High Place

The Hebrew bamah is commonly translated as “high place”; Sefaria’s translations also render it “shrine” or “open shrine.”[1][2] Ramban glosses the word literally as “a high place” and describes a bamah as an altar where offerings could be made before a central Sanctuary was established.[3] A Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion thesis reports that the term occurs 103 times in the Tanakh, underscoring its recurring place in biblical descriptions of worship.[4]

A bamah should not be treated as identical to every other biblical term for a cult site. One reference work distinguishes it from bet yhwh (“house of Yhwh”), mikdash (“sanctuary”), and mizbe’aḥ (“altar”), while noting that biblical terminology for sacred places is not always consistent.[5] Accounts also associate high places with altars, pillars, sacred wooden objects, images, priests, sacrifices, and, in some settings, buildings or spaces for communal meals; these are features reported across the sources, not a checklist for every site.[6]

The biblical texts place high-place worship in a changing relationship with the central Sanctuary. Deuteronomy 12 directs the Israelites to destroy the worship sites and cult objects of the nations they are to dispossess, including sites on lofty mountains, hills, and beneath luxuriant trees. It then directs offerings to the place God chooses, warning against sacrificing wherever worshippers please.[7] The command links centralized worship with the Israelites’ settlement in the land.[8]

Other passages describe local shrines in use before the Jerusalem Temple was built. First Kings says that people continued to sacrifice at open shrines because no house had yet been built for God’s name, and it also records Solomon’s sacrifices at Gibeon. The account calls Gibeon the largest shrine and says Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings there; Second Chronicles places the Tent of Meeting and its bronze altar at Gibeon while the Ark was in Jerusalem.[1][9]

The biblical narratives also recount efforts to remove shrines and their associated objects. Second Kings describes Hezekiah abolishing shrines, smashing pillars, cutting down a sacred post, and breaking apart the bronze serpent because Israelites had been sacrificing to it.[10] The account of Manasseh says that he rebuilt shrines his father had destroyed and installed other cult objects and altars.[11] Second Kings 23 presents Josiah’s reform as a further campaign: it describes the removal or destruction of shrines from Geba to Beer-sheba, the demolition of sites associated with Solomon and Jeroboam, and action against cult places in the towns of Samaria.[12]

Ramban’s commentary gives a traditional chronology in which the status of bamot changed with the location and status of the national Sanctuary. In that account they were permitted before the Tabernacle was erected, prohibited during some periods when it stood, temporarily permitted during the years at Gilgal, and later prohibited during the long period at Shiloh. Ramban then describes a renewed period of permission associated with Nob and Gibeon before the Jerusalem Sanctuary made the prohibition permanent; these durations and stages are the commentary’s traditional account.[3]

The physical form of a bamah is uncertain. A Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion thesis reports that biblical descriptions use verbs meaning “build,” “make,” “tear down,” and “burn” in connection with high places, language that suggests at least some were human-made. It also notes biblical references to shrines within settlements, rather than only at isolated hilltops.[4] The Jewish Encyclopedia similarly describes high places in hills, valleys, cities, and at city gates, and discusses raised platforms as a possible distinguishing feature.[6]

Scholarly descriptions summarized in the thesis range from a hilltop with altars and cult objects, to a constructed mound or platform, to a local shrine complex that might not include a platform. The thesis says the Tanakh does not give a comprehensive account of a bamah’s architecture or furnishings. It also reports an older proposal connecting some standing stones with mortuary shrines, while explicitly describing the evidence for that hypothesis as inconclusive.[4]

A well-preserved pre-Israelite example at Megiddo is described as a circular stone platform with stairs, dating to the Early Bronze Age. Deposits of bones and pottery above it make an altar on the platform likely, although at other sites an altar may have stood in front of a platform that held pillars or statues.[5] The description illustrates one archaeological form, but does not establish that all high places had the same design.

Ritual activity in the biblical accounts could include sacrifices and communal meals. In 1 Samuel 9, Samuel invites Saul to a shrine for a meal following a public sacrifice; about thirty guests are present, and Saul receives a specially reserved portion.[2] Ezekiel 20, by contrast, recalls offerings, incense, and libations at high hills and leafy trees in a prophetic rebuke of the worship described there.[13]

The tension between local worship and a central sanctuary appears throughout the biblical accounts. Deuteronomy’s instruction is to offer sacrifices at the place God chooses, not wherever people wish.[7] First Kings, however, describes shrine offerings before the Temple had been built and records Solomon’s worship at Gibeon.[1] These passages present different contexts and evaluations; they should not be collapsed into a single rule applied identically to every period.

The royal narratives describe centralization through the removal of local sites and cult objects. In 2 Kings 18, an Assyrian spokesman refers to Hezekiah’s removal of shrines and altars and to his direction that worship take place at the Jerusalem altar.[10] The account of Josiah’s measures describes both regional shrine demolitions and action against sites associated with other forms of worship, including those linked to Baal and Asherah.[12] A biblical account of Jeroboam, meanwhile, says he established cult places, appointed priests who were not Levites, and set a festival at Bethel.[14]

The history of Dan offers a specific archaeological example of a substantial high-place precinct. The Jewish Virtual Library describes a sanctuary area of about 60 by 45 metres, with an altar in a walled courtyard bordered by rooms. It attributes the establishment of the high place to Jeroboam I in the late tenth century BCE and reports that Ahab restored it in the mid-ninth century BCE, when a large bamah measuring about 20 by 18 metres was erected.[15] Under Jeroboam II, the account says, a monumental staircase and a smaller altar were added. It reports that the site was destroyed when Tiglath-Pileser captured the city in 732 BCE, then restored without regaining its former importance.[15]

Interpretations differ over both the physical meaning of bamah and the religious status of the sites. The Jewish Encyclopedia presents competing proposals for their origins: one connects them with ancestral or sepulchral worship, while another relates them to the idea of divine presence on heights.[6] The HUC thesis likewise summarizes debate over whether the term primarily indicates a hill-like form or a local shrine or cult complex, and says the mortuary-shrine hypothesis remains unproven.[4]

The biblical material also reflects different settings and judgments. Deuteronomy commands worship at a chosen site.[7] The narratives of Hezekiah and Josiah recount shrine-removal campaigns.[10][12] Other passages describe sacrifices at shrines before the Temple was built, including Solomon’s offerings at Gibeon.[1] The historical interpretation of when local shrines lost legitimacy, and how consistently reforms were carried out, remains disputed in the reference works.[5][6] Ramban’s account of changing permissions belongs to traditional commentary rather than an independently established chronology.[3]