As the Israelites struggled to establish themselves and their faith in the midst of the Promised Land, it was difficult for them to keep a clear distinction between developing Yahwistic monotheism and the animistic polytheism of the Canaanite's Ba'alism.

The Hebrews' assertion that there was only one true God meant that Yahweh was a mobile God. Yahweh could come and get the Hebrew slaves out of Egypt, travel with them through the wilderness, and guide them into a new land. Ba'al worship was based on belief in a localized deity a god tied to one place, whose jurisdiction was limited by specific boundaries. Shrines and altars marked the especially sacred, but circumscribed, dwelling places of these local gods.

The appeal of identifying certain locations as favorite dwellings of gods seduce…