벧엘 은 하나님의 집이라는 뜻으로 예루살렘 북쪽에 있는 지역이다. 원래 이름은
루스 이며, 성경에는
Jerusalem 다음으로 많이 언급되는 곳이다.
야곱 이
Esau 를 피하여
하란 으로 가는 길에 꿈에 하나님의 사다리를 본 후 "벧엘(하나님의 집)"이라고 이름 지었다.
He called the name of that place Bethel , but the name of the city was Luz at the first.
He built an altar there, and called the place El Beth El; because there God was revealed to him, when he fled from the face of his brother.
Judge 시절에도 정치적으로 종교적으로 중요한 위치를 차지했던 곳으로,
Deborah 가 이곳에 살며 재판을 했다.
She lived under Deborah’s palm tree between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim ; and the children of Israel came up to her for judgment.
또한
사사기 20장 을 보면 법궤가 이곳에 있으며 사실상 성소의 역할을 했던 것을 알 수 있다. 또한
Samuel 시대에 까지 지속되었음을 알 수 있다.
“Then you will go on forward from there, and you will come to the oak of Tabor. Three men will meet you there going up to God to Bethel , one carrying three young goats, and another carrying three loaves of bread, and another carrying a container of wine.
한편,
Solomon 사후 분열된
Northern Kingdom of Israel 에서는
Jeroboam I 가 예루살렘을 대항하여 이곳에 성소를 지었다.
그러나
레위인 이 아닌 보통 백성을 제사장으로 세웠고, 또 금송아지를 만들어 두어 우상숭배의 본거지가 되게 하였다.
27 If this people goes up to offer sacrifices in Yahweh’s house at Jerusalem , then the heart of this people will turn again to their lord, even to Rehoboam king of Judah; and they will kill me, and return to Rehoboam king of Judah.”
28 So the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold; and he said to them, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem . Look and behold your gods, Israel , which brought you up out of the land of Egypt !”
29 He set the one in Bethel , and the other he put in Dan.
30 This thing became a sin; for the people went even as far as Dan to worship before the one there.
31 He made houses of high places, and made priests from among all the people, who were not of the sons of Levi.
32 Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like the feast that is in Judah, and he went up to the altar. He did so in Bethel , sacrificing to the calves that he had made, and he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places that he had made.
33 He went up to the altar which he had made in Bethel on the fifteenth day in the eighth month, even in the month which he had devised of his own heart; and he ordained a feast for the children of Israel , and went up to the altar, to burn incense.
이후 몇몇 왕들의 개혁과 회개운동이 있었으나, 그 때마다
Baal 의 신당은 정리하였어도 금송아지를 없애지는 못했다.
However, Jehu didn’t depart from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat , with which he made Israel to sin, the golden calves that were in Bethel and that were in Dan.
이런 우상숭배의 흐름은 남 유다 왕국의 왕
아비야 가 벧엘을 빼앗으면서 겨우 끝나게 된다.
Abijah pursued Jeroboam, and took cities from him, Bethel with its villages, Jeshanah with its villages, and Ephron with its villages.
