Ye shall utterly destroy all the places wherein the
nations
which ye shall possess served their gods
The temples erected for the worship of them by the Canaanites, of
which there were many, as appears by the various names of places
given them from the temples in them, as Bethshemesh,
Bethbaalmeon, Bethpeor, and others:
upon the high mountains and upon the hills:
which they chose to worship on, being nearer the heavens, and
which they thought most acceptable to their gods; and some of
them had their names from hence, as Baalpeor, in like manner as
Jupiter Olympius was called by the Greeks; see ( Jeremiah
2:20 ) ( 3:6 ) ,
and under every green tree;
which being shady and solitary, and pleasant to the sight, they
fancied their gods delighted in, and this notion prevailed among
other nations; and there is scarcely any deity but what had some
tree or another devoted to it; as the oak to Jupiter, the laurel
to Apollo, the ivy to Bacchus, the olive to Minerva, the myrtle
to Venus see ( Jeremiah
2:20 ) ( 3:6 ) .