בָּמָה
bama · high place
Hebrew word · Strong’s number H1116 · appears 102 times in the Bible
What is the Strong number?
Strong’s number identifies this word: use it to find the same word in other study tools.What it means
bama (בָּמָה) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “high place”.
A raised site where sacrifices were offered, often to false gods.
How to say it
ba·ma
Approximate pronunciation. Vowels sound as in Spanish (a as in father, e as in bed, i as in machine, o as in note, u as in rule); the syllable in bold is stressed. The voice is your device's.
Its senses in the Bible
- An elevated site with an altar, often for other gods.
- The highest points of the earth or the clouds, trodden only by one who rules.
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)
Word study
High place: an elevated site, often with an altar, where sacrifices were offered. BDB: an elevation; especially a high place for worship. In poetry it can also be the heights of the earth.
- Sacrificing at the high place before the temple 1 Samuel 9:121 Kings 3:2
- High places of other gods 1 Kings 12:312 Kings 23:8
- Kings who removed the high places 2 Kings 18:4
- The heights in poetry Deuteronomy 32:13Habakkuk 3:192 Samuel 1:19
Historical and cultural background
The text says that the people were sacrificing at the high places “because no house had been built for the name of YHWH until those days” (1 Kings 3:2). The books of Kings judge each king by whether or not he removed the high places; Hezekiah “removed the high places” (2 Kings 18:4).
How we translate it
“High places” 81 times, “high place” 19, “heights” 2. This edition sets בָּמָה = “high place”, with a note at 1 Kings 3:2. In poetry too it says “high places” when the heights of the earth are meant (Habakkuk 3:19).
How it is translated
The words this translation uses for it, most frequent first.
- high places ×81
- high place ×19
- heights ×2
Related words
Words that come from it
Words of the same family, by Strong’s numbering.
Where it appears
- Leviticus×1
- Numbers×2
- Deuteronomy×2
- 1 Samuel×7
- 2 Samuel×3
- 1 Kings×14
- 2 Kings×27
- 1 Chronicles×2
- 2 Chronicles×17
- Job×1
- Psalms×2
- Isaiah×5
- Jeremiah×6
- Ezekiel×6
- Hosea×1
- Amos×2
- Micah×3
- Habakkuk×1
- Leviticus 26:30
And I will destroy your high places and cut down your incense altars and put your corpses on the corpses of your idols, and my soul will loathe you.
- Numbers 21:28
For fire went out from Heshbon, a flame from the town of Sihon; it consumed Ar of Moab, the lords of the high places of the Arnon.
- Numbers 33:52
you shall dispossess all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and do away with all their carved stones, and all their molten images you shall do away with, and all their high places you shall destroy.
- Deuteronomy 32:13
He made him ride on the high places of the earth, and he ate the produce of the field; he made him suck honey from the crag and oil from the flint of the rock,
- Deuteronomy 33:29
Happy are you, Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by YHWH, the shield of your help and who is the sword of your majesty? Your enemies will cringe before you, and you will tread on their high places.”
- 1 Samuel 9:12
And they answered them and said, “He is; look, he is ahead of you. Hurry now, for today he has come to the city, for the people have a sacrifice today at the high place.
- 1 Samuel 9:13
As soon as you enter the city, you will find him, before he goes up to the high place to eat; for the people will not eat until he comes, because he blesses the sacrifice; afterward those who are invited eat. So now go up, for about this time you will find him.”
- 1 Samuel 9:14
So they went up to the city. As they were coming into the middle of the city, there was Samuel coming out to meet them, to go up to the high place.
- 1 Samuel 9:19
And Samuel answered Saul and said, “I am the seer. Go up ahead of me to the high place, and you shall eat with me today; and in the morning I will send you off and tell you all that is in your heart.
- 1 Samuel 9:25
And they came down from the high place to the city, and he spoke with Saul on the roof.
- 1 Samuel 10:5
After that you will come to Gibeah of Elohim, where are the garrisons of the Philistines; and it will happen, as you come there to the city, that you will meet a band of prophets coming down from the high place, and before them harp and tambourine and flute and lyre, and they will be prophesying.
- 1 Samuel 10:13
And he finished prophesying and came to the high place.
