Bible Strands
Judges 2:5
So they called that place Bochim and offered sacrifices there to the LORD.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The Israelites respond to the angel of the LORD’s rebuke by weeping and naming the site Bochim, then offering sacrifices to Yahweh at that location. This occurs immediately after the angel’s speech and before Joshua’s generation disperses to inherit the land.
The words — The text highlights בֹּכִים (Bokim), literally “weepers,” as the name given to the place, and וַיִּזְבְּחוּ (vayyizbeḥū), meaning “and they sacrificed.” These terms directly record the people’s reaction to the divine warning.
The thread — Naming sites in response to divine encounters echoes Genesis 35:8, while offering sacrifices aligns with the practice recorded in 1 Samuel 7:9. The pattern of renaming locations to memorialize God’s intervention also appears in Joshua 7:26.
Why it lands — The verse demands recognition that communal grief and worship follow divine correction. It requires the reader to observe how Israel memorializes covenant failure through naming and sacrifice without excusing the disobedience that prompted the angel’s rebuke.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And they called the name of that place Bochim: and they sacrificed there unto the Lord.
Cross-references
- Genesis 35:8 Now Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died and was buried under the oak below Bethel. So Jacob named it Allon-bacuth.
- 1 Samuel 7:9 Then Samuel took a suckling lamb and offered it as a whole burnt offering to the LORD. He cried out to the LORD on behalf of Israel, and the LORD answered him.
- Joshua 7:26 And they heaped over Achan a large pile of rocks that remains to this day. So the LORD turned from His burning anger. Therefore that place is called the Valley of Achor to this day.
- Judges 6:24 So Gideon built an altar to the LORD there and called it The LORD Is Peace. To this day it stands in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.
- Judges 13:19 Then Manoah took a young goat and a grain offering and offered them on a rock to the LORD. And as Manoah and his wife looked on, the LORD did a marvelous thing.