High place/s, translating the Heb. bama or bamot is used 82x in the NIV. It should be remembered, however, that high places occupied such a prominent place in ancient Israel's religious landscape that its reality is more widespread than is evident in just the verses that contain the word.
(All citations are from the NIV)
Lev 26:30 — I will destroy your high places, cut down your incense altars and pile your dead bodies on the lifeless forms of your idols, and I will abhor you.
Num 33:52 — ["Speak to the Israelites and say to them:`When you cross the Jordan into Canaan,] rive out all the inhabitants of the land before you. Destroy all their carved images and their cast idols, and demolish all their high places.
Deut 33:29 — Blessed are you, O Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by the Lord? He is your shield and helper and your glorious sword. Your enemies will cower before you, and you will trample down their high places."
1 Sam 9:12-14 — "He is," they answered. "He's ahead of you. Hurry now; he has just come to our town today, for the people have a sacrifice at the high place. As soon as you enter the town, you will find him before he goes up to the high place to eat. The people will not begin eating until he comes, because he must bless the sacrifice; afterwards, those who are invited will eat. Go up now; you should find him about this time." They went up to the town, and as they were entering it, there was Samuel, coming towards them on his way up to the high place.
1 Sam 9:19 — "I am the seer," Samuel replied. "Go up ahead of me to the high place, for today you are to eat with me, and in the morning I will let you go and will tell you all that is in your heart.
1 Sam 9:25 — After they came down from the high place to the town, Samuel talked with Saul on the roof of his house. [They rose about daybreak and Samuel called to Saul on the roof, "Get ready, and I will send you on your way." When Saul got ready, he and Samuel went outside together.]
1 Sam 10:5 — "After that you will go to Gibeah of God, where there is a Philistine outpost. As you approach the town, you will meet a procession of prophets coming down from the high place with lyres, tambourines, flutes and harps being played before them, and they will be prophesying.
1 Sam 10:13 — [A man who lived there answered, "And who is their father?" So it became a saying: "Is Saul also among the prophets?"] After Saul stopped prophesying, he went to the high place.
1 Ki 3:2-4 — The people, however, were still sacrificing at the high places, because a temple had not yet been built for the Name of the Lord. Solomon showed his love for the Lord by walking according to the statutes of his father David, except that he offered sacrifices and burned incense on the high places. The king went to Gibeon to offer sacrifices, for that was the most important high place, and Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings on that altar.
1 Ki 11:7 — [So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the Lord; he did not follow the Lord completely, as David his father had done.] On a hill east of Jerusalem, Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable god of Moab, and for Molech the detestable god of the Ammonites. [He did the same for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and offered sacrifices to their gods.]
1 Ki 12:31-32 — Jeroboam built shrines on high places and appointed priests from all sorts of people, even though they were not Levites. He instituted a festival on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, like the festival held in Judah, and offered sacrifices on the altar. This he did in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves he had made. And at Bethel he also installed priests at the high places he had made.
1 Ki 13:2 — He [the man of God] cried out against the altar by the word of the Lord: "O altar, altar! This is what the Lord says:`A son named Josiah will be born to the house of David. On you he will sacrifice the priests of the high places who now make offerings here, and human bones will be burned on you.'"
1 Ki 13:32-33 — For the message he declared by the word of the Lord against the altar in Bethel and against all the shrines on the high places in the towns of Samaria will certainly come true." Even after this, Jeroboam did not change his evil ways, but once more appointed priests for the high places from all sorts of people. Anyone who wanted to become a priest he consecrated for the high places.
1 Ki 14:23 — They also set up for themselves high places, sacred stones and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every spreading tree.
1 Ki 15:14 — Although he did not remove the high places, Asa's heart was fully committed to the Lord all his life.
1 Ki 22:43 — In everything he walked in the ways of his father Asa and did not stray from them; he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord. The high places, however, were not removed, and the people continued to offer sacrifices and burn incense there.
2 Ki 12:3 — [Joash did what was right in the eyes of the Lord all the years Jehoiada the priest instructed him.] The high places, however, were not removed; the people continued to offer sacrifices and burn incense there.
