מָקוֹם
ma.qom
place
Lexicon Entry
Lexicon data from STEPBible TIPNR, Tyndale House, Cambridge. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.
What Original Readers Understood
Supported# 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.
Source data & methodology
Occurrences in Scripture
401 total occurrences across the text — showing 50
On the fourth day, they assembled themselves in Beracah Valley, for there they blessed Yahweh. Therefore the name of that place was called “Beracah Valley” to this day.
2 Chronicles 24:11Whenever the chest was brought to the king’s officers by the hand of the Levites, and when they saw that there was much money, the king’s scribe and the chief priest’s officer came and emptied the chest, and took it, and carried it to its place again. Thus they did day by day, and gathered money in abundance.
2 Chronicles 25:10Then Amaziah separated them, the army that had come to him out of Ephraim, to go home again. Therefore their anger was greatly kindled against Judah, and they returned home in fierce anger.
2 Chronicles 25:10Then Amaziah separated them, the army that had come to him out of Ephraim, to go home again. Therefore their anger was greatly kindled against Judah, and they returned home in fierce anger.
2 Chronicles 33:19His prayer also, and how God was entreated of him, and all his sin and his trespass, and the places in which he built high places, and set up the Asherah poles and the engraved images, before he humbled himself: behold, they are written in the history of Hozai.
2 Chronicles 34:24“Yahweh says, ‘Behold, I will bring evil on this place, and on its inhabitants, even all the curses that are written in the book which they have read before the king of Judah.
2 Chronicles 34:25Because they have forsaken me, and have burned incense to other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands; therefore my wrath is poured out on this place, and it will not be quenched.’ ” ’
2 Chronicles 34:27because your heart was tender, and you humbled yourself before God, when you heard his words against this place, and against its inhabitants, and have humbled yourself before me, and have torn your clothes, and wept before me, I also have heard you,” says Yahweh.
2 Chronicles 34:28“Behold, I will gather you to your fathers, and you will be gathered to your grave in peace. Your eyes won’t see all the evil that I will bring on this place and on its inhabitants.” ’ ” They brought back word to the king.
Ezra 1:4Whoever is left, in any place where he lives, let the men of his place help him with silver, with gold, with goods, and with animals, in addition to the free will offering for God’s house which is in Jerusalem.’ ”
Ezra 1:4Whoever is left, in any place where he lives, let the men of his place help him with silver, with gold, with goods, and with animals, in addition to the free will offering for God’s house which is in Jerusalem.’ ”
Ezra 8:17I sent them out to Iddo the chief at the place Casiphia; and I told them what they should tell Iddo, and his brothers the temple servants, at the place Casiphia, that they should bring to us ministers for the house of our God.
Ezra 8:17I sent them out to Iddo the chief at the place Casiphia; and I told them what they should tell Iddo, and his brothers the temple servants, at the place Casiphia, that they should bring to us ministers for the house of our God.
Ezra 9:8Now for a little moment grace has been shown from Yahweh our God, to leave us a remnant to escape, and to give us a nail in his holy place, that our God may lighten our eyes, and revived us a little in our bondage.
Nehemiah 1:9but if you return to me, and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts were in the uttermost part of the heavens, yet I will gather them from there, and will bring them to the place that I have chosen, to cause my name to dwell there.’
Nehemiah 2:14Then I went on to the spring gate and to the king’s pool, but there was no place for the animal that was under me to pass.
Nehemiah 4:12When the Jews who lived by them came, they said to us ten times from all places, “Wherever you turn, they will attack us.”
Nehemiah 4:13Therefore I set guards in the lowest parts of the space behind the wall, in the open places. I set the people by family groups with their swords, their spears, and their bows.
Nehemiah 4:20Wherever you hear the sound of the trumpet, rally there to us. Our God will fight for us.”
Nehemiah 12:27At the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem, they sought the Levites out of all their places, to bring them to Jerusalem, to keep the dedication with gladness, both with giving thanks, and with singing, with cymbals, stringed instruments, and with harps.
Esther 4:3In every province, wherever the king’s commandment and his decree came, there was great mourning among the Jews, and fasting, and weeping, and wailing; and many lay in sackcloth and ashes.
Esther 4:14For if you remain silent now, then relief and deliverance will come to the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Who knows if you haven’t come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”
Esther 8:17In every province, and in every city, wherever the king’s commandment and his decree came, the Jews had gladness, joy, a feast, and a good day. Many from among the peoples of the land became Jews; for the fear of the Jews was fallen on them.
Job 2:11Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that had come on him, they each came from his own place: Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite; and they made an appointment together to come to sympathize with him and to comfort him.
Job 6:17In the dry season, they vanish. When it is hot, they are consumed out of their place.
Job 7:10He will return no more to his house, neither will his place know him any more.
Job 8:18If he is destroyed from his place, then it will deny him, saying, ‘I have not seen you.’
Job 9:6He shakes the earth out of its place. Its pillars tremble.
Job 16:18“Earth, don’t cover my blood. Let my cry have no place to rest.
Job 18:4You who tear yourself in your anger, will the earth be forsaken for you? Or will the rock be removed out of its place?
Job 18:21Surely such are the dwellings of the unrighteous. This is the place of him who doesn’t know God.”
Job 20:9The eye which saw him will see him no more, neither will his place see him any more.
Job 27:21The east wind carries him away, and he departs. It sweeps him out of his place.
Job 27:23Men will clap their hands at him, and will hiss him out of his place.
Job 28:1“Surely there is a mine for silver, and a place for gold which they refine.
Job 28:6Sapphires come from its rocks. It has dust of gold.
Job 28:12“But where will wisdom be found? Where is the place of understanding?
Job 28:20Where then does wisdom come from? Where is the place of understanding?
Job 28:23“God understands its way, and he knows its place.
Job 34:26He strikes them as wicked men in the open sight of others;
Job 37:1“Yes, at this my heart trembles, and is moved out of its place.
Job 38:12“Have you commanded the morning in your days, and caused the dawn to know its place,
Job 38:19“What is the way to the dwelling of light? As for darkness, where is its place,
Psalms 24:3Who may ascend to Yahweh’s hill? Who may stand in his holy place?
Psalms 26:8Yahweh, I love the habitation of your house, the place where your glory dwells.
Psalms 37:10For yet a little while, and the wicked will be no more. Yes, though you look for his place, he isn’t there.
Exodus 33:21Yahweh also said, “Behold, there is a place by me, and you shall stand on the rock.
Psalms 44:19though you have crushed us in the haunt of jackals, and covered us with the shadow of death.
Psalms 103:16For the wind passes over it, and it is gone. Its place remembers it no more.
Psalms 103:22Praise Yahweh, all you works of his, in all places of his dominion. Praise Yahweh, my soul!