מָקוֹם
ma.qom (H4725)
place
AI Word Study
# Maqom (Place): A Foundational Hebrew Concept The Hebrew word *maqom* (מָקוֹם) serves as the primary term for "place" in biblical Hebrew, appearing 401 times throughout the biblical text. This frequency alone indicates its fundamental importance to Hebrew thought and expression. The word functions as a basic spatial concept, denoting a specific location or position within the physical world—whether geographical, architectural, or abstract. The extensive use of *maqom* across 401 occurrences suggests its application spans diverse contexts within biblical literature. Rather than being limited to a single specialized meaning, the term appears to carry sufficient semantic flexibility to accommodate various spatial references, from concrete physical locations to more contextual uses. This breadth of application made *maqom* an essential tool for biblical writers to communicate about space and positioning across narrative, legal, and poetic texts. The prominence of this vocabulary item reflects a fundamental human need to establish and communicate spatial reference points. For biblical writers and their audiences, having a versatile term for "place" was crucial for organizing stories, describing territories, establishing religious locations, and orienting readers within physical and conceptual space. The sheer frequency of *maqom*'s appearance indicates it was among the most commonly employed spatial terms in ancient Hebrew discourse.
AI synthesis uses only provided lexicon data -- never training knowledge.
God said, “Let the waters under the sky be gathered together to one place, and let the dry land appear;” and it was so.
Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time, Canaanites were in the land.
He went on his journeys from the South as far as Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai,
to the place of the altar, which he had made there at the first. There Abram called on Yahweh’s name.
Yahweh said to Abram, after Lot was separated from him, “Now, lift up your eyes, and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward,
What if there are fifty righteous within the city? Will you consume and not spare the place for the fifty righteous who are in it?
Yahweh said, “If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare the whole place for their sake.”
Yahweh went his way, as soon as he had finished communing with Abraham, and Abraham returned to his place.
The men said to Lot, “Do you have anybody else here? Sons-in-law, your sons, your daughters, and whomever you have in the city, bring them out of the place:
for we will destroy this place, because the outcry against them has grown so great before Yahweh that Yahweh has sent us to destroy it.”
Lot went out, and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were pledged to marry his daughters, and said, “Get up! Get out of this place, for Yahweh will destroy the city!” But he seemed to his sons-in-law to be joking.
Abraham went up early in the morning to the place where he had stood before Yahweh.
Abraham said, “Because I thought, ‘Surely the fear of God is not in this place. They will kill me for my wife’s sake.’
When God caused me to wander from my father’s house, I said to her, ‘This is your kindness which you shall show to me. Everywhere that we go, say of me, “He is my brother.” ’ ”
Therefore he called that place Beersheba, because they both swore an oath there.
Abraham rose early in the morning, and saddled his donkey; and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son. He split the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went to the place of which God had told him.
On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place far off.
They came to the place which God had told him of. Abraham built the altar there, and laid the wood in order, bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar, on the wood.
Abraham called the name of that place “Yahweh Will Provide”. As it is said to this day, “On Yahweh’s mountain, it will be provided.”
and said, “Whose daughter are you? Please tell me. Is there room in your father’s house for us to stay?”
She said moreover to him, “We have both straw and feed enough, and room to lodge in.”
He said, “Come in, you blessed of Yahweh. Why do you stand outside? For I have prepared the house, and room for the camels.”
The men of the place asked him about his wife. He said, “She is my sister,” for he was afraid to say, “My wife”, lest, he thought, “the men of the place might kill me for Rebekah, because she is beautiful to look at.”
He came to a certain place, and stayed there all night, because the sun had set. He took one of the stones of the place, and put it under his head, and lay down in that place to sleep.
Jacob awakened out of his sleep, and he said, “Surely Yahweh is in this place, and I didn’t know it.”
He was afraid, and said, “How awesome this place is! This is none other than God’s house, and this is the gate of heaven.”
He called the name of that place Bethel, but the name of the city was Luz at the first.
There all the flocks were gathered. They rolled the stone from the well’s mouth, and watered the sheep, and put the stone again on the well’s mouth in its place.
Laban gathered together all the men of the place, and made a feast.
Laban said, “It is not done so in our place, to give the younger before the firstborn.
When Rachel had borne Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me away, that I may go to my own place, and to my country.
Early in the morning, Laban rose up, and kissed his sons and his daughters, and blessed them. Laban departed and returned to his place.
When he saw them, Jacob said, “This is God’s army.” He called the name of that place Mahanaim.
Jacob called the name of the place Peniel; for he said, “I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.”
Jacob traveled to Succoth, built himself a house, and made shelters for his livestock. Therefore the name of the place is called Succoth.
He built an altar there, and called the place El Beth El; because there God was revealed to him, when he fled from the face of his brother.
Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he spoke with him, a pillar of stone. He poured out a drink offering on it, and poured oil on it.
These are the names of the chiefs who came from Esau, according to their families, after their places, and by their names: chief Timna, chief Alvah, chief Jetheth,
Then he asked the men of her place, saying, “Where is the prostitute, that was at Enaim by the road?” They said, “There has been no prostitute here.”
He returned to Judah, and said, “I haven’t found her; and also the men of the place said, ‘There has been no prostitute here.’ ”
Joseph’s master took him, and put him into the prison, the place where the king’s prisoners were bound, and he was there in custody.
He put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, into the prison, the place where Joseph was bound.
He said, “Don’t come close. Take off your sandals, for the place you are standing on is holy ground.”
I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey; to the place of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite.
Behold, because Yahweh has given you the Sabbath, therefore he gives you on the sixth day the bread of two days. Everyone stay in his place. Let no one go out of his place on the seventh day.”
He called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, because the children of Israel quarreled, and because they tested Yahweh, saying, “Is Yahweh among us, or not?”
If you will do this thing, and God commands you so, then you will be able to endure, and all these people also will go to their place in peace.”
You shall make an altar of earth for me, and shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your cattle. In every place where I record my name I will come to you and I will bless you.
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