The Destruction of “King’s Mountain” (‘Tur Malka’): A Story of Custom, Rebellion, and Massacre (Gittin 57a)

Part of a series on Talmudic stories of the Destruction.¹

This sugya presents a story-cycle centered around the destruction of Tur Malka,² a once-flourishing Jewish settlement. It opens with a story referenced at the beginning of the broader sugya: a local wedding custom involving a rooster and hen, meant to symbolize fertility. When Roman soldiers confiscated the birds during a wedding, the townspeople retaliated violently. The Romans interpreted the scuffle as rebellion and reported it to the emperor, triggering a military response.

A local hero, known as “Bar-Deroma” (‘the Southerner’), emerges and initially turns the tide. With superhuman agility and strength, he slaughters Roman soldiers single-handedly. But hubris proves his undoing: he misquotes a verse from Psalms as a statement of despair rather than a question, and dies shortly thereafter in an outhouse, killed by a snake—an ignoble end. The emperor, interpreting this as divine intervention, temporarily spares the city.

The locals, however, celebrate too loudly. Their lights and joy are visible from a mile away. The emperor returns in fury, and what follows is a massacre: Rav Asi reports that 300,000 armed men slaughtered the population over three days and nights. The city was so large that some residents continued partying, unaware of the carnage nearby.

The tale ends with aggadic hyperbole: Rav Yoḥanan claims the region contained 600,000 cities, some with populations rivaling the population of the Israelites at the time of the biblical Exodus. Ulla disputes this based on personal observation, prompting a metaphoric rebuttal about Eretz Yisrael expanding or contracting like a deerskin, depending on whether it is inhabited.

Outline

Intro

The Passage - The Destruction of “King’s Mountain”(‘Tur Malka’): A Story of Custom, Rebellion, and Massacre (Gittin 57a)

1. A Custom in Tur Malka Leads to Violence

2. Roman Retaliation

3. The Defense of ‘Bar-Deroma’ (“The Southerner”)

4. Bar-Deroma’s downfall came from quoting Psalms 60:12 as a declaration, not a question

5. Bar-Deroma dies after being attacked by a snake in an outhouse

6. The Emperor Withdraws Briefly

7. The Massacre

8. Ravin citing R' Yoḥanan - Population Traditions-- 600,000 cities in Tur Malka (Lamentations 2:2)

9. Rav Yehuda citing Rav Asi - Each of the 600,000 cities had a population of 600,000

10. Three cities there had population of 1.2 million: Kefar Bish, Kefar Shiḥalayim, and Kefar Dikhrayya; etymologies of the city names

11. Geographic Hyperbole and Metaphor

Appendix - The Beitar Massacre (Gittin 57a, sections # 21-23)

1. R' Zeira citing R' Abbahu citing R' Yoḥanan - the Beitar Massacre (Lamentations 2:3)

2. R' Eliezer - the Huge Amount of Blood from the Massacre

3. Baraita - Local vineyards were fertilized in the next 7 years with blood from the massacre

The Passage

Gittin.57a.6-13

A Custom in Tur Malka Leads to Violence

At Tur Malka, it was customary to escort a bride and groom with a rooster and hen, symbolizing fertility.

אתרנגולא ואתרנגולתא חריב טור מלכא --

דהוו נהיגי כי הוו מפקי חתנא וכלתא,

מפקי קמייהו תרנגולא ותרנגולתא,

כלומר: פרו ורבו כתרנגולים.

§ It was previously mentioned (55b)³ that the place known as the King’s Mountain [Tur Malka] was destroyed on account of a rooster and a hen.

The details of what happened are as follows:

It was customary in that place that when they would lead a bride and groom to their wedding,

they would take out a rooster and a hen before them,

as if to say in the manner of a good omen: Be fruitful and multiply (פרו ורבו) like chickens.

Roman Retaliation

When Roman soldiers seized the birds during one such procession, locals attacked them. The Romans reported this as rebellion, and the emperor sent troops.

יומא חד הוה קא חליף גונדא דרומאי,

שקלינהו מינייהו.

נפלו עלייהו מחונהו.

אתו אמרו ליה לקיסר: מרדו בך יהודאי!

אתא עלייהו.

One day a troop [gunda] of Roman soldiers passed by there while a wedding was taking place

and took the rooster and hen from them.

The residents of the city fell upon them and beat them.

They came and said to the emperor: The Jews have rebelled against you.

The emperor then came against them in war.

