בִּקְעָא
biq.a
plain
Lexicon Entry
Lexicon data from STEPBible TIPNR, Tyndale House, Cambridge. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.
What Original Readers Understood
Supported# The Hebrew Word for Plain: בִּקְעָא (biq'a) The Hebrew term בִּקְעָא (biq'a) refers to a "plain"—a geographical feature denoting flat or level terrain. With fifteen occurrences across the biblical text, this word appears frequently enough to indicate it held practical importance in describing the physical landscape of ancient Israel and surrounding regions. The term functions as a straightforward geographical descriptor, allowing biblical writers to distinguish between mountainous and elevated areas versus open, level ground. The word's presence in the biblical corpus suggests that plains held significant meaning for the ancient communities described in these texts, whether as areas suitable for settlement, agriculture, or military movement. The consistent usage and moderate frequency of the term indicate that plains were common enough features in the biblical world to warrant their own specific designation. Rather than using generic language, biblical authors employed this particular word when the flatness or openness of terrain was relevant to their narrative or descriptive purposes.
Source data & methodology
Occurrences in Scripture
15 total occurrences across the text
Nevertheless Josiah would not turn his face from him, but disguised himself, that he might fight with him, and didn’t listen to the words of Neco from the mouth of God, and came to fight in the valley of Megiddo.
Nehemiah 6:2Sanballat and Geshem sent to me, saying, “Come! Let’s meet together in the villages in the plain of Ono.” But they intended to harm me.
Psalms 104:8The mountains rose, the valleys sank down, to the place which you had assigned to them.
Isaiah 40:4Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low. The uneven shall be made level, and the rough places a plain.
Isaiah 41:18I will open rivers on the bare heights, and springs in the middle of the valleys. I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water.
Isaiah 63:14As the livestock that go down into the valley, Yahweh’s Spirit caused them to rest. So you led your people to make yourself a glorious name.
Ezekiel 3:22Yahweh’s hand was there on me; and he said to me, “Arise, go out into the plain, and I will talk with you there.”
Ezekiel 3:23Then I arose, and went out into the plain, and behold, Yahweh’s glory stood there, like the glory which I saw by the river Chebar. Then I fell on my face.
Ezekiel 8:4Behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there, according to the appearance that I saw in the plain.
Ezekiel 37:1Yahweh’s hand was on me, and he brought me out in Yahweh’s Spirit, and set me down in the middle of the valley; and it was full of bones.
Ezekiel 37:2He caused me to pass by them all around: and behold, there were very many in the open valley; and behold, they were very dry.
Zechariah 12:11In that day there will be a great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon.
Genesis 11:2As they traveled from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they lived there.
Deuteronomy 8:7For Yahweh your God brings you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of springs, and underground water flowing into valleys and hills;
Deuteronomy 11:11but the land that you go over to possess is a land of hills and valleys which drinks water from the rain of the sky,