It is inconceivable that the
Israelites should have brought with them out of the desert the
cultus they observed in the time of the kings (Exod. xxii. xxiii.
xxiv.), which throughout presupposed the fields and gardens of
Palestine; they borrowed it from the Canaanites. /1/
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1. In the earliest case where the feast of the ingathering,
afterwards the chief feast of the Israelites, is mentioned, it is
celebrated by Canaanites of Shechem in honour of Baal (Judges ix.
27).
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This is confirmed by the fact that they took over from these the
"Bamoth" or "high places" also, notwithstanding the prohibition
in Deuteronomy xii.
It was natural enough that the Hebrews should also appropriate
the divinity worshipped by the Canaanite peasants as the giver
of their corn, wine, and oil, the Baal whom the Greeks identified
with Dionysus. The apostasy to Baal, on the part of the first
generation which had quitted the wilderness and adopted a settled
agricultural life, is attested alike by historical and prophetical
tradition. Doubtless Baal, as the god of the land of Canaan, and
Jehovah, as the God of the nation of Israel, were in the first
instance co-ordinated.
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