'High Place' in the Bible

I will destroy your high places, cut down your incense altars, and heap your dead bodies on the lifeless bodies of your idols; I will reject you.

you must drive out all the inhabitants of the land before you, destroy all their stone images and cast images, and demolish all their high places.

The women answered, “Yes, he is ahead of you. Hurry, he just now came to the city, because there’s a sacrifice for the people at the high place today.

If you go quickly, you can catch up with him before he goes to the high place to eat. The people won’t eat until he comes because he must bless the sacrifice; after that, the guests can eat. Go up immediately—you can find him now.”

So they went up toward the city.Saul and his attendant were entering the city when they saw Samuel coming toward them on his way to the high place.

“I am the seer,” Samuel answered. “Go up ahead of me to the high place and eat with me today. When I send you off in the morning, I’ll tell you everything that’s in your heart.

Afterward, they went down from the high place to the city, and Samuel spoke with Saul on the roof.

“After that you will come to the Hill of God where there are Philistine garrisons. When you arrive at the city, you will meet a group of prophets coming down from the high place prophesying. They will be preceded by harps, tambourines, flutes, and lyres.

Then Saul finished prophesying and went to the high place.

Saul heard that David and his men had been discovered. At that time Saul was in Gibeah, sitting under the tamarisk tree at the high place. His spear was in his hand, and all his servants were standing around him.

However, the people were sacrificing on the high places, because until that time a temple for the Lord’s name had not been built.

Solomon loved the Lord by walking in the statutes of his father David, but he also sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.

The king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there because it was the most famous high place. He offered 1,000 burnt offerings on that altar.

At that time, Solomon built a high place for Chemosh, the detestable idol of Moab, and for Milcom, the detestable idol of the Ammonites, on the hill across from Jerusalem.

Jeroboam also built shrines on the high places and set up priests from every class of people who were not Levites.

Jeroboam made a festival in the eighth month on the fifteenth day of the month, like the festival in Judah. He offered sacrifices on the altar; he made this offering in Bethel to sacrifice to the calves he had set up. He also stationed the priests in Bethel for the high places he had set up.

The man of God cried out against the altar by a revelation from the Lord: “Altar, altar, this is what the Lord says, ‘A son will be born to the house of David, named Josiah, and he will sacrifice on you the priests of the high places who are burning incense on you. Human bones will be burned on you.’”

for the word that he cried out by a revelation from the Lord against the altar in Bethel and against all the shrines of the high places in the cities of Samaria is certain to happen.”

After all this Jeroboam did not repent of his evil way but again set up priests for the high places from every class of people. He ordained whoever so desired it, and they became priests of the high places.

They also built for themselves high places, sacred pillars, and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every green tree;

The high places were not taken away; but Asa’s heart was completely devoted to the Lord his entire life.

He walked in all the ways of his father Asa; he did not turn away from them but did what was right in the Lord’s sight. However, the high places were not taken away; the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.

Yet the high places were not taken away; the people continued sacrificing and burning incense on the high places.

Yet the high places were not taken away, and the people continued sacrificing and burning incense on the high places.

Yet the high places were not taken away; the people continued sacrificing and burning incense on the high places.

Yet the high places were not taken away; the people continued sacrificing and burning incense on the high places.Jotham built the Upper Gate of the Lord’s temple.

He sacrificed and burned incense on the high places, on the hills, and under every green tree.

The Israelites secretly did what was not right against the Lord their God. They built high places in all their towns from watchtower to fortified city.

They burned incense on all the high places just like those nations that the Lord had driven out before them. They did evil things, provoking the Lord.

But the people of each nation were still making their own gods in the cities where they lived and putting them in the shrines of the high places that the people of Samaria had made.

They feared the Lord, but they also appointed from their number priests to serve them in the shrines of the high places.

He removed the high places, shattered the sacred pillars, and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke into pieces the bronze snake that Moses made, for the Israelites burned incense to it up to that time. He called it Nehushtan.

Suppose you say to me: We trust in the Lord our God. Isn’t He the One whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and to Jerusalem: You must worship at this altar in Jerusalem?’

He rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had destroyed and reestablished the altars for Baal. He made an Asherah, as King Ahab of Israel had done; he also worshiped the whole heavenly host and served them.

Then he did away with the idolatrous priests the kings of Judah had appointed to burn incense at the high places in the cities of Judah and in the areas surrounding Jerusalem. They had burned incense to Baal, and to the sun, moon, constellations, and the whole heavenly host.

Then Josiah brought all the priests from the cities of Judah, and he defiled the high places from Geba to Beer-sheba, where the priests had burned incense. He tore down the high places of the gates at the entrance of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city (on the left at the city gate).

The priests of the high places, however, did not come up to the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem; instead, they ate unleavened bread with their fellow priests.

The king also defiled the high places that were across from Jerusalem, to the south of the Mount of Destruction, which King Solomon of Israel had built for Ashtoreth, the detestable idol of the Sidonians; for Chemosh, the detestable idol of Moab; and for Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites.

