And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord, this being some fifty years after the death of Gideon, and served Baalim and Ashtaroth, the male and female deities of the Canaanites, whose service Gideon had overthrown, and the gods of Syria, or Aram, whose king had been defeated by Othniel, and the gods of Zidon, or Phenicia, and the gods of Moab, whom Ehud had smitten, and the gods of the children of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines, and forsook the Lord, and served not Him, preferring, instead, Baal in his various forms, Ashtaroth, Astarte, Camos, Milcom, or Moldch, and Dagon, as the idols of these heathen were called. The service of these false gods was often connected with the most revolting immorality, the most unnatural rites, not the least of which was the sacrifice of children.

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