Was doing some research. Came upon this word. Already know
what the other one means.
Barak Obama
H1288
- Transliteration: Barak
- Phonetic: baw-rak'
- Definition:
1. to bless, kneel
a. (Qal)
1. to kneel
2. to bless
b. (Niphal) to be blessed, bless oneself
c. (Piel) to bless
d. (Pual) to be blessed, be adored
e. (Hiphil) to cause to kneel
f. (Hithpael) to bless oneself
2. (TWOT) to praise, salute, curse
- Origin: a primitive root
- TWOT entry: 285
- Part(s) of speech: Verb
H1117
- Transliteration: Bamah
- Phonetic: baw-maw'
- Definition: Bamah = "high place"
1. a place in Palestine (of places of idolatrous worship)
- Origin: the same as H1116, See also H1120
- TWOT entry: None
- Part(s) of speech: Proper Name Location
H1116
- Transliteration: Bamah
- Phonetic: bam-maw'
- Definition:
1. high place, ridge, height, bamah (technical name for cultic platform)
a. high place, mountain
b. high places, battlefields
c. high places (as places of worship)
d. funeral mound?
- Origin: from an unused root (meaning to be high)
- TWOT entry: 253
- Part(s) of speech: Noun Feminine
H1120 Bamowth (baw-moth') n/l.
1. heights of Baal
2. Bamoth or Bamoth-Baal, a place East of the Jordan
[plural of H1116, heights; or (fully) Bamowth Bahal {baw-moth' bah'-al}; from the same and H1168]
KJV: Bamoth, Bamoth-baal.
Root(s): H1116, H1168
[?]
H1168 Ba`al (bah'-al) n/l.
1. Baal, a Phoenician deity
[the same as H1167]
KJV: Baal, (plural) Baalim.
Root(s): H1167
[?]
H1167 ba`al (bah'-al) n-m.
1. a master
2. (hence) a husband, or (figuratively) owner (often used with another noun in modifications of this latter sense)
[from H1166]
KJV: + archer, + babbler, + bird, captain, chief man, + confederate, + have to do, + dreamer, those to whom it is due, + furious, those that are given to it, great, + hairy, he that hath it, have, + horseman, husband, lord, man, + married, master, person, + sworn, they of.
Root(s): H1166
[?]
TWOT 253
Hebrew Word: bama
Strong's Cross Reference: 1116
Definition: ridge or height, high place, bamah (technical name for cultic platform).
A cognate is found in Akkadian and Ugaritic. bama, which in eighty of the one hundred times refers to a worship area (or perhaps structure), has a basic meaning of "back," "ridge," or "height." So KB. In Ugaritic it means "back" of a person or animal (UT 19: no. 480). Where bama refers to a worship area, ASV and RSV USE "high place." The idiom of "treading on the heights" conveys the notion of possessing key terrain and thus signifies "being in firm control." To tread bama is a promise given to Israel (Deu 33:29; cf. Isa 58:14); it is descriptive also of God (Mic 1:3).
A recent study relying heavily on Ugaritic and archeology, quite convincingly argues that the basic meaning is not "height" but "rib cage," "flank" with derived meanings of "hillsides," "cultic platform" (built of field stones), and by extension "altar" and even "sanctuary" (Vaughn). [Schrunk proposes as its primary meaning "cultic high place" or "cultic place" (see TDOT in bibliography).
The pagan cultic places were usually located on natural heights (1Sa 9:13ff; 1Sa 10:5; 1Ki 11:7; 2Ki 17:9, 2Ki 17:29; 2Ki 23:5, 2Ki 23:8). They were supplied with idols (2Ch 33:19), an 'ashera, a wooden pole symbolizing the goddess of fertility and a maseba, one or more stone pillars symbolizing the male deity (2Ki 3:2). The altar (2Ki 21:3; 2Ch 14:3 [H 2]) built of stones, was either separate from the bama or part of it. The bama contained a tent or room where the cultic vessels were stored and where the sacrificial meals were eaten (1Ki 12:31; 1Ki 13:32; 2Ki 17:29; 2Ki 23:19). B.K.W.] All told, six activities may be traced: the burning of incense, sacrificing, the eating of sacrificial meals, praying, prostitution, and child sacrifice (cf. bama in the valley, Jer 7:31).
Aside from the usage for a "height" or "lofty spot" bama is essentially a place of worship. But what kind of worship? Critical thought in the past has argued that Israel normally worshipped in these local shrines until Josiah's reform centralized the worship in Jerusalem. All high places were legitimate and normal. The pejorative references to them are said to be due to post Josianic super-orthodox editors.
Prior to the monarchy during the time when the tabernacle of Shiloh was in ruins and prior to worship at the Jerusalem temple, worship was practiced at the bama, chief of which was Gibeon, where God communicated with Solomon through a dream (1Ki 3:2ff). Before him, Samuel frequented high places, officiating there (1Sa 9:12ff).
After the building of Solomon's temple, references to bama are pejorative, for building bama represents Israel's sinful involvement in pagan worship. There is only one exception, during the upset days of Manasseh (2Ch 33:17). God's basic stance, already indicated in Lev 26:30, is one of "being against" bama. "I will destroy your bama" (Eze 6:3; cf 1Ki 13:2). Prior to their entry into the land, Israel was commanded to destroy pagan high places (Num 33:52; cf 2Ki 17:11). The reason for God's judgment is that a bama represents competing allegiances. In instances Israel substituted pagan deities for the worship of YHWH, but at other times, as in Samaria following the northern captivity, an attempt was made to worship both YHWH and other gods simultaneously (2Ki 17:29). God's action against bama, first threatened and then executed, stands as prime witness to the significance of the first command, "You shall have no other gods before me" (Exo 20:3).
God's displeasure with the bama is cited at the first mention of the construction of a bama in the nation of Israel. Solomon built high places for the gods Chemosh of Moab and Molech of the Ammonites in order to please his wives (1Ki 11:7). Only in Josiah's time, three hundred years later, were these destroyed (2Kings 23, a key chapter for information about bama). The unnamed man of God protested Jeroboam's institution of bama (1Ki 13:2). The lengthy explanation in 2Kings 17 for the northern tribes' exile notes that the people built for themselves bama "at all their towns" (2Ki 17:9). Though the prophet Isaiah is silent about cultic bama, likely because under Hezekiah they had been removed (2Ki 18:4), Jeremiah in two prophetic judgment speeches announces that the bama, which in his day was the place for human sacrifice, constituted part of the reason for the coming catastrophe (Jer 19:5; Jer 32:35).
In fact worship at the high places seems to be a decisive or climaxing action of evil. At the time of Rehoboam, Judah initiated high places, thereby committing more sin than their fathers (1Ki 14:22-23). Jeroboam's large enthusiasm for high places and his practice of placing priests there, "became a sin to the house of Jeroboam, so as to cut it off" (1Ki 13:34).
Bibliography: Albright, W. F., "The High Place in Ancient Palestine," Supp VT 4: 242-58. Iwry, Samuel, "Massebah and Bamah in 1Q Isaiah A613"," JBL 76: 225-32. Mccown, C. C., "Hebrew High Places and Cult Remains," JBL 69: 205-19. TDOT, II, pp. 139-44. E.A.M.
Hebrew Word: be'mo
Strong's Cross Reference: None
Definition: See no. 153.