בָּמָה
high place
also: ridge, height, bamah fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
See every Construct-state word in the Hebrew Bible →
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Noun
- A naming word — a person, place, thing, or idea.
Noun type
- Common
- A common noun — a general class of person, place, or thing (“king,” “city,” “water”), not a specific name.
State
- Absolute
- The independent form of a noun, not bound to a following word.
- Construct
- A noun bound to a following noun in a possessive / “of” relationship (the construct chain).
Gender
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
Number
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
- Singular
- One.
Every verse where H1116 appears in the Book of Isaiah — 5 distinct verses. Click any verse to open its interlinear word-by-word view. Verse text shown in the World English Bible for context — . Each verse’s Hebrew form is shown with its reference; the English is not keyword-highlighted, since the data carries no word-level English alignment. Use “Compare translations” on any verse to read it across multiple English versions. This concordance covers the Hebrew Bible; Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) occurrences are not indexed here.
Isaiah
- Isaiah 14:14 בָּ֣מֳתֵי n c fp cs I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.
- Isaiah 15:2 הַ/בָּמ֖וֹת ptcl def.art + n c fp They are gone up to Bayith, and to Dibon, to the high places, to weep: Moab wails over Nebo, and over Medeba; on all their heads is baldness, every beard is cut off.
- Isaiah 16:12 הַ/בָּמָ֑ה ptcl def.art + n c fs It shall happen, when Moab presents himself, when he wearies himself on the high place, and shall come to his sanctuary to pray, that he shall not prevail.
- Isaiah 36:7 בָּמֹתָ֣י/ו n c fp cs + sfx pers 3ms But if you tell me, We trust in Yahweh our God: isn't that he, whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, and has said to Judah and to Jerusalem, You shall worship before this altar?
- Isaiah 58:14 בָּ֣מֳותֵי n c fp cs then shall you delight yourself in Yahweh; and I will make you to ride on the high places of the earth; and I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father: for the mouth of Yahweh has spoken it.
About this entry
At a glance — auto-summarized from this page’s data, not written by a person. Every figure links to its source below. This summary describes the numbers; it doesn’t interpret them.
The Hebrew noun במה centers on the idea of “high place.” Alongside “high place” the lexicon also lists “ridge”, “height”, and “bamah” — part of its full sense range. It appears 92 verses across 18 books of the Hebrew Bible, among its moderately common vocabulary. Debuting at Leviticus 26:30, it then recurs through the corpus. It shares a root with במה and במות. For the data behind this summary, explore the sense tree and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H1116 catalogs a Hebrew word from the Hebrew Old Testament.
These counts are not copied from any lexicon or concordance. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged Hebrew Old Testament. What Lemma adds →
- 92
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 92 distinct verses.
- 18 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 18 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #410
- by frequency
- Top 500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 410 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 92 occurrences in the concordance →
Most concentrated in
- 2 Kings 19 verses 21%
- 2 Chronicles 17 verses 18%
- 1 Kings 12 verses 13%
By section of the Old Testament
By traditional corpus
Conventional, traditional groupings — biblical authorship is debated, so this is a traditional corpus grouping, not an authorship claim. Each share is this word’s portion of its verses in that division of the Hebrew canon. Each figure is a share of the word’s 92 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 65 verses · 71%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 22 verses · 24%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 5 verses · 5%
How translations render this word
Counts come from each version’s own published word-to-Strong’s tagging or interlinear alignment — an approximate guide to how each version renders this word, not a word-level alignment the data otherwise carries. Because each total is that version’s own tagged count, the per-version totals vary from one another and need not match the appearance or distinct-verse counts above. These counts may also differ from a printed concordance because Lemma counts each distinctly tagged rendering and does not collapse phrase taggings into a single head-word total. This is a fixed set of word-tagged versions (KJV, ASV, BSB, ULT) and does not change with the reading translation you choose elsewhere. Each version’s license is shown beside its name below (and on Sources).
