Natural heights were sometimes the sites of shrines devoted to the LORD. However, the term usually refers to the places where shrines were set up to foreign gods, especially shrines where the worship of the LORD was in rivalry with Jerusalem.
High places referring to mountainous areas
Habakkuk 3:19 See also Deuteronomy 32:13; Psalm 18:33 parallel 2 Samuel 22:34
GOD the Lord is my strength; He makes my feet like those of a deer; He makes me walk upon the heights!
High places express divine lordship
For behold, He who forms the mountains, who creates the wind and reveals His thoughts to man, who turns the dawn to darkness and strides on the heights of the earth— the LORD, the God of Hosts, is His name.”
High places referring to shrines to the LORD
High places were the focus of worship before the building of Solomon's temple
The people, however, were still sacrificing on the high places because a house for the Name of the LORD had not yet been built. And Solomon loved the LORD and walked in the statutes of his father David, except that he sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.
High places associated with Samuel
1 Samuel 9:12 See also 1 Samuel 9:13–14, 1 Samuel 9:19
“Yes, he is ahead of you,” they answered. “Hurry now, for today he has come to the city because the people have a sacrifice on the high place.
Associated with other prophets
After that you will come to Gibeah of God, where the Philistines have an outpost. As you approach the city, you will meet a group of prophets coming down from the high place, preceded by harps, tambourines, flutes, and lyres, and they will be prophesying.
High places referring to foreign shrines
In Canaan before the conquest
Blessed are you, O Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by the LORD? He is the shield that protects you, the sword in which you boast. Your enemies will cower before you, and you shall trample their high places.”
Among Israel's neighbours
Isaiah 15:2 See also Isaiah 16:12
Dibon goes up to its temple to weep at its high places. Moab wails over Nebo, as well as over Medeba. Every head is shaved, every beard is cut off.
Israelite use of high places condemned
The building of shrines on high places
Jeroboam also built shrines on the high places and appointed from every class of people priests who were not Levites.
High places condemned by God
Leviticus 26:30 See also Numbers 33:52; Deuteronomy 12:2
I will destroy your high places, cut down your incense altars, and heap your lifeless bodies on the lifeless remains of your idols; and My soul will despise you.
High places condemned by the prophets
Ezekiel 20:28–29 See also Jeremiah 17:3
When I brought them into the land that I swore to give them and they saw any high hill or leafy tree, there they offered their sacrifices, presented offerings that provoked Me, sent up their fragrant incense, and poured out their drink offerings. So I asked them: ‘What is this high place to which you go?’ (And to this day it is called Bamah.)
High places associated with foreign gods
Jeremiah 32:35 Baal; 1 Kings 11:7 Chemosh and Molech
Worship at the high places
High places regarded as unsatisfactory places to worship the LORD
2 Chronicles 32:12 See also 2 Kings 18:4 The presence of Asherah poles is evidence of a consort for the LORD, typical of Baal worship, but alien to the Biblical concept of God; 2 Chronicles 31:1
Did not Hezekiah himself remove His high places and His altars and say to Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You must worship before one altar, and on it you shall burn sacrifices’ ?
Characteristics of worship at the high places
2 Kings 17:11 burning incense; 2 Kings 23:20 the presence of priests; 2 Chronicles 28:25 sacrifices; Ezekiel 43:7 a site for the tombs of kings
Removal of the high places
Leviticus 26:30; Numbers 33:52; 2 Chronicles 14:3, 2 Chronicles 17:6
Commended for the zeal shown
2 Kings 23:5 See also 2 Kings 23:8, 2 Kings 23:15
Josiah also did away with the idolatrous priests ordained by the kings of Judah to burn incense on the high places of the cities of Judah and in the places all around Jerusalem — those who had burned incense to Baal, to the sun and moon, to the constellations, and to all the host of heaven.
Used as a test
1 Kings 15:14, 1 Kings 22:43; 2 Kings 12:2–3, 2 Kings 14:3–4, 2 Kings 15:3–4, 2 Kings 15:34–35; 2 Chronicles 20:32–33
Related themes
Dictionary of Bible Themes © 1999 Martin Manser, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0, via Bible Aquifer. Formatted for this site, with Scripture from the Berean Standard Bible.