Bethel
בֵּֽיתְ־אֵל · bet-el · H1008Gבֵּית הָאֱלִי · bet ha.e.li · H10174 other spellings69 mentions in 14 books, most in Genesis (12)
Where it is
31.93° N, 35.22° E
Coordinates and map: OpenBible.info Bible Geocoding · CC BY 4.0 · drawn without map tiles
Mentioned most in
Counted from 69 references · STEPBible, Tyndale House Cambridge · CC BY 4.0
About this place
Bethel, meaning "house of God" in Hebrew, was an important city in ancient Israel, located about 10 miles north of Jerusalem. It is mentioned numerous times throughout the Old Testament and is closely associated with the patriarchs Abraham and Israel (or 'Jacob').
The city was originally called Luz (Genesis 28:19; 35:6; 48:3; Judges 1:23) and was renamed Bethel by Jacob after his vision of a ladder reaching to heaven (Genesis 28:10-22). In this vision, God confirmed the covenant He had made with Abraham and promised to be with Jacob wherever he went. Jacob set up a stone pillar at the site, anointed it with oil, and made a vow to God.
Abraham had previously built an altar between Bethel and Ai (Genesis 12:8; 13:3), and Jacob later returned to Bethel, where he built an altar and received a renewed promise from God (Genesis 35:1-15). The place was also called El-bethel, meaning "God of Bethel" (Genesis 35:7).
During the period of the judges, Deborah held court under a palm tree between Ramah and Bethel (Judges 4:5), and the Israelites went up to Bethel to seek guidance from God (Judges 20:18, 26; 21:2). The Ark of the Covenant was temporarily located at Bethel (Judges 20:27).
After the division of the kingdom, Jeroboam I set up a golden calf at Bethel to prevent the people from going to Jerusalem to worship (1Ki.12.28-33). This act led to Bethel becoming a major center of idolatry, and the prophets Amos and Hosea condemned the worship there (Amo.3.14; 4:4; 5:5-6; 7:10, 13; Hosea 10:5, 8, 15).
The city was called Aven, meaning "wickedness," by Hosea (Hosea 10:8) and Beth-aven, meaning "house of wickedness," in other passages (Joshua 7:2; 18:12; 1Sa.13.5; 14:23), likely referring to its association with idolatry.
Bethel was destroyed by King Josiah during his religious reforms (2Ki.23.4, 15-19) but was later resettled after the Babylonian exile (Ezra 2:28; Nehemiah 7:32; 11:31).
The city was also known as Bochim, meaning "weepers," in Judges 2:1, 5, where an angel of the Lord rebuked the Israelites for their disobedience.
Bethel played a significant role in Israel's history, serving as a place of worship, a center of idolatry, and a symbol of God's presence and promises to His people.
Article: STEPBible, Tyndale House Cambridge · CC BY 4.0
Every mention
69 references, counted from STEPBible, Tyndale House Cambridge · CC BY 4.0 · verse text: World English Bible (public domain)
Genesis12 mentions
Genesis 12:8He left from there to go to the mountain on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west, and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to Yahweh and called on Yahweh’s…Genesis 13:3He went on his journeys from the South as far as Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai,Genesis 28:19He called the name of that place Bethel, but the name of the city was Luz at the first.Genesis 31:13I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar, where you vowed a vow to me. Now arise, get out from this land, and return to the land of your birth.’”Genesis 35:1God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel, and live there. Make there an altar to God, who appeared to you when you fled from the face of Esau your brother.”Genesis 35:3Let’s arise, and go up to Bethel. I will make there an altar to God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me on the way which I went.”Genesis 35:6So Jacob came to Luz (that is, Bethel), which is in the land of Canaan, he and all the people who were with him.Genesis 35:7He built an altar there, and called the place El Beth El; because there God was revealed to him, when he fled from the face of his brother.Genesis 35:8Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died, and she was buried below Bethel under the oak; and its name was called Allon Bacuth.Genesis 35:15Jacob called the name of the place where God spoke with him “Bethel”.Genesis 35:16They traveled from Bethel. There was still some distance to come to Ephrath, and Rachel travailed. She had hard labor.Genesis 48:3Jacob said to Joseph, “God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and blessed me,
Joshua10 mentions
Joshua 7:2Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is beside Beth Aven, on the east side of Bethel, and spoke to them, saying, “Go up and spy out the land.” The men went up and spied out Ai.Joshua 8:9Joshua sent them out; and they went to set up the ambush, and stayed between Bethel and Ai on the west side of Ai; but Joshua stayed among the people that night.Joshua 8:12He took about five thousand men, and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of the city.Joshua 8:17There was not a man left in Ai or Bethel who didn’t go out after Israel. They left the city open, and pursued Israel.Joshua 12:9the king of Jericho, one; the king of Ai, which is beside Bethel, one;Joshua 12:16the king of Makkedah, one; the king of Bethel, one;Joshua 16:1The lot came out for the children of Joseph from the Jordan at Jericho, at the waters of Jericho on the east, even the wilderness, going up from Jericho through the hill country to Bethel.Joshua 16:2It went out from Bethel to Luz, and passed along to the border of the Archites to Ataroth;Joshua 18:13The border passed along from there to Luz, to the side of Luz (also called Bethel), southward. The border went down to Ataroth Addar, by the mountain that lies on the south of Beth Horon…Joshua 18:22Beth Arabah, Zemaraim, Bethel,
Judges10 mentions
