Bochim

Bochim is the place in the hill country to which the angel of Yahweh comes up from Gilgal at the opening of the Judges narrative, and where the name is given on the spot from the people's reaction to the rebuke they receive there.

The Angel's Rebuke and the Naming

The site is introduced and named in the same scene. "And the angel of Yahweh came up from Gilgal to Bochim. And he said, I made you⁺ to go up out of Egypt, and have brought you⁺ to the land which I swore to your⁺ fathers; and I said, I will never break my covenant with you⁺" (Jud 2:1). The charge against Israel follows: they have made covenant with the inhabitants of the land and have not broken down their altars, so Yahweh will not drive those nations out (Jud 2:2-3). At the angel's words "the people lifted up their voice, and wept" (Jud 2:4), and the place takes its name from that weeping: "And they called the name of that place Bochim: and they sacrificed there to Yahweh" (Jud 2:5).