ined to declare in Gilead the decrees
which Jahveh had delivered to him for the guidance of His people.* In
these ordinances the indivisible nature of God, and His jealousy of
any participation of other deities in the worship of His people, are
strongly emphasised. "Ye shall surely destroy all the places wherein
the nations which ye shall possess served their gods, upon the high
mountains and upon the hills, and under every green tree: and ye shall
break down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and burn
their Asherim with fire; and ye shall hew down the graven images of
their gods; and ye shall destroy their name out of that place."**

* Even St. Jerome and St. John Chrysostom admitted that
Deuteronomy was the book discovered by Hilkiah in the temple
during the reign of Josiah, and this view is accepted at
present, though it is applied, not to the book of
Deuteronomy as it appears in the Pentateuch, but rather to
the nucleus of this book, and especially chaps, xii.-xxvi.

** Deut. xii. 2, 3.

Even were a prophet or dreamer of dreams to arise in the midst of the
faithful and direct them by a sign or a miracle to turn aside after
those accursed gods, they must not follow the teaching of these false
guides, not even if the sign or miracle actually came to pass, but must
seize and slay them. Even "if thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy
son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend which is
as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve
other gods,... thou shalt not consent unto him nor hearken unto him:
neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither
shalt thou conceal him: but thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall
be first upon him to put him to death, and, afterwards the hand of all
the people. And thou shalt stone him with stones that he die; because he
hath sought to draw thee away from Jahveh!"* And this Jahveh was not the
Jahveh of any special place. He was not the Jahveh of Bethel, or of Dan,
or of Mizpah, or of Geba, or of Beersheba; He is simply Jahveh.** Yet
the seat of His worship was not a matter of indifference to Him. "Unto
the place which Jahveh shall choose out of all your tribes to put His
name there, even unto His habitation shall ye seek, and thither shalt
thou come: and thither shall ye bring your... sacrifices and your
tithes."*** Jerusalem is not mentioned by name, but the reference