When the men of Joseph spied out Bethel (it used to be called Luz),

The gift was for those in the following locations: ¹  for those in Bethel, ²  Ramoth Negev, and Jattir;

This caused Israel to sin; ¹  the people went to Bethel and Dan to worship the calves. ² 

So he started back on another road; he did not travel back on the same road he had taken to Bethel.

Some of the descendants of ¹  Benjamin settled in Geba, ²  Micmash, Aija, Bethel ³  and its villages,

A psalm of Asaph. God stands in ²  the assembly of El; ³  in the midst of the gods ⁴  he renders judgment. ⁵ 

The people of Moab will be disappointed by their god Chemosh. They will be as disappointed as the people of Israel were when they put their trust in the calf god at Bethel. ¹ 

Don’t prophesy at Bethel ¹  any longer, for a royal temple and palace are here!” ² 

Then he moved from there to the hill country east of Bethel ¹  and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the Lord and worshiped the Lord. ² 

“El, God, the Lord! ¹  El, God, the Lord! He knows the truth! ²  Israel must also know! If we have rebelled or disobeyed the Lord, ³  don’t spare us ⁴  today!

However, there is an annual festival to the Lord in Shiloh, which is north of Bethel ¹  (east of the main road that goes up from Bethel to Shechem) and south of Lebonah.”

Now there was an old prophet living in Bethel. ¹  When his sons came home, they told their father ²  everything the prophet ³  had done in Bethel that day and all the words he had spoken to the king. ⁴ 

Elijah told Elisha, “Stay here, for the Lord has sent me to Bethel.” ¹  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! ¹  Do not visit Gilgal! Do not journey down ²  to Beer Sheba! For the people of Gilgal ³  will certainly be carried into exile; ⁴  and Bethel will become a place where disaster abounds.” ⁵ 

Jeroboam inaugurated a festival on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, ¹  like the festival celebrated in Judah. ²  On the altar in Bethel he offered sacrifices to the calves he had made. ³  In Bethel he also appointed priests for the high places he had made.

So Hagar named the Lord who spoke to her, “You are the God who sees me,” ¹  for she said, “Here I have seen one who sees me!” ² 

I am the God of Bethel, ¹  where you anointed ²  the sacred stone and made a vow to me. ³  Now leave this land immediately ⁴  and return to your native land.’”

Then God said to Jacob, “Go up at once ¹  to Bethel ²  and live there. Make an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.” ³ 

Let us go up at once ¹  to Bethel. Then I will make ²  an altar there to God, who responded to me in my time of distress ³  and has been with me wherever I went.” ⁴ 

(Deborah, ¹  Rebekah’s nurse, died and was buried under the oak below Bethel; thus it was named ²  Oak of Weeping.) ³