The Defense of ‘Bar-Deroma’ (“The Southerner”)

A local hero, ‘Bar-Deroma’ (“The Southerner”), repelled them single-handedly.

The emperor, disturbed by the loss, laid down his crown and appealed to God not to let his empire fall to one man.

הוה בהו ההוא בר דרומא,

דהוה קפיץ מילא

וקטיל בהו.

שקליה קיסר לתאגיה

ואותביה אארעא.

אמר:

ריבוניה דעלמא כוליה!

אי ניחא לך,

לא תמסריה לההוא גברא – לדידיה ולמלכותיה,

בידיה דחד גברא!

Among the residents of the King’s Mountain there was a certain man named bar Deroma

who could jump the distance of a mil,

and he killed many of the Romans, who were powerless to stand up against him.

The emperor then took his crown

and set it on the ground as a sign of mourning.

He said:

Master of the Universe!

if it is pleasing to You,

do not give over that man, a euphemism for himself, and his kingdom

into the hands of only one man.

Bar-Deroma’s downfall came from quoting Psalms 60:12 as a declaration, not a question

אכשליה פומיה לבר דרומא,

ואמר:

״הלא אתה אלהים זנחתנו

ולא תצא אלהים בצבאותינו״.

דוד נמי אמר הכי!

דוד אתמוהי קא מתמה.

In the end it was the words issuing from his own mouth that caused bar Deroma to stumble,

as he uttered this verse in complaint against God:

“Have You not rejected us, O God,

so that You go not forth, O God, with our hosts?” (Psalms 60:12).

The Talmud asks: But did not David also say this?

The Talmud answers: David uttered these words as a rhetorical question,⁴ wondering whether they were true, whereas bar Deroma pronounced them as a statement of fact.

Bar-Deroma dies after being attacked by a snake in an outhouse

Bar-Deroma died after being attacked by a snake in an outhouse.⁵

על לבית הכסא,

אתא דרקונא

שמטיה לכרכשיה

ונח נפשיה.

The Talmud recounts what happened to bar Deroma: He entered an outhouse,

a snake came

and eviscerated him,

and he died.

The Emperor Withdraws Briefly

Interpreting bar Deroma’s death as divine intervention, the emperor spared the city.

אמר:

הואיל ואיתרחיש לי ניסא,

הא זימנא אישבקינהו.

שבקינהו ואזל.

The emperor said:

Since a miracle was performed for me, as I had no part in bar Deroma’s death,

I will let the rest of the people be this time and take no further action against them.

He let them be and went on his way.

The residents celebrated ostentatiously—candles lit so brightly the imperial seal was visible from a mile away. Seeing this as mockery, the emperor returned.

1. איזדקור

2. ואכלו

3. ושתו,

4. ואדליקו שרגי,

עד דאיתחזי בליונא דגושפנקא ברחוק מילא.

אמר: מיחדא קא חדו בי יהודאי!

הדר אתא עלייהו.

1. They leapt about,

2. ate,

3. drank,

4. and lit candles in celebration

so many that the image [bilyona] imprinted on a seal [gushpanka] was visible from a distance of a mil.

The emperor then said: The Jews are rejoicing over me.

So he went back and came against them.

The Massacre

According to R' Asi, 300,000 armed men massacred the population for three days and nights.

The mountain was so vast that festivities on one side continued, unaware of the slaughter on the other.

אמר רבי אסי:

תלת מאה אלפי שליפי סייפא עיילו לטור מלכא,

וקטלו בה תלתא יומי ותלתא לילוותא;

ובהך גיסא הלולי וחנגי,

ולא הוו ידעי הני בהני.

Rav Asi says:

300,000 men with drawn swords entered the King’s Mountain

and massacred its inhabitants for 3 days and 3 nights.

And at the same time on the other side of the mountain, weddings and other festivities continued to be celebrated,

and they did not know about each other, owing to the enormous size of the place.

Ravin citing R' Yoḥanan - Population Traditions-- 600,000 cities in Tur Malka (Lamentations 2:2)

R' Yoḥanan interprets “YHWH has swallowed up... all the habitations of Jacob” (Lamentations 2:2) as referring to the Hasmonean King Yannai’s 600,000 cities (עיירות) in Tur Malka.

״בלע ה׳ ולא חמל את כל נאות יעקב״ –

כי אתא רבין, אמר רבי יוחנן:

אלו ששים רבוא עיירות שהיו לו לינאי המלך בהר המלך.

