17

by spells muttered in a mysterious whisper, 12 to WITCHCRAFT 13 and to MAGIC, to an extent not inferior to any of the eastern nations; 14 they indulged in INCANTATIONS by which venomous serpents were supposed to be rendered harmless and obedient, 15 and very largely in NECROMANCY often practiced while "sitting on graves", 10 by means of a porson who was considered to be prophetically inspired by a daemon; " as in the very instructive instance of the "witch of Endor", who first learnt by the rising of Samuel's shade, that her guest was the king, 18 and when asked by the latter what she saw, she replied "I see a god rising out of the earth", 10 whose "appearance" she then described as that of "an old man wrapped in a mantle", 20 probably the "hairy garment" ordinarily worn by seers. And their prophets, adopting that distinctive garment of the class "for doception", 21 misled the multitude by vain and fictitious DREAMS, 22 which were often sought by sleeping on tombs, in sacred caves or edificos, generally on the hides of sacrificed animals, and by FALSE PREDICTIONS, whether pronounced in the name of Jehovah or of heathen gods. Most of these frauds and delusions were successfully carried on not only by men but by women, especially witchcraft, prophecy, and necromancy; and they were coupled with all the absurd and superstitious rites associated with them among the heathen nations; as, for instance, the false prophetesses "fastened cushions to all the joints of their hands, and laid pillows on their hoads", a sign of the utmost luxury and offeminacy. 23

And all these idolatrous practices flourished from the oarliest periods of Israel's history to the latest; during their sojourn in Egypt and during their wanderings in the desert under Moses; in the time of the Judges and the Kings, both in Judah.and in Ephraim; even under the latest sovereigns of Judah, under Joahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah, who succeeded the pious and ardent reformer Josiah; indeed in the long line of Judah's kings, four only, Asa, Joshaphat, Hezekiah, and Josiah, were active in promoting the service of Jehovah; a few others adhored to it themselves, but displayed no zoal for its diffusion; while all the rest were sunk in heathen aberrations, which were kept up in the Babylonian exile and after the return to Palestine, so that even when Jeremiah reproved his obstinate brethren who had forced him to

accompany them to Egypt, they contumaciously answered, "We will not hearken to thee; but we will... burn incense to the Queen of Heaven, and pour out drink-offerings to her, as we have done, we, and our fathers, our kings, and our princes, in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem; for then had we abundance of food, and were prosperous, and saw no evil: but since we left off to burn incense to the Queen of Heaven, and to pour out drink-offerings to her, we have wanted all things, and have been consumed by the sword and by famino." So deeply were pagan notions ingrained in the minds of the people, and so fatal to a healthful morality were the effects of thoso perversities! And yet have we reason to believe that the records preserved to us in the Hebrew canon are far from complete with respect to the idolatry of the Israelites. For instance, the worship of the brazen serpent, certainly very old and incessantly carried on, is mentioned for the first time together with the account of its abolition by Hezekiah. Again, the author of the Books of Kings states that Josiah "defiled" and thus rendered unfit for the further worship of Moloch "the Topheth in the valley of the children of Hinnom";' yet ho had novor stated by whom the valley had been consecrated for that purpose. It may, therefore, be safely supposed that paganism prevailed among the Israelites in various other forms besides those described or hinted at in the Scriptures, which of course refer to idolatry but incidentally, without aiming at a systematic and complete account of its multifarious practices.

3

5

2

Lot us, then, in a few rapid outlines, survey the history of Hobrow idolatry. Up to Solomon's reign, Baal and Ashtarte only are mentioned as Canaanito divinitios; but a large portion of the people were addictod to their service at least from the oårlier time of the Judges. By Samuel's influence, their images wore indeod romoved, and the religious reform scems to have extended up to the northern boundaries of the land;" but his measures remained without enduring consequences. Then Saul is related to have banished from his dominions the sooth-sayers and wizzards; but this course would have been impossible without completely extirpating idolatry, which yet immediately afterwards is found in full blossom. Moreover, Solomon, besides consolidating the old, sanctioned or established various new forms of idol worship. Induced by his heathen wives, he built on the heights before Jerusalem temples for the Phoenician Ashtarte, with whose sorvice probably that of Baal

1 Jer. XLIV. 17, 18.

2 Comp. Num. XXI. 4—9.

3 2 Ki. XVIII. 4. 4 2 Ki, XXIII. 10.

