that lay at the foundations of the national existence, were due not to the heathen deity but to the God of Israel.  The earliest testimony is that which we have to the existence of the vintage festival in autumn,—­in the first instance as a custom of the Canaanite population of Shechem.  In the old and instructive story of Abimelech the son of Jerubbaal we are told (Judges ix. 27) of the citizens of Shechem that “they went out into the fields, and gathered their vineyards, and trode the grapes, and celebrated hillulim, and went into the house of their god, and ate and drank, and cursed Abimelech.”  But this festival must also have taken root among the Israelites at a tolerably early period.  According to Judges xxi. 19 seq. there was observed yearly at Shiloh in the vineyards a feast to Jehovah, at which the maidens went out to dance.  Even if the narrative of Judges xix. seq. be as a whole untrustworthy as history, this does not apply to the casual trait just mentioned, especially as it is confirmed by 1Samuel i.  In this last-cited passage a feast at Shiloh is also spoken of, as occurring at the end of the year, that is, in autumn at the time of the asiph, 1 and as being an attraction to pilgrims

********************************************* 1.  LTQPT HYMYM (i.e., at the new year) 1Samuel i. 20; Exodus xxxiv. 22.  In this sense is also to be understood MYMYM YMYMH Judges xxi. 19, 1Samuel i. 3.  Comp.  Zechariah xiv. 16. **********************************************

from the neighbourhood.  Obviously the feast does not occur in all places at once, but at certain definite places (in Ephraim) which then influence the surrounding district.  The thing is connected with the origin of larger sanctuaries towards the end of the period of the Judges, or, more properly speaking, with their being taken over from the previous inhabitants; thus, for example, on Shechem becoming an Israelite town the hillulim were no more abolished than was the sanctuary itself.  Over and above this the erection of great royal temples must have exerted an important influence.  Alike at Jerusalem and at Bethel “the feast” was celebrated from the days of Solomon and Jeroboam just as previously at Shechem and Shiloh, in the former place in September, in the latter perhaps somewhat later. 2

******************************************** 2. 1Kings xii. 32 is, it must be owned, far from trustworthy. 1Kings viii. 2 is difficult to harmonise with vi. 38, if the interpretation of Bul and Ethanim is correct. ********************************************