ground.

It was at Beer-sheba that the temptation came to Abraham to sacrifice
his first-born, his only son Isaac. The temptation was in accordance
with the fierce ritual of Syria, and traces of the belief which had
called it into existence are to be found in the early literature of
Babylonia. Thus in an ancient Babylonian ritual-text we read: "The
offspring who raises his head among mankind, the offspring for his life
he gave; the head of the offspring for the head of the man he gave; the
neck of the offspring for the neck of the man he gave." Phoenician
legend told how the god El had robed himself in royal purple and
sacrificed his only son Yeud in a time of pestilence, and the writers of
Greece and Rome describe with horror the sacrifices of the first-born
with which the history of Carthage was stained. The father was called
upon in time of trouble to yield up to the god his nearest and dearest;
the fruit of his body could alone wipe away the sin of his soul, and
Baal required him to sacrifice without a murmur or a tear his first-born
and his only one. The more precious the offering, the more acceptable
was it to the god; the harder the struggle to resign it, the greater was
the merit of doing so. The child died for the sins of his people; and
the belief was but the blind and ignorant expression of a true instinct.

But Abraham was to be taught a better way. For three days he journeyed
northward with his son, and then lifting up his eyes saw afar off that
mountain "in the land of Moriah," on the summit of which the sacrifice
was to be consummated. Alone with Isaac he ascended to the high-place,
and there building his altar and binding to it his son he prepared to
perform the terrible rite. But at the last moment his hand was stayed, a
new and better revelation was made to him, and a ram was substituted for
his son. It cannot be accidental that, as M. Clermont-Ganneau has