2 Ki 14:4 — [ In the second year of Jehoash son of Jehoahaz king of Israel, Amaziah son of Joash king of Judah began to reign. . . . He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, but not as his father David had done. In everything he followed the example of his father Joash.] The high places, however, were not removed; the people continued to offer sacrifices and burn incense there.
2 Ki 15:4 — [In the twenty-seventh year of Jeroboam king of Israel, Azariah son of Amaziah king of Judah began to reign. . . . He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father Amaziah had done.] The high places, however, were not removed; the people continued to offer sacrifices and burn incense there.
2 Ki 15:35 — [ In the second year of Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel, Jotham son of Uzziah king of Judah began to reign. . . . He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father Uzziah had done.] The high places, however, were not removed; the people continued to offer sacrifices and burn incense there. Jotham rebuilt the Upper Gate of the temple of the Lord.
2 Ki 16:4 — He [Ahaz] offered sacrifices and burned incense at the high places, on the hilltops and under every spreading tree.
2 Ki 17:9 & 11 — The Israelites secretly did things against the Lord their God that were not right. From watchtower to fortified city they built themselves high places in all their towns. . . . At every high place they burned incense, as the nations whom the Lord had driven out before them had done. They did wicked things that provoked the Lord to anger.
2 Ki 17:29 — [So one of the priests who had been exiled from Samaria came to live in Bethel and taught them how to worship the Lord.] Nevertheless, each national group made its own gods in the several towns where they settled, and set them up in the shrines the people of Samaria had made at the high places.
2 Ki 17:32 — They worshipped the Lord, but they also appointed all sorts of their own people to officiate for them as priests in the shrines at the high places. [They worshipped the Lord, but they also served their own gods in accordance with the customs of the nations from which they had been brought.]
2 Ki 18:4 — He [Hezekiah] removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it. (It was called Nehushtan.)
2 Ki 18:22 — And if you say to me, "We are depending on the Lord our God"—isn't he the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, "You must worship before this altar in Jerusalem"?
2 Ki 21:3 — He [Manasseh] rebuilt the high places his father Hezekiah had destroyed; he also erected altars to Baal and made an Asherah pole, as Ahab king of Israel had done. He bowed down to all the starry hosts and worshipped them.
2 Ki 23:5 — He [Josiah] did away with the pagan priests appointed by the kings of Judah to burn incense on the high places of the towns of Judah and on those around Jerusalem—those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun and moon, to the constellations and to all the starry hosts.
1 Ki 23:8 & 9 — Josiah brought all the priests from the towns of Judah and desecrated the high places, from Geba to Beersheba, where the priests had burned incense. He broke down the shrines at the gates—at the entrance to the Gate of Joshua, the city governor, which is on the left of the city gate. Although the priests of the high places did not serve at the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem, they ate unleavened bread with their fellow priests.
2 Ki 23:13 — The king [Josiah] also desecrated the high places that were east of Jerusalem on the south of the Hill of Corruption—the ones Solomon king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the vile goddess of the Sidonians, for Chemosh the vile god of Moab, and for Molech the detestable god of the people of Ammon.
2 Ki 23:15 — [Josiah smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles and covered the sites with human bones.] Even the altar at Bethel, the high place made by Jeroboam son of Nebat, who had caused Israel to sin—even that altar and high place he demolished. He burned the high place and ground it to powder, and burned the Asherah pole also.
2 Ki 23:19 & 20 — Just as he had done at Bethel, Josiah removed and defiled all the shrines at the high places that the kings of Israel had built in the towns of Samaria that had provoked the Lord to anger. Josiah slaughtered all the priests of those high places on the altars and burned human bones on them. Then he went back to Jerusalem.
1 Chron 16:39 — David left Zadok the priest and his fellow priests before the tabernacle of the Lord at the high place in Gibeon [to present burnt offerings to the Lord on the altar of burnt offering regularly, morning and evening, in accordance with everything written in the Law of the Lord, which he had given Israel.]
1 Chron 21:29 — The tabernacle of the Lord, which Moses had made in the desert, and the altar of burnt offering were at that time on the high place at Gibeon. [But David could not go before it to enquire of God, because he was afraid of the sword of the angel of the Lord.]
