and against my father's house" (2 Sam. xxiv. 17).


Human sacrifices were extremely common in Polynesia; and, in
Tonga, the "devotion" of a child by strangling was a favourite
method of averting the wrath of the gods. The well-known
instances of Jephthah's sacrifice of his daughter and of David's
giving up the seven sons of Saul to be sacrificed by the
Gibeonites "before Jahveh," appear to me to leave no doubt that
the old Israelites, even when devout worshippers of Jahveh,
considered human sacrifices, under certain circumstances, to be
not only permissible but laudable. Samuel's hewing to pieces of
the miserable captive, sole survivor of his nation, Agag,
"before Jahveh," can hardly be viewed in any other light.
The life of Moses is redeemed from Jahveh, who "sought to slay
him," by Zipporah's symbolical sacrifice of her child, by the
bloody operation of circumcision. Jahveh expressly affirms that
the first-born males of men and beasts are devoted to him;
in accordance with that claim, the first-born males of the
beasts are duly sacrificed; and it is only by special permission
that the claim to the first-born of men is waived, and it is
enacted that they may be redeemed (Exod. xiii. 12-15). Is it
possible to avoid the conclusion that immolation of their first-
born sons would have been incumbent on the worshippers of
Jahveh, had they not been thus specially excused? Can any other
conclusion be drawn from the history of Abraham and Isaac?
Does Abraham exhibit any indication of surprise when he receives
the astounding order to sacrifice his son? Is there the
slightest evidence that there was anything in his intimate and
personal acquaintance with the character of the Deity, who had