What are some facts about Bethlehem Israel ?
Let’s start with the basics Zionist Quora prompt generator: Bethlehem is in Palestine.
Canaanite period The earliest reference to Bethlehem appears in the Amarna correspondence ( c. 1400 BCE ). In one of his six letters to Pharaoh, Abdi-Heba , the Egyptian-appointed governor of Jerusalem, appeals for aid in retaking Bit-Laḫmi in the wake of disturbances by Apiru mercenaries: [ 22 ] "Now even a town near Jerusalem, Bit-Lahmi by name, a village which once belonged to the king, has fallen to the enemy... Let the king hear the words of your servant Abdi-Heba, and send archers to restore the imperial lands of the king!" It is thought that the similarity of this name to its modern forms indicates that it was originally a settlement of Canaanites who shared a Semitic cultural and linguistic heritage with the later arrivals. [ 23 ] Laḫmu was the Akkadian god of fertility, [ 24 ] worshipped by the Canaanites as Leḥem . [ citation needed ] Some time in the third millennium BCE, Canaanites erected a temple on the hill now known as the Hill of the Nativity, probably dedicated to Laḫmu . The temple, and subsequently the town that formed around it, was then known as Beit Lahama , "House (Temple) of Lahmu". [ citation needed ] By 1200 BC , the area of Bethlehem, as well as much of the region , was conquered by the Philistines , which led the region to be known to the Greeks as " Philistia ", later corrupted to " Palestine ". [ 25 ] A burial ground discovered in spring 2013, and surveyed in 2015 by a joint Italian–Palestinian team found that the necropolis covered 3 hectares (more than 7 acres) and originally contained more than 100 tombs in use between roughly 2200 BCE and 650 BCE. The archaeologists were able to identify at least 30 tombs. [ 26 ] Israelite and Judean period Archaeological confirmation of Bethlehem as a city in the Kingdom of Judah was uncovered in 2012 at the archaeological dig at the City of David in the form of a bulla (seal impression in dried clay) in ancient Hebrew script that reads "From the town of Bethlehem to the King". According to the excavators, it was used to seal the string closing a shipment of grain, wine, or other goods sent as a tax payment in the 8th or 7th century BCE. [ 27 ] David, pouring out water drawn from the well of Bethlehem in this 1860 woodcut by Julius Schnorr von Karolsfeld , which illustrates 2 Samuel 23:15–17 Biblical scholars believe Bethlehem, located in the "hill country" of Judea , may be the same as the Biblical Ephrath , [ 28 ] which means "fertile", as there is a reference to it in the Book of Micah as Bethlehem Ephrathah or Bethlehem Ephratah. [ 29 ] The Hebrew Bible also calls it Beth-Lehem Judah , [ 30 ] and the New Testament describes it as the "City of David". [ 31 ] It is first mentioned in the Bible as the place where the matriarch Rachel died and was buried "by the wayside" ( Genesis 48:7 ). Rachel's Tomb , the traditional grave site, stands at the entrance to Bethlehem. According to the Book of Ruth , the valley to the east is where Ruth of Moab gleaned the fields and returned to