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/bbe'>2Ki 14:4; 2-Kings/15/4/type/bbe'>15:4,2, etc.).
See Verses Found in Dictionary
And Noah made an altar to the Lord, and from every clean beast and bird he made burned offerings on the altar.
And the Lord came to Abram, and said, I will give all this land to your seed; then Abram made an altar there to the Lord who had let himself be seen by him. And moving on from there to the mountain on the east of Beth-el, he put up his tent, having Beth-el on the west and Ai on the east: and there he made an altar and gave worship to the name of the Lord.
And Jacob made an offering on the mountain, and gave orders to his people to take food: so they had a meal and took their rest that night on the mountain.
But their altars are to be overturned and their pillars broken and their images cut down:
If any man of Israel puts to death an ox or a lamb or a goat, in or outside the tent-circle; And has not taken it to the door of the Tent of meeting, to make an offering to the Lord, before the Lord's House, its blood will be on him, for he has taken life, and he will be cut off from among his people:
But this is what you are to do to them: their altars are to be pulled down and their pillars broken, and their holy trees cut down and their images burned with fire.
You are to give up to the curse all those places where the nations, whom you are driving out, gave worship to their gods, on the high mountains and the hills and under every green tree: Their altars and their pillars are to be broken down, and their holy trees burned with fire, and the images of their gods cut down; you are to take away their names out of that place.
Then there will be a place marked out by the Lord your God as the resting-place for his name, and there you will take all the things which I give you orders to take: your burned offerings and other offerings, and the tenth part of your goods, and the offerings to be lifted up, and the offerings of your oaths which you make to the Lord; And you will be glad before the Lord your God, you and your sons and your daughters, and your men-servants and your women-servants, and the Levite who is with you in your house, because he has no part or heritage among you. read more. Take care that you do not make your burned offerings in any place you see: But in the place marked out by the Lord in one of your tribes, there let your burned offerings be offered, and there do what I have given you orders to do.
For the outcry he made by the word of the Lord against the altar in Beth-el and against all the houses of the high places in the towns of Samaria, will certainly come about.
But still the high places were not taken away; the people went on making offerings and burning them in the high places.
He was sixteen years old when he became king, and he was ruling in Jerusalem for fifty-two years; his mother's name was Jecoliah of Jerusalem.
But he did not take away the high places, and the people still went on making offerings and burning them 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.
See Verses Found in Dictionary
See that all the people of the land are forced out from before you, and put to destruction all their pictured stones, and all their metal images, and all their high places:
And they said, He is; in fact he is before you: go quickly now, for he has come into the town today, for the people are making an offering in the high place today: When you come into the town you will see him straight away, before he goes up to the high place for the feast: the people are waiting for his blessing before starting the feast, and after that the guests will take part in it. So go up now and you will see him. read more. So they went up to the town, and when they came inside the town, Samuel came face to face with them on his way to the high place. Now the day before Saul came, the word of God had come to Samuel, saying, Tomorrow about this time I will send you a man from the land of Benjamin, and on him you are to put the holy oil, making him ruler over my people Israel, and he will make my people safe from the hands of the Philistines: for I have seen the sorrow of my people, whose cry has come up to me. And when Samuel saw Saul, the Lord said to him, This is the man of whom I gave you word! he it is who is to have authority over my people. Then Saul came up to Samuel in the doorway of the town and said, Give me directions, if you will be so good, to the house of the seer. Then Samuel said to Saul, I am the seer; go up before me to the high place and take food with me today: and in the morning I will let you go, after opening to you all the secrets of your heart. As for your asses which have been wandering for three days, give no thought to them, for they have come back. And for whom are all the desired things in Israel? are they not for you and your father's family? And Saul said, Am I not a man of Benjamin, the smallest of all the tribes of Israel? and my family the least of the families of Benjamin? why then do you say these words to me? Then Samuel took Saul and his servant into the guest room, and made them take the chief place among all the guests who were there, about thirty persons. And Samuel said to the cook, Give me that part which I gave you orders to keep by you. And the cook took up the leg with the fat tail on it, and put it before Saul. And Samuel said, This is the part which has been kept for you: take it as your part of the feast; because it has been kept for you till the right time came and till the guests were present. So that day Saul took food with Samuel. And when they had come down from the high place into the town, where a bed was made ready for Saul, he went to rest.
But all this time the people were making their offerings in the high places, because no house had been put up to the name of the Lord till those days. And Solomon, in his love for the Lord, kept the laws of David his father; but he made offerings and let them go up in smoke on the high places. read more. And the king went to Gibeon to make an offering there, because that was the chief high place: it was Solomon's way to make a thousand burned offerings on that altar.
Then Solomon put up a high place for Chemosh, the disgusting god of Moab, in the mountain before Jerusalem, and for Molech, the disgusting god worshipped by the children of Ammon. And so he did for all his strange wives, who made offerings with burning of perfumes to their gods.
And Zadok the priest, with his brothers the priests, before the House of the Lord in the high place at Gibeon;
And he himself made priests for the high places, and for the images of he-goats and oxen which he had made.
And they have put up the high place of Topheth in the valley of the son of Hinnom, burning their sons and their daughters there in the fire; a thing which was not ordered by me and never came into my mind.
That you made for yourself an arched room in every open place. You put up your high places at the top of every street, and made the grace of your form a disgusting thing, opening your feet to everyone who went by, increasing your loose ways.
For you have made your arched room at the top of every street, and your high place in every open place; though you were not like a loose woman in getting together your payment.
I will give you into their hands, and your arched room will be overturned and your high places broken down; they will take your clothing off you and take away your fair jewels: and when they have done, you will be uncovered and shamed.
Then I said to them, What is this high place where you go to no purpose? And it is named Bamah to this day.