Reference: High place
Easton
an eminence, natural or artificial, where worship by sacrifice or offerings was made (1Ki 13:32; 2Ki 17:29). The first altar after the Flood was built on a mountain (Ge 8:20). Abraham also built an altar on a mountain (Ge 12:7-8). It was on a mountain in Gilead that Laban and Jacob offered sacrifices (Ge 31:54). After the Israelites entered the Promised Land they were strictly enjoined to overthrow the high places of the Canaanites (Ex 34:13; De 7:5; 12:2-3), and they were forbidden to worship the Lord on high places (De 12:11-14), and were enjoined to use but one altar for sacrifices (Le 17:3-4; De 12; 16:21). The injunction against high places was, however, very imperfectly obeyed, and we find again and again mention made of them (2-Kings/14/4/type/acv'>2Ki 14:4; 2-Kings/15/4/type/acv'>15:4,2, etc.).
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And Noah built an altar to LORD, and took of every clean beast, and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
And LORD appeared to Abram, and said, I will give this land to thy seed. And there he built an altar to LORD, who appeared to him. And he moved from there to the mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west, and Ai on the east. And there he built an altar to LORD, and called upon the name of LORD.
And Jacob offered a sacrifice on the mountain, and called his brothers to eat bread. And they ate bread, and tarried all night on the mountain.
But ye shall break down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and ye shall cut down their Asherim,
Whatever man there is of the house of Israel, who kills an ox, or lamb, or goat, in the camp, or who kills it outside the camp, and has not brought it to the door of the tent of meeting, to offer it as an oblation to LORD before the tabernacle of LORD, blood shall be imputed to that man. He has shed blood, and that man shall be cut off from among his people
But thus shall ye deal with them: Ye shall break down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and hew down their Asherim, and burn their graven images with fire.
Ye shall surely destroy all the places in which the nations that ye shall dispossess served their gods, upon the high mountains, and upon the hills, and under every green tree. And ye shall break down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and burn their Asherim with fire. And ye shall hew down the graven images of their gods, and ye shall destroy their name out of that place.
then it shall come to pass that to the place which LORD your God shall choose to cause his name to dwell there, there ye shall bring all that I command you: your burnt-offerings, and your sacrifices, your tithes, and the heave-offe And ye shall rejoice before LORD your God, ye, and your sons, and your daughters, and your men-servants, and your maid-servants, and the Levite who is within your gates--inasmuch as he has no portion nor inheritance with you. read more. Take heed to thyself that thou offer not thy burnt-offerings in every place that thou see, but in the place which LORD shall choose in one of thy tribes. There thou shall offer thy burnt-offerings, and there thou shall do all that I command thee.
For the saying which he cried by the word of LORD against the altar in Bethel, and against all the houses of the high places which are in the cities of Samaria, shall surely come to pass.
However the high places were not taken away; the people still sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places.
He was sixteen years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-two years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Jecoliah of Jerusalem.
However the high places were not taken away; the people still sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places.
Morish
The word commonly used for the high place is bamah, signifying what is high or elevated (cf. Eze 20:29), and then the hills on which altars were erected. There were such places in Canaan before the Israelites entered it, which they were told to destroy. Nu 33:52. If the Israelites had such, God would destroy them and cut down their images. Lev. 26:80.
In the above passages the high places are connected with idolatry; but it would appear that before the temple was built, altars for the worship of God had been erected elsewhere than at the tabernacle. With Samuel at Zuph, there was 'a sacrifice of the people' in the 'high place' (God having forsaken the tabernacle at Shiloh, this disorder resulted). It was evidently on elevated ground, for they went up to it and came down. 1Sa 9:12-25. At the beginning of the reign of Solomon the people sacrificed in high places because the temple was not yet built. This was failure, for we read that "Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of David his father: only he sacrificed and burnt incense in high places." 1Ki 3:2-4. The tabernacle was there (Gibeon), 1Ch 16:39; 2Ch 1:3, so that it appeared to be the right place to go to, and it was where God appeared to Solomon in the night; yet it was 'the great high place.' The reason of this implied disapproval is doubtless because the ark was not there, the symbol of God's presence, which was the true place of worship. At the close of Solomon's life he sinned greatly in building a high place for the gods of all his strange wives. 1Ki 11:7-8. On the division of the kingdom, Jeroboam set up his idols and "ordained him priests for the high places, and for the devils, and for the calves which he had made." 2Ch 11:15. With these two examples it is not surprising that in the whole land there were many high places. Hezekiah and Josiah zealously destroyed the high places, which included the buildings thereon and the idols connected therewith. The word bamah is used apparently for any idolatrous erection, for we once read of high places in a valley. Jer 7:31.
