<<YE MOUNTAINS OF ISRAEL>>: Sometimes in Scripture "mountains" represent nations.Even though Ezekiel uses the expression "Israel" according to the simple context the Prophet is referring to Judah just before the Babylonian Exile. The Jews were destined to be exiled to Babylon and to other places. After seventy years a portion of them began to return but the majority remained in Exile. This was the beginning of the Jewish Diaspora.<<YOUR HIGH PLACES>>:

<<IMAGES>>: in Hebrew "Chamanim" meaning "sun-images" apparently depicting the sun.

We shall all yet repent of our ways and be healed.

<<UNDER EVERY THICK OAK>>: The oak was a sacred tree for the druids of Britain and religious ceremonies were held in its shade.

The Israelites were pagans or half-pagans before their exile. They worshipped the gods of Canaan, of Egypt and of the Middle East as well as a synthesis of Hebrew traditions with pagan ones.Remnants of these practices were evident amongst the "Celtic" peoples of Britain and Western Europe.

Adapted from "Lost Israelite Identity":Britain, said Julius Caesar, was the centre of the Druidical religion. Strabo reported that Ceres and Proserpine were worshipped in Britain according to the Samothracian (i.e. Phoenician) rites25. In Britain
the Canaanite god Baal was worshipped and was called Bel.. The name "Bel" for "baal" is also found as a root in some of the names of British kings e.g. "Cassi-belin", "Cuno-belin"; one of the names of the sun in Gaul was Belis and Baal (or "Bel") was a sun-god. There was a feast known as "Beltane" which in Scottish means "Fire of Bel". The custom in Britain, Sweden, and northern Europe of jumping over fires and leading cattle, etc. through the smoke and flames at the feast of Beltane is a pagan Canaanite custom still practised until very recently in northern Europe, in Celtic and Scandinavian lands. Bel god of the Britons was also known as Belus or Belinus similar to Bel or Belus the Assyrian form of "baal"26. The Syrian Belmarcos had altars in the region of Paris; many Gallic peoples worshipped the sun god Belenus who became equated with Apollo; in Brittany (Armorica) a priest is still (even today) referred to as a BELEC meaning "servant of Bel"27 and BEL was an alternative pronounciation in the Middle East for Baal!In Gaul three main gods were worshipped and a host of smaller ones. Samuel Bochartus traced these gods to Phoenician sources*28. Taramis (or Taranis) was the god of thunder, in Hebrew RAM means thunder and in verbal form can be rendered TARAM. Taramis was considered (says Bochartis) the equivalent of Zeus or Jupiter; Hesus (Mars) derived from the Syrian Ezuzo and in Hebrew Ezuz connotes Strength and in the Psalms (24;8) the appellation "Ezuz" is applied to God. The name Belenus (Apollo) derives from the Phoenician Bel (Baal). Other parallels are Celtic "Onuana" and Phoenician Onga; Gallic Minerva Belisama and Phoenician "Belsamen"; The figures of Hercules and Ogmus came from the Phoenician Melicerte. The cult of Gallic Camule paralleled the Oriental Cadmil; the Gallic Gwyon equalled the Phoenician Gigon.
In southwest Gaul (Aquitaine) the Egyptian goddess Isis was worshipped in the Dordogne River Valley from pre-Roman times29. Both Phoenicians and Israelites in the Land of Israel prior to their exile are proven by archaeological findings to have adopted Egyptian deities.

Pliny (N.H.30.1.4) is often quoted as saying that British Druidical practices had been learnt directly from the Persians. Actually, Pliny (in the Latin) may equally be understood to say: "..as if they had taught the Persians, not the Persians them"30. Persian religion was a
mixture of Israelite, Canaanite, and Babylonian beliefs with some "Indo-European" additions.The frequent conjunction of a ship with the solar disc on rock sculptures is found in Sweden, Ireland, and Brittany. This is an Egyptian symbol31. It is also found in the Pict region of Scotland32.

"It is thought that the Druidical doctrine was discovered already in existence, in Britain and was brought from there to Gaul. Even today it
is the rule for those who want to become really expert in the doctrine to go to Britain and learn it there" (Julius Caesar B.G. vi;2).

