HIGH PLACES
Although the Hebrew word ba·mohthʹ, generally translated “high places,” is usually associated with worship, it can also simply refer to elevations, hills and mountains (2 Sam. 1:19, 25 [compare 1 Samuel 31:8]; Amos 4:13; Mic. 1:3), “high waves of the sea” (literally, “high places of the sea”) (Job 9:8), and heights or “high places of the clouds.” (Isa. 14:14) Evidently the expressions ‘to ride upon earth’s high places’ and ‘to tread upon the high places’ are to be understood as signifying victorious subjugation of a land, for one controlling all the high places, that is, the hills and mountains of a country, is, in effect, the lord of the land.—Deut. 32:13; 33:29.
CENTERS OF FALSE WORSHIP
High places, or the sites or shrines where idolatry was engaged in, were to be found not only on hills and mountains but also in the valleys, stream beds and cities and under the trees. (Deut. 12:2; 1 Ki. 14:23; 2 Ki. 17:29; Ezek. 6:3) They were equipped with altars for sacrifice, incense stands, sacred poles, sacred pillars and graven images. (Lev. 26:30; Num. 33:52; Deut. 12:2, 3; Ezek. 6:6) At many of the high places male and female prostitutes served. (1 Ki. 14:23, 24; Hos. 4:13, 14) Frequently the high places were the scenes of licentious rites, including ceremonial prostitution and child sacrifice.—Isa. 57:5; Jer. 7:31; 19:5.
There were also houses or sanctuaries of the high places where priests officiated and where the images of the deities were kept. (1 Ki. 12:31; 13:32; 2 Ki. 17:29, 32; 23:19, 20; Isa. 16:12) Thus, the designation ‘high place’ may sometimes refer to such a sanctuary rather than to an elevated site for worship, such as a hill, a mountain or an artificial mound. This is suggested by Ezekiel’s reference to high places of varied colors, garments having been used in making them. (Ezek. 16:16) Perhaps these high places were tentlike sanctuaries.
Before entering the Promised Land the Israelites were commanded to destroy the sacred high places of the Canaanites and all the appendages of false worship associated therewith. (Num. 33:51, 52) But the Israelites failed to do this, and after the death of Joshua and the older generation wholesale apostasy set in.—Judg. 2:2, 8-13; Ps. 78:58.
WORSHIP AT CERTAIN HIGH PLACES NOT CENSURED BY JEHOVAH
According to Jehovah’s law, sacrifices were to be offered only at the place he designated. In the days of Joshua, the Israelites recognized that the unauthorized building of an altar for burnt offering was, in effect, rebellion against Jehovah. (Deut. 12:1-14; Josh. 22:29) However, there are indications that, after the sacred ark was removed from the tabernacle (1 Sam. 4:10, 11; 6:1, 10-14; 7:1, 2), approved sacrificing at places other than the tent of meeting was done, not only under special circumstances, but, in some cases, also on somewhat of a regular basis. (1 Sam. 7:7-9; 10:8; 11:14, 15; 16:4, 5; 1 Ki. 3:3; 1 Chron. 21:26-30) That the latter may well have been the case is suggested by the fact that on the high place at an unnamed city in the land of Zuph a structure had apparently been erected where, it seems, the communion sacrifices could be eaten. The dining hall there accommodated about thirty men, if not more. Even the girls in the city were familiar with the sacrificial procedure there. (1 Sam. 9:5, 11-13, 22-25) It may also have been a practice for families to have a yearly sacrifice, not at the tabernacle, but in their own cities.—1 Sam. 20:6, 29.
The sacrificing on high places is excused on the ground that no house had been built to the name of Jehovah. Hence, Solomon had to sacrifice on the great high place at Gibeon, where the tabernacle was located at the time.—1 Ki. 3:2-4; 1 Chron. 16:37-40, 43; 21:29; 2 Chron. 1:3, 13; see ALTAR; OFFERINGS.
DURING SOLOMON’S REIGN AND IN THE TEN-TRIBE KINGDOM
Toward the latter part of his reign, King Solomon built high places for the false gods worshiped by his foreign wives. This contributed to the Israelites’ abandoning the true worship of Jehovah and serving false gods. Therefore, Jehovah, by means of his prophet Ahijah, indicated that ten tribes would be ripped away from the son of Solomon and Jeroboam would rule over these.—1 Ki. 11:7, 8, 30-35.
Although Jeroboam had Jehovah’s assurance that his kingship would be secure if he continued serving God in faithfulness, as soon as he became king he feared that the Israelites would revolt if they continued going up to Jerusalem for worship. For this reason he instituted calf worship at Dan and Bethel and there built high places. (1 Ki. 11:38; 12:26-33) As long as the ten-tribe kingdom existed, idolatrous worship continued at high places. “The sons of Israel went searching into the things that were not right toward Jehovah their God and kept building themselves high places in all their cities, from the tower of the watchmen clear to the fortified city.”—2 Ki. 17:9.
Under inspiration, the prophet Amos foretold that the “high places of Isaac” would become desolated. The “high places of Isaac” evidently refer to the sacred high places where the Israelites of the ten-tribe kingdom, descendants of Isaac through Jacob or Israel, practiced apostate worship. This is also indicated by the fact that the expression “high places of Isaac” runs parallel with ‘sanctuaries of Israel.’—Amos 7:9; see also Hosea 10:2-10.
