Elijah told Elisha, “Stay here, for the Lord has sent me to Bethel.” But Elisha said, “As certainly as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you.” So they went down to Bethel.

Do not seek Bethel! Do not visit Gilgal! Do not journey down to Beer Sheba! For the people of Gilgal will certainly be carried into exile; and Bethel will become a place where disaster abounds.”

Let us go up at once to Bethel. Then I will make an altar there to God, who responded to me in my time of distress and has been with me wherever I went.”

Jacob and all those who were with him arrived at Luz (that is, Bethel) in the land of Canaan.

He built an altar there and named the place El Bethel because there God had revealed himself to him when he was fleeing from his brother.

(Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died and was buried under the oak below Bethel; thus it was named Oak of Weeping.)

They traveled on from Bethel, and when Ephrath was still some distance away, Rachel went into labor – and her labor was hard.

He took five thousand men and set an ambush west of the city between Bethel and Ai.

No men were left in Ai or Bethel; they all went out after Israel. They left the city wide open and chased Israel.

The land allotted to Joseph’s descendants extended from the Jordan at Jericho to the waters of Jericho to the east, through the desert and on up from Jericho into the hill country of Bethel.

She would sit under the Date Palm Tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the Ephraimite hill country. The Israelites would come up to her to have their disputes settled.

So the people came to Bethel and sat there before God until evening, weeping loudly and uncontrollably.

Year after year he used to travel the circuit of Bethel, Gilgal, and Mizpah; he used to judge Israel in all of these places.

Just then a prophet from Judah, sent by the Lord, arrived in Bethel, as Jeroboam was standing near the altar ready to offer a sacrifice.

So one of the priests whom they had deported from Samaria went back and settled in Bethel. He taught them how to worship the Lord.

Their property and settlements included Bethel and its surrounding towns, Naaran to the east, Gezer and its surrounding towns to the west, and Shechem and its surrounding towns as far as Ayyah and its surrounding towns.

So will it happen to you, O Bethel, because of your great wickedness! When that day dawns, the king of Israel will be destroyed.

He struggled with an angel and prevailed; he wept and begged for his favor. He found God at Bethel, and there he spoke with him!

“Certainly when I punish Israel for their covenant transgressions, I will destroy Bethel’s altars. The horns of the altar will be cut off and fall to the ground.

“Go to Bethel and rebel! At Gilgal rebel some more! Bring your sacrifices in the morning, your tithes on the third day!