Now  it  is  plain,  first  of  all,  that  it  meant  that  Israel
was  to  worship  no  other  God.  The  first  commandment
is,  "  I  am  Jahweh ;  thou  shalt  have  no  other  gods  in  My
presence."  Israel's  worship  was  confined  to  one  God —
to  God  under  one  name,  Jahweh.  Not  only  the  first
commandment,  but  every  element  in  the  constitution  bore
this  meaning.  The  expression  and  idea  of  a  covenant  had
this  in  view — it  made  the  people  Jahweh's.  And  so  was
it  with  all  the  separate  provisions  of  the  covenant.  The
Sabbath,  which  was  but  an  intensification  of  the  idea  that
Israel's  whole  life  was  dedicated  ;  the  offering  of  the  first-
born, which  meant  the  nation  in  its  strength  (implying  all
its  increase) ;  the  first-fruits  of  the  harvest,  and  much  else,
particularly  the  appearing  of  all  the  males  before  Jahweh
three  times  a  year, — all  these  things  were  but  expressions
of  the  fundamental  idea  that  Israel  was  Jahweh's — His
n?JD  or  peculiar  possession,  His  alone.
60     THE  THEOLOGY  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT

But  it  becomes  a  question,  Did  this  particularism
amount  to  Monotheism  ?  Was  Jahweh,  whom  alone  Israel
worshipped,  God  alone  ?  Such  a  question  can  be  answered
only  by  an  induction  of  the  attributes  of  Jahweh  and  of
the  facts  of  history.  And  this  is  not  easy  to  make.
On  the  one  hand,  it  is  known  that  each  separate  people
of  antiquity  had  its  national  god,  and  that  one  god
worshipped  did  not  necessarily  imply  one  god  believed  in.
