Bible Strands
2 Kings 15:4
Nevertheless, the high places were not taken away; the people continued sacrificing and burning incense there.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The narrator describes the religious landscape during King Uzziah’s reign, noting that despite the king’s personal righteousness, local shrines remained active.
The words — The Hebrew word רַק (rak, "only/nevertheless") introduces a concession, while עוֹד (od, "still") and עָם ('am, "people") highlight the persistent public practice of sacrifice and incense offerings.
The thread — This observation of unremoved high places and ongoing public worship appears in 2 Kings 12:3 and 1 Kings 22:43, while 1 Kings 15:14 uses a similar structure but shifts focus to the king’s personal devotion rather than the people’s actions.
Why it lands — The text records a historical reality where royal reform did not immediately dismantle local cultic sites, requiring readers to distinguish between a ruler’s personal faithfulness and the nation’s entrenched religious habits.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Save that the high places were not removed: the people sacrificed and burnt incense still on the high places.
Cross-references
- 1 Kings 15:14 The high places were not removed, but Asa’s heart was fully devoted to the LORD all his days.
- 1 Kings 22:43 And Jehoshaphat walked in all the ways of his father Asa; he did not turn away from them, but did what was right in the eyes of the LORD. The high places, however, were not removed; the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.
- 2 Kings 12:3 Nevertheless, the high places were not removed; the people continued sacrificing and burning incense there.
- 2 Kings 14:4 Nevertheless, the high places were not taken away, and the people continued sacrificing and burning incense on the high places.
- 2 Kings 15:35 Nevertheless, the high places were not taken away; the people continued sacrificing and burning incense there. Jotham rebuilt the Upper Gate of the house of the LORD.
- 2 Kings 18:4 He removed the high places, shattered the sacred pillars, and cut down the Asherah poles. He also demolished the bronze snake called Nehushtan that Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had burned incense to it.
- 2 Chronicles 17:6 And his heart took delight in the ways of the LORD; furthermore, he removed the high places and Asherah poles from Judah.
- 2 Chronicles 32:12 Did not Hezekiah himself remove His high places and His altars and say to Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You must worship before one altar, and on it you shall burn sacrifices’?
- 2 Chronicles 34:3 In the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, Josiah began to seek the God of his father David, and in the twelfth year he began to cleanse Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the Asherah poles, the carved idols, and the cast images.