BETHULIA (Gr. Βατθαούρ, with variants). — The place where Giuditta lived, situated on a mountain with a spring at its foot, overlooking the plain of Dothain.
The parenetic character attributed by the acropolici to the Book of Giuditta has led many to abandon any attempt to identify this locality, regarding it as purely fictitious; some Catholics also seem inclined toward this position (A. Miller, in Biblica, 23 [1942], p. 100; A. Vaccari, in La Sacra Bibbia, III, Florence 1948, p. 304). From the general indications of Iudc. (4:5–7; 7:3), it would appear that B. lay south of Esdrelon, in the highlands between this plain and that of Dothain. The most persistent tradition identifies it with Sānūr, which dominates the plain of Merğ el-Garaq. In recent years, however, it has been proposed that B. should be sought in the triangle formed by Tell Dōtān, el-Jāmōn, and Hírbet Bel'āmeh, in southern Galilee.