The Semites generally believed that the first-born were sacred to deity and must be sacrificed to it. This sort of human sacrifice persisted for a long time among the Phœnicians. It was said that God called Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, and that he then permitted him to offer a ram instead (Gen. 22). The law provided for the redemption of Hebrew first-born by the sacrifice of a lamb (Exod. 34:20), but in the time of King Manasseh the old custom was revived and men “made their children pass through the fire.” (See 2 Kings 21:6; 23:10; Jer. 7:31; 32:35.) The gruesome discoveries of this high place have made very real these horrible practices and the inhuman fate from which Isaac and other Hebrew children were delivered. With the exception of a little unhewn stone about 18 inches square, found in one of the caves connected with the high place, and which might possibly have served as an altar, no altar was found. Possibly none was needed in the rites practised there, but it is more likely that the altar was simply a mound of earth such as is prescribed in Exod. 20:24--a mound which could not be distinguished, in excavating, from the common earth. (3) _Corrupt Worship._--Of the nature of some of the services that went on in this high place in the name of Ashtoreth eloquent testimony was borne by unnumbered Ashtoreth-plaques that had been presented as votive offerings by the worshipers. These varied in form and in artistic merit, but were all designed to foster in the worshiper that type of debasing service described in Isa. 57:3, ff., as Fig. 214 shows. Symbols of this nature were abundant during all the period while the high place was in use. No one who was not, like the writer, at Gezer during the excavation, can realize how demoralizing the whole atmosphere of such worship must have been. Archæology has here revealed to us in a most vivid way the tremendous power of those corrupting religious influences which the Hebrew prophets so vigorously denounced. These practices were deeply rooted in the customs of the Canaanites; they were sanctified by a supposed divine sanction of immemorial antiquity, and they made an all-powerful appeal to the animal instincts in human nature. We can realize now as never before the social and religious task which confronted the prophets. That Israel was by prophetic teaching purged of this cult is due to the power of God! =6. At Taanach.=