After the king of Assyria took the ten-tribe kingdom into exile, the high places continued to exist for a time, since the foreign peoples who were moved into the territory of Samaria by the king of Assyria continued employing the high places in their worship. (2 Ki. 17:24, 29-32) About one hundred years after this, faithful King Josiah of Judah pulled down the altar and the high place at Bethel and desecrated the altar by burning human bones upon it. He also removed all the houses of the high places in the cities of Samaria, sacrificed (killed) all the priests of the high places and burned human bones upon the altars. (2 Ki. 23:15-20) This fulfilled a prophecy uttered over three hundred years earlier by an unnamed “man of God.”—1 Ki. 13:1, 2.
IN THE KINGDOM OF JUDAH
King Rehoboam followed the apostasy of his father Solomon, and his subjects continued building high places and practicing licentious rites. (1 Ki. 14:21-24) Rehoboam’s son and successor Abijam “went on walking in all the sins of his father.”—1 Ki. 15:1-3.
Asa, who succeeded Abijam to the throne, served Jehovah in faithfulness and put forth decisive efforts to rid the kingdom of all appendages of false worship. (1 Ki. 15:11-13) “He removed from all the cities of Judah the high places and the incense stands.” (2 Chron. 14:2-5) However, 1 Kings 15:14 and 2 Chronicles 15:17 apparently indicate that the high places were not removed. Hence, it may be that, although Asa removed the high places, their use persisted secretly or they cropped up again toward the end of his reign and were thereby present for his successor Jehoshaphat to destroy. (See, however, ASA No. 1.) But even during Jehoshaphat’s reign the high places did not fully disappear. (1 Ki. 22:42, 43; 2 Chron. 17:5, 6; 20:31-33) So entrenched was Judah’s worship at high places that the reforms of both Asa and Jehoshaphat could not remove all of them permanently.
King Jehoram, unlike his father Jehoshaphat, made high places on the mountains of Judah. (2 Chron. 21:1, 11) The religious state of the kingdom remained in a degraded condition throughout the reigns of Ahaziah and the usurper Athaliah the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel. (2 Ki. 8:25-27; 2 Chron. 22:2-4, 10) Although definite reforms to restore true worship were undertaken at the beginning of Jehoash’s reign, apostasy set in once again after the death of High Priest Jehoiada and the high places did not disappear. (2 Ki. 12:2, 3; 2 Chron. 24:17, 18) The high places continued to exist as centers of unlawful worship throughout the reigns of Kings Amaziah, Azariah (Uzziah) and Jotham. (2 Ki. 14:1-4; 15:1-4, 32-35) The next Judean king, Ahaz, not only sacrificed and made sacrificial smoke on the high places, but even made his own son pass through the fire. (2 Ki. 16:2-4) He also made additional “high places for making sacrificial smoke to other gods.”—2 Chron. 28:25.
During the days of King Hezekiah another extensive purge was undertaken to remove the high places. (2 Ki. 18:1-4, 22; 2 Chron. 32:12) After the great Passover celebration held during his reign, the Israelites went throughout the cities of Judah and Benjamin and even in Ephraim and Manasseh breaking up the sacred pillars, cutting down the sacred poles and pulling down the high places and the altars.—2 Chron. 30:21, 23; 31:1.
This restoration of true worship was short-lived. Hezekiah’s son Manasseh rebuilt the very high places that his father had destroyed. (2 Ki. 21:1-3; 2 Chron. 33:1-3) Manasseh caused the people to act even more wickedly than the pagan Canaanites whom Jehovah had annihilated. Hence, the Almighty determined to bring calamity upon Judah and Jerusalem, (2 Ki. 21:9-12) After being taken captive by the king of Assyria and brought to Babylon, Manasseh repented and, after returning to Jerusalem, took steps to remove the appendages of false worship. But the people continued offering sacrifices upon the unauthorized high places, not to false gods, however, but to Jehovah. (2 Chron. 33:10-17) Manasseh’s successor, his son Amon, did not continue the reforms started by his father, but made guiltiness increase.—2 Chron. 33:21-24.
Josiah, who succeeded Amon, distinguished himself by doing what was right in Jehovah’s eyes and adhering to the law of Moses. The foreign-god priests, who rendered up sacrificial smoke on the high places, he put out of business. He pulled down the high places, not only throughout Judah, but also in the cities of Samaria. The sites used for false worship were desecrated so that they could not be used to offend Jehovah.—2 Ki. 23:4-20; 2 Chron. 34:1-7.
The account of Josiah’s making the high places that had been built by Solomon unfit for worship tends to confirm the conclusion that, although previous kings had torn down the high places, there was a revival of these. It seems only logical that faithful Kings Asa and Jehoshaphat tore down these high places of false worship dating from the reign of Solomon.
Although no further mention is made of high places in the Kings and Chronicles accounts after Josiah’s thorough purge of all vestiges of false worship, the last four kings of Judah, Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin and Zedekiah, are reported as doing what was bad in Jehovahs eyes. (2 Ki. 23:31, 32, 36, 37; 24:8, 9, 18, 19) Apostate worship at high places was resumed by the Israelites. Hence, Jehovah, through his prophet Ezekiel, warned the nation of the dire consequences to come upon them: “I am bringing upon you a sword, and I shall certainly destroy your high places. And your altars must be made desolate and your incense stands must be broken, and I will cause your slain ones to fall before your dungy idols.”—Ezek. 6:3, 4.
It is noteworthy that there is no record of any worship at high places after the return from Babylonian exile. As had been foretold, the faithful Jewish remnant had profited from the bitter experience and had come to know Jehovah.—Ezek. 6:9, 10.