For you must remember that all the nations round them then, and all
the great heathen nations afterwards, were, as far as we know, the
people of some god or other. Religion and politics were with them
one and the same thing. They had some god, or gods, whom they
looked to as the head or king of their nation, who had a special
favour to them, and would bless and prosper them according as they
showed him special reverence, and after that god the whole nation
was often named.
The Ammonites' god was Ammon, the hidden god, the lord of their
sheep and cattle. The Zidonians had Ashtoreth, the moon. The
Phoenicians worshipped Moloch, the fire. Many of the Canaanites
worshipped Baal, the lord, or Baalim, the lords--the sun, moon, and
stars. The Philistines afterwards (for we read nothing of
Philistines in Moses' time) worshipped Dagon, the fish-god, and so
forth. The Egyptians had gods without number--gods invented out of
beasts, and birds, and the fruits of the earth, and the season, and
the weather, and the sun and moon and stars. Each class and trade,
from the highest to the lowest, and each city and town throughout
the land seems to have had its special god, who was worshipped
there, and expected to take care of that particular class of men or
that particular place.
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