As for the non-Levitical priests whom the king
is said to have installed, all that is necessary has been said on
this subject above (p. 138 seq.).
A remarkable criticism on this estimate of the Samaritan worship
follows immediately afterwards in the avowal that that of Judah
was not different at the time, at any rate not better. In the
report of Rehoboam's reign we read (1Kings xiv. 22 seq.):
"They of Judah also set up high places and pillars on every high
hill, and under every green tree, and whoredom at sacred places
was practiced in the land."
This state of things continued to exist, with some fluctuations,
till near the time of the exile. If then the standard according
to which Samaria is judged never attained to reality in Judah
either, it never existed in ancient Israel at all. We know the
standard is the book of the law of Josiah: but we see how the
facts were not merely judged, but also framed, in accordance
with it.
One more instance is worthy of mention in this connection. King
Solomon, we are told, had, besides the daughter of Pharaoh, many
foreign wives, from Moab, Ammon, and other peoples, intermarriage
with whom Jehovah had forbidden (Deuteronomy xvii 17).
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