He even tore down the altar at Bethel and the high place that Jeroboam son of Nebat, who caused Israel to sin, had made. Then he burned the high place, crushed it to dust, and burned the Asherah.

Josiah also removed all the shrines of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to provoke the Lord. Josiah did the same things to them that he had done at Bethel.

He slaughtered on the altars all the priests of the high places who were there, and he burned human bones on the altars. Then he returned to Jerusalem.

David left Zadok the priest and his fellow priests before the tabernacle of the Lord at the high place in Gibeon

The tabernacle of the Lord, which Moses made in the desert, and the altar of burnt offering were at the high place in Gibeon,

Solomon and the whole assembly with him went to the high place that was in Gibeon because God’s tent of meeting, which the Lord’s servant Moses had made in the wilderness, was there.

So Solomon went to Jerusalem from the high place that was in Gibeon in front of the tent of meeting, and he reigned over Israel.

Jeroboam appointed his own priests for the high places, the goat-demons, and the golden calves he had made.

He removed the pagan altars and the high places. He shattered their sacred pillars and chopped down their Asherah poles.

He also removed the high places and the incense altars from all the cities of Judah, and the kingdom experienced peace under him.

The high places were not taken away from Israel; nevertheless, Asa was wholehearted his entire life.

His mind rejoiced in the Lord’s ways, and he again removed the high places and Asherah poles from Judah.

However, the high places were not taken away; the people had not yet set their hearts on the God of their ancestors.

Jehoram also built high places in the hills of Judah, and he caused the inhabitants of Jerusalem to prostitute themselves, and he led Judah astray.

He sacrificed and burned incense on the high places, on the hills, and under every green tree.

He made high places in every city of Judah to offer incense to other gods, and he provoked the Lord, the God of his ancestors.

When all this was completed, all Israel who had attended went out to the cities of Judah and broke up the sacred pillars, chopped down the Asherah poles, and tore down the high places and altars throughout Judah and Benjamin, as well as in Ephraim and Manasseh, to the last one. Then all the Israelites returned to their cities, each to his own possession.

Didn’t Hezekiah himself remove His high places and His altars and say to Judah and Jerusalem, “You must worship before one altar, and you must burn incense on it”?

He rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had torn down and reestablished the altars for the Baals. He made Asherah poles, and he worshiped the whole heavenly host and served them.

However, the people still sacrificed at the high places, but only to Yahweh their God.

His prayer and how God granted his request, and all his sin and unfaithfulness and the sites where he built high places and set up Asherah poles and carved images before he humbled himself, they are written in the Records of Hozai.

In the eighth year of his reign, while he was still a youth, Josiah began to seek the God of his ancestor David, and in the twelfth year he began to cleanse Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the Asherah poles, the carved images, and the cast images.

They enraged Him with their high placesand provoked His jealousy with their carved images.

Dibon went up to its templeto weep at its high places.Moab wails on Nebo and at Medeba.Every head is shaved;every beard is cut off.

When Moab appears on the high place,when he tires himself outand comes to his sanctuary to pray,it will do him no good.

Suppose you say to me, ‘We trust in the Lord our God.’ Isn’t He the One whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You are to worship at this altar’?

They have built the high places of Topheth in the Valley of Hinnom in order to burn their sons and daughters in the fire, a thing I did not command; I never entertained the thought.

My mountains in the countryside.I will give up your wealthand all your treasures as plunderbecause of the sin of your high placesin all your borders.

They have built high places to Baal on which to burn their children in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, something I have never commanded or mentioned; I never entertained the thought.

They have built the high places of Baal in the Valley of Hinnom to make their sons and daughters pass through the fire to Molech—something I had not commanded them. I had never entertained the thought that they do this detestable act causing Judah to sin!

In Moab, I will stop”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“the one who offers sacrifices on the high place and burns incense to his gods.

You are to say: Mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God! This is what the Lord God says to the mountains and the hills, to the ravines and the valleys: I am about to bring a sword against you, and I will destroy your high places.

Wherever you live the cities will be in ruins and the high places will be desolate, so that your altars will lie in ruins and be desecrated, your idols smashed and obliterated, your incense altars cut down, and your works wiped out.

You took some of your garments and made colorful high places for yourself, and you engaged in prostitution on them. These places should not have been built, and this should never have happened!

So I asked them: What is this high place you are going to? And it is called High Place to this day.

He said to me: “Son of man, this is the place of My throne and the place for the soles of My feet, where I will dwell among the Israelites forever. The house of Israel and their kings will no longer defile My holy name by their religious prostitution and by the corpses of their kings at their high places.

The high places of Aven, the sin of Israel,will be destroyed;thorns and thistles will grow over their altars.They will say to the mountains, “Cover us!”and to the hills, “Fall on us!”

Isaac’s high places will be deserted,and Israel’s sanctuaries will be in ruins;I will rise up against the house of Jeroboamwith a sword.”

All this will happen because of Jacob’s rebellionand the sins of the house of Israel.What is the rebellion of Jacob?Isn’t it Samaria?And what is the high place of Judah?Isn’t it Jerusalem?