The Chosen People: A Compendium of Sacred and Church History for School-ChildrenYonge, Charlotte M. (Charlotte Mary)
Religion
The Chosen People: A Compendium of Sacred and Church History for School-Children
Yonge, Charlotte M. (Charlotte Mary)
Bible -- History of Biblical events; Church history
As Jacob had promised to Joseph, Ephraim and half
Manaseh had the richest portion, nearly in the middle, and Shiloh, where
the Tabernacle was set up, was in their territory; Judah and Benjamin
were in a very wild rocky part to the southwards, between the two seas,
with only Simeon beyond them; then came, north of Manasseh, the fine
pasture lands of Issachar and Zebulon, and a small border for Asher
between Libanus and the sea; while Reuben, Gad, and the rest of
Manasseh, were to the east of the Jordan, where they had begged to
settle themselves in the meadows of Bashan, and the balmy thickets of
Gilead.
Many a fortified town was still held by the Canaanites, in especial
Jebus, on Mount Moriah, between Judah and Benjamin; and close to Asher,
the two great merchant cities of the Zidonians upon the sea-shore.
These were called Tyre and Zidon, and their inhabitants were named
Phoenicians, and were the chief sailors and traders of the Old World.
From seeing a dog's mouth stained purple after eating a certain
shell-fish on their coast, they had learnt how to dye woollen garments
of a fine purple or scarlet, which was thought the only colour fit for
kings, and these were sent out to all the countries round, in exchange
for balm and spices from Gilead; corn and linen from Egypt; ivory,
pearls, and rubies from India; gold from the beds of rivers in Chittim
or Asia Minor; and silver from Spain, then called Tarshish. Thus they
grew very rich and powerful, and were skilful in all they undertook. The
art of writing, which they seem to have caught from the Hebrews, went
from them to the Greeks, sons of Japhet, who lived more to the north, in
what were called the Isles of the Gentiles.
The Canaanites had a still fouler worship than the other sons of Ham in
Egypt. They had many gods, whom they called altogether Baalim, or lords;
and goddesses, whom they called Ashtoreth; and they thought that each
had some one city or people to defend; and that the Lord Jehovah of the
Israelites was such another as these, instead of being the only God
of Heaven and earth. Among these there was one great Baal to whom the
Phoenicians were devoted, and an especial Ashtoreth, the moon, or Queen
of Heaven, who was thought to have a lover named Tammuz, who died with
the flowers in the autumn and revived in the spring, and the women
took delight in wailing and bemoaning his death, and then dancing and
offering cakes in honour of his revival. Besides these, there was the
planet Saturn, or as they called him, Moloch or Remphan, of whom they
had a huge brazen statue with the hands held a little apart, set up over
a furnace; they put poor little children between these brazen hands, and
left them to drop into the flames below as an offering to this dreadful
god.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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