The high places were not removed; this is
what is regularly told us in the case of them all. For Israel
properly so called, Jerusalem was at no time, properly speaking,
the place which Jehovah had chosen; least of all was it so after
the division of the kingdom.
The Ephraimites flocked in troops through the entire length of the
southern kingdom as pilgrims to Beersheba, and, in common with the
men of Judah, to Gilgal on the frontier. Jerusalem they left
unvisited. In their own land they served Jehovah at Bethel and
Dan, at Shechem and Samaria, at Penuel and Mizpah, and at many
other places. Every town had its Bamah, in the earlier times
generally on an open site at the top of the hill on the slopes of
which the houses were. Elijah, that great zealot for purity of
worship, was so far from being offended by the high places and the
multiplicity of altars to Jehovah that their destruction brought
bitterness to his soul as the height of wickedness, and with his
own hand he rebuilt the altar that had fallen into ruins on Mount
Carmel. And that the improvised offering on extraordinary
occasions had also not fallen into disuse is shown by the case of
Elisha, who, when his call came as he was following the plough,
hewed his oxen to pieces on the spot and sacrificed.
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