in that the worship of Yahweh became increasingly debased to the level of Canaanite religion. Fundamentally, the religious systems of the ancient world were similarly complicated polytheisms. They were designed to bring people and society into harmony with the rhythmic yearly cycle of nature in which life is recreated each spring and the sequence of fertilization, growth, harvest, and death recommenced. People saw themselves as “bound in the bundle of life” with nature, where all sorts of gods and