- King James Version: High places 68×, High place 16×, Howbeit the high places 3×
- American Standard Version: High places 61×, High place 14×, Howbeit the high places 6×
- Berean Standard Bible: High places 64×, High place 16×, Heights 10×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: High places 61×, High place 18×, High places of 11×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H1116 across 102 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 13 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H1116 across 102 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 17 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H1116 across 97 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 5 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings. Not rendered by a distinct English word in 5 further occurrences.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H1116 across 111 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 10 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
11 senses and sub-senses in the full BDB
What do BDB’s symbols mean?
BDB uses these scholarly abbreviations:
| Symbol | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 𝔊 | the Septuagint (the ancient Greek translation, LXX) |
| 𝔙 | the Vulgate (the Latin translation) |
| 𝔖 | the Syriac version (the Peshitta) |
| 𝔗 | the Targum (the Aramaic translation) |
| ψ | the Psalms |
| √ | root (the underlying root or stem) |
| ‖ | parallel passage (a synonymous or contrasted parallel) |
| † | the dagger: every passage where the word occurs is cited |
The 11 senses and sub-senses the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon distinguishes for this word, in lexicon order (not ranked by frequency), with BDB’s own verbatim wording and sub-sense lettering. Shown in Hebrew script with BDB’s own scholarly abbreviations. The condensed entry is in the Lexicon Entry tab. See also the Forms in the corpus table below.
- 1. high place, mountain: בָּמוֹת יָעַר forest mountains Mi 3:12 = Je 26:18; במות עולם ancient mountains Ez 36:2; במות ארנן Nu 21:28 (E poet.) e.g. Micah 3:12
- 2. high places, battle-fields, the chief places of the land giving possession, victory, dominion: על במותיך on thy high places (Gilboa, the battle-field) 2 S 1:19, 25 (in v 19 𝔊 has a doublet מֵתֶיךָ thy dead, v. We Dr). e.g. 2 Samuel 1:19
- a. of Israel: רכב על במתי ארץ ride upon the high places of the land Dt 32:13 & Is 58:14 cf. Dt 33:29 ψ 18:34 = 2 S 22:34, Hb 3:19. e.g. Deuteronomy 32:13
- b. of God: דרך על במתי ארץ tread upon the high places of the earth Am 4:13 cf. Mi 1:3; במתי ים Jb 9:8; עלה על במתי עב (aspiration of the king of Babylon) Is 14:14. e.g. Amos 4:13
- 3. high places, as places of worship, at first on hills and mountains, later on artificial mounds or platforms, under green trees, and in cities; still later for the chapels erected thereon, and once apparently for a portable sanctuary (decked with diverse colours) Ez 16:16. The ancient worship of Israel was conducted on these high places. In the times of Samuel and David they ascended to them, descended from them, and offered sacrifices on them, 1 S 9:12–25; 10:5, 13 (הבמה for הביתה We Dr). The custom continued in the reign of Solomon, but Gibeon was הבמה הגדולה 1 K 3:2–4 cf. 1 Ch 16:39 21:29; 2 Ch 1:3, 13. High places of Baal were also used Nu 22:41 (E) Je 19:5 32:35; of Moab Is 15:2; 16:12; Je 48:35 (cf. MI27); these must be demolished Nu 33:52 (J). Solomon built במות (platforms or chaples) to Chemosh and