'House of God' (Beit-El) — the site that gives Genesis one of its great scenes. Abram first camps east of it and builds his second altar (12:8), but the name is minted later, by his grandson: fleeing to Haran, Jacob sleeps here on a stone and dreams of a stairway between earth and heaven with angels ascending and descending, wakes crying 'this is the house of God, the gate of heaven,' sets his stone up as a pillar, and names the place Bethel — the city having been called LUZ before (28:11-19). He returns and re-consecrates it after Peniel (35). Centuries on it turns tragic: Jeroboam sets one of his two golden calves here to keep the northern kingdom from worshipping in Jerusalem (1 Kings 12:29), and the prophets thereafter pun its name to 'Beth-aven,' house of iniquity (Hosea 4:15; Amos names it a royal sanctuary he will smash). Identified with Beitin, north of Jerusalem.