StrongerBible

maqom

מָקוֹם

HebrewH4725place, room

Appears 401 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Gen 1:9Gen 12:6Gen 13:3Gen 13:4Gen 13:14Gen 18:24Gen 18:26Gen 18:33Gen 19:12Gen 19:13Gen 19:14Gen 19:27Gen 20:11Gen 20:13Gen 21:31Gen 22:3Gen 24:23Gen 24:25Gen 24:31Gen 29:3Gen 29:26Gen 30:25Gen 31:55(32:1)Gen 36:40Gen 38:21Gen 39:20Gen 40:3Exo 3:8Exo 16:29Exo 18:23Exo 21:13Exo 29:31Exo 33:21Lev 1:16Lev 4:12Lev 4:24Lev 4:29Lev 4:33Lev 6:11(4)Lev 6:16(9)Lev 6:25(18)Lev 6:26(19)Lev 6:27(20)Lev 7:2Lev 7:6Lev 10:17Num 24:11Num 24:25Num 32:17Deu 12:2
Word studyma-KOHMnoun

What maqom means

a place: a spot or area where something or someone is located, stays, or belongs.

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled

This is the ordinary Hebrew word for a place, and it covers the whole range you would expect of such a word in English. It can be a named spot on the map, the patch of ground under your feet, the room left over in a house, the seat you sit in, or the home you return to. The thread running through all of it is simple: a portion of space that something fills or that is set aside for it.

Because the word is so plain, what it carries comes mostly from what it is attached to. A place can be made holy by who meets you there, as when Jacob wakes from his dream and calls the spot dreadful and the gate of heaven, or when God tells Moses the ground he stands on is holy. The same word names the single place God will later choose for worship in Deuteronomy, a phrase that becomes one of the most loaded uses in the Old Testament.

It also reaches into quieter human realities. Returning to one's place means going back home. Standing in someone's place means taking their position. And the place all people finally go, in Ecclesiastes, is the dust. So a word that begins as bare geography ends up touching belonging, worship, displacement, and death, simply by naming where a thing rightly is.

Nuances

1aa spot or location where something is or happens.
Gen 1:9Gen 13:3Gen 22:3Gen 22:4Gen 28:11Exo 17:7Num 11:3Job 28:1Job 28:6Job 28:12Ecc 1:7Ecc 3:20
1ba holy place: a site set apart by an encounter with God, and especially the one place God chooses for worship.
Gen 28:16Gen 28:17Exo 3:5Deu 12:5Deu 12:11Deu 12:14Deu 14:23Deu 16:2Deu 16:6Jos 5:151Ki 8:291Ki 8:30
1cone's own place: the home, station, or position a person or thing returns to or belongs in.
Gen 18:33Gen 30:25Gen 31:55(32:1)Num 24:11Num 24:251Sa 3:91Sa 5:32Sa 15:19Job 7:10Psa 37:10Ecc 10:4Isa 13:13
1droom or space: enough room for something or someone.
Gen 24:23Gen 24:25Gen 24:31Num 22:26Jos 20:4Jdg 20:361Sa 26:132Ki 6:1Job 16:18Isa 5:8Isa 49:20Isa 54:2

What scholars say about maqom

The standard lexica treat מָקוֹם as a single noun, derived from the root meaning to rise or stand (קוּם), with a broad range of senses unified by the idea of a portion of space: a general location, room or space, a person's own place or home, and a sacred site. HALOT and BDB lay out these senses without positing separate homonyms. The cultic use, especially the recurring Deuteronomic phrase the place that the LORD will choose, has drawn the most discussion; TDOT and centralization studies debate whether it points to a single sanctuary or is left deliberately open. Some have also explored whether the word functions occasionally as a reverent way of referring to God, a usage developed more fully in later rabbinic Hebrew (ha-Maqom) but generally not read back into the biblical text by critical scholarship.

Sources

  • HALOT (Koehler-Baumgartner), s.v. מָקוֹםlexicon
  • BDB (Brown-Driver-Briggs), s.v. מָקוֹםlexicon
  • David J. A. Clines, ed., The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew (DCH), s.v. מָקוֹםlexicon
  • K. Koch, "מָקוֹם māqôm," in Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament (TDOT) 8:532-544dictionary
  • Moshe Weinfeld, Deuteronomy and the Deuteronomic School (1972)monograph

All attested forms of מָקוֹם

m s absolute

מָּקוֹם, מָקוֹם, מָקֹם

Gen 13:3, Gen 13:14, Gen 18:24, Gen 18:26, Gen 19:12, Gen 19:13, Gen 19:14, Gen 19:27

m s construct

מְקוֹם, מְּקוֹם

Gen 12:6, Gen 13:4, Gen 39:20, Gen 40:3, Exo 3:8, Lev 1:16, Lev 4:24, Lev 4:29

m s construct

מְקֹמוֹ, מְקוֹמוֹ, מְּקוֹמוֹ, מְּקֹמוֹ

Gen 18:33, Gen 31:55, Exo 18:23, Num 24:25, Deu 21:19, Jdg 7:7, Jdg 9:55, Jdg 19:28

f p absolute

מְּקֹמוֹת, מְּקוֹמֹת, מְּקוֹמוֹת

Deu 12:2, Jdg 19:13, 1Sa 30:31, 2Ch 33:19, Ezr 1:4, Neh 4:12, Jer 24:9, Jer 40:12

m s construct

מְקוֹמָם, מְּקוֹמָם

Num 32:17, Jos 4:18, 1Sa 14:46, 2Ki 23:14, 2Ch 25:10, 2Ch 25:10, Isa 14:2, Job 6:17

m s construct

מְקוֹמָהּ, מְּקוֹמָהּ, מְקֹמָהּ

Job 28:23, Nam 1:8, Job 9:6, Isa 13:13, Gen 29:3, Gen 38:21

m s construct

מְקוֹמֶךָ, מְּקוֹמְךָ, מְקוֹמְךָ

Num 24:11, 2Sa 15:19, Ezk 12:3, Ezk 38:15, Ecc 10:4

m s construct

מְקוֹמִי

Gen 30:25, Jdg 11:19, Jer 7:12, Hos 5:15

f p construct

מְקֹמוֹת, מְּקֹמוֹת

Psa 103:22, Jer 8:3

f p construct

מְקוֹמֹתָם, מְקֹמֹתָם

Neh 12:27, Gen 36:40

f p construct

מְקוֹמֹתֵיכֶם

Amo 4:6

m s construct

מְקוֹמֵנוּ

Gen 29:26

m s construct

מְּקוֹמְכֶם

Jos 3:3