LEV259 … the Torah expresses great antagonism toward the Canaanite nations, including a call to destroy their idolatrous temples, and either eject them from the land of Israel [The Bible clearly wanted to preserve the highest standard of monotheistic religion in Israel in the same way that Muslims expect Islam to be observed more strictly in the holy city of Mecca, and Catholics expect Catholicism to be practiced more purely in the Vatican. In addition, the Bible warned that if the Canaanites remained in the land they would influence many Israelites to practice idolatry. They did indeed remain in the land and influenced the ancient Hebrews to follow them (See, for example, Judges 2:11–13; II Kings 21:6 records that King Manesseh, deeply influenced by local idolatry, even sacrificed one of his sons) or destroy them. People commonly assume that the Bible's position on idolatry is solely due to its theological error in positing many gods instead of one. But a close reading of the text shows this to be false; the Bible's opposition was primarily directed against the immorality sanctioned by Canaanite idolatry. One looks in vain for passages in the Torah mocking the multiplicity of gods worshiped by the ancient Canaanites. What one finds instead is abhorrence at Canaanite practices such as child sacrifice (Deuteronomy 12:31) and bestiality [this and previous verses], along with the fear that, if the Canaanites remain in the land, "they [will] lead you into doing all the abhorrent things that they have done for their gods… (Deuteronomy 20:18). When committed by non-Israelites, the theological error of idolatry, as opposed to its moral misbehavior, was not particularly troublesome to the Torah. Thus, Moses, in his farewell address, warns the Israelites against being lured into worshiping the sun, moon, or the stars, but then says: "These the Lord your God allotted to other peoples everywhere under the heaven" (Deuteronomy 4:19) (The prophet Micah comments in a similarly nonjudgmental fashion: "Though all peoples walk each in the name of its gods, we will walk in the name of the Lord our God forever and ever" (4:5). The clear implication is that while Israel must worship God alone, the Lord was not troubled--at that point in time--by other nations worshiping His creations, such as the sun [the word for "sun" in Hebrew, shemesh, is related to the word shamash (to serve) implying that the sun, which others worship as a god, is simply a servant of God.) What God does not condone for Israelites and non-Israelites alike is immorality and cruelty. The prophets reinforced the Torah's view of idolatry. While they, like the Torah, do not generally criticize the non-Israelite nations for worshiping other gods, they condemn them for acts of cruelty. Thus, the citizens of Edom might have been idolaters, but what really incensed the prophet Amos is that they pursued their adversaries with the sword "And repressed all pity" (Amos 1:11). Similarly the nearby state of Ammon is announced for ripping "open the pregnant women of Gilead, in order to enlarge their own territory" (1:13). The same is true of Amos's critique of the ancient kingdoms of Damascus, Gaza, Tyre, and Moab (Chapters one and two).