<strong>BETH OPHRAH</strong> (bĕth' ôf'ra). Named in parallelism with Gath in <bibleref ref="Mic.1.10">Mic.1.10</bibleref>. KJV has “the house of Aphrah”; ASV and RSV, “Beth-le-aphrah.”<br /><br />

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<strong>BETH-LE-APHRAH</strong> <strong>bĕth’ lĭ ăf’ rə</strong> (<span class="hebrew">בֵּ֣ית לְעַפְרָ֔ה</span>, LXX tr. it as, <em>house of dust</em>), KJV HOUSE OF APHRAH. An unidentified town mentioned in <bibleref ref="Mic.1.10">Micah 1:10</bibleref>. J. Simons suggests Wadi el Ghafr between ed-Daweimeh and Tell ed-Duweir. Since the expression is clearly a play on words, it may be an allusion to another city such as Ophrah or Bethel.<br /><br />

<h2>Bibliography</h2>

J. Simons, <em>The Geographical and Topographical Texts of the OT</em> (1959), 472.<br /><br />

<h2>International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915)</h2>

The name of a place found only in <bibleref ref="Mic.1.10">Mic 1:10</bibleref>. From the connection in which it is used it was probably in the Philistine plain. There seems to be a play upon the name in the sentence, "at Beth le-`apharah have I rolled myself in the dust," `aphrah meaning "dust," and possibly another on Philistine in rolled, hith-palldshithi (see G. A. Smith, The Book of the Twelve Prophets, called Minor, in the place cited.).<br /><br />

Beth Ophrah