2 Chron 1:3 — [Then Solomon spoke to all Israel—to the commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds, to the judges and to all the leaders in Israel, the heads of families—] and Solomon and the whole assembly went to the high place at Gibeon, for God's Tent of Meeting was there, which Moses the Lord's servant had made in the desert.
2 Chron 1:13 — [God said to Solomon, "Since this is your heart's desire and you have not asked for wealth, riches or honour, nor for the death of your enemies, and since you have not asked for a long life but for wisdom and knowledge to govern my people over whom I have made you king, therefore wisdom and knowledge will be given you. And I will also give you wealth, riches and honour, such as no king who was before you ever had and none after you will have."] Then Solomon went to Jerusalem from the high place at Gibeon, from before the Tent of Meeting. And he reigned over Israel.
2 Chron 11:15 — And he [Jeroboam son of Nebat] appointed his own priests for the high places and for the goat and calf idols he had made.
2 Chron 14:3 & 5 — [Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God.] He removed the foreign altars and the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. [He commanded Judah to seek the Lord, the God of their fathers, and to obey his laws and commands.] He removed the high places and incense altars in every town in Judah, and the kingdom was at peace under him.
2 Chron 15:17 — Although he [Asa] did not remove the high places from Israel, Asa's heart was fully committed to the Lord all his life.
2 Chron 17:6 — His heart was devoted to the ways of the Lord; furthermore, he [Jehoshaphat] removed the high places and the Asherah poles from Judah.
2 Chron 20:31 — He [Jehoshaphat] walked in the ways of his father Asa and did not stray from them; he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord. The high places, however, were not removed, and the people still had not set their hearts on the God of their fathers.
2 Chron 21:11 — He [Jehoram] had also built high places on the hills of Judah and had caused the people of Jerusalem to prostitute themselves and had led Judah astray.
2 Chron 28:4 — [He [Ahaz] burned sacrifices in the Valley of Ben Hinnom and sacrificed his sons in the fire, following the detestable ways of the nations that the Lord had driven out before the Israelites.] He offered sacrifices and burned incense at the high places, on the hilltops and under every spreading tree.
2 Chron 28:25 — [Ahaz gathered together the furnishings from the temple of God and took them away. He shut the doors of the Lord's temple and set up altars at every street corner in Jerusalem.] In every town in Judah he built high places to burn sacrifices to other gods and provoked the Lord, the God of his fathers, to anger.
2 Chron 31:1 — When all this had ended, the Israelites who were there went out to the towns of Judah, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. They destroyed the high places and the altars throughout Judah and Benjamin and in Ephraim and Manasseh. After they had destroyed all of them, the Israelites returned to their own towns and to their own property. [Hezekiah assigned the priests and Levites to divisions— each of them according to their duties as priests or Levites— to offer burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, to minister, to give thanks and to sing praises at the gates of the Lord's dwelling.]
2 Chron 32:12 — Did not Hezekiah himself remove this god's high places and altars, saying to Judah and Jerusalem,`You must worship before one altar and burn sacrifices on it'?
2 Chron 33:3 — [Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem for fifty-five years.] . . . He rebuilt the high places his father Hezekiah had demolished; he also erected altars to the Baals and made Asherah poles. He bowed down to all the starry hosts and worshipped them.
2 Chron 33:17 & 19 — The people, however, continued to sacrifice at the high places, but only to the Lord their God. [The other events of Manasseh's reign, including his prayer to his God and the words the seers spoke to him in the name of the Lord, the God of Israel, are written in the annals of the kings of Israel.] His prayer and how God was moved by his entreaty, as well as all his sins and unfaithfulness, and the sites where he built high places and set up Asherah poles and idols before he humbled himself—all are written in the records of the seers.
2 Chron 34:3 — In the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, he began to seek the God of his father David. In his twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of high places, Asherah poles, carved idols and cast images. [Under his direction the altars of the Baals were torn down; he cut to pieces the incense altars that were above them, and smashed the Asherah poles, the idols and the images. These he broke to pieces and scattered over the graves of those who had sacrificed to them.]
Psm 78:58 — They angered him with their high places; they aroused his jealousy with their idols.
