FOOTNOTES:
[2] It might be suggested that the appearance of this blazing comet among the stars drove the more superstitious of the Israelites at that time to the worship of star-gods, as we read how, during the Judgeship of Jair, they “served Baalim and Ashtaroth, and the gods of Syria and the gods of Moab, and the gods of the Philistines, and forsook the Lord and served not Him.” To a people like the Jews, who seem to have been in continual danger of returning to the Sabaistic worship of their Chaldean ancestors, the appearance of a blazing comet may have been a frequent occasion of backsliding.