HIGH PLACE (hi plas), (Heb. baw-maw', elevation).
As high places and groves arc almost con stantly associated in Scripture, it seems unde sirable to separate them in our consideration.
By 'high places' (baw-man0 we are content to understand natural or artificial eminences, where worship by sacrifice or offering was made, usually upon an altar erected thereon.
By a 'grove' we understand a plantation of trees around a spot in the open air set apart for worship and other sacred services.
(1) After the Deluge. We find traces of these customs so soon after the deluge, that it is probable thcy existed prior to that event. It ap pears that the first altar after the deluge was built by Noah upon the mountain on which the ark rested (Gen. viii :2o), Abraham, on entering the Promised Land, built an altar upon a moun tain between Beth-el and Hai (xii :7, 8). At Beersheba he planted a grove, and called there upon the name of the everlasting God (Gen. xxi : 33). The same patriarch was required to travel to the mount Moriah, and there to offer up his son Isaac (xxii :2, 4). It was upon a mountain in Gilead that Jacob and Labatt offered sacrifices before they parted in peace (xxxi :54). In fact, such seem to have been the general places of worship in those times; nor does any notice of a temple or other covered or enclosed building for that purpose, occur. Thus far all seems clear and intelligible. There is no reason in the mere nature of things why a hill or a grove should be an objectionable, or, indeed. why it should not be a very suitable, place for worship. Yet by the time the Israelites returned from Egypt, some corrupting change had taken place, which caused them to be repeatedly and strictly enjoined to overthrow and destroy fhe high places and groves of the Canaanites wherever they found them (Exod. xxxiv :13 ; Dent. vii :5 ; xii :2, 3). That they were not themselves to worship the Lord on high places or in groves is implied in the fact that they were to have but one altar for regular and constant sacrifice; and it was expressly en joined that near this sole altar no trees should be planted (Deut. xvi :21).
(2) Iniquity of the Canaanites. It is possi ble that the Canaanites had not yet fallen into rank +dolatty in the time of Abraham, at least, not into such idolatries as defiled the very places iti which they worshiped. We know, at all events. that their iniquity was not full in those earlier times, but that when the Israelites invaded the land their iniquity was full to overflowing. As
included in this, we may with tolerable certainty infer that their religion had become so grossly erroneous and impure, that it was needful to place under ban even their places of worship, which might otherwise bring the Israelites into danger by the associations which had become connected with them.
(3) Abominable Rites. The groves which ancient usage had eoablished around the places of sacrifice for thc sake of shade and seclusion, idolatry preserved not only for the same reasons, but because they were found convenient for the celebration of the rites and mysteries, often ob scene and abominable, which were gradually superadded.
z4) Injunctions Imperfectly Obeyed. The injunctions, however, respecting the high places and groves were very imperfectly obeyed by the Israelites; and their inveterate attachment to this mode of worship was such that even pious kings, who opposed idolatry by all the means in their power, darcd not abolish the high places at which the Lord was worshiped. And it appears to us likely, that this toleration of an acknowledged irregularity arose from the indisposition of the people living at a distance from the temple to bc confined to the altar which existed there ; to their determination to have places nearer home for the chief acts of their religion—sacrifice and offering ; and to the apprehension of the kings that if they were prevented from having places for offerings to the Lord in their o.wn neighbor hood, they would rnake the offerings to idols.
This view of the case seems to be strongly con firmed by the fact that we hear no more of this proneness to worship in high places and in groves after syn,agogues and regular religious services had been established in the towns and gave suffi cient operation to the disposition among men to create a local interest in religious observances.
It is more difficult to explain how it happens that, in the face of the prohibition against sacri ficing at more than one altar, many persons of piety, and even prophets, not only did so, but, in some instances. did so in high places; Gideon, for instance, at Ophrah (Judg. vi :25), Manoah in Dan (Judg. xiii :16-2o), Samuel at Mizpeh (i Sam. vii no), and at Bethlehem (xvi :5), David in the threshing-floor of Ornan (1 Chron. xxi :22), and Elijah on Nlount Carmel (1 Kings xviii :3o, sq.).