time after the eon-ecrat ion of the Temple— should have been so far beguiled by his wives in his old age a- to become a Polyt heist, worshipping, among other deities. the Phoenician or Sidonian goddess Ashtoreth | l Kings iii. 1 .r>; ix.'.';xi. 1-5). This is not for a moment to be so interpreted as if he ever ceased to worship Jehovah, to whom lie had erected the magnificent Temple, which
in history is so generally connected with Solon 'a
name. Probably, according to his own erroneous con- ceptions, he never ceased to regard himself as a loyal wor-hippcr of Jehovah, but he at the same time deemed this not incompatible with sacrificing at the altars of other gods likewise. Still the fact remain- that Solo- mon, who by his Temple in its ultimate results did so much for establishing the doctrine of one only Godj became himself a practical Polytheist. If this was the case with him. polytheism in other sovereigns ol infe- rior excellence can excite no surprise. With such an
example before him. it is no wonder that Ahab, an es- sentially bad man. .-liould after his marriage with a Si- donian princess nut only openly tolerate but encourage the worship of Baal; though it is to be remembered even in him that he did not disavow the authority of Jehovah, but. when rebuked by his ^u:\l ant Elijah, he rent his clothes and put sackcloth on his flesh, and showed other signs of contrition evidently
deemed sincere ( l Kings xvi.:ii ; xxi, 27-29). Finally, ii i- to be observed generally that although, before the reformation of Josiah (2 Kings xxiii), polytheism pre- vailed in Judah as well a- Israel, yet it seem- to have been more intense and universal in Israel, as might have been expected from it- greater proximity to Phoenicia;
and I-racl is BOmetimee spoken of a- it it had set lie- bad
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example to Judah (2 Kings xvii, 19; Jer. iii, 8) ; though, considering the example of Solomon, this cannot be ac- cepted as a strict historical statement.
(2.) The Phoenician religion was likewise in other respects deleterious to the inhabitants of Palestine, be- ing in some points essentially demoralizing. For ex- ample, it sanctioned the dreadful superstition of burn- ing children as sacrifices to a Phoenician god. " They have built also," says Jeremiah, in the name of Jehovah (xix, 5), " the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt-offerings unto Baal, which I com- manded not, nor spake it, neither came it into my mind'' (comp. Jer. xxxii, 35). This horrible custom was prob- ably in its origin founded on the idea of sacrificing to a god what was most valuable in the eyes of the suppliant ; but it could not exist without having a tendency to stifle natural feelings of affection, and to harden the heart. It could scarcely have been first adopted otherwise than in the infancy of the Phoenician race ; but grown-up men and grown-up nations, with their moral feelings in oth- er respects cultivated, are often the slaves in particular points of an early implanted superstition, and it is wor- thy of note that, more than two hundred and fifty years after the death of Jeremiah, the Carthaginians, when their city was besieged by Agathocles, offered as burnt- sacrifices to the planet Saturn, at the public expense, two hundred boys of the highest aristocracy; and, sub- sequently, when they had obtained a victory, sacrificed the most beautiful captives in the like manner (Diod. xx, 14, Go). If such things were possible among the Carthaginians at a period so much later, it is easily con- ceivable how common the practice of sacrificing children may have been at the time of Jeremiah among the Phoenicians generally; and if this were so, it would have been certain to prevail among the Israelites who wor- shipped the same Phoenician gods ; especially as, owing to the intermarriages of their forefathers with Canaan- ites, there were probably few Israelites who may not have had some Phoenician blood in their veins (Judg. iii, 5). Again, parts of the Phoenician religion, espe- cially the worship of Astarte, tended to encourage dis- soluteness in the relations of the sexes, and even to sanctify impurities of the most abominable description. Connected with her temples and images there were male and female prostitutes, whose polluted gains formed part of the sacred fund appropriated to the service of the goddess ; and, to complete the deification of immorality, they were even known by the name of the " consecrat- ed." Nothing can show more clearly how deeply this baneful example had eaten into the hearts and habits of the people, notwithstanding positive prohibitions and the repeated denunciations of the Hebrew prophets, than the almost incredible fact that, previous to the reforma- tion of Josiah, this class of persons was allowed to have houses or tents close to the temple of Jehovah, whose treasury was perhaps even replenished by their gains (2 Kings xxiii, 7 ; Deut. xxiii, 17, 18 ; 1 Kings xiv, 24 ; xv, 12: xxii, 46; Hos. iv, 14; Job xxxvi, 14; comp. Lucian, Lucius, c. 35 ; De Bed Syrd, c. 27, 51 ; Gese- nius, Thesaurus, s. v. Xfryg, p. 1196; Movers, Phon. i, 678, etc.; Spencer, De Legibus Hebrceorum, i, 561).