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Concept
High place
Summary
In a biblical context, "high place" or "high places" (Hebrew: במה bamah and plural במות bamot or bamoth) always means "place(s) of worship". This rendering has etymological justification, as appears from the poetical use of the plural in such expressions as to ride, or stalk, or stand on the "high places" of the earth, the sea, the clouds, and from the corresponding usage in Assyrian; but it has been surmised that a semantic shift occurred because the places of worship were originally upon hilltops, or because the bamah was an artificial platform or mound, perhaps imitating the natural eminence which was the oldest holy place, but neither view is historically demonstrable. Many towns and villages in ancient Israel had their own places of sacrifice, commonly called bamot. It has been suggested that the plural of the word referred to places of sacred prostitution and of pagan worship.
From the Hebrew Bible and from existing remains a good idea may be formed of the appearance of such a place of worship. It was often on the hill above the town, as at Ramah (); there was a stele (matzevah), the seat of the deity, and a Asherah pole (named after the goddess Asherah), which marked the place as sacred and was itself an object of worship; there was a stone altar (מִזְבֵּחַ mizbeḥ "slaughter place"), often of considerable size and hewn out of the solid rock or built of unhewn stones (), on which offerings were burnt; a cistern for water, and perhaps low stone tables for dressing the victims; sometimes also a hall (לִשְׁכָּה lishkah) for the sacrificial feasts.
Ancient Israelite religion was centred on these sites; at festival seasons, or to make or fulfil a vow, an Israelite might journey to more famous sanctuaries at a distance from home, but ordinarily offerings were made at the bamah of his own town. The building of the Temple at Jerusalem, which under the Law of Moses had an exclusive right to offer sacrifices (), did not stop the bamot sacrifices until Kings Hezekiah and Josiah proscribed them.
Official source
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