5 1 Sam. VII. 3, 4.

6 Judg. XVIII. 31.

7 1 Sam. XXVIII. 3.

was coupled, for Chemosh of Moab, for Moloch or Milcom of Ammon, for the gods of the Egyptians, the Edomites, and Hittites. In the empire of Israel, Jehu indeed caused a general slaughter of the priests of Baal;10 but we find, shortly before its termination, besides the older cultus of Baal, Ashtarte, and Moloch, also the adoration of the Sun' and all the heavenly hosts; 12 and the colonists, who were transplanted from Assyria into Samaria, imported with them numerous native superstitions which tainted the faint remnants of the service of Jehovah. 13 In the empire of Judah, the pious king Amaziah is related to have brought to Jerusalem Edomite idols, to have adopted their worship, and honoured them with incense on their proper altars. 14 Ahaz, adhering to Baal and Ashtarte, and burning his son to Moloch, removed from its usual place in the Court of the Temple the brazen altar hallowed by age, and set up in its stead another structure, 15 besides encouraging the adoption of eastern rites, especially those of Assyria and Babylon. Hezekiah indoed abolished "the heights", broke the images of idols, even that brazen serpent that had been worshipped from the time of Moses. 16 But his son Manasseh, passionately devoted to foreign superstitions, in which he saw the true source of wisdom and of wealth, not only restored the heights, but practised every variety of sooth-saying, burnt his son to Moloch, ' placed an image of Ashtarte into the very Temple, 18 and built those small houses for her licentious priestesses, in which thoy wove curtains for hor service, 1 nay he seems to have entirely banished. from the Court the old and sacrod altar of Johovah,20 and in its stond he erected in both Courts altars of the stars, mado accessible to the whole people, 21 while at the entrance he placed the chariot with horses dedicated to the Sun:22 the sidereal worship, principally performed on the roofs of houses, took the strongest hold upon the nation, and required the perpetual warnings of subsequent teachers. 23 The well-meant exertions of Josiah were unable to eradicate pagan abominations, which soon returned and were embraced with the old zeal. The image of Ashtarte was probably erected again in the inner Court; 24 within the precincts of the Temple women mourned the death of Tammuz;25 the

19

8 1 Ki. XI. 5–7; 2 Ki. XXIII. 13, 14.

10 2 Ki. X. 18-28.
12 2 Ki. XVII. 17.

91 Ki. XI. 1, 8. 11 Isai. XVII. 8. 13 2 Ki. XVII. 29-33. 14 2 Chr. XXV. 14. 15 2 Ki.XVI. 3, 4, 12-16; see p. 27. 10 2 Ki. XVIII. 3, 4. 17 2 Ki. XXI. 6. 18 2 Ki. XXI. 3, 7; Jer. VII. 30; XV. 4; comp. Ezek. VIII. 3—6.

19 2 Ki. XXIII. 7.

20 2 Chr. XXXIII. 16.

21 2 Ki. XXI. 5; XXIII. 12.
22 2 Ki. XXIII. 11.

23 Jer. VIII. 2; XIX. 13; XXXII. 29; Isai. LXV. 3; Zeph. 1. 5; comp. Job XXXI. 26-28; Deut. IV. 19; XVII. 3. 21 Jer. XXXII. 34; Ezek. VIII, 3—6. 25 Ezek. VIII. 14.

