth-rehob. And they built the city, and dwelt in it" (Judg 18:28).

The same Beth-rehob is later one of the small Syrian states the Ammonites hire against David: "And when the sons of Ammon saw that they had become a stench to David, the sons of Ammon sent and hired the Syrians of Beth-rehob, and the Syrians of Zobah, twenty thousand footmen, and the king of Maacah with a thousand men, and the men of Tob twelve thousand men" (2Sa 10:6).

Called Rehob

In the immediately following verses of the Ammonite war, the same place appears in shortened form simply as Rehob: "And the sons of Ammon came out, and put the battle in array at the entrance of the gate: and the Syrians of Zobah and of Rehob, and the men of Tob and Maacah, were by themselves in the field" (2Sa 10:8). The two names within a single narrative confirm Rehob and Beth-rehob as the same Syrian site.