Bochim

Bochim ("weepers") was the place near Bethel where the Angel of the Lord appeared to all Israel and delivered a stinging rebuke for their failure to fully drive out the Canaanites after the death of Joshua (Judges 2:1-5). "I will not drive them out before you," the Angel declared, "and their gods shall become a snare to you." The people wept aloud at the message — and so the place was renamed Bochim, from the Hebrew root meaning "to weep." They offered sacrifices there before dispersing. The site is generally identified with Bethel itself or with a location very near Bethel, possibly the same as the "Oak of Weeping" (Allon-bacuth) below Bethel where Rebekah's nurse Deborah was buried (Genesis 35:8). The encounter at Bochim marks the formal transition from the Joshua-era conquest to the long, downward-spiraling cycle of apostasy, oppression, and deliverance that defines the book of Judges.