Bochim (also spelled Bokim) is a place mentioned in the biblical

Book of Judges The Book of Judges (, ') is the seventh book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. In the narrative of the Hebrew Bible, it covers the time between the conquest described in the Book of Joshua and the establishment of a kingdom i ...

, situated west of the

River Jordan The Jordan River or River Jordan ( ar, نَهْر الْأُرْدُنّ, ''Nahr al-ʾUrdunn'', he, נְהַר הַיַּרְדֵּן, ''Nəhar hayYardēn''; syc, ܢܗܪܐ ܕܝܘܪܕܢܢ ''Nahrāʾ Yurdnan''), also known as ''Nahr Al-Shariea ...

. Its name means 'weepers'.

Biblical usage

Bochim appears in only one section of Judges (in verses 1 and 5 of chapter 2). In the narrative, it is the place at which the

Israelites The Israelites (; , , ) were a group of Semitic-speaking tribes in the ancient Near East who, during the Iron Age, inhabited a part of Canaan. The earliest recorded evidence of a people by the name of Israel appears in the Merneptah Stele o ...

are rebuked by the

angel of the Lord The (or an) angel of the ( he, מַלְאַךְ יְהוָה '' mal’āḵ YHWH'' "messenger of Yahweh") is an entity appearing repeatedly in the Tanakh (Old Testament) on behalf of the God of Israel. The guessed term ''YHWH'', which occurs ...

for making a covenant with the

Canaan Canaan (; Phoenician: 𐤊𐤍𐤏𐤍 – ; he, כְּנַעַן – , in pausa – ; grc-bib, Χανααν – ;The current scholarly edition of the Greek Old Testament spells the word without any accents, cf. Septuaginta : id est Vetus T ...

ites, rather than taking possession of their land as they had been commanded. The name, "the place of weepers", refers to the Israelite response to this rebuke - they wept and offered sacrifices to God.

Location

The exact location of Bochim is disputed, with commentators drawing different conclusions from the absence of other mentions in the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. Hebrew: ''Tān ...

. Some, such as

Charles Fox Burney Charles Fox Burney (4 November 1868 – 15 April 1925) was biblical scholar at Oxford University, England. Early life Charles was the son of Charles Burney, Paymaster Chief Royal Navy, and his wife Eleanor Norton, daughter of the Rev. W. A. Norton ...

, suggest that Bochim is actually another name for

Bethel Bethel ( he, בֵּית אֵל, translit=Bēṯ 'Ēl, "House of El" or "House of God",Bleeker and Widegren, 1988, p. 257. also transliterated ''Beth El'', ''Beth-El'', ''Beit El''; el, Βαιθήλ; la, Bethel) was an ancient Israelite sanct ...

, and Anglican theologian

George Albert Cooke George Albert Cooke (26 November 18659 September 1939) was a British Anglican clergyman and academic. He held two senior chairs at the University of Oxford: Oriel Professor of the Interpretation of Holy Scripture from 1908 to 1914, and Regius Prof ...

, writing in the

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges is a biblical commentary set published in parts by Cambridge University Press from 1882 onwards. Anglican bishop John Perowne was the general editor. The first section published was written by theologian ...

, has "little doubt" that the two are the same. Burney draws attention to the unusual appearance of the name 'Bochim' before the incident after which the place is supposedly named, as well as highlighting the

Septuagint The Greek Old Testament, or Septuagint (, ; from the la, septuaginta, lit=seventy; often abbreviated ''70''; in Roman numerals, LXX), is the earliest extant Greek translation of books from the Hebrew Bible. It includes several books beyond th ...

translation of verse 1: 'to Bochim and to Bethel and to the House of Israel'. Other commentators suggest that Bochim was located near Bethel, and that the lack of other Biblical mentions is due to Bochim ceasing to be an important place in the life of Israel. Y. Kaufmann proposes that Bochim was a place of assembly near to Bethel, whilst G. F. Moore has associated Bochim with Shiloh.Gomes, ''The Sanctuary of Bethel'', p. 117. Other theories have also been advanced.{{Citation needed, date=January 2017

References

Bibliography

* Amit, Yaira, ''Hidden Polemics in Biblical Narrative'' (BRILL, 2000) * Gomes, Jules, ''The Sanctuary of Bethel and the Configuration of Israelite Identity'' (Walter de Gruyter, 2006) Angelic apparitions in the Bible Hebrew Bible places Book of Judges