Mount of Corruption

The Mount of Corruption (also called the Mount of Offence, Latin Mons Offensionis) was the derogatory name given to the southern spur of the Mount of Olives where Solomon erected shrines to pagan deities for his foreign wives. He built high places there for Chemosh, the god of Moab, and for Molech, the god of Ammon, as well as for the Sidonian goddess Ashtoreth (1 Kings 11:7; 2 Kings 23:13). The name Mount of Corruption — substituting a word of shame for whatever the original name of the ridge may have been — expresses the Hebrew scribal practice of stigmatizing sites of idolatry. These shrines remained standing for approximately three centuries until King Josiah defiled and demolished them as part of his sweeping reformation (2 Kings 23:13). The site is traditionally located on the southern slope of Olivet, opposite Zion across the Kidron Valley.