However the people sacrificed in high places, because there was no house built unto the name of the LORD, until those days.
All Commentaries on 1 Kings 3:2 Go To 1 Kings 3
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
But yet. It is not clear to what this refers. Hebrew, "for the rest, (Calmet) or only "(as also ver. 3,) which may signify that the people, and their king, were blamable; or else, that they zealously offered sacrifices to God, even before the temple was erected. (Haydock)
Those who afterwards left that sacred place, to imitate the conduct of idolaters, or of the ancient patriarchs, which was no longer tolerated, are justly condemned. (Calmet)
High places. That is, altars where they worshipped the Lord, indeed, but not according to the ordinance of the law; which allowed of no other places for sacrifice but the temple of God. Among these high places, that of Gabaon was the chief, because there was the tabernacle of the testimony which had been removed from Silo to Nobe, and from Nobe to Gabaon. (Challoner)
Hither David would have gone, as Solomon did, ver. 4. (Calmet)
Hence this was not, at least, once of those high places, where it was unlawful to offer sacrifice; as the tabernacle was there, and the altar of holocausts, which Moses had erected. The obligation of sacrificing in no place, except in that which the Lord had appointed, regarded the times while the ark was in the desert, (Haydock) and when it was placed in the temple. While it continued in an unsettled state, people enjoyed more liberty in this respect; (Calmet) particularly when there was a prophet present, to sanction what they did. (Haydock)