§ Concerning the verse: “YHWH has swallowed up without pity all the habitations of Jacob” (Lamentations 2:2),

it is related that when Ravin came from Eretz Yisrael to Babylonia he said that R' Yoḥanan says:

This is referring to the 600,000 cities that King Yannai had in the King’s Mountain.

Rav Yehuda citing Rav Asi - Each of the 600,000 cities had a population of 600,000

דאמר רב יהודה, אמר רב אסי:

ששים רבוא עיירות היו לו לינאי המלך בהר המלך,

וכל אחת ואחת היו בה כיוצאי מצרים,

As Rav Yehuda says that Rav Asi says:

King Yannai had 600,000 cities in the King’s Mountain,

and each of them had a population as great as the number of those who left Egypt⁶

Three cities there had population of 1.2 million: Kefar Bish, Kefar Shiḥalayim, and Kefar Dikhrayya; etymologies of the city names

Three cities had double that population (i.e. 600,000 x 2 = 1.2 million).

The three exceptional cities are:

1. Kefar Bish: Inhospitable, refused hospitality.

2. Kefar Shiḥalayim: Economy based on cress.⁷

3. Kefar Dikhrayya: Women birthed males first, then females, then ceased childbirth.

חוץ משלש שהיו בהן כפלים כיוצאי מצרים.

אלו הן:

1. כפר ביש,

2. כפר שיחליים,

3. כפר דכריא.

1. כפר ביש –

   1. דלא יהבי ביתא לאושפיזא.

2. כפר שיחליים –

   1. שהיתה פרנסתן מן שחליים.

3. כפר דכריא –

   1. אמר רבי יוחנן: שהיו נשותיהן יולדות זכרים תחלה, ויולדות נקבה באחרונה, ופוסקות.

except for 3 of those cities, the population of which was double the number of those who left Egypt.

These are those three cities:

1. Kefar Bish,

2. Kefar Shiḥalayim,

3. and Kefar Dikhrayya.

The Talmud explains the meaning of these place-names:

1. Kefar Bish, “Evil Town”

   1. was called by that name because its inhabitants would not open their houses to guests.

2. Kefar Shiḥalayim

   1. was referred to by that name because their livelihood was derived from the cultivation of cress [shaḥalayim].

3. As for Kefar Dikhrayya, “Town of Males”

   1. R' Yoḥanan says: Their women would first give birth to boys, and afterward give birth to girls, and then they would stop having children.

Geographic Hyperbole and Metaphor

Ulla disputes the population claim, asserting the land couldn’t hold even 600,000 reeds.

A heretic accuses the rabbis of lying.

R' Ḥanina responds that Israel is called “a land of deer” (Jeremiah 3:19), which expands when settled and contracts when desolate, like deer hide shrinking after skinning.

אמר עולא:

לדידי חזי לי ההוא אתרא,

ואפילו שיתין ריבוותא קני לא מחזיק.

אמר ליה ההוא מינא לרבי חנינא: שקורי משקריתו!

אמר ליה:

״ארץ צבי״ כתיב בה,

• מה צבי זה –

  • אין עורו מחזיק את בשרו,

• אף ארץ ישראל –

  • בזמן שיושבין עליה — רווחא,

  • ובזמן שאין יושבין עליה — גמדא.

Ulla said:

I myself saw that place,

and it could not hold even 600,000 reeds, all the more so that number of people.

A certain heretic said to R' Ḥanina: You lie with your exorbitant exaggerations.

R' Ḥanina said to him:

With regard to Eretz Yisrael it is written: Land of the deer (see Jeremiah 3:19).

• Just as the skin of a deer --

  • cannot hold its flesh, for after the animal is skinned, its hide shrinks,

• so too, with regard to Eretz Yisrael --

  • when it is settled, it expands,

  • but when it is not settled, it contracts.

This explains how a place that is so small today could have been so highly populated prior to the Temple’s destruction.

Appendix - The Beitar Massacre (Gittin 57a, sections # 21-23)

Gittin.57a.21-23

אשקא דריספק חריב ביתר:

דהוו נהיגי כי הוה מתיליד

• ינוקא –

  • שתלי ארזא,

• ינוקתא –

  • שתלי תורניתא;

וכי הוו מינסבי,

קייצי להו ועבדי גננא.

§ It was stated earlier that the city of Beitar was destroyed on account of a shaft from a carriage.

The Talmud explains that it was customary in Beitar that when was born

• a boy --

  • they would plant a cedar tree

• and when a girl --

  • they would plant a cypress [tornita].

