Commentaries:
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown
HIGH PLACES BEING IN USE, HE SACRIFICES AT GIBEON. (I Kings 3:2-5)
And 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. The
high places were altars erected on natural or artificial eminences, probably from the idea that men were brought nearer to the Deity. They had been used by the patriarchs, and had become so universal among the heathen 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. Hence, as accounting for their continuance, it is expressly stated (I Kings 3:2) that God had not yet chosen a permanent and exclusive place for his worship.
Other Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown entries containing 1 Kings 3:3:
1 Kings 3:3
1 Kings 9:24-25
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