RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Hieronymus High Places
daughter of Jephthah, Judges xi. 40). The oracle in Deut. xxxiii. 19 implies worship on the mountains led by the tribes of Issachar and Zebulon. That the high places used by Israel during the period of the kings were taken over from the pre- Hebraic inhabitants of Canaan is held as almost axiomatic. The establishment of a new holy place came about usually through some supernatural phenomenon (as Jacob's dream, which showed that the spot was the haunt of deity, Gen. xxviii. 10 sqq., or the appearance of the angel of destruction at the threshing-floor of Araunah, II Sam. xxiv. 16). For mountain-tops as places of worship under the Hebrews cf. I Kings xiv. 23; II Kings xvi. 4, xvii. 10; Hos. iv. 13; Jer. ii. 20, iii. 6, vii. 2; Ezek. vi. 13, xx. 27-29. Especially illuminating is Jer. iii. 2, where " high places " is the rendering of shephayim, from shaphah, "to be bare," the idea probably being that bare peaks, offering an unobstructed view of heaven, were especially propitious. According to Ps. lxviii. 16, God especially desires to dwell on the hill of Zion.
The Hebrew term bamah (pi. bamoth), "high place " (cf. Assyr. bamatu, pi. bamati, the latter used in the sense of " hill country "), probably means " a crest." That the term is not merely figurative is proved by the fact that people " go up " to the high place (I Sam. ix. 13, 19; Isa. xv. 2) and " come down " from it (I Sam. 3. Hebrew x. 5, ix. 25; cf . Ezek. xx. 29). The High word has occasionally the significance Places, of " mountain stronghold " (Ezek. xxxvi. 2), and so (in the plural) is symbolical of dominion (Deut. xxxii. 13; II Sam. xxii. 34; Isa. Iviii. 14). But in general the use of the word is religious ; it may have lost its physical meaning and have come to denote simply " sanctuary," though generally as an elevation. In prose it always means a place of worship, though it is synonymous at times with qibh'ah, " hill," and ramah, " lofty place " (cf. Ezek. xx. 28-29, xvi. 16, 24-25, 31, 39). It occurs in the plural as an element in names (Num. xxi. 19-20, 28, R. V.; Josh, xiii. 17); and it is found on the Moabite Stone (q.v.) as the name of a Moabitic sanctuary for Chemosh (line 3) and as an element in a place-name (line 27). It is debatable whether " all the worship of Old Israel was worship at the high places " (EB, ii. 2066), since it is by no means certain that at all the shrines, e.g., under the sacred trees (see Groves and Trees, Sacred), " high places " existed (though cf. I Kings xiv. 23). Yet that the word was not always used in its physical sense appears from the cases in which the bamoth were in valleys (Jer. vii. 31, xix. 2, 5), in cities (I Kings xiii. 32; II Kings xvii. 9, 29, xxiii. 5), in the temple (Jer. vii. 31; Ezek. xvi. 34), at the entrance to the city (II Kings xxiii. 8), or near the city (I Sam. ix. 25, x. 5). In these cases the bamah must have been an artificial mound, perhaps resembling on a small scale the Babylonian ziggurat (cf. the notice of the Phenician coin, ut sup.). It is to be noted that in some cases these ziggurats bore the name of mountain or hill, thus revealing the idea which underlay their construction. This artificial construction is made quite clear by the cases in which the bamah
is distinguished from the hill on which it stood (I Kings xi. 7. xiv. 23; Ezek. vi. 3). The accessories of the high places were the maseebah, a stone pillar (see Memorials and Sacred Stones); the asherah (q.v.), a wooden post or pole; the altar (q.v.); often images of some description (see Images and Image Worship, I., and cf. II Chron. xiv. 3); Ephod and Teraphim (qq.v.; cf. Judges viii. 27, xvii. 5;
I Sam. xxi. 9); often a sacred tree (I Sam. xxii. 6); a structure like a house or shrine, cf. the " houses of high places " (I Kings xii. 31, xiii. 32;
II Kings xxiii. 19). A house for the ark is indicated at Shiloh (I Sam. iii. 3), and one at Nob (I Sam. xxi. 9), while at these places were probably deposited sacred trophies, e.g., of war (cf. the last passage cited). The attendants were kohanim, " priests " (I Kings xii. 32, xiii. 2, 32), called also kemarim (II Kings xxiii. 5); kedheshim and kedheshoth, " male and female diviners," perhaps in the latter case prostitutes (Hos. iv. 14; Deut. xxiii. 18; I Kings xiv. 24, xv. 12), and prophets (I Sam. x. 5, 10). The practises indicated for these places by Hosea are festivals, joyous gatherings of the family or clan, while the individual was not prohibited from attending, with sacrifices and libations, offerings of corn, wine, oil, flax, wool, and fruits; licentious intercourse was also practised here, since female devotees were attached to the shrines; divination was common and Mutilations (q.v.) occurred (Hos. ii. 15, 17, ix. 4; cf. Deut. lxii. 5-8, 11).
The number of high places used by the Hebrews is perhaps not more than hinted at in the Old Testament. With those already named, high places were possibly, probably, or certainly located at Bochim (Judges ii. 5), Ophrah (vi. 24-26, viii. 27), Dan (xviii. 30), Shiloh (xviii. 31), 4. Their Bethel (xx. 18; II Kings xxiii. 15), Number Mizpeh (Judges xi. 11-12, xx. 1; cf. and I Sam. vii. 9), Kirjath-jearim (" in Location, the hill," I Sam. vii. 1), Ramah (I Sam. vii. 5, 16-17, ix. 12), Gibeah (x. 5, 13), Gilgal (x. 8, xi. 5, xv. 21), Bethlehem (xvi. 2 sqq., xx. 6), Nob (xxi. 1-2), Hebron (II Sam. xv. 7); Olivet (xv. 30-32), Gibeon (xxi. 6; according to the correct reading — cf . H. P. Smith's commentary on the passage, New York, 1899 — the Gibeonites crucified the descendants of Saul on Mt. Gibeon " before the face of Yahweh," showing that a sanctuary was located there; cf. also I Kings iii. 3 sqq., " the great high place "), an unnamed hill near Jerusalem (I Kings xi. 7), Carmel (I Kings xviii. 19, 30; Vespasian is said to have offered sacrifice there), Tabor (Hos. v. 1), and Gerizim (Josephus, Ant., XI. viii. 2, 4). How continuously these places were used is indicated not only by the detail preceding (showing that they were employed by the patriarchs, by Moses and Joshua, by the leaders and people in the time of the Judges, of Samuel, and of Saul), but also by the cases still to be cited. High places were erected by Solomon (I Kings iii. 3 sqq.; II Kings xxiii. 12-13), were used in the especially significant reigns of Rehoboam (I Kings xiv. 23), Jeroboam (xii. 31-32, xiii. 2, 32-33), and Asa (xv. 14); Elijah bewails the destruction of the Yahweh altars (xix. 10, 14);
High Places High. Priest