And when they would later marry each other

they would cut down these trees and construct a wedding canopy for them with their branches.

יומא חד

הוה קא חלפא ברתיה דקיסר,

אתבר שקא דריספק.

קצו ארזא

ועיילו לה.

אתו נפול עלייהו

מחונהו.

אתו אמרו ליה לקיסר: מרדו בך יהודאי!

אתא עלייהו.

One day

the emperor’s daughter passed by there

and the shaft of the carriage in which she was riding broke.

Her attendants chopped down a cedar from among those trees

and brought it to her.

Owing to the importance that they attached to their custom, the residents of Beitar came and fell upon them

and beat them.

The attendants came and said to the emperor: The Jews have rebelled against you.

The emperor then came against them in war.

R' Zeira citing R' Abbahu citing R' Yoḥanan - the Beitar Massacre (Lamentations 2:3)

״גדע בחרי אף כל קרן ישראל״ –

1. אמר רבי זירא

2. אמר רבי אבהו

3. אמר רבי יוחנן:

אלו שמונים [אלף] קרני מלחמה

שנכנסו לכרך ביתר בשעה שלכדוה,

והרגו בה אנשים ונשים וטף,

עד שהלך דמן ונפל לים הגדול.

שמא תאמר קרובה היתה?

רחוקה היתה מיל.

It was in connection with the war that ensued that the rabbis expounded the following verse: “He has cut off in His fierce anger all the horn of Israel” (Lamentations 2:3).

1. R' Zeira says that

2. R' Abbahu says that

3. R' Yoḥanan says:

These are the 80,000 officers bearing battle trumpets⁸ in their hands,

who entered the city of Beitar when the enemy took it (לכדוה)

and killed men, women, and children until their blood flowed into the Great Sea (=Mediterranean Sea)

Lest you say that the city was close to the sea,

know that it was a mil away.

R' Eliezer - the Huge Amount of Blood from the Massacre

תניא,

רבי אליעזר הגדול אומר:

שני נחלים יש בבקעת ידים,

אחד מושך אילך, ואחד מושך אילך,

ושיערו חכמים:

שני חלקים מים ואחד דם.

It is similarly taught in a baraita that

R' Eliezer the Great says:

There are two rivers in the Yadayim Valley⁹ in that region,

one flowing one way and one flowing the other way.

And the rabbis estimated that in the aftermath of this war these rivers were filled with

2 parts water to 1 part blood.

Baraita - Local vineyards were fertilized in the next 7 years with blood from the massacre

במתניתא תנא:

שבע שנים בצרו גוים את כרמיהן מדמן של ישראל,

בלא זבל.

Likewise, it was taught in a baraita:

For 7 years the non-Jews harvested their vineyards that had been soaked with the blood of Israel

without requiring any additional fertilizer¹⁰

1. Previous installments of the series:

• Two-part series, “The Origins of Tisha B’Av and the Chronology of Numbers 10-14: the Date of the Destructions of the Both Temples and the Biblical Spies Episode (Taanit 29a)”, final part here

• “Rome’s Hands, Jacob’s Voice: A Talmudic Lament Over the Destruction (Gittin 57b-58a)”

• Planned three-part series, “From Nero to Titus: The Siege of Jerusalem and the Destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans in 70 CE in Talmudic Retelling (Gittin 56a-b)”, Part 1 here

2. “the King's Mountain”.

On this place, see my note in “Abundance in Ancient Israel: Talmudic Accounts of Extraordinary Fruits and Families (Berakhot 44a)“, on section “King Yannai’s city on King’s Mountain that produced 600,000 bowls of sardines weekly for those cutting figs off the trees“.

See ibid., siting from Hebrew Wikipedia:

The name "Har HaMelech" has been identified with Herodium [an ancient fortress located 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) south of Jerusalem and 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) southeast of Bethlehem], the fortress of Herod the Great, King of Judea, and the city at its base, which he made the capital of a toparchy (the name "Herodium" is not mentioned in Talmudic literature) […]

“In the Midrash and Talmud, "Har HaMelech" is mentioned in proximity to Betar, suggesting the site's importance during the Bar Kokhba revolt.“

So, “mountain” in this name (King's Mountain”) may have originally referred to Herodium, or it may simply means “hills, elevated area”, referring to the Judean Hills; with “King” referring to either Herod or to Yannai (=Alexander Jannaeus).

