'Places' in the Bible
Solomon brought the daughter of Pharaoh from the city of David to the house he had built for her, for he said, “My wife must not live in the house of David king of Israel because the places the ark of the Lord has come into are holy.”
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 made skillfully designed devices in Jerusalem to shoot arrows and catapult large stones for use on the towers and on the corners. So his fame spread even to distant places, for he was marvelously helped until he became strong.
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.