Places of the Bible

Bethel (of Palestine)

Bethel excavations 1934 · American Colony Photo Department / Matson Photo Service · Library of Congress, no known restrictions on publication

What happened here

Abraham enters Canaan · 1920 BC

Where the name appears

Events told in passages that name Bethel (of Palestine), and how many of their verses do. That is not the same as saying they happened here: a place can be named as a landmark, as somewhere being travelled to, or as the subject of a prophecy.

A dot is a moment; a bar is something that lasted, drawn to its length. The fainter the mark, the fewer verses name the place. The numbers are the lines below.

1 Abraham and Lot Separate · 1919 BC · 1 verse
2 Rachel dies giving birth to Benjamin · 1738 BC · 1 verse
3 War with Canaanites · 1450 BC · 5 verses
4 Deliverance by Barak And Deborah · 1277 BC · 1 verse
5 Reign of Saul · 1094 BC · 2 verses
6 Reign of Jeroboam I · 974 BC · 8 verses
7 Prophecies of Elijah · 909 BC · 2 verses
8 Elijah Translated · 896 BC · 2 verses
9 Prophecies of Elisha · 896 BC · 1 verse
10 Reign of Jehu · 885 BC · 1 verse
11 Prophecies of Amos · 787 BC · 6 verses
12 Prophecies of Hosea · 784 BC · 2 verses
13 Reign of Josiah · 640 BC · 4 verses
14 Prophecies of Jeremiah · 627 BC · 1 verse
15 Prophecies of Zechariah · 519 BC · 1 verse

Easton’s Bible Dictionary

A place in Central Palestine, about 10 miles north of Jerusalem, at the head of the pass of Michmash and Ai. It was originally the royal Canaanite city of Luz (Gen. 28:19). The name Bethel was at first apparently given to the sanctuary in the neighbourhood of Luz, and was not given to the city itself till after its conquest by the tribe of Ephraim. When Abram entered Canaan he formed his second encampment between Bethel and Hai (Gen. 12:8); and on his return from Egypt he came back to it, and again “called upon the name of the Lord” (13:4). Here Jacob, on his way from Beersheba to Haran, had a vision of the angels of God ascending and descending on the ladder whose top reached unto heaven (28:10, 19); and on his return he again visited this place, “where God talked with him” (35:1-15), and there he “built an altar, and called the place El-beth-el” (q.v.). To this second occasion of God’s speaking with Jacob at Bethel, Hosea (12:4, 5) makes reference.

In troublous times the people went to Bethel to ask counsel of God (Judg. 20:18, 31; 21:2). Here the ark of the covenant was kept for a long time under the care of Phinehas, the grandson of Aaron (20:26-28). Here also Samuel held in rotation his court of justice (1 Sam. 7:16). It was included in Israel after the kingdom was divided, and it became one of the seats of the worship of the golden calf (1 Kings 12:28-33; 13:1). Hence the prophet Hosea (Hos. 4:15; 5:8; 10:5, 8) calls it in contempt Beth-aven, i.e., “house of idols.” Bethel remained an abode of priests even after the kingdom of Israel was desolated by the king of Assyria (2 Kings 17:28, 29). At length all traces of the idolatries were extirpated by Josiah, king of Judah (2 Kings 23:15-18); and the place was still in existence after the Captivity (Ezra 2:28; Neh. 7:32). It has been identified with the ruins of Beitin, a small village amid extensive ruins some 9 miles south of Shiloh.

From M. G. Easton, Illustrated Bible Dictionary (1893), in the public domain.

Named in 62 verses

Genesis: 12:8, 13:3, 28:19, 31:13, 35:1, 35:3, 35:6, 35:8, 35:15, 35:16
Joshua: 7:2, 8:9, 8:12, 8:17, 12:9, 16:1, 16:2, 18:13, 18:22
Judges: 1:22, 1:23, 4:5, 20:18, 20:26, 20:31, 21:2, 21:19
1 Samuel: 7:16, 10:3, 13:2
1 Kings: 12:29, 12:32, 12:33, 13:1, 13:4, 13:10, 13:11, 13:32
2 Kings: 2:2, 2:3, 2:23, 10:29, 17:28, 23:4, 23:15, 23:17, 23:19
1 Chronicles: 7:28
2 Chronicles: 13:19
Ezra: 2:28
Nehemiah: 7:32, 11:31
Jeremiah: 48:13
Hosea: 10:15, 12:4
Amos: 3:14, 4:4, 5:5, 5:6, 7:10, 7:13
Zechariah: 7:2

The place, its people and its events come from Theographic, a knowledge graph of the Bible by Robert Rouse, used and shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.