And Solomon loved the LORD, walking in the statutes of David his father: only he sacrificed and burnt incense in high places.
Solomon loved the Lord. This declaration, illustrated by what follows, affords undoubted evidence of the young king's piety; nor is the word "only," which prefaces the statement, to be understood as introducing a qualifying circumstance that reflected any degree of censure upon him. The intention of the sacred historian is to describe the generally prevailing mode of worship before the temple was built. х baamowt (H1116)] the "high places" were altars, with (1 Kings 13:32; 2 Kings 17:29) or without tabernacles, erected on natural or artificial eminences, probably from the idea that men were there [epi tois hupseelois] brought nearer the Deity. They had been used by the patriarchs, and had become so universal among the pagan that they were almost identified with idolatry. They were prohibited in the law (Leviticus 17:3-4; Deuteronomy 12:13-14; Jeremiah 7:31; Ezekiel 6:3-4; Hosea 10:8). But so long as the tabernacle was migratory, and the means for the national worship were merely provisional, the worship on those high places was tolerated; and hence, as accounting for their continuance, it is expressly stated (1 Kings 3:2), that God had not yet chosen a permanent and exclusive place for His worship.