he moon is the symbol of productive power and must be
identified with Astarte. "That this goddess was so typified can
scarcely be doubted. The ancient name of the city, Ashtaroth-Karnaim,
already referred to, seems to indicate a horned Astarte, that
is an image with a crescent moon on her head like the Egyptian
Athor. At any rate, it is certain that she was by some ancient writers
identified with the moon, as Lucian and Herodian. On these grounds
Movers, Winer, Keil, and others maintain that originally Ashtoreth
was the moon goddess." [146] Clearly, then, the Hebrews
worshipped the moon. But, even apart from Astarte, this worship
may be proven on other evidence. Dr. Jamieson says that the word
_mena_ (moon: Anglo-Saxon, _mona_) "approaches most nearly to
a word used by the prophet Isaiah, which has been understood by
the most learned interpreters as denoting the moon. 'Ye are they that
prepare a table for _Gad_, and that furnish the offering unto
_Meni_.' (Isa. lxv. 11). As _Gad_ is understood of the _sun_, we
learn from Diodor Sicul that _Meni_ is to be viewed as a
designation of the _moon_." [147] This is Bishop Lowth's view.
"The disquisitions and conjectures of the learned concerning Gad
and Meni are infinite and uncertain: perhaps the most probable may
be, that Gad means good fortune, and Meni the moon." [148] One
point is worthy of notice. In our English version _Meni_ is rendered
"number"; and we know very well that by the courses of the moon
ancient months and years were numbered. In Isaiah iii. 18 we find
the daughters of Zion ornamented with feet-rings, and networks, and
_crescents_: or, as our translation reads, "round tires like the moon."
And, once more, in Ezekiel xlvi., we read that the gate of the inner
court of the sanctuary that "looketh toward the east, shall be opened
on the day of the new moon"; and the meat offering on "the day of
the new moon shall be a young bullock without blemish, and six
lambs, and a ram." If there was no sacred significance in the
observance of these lunar changes, why did the writer of the New
Testament Epistle to the Colossians say, "Let no man judge you in
respect of the new moon"? A competent scholar, in recognising this
consociation of Hebrew religion with the moon's phases, rightly
ascribes to it an earlier origin. Says Ewald: "To connect the annual
festivals with the full moon, and to commence them in the evening,
as though greeting her with a glad shout, was certainly