Judges 1:22The house of Joseph also went up against Bethel, and Yahweh was with them.Judges 1:23The house of Joseph sent to spy out Bethel. (The name of the city before that was Luz.)Judges 2:1Yahweh’s angel came up from Gilgal to Bochim. He said, “I brought you out of Egypt, and have brought you to the land which I swore to give your fathers. I said, ‘I will never break my…Judges 2:5They called the name of that place Bochim, and they sacrificed there to Yahweh.Judges 4:5She lived under Deborah’s palm tree between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim; and the children of Israel came up to her for judgment.Judges 20:18The children of Israel arose, went up to Bethel, and asked counsel of God. They asked, “Who shall go up for us first to battle against the children of Benjamin?” Yahweh said, “Judah first.”Judges 20:26Then all the children of Israel and all the people went up, and came to Bethel, and wept, and sat there before Yahweh, and fasted that day until evening; then they offered burnt offerings…Judges 20:31The children of Benjamin went out against the people, and were drawn away from the city; and they began to strike and kill of the people as at other times, in the highways, of which one…Judges 21:2The people came to Bethel and sat there until evening before God, and lifted up their voices, and wept severely.Judges 21:19They said, “Behold, there is a feast of Yahweh from year to year in Shiloh, which is on the north of Bethel, on the east side of the highway that goes up from Bethel to Shechem, and on the…
1 Samuel3 mentions
1 Samuel 7:16He went from year to year in a circuit to Bethel, Gilgal, and Mizpah; and he judged Israel in all those places.1 Samuel 10:3“Then you will go on forward from there, and you will come to the oak of Tabor. Three men will meet you there going up to God to Bethel: one carrying three young goats, and another…1 Samuel 13:2Saul chose for himself three thousand men of Israel, of which two thousand were with Saul in Michmash and in the Mount of Bethel, and one thousand were with Jonathan in Gibeah of Benjamin.…
1 Kings9 mentions
1 Kings 12:29He set the one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan.1 Kings 12:32Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like the feast that is in Judah, and he went up to the altar. He did so in Bethel, sacrificing to the…1 Kings 12:33He went up to the altar which he had made in Bethel on the fifteenth day in the eighth month, even in the month which he had devised of his own heart; and he ordained a feast for the…1 Kings 13:1Behold, a man of God came out of Judah by Yahweh’s word to Bethel; and Jeroboam was standing by the altar to burn incense.1 Kings 13:4When the king heard the saying of the man of God, which he cried against the altar in Bethel, Jeroboam put out his hand from the altar, saying, “Seize him!” His hand, which he put out…1 Kings 13:10So he went another way, and didn’t return by the way that he came to Bethel.1 Kings 13:11Now an old prophet lived in Bethel, and one of his sons came and told him all the works that the man of God had done that day in Bethel. They also told their father the words which he had…1 Kings 13:32For the saying which he cried by Yahweh’s word against the altar in Bethel, and against all the houses of the high places which are in the cities of Samaria, will surely happen.”1 Kings 16:34In his days Hiel the Bethelite built Jericho. He laid its foundation with the loss of Abiram his firstborn, and set up its gates with the loss of his youngest son Segub, according to…
2 Kings9 mentions
2 Kings 2:2Elijah said to Elisha, “Please wait here, for Yahweh has sent me as far as Bethel.” Elisha said, “As Yahweh lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you.” So they went down to Bethel.2 Kings 2:3The sons of the prophets who were at Bethel came out to Elisha, and said to him, “Do you know that Yahweh will take away your master from over you today?” He said, “Yes, I know it. Hold…2 Kings 2:23He went up from there to Bethel. As he was going up by the way, some youths came out of the city and mocked him, and said to him, “Go up, you baldy! Go up, you baldy!”2 Kings 10:29However, Jehu didn’t depart from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, with which he made Israel to sin—the golden calves that were in Bethel and that were in Dan.2 Kings 17:28So one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and lived in Bethel, and taught them how they should fear Yahweh.2 Kings 23:4The king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, and the priests of the second order, and the keepers of the threshold, to bring out of Yahweh’s temple all the vessels that were made for Baal…2 Kings 23:15Moreover the altar that was at Bethel and the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, had made, even that altar and the high place he broke down; and he burned…2 Kings 23:17Then he said, “What monument is that which I see?” The men of the city told him, “It is the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and proclaimed these things that you have done…2 Kings 23:19All the houses also of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to provoke Yahweh to anger, Josiah took away, and did to them according to all…
1 Chronicles1 mention
2 Chronicles1 mention
Nehemiah2 mentions
Jeremiah1 mention
Hosea3 mentions
Hosea 10:8The high places also of Aven, the sin of Israel, will be destroyed. The thorn and the thistle will come up on their altars. They will tell the mountains, “Cover us!” and the hills, “Fall…Hosea 10:15So Bethel will do to you because of your great wickedness. At daybreak the king of Israel will be destroyed.Hosea 12:4Indeed, he struggled with the angel, and prevailed; he wept, and made supplication to him. He found him at Bethel, and there he spoke with us—
Amos6 mentions
Amos 3:14“For in the day that I visit the transgressions of Israel on him, I will also visit the altars of Bethel; and the horns of the altar will be cut off, and fall to the ground.Amos 4:4“Go to Bethel, and sin; to Gilgal, and sin more. Bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three days,Amos 5:5but don’t seek Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and don’t pass to Beersheba; for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nothing.Amos 5:6Seek Yahweh, and you will live, lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and it devour, and there be no one to quench it in Bethel.Amos 7:10Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you in the middle of the house of Israel. The land is not able to bear all his words.Amos 7:13but don’t prophesy again any more at Bethel; for it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is a royal house!”
What the dictionary says
House of God.
Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897)
Read the article →Sources
- STEPBible TIPNR · Translators Individualised Proper Names with all References · CC BY 4.0 · github.com/STEPBible/STEPBible-Data
- OpenBible.info Bible Geocoding · CC BY 4.0 · www.openbible.info/geo/