BEZER(Bosor and Bosora, Βοσόρ, Βόσορα), the southernmost of the three cities of refuge, on the east of Jordan, in the wilderness, in the plain country, belonging to the Reubenites ( Deut. 4.43, Josh. 20.8), assigned to the priests (21.36). There is no further clue to its site, and it is misplaced by Eusebius, who confounds it with Bozra. Bossora and Bosor occur as two distinct cities in 1 Macc. 5.26, large and strong,—but are there placed in Gilead (comp. verses 27, 36). As, however, Bosor is mentioned as the first city to which Judas came after quitting the Nabathaeans, it was apparently the southernmost of all the cities named; it was, moreover, in the wilderness(verse 28; comp. Josephus, J. AJ), and therefore very probably the City of Refuge, in which case Gileadmust be taken in a wider sense in the passages above cited.
[G.W]