specially chosen cows to draw it, and sent back toward the
Hebrew border, and in the course of time it reached the Hebrew town of
Beth-shemesh. And we read that "the sons of Jeconiah did not rejoice
with the men of Beth-shemesh, when they looked upon the ark of
Jehovah. So he smote among them seventy men."[4]

SACRIFICE AS A PROPITIATION OF JEHOVAH'S ANGER

It was just this idea of Jehovah as subject to fits of anger which
prompted many of the old sacrifices. It was not merely that Jehovah
was greedy and could be bribed with gifts to grant favors, but also
that he was dangerous when his anger was stirred and hence sacrifices
were necessary to placate him.

=Human sacrifices.=--An even darker side of the picture is the
existence of human sacrifices, even among the Hebrews, in the worship
of Jehovah. The pathetic story of Jephthah's daughter is the most
conspicuous example. This warrior had promised to sacrifice to Jehovah
whatever first came out to meet him, if he returned victorious from
war. Alas, it was his own daughter! Yet he did not dare to break his
vow.

The story of Abraham and Isaac also proves that human sacrifices to
Jehovah were not unknown among the Hebrews. In this story Jehovah
finally intervenes and allows Abraham to offer up a ram instead of his
own son. Yet the story implies the belief that Jehovah might demand of
a father that he kill his own son and burn him on the altar. These
ideas continued to be believed even down to the time of the prophets,
Amos and Hosea, and the others about whom we will study.

THE PROPHET MICAH AND HIS MESSAGE

About the time that Hosea was finishing his sad career in the north
another prophet in the south caught up the torch of light and truth.
His name was Micah. Like the two great men who preceded him, Amos and
Hosea, his heart was stirred to pity and indignation by the sufferings
of the poor and by the injustice and luxury of the rich and powerful.
In plain, direct, and fiery sentences he denounced these evils and
foretold punishment. Because of these things, he declared that
"Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the
high places of a forest."

Micah was especially bitter against those men who made religion their
business, and used it as a means of oppressing the poor--the prophets
who proclaim a holy war against those "who put not into their mouths,"
that is, those who do not give them presents. The priests, Micah says,
"teach for