AVEN:
1. One of several Egyptian cities threatened with God's vengeance (Ezek. xxx. 17). The name is evidently a corruption or an intentional vowel-change of "On" (Gen. xli. 45), which is thus made to signify "vanity." The Septuagint renders it "Heliopolis." 2. In Hosea x. 8 ("the high places also of Aven"), "Aven" probably stands for Beth-aven (Hosea x. 5), by which name Beth-el is intended. Some scholars, however (G. A. Smith," The Twelve Prophets," for example), are inclined to regard Aven as a term for "false worship," and render the phrase "high places of idolatry." 3. The "plain of Aven" (R. V. "valley of Aven"), mentioned in Amos i. 5, applies to the valley of Cœle-Syria, between Lebanon and Anti-Libanus, noted for the idolatrous worship of the sun at the temple of Baalbek. The valley is now called "Beka'a" (Baedeker-Socin, "Palestine," p. 447).
