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The ruins of Beitin, the site of ancient Bethel, during the 19th century. Bethel (Hebrew: בֵּית אֵל, romanized: Bēṯ ʾĒl, "House of El" or "House of God", [1] also transliterated Beth El, Beth-El, Beit El; Greek: Βαιθήλ; Latin: Bethel) was an ancient Israelite city and sacred space that is frequently mentioned in the Hebrew Bible.
The name "Israel" first appears in the Merneptah Stele c. 1208 BCE: "Israel is laid waste and his seed is no more." [ 25 ] This "Israel" was a cultural and probably political entity, well enough established for the Egyptians to perceive it as a possible challenge, but an ethnic group rather than an organized state.
The name 'Israel' is derived from the Hebrew patriarch Jacob, who was given the name after wrestling with an angel, meaning 'he who struggles with God'. [3] The Kingdom of Israel fell to the Neo-Assyrian Empire in around 720 BCE, [4] and the Kingdom of Judah to the Neo-Babylonian Empire in 586 BCE. [5] Part of the Judean population was exiled ...
The Neo-Babylonian Empire under the rule of Nebuchadnezzar II occupied the Kingdom of Judah between 597–586 BCE and destroyed the First Temple in Jerusalem. [3] According to the Hebrew Bible, the last king of Judah, Zedekiah, was forced to watch his sons put to death, then his own eyes were put out and he was exiled to Babylon (2 Kings 25).
The Kingdom of Judah was located in the Judean Mountains, stretching from Jerusalem to Hebron and into the Negev Desert.The central ridge, ranging from forested and shrubland-covered mountains gently sloping towards the hills of the Shephelah in the west, to the dry and arid landscapes of the Judaean Desert descending into the Jordan Valley to the east, formed the kingdom's core.
Throughout much of the Bible, Ephrath is a description for members of the Israelite tribe of Judah, as well as for possible founders of Bethlehem. [ 4 ] Ephrath, or Bethlehem, is connected to messianic prophecy, as found in the book of the minor prophet Micah : "But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah ...
Israel's Jewish population continued to grow at a very high rate for years, fed by waves of Jewish immigration from round the world, including the massive immigration wave of Soviet Jews, who arrived in Israel in the early 1990s, according to the Law of Return. Some 380,000 Jewish immigrants from the Soviet Union arrived in 1990–91 alone.
The biblical record locates it near the present-day city of Bethlehem. So Rachel died, and she was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem), and Jacob set up a pillar at her grave; it is the pillar of Rachel's tomb, which is there to this day. Israel [Jacob] journeyed on, and pitched his tent beyond the tower of Eder. (Gen 35:19-21 NRSV)