High Places

The Hebrew Bible's "high places" (Hebrew bamot) name elevated worship sites — hilltops, mountains, and built-up platforms used for sacrifice. In the UPDV the same English phrase covers two opposing valences: a legitimate site of Yahweh worship before the temple, and a settled idiom for idolatry once the central sanctuary stood. The references are sorted along that fault line, with three subtopic tags: "Sometimes used for True Worship," "Condemned," and the destroyer-king reforms.

Patriarchal Worship on the Mountain

The earliest high-place imagery is unembarrassed altar-building on heights. Abraham, on arrival in the land, "removed from there to the mountain on the east of Beth-el, and pitched his tent ... and there he built an altar to [the Speech of] Yahweh, and called on the name of [the Speech of] Yahweh" (Ge 12:8). The Moriah narrative places sacrifice on a mountain by direct Yahweh-instruction: "And offer him there for a burnt-offering on one of the mountains which I will tell you of" (Ge 22:2). The site is then named "Yahweh-jireh. As it is said to this day, On the mount of Yahweh it will be provided" (Ge 22:14). Jacob continues the pattern: "And Jacob offered a sacrifice in the mountain, and called his brothers to eat bread" (Ge 31:54). Gideon is commanded to "build an altar to Yahweh your God on the top of this stronghold, in the orderly manner" (Jg 6:26). David, after the plague, "built an altar there to Yahweh, and offered burnt-offerings and peace-offerings" (2Sa 24:25). In each case the elevated site is the place of address.

Gibeon and Pre-Temple Tolerance

For the Kings-Chronicler tradition the period before the temple has a defined exception. "Only the people sacrificed in the high places, because there was no house built for the name of Yahweh until those days" (1Ki 3:2). At the head of Samuel's narrative the city's elders direct Saul's company toward worship: "for the people have a sacrifice today in the high place" (1Sa 9:12), and in the next chapter Samuel's prophets descend "from the high place with a psaltery, and a timbrel, and a pipe, and a harp" (1Sa 10:5). Gibeon is the named example. Solomon "went to Gibeon to sacrifice there; for that was the great high place: a thousand burnt-offerings did Solomon offer on that altar" (1Ki 3:4); the Chronicler grounds the legitimacy by tabernacle-presence: "Zadok the priest, and his brothers the priests, before the tabernacle of Yahweh in the high place that was at Gibeon" (1Ch 16:39); and again, "Solomon, and all the assembly with him, went to the high place that was at Gibeon; for there was the tent of meeting of God, which Moses the slave of Yahweh had made in the wilderness" (2Ch 1:3). Yahweh-only high-place worship can persist even later under the same logic: "Nevertheless the people still sacrificed in the high places, but only to Yahweh their God" (2Ch 33:17).

Carmel as Yahweh's Mountain

Elijah's contest stages the legitimate-mountain claim against the prophets of Baal. Elijah summons "all Israel to mount Carmel, and the prophets of Baal four hundred and fifty, and the prophets of the Asherah four hundred" (1Ki 18:19), then "repaired the altar of Yahweh that was thrown down" (1Ki 18:30). The verdict comes in fire: "Then the fire of Yahweh fell, and consumed the burnt-offering, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench" (1Ki 18:38). Carmel is a height; the polemic is not against elevation but against the rival deity.

High Places of Baal: The Idolatrous Register

Outside the patriarchal and pre-temple windows the phrase pivots. Balak takes Balaam "up into the high places of Baal" (Nu 22:41) — an early construct linking bamot with a foreign god. Solomon's later turn institutionalizes the same construction in Judah: "Then did Solomon build a high place for Chemosh the detestable thing of Moab, in the mount that is before Jerusalem, and for Molech the detestable thing of the sons of Ammon" (1Ki 11:7). In the north, Jeroboam's foundational program is concrete: "And he made houses of high places, and made priests from among all the people, who were not of the sons of Levi" (1Ki 12:31). Under Rehoboam the southern population echoes the formula: "they also built themselves high places, and pillars, and Asherim, on every high hill, and under every green tree" (1Ki 14:23). The condemnation of the Beth-el altar reaches further: "the saying which he cried by the word of Yahweh against the altar in Beth-el, and against all the houses of the high places which are in the cities of Samaria, will surely come to pass" (1Ki 13:32). Jeremiah locates the worst in the Hinnom valley: "they have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I did not command, neither did it come into my mind" (Je 7:31). Torah-language anticipates the same: "I will destroy your⁺ high places, and cut down your⁺ sun-images, and cast your⁺ dead bodies on the bodies of your⁺ idols" (Le 26:30); and on entry to the land, "destroy all their figured [stones], and destroy all their molten images, and demolish all their high places" (Nu 33:52).

Ezekiel's Lofty Places

Ezekiel reuses the high-place register inside an extended whoring-allegory. Where Kings says "high places," Ezekiel's UPDV idiom is "vaulted place" and "lofty place": "you have built yourself a vaulted place, and have made yourself a lofty place in every street ... at the head of every way" (Eze 16:24-25). The judgment promised is structural — "they will throw down your vaulted place, and break down your lofty places" (Eze 16:39) — within a longer indictment of ritual infidelity in Eze 16:24-43.

Persistence Under Reform

The Kings-Chronicler split surfaces sharply on the reformer-kings. Of Asa, the Chronicler reports: "he took away the foreign altars, and the high places, and broke down the pillars, and hewed down the Asherim" (2Ch 14:3); Kings, on the same reign, qualifies: "But the high places were not taken away: nevertheless the heart of Asa was perfect with Yahweh all his days" (1Ki 15:14). Under Jehoshaphat the Chronicler again states removal — "he took away the high places and the Asherim out of Judah" (2Ch 17:6) — while Kings repeats the persistence note: "the high places were not taken away; the people still sacrificed and burned incense in the high places" (1Ki 22:43). The northern indictment that justifies the exile turns on the same diffuse worship: "the sons of Israel secretly did things that were not right against Yahweh their God: and they built themselves high places in all their cities, from the tower of the watchmen to the fortified city" (2Ki 17:9), and after deportation "every nation made gods of their own, and put them in the houses of the high places which the Samaritans had made" (2Ki 17:29).

Hezekiah and Josiah

Two reigns are credited with decisive removal. Of Hezekiah: "He removed the high places, and broke the pillars, and cut down the Asherah: and he broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made; for in those days the sons of Israel burned incense to it; and he called it Nehushtan" (2Ki 18:4). Of Josiah: "he brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense, from Geba to Beer-sheba; and he broke down the high places of the gates that were at the entrance of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city" (2Ki 23:8). The reform geography (Geba to Beer-sheba) and the institutional targets (gates, priestly cities, the Mosaic relic that had become an object of worship) close the Kings narrative on the same vocabulary that opened it — bamot still standing where Yahweh's name should stand alone.