Bezer

Biblical Text

Bezer is a place name that appears four times in the Old Testament.

• Deuteronomy 4:41–43: Moses set apart three cities east of the Jordan so that anyone who killed another person unintentionally, without prior hatred, could flee there. The first of these was "Bezer in the wilderness, in the plain country," which belonged to the tribe of Reuben, one of the twelve tribes of Israel. The other two were Ramoth in Gilead, of the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan, of the tribe of Manasseh.
• Joshua 20:8: After the settlement of Canaan, when the six cities of refuge were designated, Bezer appears again as a city of refuge east of the Jordan.
• Joshua 21:36; 1 Chronicles 6:78: Bezer is listed, together with its pasturelands, among the cities that the tribe of Reuben gave to the Merarite clans of the tribe of Levi.

Separately, the genealogy of the tribe of Asher in 1 Chronicles 7:37 mentions a man of the same name. He has no connection with the place called Bezer.

Background

Bezer lay on the tableland east of the Jordan River, northeast of the Dead Sea. Scripture describes the area as "the wilderness" and "the plain." Although the region belonged to the tribe of Reuben, it bordered Moab and frequently changed hands. The inscription left by the Moabite king Mesha in the ninth century BC (the Mesha Stele) is reported to state that Mesha rebuilt Bezer, which had been in ruins. This record is cited as evidence that Bezer had passed into Moabite control by that time.

The Hebrew name is sometimes interpreted as "fortress" or "stronghold," but its meaning is disputed. The site's precise modern location has also not been established; scholars have proposed several ruins on the Jordanian plateau as candidates.

Significance in Scripture as a Whole

The institution of the cities of refuge is set out in Numbers 35 and Deuteronomy 19. Its purpose was to allow a person who had killed someone unintentionally to escape blood vengeance and receive a fair trial. Bezer is a place where this institution was actually put into practice east of the Jordan. It also illustrates how the Levites lived dispersed among the various tribes. The name Bezer does not appear in the New Testament.

Interpretation and Debated Questions

• The cities of refuge and Christ: Many interpreters read the cities of refuge as a type of Christ, the refuge to which sinners may flee. Typology is an interpretive approach in which persons, events, or institutions of the Old Testament are understood to foreshadow a later reality. In support, interpreters sometimes cite Hebrews 6:18, which speaks of those "who have fled for refuge." The text, however, assigns no symbolic meaning to Bezer itself, and interpreters differ on the extent to which, and the manner in which, the cities of refuge should be read typologically.
• Relationship to Bozrah: Some scholars identify the Moabite Bozrah mentioned in Jeremiah 48:24 with Bezer. This identification is not settled. This Bozrah should also be distinguished from Bozrah, the capital of Edom.

In the Korean Church

Sermons on the cities of refuge sometimes present the names of all six cities together. In such sermons, the name Bezer is at times glossed as "fortress" and used to present Christ as a refuge. This is a homiletical application based on the meaning of the name and should be distinguished from the meaning the text itself makes explicit.