Milkom on the Mt. of Evil Counsel opposite Jerusalem 1 K 11:7: Jeroboam made temples on the ancient high places of Dan and Bethel 1 K 12:31, 32; 2 Ch 11:15; they are called במות און Ho 10:8, במות ישׂחק Am 7:9: the kings of Israel built במות and בתי הבמות in all their cities 2 K 17:9, and the people worshipped there 2 K 17:11; these were also used by the mixed population after the exile of Israel 2 K 17:29, 32(×2): these various idolatrous high places were first destroyed by Josiah 1 K 13:2, 32, 33 2 K 23:5–20 2 Ch 34:3. The worship of Yahweh on high places continued in Judah until the exile 1 K 22:44 2 K 15:35; the sanctity code predicts that Yahweh will destroy them Lv 26:30; they were regarded as the reason for the rejection of Shiloh ψ 78:58. The complier of Kings, writing from the point of view of the Deut. code, complains רַק הַבָּמוֹת לֹא סָרוּ 2 K 12:4; 14:4; 15:4, 35 cf. 2 Ch 15:17; 20:33, and praises the few pious kings who destroyed them. e.g. Ezekiel 16:16
- a. Rehoboam built במות with מצבות & אשׁרים on every high hill and under every green tree 1 K 14:23. e.g. 1 Kings 14:23
- b. Asa did not remove the high places 1 K 15:14 (2 Ch 14:2, 4 is incorrect unless במות בעל). e.g. 1 Kings 15:14
- c. Jehoshaphat in his reform on the basis of the covenant code did not remove them 1 K 22:44 (עוֹד הֵסִיר אֶת־הַבָּמוֹת 2 Ch 17:16 is doubtless incorrect, possibly read מצבות); Jehoram, his son, made high places in the cities of Judah 2 Ch 21:11 𝔊 𝔙; not mountains ℌ); and Ahaz sacrificed on high places on the hills and under every green tree and in every city of Judah 2 K 16:4; 2 Ch 28:4, 25; cf. Mi 1:5 (read חטאת? so 𝔊 𝔖 𝔗 Che al.; yet cf. JBL1890, 73 f.) e.g. 1 Kings 22:44
- d. Hezekiah removed them 2 K 18:4, 22 2 Ch 31:1 32:12; Is 36:7; but Manasseh rebuilt them 2 K 21:3; 2 Ch 33:3, 19, and the people continued to sacrifice thereon to Yahweh 2 Ch 33:17. e.g. 2 Kings 18:4
- e. Josiah, in his reform, based on the Deut. code, defiled them and brake them down from Geba to Beersheba 2 K 23:5, 8, 9; but subsequently there were במות התפת in the valley of Ben Hinnom Je 7:31, and במות throughout Judah Je 17:3 cf. Ez 6:3, 6; 20:29 (questioned by Ew & Co). e.g. 2 Kings 23:5
- 4. funereal mound (?) Ez 43:7 (Thes, but in their high places AV RV; in their death 𝔗 Theod Ew Hi RVm), Is 53:9 (Lowth Ew Bö; Rodwell Orelli; but in his death AV RV, or martyr death De Che Br). e.g. Ezekiel 43:7
Senses from the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon (Brown, Driver, Briggs; Oxford 1906 — public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). Full attribution on Sources.
Word origin
n.f. high place (√ appar. בום on account of firm—ָ; cf. Assyrian bâmâte ZimBP 48, Moab. במת MI 3, 27)—Je 48:35 + 18 times; הַבָּמָ֫תָה 1 S 9:13 pl. בָּמוֹת Nu 21:19 + 62 times; cstr. בָּֽמֳתֵי Jb 9:8; Is 14:14; Am 4:13; בָּֽמֳו֯תֵי Dt 32:13; Is 58:14; Mi 1:3 (Ew§ 211 d Ges§ 87, 5 archaic fem. cstr. with retracted accent before monosyl. in poetry, bâmŏ-thê not bŏm); sf. בָּמֹתַי 2 S 22:34 + 3 times; בָּמוֹתַי ψ 18:34 + 10 times;—
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Origin: from an unused root (meaning to be high)
Jastrow Dictionary
A second Hebrew/Aramaic lexicon for comparison, covering Aramaic and post-biblical (Talmudic, Targumic, Midrashic) usage that the biblical-Hebrew BDB does not. Matched by lemma rather than by Strong’s number, so a lemma may carry more than one Jastrow headword (shown separately below), and the entries cover usage well beyond the Bible.
