aven Summary and Overview

nothingness; vanity. (1.) Hosea speaks of the "high places of Aven" (10:8), by which he means Bethel. He also calls it Beth-aven, i.e., "the house of vanity" (4:15), on account of the golden calves Jeroboam had set up there (1 Kings 12:28). (2.) Translated by the LXX. "On" in Ezek. 30:17. The Egyptian Heliopolis or city of On (q.v.). (3.) In Amos 1:5 it denotes the Syrian Heliopolis, the modern Baalbec.

(nothingness). 1. The "plain of Aven" is mentioned by #Am 1:5| in his denunciation of Syria and the country to the north of Israel. This Aven is by some supposed to be the once magnificent Heiropolis, "city of I the sun," now Baalbek (Bal'bek) of Coele-Syria, whose ruins are one of the wonders of the ages. It was situated in a plain near the foot of the Anti-Libanus range of mountains, 42 miles northwest of Damascus. It is famous for the colossal ruins of its temples, one of which with its courts and porticos, extended over 1000 feet in length. The temples were built of marble or limestone and granite. Some of the columns were 7 feet in diameter and 62 feet high, or including capital and pedestal, 89 feet. Some of the building-stones were 64 feet long and 12 feet thick. The temples are of Roman origin. 2. In #Ho 10:8| the word is clearly an abbreviation of Bethaven, that is, Bethel. Comp. #Ho 4:15| etc. 3. The sacred city of Heliopolis or On, in Egypt. #Eze 30:17|

A'VEN (nothingness). (1). A plain, probably of Lebanon. Am 1:6. (2). Same as Beth-aven. Hos 10:5, 1 Kgs 15:8. See Baalbec. (3). The city of On or Heliopolis, in Egypt. Eze 30:17.

("nothingness, vanity".) (Amos 1:5.) A plain in Syria, "the plain of Aven," i.e. idols threatened with depopulation, probably for idolatry. Probably the great plain of Lebanon, Coele-Syria (included in the Scripture designation, "Syria of Damascus"), in which the idol temple of Baalbek or Heliopolis, the city of the sun god Baal, stood. The Hebrew in Amos 1:5 (see margin) and Joshua 11:17; Joshua 12:7, for this "plain" or "valley," is Biqu'ah; the very name it still retains, el Buka'a. Aven is the contemptuous term appended to stigmatize its vanity, with all its idolatrous pomp, just as Hosea 5:8 calls Bethel, where the idol calf was set up, Bethaven.