And they forsook the LORD, and served Baal and Ashtaroth.
Ashtaroth - also a plural word, denoting all the female divinities, especially Astarte, the Syrian Venus, whose rites were celebrated by the most gross and revolting impurities. 'In every case where the Israelites acted thus, God revoked His promise. The covenant for the time was in abeyance. Wherever it is said that the people did evil in the sight of the Lord, by worshipping strange gods, then also it is declared how God took from them the dominion of Palestine, and sold them into the hands of their enemies' ('Israel after the Flesh,' p.
25). In fact, they were mere children in religious knowledge and moral feeling; hence, the special dispensation of Providence exercised toward Israel at this period was adapted to a people infantine or childish in character and conduct.