At these centres adoration was rendered to the animal presentment of Jahveh,* and even prophets like Elijah and Elisha did not condemn this as heretical; they had enough to do in hunting down the followers of Baal without entering into open conflict with the worshippers of the golden calf. The priesthood of the northern kingdom was not confined to members of the family of Levi, but was recruited from all the tribes; it levied a tithe on the harvest, reserved to itself the pick of the offerings and victims, and jealously forbade a plurality of sanctuaries,** The _Book of the Covenant_*** has handed down to us the regulations in force at one of these temples, perhaps that of Bethel, one of the wealthiest of them all. * The golden calves at Dan and Bethel are referred to by Amos (viii. 14) and Hosea (x. 5), where Bethel is called Beth-aven; as to the golden calf at Samaria, cf. Amos viii. 14 and Hos. viii. 5, 6. ** Amos iv. 4, 5; v. 21-23. *** This is the title given in Exod. xxiv. 7 to a writing in which Moses is said to have entered the covenant made between Jahveh and Israel; it is preserved, with certain interpolations and alterations, in Exod. xx. 23?--xxiii. 33. It was inserted in its entirety in the Elohist narrative, there taking the place at present occupied by Deuteronomy in the Pentateuch, viz. that of the covenant made between Jahveh and Israel prior to the crossing of the Jordan (Kuenen, _H. C. Onderzoek_, i. Sec. 13, No. 32). Reuss tries to make out that it was the code promulgated on the occasion of Jehoshaphat's legal reforms, which is only referred to in 2 Chron. xvii. 7-9; cf. xix. 5. A more probable theory is that it was the "custom" of one of the great sanctuaries of the northern kingdom reduced to writing at the end of the Xth or during the IXth century B.C. [Illustration: 202.jpg EGYPTIAN ALTAR AT DEIK-EL-BAHARI] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a restoration by Naville.