For more on the destruction of Betar in the Talmud, see the appendix. And see Wikipedia, “Betar (ancient city)“, section “Early history“:

Following the destruction of Jerusalem during the First Jewish–Roman War, in 70 CE, Betar's importance grew. It is believed that early in Hadrian's rule, Jewish institutions relocated there, probably due to the city's proximity to the destroyed Jerusalem.

And ibid., section “Fall of Betar“:

During the Bar Kokhba revolt, Betar served as the final stronghold of Simon bar Kokhba, the leader of the uprising.

Multiple ancient Jewish sources […] mention the city, the siege, and the fate of its inhabitants.

And ibid., section “Aftermath“:

The destruction of Betar in 135 put an end to the Jewish–Roman wars against Rome, and effectively quashed any Jewish hopes for self-governance in that period.

Following the Fall of Betar, the Romans went on a systematic campaign of wiping out the remaining Judean villages, and hunting down refugees and the remaining rebels, with the last pockets of resistance being eliminated by the spring of 136, as mentioned in the chronicle of Cassius Dio.

The destruction of Betar by Roman troops, accompanied by the widespread killing of its residents, marked the end of habitation at the site.

And see ibid., sections “Massacre“ and “Legacy > Judaism“, for an overview of some of the early rabbinic sources that discuss the destruction of Betar and its legacy.

And see also the collection of sources in Hebrew Wikipedia, “ביתר“, section “ביתר במקורות התלמודיים“; and the extensive scholarly bibliography listed ibid., section “לקריאה נוספת“.

3. I quote this statement (of R’ Yoḥanan) in my “Talmudic Stories Relating to the Destruction of the Second Temple (Gittin 55b-56a)“, section “Story of Kamtza and Bar Kamtza“ (the discussion here is about list item #2; list item #3 is discussed in the appendix at the end of this piece):

אמר רבי יוחנן:

מאי דכתיב: ״אשרי אדם מפחד תמיד

ומקשה לבו יפול ברעה״?

1. אקמצא ובר קמצא

   1. חרוב ירושלים,

2. אתרנגולא ותרנגולתא

   1. חרוב טור מלכא,

3. אשקא דריספק

   1. חרוב ביתר

§ Apropos the war that led to the destruction of the Second Temple, the Gemara examines several aspects of the destruction of that Temple in greater detail:

R’ Yoḥanan said:

What is the meaning of that which is written:

“Happy is the man who fears always,

but he who hardens his heart shall fall into mischief” (Proverbs 28:14)?

1. on account of Kamtza and Bar-Kamtza —

   1. Jerusalem was destroyed

2. on account of a rooster and a hen —

   1. the place known as the King’s Mountain (טור מלכא) was destroyed

3. on account of a shaft from a chariot [rispak] —

   1. the city of Beitar was destroyed

4. אתמוהי קא מתמה.

On the general prevalence of rhetorical questions in the Talmud, see my previous piece.

5. דרקונא - from Greek ‘drakon’.

On death in an outhouse by a snake, see my “Pt2 Demons, Direction, and Decorum: A Talmudic Approach to Hygiene and Outhouse Use (Berakhot 61b-62b)“, section “Outhouse Story in Roman Eretz Yisrael: R’ Elazar, the Roman, and the Serpent“, where the same line appears:

אתא דרקונא,

שמטיה לכרכשיה

and a serpent came

and ripped out the intestines of the Roman.

And see my note on that piece for a list of several other Talmudic passages that reference the threat posed by poisonous snakes.

6. יוצאי מצרים - “those who left Egypt”; see a discussion of this number in Wikipedia:

• entry “The Exodus”, section “Reliability of the biblical account”

• Entry “Book of Numbers”, section “Census numbers”

I plan to further discuss the topic of large numbers in the Talmud.

7. On “Kefar Shiḥalayim”, see my notes on these pieces:

• “Pt3 Uncovered Liquids and Ritual Boundaries: Gentile Wine and the Risk of Snake Venom (Avodah Zarah 30a-31b)”, section “Rabbinic Concerns Over Non-Rabbinic Contamination: The Changing Status of Wine from Samaritan and Other Villages”.

• “Pt3 "Alas!": Thirteen Additional Stories Regarding the Reliability and Validity of Testimony About a Husband’s Death in the Context of Remarriage (Yevamot 121b-122b)”, section “Story of R’ Tarfon and Yohanan ben Yonatan Ari, from Kefar Shihlah”

8. קרני מלחמה - literally: “war horns”.

9. בקעת ידים - an otherwise unknown toponym.

10. זבל - “dung‏, manure‏‏‏‏”.