1

Sun and the signs of the Zodiac were revered, and honoured with fumigations; and most of these idolatries were not only maintained, but deemed indispensable for prosperity, by the exiled Jews in Egypt.2 Thus it is manifest that the history of Hebrew idolatry runs parallel with the growth of the purer roligion of Jehovah; and without the former, the development of the latter cannot be rationally understood or appreciated. The cosmical creeds and the ethical faith fought an obstinato strugglo for many centuries. Heathen elements of every variety could not be kopt aloof; they could still loss be repudiated; if they wore modified, and it may be refined, so as not to clash with the fundamental truths of a monotheistic system, they were admitted without reluctance even by the better and profounder teachers, well aware that the contrast lived and rooted deep in the consciousness of the nation, that it was manifest even in the worship at the central Temple, but that it was capable of being, in some manner, harmonised, and perhaps gradually removed. In this active and vehement warfare, extended for at least a millenium, between the sensual and spiritual forms of roligion lies the chief and most absorbing intorost of the Biblical records an interest of which it is utterly deprived by that mechanical and unhistorical view which assumes a pure and perfect religious system proclaimed at an early age, and, though exposed to heathen inroads, always safe and certain of victory because embodying the highest possiblo wisdom of man, if not supernaturally communicated by God.

XXIII. HUMAN SACRIFICES AMONG THE HEBREWS.

CAN it aftor the preceding skotch bo surprising to find the custom of human sacrifices prevailing among the Hebrews during protracted epochs? It would indeed be almost unaccountable if just that custom had been singled out by them for rejection among the numerous heathen rites which they eagerly embraced, since, from a fatal confusion of religious ideas, human victims were regarded as the most meritorious and most acceptable of all offerings. Now we learn that the Hebrews "burnt their sons and their daughters in the fire", or "offered them as burnt-offerings"," or "made them to pass through the fire.""

4

But our estimation of the culture of the Hebrews must, in a great mea

1 Ezek. VIII. 7-11, 16, 17; comp.

2 Ki. XXIII. 5.

2 Jer. XLIV. 1-29; see the declarations quoted supra p. 246.

3 Comp. Deut. XII. 30, 31.

Jer. VII. 31; comp. ver. 32; XIX.5; 2 Chr. XXVIII. 3; see also 2 Ki. XVII. 31.

5 Jer. XIX. 5; comp. ver. 6; 2 Ki. III. 27.

6 Deut. XVIII. 10; 2 Ki. XVI. 3; XVII. 17; XXI. 6; XXIII. 10; 2 Chr. XXXIII. 6; Ezek. XX. 31; etc.; comp. 2 Sam. XII. 31 or simply Jer. XXXII. 35; Ezek. XVI. 21; XX. 26; Lev. XVIII. 21.

sure, depend upon the question to what deities they offered human sacrifices. It is indeed true, that, in most cases, they presented them in honour of Moloch' and Baal,' described as the "idols of Canaan"9 or their "abominations", 10 or "evil demons", and in the Assyrian period, perhaps imitating the colonists settled in Samaria, in honour of Adrammelech and Anammelech. 12 Yet we have at least two clear and unquestionable instances of human sacrifices offered to Jehovah. The first is the immolation of Jophthah's daughter. 13 A calm examination of the Biblical account proves that the subject is unmistakable and admits of no doubt whatever. Aftor Jephthah had been gracod by the "spirit of Jehovah" 14 and had set out on his expedition against the Ammonites, "he vowed a vow to the Lord, and said, If Thou shalt indoed deliver the children of Ammon into my hands, then it shall be, that whoever comes forth of the door of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, shall surely be Jehovah's and I will offer him up for a burnt-offering"; 15 and when he returned victorious, and his daughter, his only child, went out to welcome him, he was indeed overpowered by grief; he rent his garments, and exclaimed, "Thou hast brought me very low and art the cause of my misery"; for he does not seem to have considered the probability of just his daughter coming out to meet him, but to have expected to see first a slave of his household; but with creditable ingenuousness he declared, "I have opened my mouth to Jehovah, and I cannot go back"; 1 ho neither thought of substitution nor of redemption; and his daughter horsolf pronounced that view not only as justified but as conclusivo and imporativo; for sho replied, “My father, thou hast opened thy mouth to Jehovah, therefore do to me according to that which has proceeded out of thy mouth"; 17 she only asked for a delay of two months, in order to bewail her short and unwedded life, together with her companions; the reprieve was granted; Jephthah's intention of sacrificing his daughter was publicly known for two full months; no priest, no prophet, no elder, no magistrate interfered or even remonstrated, and at the end of the stipulated time, the father "did with her according to the vow which he had vowed"; 19 the act of immolation is alluded to rather than described, because a detailed record of the horrid act was shunned by the theocratic historian. The