Note 10 — Chapter VIII
Reading edition
Query, were not the “High Places,” mentioned in Scripture, also Pyramidal edifices. They were not natural hills, for the Hebrew term for the latter being גבעה while for the high places the word במה is universally employed. See 2 Kings xvi. 4., where the distinction is clearly made. They were in use among the Philistines, when the country was taken by the Hebrews. Numbers xxxiii. 51, 2. 2 Kings xvii. 9-11, and were,
1. Artificial structures. 1 Kings xiv. 23. 2 Kings xxi. 3. Ib. xi. 7.
2. Capable of being removed, but not so easily as the groves, altars, &c.—1 Kings xv. 14. 2 Kings xxiii. 13.
3. Were erected in their cities. 2 Chron. xxviii. 25. 2 Kings xvii. 29.
4. And in the country. 2 Chron. xxi. 11. 1 Kings xiv. 23.
5. Had small chapels on the summit. 2 Kings xvii. 29. 1 Kings xiii. 32.
6. And altars for offering sacrifice. 1 Kings iii. 4. Numbers xxii. 36, to end.
7. Also human victims probably. Jer. xix. 5.
8. Seem to have been connected with the worship of the sun. 2 Kings xxi. 3.
9. And with purification by fire. Jer. xxxii. 5.
10. Perhaps also used as places of burial. 2 Kings xxiii. 16. In Isaiah liii. 9. במה is used to signify a grave.
11. Sometimes used as fortifications. Judges v. 18 and 19.
12. They appear sometimes to have been of earth or stone. 1 Kings xv. 14. 2 Kings xxiii. 8.
13. Sometimes of wood. 2 Kings xxii. 15. xxiii. 8.