Isa 15:2 — Dibon goes up to its temple, to its high places to weep; Moab wails over Nebo and Medeba. Every head is shaved and every beard cut off.
Isa 16:12 — [My heart laments for Moab like a harp, my inmost being for Kir Hareseth.] When Moab appears at her high place, she only wears herself out; when she goes to her shrine to pray, it is to no avail.
Isa 36:7 — And if you say to me, "We are depending on the Lord our God"—isn't he the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, "You must worship before this altar"? ["'Come now, make a bargain with my master, the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses—if you can put riders on them!]
Jer 7:31 — They have built the high places of Topheth in the Valley of Ben Hinnom to burn their sons and daughters in the fire— something I did not command, nor did it enter my mind. [So beware, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when people will no longer call it Topheth or the Valley of Ben Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter, for they will bury the dead in Topheth until there is no more room.]
Jer 17:3 — My mountain in the land and your wealth and all your treasures I will give away as plunder, together with your high places, because of sin throughout your country. [Through your own fault you will lose the inheritance I gave you. I will enslave you to your enemies in a land you do not know, for you have kindled my anger, and it will burn for ever."]
Jer 19:5 — They have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as offerings to Baal—something I did not command or mention, nor did it enter my mind. [So beware, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when people will no longer call this place Topheth or the Valley of Ben Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter.]
Jer 32:35 — They built high places for Baal in the Valley of Ben Hinnom to sacrifice their sons and daughters to Molech, though I never commanded, nor did it enter my mind, that they should do such a detestable thing and so make Judah sin.
Jer 48:35 — In Moab I will put an end to those who make offerings on the high places and burn incense to their gods," declares the Lord. ["So my heart laments for Moab like a flute; it laments like a flute for the men of Kir Hareseth. The wealth they acquired is gone.]
Eze 6:3 & 6 — ["Son of man, set your face against the mountains of Israel; prophesy against them] and say: 'O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Sovereign Lord. This is what the Sovereign Lord says to the mountains and hills, to the ravines and valleys: I am about to bring a sword against you, and I will destroy your high places. [Your altars will be demolished and your incense altars will be smashed; and I will slay your people in front of your idols. . . . . ] Wherever you live, the towns will be laid waste and the high places demolished, so that your altars will be laid waste and devastated, your idols smashed and ruined, your incense altars broken down, and what you have made wiped out.
Eze 16:16 — You took some of your garments to make gaudy high places, where you carried on your prostitution. Such things should not happen, nor should they ever occur. [You also took the fine jewellery I gave you, the jewellery made of my gold and silver, and you made for yourself male idols and engaged in prostitution with them.]
Eze 20:29 — [When I brought them into the land I had sworn to give them and they saw any high hill or any leafy tree, there they offered their sacrifices, made offerings that provoked me to anger, presented their fragrant incense and poured out their drink offerings.] Then I said to them: What is this high place you go to?'" (It is called Bamah to this day.)
Eze 43:7 — He said: "Son of man, this is the place of my throne and the place for the soles of my feet. This is where I will live among the Israelites for ever. The house of Israel will never again defile my holy name—neither they nor their kings—by their prostitution and the lifeless idols of their kings at their high places.
Hos 10:8 — The high places of wickedness will be destroyed— it is the sin of Israel. Thorns and thistles will grow up and cover their altars. Then they will say to the mountains, "Cover us!" and to the hills, "Fall on us!"
Amos 4:13 — He who forms the mountains, creates the wind, and reveals his thoughts to man, he who turns dawn to darkness, and treads the high places of the earth—the Lord God Almighty is his name.
Amos 7:9 — "The high places of Isaac will be destroyed and the sanctuaries of Israel will be ruined; with my sword I will rise against the house of Jeroboam."
Mic 1:3 & 5 — Look! The Lord is coming from his dwelling-place; he comes down and treads the high places of the earth. [The mountains melt beneath him and the valleys split apart, like wax before the fire, like water rushing down a slope.] All this is because of Jacob's transgression, because of the sins of the house of Israel. What is Jacob's transgression? Is it not Samaria? What is Judah's high place? Is it not Jerusalem?
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