The state of things at the beginning of the reign of Solomon is described in 1 Kings iii.--“The people sacrificed in the high places, because there was no house built for the name of the Lord until those days. And the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for that was the great high place.” We learn from 2 Chron. i. that at Gibeon was the Tent of Meeting (the tabernacle) which Moses had made in the wilderness. Moreover, the brazen altar made by the inspired artist in the wilderness was there before the tabernacle, and Solomon and the congregation sought unto it, and offered a thousand burnt offerings upon it. Thus far, then, we have at least half a dozen sacred places, venerated in turn, and more or less acknowledged simultaneously,--namely, Gilgal, Bethel, Shiloh, Mizpeh, Nob, and Gibeon. To these we must add Zion, to which David brought the ark, setting it up in the tent which he had prepared for it, though _the_ tent, time-honoured and sacred, was at Gibeon (2 Sam. vi. 17; 1 Chron. i. 4-6). The ark, however, did not remain in “the city of David, which is Zion;” for when the temple was built upon Mount Moriah, the ark was brought up into the oracle of the house, with much sacrificing of sheep and oxen, and the Tent of Meeting was brought along with it (1 Kings viii.). Mount Moriah was now God’s holy mountain, and it was intended to concentrate all public worship at the Temple. Even previously it had been the law that the high places of the heathen should be discarded, and irresponsible sacrifice in the open field should be discountenanced, and that every man who had sacrifices to offer should bring them to the tabernacle, wherever the tabernacle might be located at the time (Levit. xvii. 1-6; Deut. xii. 1-6). So, now that the permanent temple had superseded the wandering tent, it was ordered, of course, that all sacrifices and public worship should take place on Mount Moriah. “For in my holy mountain, in the mountain of the height of Israel, saith the Lord God, there shall all the house of Israel, all of them, serve Me in the land: there will I accept them, and there will I require your offerings, and the first fruits of your oblations, with all your holy things” (Ezek. xx. 40). Nevertheless, during the years of David’s reign, and until the temple was built, the ark resting on Zion conferred sanctity on that mountain. Psalms of David, and others written at that time, would of course make reference to Zion and not yet to Moriah. “In Salem also is his tabernacle, And his dwelling-place in Zion.” Psalm lxxvi. 2. And even after the ark had been carried up to the Temple, Mount Zion would retain its sanctity by tradition; or perhaps the name Zion would be extended so as to include Moriah, as they may in truth be related as the slope and the summit of the same hill.[19] His foundation is in the holy mountains,