t So Noldeke, ZD},ia ilii. p. 4lS2 ; bat see Benzinger, HOyr. AreJiaolotjie, p. 12'>.
t Wellhanseii, Omjioiitim, p. 82 ; W. B. Smith. «eJ. ofSemUa, p. 110: Benzinger, ib. p. 376.
I W. R. Sin th, ib. 4, 187 ; Benzinger, ii. pp. 57, S80 ; NowBCk, Bebr. Archd^l. L p. 91 il. p. 9 ; Stade, Geschichle, I. p. 456. Thus htm-J paased Into Greek and La tin as ffairiijn and tattylia, the xi$tt ijwmf4i. )u8*i iu.l'vxt* (prob. aerolites), which were worshipped as divine. Curiims information on this subject may be fonnd in Buseb. Prwp. Evan}, i. 10, and In Photius, Bibliotheca, ccilii. p. 1062 f. Cf. also Lnclan, Ala. 80; Tac Ui4t. 11. S; Olem. Alex. SIrom. vii. p. 713. The sacrc^d stone of Mecca is a well-lcnowii example from Semitic paganism which baa siirTived In Islaau Stone-worehip ia alluded to in la 674.
Abijah, king of Judah, iS said to have taken Bethel from Jeroboam (2 Ch IS").
After its capture and occupation by the bouse of Joseph (Jg 1-"'^), Bethel became, together with Jericho, Ai, and Hebron, one of the principal settlements of the Israelites. Gilgal was the head- quarters at the first stage in the occtipation of the land, Bethel at the second ( Jg 2' LXX : dri ToXydX irl BojflTiX).*
In the period of the Judges Bethel became the chief religious centre of the northern tribes. The ark was stationed there (Jg 20'*) ; it was fre- quented as a place for sacrifice (Jg 2"' Budde, 1 S lU^), or for consulting the divine oracle (Jg 20'^ " 2r''), and the sanctuary was rendered accessible by roads (Jg 20^ 21"). In the neighbourhood was the palm under which Deborah the prophetess dwelt (Jg 4°) ; and, in a lat« passage, Samuel is said to have included Bethel in his yearly circuit (1 S 7'«).
The importance of the sanctuary was greatly increased by Jeroboam I. Its geographical posi- tion combined with political expediency to make it the religious capital of the N. kingdom. Here and at Dan the golden calves or steers were set up, and a form of J"-worship orgajiised in accordance with the practice of the popular religion ( 1 K 12^- •^j.t This no doubt provoked a certain amount of opposition from the prophets ; probably Ahijah disapproved of it (I K H*"-). 'The story of the ' man of God from Judah ' who cried against the altar of Bethel is, however, much later than this period, so that we cannot be sure how far it repre- sents the contemporary opinion of the prophets. The storj; is given in 1 K 13 (' Bethel,' vv.'- •'•"'• "■ '').X Elijah, Elisha, and Amos have nothing to say against the golden calves ; Elijah himself was sent to Bethel by the Lord (2 K 2").
In the reign of Ahab a Bethelite named Hiel rebuilt Jericho (1 K 16^).
The splendour and importance of the sanctuary increased with the prosperity of the N. kingdom. The worship instituted by Jeroboam had the support of Jehu (2 K 10^) ; but it was under Jeroboam II. that the great Ephraimite sanctuary reached the summit of its renown as 'a royal sanctuary and house of the kingdom' (Am 7"). It had its dignified priesthood (Am 7'") and college of prophets (2 K 2^; cf. 1 K 13") ; the ritual, the sacrifices, the public feasts, attained a degree of luxurious splendour unparalleled before. But all this went along with a deep-seated degradation, moral and religious. Amos gives a vivid picture of Bethel at this period. The sanctuary itself had become the seat of cruelty and extortion ; the sacred feasts, supported out of the tithes (4*),§ had de- generated into luxuiious banquets for the nobles at the expense of the poor (5"). Hence the sanctuary of Betiiel ia denounced in unmeasured terms both by Amos and Hosea (Am 3" 4*, Hos 10") ; it is threatened with severe visitation and overthrow of its altar (Am 9' 3" ' Bethel shall come to nought ' [Aven] 5'). II In Hosea, Beth-aven has become
•The Heb. text here is to be corrected from LXX. The latter, however, is not its original state, for iwi rit Kaa^m«'« sou is a gloss Inserted to satisfy the dubious C'23n Sm of the Heb. See Budde, Rickter u. Sam. pp. 20 f., 89. In t.» D'33 is in its right place. Wellhausen, Conp. p. 215, notes that D'33 was in the neighbourhood of Bethel (Gn 35S, ni33 ji'^x).
t The golden calvej* were not of Egyptian but of native origin. For th«^ iKipular worship of J" ouder the form of an image, see Jg 8-J7 174 181-1. J«. etc
: Driver, LOT, p. 183; Kaenen, Binttitung, U. p. 76 (Qerm. tians.).
{ See W. R. Smith, Rtl. o/Semita, p. 329 a. On 28-^. no doubt Justified and explained the cnstom of paying tithes at Bethel (Am 4*). See above.
( W. R. Smith, 0>. p. 470. Perhaps the altar was ' a pillar crowned by a sort of capital bearing a bowl,' serving as a kind of cresset. This would give additional fotva to the Language oi AxQoa in Oi.
BETH-EMEK
BETH-HACCHEKEM
ro
tlie desecrated name of Beth-el (4'^ u' lO'- ') : • the ralf-worship is for the first time emphatically denounced as the very root of Israel's sin.