Bethuel

Bethuel ("dweller in God") was a Simeonite Negev town named in 1 Chronicles 4:30: "And at Bethuel, and at Hormah, and at Ziklag." The parallel list in Joshua 19:4 names the same site as "Bethul," with Bethuel being the longer form preserved in the Chronicler's genealogy. Not to be confused with Bethuel the father of Rebekah and Laban — a personal name from the patriarchal period. The Simeonite town lay in the western Negev between Beersheba and Ziklag, in the cluster of small frontier settlements that the tribe of Simeon held until being absorbed into Judah.