a

Judea, when they came to people the land after the captivity of the tribes. The words may literally be rendered "the tabernacles of the daughters-or of the young women." Or if Benut be taken as the name of a female idol, from Benè to build up, or procreate children, then the words will express" the tabernacles sacred to procreation ;" and, agreeably to this latter exposition, the Rabbis say that the emblem was "a hen and chickens." But however this be, there is little reason to doubt, as Parkhurst has justly observed, that these sekut were tabernacles, wherein young women exposed themselves to prostitution, in honour of the Babylonish goddess Mylitta. Herodotus"

gives the following account of that detestable service: "Every young woman of the country of Babylon must, once in her life, sit at the temple of Aphroditè, or Venus, (whom he afterwards tells us the Assyrians called Mylitta,) and prostitute herself to some stranger. Those who are rich, and disdain to mingle with the crowd, present themselves before the temple in covered chariots, attended by a great retinue; but the generality of the women sit near the temple, having crowns of cord upon their heads, some continually coming and others going. Ropes are placed in such a manner as to afford a free passage among the women, that the strangers may choose whom they please. A woman, who has seated herself in this place, must not return home till some stranger has cast money into her lap, led her from the temple, and defiled her. The stranger who throws the a 2 Kings xvii. 30. b Lib. i. cap. 199.

money must say, I invoke the goddess Mylitta for thee.' The money, however small a sum it be, must not be refused, because it is appointed to sacred uses. The woman must follow the first man that offers, and not reject him; and after prostitution, having now duly honoured the goddess, she is dismissed to her own house. In Cyprus," adds the historian, "they have the same custom."

Strabo mentions the above practice. Baruch, vi. 43, alludes to it; and, perhaps, it is to this also that Amos refers, ch. ii. 8, when, speaking of the sinful practices of the Israelites, he says, that

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they lay themselves down upon the clothes laid in pledge, (or as hebelim signifies, surrounded by cords,) by or near every altar; and they drink the wine of the condemned (y onushim, literally, of the fines) in the house of their god."

The sun is spoken of in 2 Kings xxiii. 5, as an object of idolatrous worship, and was worshipped under the different names of Adrammelech, Baal, Beth-shemesh, &c. as may be seen in the foregoing articles. In 2 Kings xxiii. 11, we find that the kings of Judah had so far corrupted themselves, as to dedicate horses and chariots to this luminary; and we are informed from Ezek. viii. 16, that they commonly worshipped it with their faces to the

east.

Tartak, or pn, Teretek, was the aleim or idol of the Avites, mentioned in 2 Kings xvii. 31. It seems compounded of, Ter, to go about, and PA, Retek, to swathe or gird round as with a

a Lib. xvi.

chain, alluding to the motion of the planets, which move round the sun, and are girt to it by the invisible power of God, as with a chain; to which invisible power, philosophers have given the namė of gravitation. Job uses a similar expression in ch. xxxviii. 9; and the Jews have a tradition that the emblematical idol for this power, to which they gave the name of Tartak, was an ass; which seems not improbable, as that animal is stupid, like inactive matter; and when confined by a rope to its pasture, might rudely represent the general law of gravitation; which chains the planets to the sun, and preserves them in their orbits round that luminary.

Terephim, were re

The Teraphim, or presentative images of the great object of religious awe and veneration. So Jehovah is called "the fear of Isaac," and the Jews are commanded to have the Lord of hosts for their fear and their dread. There is not the least reason to think, that either Laban or Micah had any other aleim than Jehovah. Their Teraphim, therefore, in Gen. xxxi. 30, 32, and Judg. xviii. 24, could only be intended to represent Jehovah, and, perhaps, had some resemblance to the cherubim, but less as to size, and employed only for private uses. They did wrong, however, in multiplying representations of these cherubic figures, as they thereby furnished an inducement to the practice of idolatry. It was probably from these Teraphim, that the Penates, or household gods of the heathens,

a Gen. xxxi. 42, 53.

b Isaiah viii. 13.

c Gen. xxxi. 24, 49, 50, 53. Judg. xvii. 3, 4, 5, 13; xviii. 19, 31. d Judg. xvii. 4.

took their rise, and to whom, likewise, they burnt incense. The carriage of Micah's Teraphim, or car, on which the Danites carried it off in solemn procession, is mentioned in Judg. xviii. 21.

a

Thammuz, or n Temuz, is mentioned as the name of an idol, Ezek. viii. 14, for which the Jewish women are said to have sat weeping, before the north gate of the Temple. The general opinion is, that it was the same as Adonis, and is so interpreted by Jerom, who observes, that Adonis is in the Hebrew and Syriac called Thammuz. Now, it is well known that Adonis was a Syrian idol, of whose worship, as celebrated in the temple of Venus at Byblus in Syria, we have the following account in Lucian. "The Syrians," says he, "affirm, that what the boar is reported to have done against Adonis, was transacted in their country; in memory of which accident, they every year beat themselves and lament, and celebrate frantic rites; and great wailings are appointed through the country. And after they have beaten themselves and lamented, they first perform funeral obsequies to Adonis, as to one dead; and afterwards, on the next or a subsequent day, they feign that he is alive, and is ascended into the air, or heaven; and shave their heads, as the Egyptians do at the death of Apis." The account given by Julius Firmicus is rather different, but it might be occasioned by a difference of rites, in different countries and ages.

Upon a certain night," says he, "while the solemnity lasted, an image was laid in a bed, and after a great lamentation made over it, light was brought in, and the priest, anointing the mouths a De Deâ Syriâ.

of the assistants, whispered to them that salvation was come, that deliverance was brought to pass."a Parkhurst seems inclined from the above, and other evidence, to suppose that Thammuz was originally designed to represent the promised Saviour, the desire of all nations; and that the name might have been derived from Dr, Tem, "to put an end to," and , mez, “ heat, wrath, or punishment," in allusion to Christ, who made an end of sin, and brought in an everlasting righteousness.-Such were the principal heathen deities, which the apostate Israelites foolishly worshipped; and for the explanation of which, I have been much indebted to Parkhurst and Spencer."

SECT. II.

The Places where they were worshipped, and the Manner of worshipping them.

Behind their doors; on the roofs of their houses; in the gates of their cities; in gardens; high places; groves. The houses of their gods; their altars: of exquisite wormanship; generally high. Reasons why their altars were high; why they worshipped in high places. Why high places were forbidden by Moses; and yet tolerated under the first temple.-Idols worshipped by adorning them; kissing the hand; dancing before them; crying aloud; cutting themselves; feasting and obscenity.

LET us next attend to the places where they were worshipped. These were various, according to

a See more in Spearman's second letter on the Septuagint.

b On the general history of idolatry among the ancients, see the learned work of Gerard Vossius, "De Idololatriâ, Origine, et Progressu," appended to his translation of Maimonides, "De Idololatriâ."