altars, differing widely
from lofty and elaborately ornamented erections like those at Jerusalem,
which seem to have borne a resemblance to the altars of the Egyptians:
the author of the _Book of the Covenant_ advises the faithful to follow
the example of those great men rather than that of the Levites of
Judah. Nevertheless this multiplicity of high places was not without its
dangers; it led the common people to confuse Jahveh with the idols
of Canaan, and encouraged the spread of foreign superstitions. The
misfortunes which had come thick and fast upon the Israelites ever
since the division of the kingdom had made them only too ready to seek
elsewhere that support and consolation which they could no longer find
at home. The gods of Damascus and Assur who had caused the downfall of
Gath, of Calneh, and of Hamath,* those of Tyre and Sidon who lavished
upon the Phoenicians the wealth of the seas, or even the deities of
Ammon, Moab, or Edom, might well appear more desirable than a Being Who,
in spite of His former promises, seemed powerless to protect His own
people. A number of the Israelites transferred their allegiance to
these powerful deities, prostrated themselves before the celestial host,
flocked round the resting-places of Kevan, the star of El, and carried
the tabernacles of the King of heaven;** nor was Judah slow to follow
their example. The prophets, however, did not view their persistent
ill-fortune in the same light as the common people; far from accepting
it as a proof of the power of other divinities, they recognised in it a
mark of Jahveh's superiority.

* Amos vi. 2; with regard to the destruction of Gath by
Hazael.

** Amos v. 26, 27

In their eyes Jahveh was the one God, compared with Whom the pagan
deities were no gods at all, and could not even be said to exist. He
might, had He so willed it, have bestowed His protection on any one of
the numerous races whom He had planted on the earth: but as a special
favour, which He was under no obligation to confer, He had chosen Israel
to be His own people, and had promised them that they should occupy
Canaan so long as they kept free from sin. But Israel had sinned, Israel
had followed after idols; its misfortunes were, therefore, but the
just penalty of its unfaithfulness. Thus conceived, Jahveh ceased to be
merely the god of a nation--He became the God of the whole world; and
it is in the guise of a universal Deity that some, at any rate,