The relief of Tyche, surrounded by the Zodiac panel, from the Nabatean Khirbet-al-Tannur, 1st century
Worship of the ‘Host of Heaven’
Worship of the heavenly bodies was less important in Canaan. There are a number of hints in the Bible pointing to the worship of the moon and the sun (Dt. 4:19; 17:3; ll Kings 23:5; Jeremiah. 8 :2; Job 31 :26-27; Ezekiel 8:16) and warning the Israelites against these cults.
Jericho, it seems, was named after the cult of the moon and the same name, Jerah, belonged to an Arabian tribe (Genesis 10:26; 1 Chronicles 1:20). In spite of the prohibition against sun-worship, people like Samson and Shimshai, and places like Beth-Shemesh, Ain-Shemesh or Ir-Shemesh seem to have been named after the sun-god.
Worship of the stars and planets, ‘Mazalot’ or ‘Mazarot’ (Job 38:32) was listed among the sins of the Israelites, derived from foreign cults (ll Kings 17:16-17). In Jerusalem, incense was burned ‘to Ba‘al, to the sun and the moon and the constellations, and all the host of the heavens’ (ll Kings 23 :5). Josiah ‘burned the chariots of the sun’ to root out this practice (ll Kings. 23:11).
Official Judaism (though not ordinary people) rejected beliefs and practices connected with astrology.
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