BETHEL 1
of the kingdom. It was during this period that Elijah visited Bethel, and that we hear of "sons of the prophets" as resident there (2 Kings ii, 2, 3), two facts apparently incompatible with the active existence of tli • < alf-worship. The mention of the bears so close to t!i • town (Hi, 23, 25) looks, too, as if the neighborhood ; much frequented at that time. But after his dastruction of the Baal worship throughout the coun- try, Jehu appears to have returned to the simpler and more nation d religion of the calves, and Bethel comes once more into view (2 Kings x, 29). Under the de- scendants of this king the place and the worship must have greatly flourished, for by the time of Jeroboam II, the great-grandson of Jehu, the rude village was a:ain a royal residence with a "king's house" (Amos vii, 13); there were palaces both for "winter" and "summer," "great houses" and "houses of ivory" (iii, 15), and a very high degree of luxury in dress, furniture, and living (vi, 4-6). The one original altar was now accompanied by several others (iii, 14; ii, 8); and the simple "incense" of its founder had developed into the "burnt-offerings" and "meat-offerings" of "solemn assemblies," with the fragrant " peace-offer- ings" of "fat beasts" (v, 21, 22).
Bethel was the scene of the paradoxical tragedy of the prophet from Judah, who denounced the divine vengeance against Jeroboam's altar, and was after- ward slain by a lion for disobeying the Lord's injunc- tions, being seduced by the false representations of another prophet residing there, by whom his remains were interred, and thus both were eventually preserved from profanation (1 Kings xiii ; 2 Kings xxiii, 16-18). Josephus gives the name of the prophet from Judah as .Tad m, and adds an extended account of the character of the old Bethelite prophet {Ant. viii, 9), which he paints in the darkest hues (see Kitto's Daily Bible Must. ; Patrick's ami Clarke's Comment., in loe.) The lion probably issued from the grove adjoining Bethel (comp. 2 K ings ii, 23, 24). (See Keil, Com. on Josh. p. 180-182 ; Stiebritz, be prophet a a leone necato, Hal. 1733).
After the desolation of the northern kingdom by the King of Assyria, Bethel still remained an abode of priests, who taught the wretched colonists "how to fear Jehovah," "the God of the land" (2 Kings xvii, 28, J'.» i. The buildings remained till all traces of this illegal worship were extirpated by Josiah, king of Judah, who thus fulfilled a prophecy made to Jeroboam 850 years before (2 Kings xiii, i, 2; xxiii, 15-18). Th • place was still in existence after the captivity, and was in the possession of the Benjamites (Ezra ii, 28; Noli, vii, 32), who returned to their native place while continuing their relations with Nehemiah and the restored worship (Neh. xi, 31). In the time of the Maccabees Bethel was fortified by Bacehides for the King of Syria (Joseph. Antiq. xiii, 1, 1:',). It is not n on sd in tlm New Testament, but it still existed and v.a- taken by Vespasian (Josephus, War, iv, 9, 9). Bethel is mentioned by Eusebius and Jerome in the Mem (<. v. H«(3ri//\, Bethel) as 12 miles from Jerus dem, on the right hand of the road to Sichem.
B -lb ■] and its name were believed to have perished until within these few years; yet it has been ascer- tained by the Protestant missionaries at Jerusalem that th- name ami a knowledge) of the site still existed
among the i pie of the laud. The name was indeed
preserved in the f- »nu of Beifin—iha Arabic termina- tion ,„ for tic- Hebrew el beingnot an unusual change.
Its identity with Bethel had been r< gnised by the
Oriental Christian priests, who endeavored to bring int.. us s the Arabic form Beitil, as being nearer to the original; bul it had not ton, id currency beyond the chrcle of their influence. The situation of Beit'in cor- responds very exactly with the intimations afforded bios and others, the distance fr.au Jerusalem lieing :s ; hours. Th.- nun- ,,,,,, „,• a >|i;„.(. ,,,- .. ,1,,.,,,, , ,. four acres," and oonaist of •■very many foundations und half-standing walla uf houses and other buildings,"
6 BETHER
" They lie upon the front of a low hill, between the heads of two hollow wadys, which unite and run off into the main valley es-Suweinit"(Robinson,/?ese«/(7w, ii, 125, 126). Dr. Clarke, and other travellers since his visit, have remarked on the " stony" nature of the soil at Bethel as perfectly in keeping with the narrative of Jacob's slumber there. When on the spot little doubt can be felt as to the localities of this interesting place. The round mount S.E. of Bethel must be the "mountain" on which Abrain built the altar, and or. which he and Lot stood when the}' made their division of the land (Gen. xii, 7; xiii, 10). It is still thickly strewn to its top with stones formed by nature for the building of an " altar" or sanctuary. (See Stanley, Si- nai and Palest, p. 217-223). The spot is shut in by high- er land on every side. The ruins are more considerable than those of a "large village," as the place was. in the time of Jerome ; and it is therefore likely that, al- though unnoticed in history, it afterward revived and was enlarged. The ruined churches upon the site and beyond the valley evince that it was a place of import- ance even down to the Middle Ages. Besides these, there yet remain numerous foundations and half-stand- ing walls of houses and other buildings : on the highest part are the ruins of a square tower, and in the western valley arc the remains of one of the largest reservoirs in the country, being 314 feet in length by 217 in breadth. The bottom is now a green grass-plat, hav- ing in it two living springs of good water. (See Hack- ett's Illustra. of Script, p. 171-178).