Beth-aven

Beth-aven (literally "house of vanity" or "house of nothingness") was a place in the Benjaminite hill country east of Bethel (Joshua 7:2, Joshua 18:12, 1 Samuel 13:5, 1 Samuel 14:23). The prophet Hosea bitterly renamed Bethel itself "Beth-aven" — a wordplay turning "house of God" (Beth-El) into "house of nothingness" — as a denunciation of Jeroboam's golden-calf shrine there (Hosea 4:15, Hosea 5:8, Hosea 10:5). The exact original location is uncertain but lay in the high country near Ai and Bethel.