What is…
Aven

Meaning: nothingness; vanity

1. Aven (Bethel)

   Hosea speaks of the “high places of Aven” (Hosea 10:8), by which he means Bethel.

   He also calls it Beth-aven, i.e., “the house of vanity” (Hosea 4:15), because of the golden calves Jeroboam had set up there (1 Kings 12:28).

2. Aven, in Egypt

   This is the Egyptian Heliopolis, also called the city of On.

   It is translated by the Septuagint as “On” in Ezek. 30:17.

3. In Amos 1:5 it denotes the Syrian Heliopolis, the modern Baalbec (aka Baalbek, Baalbeck, Heliopolis in Syria, and Coelesyri).