Hebrew word · H1066

בֹּכִים

bokhim

Bochim

A participle of bakhah 'to weep': 'weepers, those weeping'. The name is given in v. 5 from the people's weeping. The site is otherwise unknown.

Appears 2 times in 2 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

Bochim = "weeping"

a place near Gilgal (or Bethel), where sons of Israel wept

Another name of bet-el (בֵּֽיתְ־אֵל "Bethel" H1008G)

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Judges 2:1

Range of meaning

A participle of bakhah 'to weep': 'weepers, those weeping'. The name is given in v. 5 from the people's weeping. The site is otherwise unknown.

Against the English

English versions leave it as a proper name, 'Bochim', so the reader misses that the name means 'Weepers'. The Vulgate translates it as ad locum flentium ('to the place of the weeping ones'), and the Greek as Klauthmōn ('Weeping-place').

Used elsewhere in the period

Weeping near Bethel shows up elsewhere: Allon-bacuth, 'Oak of Weeping', below Bethel (Gen 35:8), and Israel weeping before God at Bethel (Judg 20:23, 26; 21:2). The Greek adds 'and to Bethel' here.

Where it appears

Judges · 2

  1. Judges 2:1 הַבֹּכִ֑ים פ <the> Bokim

    Now the angel of the LORD went up from Gilgal to Bochim and said, “I brought you up out of Egypt and led you into the land that I had promised to your fathers, and I said, ‘I will never break My covenant with you,

    Here: A name meaning 'those who weep'. Verse 5 explains it: the people wept when they heard this speech. The narrator uses the name ahead of time, so the reader knows how the speech will be received before it begins.

  2. Judges 2:5 בֹּכִ֑ים Bokim

    So they called that place Bochim and offered sacrifices there to the LORD.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.