(Βερέα ), a place in Judea apparently not very far from Jerusalem, where Bacchides, the general of Demetrius, encamped shortly before the engagement in which Judas Maccabaeus was slain (1 Maccabees 9:4). Other copies, however, read Berzath (Βεηρζάθ, Βεηρθάζ, Βηρζήθ, etc., see Grimm, in loc.), from in which Reland conjectures (Palaest. p. 624) that it may be the BEZETH (q.v.) of 1 Maccabees 7:19, especially as Josephus, in his parallel account (Ant. 12, 11, 4), calls the place in question Bethzetho (Βηθζηθώ, Ant. 12, II, 1; compo. 10, 2). (See BEROEA).
(1 Maccabees 9:4). Lieut. Conder (Tent Work, ii, 335) proposes to identify this place with Bireh, which, however, has long since been settled as the site of Beeroth.