| Geneva Study Bible Then I said to them, What is the high place to which ye go? And its name is called {o} Bamah to this day. (o) Which signifies a high place, declaring that they vaunted themselves of their idolatry and were not ashamed of it, though God had commanded them expressly that they should have no altar lifted on high by stairs, Ex 20:26. Wesley's Notes 20:29 What - What mean you that you go to the high place? What do you find so inviting there, that you will leave God's altar, where he requires your attendance, to frequent such places as he has forbidden you to worship in? Bamah - That is, the high place. King James Translators' Notes I said...: or, I told them what the high place was, or, Bamah Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary 29. What is the high place whereunto ye go?-What is the meaning of this name? For My altar is not so called. What excellence do ye see in it, that ye go there, rather than to My temple, the only lawful place of sacrificing? The very name, "high place," convicts you of sinning, not from ignorance but perverse rebellion. is called . unto this day-whereas this name ought to have been long since laid aside, along with the custom of sacrificing on high places which it represents, being borrowed from the heathen, who so called their places of sacrifice (the Greeks, for instance, called them by a cognate term, Bomoi), whereas I call mine Mizbeaach, "altar." The very name implies the place is not that sanctioned by Me, and therefore your sacrifices even to ME there (much more those you offer to idols) are only a "provocation" to Me (Eze 20:28; De 12:1-5). David and others, it is true, sacrificed to God on high places, but it was under exceptional circumstances, and before the altar was set up on Mount Moriah. Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary 20:27-32 The Jews persisted in rebellion after they settled in the land of Canaan. And these elders seem to have thought of uniting with the heathen. We make nothing by our profession if it be but a profession. There is nothing got by sinful compliances; and the carnal projects of hypocrites will stand them in no stead. | 
