Ezekiel 20:29

29 I asked them: What are these high places where you go? So they have been called "High Places' ever since.

Ezekiel 20:29 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 20:29

Then I said unto them
By his prophets that he sent unto them: what is the high place where, unto you go?
what is the name of it? what is the use of it? to what end do you go there? is there not an altar built by my order and command to sacrifice upon is this high place better than that? does it answer a better end and purpose? and the name thereof is called Bamah unto this day;
or a high place. The Septuagint also leaves the word untranslated, and calls it Abama; and the Arabic version Abbana; so they called their altars after the Gentiles, by whom they are called (bwmoi) ; nor were they ashamed of it, but persisted in so calling them, from the first use of them to the present time. These are often called, Bamah and Bamot in the books of Kings. Jarchi says it is a term of reproach, as if it was said, Bamah----in what is it to be accounted of?

Ezekiel 20:29 In-Context

27 "Now then, mortal man, tell the Israelites what I, the Sovereign Lord, am saying to them. This is another way their ancestors insulted me by their unfaithfulness.
28 I brought them to the land I had promised to give them. When they saw the high hills and green trees, they offered sacrifices at all of them. They made me angry by the sacrifices they burned and by the wine they brought as offerings.
29 I asked them: What are these high places where you go? So they have been called "High Places' ever since.
30 Now tell the Israelites what I am saying: Why must you commit the same sins your ancestors did and go running after their idols?
31 Even today you offer the same gifts and defile yourselves with the same idols by sacrificing your children to them in the fire. And then you Israelites still come to ask what my will is! As surely as I, the Sovereign Lord, am the living God, I will not let you ask me anything.

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. high places: [Pagan places of worship which the Hebrews were forbidden to use. The Hebrew word translated "High Places" sounds like the Hebrew for "where you go."]
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.