BETHEL (Heb. "

See also:

• HOUSE
• HOUSE (O. Eng. hiss, a word common to Teutonic languages, cf. Dut. huis, Ger. Haus; in Gothic it is only found in gudhiss, a temple; it may be ultimately connected with the root of " hide," conceal)

House of

See also:

• GOD

God ")  , originally called Luz, an ancient city of Palestine, on the N.W. border of the tribe of Benjamin, 11 m . N. of Jerusalem and nearly 2900 ft. above sea-level . From very early times it was a holy place, a circumstance probably due primarily to a very extraordinary group of boulders and rock-outcrops north of the town . Abraham recognized its sanctity (Gen. xii . 8); Jacob, in ignorance, slept in the sacred enclosure and was granted a vision (" Jacob's ladder," Gen. xxviii) . For a while the ark seems to have been deposited here (Judg. xx . 27), and it was a place for consulting the oracle (Judg. xx . 18) . At the secession of the northern kingdom under jeroboam, Bethel became a royal residence and a national shrine (r Kings xii . 29-31, Amos vii . 13), for which its position at the junction of main roads from N. to S. and E. to W. well fitted it . It was taken from Jeroboam by Abijah, king of Judah (2 Chr. xiii .

19) . It seems to have continued to flourish down into the

Christian era; remains of its ecclesiastical buildings still exist . The present village, which bears the name of Beitin, occupies about three or four acres, and has a population of 2000 .