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.
