No king after Solomon is left
uncensured for having tolerated the high places, but Samuel is
permitted in his proper person to preside over a sacrificial feast
at the Bamah of his native town, and Solomon at the beginning of
his reign to institute a similar one at the great Bamah of Gibeon,
without being blamed. The offensive name is again and again
employed in the most innocent manner in 1Samuel ix., x., and the
later editors allow it to pass unchallenged. The principle which
guides this apparently unequal distribution of censure becomes
clear from 1Kings iii. 2: "The people sacrificed upon the high
places, for as yet no house to the name of Jehovah had been
built." Not until the house had been built to the name of
Jehovah--such is the idea--did the law come into force which
forbade having other places of worship besides./1/
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1. Compare 1Kings viii. 16. According to Deut. xii.10 seq.,
the local unity of worship becomes law from the time when
the Israelites have found rest (menuha). Comparing 2Samuel vii.11
and 1Kings v. 18 (A.V., v.4), we find that "menuha" first came in
with David and Solomon.
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