The term 'high places' has another application under the Hebrew word ramah, which also signifies 'exalted;' for Israel is charged with making a high place in every street, and at every head of the way, which doubtless refers to some shrine or symbol of idolatry connected with abominable practices. Eze 16:24-25,31,39. They courted the favour of the heathen by adopting their idolatrous worship and customs.
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then ye shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all their figured [stones], and destroy all their molten images, and demolish all their high places.
And they answered them, and said, He is. Behold, [he is] before thee. Make haste now, for he has come today into the city, for the people have a sacrifice today in the high place. As soon as ye have come into the city, ye shall straightaway find him before he goes up to the high place to eat. For the people will not eat until he comes, because he blesses the sacrifice, [and] afterwards those who are bidden e read more. And they went up to the city. [And] as they came within the city, behold, Samuel came out toward them, to go up to the high place. Now LORD had revealed to Samuel a day before Saul came, saying, Tomorrow about this time I will send thee a man out of the land of Benjamin, and thou shall anoint him to be prince over my people Israel. And he shall save my people out of the hand of the Philistines, for I have looked upon my pe And when Samuel saw Saul, LORD said to him, Behold, the man of whom I spoke to thee! This man shall have authority over my people. Then Saul drew near to Samuel in the gate, and said, Tell me, I pray thee, where the seer's house is. And Samuel answered Saul, and said, I am the seer. Go up before me to the high place, for ye shall eat with me today. And in the morning I will let thee go, and will tell thee all that is in thy heart. And as for thy donkeys that were lost three days ago, set not thy mind on them, for they are found. And for whom is all that is desirable in Israel? Is it not for thee, and for all thy father's house? And Saul answered and said, Am I not a Benjamite, of the smallest of the tribes of Israel? And my family the least of all the families of the tribe of Benjamin? Why then speak thou to me according to this manner? And Samuel took Saul and his servant, and brought them into the guest-chamber, and made them sit in the chief place among those who were bidden, who were about thirty men. And Samuel said to the cook, Bring the portion which I gave thee, of which I said to thee, Set it by thee. And the cook took up the thigh, and that which was upon it, and set it before Saul. And [Samuel] said, Behold, that which has been reserved! Set it before thee and eat, because it has been kept for thee to the appointed time, for I And when they came down from the high place into the city, he conversed with Saul upon the housetop.
Only the people sacrificed in the high places, because there was no house built for the name of LORD until those days. And Solomon loved LORD, walking in the statutes of David his father. Only he sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places. read more. And the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for that was the great high place. Solomon offered a thousand burnt-offerings upon that altar.
Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab on the mount that is before Jerusalem, and for Molech the abomination of the sons of Ammon. And so he did for all his foreign wives, who burnt incense and sacrificed to their gods.
and Zadok the priest, and his brothers the priests, before the tabernacle of LORD in the high place that was at Gibeon,
And he appointed priests for him for the high places, and for the he-goats, and for the calves which he had made.
And they have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command, nor did it come into my mind.
that thou have built thyself a vaulted place, and have made thee a lofty place in every street. Thou have built thy lofty place at the head of every way, and have made thy beauty an abomination. And have opened thy feet to everyone who passed by, and multiplied thy whoredom.
in that thou build thy vaulted place at the head of every way, and make thy lofty place in every street. And have not [even] been as a harlot, in that thou scorn hire.
I will also give thee into their hand, and they shall throw down thy vaulted place, and break down thy lofty places. And they shall strip thee of thy clothes, and take thy fair jewels, and they shall leave thee naked and bare.
Then I said to them, What does the high place to which ye go mean? So the name of it is called Bamah to this day.