High Places

High places (Hebrew bamot) were elevated cult sites — natural hilltops, rocky outcrops, or artificially raised platforms — at which sacrifices, incense, and acts of worship were offered throughout the ancient Near East. Before the construction of the Jerusalem temple and the Deuteronomic principle of centralized worship, high places served as legitimate sites of Yahweh worship: Samuel sacrificed and ate with Saul at a high place (1 Sam. 9:12-14), and Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings at the great high place at Gibeon (1 Kings 3:4). The tension between this older tradition and the Deuteronomic ideal of exclusive worship at the chosen place (Deut. 12:5-14) shapes the evaluations of Israelite kings across Samuel-Kings.

The standard formula for partial approval of Judean kings is that 'the high places were not removed' even when the king otherwise did what was right (1 Kings 15:14; 22:43; 2 Kings 12:3). High places dedicated to foreign deities were entirely condemned: Solomon built high places for Chemosh, Moloch, and Ashtoreth (1 Kings 11:7-8), and Ahab erected a Baal altar. Hezekiah's removal of the high places was a distinctive mark of his reform (2 Kings 18:4), but his successors restored them. Josiah's reform was the most thoroughgoing, destroying high places throughout both Judah and the former northern kingdom (2 Kings 23:8-20). After the exile, the high place system was not restored, and synagogue worship in local communities replaced the decentralized cult.