BIKATH-AVEN

(Bikʹath-aʹven) [valley of idolatry or wickedness].

A place or valley plain associated with Damascus and Beth-eden in Jehovah’s prophecy through Amos foretelling the exile of the people of Syria. (Amos 1:5) In the absence of any record of a Syrian city or town by that name, many authorities connect Bikath-aven with el-Biqaʽ, the valley between Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon. This valley has a history of idolatrous Baal worship so that the meaning of the name Bikath-aven would aptly describe it. The predicted ‘cutting-off’ of the inhabitants of Bikath-aven evidently came about as a result of Assyrian King Tiglath-pileser III’s conquest of Syria.—2 Ki. 16:9, 10.