BETH OPHRAH (bĕth' ôf'ra). Named in parallelism with Gath in Mic.1.10. KJV has “the house of Aphrah”; ASV and RSV, “Beth-le-aphrah.”
BETH-LE-APHRAH bĕth’ lĭ ăf’ rə (
בֵּ֣ית לְעַפְרָ֔ה, LXX tr. it as,
house of dust), KJV HOUSE OF APHRAH. An unidentified town mentioned in
Micah 1:10. 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.
Bibliography
J. Simons, The Geographical and Topographical Texts of the OT (1959), 472.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915)
The name of a place found only in Mic 1:10. 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.).
