Bible Dictionary · A
Aven
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 Kgs 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.
Named in the Bible
3 verses
- Ezekiel 30:17 The young men of Aven and of Pibeseth shall fall by the sword: and these cities shall go into captivity.
- Hosea 10:8 The high places also of Aven, the sin of Israel, shall be destroyed: the thorn and the thistle shall come up on their altars; and they shall say to the mountains, Cover us; and to the hills, Fall on us.
- Amos 1:5 I will break also the bar of Damascus, and cut off the inhabitant from the plain of Aven, and him that holdeth the sceptre from the house of Eden: and the people of Syria shall go into captivity unto Kir, saith the LORD.
From Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897), by Matthew George Easton.
