their habitation.* (Acts 17: 16.) On the part of the Israelites, there could be no question of their right, and of their duty. "They took possession of the land, because God bade them do so." (Speaker's Commentary.) They were in turn dispossessed of their inheritance, when they had shown themselves unworthy of it.

Extermination of the Idolatrous Races.

The grounds of this are to be sought,-first, in the purpose of God in giving this land to Abraham and his descendants; second, in the character of the inhabitants, and in the obstacles it opposed to the attainment of that end.

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Centuries before, Divine wisdom had made choice of this favored region as the abode of his people, among whom his name and worship should be perpetuated. In calling Abraham to this land, and giving it to him and his posterity, God claimed and exercised his right so to give it. That he might certify the gift to all, and himself as the giver, he recorded his name upon it. For Abraham, on his entrance into the land under Divine direction, and at his first halting-place, nearly in the geographical centre of the country, erected an altar to Jehovah. (Gen. 12: 7.) Wherever he halted for a time in his subsequent journeyings, and fixed his temporary abode, he "built there an altar to Jehovah, and called on the name of Jehovah." (Ch. 12 8.) See chs. 13: 4, 18; 21: 33.† A like record is given of Isaac (26: 25), and of Jacob (33: 20). Thus the land was dotted with Jehovah's altars, and he was not left without witness there. Though idolatry was prevalent in the land, it had not yet taken deep root overshadowing with its baneful and corrupting influence the land and its inhabitants as in later times. This is clearly shown in the history of the three patriarchs. There is no indication of molestation from it in their worship of Jehovah, or of hindrance in their journeyings from place to place, and in their free intercourse with the people. Abraham was a recognized prince among the natives of the land. (Ch. 23: 6.) He was confederate with ancestors of the Amorites (14 : 13); and he was in covenant with one of the kings of the Philistines (21 : 32), in whose land he was made free to dwell where he pleased (2015), and where he abode for a long time (21 : 34). The covenant was renewed with Isaac (26: 28, 29); and in both cases, the Philistine

* Its duration, in time and in extent. (Meyer, on the passage.)

"Every place where he dwelt became a temple of the Eternal God. Thus his life was a witness to that faith in the One God, which is the groundwork of the civilization of our age, and is diffusing its blessings around the world." The writer's note on Gen. 12: 6, 7.

king acknowledged the favor of Jehovah as the cause of their temporal prosperity, and as a reason for seeking and maintaining amicable relations with them. (21:22; 26: 28.) Such was then the feeling towards them, on the part of the inhabitants of the land. 'Arise," said God to Abraham, "walk through the land, in its length and in its breadth." (Ch. 13: 17.) All was his and for his use, though a stranger in it.

Centuries had now passed, and all was changed. The germs of idolatry had reached their complete development. They had effaced every vestige of Jehovah's name and worship, and in place of them were the worst abominations of heathenism. The iniquity of the Amorites (representing all) was now full ;* in other words, they had "filled up the measure of their fathers," and were fitting objects of the Divine displeasure, as an example and a warning.

The Israelites, when they entered into the land of their inheritance, were confronted by forms of heathenism, the most corrupting and debasing to humanity, and dishonoring to God. What originally was adoration of the powers of nature, disowning nature's God, had by its own inherent degeneracy become a worship of vice, in its most odious and revolting forms. Where once stood the altar of Jehovah, now rose the temple of the goddess of unchastity. Her temples were numerous, and scattered over the whole country. She is mentioned as worshipped at Zidon (1 Kings 11:33); by the Philistines (1 Sam. 31: 10); on the east of the Jordan (at Ashteroth-Karnaim,‡ Gen. 14:5); and her sculptured images were found there by Mr. Porter among the ruins of ancient cities, showing the wide prevalence of her worship. So numerous were her votaries, that her temples were thronged; and her worship, of which lewdness was the distinguishing characteristic, was maintained from the wages of unchastity. The service required of woman in these temples of impurity, if she would win the favor of the goddess, was the sacrifice of her virtue. Even of maidens this sacrifice was required in many temples, before they were permitted to marry.