- 2 Samuel 1:19
“The beauty, O Israel, lies slain on your high places. How the mighty have fallen!
- 2 Samuel 1:25
How the mighty have fallen in the midst of the battle! Jonathan lies slain on your high places.
- 2 Samuel 22:34
He makes my feet like those of the deer, and on my high places he sets me.
- 1 Kings 3:2
Only, the people were sacrificing at the high places, because no house had been built for the name of YHWH until those days.
- 1 Kings 3:3
And Solomon loved YHWH, walking in the statutes of David his father; only, at the high places he sacrificed and offered up in smoke.
- 1 Kings 3:4
And the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for that was the great high place; a thousand burnt offerings Solomon offered on that altar.
- 1 Kings 11:7
Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh, the detestable thing of Moab, on the mountain that is facing Jerusalem, and for Molech, the detestable thing of the sons of Ammon.
- 1 Kings 12:31
He also made a house of high places, and made priests from among all the people, who were not of the sons of Levi.
- 1 Kings 12:32
Jeroboam held a festival in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like the festival that was in Judah, and he went up to the altar. So he did in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves that he had made; and he stationed in Bethel the priests of the high places that he had made.
- 1 Kings 13:2
And he cried out against the altar by the word of YHWH, and said, “Altar, altar! Thus says YHWH: ‘Look, a son will be born to the house of David, Josiah will be his name; and he will sacrifice on you the priests of the high places who offer up in smoke on you, and human bones they will burn on you.’”
- 1 Kings 13:32
For the word that he cried out by the word of YHWH against the altar that is in Bethel, and against all the houses of the high places that are in the cities of Samaria, will surely come to pass.”
- 1 Kings 13:33
After this thing Jeroboam did not turn from his evil way, but he again made from among all the people priests of high places; whoever wanted, he ordained him, and he became one of the priests of high places.
- 1 Kings 14:23
They also built for themselves high places and standing stones and Asherahs on every high hill and under every leafy tree.
- 1 Kings 15:14
But the high places were not removed; only the heart of Asa was whole with YHWH all his days.
- 1 Kings 22:43
He walked in all the way of Asa his father; he did not turn aside from it, doing what was right in the eyes of YHWH. Only the high places were not removed; the people still sacrificed and offered up in smoke on the high places.
- 2 Kings 12:3
Only the high places did not go away; the people were still sacrificing and burning incense on the high places.
- 2 Kings 14:4
Only the high places did not go away; the people were still sacrificing and burning incense on the high places.
- 2 Kings 15:4
Only the high places did not go away; the people were still sacrificing and burning incense on the high places.
- 2 Kings 15:35
Only the high places did not go away; the people were still sacrificing and burning incense on the high places. He built the upper gate of the house of YHWH.
- 2 Kings 16:4
He sacrificed and burned incense on the high places and on the hills and under every leafy tree.
- 2 Kings 17:9
The sons of Israel did secretly things that were not right against YHWH their Elohim; they built for themselves high places in all their cities, from the tower of the watchmen to the fortified city.
- 2 Kings 17:11
They burned incense there on all the high places, like the nations whom YHWH carried into exile from before them; and they did evil things to provoke YHWH to anger.
- 2 Kings 17:29
But each nation was making its own gods, and they put them in the house of the high places that the Samaritans had made, each nation in their cities where they were living.
- 2 Kings 17:32
They feared YHWH, and they made for themselves from among all of them priests of high places, who were officiating for them in the house of the high places.
- 2 Kings 18:4
He removed the high places, broke the standing stones, and cut down the Asherah; and he broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the sons of Israel had been burning incense to it; and it was called Nehushtan.
- 2 Kings 18:22
And if you say to me, “In YHWH our Elohim we trust,” is it not he whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, and has said to Judah and to Jerusalem, “Before this altar you shall bow down in Jerusalem”?
- 2 Kings 21:3
He built again the high places that Hezekiah his father had destroyed; he raised up altars for Baal and made an Asherah, as Ahab king of Israel had done, and he bowed down to all the army of the heavens and served them.
- 2 Kings 23:5
He put an end to the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had appointed to burn incense on the high places in the cities of Judah and around Jerusalem, and to those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the constellations, and to all the army of the heavens.
And 62 more times.