Bezer

Be'zer (Heb. Be'tser, בֶּצֶר, ore of gold or silver, as in Ps 76:12), the name of a place and also of a man.

1. (Sept. Βοσόρ or βόσορ.) A place always called Bezer in the wilderness" (בִּמִּדבָּר), being a city of the Reubenites, with "suburbs," in the Mishor or downs, set apart by Moses as one of the three cities of refuge on the east of the Jordan (De 4:43; Jos 20:8), and allotted to the Merarites (Jos 21:36; 1Ch 6:78). In the last two passages the exact specification, בִּמִּישֹׁר, "in the plain country," of the other two is omitted, but traces of its former presence in the text in Jos 21:16 are furnished us by the reading of the Sept. and Vulg. (τὴν Βοσὸρ ἐν τῇ ἐρημῷ, τὴν ιν ιὼ Alex. Μισὼρ] καὶ τὰ περισπόρια; Bosor in solitudine, Misor et Jaser). Bezer may be the BOSOR (q.v.) of 1 Maccabees 5:26, 36. Reland rashly identifies it with the Bozra of Arabia Deserta (Palaest. p. 661); and Schwarz (Palest. p. 229) makes it to be a Talmudical Kenathirin (כנתירין), which he finds in "an isolated high mound called Jebel Kuwetta, S.E. of Aroer, near the Armon," meaning doubtless Jebel Ghuweiteh, which lies entirely without the bounds of Reuben. Bezer seems to correspond in position and name with the ruined village Burazin, marked on Van de Velde's Map at 12 miles N. of E. from Heshbon (comp. Robinson, Researches, 3, Append. p. 170).

2. (Sept. Βασάρ v. r. Βασάν.) The sixth named of the eleven sons of Zophah, of the descendants of Asher (1Ch 7:36). B.C. post 1658.