בָּמָה
- entrance, gathering place, ascent (cmp. b. h. מָבוֹא a. מַעֲלֶה); esp. Bamah, name of the legitimate altars prior to, and of the illegitimate after, the establishment of a central sanctuary (at Shiloh) and of the Temple at Jerusalem; temporary or improvised altar; v. Zeb. XIV, 4—8.—Meg. I, 10 ב׳ גדולה national altar; ב׳ קטנה local altar (during their period of legitimacy); Tosef. Zeb. XIII, 17 sq.; a. fr.—Pl. בָּמוֹת Zeb. l. c. Ib. 114ᵇ בשעת היתר הב׳ at the period when bamoth were permitted. v. supra; a. fr. [Meg. 32ᵃ הלוחות והב׳, v. בִּימָה.] Cmp. בִּימָה.
מָה
- (b. h.)
- 1. something; anything. Num. R. s. 14; Tanḥ. Ḥayé 3, v. בְּלִימָה.
- 2. what? which? Ḥull. 89ᵃ (play on הא̇מ̇נ̇ם א̇ל̇ם̇, Ps. LVIII, 2) מה א̇ומ̇נ̇תו … כא̇ל̇ם̇ which is the best policy for man in this world? Let him act as if he were mute (keep silence). B. Mets. 63ᵃ, a. e. מה לו הן מה לי דמיהן what are they to me and what their equivalent, i.e. what difference does it make whether the purchased objects or their equivalent be delivered?; Y. Yoma V, 43ᵃ bot. מה ביניהן ומה בין דמיהן. B. Bath. 32ᵇ; 31ᵃ מה (לי) לו לשקר what motive could he have to tell a lie? Ib., a. e. מה לי לשקר במקום עדים וכ׳ we do not apply the principle that we believe a defendant because he has no motive to lie, where witnesses are on hand; a. v. fr.—מה … אף what …?, even so, i.e. as … so. Gitt. 23ᵇ מה אתם … אף וכ׳ as you (Num. XVIII, 28) refers to Israelites, so must your delegate be an Israelite. Sabb. 133ᵇ מה הוא … אף וכ׳ as He is gracious and merciful, so be thou &c.; a. fr.—מה … לא כל שכן, v. כָּל.—מה … אינו דין, v. דִּין II.—מה ל־ … שכן … תאמר what has this to do with …? In this case …, whereas &c., i.e. it is different with … because &c. Kidd. 4ᵇ מה ליבמה שכן … תאמר וכ׳ the case of a Y’bamah is different, because she can neither be acquired by means of a document, whereas this (an ordinary woman) &c.; a. fr.—מָה נַפְשְׁךָ (in Babli mostly: מִמָּה נפשך; abbr. ממ"נ) whatever be thy opinion (from whatever opinion thou start), i.e. whichever side you take, at all events. Y. Ber. I, 2ᵇ מ׳ נ׳ אם וכ׳ at all events (he has offended); if it was day-time when the first stars (on Friday evening) were visible, it was day-time when the first stars (on Sabbath evening) were visible &c.; Sabb. 35ᵇ חייכ חטאת ממ"נ must bring a sin-offering at all events (whether you consider twilight a part of the day or a part of the night). Ib. 34ᵃ (in Chald. dict.) מה נפשך אי וכ׳ whichever side you take, if twilight is day &c. Erub. 10ᵃ גדולה … למה לי ממ"נ אי וכ׳ what reason was there for saying ‘large …’? In either case (it is incorrect), if it be to permit the use of the larger court &c. Ḥull. 29ᵃ ממ"נ אי מחצה וכ׳ in either case (the slaughtering is ritually correct); if you adopt the opinion that an exact half is to be considered as if it were the larger portion &c.; a. v. fr.—Ib. 78ᵇ מה אם נפשך, v. נֶפֶשׁ.—בַּמֶּה a) wherewith? B. Bath. 10ᵇ במה תרום וכ׳ whereby can the horn of Israel be lifted up? Sabb. II, 1; a. fr.—b) in what case? במה דברים אמורים (abbr. בד"א), v. אָמַר I.—לָמָּה wherefore? Ber. 3ᵃ תחלת … סימנא למה לי what need is there for a sign for the beginning of the first watch? M. Kat. 28ᵃ ל׳ נסמכה וכ׳ why is the account of the death of Miriam attached to &c.?; a. fr.—לַמֶּה to what?, whereto? Kidd. 40ᵇ ל׳ צדיקים נמשלים what are the righteous to be compared to?—ל׳ הדבר דומה, v. דָּמָה; a. fr.—V. לָמָה. e.g. Psalms 58:2
- 3. (relat.) which, what. Pes. 88ᵇ מה שקנה עבד וכ׳ whatever the slave acquires belongs to the master. Ber. I, 1 כל מה שאמרו וכ׳ for whatever act the scholars designated the time ‘up to midnight’ &c.; a. v. fr.
