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Bamoth

BAMOTH BAAL (bā'mŏth bā'ăl, Heb. bāmôth ba‘al, high places of Baal). A place north of the Arnon, in the tribe of Reuben, to which Balak took Balaam (Num.22.41; Josh.13.17; also “Bamoth” in Num.21.19-Num.21.20).


BAMOTH, BAMOTH-BAAL bā’ mŏth, bā’ mŏth bāl’ (בָּמֹ֣ות בַּ֔עַל, high places of Baal). A place in Trans-Jordan where the Israelites stopped (Num 21:19, 20) N of the Arnon River. It is prob. the shortened form of Bamoth-baal (22:41). This Moabite town prob. was named for the special cultic installation at this spot where King Balak brought the prophet Balaam to curse Israel. The Mesha Stone records the fact that King Mesha built Dibon, Beth-bamoth (apparently our Bamoth-baal), Bezer, Medeba, Beth-diblathen and Beth-baal-meon. This inscr. coming from the end of Mesha’s reign (c. 830 b.c.) asserts that he “built Beth-bamoth, because it was destroyed” (11, 25-34). Reuben is assigned this city in Joshua 13:17 as part of his inheritance in the land.

The precise location is not known, but most fix it on the W edge of the Trans-Jordanian plateau, S of Mt. Nebo near modern Khirbet el-Quweiqiyeh.

Bibliography

L. H. Grollenberg, Atlas of the Bible (1957), 144; Y. Aharoni, The Land of the Bible (1967), 98, 308.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915)

ba’-moth, ba’-moth-ba’-al (bamoth-ba’al, "high places of Baal"): Bamoth is referred to in Nu 21:19,20, as a station in the journeyings of Israel North of the Arnon. It is probably the same place as the Bamoth-baal of Nu 22:41 (Revised Version margin), whither Balak, king of Moab, conducted Balaam to view and to curse Israel. Bamoth-baal is named in Jos 13:17 as one of the cities given to Reuben. Mesha, on the Moabite Stone, speaks of having "rebuilt" Beth-bamoth.