Ezekiel 20:29

29 And I said to them, 'What [is] the high place to which you are going?' And {it is called} Bamah until this day.

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 "Therefore speak to the house of Israel, son of man, and you must say to them, 'Thus says the Lord Yahweh: "Again [in] this your ancestors blasphemed me {at their display of infidelity toward me}." '

28 And I brought them to the land that {I swore} to give to them, and they saw every high hill and every leafy tree, and they offered their sacrifices, and they presented there the provocation of their offering, and they gave there their fragrant incense offering, and they poured out their libations there.

29 And I said to them, 'What [is] the high place to which you are going?' And {it is called} Bamah until this day.

30 Therefore thus say to the house of Israel, 'Thus says the Lord Yahweh: "In the way of your ancestors [will] you defile yourself, and after their vile idols [will] you prostitute [yourselves]?

31 And {when you lift up your gifts, sacrificing your children} through the fire, you are defiling yourself through all of your idols until {today}, and will I let myself be consulted by you, house of Israel?" ' {As I live}," {declares} the Lord Yahweh, "I will not let myself be consulted by you!

Footnotes

• [a]. Hebrew Bamah, which became its name
• [b]. Literally "it is called name its"