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/juliasmith'>2Ki 14:4; 2-Kings/15/4/type/juliasmith'>15:4,2, etc.).
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And Noah will build an altar to Jehovah, and will take from all clean cattle, and from all clean birds, and will bring up a burnt offering upon the altar.
And Jehovah shall be seen to Abram, and will say, To thy seed will I give this land, and he will build there an altar to Jehovah, being seen to him. And he will remove from thence to the mountain from the cast of the house of God, and shall stretch forth his tent; Bethel from the sea, and Hai from the east, and he shall build there an altar to Jehovah, and will call upon the name of Jehovah.
And Jacob will sacrifice a sacrifice upon the mount, and will call to his brethren to eat bread, and they will eat bread, and they will pass the night in the mount
For their altars thou shalt lay waste, and their pillars thou shalt break, and their images thou shalt cut of
A man, a man from the house of Israel, who shall slaughter an ox or lamb or goat, in the camp, or who shall slaughter without the camp, And at the door of the tent of appointment brought it not in to bring near an offering to Jehovah before the dwelling of Jehovah, blood shall be reckoned to that man: he shed blood; and that man was cut off from the midst of his people:
But thus shall ye do to them; their altars ye shall destroy, and their pillars ye shall break in pieces, and their statues ye shall cut down, and their carved things ye shall burn in are.
Destroying, ye shall destroy all the places where the nations which ye possess them served there their Gods upon the high mountains, and upon the hills and under every green tree. And break ye down their altars and break in pieces their pillars, and their columns ye shall burn with fire; and the carved things of their gods ye shall hew down, and destroy their names from that place
And there was the place which Jehovah your God shall choose in it to cause his name to dwell there; there shall ye bring all which I command you: your burnt-offerings and your sacrifices, your tenths, and the offerings of your hands, and all the choice of your vows which ye shall vow to Jehovah. And rejoice ye before Jehovah your God, ye, and your sons and your daughters, and your servants, and your maids, and the Levite who is in your gates; for not to him a portion and inheritance with you. read more. Watch to thyself lest thou lift up thy burnt-offering in every place which thou shalt see. But in the place which Jehovah shall choose in one of thy tribes, there thou shalt bring up thy burnt-offering, and there thou. shalt do all I command thee.
For being, the word shall be which he cried by the word of Jehovah upon the altar which is in the house of God, and upon all the houses of the heights which are in the cities of Shomeron.
But the heights were not turned away: the people yet sacrificing and burning incense in the heights.
The son of sixteen years was he in his reigning, and fifty and two years he reigned in Jerusalem. And his mother's name Jecholiah, from Jerusalem.
But the heights were not turned away: the people yet sacrificing and burning incense upon the heights.
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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And have driven out all those dwelling in the land from before you, and destroy ye all their watch towers, and all their molten images ye shall destroy, and all their heights ye shall lay waste:
And they will answer them and will say, He is; behold, before thee: hasten now, for this day he came to the city for a sacrifice this day to the people Bamah. As you come to the city thus ye shall find him, before he will go up to Bamah to eat: for the people will not eat till his coming, for he will bless the sacrifice; after this they being called will eat. And now go up, for this day ye shall find him. read more. And they will go up to the city: they coming into the midst of the city, and behold, Samuel coming forth to meet them, to go up to Bamah. And Jehovah revealed in the ear of Samuel one day, before Saul came, saying, About the time to-morrow I will send to thee a man from the land of Benjamin, and anoint him for leader over my people Israel; he shall save my people from the hand of Philisteim; for I saw my people, for their cry came to me. And Samuel saw Saul, and Jehovah answered him, Behold the man that I said to thee, He shall rule over my people. And Saul will draw near to Samuel in the midst of the gate, and he will say, Announce to me, now, where the house of him seeing. And Samuel will answer Saul, and say, I the seeing: go up before me to Bamah, and eat with me this day, and I will send thee away in the morrow, and all that is in thy heart I will announce to thee. And for the asses lost to thee this day three days, thou shall not set thy heart upon them, for they have been found. And to whom all the desire of Israel? is it not to thee and to all thy father's house? And Saul will answer and say, Am not I a son of the Jaminite, from the littleness of the tribes of Israel, and my family small more than all the families of the tribes of Benjamin and wherefore spakest thou to me according to this word? And Samuel will take Saul and his boy, and will bring them to the chamber, and will give to them place among the first of those being called, and they about thirty men. And Samuel will say to the cook, Thou shalt give the portion which I gave to thee, which I said to thee, Put it with thee. And the cook will lift up the leg and that upon it, and will set before Saul. And he will say, Behold that being left set before thee: eat, for to the appointment being watched for thee, saying, I called the people. And Saul will eat with Samuel in that day. And they will go down from Bamah to the city, and he will speak to Saul upon the roof.
Only the people sacrificing in heights, for there was not a house, built to the name of Jehovah even to these days. And Solomon will love Jehovah, going in the laws of David. his father: only he was sacrificing and burning incense upon the heights. read more. And the king will go to the hill to sacrifice there; for it was the great height: a thousand burnt-offerings will Solomon bring up upon that altar.
Then Solomon will build a height for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, in the mountain which is upon the face of Jerusalem, and for the king, the abomination of the sons of Ammon. And thus he did for all his strange wives, they burning incense and sacrificing to their gods.
And Zadok the priest, and his brethren the priests, before the dwelling of Jehovah in the height which is in Gibeon
And he will set up to him priests for the heights, for the wood-demons, and for the calves which he made.
And they built heights to Tophet which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in fire; which I commanded not, and it came not upon my heart.
Thou wilt build to thee a brothel, and thou wilt make to thee a height in every street At every head of the way thou didst build thy height, and thou wilt cause thy beauty to be abhorred, and thou wilt open wide thy feet to every one passing by, and thou wilt multiply thy fornication.
In thy building thy brothel in the head of every way, and thou madest thy height in every street; and thou wert not as a harlot to scorn a gift
And I gave thee into their hand, and they pulled down thy brothel, and they broke down thy heights, and they stripped thee of thy garments, and they took all thy glory, and they left thee naked and nakedness.
And saying to them, What the height where ye go there? And its name will be called Height, even to this day.