Beth-arbel

Beth-arbel appears in Hosea's grim oracle of judgment against the northern kingdom: "Therefore shall a tumult arise among thy people, and all thy fortresses shall be spoiled, as Shalman spoiled Beth-arbel in the day of battle: the mother was dashed in pieces upon her children" (Hosea 10:14). The reference is to some otherwise unrecorded military atrocity by "Shalman" — possibly Shalmaneser III of Assyria or the Moabite king Salmanu — that left a permanent scar of horror in the regional memory. The site is generally identified with Irbid in modern Jordan or Arbel near the Sea of Galilee.