Certainly the liberty to
sacrifice everywhere seems to be somewhat restricted by the added
clause, "in every place where I cause my name to be honoured."
But this means nothing more than that the spots where intercourse
between earth and heaven took place were not willingly regarded
as arbitrarily chosen, but, on the contrary, were considered as
having been somehow or other selected by the Deity Himself for
His service.
In perfect correspondence with the Jehovistic law is the
Jehovistic narrative of the Pentateuch, as, in particular, the
story of the patriarchs in J and E very clearly shows. At every
place where they take up their abode or make a passing stay, the
fathers of the nation, according to this authority, erect altars,
set up memorial stones, plant trees, dig wells. This does not take
place at indifferent and casual localities, but at Shechem and
Bethel in Ephraim, at Hebron and Beersheba in Judah, at Mizpah,
Mahanaim, and Penuel in Gilead; nowhere but at famous and
immemorially holy places of worship. It is on this that the
interest of such notifications depends; they are no mere
antiquarian facts, but full of the most living significance for the
present of the narrator.
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