The golden calf was not the only idol which the Israelites worshipped in the Desert. The prophet Amos speaks of others. In the Masoretic text the passage is as follows, But ye bare the tent [or tabernaclel of your king and Chinn your images, the star of your gods [or 'your god 1, which ye made for yourselves' (v. 26). The LXX. has MoX6x for your king,' as though their original Heb. had been nno, instead of =z9n, and "Paccpcip for Chiun, besides a transposition. In the Acts the reading is almost the same as that of the LXX., Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Remphan, figures which ye made to worship them' (vii. 43). We cannot here discuss the probable causes of these differences except of the more important ones, the substitution of Moloch for your king,' and Raiphan or Rem phan for Chiun. It should be observed, that if the passage related to Ammonite worship, nothing would be more likely than that Molech should have been spoken of by an appellative, in which case a strict rendering of the Masoretic text would read as does the A. V.; a freer could follow the LXX. and Acts ; but, as there is no reference to the Am monites or even the Canaanites, it is more reason able to suppose that the LXX. followed a text in which, as above suggested, the reading was Malcham, or your king.' The likelihood of t.his being the true reading must depend upon the rest of the passage. Remphan and Chitin are at once recognised as two foreign divinities worshipped together in Egypt, RENPU, probably pronounced REMPU, and KEN, the former a god represented as of the type of the Shemites and apparently con nected with war, the latter a goddess represented naked standing upon a lion. They were wor shipped With KHEM, the Egyptian god of' produc tiveness, and the foreign war-goddess ANATA. Excluding KHEM, W110 is probably associated with KEN from her being connected, as we shall see, with productiveness, these names, RENPU,. KEN, and ANATA, arc clearly not, except in orthography, Egyptian. We can suggest no origin for the name of RENPU. The goddess KEN, as naked, would be connected with the Babylonian Mylitta, and as standing on a lion, with a goddess so represented in rock-sculptures at Maltheiyyeh near Nineveh. The former similarity connects her with genera tion ; the latter perhaps does so likewise. If we adopt this supposition, the name KEN may be traced to a root connected with generation found in many varieties in the Iranian family, and not out of that family. It may be sufficient to cite the Greek -ylv-opat, : she would thus be the god dess of productiveness. ANATA iS the Persian AnaItis. We have shown earlier that the Bahy Ionian high nature-worship seems to have been of Aryan origin. In the present case we trace an Aryan idolatry connected, from the mention of a star, with high nature-worship. If we accept this explanation, it becomes doubtful that Molech is mentioned in the passage, and we may rather sup pose that some other idol, to whom a kingly character was attributed, is intended. Here we must leave this difficult point of our inquiry, only summing up that this false worship was evidently derived from the Shepherds in Egypt, and may pos sibly indicate the Aryan origin of at least one of these tribes, almost certainly its own origin, directly. or indirectly, from an Ayran source. The worship of Baal-Peor was next followed ; but this was a temporary apostasy : we have already spoken of it.
