bet-el is a proper place name used for a city or locality, including its territory, travel routes, and cultic site.

The term functions as a proper name for a place: it marks a city and its environs in settlement lists and borders, a destination or point of travel, and the location of altars, priests, and public acts of worship or judgment.

1. Proper name for a named place · dominant

   The noun is tagged Proper throughout and identifies a locality in varied clauses: in Genesis 28:19 the APB renders the naming of a place “Bethel,” while Genesis 12:8 places it west of Abram's tent and opposite Ai. It also marks a boundary or settlement location in Joshua 16:2 and 1 Chronicles 7:28, and the setting of an altar and priests in 1 Kings 12:32.

   Genesis 28:19Genesis 12:8Joshua 16:21 Chronicles 7:281 Kings 12:32Amos 7:13

In the Anselm Project Bible: Across the supplied verses, the APB generally presents the proper name as “Bethel,” whether it is a destination, a border point, a city, or the site of an altar. In Hosea 12:5, the supplied APB text does not visibly show a corresponding place name, so the translation cannot be read as a gloss of the term there.