‘House of nothing’ or ‘house of iniquity’ — a place beside Ai, east of Bethel, named as a landmark when Joshua sends spies to Ai (Joshua 7:2, now on these pages), and again on Benjamin’s border and in Saul’s Philistine war (Joshua 18:12; 1 Samuel 13:5; 14:23, none yet on these pages). The name stands in seven verses of the Hebrew Bible, and the last three are Hosea’s (4:15; 5:8; 10:5, not yet on these pages), where it is no longer a place but a sneer: Bethel, the house of God, renamed the house of nothing for the calf that stood in it. ⚠ Whether Hosea’s Beth-aven is this town or Bethel under an insult is argued; the site itself is unidentified, and the coordinates here are a guess placed between Bethel (Beitin) and et-Tell, where the text puts it. The Living Bible drops the name from Joshua 7:2 altogether.