Beth-el. Beth-aven.

It is said of Deborah, that she lived "between Ramah and Beth-el in mount Ephraim," Judges 4:5: where the Targum thus; "She had gardens in Ramatha, olive-trees making oil in the valley, a house of watering in Beth-el." Not that Beth-el properly was in the hill-country of Ephraim, since that town stood upon the very boundaries of Judea; but that the dwelling of Deborah was at the beginning of that hill-country, a valley running between that hill-country and those boundaries. Beth-el itself was situate in a hilly country, Joshua 16:1; which yet one would scarcely call the hill-country of Ephraim (since there was a time, when Beth-el and her towns belonged to Judea, 2 Chronicles 13:19: hence the idolatry of those of Judah is sometimes mixed with the Ephraimites', of which they hear often enough from the prophets); but it was a certain hilly place, running out between Judea and the land of Ephraim: see Joshua 18:12.

On the east of Beth-el heretofore was Hai, Genesis 12:8; Joshua 8:9, &c. But upon the very first entrance almost of Israel into the land of promise, it became thenceforth of no name, being reduced into eternal ashes by Joshua. The town Beth-aven was not far from it, Joshua 7:2, which gave name to the wilderness adjacent, Joshua 18:12. In which we suppose Ephraim stood, 2 Chronicles 13:19. Which Ephraim, in the New Testament, is called "the region near the wilderness," John 11:54; concerning which we shall speak afterward.