the house of vanity; of iniquity of trouble
Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary
BETH-AVEN (house of iniquity, or idolatry?).Close to Ai (Jos_7:2), by the wilderness (Jos_18:12), north-west of Michmash (1Sa_13:5), and on the way to Aijalon (1Sa_14:23), still inhabited in the 8th cent. b.c. (Hos_5:8). The calves of Bethaven were probably those at Bethel close by (Hos_10:5). Bethel is probably meant also in Hos_4:15; Hos_5:8 (see Amo_5:5) Hos_10:8 (Aven).
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909
beth-ā?ven (בּית און, bēth 'āwen; Βαιθών, Baithō̇n, Βαιθαύν, Baithaún): A place on the northern boundary of the territory of Benjamin (Jos_18:12) East of Bethel, near Ai (Jos_7:2), West of Michmash (1Sa_13:5; 1Sa_14:23). Beth-aven, ?house of vanity,? i.e. ?idolatry,? may possibly represent an original beth-'on, ?house of wealth.? Wilson (PEFS, 1869, 126) suggests Khirbet An, West of Michmash. The name is used in mockery for Bethel by Hosea (Hos_4:15; Hos_10:5, Hos_10:8, etc.; compare Amo_5:5).
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.
Beth-aven
(Heb. Beyth A'ven, בֵּית אָוֶן, house of nothingness, i.e. wickedness, idolatry; Sept. usually Βαιθών v. r. Βηθαύν), a place on the mountains of Benjamin, east of Bethel (Jos_7:2, Sept. Βαιθήλ; 18:12), and lying between that place and Michmash (1Sa_13:5, Sept. Βαιθαβέν v. r. Βαιθωρών; also 14:23, Sept. τὴν Βαμώθ). In Jos_18:12, the wilderness (Midbar = pasture-land) of Beth-aven is mentioned. In Hos_4:15; Hos_5:8; Hos_10:5, the name is transferred, with a play on the word very characteristic of this prophet, to the neighboring Bethel once the house of God, but then the house of idols, of naught. The Talmudists accordingly everywhere confound Beth-aven with Bethel (comp. Schwarz, Palest. p. 89), the proximity of which may have occasioned the employment of the term as a nickname, after Bethel became the seat of the worship of the golden calves. SEE BETHEL. The name Beth-aven, however, was properly that of a locality distinct from Bethel (Jos_7:2, etc.), and appears to have been applied to a village located on the rocky eminence Burj Beitin, twenty minutes south-east of Beitin (Bethel), and twenty minutes west of Tell el-Hajar (Ai) (Van de Velde, Memoir, p. 294).
CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.