place
Beth-ezel
בֵּית הָאֵצֶל
Beth-ezel was a town mentioned in Micah's prophecy, where the inhabitants could not offer support or refuge during a time of judgment. (Micah 1:11)
- verses
- 1
- first named
- Micah 1:11
- last named
- Micah 1:11
- feature
- settlement
- coordinates
- 31.47°N · 34.94°E
Deir al Asal al Fauqa (OpenBible)
The gazetteer records one identification, and no competing one.
Description
Beth-ezel in the text
Beth-ezel is mentioned only once in the Bible, in the book of Micah, as part of a series of prophetic oracles against the towns and cities of Judah. The name Beth-ezel means "house of rootedness" or "house of proximity" in Hebrew, possibly indicating its close proximity to another significant location.
In Micah 1:11, the prophet declares, "Pass on your way, inhabitants of Shaphir, in nakedness and shame; the inhabitants of Zaanan do not come out; the lamentation of Beth-ezel shall take away from you its standing place." This verse is part of a passage that describes the judgment coming upon various cities in Judah, using wordplay and poetic imagery to convey the message.
The exact location of Beth-ezel is unknown, but based on the context of Micah's prophecy, it was likely situated in the Shephelah region, the western foothills of Judah, near the Philistine border. The towns mentioned in the surrounding verses, such as Shaphir, Zaanan, and Maroth, are also believed to be in this general area.
Micah's prophecy suggests that Beth-ezel would be unable to provide support or refuge to the inhabitants of the nearby town of Zaanan during the coming judgment. The phrase "the lamentation of Beth-ezel shall take away from you its standing place" indicates that Beth-ezel itself would be affected by the calamity and unable to offer assistance.
The prophecy against Beth-ezel and the other towns in Judah serves as a warning of the impending judgment due to the people's sins and a call to repentance and humility before God. The fate of Beth-ezel is tied to the larger narrative of God's judgment against Judah and the surrounding nations.
Relations
Direct connections
Every relation is authored once and its inverse derived, so both ends of an edge always agree. Neither end of one reaches this entity.
Not stated
Nothing stands in a stated relation with this entity.
The pattern
Where Beth-ezel is named
Every book of the corpus in the order it is read, each as wide as the chapters it holds. A bar is the verses of that book which write the name, and the flat stretches are as much of the answer as the bars.
1 verse across 1 of 66 books; 65 write the name nowhere. Named in Micah (1).
Read it
Where to read it
Every verse of the text carried here that names this entity — one, across 1 book.
Onward
Where this page goes
Nothing in the graph stands one hop from this entity yet. These are the best-connected entities of the same type, so the page still ends somewhere. Descriptions by STEPBible TIPNR.
Where they appear
What happened here
Atlas's reading of each chapter this place appears in, in canonical order. One line per chapter, and each leads to the whole of it.
Sources