In Gaul the territory of the Carnutes was a Druidical centre. The name of the CARNUTES contains the root CRN derived from the Hebrew KeReN (meaning "horn") and found frequently with Celtic tribal-names especially
those of Britain and in Britain especially amongst tribes of the Picts in the north. [The name "Karnayim" (two horns) had also been given to an important region in the territory of Menasseh]. The Druids practised human sacrifice. They believed in transmigration (reincarnation) of the soul after death as did the ancient Egyptians. It was possible amongst the Celts to give a promissory note on debt, payable in the next world; this custom is considered to be an Egyptian one34. The Druidical priests of Ireland seem to have employed a type of hair tonsure found also in Arabia and the east. In Irish a priest was called a "cois" and it is known that in the Phoenician colony on Samothrace (off the coast of Greece) a priest was termed a "coies" equivalent to the Hebrew "cohen". In Ireland the supreme god was known as Beal (meaning baal) or as Beal Samhan which name is paralleled by that of the Syrian god "Baal Samim" whose name in Hebrew (Baal Shamayim) means "lord of heaven". The Canaanite worship of Moloch was also practised and was known to the Celts as Crom Cruach. The Celtic goddess Aistorith (also worshipped by the Anglo-Saxons according to Bede) was a version of Canaanite Ashtoreth. Religious associations and customs paralleled those recorded concerning the ancient Egyptians, the Canaanite Phoenicians, and the Phoenicians of Samothrace35.. The Irish funeral ceremonies recall those of ancient Greece
and Egypt36.  In Britain and Ireland numerous Celtic place-names retain the term "baal" or derivations of it: Baal-y-bai, Beal-Tene, Balhomais, Ballinluig, Balmuick, Balnaguard, etc. it is claimed that in Britain place-names associated with baal are usually near stone circles or other megalithic remains37. In Ireland "baal" place-names are especially numerous. The "sidhe" in Irish appears to have connoted the fairy people or gods; this name, "sidhe" is of Hebrew or Phoenician origin. In Hebrew "shed" means demon while "Shadi" is one of the names for God.

La Tour d'Auvergne wrote a History about the Origins of the Gauls emphasising Brittany in France based on traditions and sources that have since disappeared in many instances. La Tour d'Auvergne reported:*Huesi was an old name for the Israelites given them by the Egyptians. Hoesus was a major god of the Gauls, identified by the Romans with Mars.
*Hissione was considered the ancestor of the Romanised Gauls, the Alans, Franks, Alamans, and Britons all peoples who populated France. HUESI (i.e. Israelites), Hoesus( the god), and Hissione (ancestor of the Gauls) all appear to be forms of the same appellation. Hu Gadarn legendary ancestor of the British Cymry is referred to in one Welsh version as "Hu Gadarn Hysicion" and "Hysicion" was apparently understandable to the Welsh as meaning "Isaacson", i.e. son of Isaac, forefather of Israel. The Northern Ten Tribes are referred to in the Bible as "Isaac" or "House of Isaac" (cf. Amos 7;16). *The name Jupiter (the chief Roman god) according to La Tour was rendered in primitive Celtic as Iou, Iaou, and other forms. The Hebrew ineffable name for GOD transliterated as Jehovah or Yahwah was sometimes also rendered by writers in Greek as Iou or Iaou and identified by them with Zeus which became the Roman Jupiter. In other words, to the extent that the primitive Celts believed in a Supreme Deity they identified this Deity with the One God of the Hebrews and called Him by the same name.

Very soon after the conversion of Ireland to Christianity the whole country was covered by monasteries, whose complete organisation seems to indicate that they were really Druidic colleges transformed en masse38.The early Celtic Church was very Hebraic in its injunctions and tended to adopt much of the Mosaic Code as they understood it. The Celtic Church assimilated Druidic practices and personnel. The Druidical connection appears to have been a factor in "Judaising" tendencies since the Druids had always had practices parallel to Hebrew ones.Hebraic practices in themselves do not necessarily prove anything but when taken into account together with other signs, such as vestiges of Middle Eastern paganism (which was adopted by the Northern Israelites before their exile) alongside significant traces of Hebrew origins, they add to the sum total of evidence.