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Bible Dictionaries
High Place
Vine's Expository Dictionary of OT Words
or Bâmâh (בּוּם, Strong's #1116), “high place.” This noun occurs in other Semitic languages, meaning the “back” of an animal or of a man (Ugaritic), the incline or “back” of a mountain (Akkadian), and the “block” (of stone) or grave of a saint (Arabic). Bâmâh is used about 100 times in biblical Hebrew, and the first occurrence is in Lev. 26:30: “And I will destroy your high places, and cut down your images, and cast your carcases upon the carcases of your idols, and my soul shall abhor you.” Most of the uses are in the Books of Kings and Chronicles, with the sense of “cultic high place.” The word is rarely used in the Pentateuch or in the poetic or prophetic literature.
Bâmâh with the sense of “back” is still to be found in the Hebrew Old Testament: “So your enemies shall cringe before you, and you shall tread upon their high places” (Deut. 33:29, NASB). Compare this with the NEB “Your enemies come crying to you, and you shall trample their bodies [bâmâh] underfoot.”
The Bible’s metaphorical use of the “backs” of the clouds and the waves of the sea gives problems to translators: “I will ascend above the heights [bâmâh] of the clouds; I will be like the most High” (Isa. 14:14), and "[He] alone spreadeth out the heavens, and treadeth upon the waves [literally, “high places”] of the sea” (Job 9:8). A similar problem is found in Ps. 18:33 (cf. 2 Sam. 22:34; Hab. 3:19): “He maketh my feet like hinds’ feet, and setteth me upon my high places.” In these passages, bâmâh must be understood idiomatically, meaning “authority.”
The word is used metaphorically to portray the Lord as providing for His people: “He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields; and he made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock” (Deut. 32:13; cf. Isa. 58:14). The idiom, “to ride upon the high places of the earth,” is a Hebraic way of expressing God’s protection of His people. It expresses the exalted nature of Israel, whose God is the Lord. Not every literal bâmâh was a cultic high place; the word may simply refer to a geographical unit; cf. “Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the [temple] as the high places of the forest” (cf. Amos 4:13; Mic. 3:12). The Canaanites served their gods on these hills, where pagan priests presented the sacrifices to the gods: Israel imitated this practice (1 Kings 3:2), even when they sacrificed to the Lord. The surrounding nations had high places dedicated to Chemosh (1 Kings 11:7)Baal (Jer. 19:5), and other deities. On the “high place,” a temple was built and dedicated to a god: "[Jeroboam] made a house of high places, and made priests of the lowest of the people, which were not of the sons of Levi” (1 Kings 12:31). Cultic symbols were added as decoration; thus, the sacred pillars (‘asherah) and sacred trees or poles (matstsebah) were associated with a temple: “For they also built them high places, and [sacred stones], and groves, on every high hill [gib’ah], and under every green tree” (1 Kings 14:23; cf. 2 Kings 16:4). Before the temple was built, Solomon worshiped the Lord at the great bâmâh of Gideon (1 Kings 3:4). This was permissible until the temple was constructed; however, history demonstrates that Israel soon adopted these “high places” for pagan customs. The bâmâh was found in the cities of Samaria (2 Kings 23:19)in the cities of Judah (2 Chron. 21:11), and even in Jerusalem (2 Kings 23:13). The bâmâh was a place of cult prostitution: "[They] pant after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor, and turn aside the way of the meek: and a man and his father will go in unto the same maid, to profane my holy name: And they lay themselves down upon clothes laid to pledge by every altar, and they drink the wine of the condemned in the house of their god” (Amos 2:7-8).
The Septuagint gives the following translations: hupselos (“high; lofty; elevated”), bama (a transliteration of the Hebrew), bomos (“altar”), stele (“pillar”) and hupsos (“height; high place”).
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Vines, W. E., M. A. Entry for 'High Place'. Vine's Expository Dictionary of OT Words. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/vot/h/high-place.html. 1940.