מָה ²
- ch. same (v. מָא). Targ. II Sam. XVIII, 23. Targ. Ex. XXXIII, 21; a. v. fr.—Snh. 65ᵇ; Gen. R. s. 11, v. גּוּבְרָא. Y. Ned. VI, end, 40ᵃ מה שבקית תמן what (prominent men) I left there (in Palestine); Y. Snh. I, 19ᵃ top (corr. acc.) [Ib. מה מודע לי, read מאן.]—Y. Gitt. I, 43ᵈ מה אנן קיימין what do we stand at, i.e. what is the case before us? Y. Dem. I, 21ᵈ bot. מה אפשר דר׳ וכ׳ what? is it possible that &c.? i.e. it is impossible that &c.; ib. מה ר׳ ז׳ מיכול וכ׳ it is impossible that R. Z. should eat &c. Y. Sabb. XIV, 14ᶜ מה ביניהון wherein do they differ?, v. בֵּין. Ḥull. 34ᵃ, a. e. מה נפשך, v. preced.; a. v. fr.—מָהִיא = מה היא, how is it? Y. Sabb. l. c.
A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature (Marcus Jastrow; London, Luzac, 1903) — Public Domain. Digitized via Sefaria. Digitized via Sefaria. Full attribution on Sources.
Forms in the corpus
The 62 distinct written forms H1116 takes in the Hebrew Bible, most frequent first — each parse links to that state’s occurrences in the concordance. Hebrew forms include their vowel points and cantillation, so a single lemma takes many written forms.
The 60 most common forms are shown; 2 rarer forms follow in the full concordance.
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H1116, grouped by Strong’s listed origin. These share a root / origin per the lexicon — not necessarily a shared meaning. Each links to that word’s own entry.
Proper names from this root
People and places named from this root — a name, not an additional meaning of the word.
Compare all same-root words → 2 of the same-root words are proper names (people or places). They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 86 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 92 Hebrew verses it occurs in. You can read those verses in Greek by switching the Old Testament edition to the Septuagint.
Read these verses in the Septuagint
- Leviticus 26:30
- Numbers 21:28
- Deuteronomy 32:13
- 1 Samuel 9:12
- 2 Samuel 1:19
- 1 Kings 3:2
- 2 Kings 12:3
- 1 Chronicles 16:39
- 2 Chronicles 1:3
- Job 9:8
- Isaiah 14:14
- Jeremiah 7:31
This is a verse-level parallel only — the same verses exist in both the Hebrew and Greek Old Testaments. No word-level Hebrew↔Greek correspondence is claimed: the data carries no such alignment, so no Greek word is shown as this Hebrew word’s translation. Coverage is not total — the Septuagint omits the deuterocanon and renumbers the Psalms, so some Hebrew verses have no direct Greek parallel.
