Bamah

Bamah (meaning a height or high place) is the Hebrew term for an elevated site used for worship, appearing as a common noun throughout the historical and prophetic books and as a proper name in a few passages. Ezekiel 20:29 uses the word pointedly, quoting God's question to Israel: What is the high place whereunto ye go? And the name thereof is called Bamah unto this day — a divine challenge to the continuing practice of high place worship long after the Sinai covenant prohibited it.

Numbers 22:41 mentions Bamoth-baal as the place where Balak first brought Balaam, and the term Bamah at Ezekiel 36:2 is used by the enemies of Israel to taunt the land. The high places were a persistent problem in Israel's religious history: built originally as local worship sites, they became associated with Canaanite fertility rites and survived even through the reforms of good kings like Asa and Jehoshaphat, who removed the great altars but left the bamoth standing. Only Hezekiah and Josiah conducted comprehensive destructions of the high places.