ion of
an ancient myth. The recollection of this occasioned them to call the
part of Egypt which they had long inhabited, eres Sinim, 'moonland'
(Isa. xlix. 12)." [143] It is but just that we should hear the other side,
when there is a difference of opinion. The above mentioned 'Queen
of Heaven' is beyond question the Ashtoreth or Astarte (identical
with our _star_), which was the principal goddess of the
Phoenicians; and we believe she was originally the goddess of the
moon. This is doubted by a modern writer, who says, "Baal is
constantly coupled with Astarte; and the more philosophical opinion
is that this national god and goddess were the lord and lady of
Phoenicia, rather than the sun and moon: for to a people full of
political life the sun and moon would have been themselves
representatives, while a Divine king and queen were the realities.
And if so, the habitual inclination of the Israelites, an essentially
political people, for this worship becomes the more easily
understood." [144] Professor F. D. Maurice, in his _Moral and
Metaphysical Philosophy_, also takes this view. The question here
is not whether the Jews worshipped Astarte, but whether Astarte
was the moon. This we cannot hesitate to answer in the affirmative.
Kenrick writes: "Ashtoreth or Astarte appears physically to
represent the moon. She was the chief local deity of Sidon; but her
worship must have been extensively diffused, not only in Palestine,
but in the countries east of the Jordan, as we find Ashtaroth-Karnaim
(Ashtaroth of two horns) mentioned in the book of Genesis
(xiv. 5). This goddess, like other lunar deities, appears to have been
symbolized by a heifer, or a figure with a heifer's head, whose horns
resembled the crescent moon. The children of Israel renounced her
worship at the persuasion of Samuel; and we do not read again of
her idolatry till the reign of Solomon (1 Kings xi. 5), after which it
appears never to have been permanently banished, though put down
for a time by Josiah (2 Kings xxiii. 13). She is the Queen of Heaven,
to whom, according to the reproaches of Jeremiah (vii. 18, xliv. 25),
the women of Israel poured out their drink-offerings, and burnt
incense, and offered cakes, regarding her as the author of their
national prosperity. This epithet accords well with the supposition
that she represented the moon, as some ancient authors inform us."
[145] Dr. Gotch, an eminent Hebrew scholar, says that there is no
doubt that t