*See Gen. 15: 16, and the writer's note:-" Is not yet full. This is the key to many of the dark ways of Providence, as regards individuals as well as nations; and all human history is the illustration of this Divine forbearance and delayed but sure justice."

† Ashtoreth, the supreme female divinity and goddess of licentiousness, as Baal was the supreme male divinity. See the writer's note on Gen. 14: 5, fifth paragraph, and on Judges 2:13.

So-called by anticipation, as were Beth-el and Ai in Gen. 13: 3, though neither was so named till long after (Gen. 18: 19; Josh. 8: 28).

A special class of devotees of her temples bcre the distinctive appellation of the Consecrated ;* namely, to the impure service of the goddess, to the support of whose worship their guilty gains were devoted. Under the same appellation was included also the class of male devotees of the idoltemples, described by the Apostle in Rom. 1 : 27.

Baal, the supreme male divinity of the idolatrous races, was among them the natural rival and antagonist of Jehovah. The worship of Jehovah and that of Baal were in direct competition. Each claimed to be the supreme deity. Neither could be acknowledged as such without subverting the other. "If Jehovah be God, follow him; and if Baal, then follow him." (1 Kings 18: 21.) There was no third choice. One or the other must be God. Had the Israelites carried out the instructions given them, this antagonism would have been put at rest. But through their disobedience and negligence Baal was left to contest the supremacy with Jehovah; and the fascinations of his worship were a snare to the people, withdrawing them from the service of the true God.

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The origin of this debasing and corrupting worship, in the adoration of the sun and moon as representing the imparting and the receptive powers of nature, is referred to in the following lines of Job, ch. 31: 26–28 :If I saw the sun, how it shined, And the moon walking in majesty; And my heart in secret was beguiled, And my hand my mouth hath kissed; This, too, were a crime to be judged,

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For I should have been false to God on high.

From the deification of the powers of nature, as active and generative, or passive and susceptive, arose the distinction of male and female divinities. These were fashioned after the ideas and passions of their votaries, and came to be worshipped in every form of sensuality and obscenity. Such, for example, was the worship of the Phallus, as symbol of nature's procreative power. Such, too, was the worship of Ashera, a female idol, the goddess of concupiscence, represented by significant wooden images or pillars; and hence her image or pillar, erected for her worship, is often meant by this word, as in Judges 6: 25, 26. Her worship was naturally

V. 27. It was customary to kiss the idol, as a form of adoration. (1 Kings 19: 18; Hos. 13:2) In the case of remote objects, as the sun and moon, the hand touched the mouth, and waved to them a kiss in token of homage. The writer's note on Job 31: 27.

"The name, and the custom on which it was founded, only partially reveal the fearful corruption of religion and morals wherever idolatry prevailed." The writer's note on Gen. 33:21, 22.

associated with that of Baal, as in this passage. The word grove or its plural, in the common version, is a mistranslation of the Hebrew word.* The name Ashera, or its plural, should be retained in the version; meaning either the goddess herself as in 2 Kings 21: 7, "a carved image of Ashera," or more commonly the pillars reared to her, the disgusting emblems of her obscene rites. The pillar was a straight upright trunk of a tree stripped bare, standing where it grew, or set in the ground. Some suppose the idol to have been the same as Ashtoreth, and worshipped under this name with Phallic emblems and rites. In Israel alone, as we are told in 1 Kings 18: 19, her prophets numbered four hundred; showing how widespread was this foulest of the abominations of heathenism. It is maintained by some distinguished Hebraists, that the Hebrew word translated idol in 1 Kings 15: 13, literally meaning something horrid, monstrous, was applied to a Phallus-statue erected to Ashera by the dowager-queen Maachah.‡ See notes on the Hebrew text.

