Hebrew word · H1043

בֵּית־עֲנָת

'anat

Beth-anath

Place name meaning 'house (temple/shrine) of Anat'. Anat was a Canaanite goddess of war, called sister and ally of Baal in the Ugaritic myths.

Appears 6 times in 2 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

§ Beth-anath = "house of response (or affliction)"

a place in Naphtali

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Joshua 19:38

Range of meaning

Place name meaning 'house (temple/shrine) of Anat'. Anat was a Canaanite goddess of war, called sister and ally of Baal in the Ugaritic myths.

Against the English

English Bibles transliterate the name ('Beth-anath'), so readers do not see that it carries the name of a goddess.

Used elsewhere in the period

A place called Beth-Anat appears in Egyptian lists of conquered towns from the New Kingdom period (roughly 1550–1070 BC). Anat is a major figure in the Ugaritic Baal texts. The name Shamgar son of Anath (Judges 3:31; 5:6) shows the goddess's name in personal names as well. Judges 1:33 records that Naphtali lived among the Canaanites of Beth-anath and made them forced labourers.

Where it appears

Joshua · 2

  1. Joshua 19:38 וּבֵית־ עֲנָ֖ת and Beth, Anath

    Iron, Migdal-el, Horem, Beth-anath, and Beth-shemesh. There were nineteen cities, along with their villages.

    Here: 'House of', a common way to start a place name. It often marks a site linked to a shrine of the named god.

Judges · 4

  1. Judges 1:33 בֵית־ עֲנָ֔ת וּבֵ֣ית עֲנָ֔ת Beth, Anath, and Beth

    Naphtali failed to drive out the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh and Beth-anath. So the Naphtalites also lived among the Canaanite inhabitants of the land, but the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh and Beth-anath served them as forced laborers.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.