A city famous for its shrine, on the boundary between Ephraim and Judea�the site of the present little village of B�it�n, on the southern slope of the Ephraimitic mountains. (See illustration on page 120.) Originally the town was called Luz (Genesis 28:19); but this name was displaced by that of the shrine, Beth-el ("house of God"). According to Genesis 12:8, Abram erected an altar east of Beth-el; but the erection of the shrine�that is, of the holy stone�is ascribed to Jacob (Genesis 28:18; compare Genesis 35:6,14). Since in these narratives (Genesis 28:19, 35:7) Beth-el, "the holy place," is distinguished from the city Luz, the shrine must have been outside the city. A suitable place would be the hill to the east of B�it�n, where now are the ruins of a small fort. But Schlatter ("Zur Topographie Pal�stina's," pp. 236 et seq.), who thinks that the name Beth-aven in the Old Testament (Hosea 4:15 et seq.) is merely a sarcastic disguise of "Beth-el" (so also the Talmud; Neubauer, "G. T." p. 155), concludes from Joshua 7:2 (compare Genesis 12:8) that the shrine must be sought somewhat more to the east at Deir D�w�n. The statement in the text of Joshua 7:2, and Joshua 16:3, also, which places Beth-el, together with Luz, on the boundary-line of Ephraim, can not, for textual reasons (compare the Septuagint reading), be taken as a conclusive proof that the shrine was at a great distance from the city. According to Judges 20:18,26 et seq., the shrine was of great importance in the days of the Judges; still more so after the division of the kingdoms, when Jeroboam made it the chief Ephraimitic shrine (1 Kings 12:29 et seq.; compare 2 Kings 10:29), "the king's chapel," as it is called in Amos 7:13. At the time of Elisha there was a community of prophets at Beth-el (2 Kings 2:3). The oldest prophets name Beth-el as one of the centers of degenerate Israelite cult (Amos 3:14, 4:4, 5:5; compare Hosea 4:15, 5:8, 10:5). Amos came into the city at a great feast, and raised a storm of indignation among the priesthood and the people by his merciless condemnation of Israel (Amos 7:10 et seq.).
Even after the conquest of Ephraim the shrine of Beth-el retained its importance (2 Kings 17:28). When Josiah took possession of this old part of the Ephraimitic dominions he uprooted the illegitimate cult (2 Kings 23:15). After the Exile, Beth-el belonged to Judea (Ezra 2:28). At the time of the Maccabees it is sometimes named as the seat of Syrian garrisons (I Macc. 9:50). Otherwise, the place is only mentioned by the first Christian topographer, the Pilgrim of Bordeaux, and by Eusebius, as a small country town. In Lam. R. 2:3 it is stated that Hadrian placed a guard at Beth-el to capture Jewish fugitives.