Beth-aven

Biblical Texts

Beth-aven appears in several passages of the Old Testament.

• Joshua 7:2: When Joshua sends spies from Jericho, the town of Ai is described as being "beside Bethaven, on the east side of Bethel."
• Joshua 18:12: In tracing the northern boundary of the territory of the tribe of Benjamin, the text describes it as running through "the wilderness of Bethaven."
• 1 Samuel 13:5; 14:23: In the time of Saul, the Philistine army "pitched in Michmash, eastward from Bethaven." After the surprise attack by Jonathan, the battle in which Israel prevailed "passed over unto Bethaven."
• Hosea 4:15; 5:8; 10:5: The prophet Hosea warns the northern kingdom of Israel, "neither go ye up to Bethaven." He also declares that the inhabitants of Samaria "shall fear because of the calves of Bethaven." The phrase "the high places also of Aven" in Hosea 10:8 is regarded as a variant of the same name.

Name and Background

Beth-aven combines the Hebrew words beth ("house") and aven, a word meaning wickedness, iniquity, vanity, or emptiness. By contrast, Bethel means "house of God," the name Jacob gave to the place where he encountered God (Genesis 28:19).

After the division of the kingdom, Jeroboam of the northern kingdom set up golden calves at Bethel and Dan (1 Kings 12:28–29), and Bethel thereafter became a center of worship for the northern kingdom. Hosea is understood to have responded to this situation by renaming the "house of God" the "house of vanity." Many interpreters also read Amos 5:5, "Bethel shall come to nought," as a wordplay in the Hebrew original meaning "Bethel shall become aven."

Interpretation and Issues

The Beth-aven of Joshua and 1 Samuel is a place distinct from Bethel, since the text names the two separately in the phrase "beside Bethaven, on the east side of Bethel." Scholars therefore generally distinguish two uses of the name.

• An actual place name: A site east of Bethel, in the vicinity of Ai and Michmash. Several candidate sites have been proposed, but its exact location has not been determined.
• A derisive name: The name used in Hosea to refer to Bethel.

The view that Hosea borrowed the name of an existing nearby place in order to satirize Bethel is widely accepted. Some, however, hold that passages such as Hosea 5:8, where Beth-aven appears alongside Gibeah and Ramah, should be read as referring to the actual place. Scholars differ in their judgment on this question.

Significance in the Wider Biblical Canon

The name Beth-aven does not appear in the New Testament. Some interpreters, however, see the warning embodied in the name as continuing in other New Testament teachings: even a holy place where God was encountered can become a place of vanity through idolatry. On this reading, the warning is linked with John 4:20–23, which emphasizes worship "in spirit and in truth" over any particular place, and with 1 John 5:21, which exhorts believers to keep themselves from idols.