BETH-ARABAH bĕth ăr’ ə bə (Heb. בֵּית הָעֲרָבָ֔ה, house-of-the-Arabah), a small town located in the wilderness SE of Jericho on the N bank of the Wadi el-Qelt a few m. W of the Jordan valley. It is prob. the site of the modern Arab village of ’Ain Gharbeh. It was the boundary between Judah on the S and Benjamin on the N (Josh 15:6, 61). There is some difference in the text as to whether it was a city of Judah (15:6; 18:18) or belonged to Benjamin (18:22). There is the distinct possibility that the town may have changed hands at some time by an incident not recorded in the text. A difficulty is found in Joshua 18:18 however where the text reads, מוּל־הָֽעֲרָבָ֖ה, which means, “over against the Arabah,” which is usually understood as an error and which should read as the other passages. There is no indication, however, why such an error in the MT should have been made, so there is still some doubt as to the emendation.