It is probable that during the wanderings, and under the strong rule of Joshua, the idolatry learnt in Egypt was so destroyed as to be afterwards utterly forgotten by the people. But in entering Palestine they found themselves among the monu ments and associations of another false religion, less attractive indeed to the reason than that of Egypt, which still taught, notwithstanding the wretched fetishism that it. supported, some great truths of man's present and future, but of a religion which, in its dcification of nature, had a strong hold on the imagination. The genial sun, the refreshing moon, the stars, at whose risings or settings fell the longed for rains, were naturally reverenced in that land of green hills and valleys, which were fed by the water of heaven. A nation thrown in thc scene of such a religion and mixed with those who professed it, at that period of national life when impressions are most readily made, such a nation, albeit living while the recollection of the deliverance from Egypt and the wonders with which the Law was given was yet fresh, soon fell away into the practices that it was strictly enjoined to root out. In the first and second laws of the Decalogue, the Israelites were commanded to worship but one God, and not to make any image whatever to worship it, lest they and their children should fall under God's heavy displeasure. The commands were explicit enough. But not alone was idolatry thus clearly condemned : the Israelites were charged to destroy all objects connected with the religion of the inhabitants of Canaan. They were to destroy utterly all the heathen places of worship, upon the high moun tains, and upon the hills, and under every green tree.' They were to overthrow' the altars' of
the heathen, 'break their pillars," burn their groves, hew down the graven images of their gods, and destroy the names of thcm out of that place' (Deut. xii. 2, 3), a passage we cite on account of the fulness of the enumeration. Had the con quered nations been utterly.extirpated their idolatry might have been annihilated at once. But soon after the lands had been apportioned, that separate life of the tribes began which was never inter rupted, as far as history tells us, until the time of the kings. Divided, the tribes were unable to cope with the remnant of the Canaanites, and either dwelt with them on equal terms, reduced them to tribute, or became tributaries themselves. The Israelites were thus surrounded by the idolatry of Canaan ; and since they were for the most part confined to the mountain and hilly districts, where its associations were strongest, they' had but to learn from their neighbours how they had wor shipped upon the high hills and under every green tree. It is related how, by the generation that followed Joshua and those who outlived lairn, true religion was forgotten, and the people fell into the worship of Baalim, Ashtaroth, and the groves. From the use of plural forms in the case of the first and second idols, it is probable that the Baals and Ashtoreths of several towns or tribes were wor shipped by the Israelites, as Baal-Peor bad been, and Baal-berith afterwards was. It does not seem, however, that the people at once fell into heathen worship : the first step appears to have been adopt ing a corruption of the true religion. Practices like the worship of the golden calf are again mentioned as obtaining at tlais time, and we are astonished to read in the history of Micah that this spurious wor ship was already systematized. In those days [there was] no king in Israel, every man did [that vvhich was] right in his own eycs' ( Judg. xvii. 6). Thus Micah, a man of Mount Ephraim, having first stolen the large sum of I too shekels of silver from his mother 42 lbs. So grs. troy, taking the shekel at 220 grs.), restored it to her, and she, althou,gh professing to have dedicated the whole of it to the Lord, yet gave but 200 shekels of silver (7 lbs. 7 oz. 32o grs.), to a founder, who made a graven image and a molten image,' which, unless merely over laid with precious metal, must have been small. Not content with these, Micah had a house of god or of gods, an ephod, and teraphim, here, as in Laban's case, associated with spurious worship, and made one of his sons priest, consecrating him by some old patriarchal, perhaps heathenish, right of the master of the house. But still greater good fortune befell Micah, when a young Levite, coming from Bethlehem-Judah in search of a place where he might settle, was persuaded by him to stay, and be to him a father and a priest.' So Ile hired the Levite for ten [shekels] of silver by the year, and a suit of apparel,' and his food. Micah exercised his right of consecration, and in full satisfaction exclaimed, Now know I that the LORD will do me good, seeing I have a Levite to [my] priest.' Eut the priest speedily gave a fresh instance of his mercenary character. Certain Danites, from the two warlike cities Zorah and Eshtaol, six hun dred armed men, seeking an inheritance, heard of Micah's house of gods,' and coming as friends, stole the contents of the place, and carried away, he nothing loth, the priest to be a father and a priest' to them, asking him, [Is it] better for thee to be a priest unto the house of one man, or that thou be a priest unto a tribe and a family in Israel.' The Danites smote Laish, and called it Dan, and there set up the graven image : the priest ancl his sons continued to be priests to the tribe of Dan until the captivity : the graven image remained at Dan all the time that the house of God was in Shiloh,' being probably suppressed for a time under Saul, David, and Solomon, and superseded by Jeroboam's golden calf. The priest was Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Moses, a wonderful instance of the rapid corruption of those days ( Judg. xvii., xviii.) It is noteworthy that throughout this remarkable narrative, which is told with a simpli city that would vouch for its antiquity and authen ticity were there no other evidence, idolatrous practices are associated with deceit and dishonesty. Wealthy and at ease, the tribes would not be at the trouble of going to Shiloh to worship, but, like their ancestors two or three generations before, who demanded a calf of Aaron because they knew not what had become of Moses, each man would have his house of gods, with images, a priest, and, perhaps, for teraphim are mentioned, magical practices also. This declension would have easily led the way to the adoption not only of the forms, but of the realities of the heathenism around. An illegal worship of the tnie God would soon give place to the flexible religion of the heathen.