town or village

Bethel

• Today Beitin
• Location disputed

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Questions

• Where was Bethel?

History

Bethel stood on the watershed road through the hills, about 18 km north of Jerusalem, near the border between the lands of Benjamin and Ephraim. Most scholars identify it with the village of Beitin, though other sites have been proposed. W. F. Albright and J. L. Kelso excavated there between 1927 and 1960 and found a walled town of the Middle Bronze Age and a burned Late Bronze Age town; the dating of several of its layers has been questioned since.

In Genesis Abraham pitches his tent between Bethel and Ai and builds an altar. Jacob dreams there of a ladder reaching to heaven and calls the place, earlier named Luz, Bethel, the house of God; returning from Haran, he builds an altar there again. In the time of the judges Israel sought the Lord at the house of God (Bethel in Hebrew), where the ark then stood, and Samuel judged the people there on his yearly circuit.

When the kingdom divided, Jeroboam set up a golden calf at Bethel and another at Dan, and Bethel became the royal sanctuary of Israel. Amos prophesied there against the house of Jeroboam II, and the priest Amaziah told him to flee to Judah and prophesy no more at Bethel. After the fall of Samaria an exiled priest was sent back to Bethel to teach the new settlers, and Josiah later tore down its altar. Men of Bethel are counted among those who returned from Babylon.

In the second century BC the Seleucid general Bacchides fortified Bethel against Jonathan Maccabeus. During the war against Rome Vespasian took it in AD 69. In the fourth century Eusebius knew it as a village twelve Roman miles from Jerusalem on the road to Neapolis, and Christian pilgrims came to see the place of Jacob's dream.

Scripture: Gen 12:8; Gen 28:10–19; Gen 35:1–7; Judg 20:26–27; 1 Sam 7:16; 1 Kgs 12:28–33; Amos 7:10–13; 2 Kgs 17:27–28; 2 Kgs 23:15; Ezra 2:28

Checked against its sources; not yet read by a historian.

Verses (69)

Gen 12:8

And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Beth-el, and pitched his tent, having Beth-el on the west, and Hai on the east: and there he builded an altar unto the LORD, and called upon the name of the LORD.

Gen 13:3

And he went on his journeys from the south even to Beth-el, unto the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Beth-el and Hai;

Gen 28:19

And he called the name of that place Beth-el: but the name of that city was called Luz at the first.

Gen 31:13

I am the God of Beth-el, where thou anointedst the pillar, and where thou vowedst a vow unto me: now arise, get thee out from this land, and return unto the land of thy kindred.

Gen 35:1

And God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Beth-el, and dwell there: and make there an altar unto God, that appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother.

Gen 35:3

And let us arise, and go up to Beth-el; and I will make there an altar unto God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which I went.

Gen 35:6

So Jacob came to Luz, which is in the land of Canaan, that is, Beth-el, he and all the people that were with him.

Gen 35:7

And he built there an altar, and called the place El-beth-el: because there God appeared unto him, when he fled from the face of his brother.

Gen 35:8

But Deborah Rebekah’s nurse died, and she was buried beneath Beth-el under an oak: and the name of it was called Allon-bachuth.

Gen 35:9

And God appeared unto Jacob again, when he came out of Padan-aram, and blessed him.

Gen 35:15

And Jacob called the name of the place where God spake with him, Beth-el.

Gen 35:16

And they journeyed from Beth-el; and there was but a little way to come to Ephrath: and Rachel travailed, and she had hard labour.

Josh 7:2

And Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is beside Beth-aven, on the east side of Beth-el, and spake unto them, saying, Go up and view the country. And the men went up and viewed Ai.

Josh 8:9

Joshua therefore sent them forth: and they went to lie in ambush, and abode between Beth-el and Ai, on the west side of Ai: but Joshua lodged that night among the people.

Josh 8:12

And he took about five thousand men, and set them to lie in ambush between Beth-el and Ai, on the west side of the city.

Josh 8:17

And there was not a man left in Ai or Beth-el, that went not out after Israel: and they left the city open, and pursued after Israel.

Josh 12:9

The king of Jericho, one; the king of Ai, which is beside Beth-el, one;

Josh 12:16

The king of Makkedah, one; the king of Beth-el, one;

Josh 16:1

And the lot of the children of Joseph fell from Jordan by Jericho, unto the water of Jericho on the east, to the wilderness that goeth up from Jericho throughout mount Beth-el,

Josh 16:2

And goeth out from Beth-el to Luz, and passeth along unto the borders of Archi to Ataroth,

Josh 18:13

And the border went over from thence toward Luz, to the side of Luz, which is Beth-el, southward; and the border descended to Ataroth-adar, near the hill that lieth on the south side of the nether Beth-horon.

Josh 18:22

And Beth-arabah, and Zemaraim, and Beth-el,

Judg 1:22

And the house of Joseph, they also went up against Beth-el: and the LORD was with them.

Judg 1:23

And the house of Joseph sent to descry Beth-el. (Now the name of the city before was Luz.)

Judg 4:5

And she dwelt under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Beth-el in mount Ephraim: and the children of Israel came up to her for judgment.

Judg 20:18

And the children of Israel arose, and went up to the house of God, and asked counsel of God, and said, Which of us shall go up first to the battle against the children of Benjamin? And the LORD said, Judah shall go up first.

Judg 20:23

(And the children of Israel went up and wept before the LORD until even, and asked counsel of the LORD, saying, Shall I go up again to battle against the children of Benjamin my brother? And the LORD said, Go up against him.)

Judg 20:26

Then all the children of Israel, and all the people, went up, and came unto the house of God, and wept, and sat there before the LORD, and fasted that day until even, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the LORD.

Judg 20:27

And the children of Israel enquired of the LORD, (for the ark of the covenant of God was there in those days,

Judg 20:31

And the children of Benjamin went out against the people, and were drawn away from the city; and they began to smite of the people, and kill, as at other times, in the highways, of which one goeth up to the house of God, and the other to Gibeah in the field, about thirty men of Israel.

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King James Version

Tours through this place

• Abraham's journey →
• Jacob →
• The kingdom divides →
• Elijah the prophet →
• Elisha the prophet →
• Josiah's reform →