Literally 'house of wickedness' or 'house of iniquity.' A polemical name used by the prophets Hosea and Amos for Bethel ('house of God') — the northern shrine that became a center of calf worship under Jeroboam.
The name Beit Aven is one of Scripture's sharpest pieces of sarcasm. Bethel (beit-el) meant 'house of God' — it was where Jacob encountered God, where the covenant was renewed. But after Jeroboam set up golden calves there (1 Kings 12:29), Bethel became a shrine of idolatry. The prophets refused to call it Bethel. Hosea calls it 'Beit Aven' — house of nothing, house of wickedness. This prophetic renaming is a declaration: when a place of worship becomes a place of idolatry, it is no longer what its name claims.