Besides the more strictly national idols, whose temples and worship overspread the land, there were also local ones. Famous among these was Dagon, the fish-god of the Philistines. See 1 Sam. 5 : 1-4, and the writer's note. Reference is made to his worship in Gaza (Judges 16: 21-23), and his temple at Ashdod is expressly mentioned in 1 Sam. 5 : 2, and 1 Chron. 10:10. That he was also worshipped elsewhere is implied in the name Beth-Dagon (House of Dagon) in southern Judæa, Josh. 15: 41, and in Asher, Josh. 19: 27. Long after, the kindred female idol Derceto, partly human, partly fish, still had her temples at Ashkelon. The spirit of the conflict, waged between the true and the false religions, is shown by the triumph of Dagon's votaries in his imagined victory over the untruthful representative of Jehovah's power. See Judges 16 23, 24, and the writer's note on the 89th page.

Rimmon, an idol of the Syrians of Damascus, is mentioned in 2 Kings 5 18. His worship is thought by some to have been "a relic of the ancient tree-worship," which prevailed in Palestine. Others suppose him to have been the Sun-god of the Syrians. See the article RIMMON in Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, and in Kitto's Cyclopædia of Biblical Literature.

* Except in two passages, Gen. 21: 33, and 1 Sam. 22: 6 (margin), where a different Hebrew word is used.

See the article ASHERA, in Smith's Dictionary of the Bible.

Fürst, Hebrew Lexicon :-"a horror, terror, monstrosity; then the name of a Phallusstatue for the idol Ashera."-Bähr, in Lange's Commentary, says that this word "means horrendum, and no doubt refers to a Phallus-image, which was something terrible and detestable to the Hebrews."-See also the article IDOL, IMAGE, 4, in Smith's Dictionary of the Bible.

Chemosh, the idol-god and supreme deity of the Moabites. See 1 Kings 11: 7, and the writer's note on the passage.*

Moloch, more properly written Molech,† the idol-god of the Ammonites, was one of the chief divinities of the Phoenicians and the Canaanites. He is rightly stigmatized as "the abomination of the Ammonites." (1 Kings 11:5.) No milder term could be applied to this monstrous outgrowth of heathenism. His rites were shocking to every instinct of humanity. Wherever his name is mentioned, it is connected with the sacrifice of children. (Lev. 20: 2-5.) Infant children were offered up to him by fire. Fathers and mothers could propitiate the idol, only by passing their children through the flames. That this was literally required as a propitiatory sacrifice to appease the idol, and not a purification by passing unharmed between the fires, is shown by many allusions to it. In Deut. 12: 31, the writer says of the idolatrous nations of Canaan: "Every abomination to Jehovah which he hates have they done to their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burned in the fire to their gods." "They have built the high places of Tophet, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire." (Jer. 7: 31.) "He (Ahaz) made his son pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the heathen." (2 Kings 16: 3.) The same sacrifices were offered to Baal. "They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt-offerings to Baal." (Jer. 19: 5.) The idol Chemosh of the Moabites was propitiated by the same inhuman rites. When the Moabite king saw that the battle was against him, "he took his eldest son, who would have reigned in his stead, and offered him for a burnt-offering upon the wall." 2 Kings 3: 27, and the writer's note.

Thus it is seen that this favored land, chosen of God to perpetuate his name and worship, and hallowed by his altars, was now wrested from its purpose, and his altars everywhere supplanted by those of false gods. Idolatry, with its polluting and de-humanizing rites, had taken such hold of the popular mind, infusing its poison into all the relations and conditions of life, from infancy to age, that nothing short of extirpation would uproot and totally destroy the deadly evil. This was expressly commanded. In Numbers 33 : 51-53, we read: "When ye have passed over the Jordan,

* "He seems to have been widely worshipped in Western Asia. His name occurs frequently on the 'Moabite Stone.' Car-Chemish, 'the fort of Chemosh,' a great city of the northern Hittites, must have been under his protection.”—Speaker's Commentary.

† As in Lev. 18:21, and 20: 2, 3, 4, 5; 1 Kings 11: 7; 2 Kings 23: 10; Jer. 32: 35. He is also named Milcom, 1 Kings 11: 5, 33, and 2 Kings 23 : 13, and may be meant by the possibly mis-pointed Malkam (their king), Jer. 49: 1.-See the note on 1 Kings 11 : 5.