Before speaking of the partial or general falling away of the Israelites in Egypt, we may notice the other kinds of idolatry which influenced them at the same period, or that immediately succeeding it, the idolatry of the Abrahamite tribes, of Canaan, of Phoenicia, of the Philistines, and of Syria, which they encountered on their journey. or after they reached the Land of Promise.
The centre of the idolatry of the Palestinian races is to be sought for in the religion of the Rephattes and the Canaanites. We can distinctly connect the worship of Baal and Ashtoreth with the earliest kind of idolatry, and having thus established a centre, we can understand how, for instance, the same infernal rites were celebrated to the Am monite Molech and the Carthaginian Baal. The most important document for the idolatry of the Hittites is the treaty concluded between the branch of that people seated on the Orontes and Rameses II. From this we learn that SUTEKII (or sET) and ASTeRAT were the chief divinities of these Hit tites, and that they also worshipped the moun tains and rivers, and the winds. The SUTEKHS of several forts are also specified [HaziTEs]. SET iS known from the Egyptian inscriptions to have corresponded to Baal, so that in the two chief divinities we discover Baal and Ashtoreth, the only Canaanite divinities known to be mentioned in Scripture. The local worship of different forms of Baal well agrees with the low nature-worship with which it is found to have prevailed. Both are equally mentioned in the Bible history. Thus the people of Shechem 'worshipped Baal-berith, and Motmt Hermon itself seems to have been wor shipped. as Baal-Hermon, while the low nature worship may be traced in the reverence for groves, and the connection of the Canaanite religion with hills and trees. The worst feature of this system was the sacrifice of children by their parents ; a feature that shews the origin of at least two of its offshoots.
The Bible does not give a very clear description of Canaanite idolatry. As an abominable thing to be rooted out and cast into oblivion nothing is needlessly said of it. The appellation Baal, ruler, or possessor, implies supremacy, and connects the chief Cana.anite divinity with the Syrian Adonis. He was the god of the Canaanite city Zidon or Sidon, where ` Ashtoreth, the abomination of the Zidonians,' was also specially worshipped. In the Judge-period we read of Baalim and Ashteroth in the plural, probably indicating various local forms of these divinities, but perhaps merely the worship of many images. The worship of Baal was con nected with that of the groves, which we take to have been representations of trees or other vegetable products [HIGH PLACES AND GROVES]. In Ahab's time a temple was built for Baal, where there was an image. His worshippers sac
rificed in gannents provided by the priests ; and his prophets, seeking to propitiate him, were wont to cry and cut themselves with swords and lances. Respecting Ashtoreth we know less from Scripture. Her name is not derivable from any Semitic root. It is equivalent to the Ishtar of the cuneiform inscriptions, the name of the As syrian or Babylonian Venus, the goddess of the planet The identity of the Canaanite, and the Assyrian or Babylonian goddess, is further shown by the connection of the former with star-worship, In the Iranian languages we find a close radical resemblance to Ashtoreth and Ishtar in the Pers.
Zend stara, Sansk. stra, acrrhp, stern, all equivalent to our 'star.' This derivation confirms our opinion that the high nature-worship of the 13abylonians and Assyrians was of Aryan origin.
As no other Canaanite divinities are noticed in Scripture, it seems probable that Baal and Ash toreth were alone worshipped by the natior,s of Canaan. Among the neighbouring tribes we find, besides these, other names of idols, and we have to inquire whether they apply to different idols or are merely different appellations.
Beginning with the Abrahamite tribes, we find Molech, Malcham, or Milcom (115b, [3k1, spoken of as the idol of the Ammonites. This name, in the first form, always has the article, and undoubtedly signifies the king' (1111r1, equivalent to '07pr.,), for it is indifferently used as a proper name and as an appellative with a suffix (comp. Jer. xlix. t, 3, with Amos i. 15). Milcom is from Molech or its root, with C formative, and Malcham is pro bably a dialectic variation, if the points are to be relied upon. Molech was regarded by the Am monites as their king. When David captured Rabbah we are told that `he took Malcham's crown from off his head, the weight whereof [was] a talent of gold with the precious stones : and it was [set] on David's head' (2 Sam. xii. 30, comp. r Chron. xx. 2).* The prophets speak of this idol as ruler of the children of Ammon, and to go into captivity with his priests and princes (Jen xlix. 3 ; Amos i. 15). The worship of Molech was per formed at high places, and children were sacrificed to him by their parents, being cast into fires. This horrible practice prevailed at Carthage, where chil dren were sacrificed to the chief divinity Baal, called at Tyre ` Melcarth, lord (Baal) of Tyre' rrri6t., ,v Svz (Inscr. Biling., ap. Gesen,, Lex. s.v. 53,M), the first of which words signifies king of the city,' for ;Tv '60. There can therefore be no doubt that Molech was a local form of the chief idol of Canaan and it is by no means certain that this name was 'limited to the Ammonite worship, as we shall see in speaking of the idolatry of the Israelites in the Desert.