Beth-arbel

Beth-arbel (meaning: house of God's ambush or house of God's court) is mentioned once in the Old Testament in the prophet Hosea's warning to Israel. Hosea alludes to a catastrophic military destruction at Beth-arbel as a historical reference his audience would recognize, though the specific event is not recorded elsewhere in the biblical narrative. The destruction was apparently so savage that it served as a byword for total military annihilation, with mothers dashed in pieces upon their children.

The site is commonly identified with Irbid in the Gilead region of modern Jordan, or alternatively with Arbela in Galilee (modern Khirbet Irbid near the Sea of Galilee). Josephus mentions Arbela in Galilee as the scene of a significant military engagement, lending some support to the Galilean identification. The passage in Hosea 10:14 uses the memory of Beth-arbel as a warning that the same fate awaits Israel's fortified cities if the nation continues in its rebellion against God.