_Rise of the Babylonian empire.—Media.—Pharaoh-Necho.—The battle
of Carchemish.—Nebuchadrezzar ascends the throne.—The splendour of
Babylon.—No monuments yet discovered recording Nebuchadrezzar’s
Jewish and Syrian campaigns.—Evil-Merodach.—Clay documents
recently discovered in Babylonia.—New light thrown on the empire
of Cyrus.—The cylinder of Cyrus.—Cyrus not a monotheist.—The
Babylonian King of Isaiah xiv.—Cyrus not a King of Persia at
all.—Babylon not besieged by Cyrus.—How Cyrus came to let the Jews
return.—Correspondence between the language of Cyrus and of
Scripture.—__“__The god who raises the dead to life.__”__—Prayer
after a bad dream.—Babylonian penitential psalms.—A translation of
one of them.—Chronological table of the events of the chapter._
The empire of Babylonia arose out of the ashes of the empire of Assyria.
While the bands of the enemy were gathering round the doomed city of
Nineveh, Nabopolassar, the viceroy of Babylonia, seized the opportunity
for revolt. There were no armies now, as in former days, that could pour
out of the gates of the Assyrian capital to punish the rebel, and
Nabopolassar was allowed to establish his new monarchy undisturbed. But
the fall of the imperial city left the other provinces of the Assyrian
empire without a master or a defence. Its latest conquest, Elam, seems to
have recovered its independence for a short time—at all events, Jeremiah
(xxv. 25) in the year 606 B.C. speaks of “the kings of Elam”—but elsewhere
its possessions became the battle-ground of the three rival powers of
Babylon, of Media, and of Egypt.
Media was the name given by Persian and Greek writers to the kingdom of
Ekbatana, a city now represented by Hamadan. Its native name, at all
events in the time of Sargon, was Ellip, and the title of Media applied to
it in later history seems to have been due to a confusion between the
Assyrian words _Madâ_ “Medes,” and _Manda_, “barbarian.” As we shall see,
Astyages, the king of Ekbatana, is called “the king of the people of
_Manda_,” or “barbarians,” by the Babylonian king Nabonidos. The tablets
which describe the approach of the last enemies of Nineveh draw a careful
distinction between Kaztarit, or Kyaxares, “lord of the city of
Car-Cassi,” and Mamiti-arsu, “lord of the city of the Medes.” For the
Assyrians, the Medes were only the small tribes which inhabited the
regions eastward of Kurdistan. The error, however, which turned the
kingdom of Ekbatana into a kingdom of Media has fixed itself in
literature, and the Old Testament also has adopted in regard to it the
current language of the day. It is now too late to disturb the
time-honoured title, and we shall therefore continue to speak of a Median
empire and a Median kingdom, even though we now know that the terms rest
on an ancient mistake.
As the power of Assyria had dwindled, the power of Egypt had increased.
The Egyptian kings began to dream again of an Asiatic empire, such as they
had once held in days long gone by, and their first efforts were directed
towards securing afresh the cities of the Philistines. Gaza and Ashdod
were captured after a long siege;(12) Cyprus became an Egyptian province,
and Pharaoh Necho, whose Phœnician fleet had circumnavigated Africa, set
about the task of conquering Asia. Josiah was now on the throne of Judah.
He still called himself a vassal of Assyria, and could not but see with
alarm the rise of a new enemy, just as the old one had ceased to be
formidable. In the name of his suzerain, therefore, he attempted to bar
the advance of Necho; the two armies of Egypt and Judah met on the plain
of Megiddo, where the battle ended in the death of the Jewish king and the
slaughter of the flower of the Jewish soldiery. The death of Josiah proved
an irremediable disaster to the Jewish state. He left behind him a family
torn by jealousies and supported by rival factions, a people hostile to
the religious reforms he had carried through, and an army which had lost
both its leader and its veterans. From henceforth Judah was no longer able
to defend itself from an invader, whether Egyptian or Babylonian; and even
the strong walls of Jerusalem no longer proved a defence in days when the
method of warfare had changed, and a victorious army was content to sit
down for years before a fortress until its defenders had been starved out.
Necho’s triumph, however, was short-lived. Three years after the battle of
Megiddo (B.C. 606), he had to meet the Babylonian army, under its young
general Nebuchadrezzar, the son of Nabopolassar, at the ford of the
Euphrates, which was protected by the old Hittite city of Carchemish.
Nabopolassar was now independent king of Babylonia, and his son had given
evidence of great military capacities. He had disputed with the Median
kingdom of Ekbatana the possession of Mesopotamia; and though the ruins of
Nineveh and other Assyrian cities on the eastern bank of the Tigris
continued to remain in the hands of the Median ruler, as well as the high
road which led across Northern Mesopotamia into Asia Minor, and passed
through the patriarchal city of Haran, he had secured for his father the
southern regions enclosed between the Tigris and the Euphrates. The battle
of Carchemish finally decided who should be the master of Western Asia.
The Egyptian forces were completely shattered, and Necho retreated with
the wreck of his army to his ancestral kingdom. Judah and the countries
which adjoined it passed under the yoke of Babylonia.
Two years later, in B.C. 604, Nabopolassar died, and Nebuchadrezzar
succeeded to the throne. His name is written Nabu-kudur-uzur, “O Nebo,
defend the crown,” in the cuneiform, so that the form Nebuchadrezzar,
which is found in the Book of Jeremiah, is the only correct one,
Nebuchadnezzar being a corruption of it, like Asnapper for Assur-bani-pal.
Nebuchadrezzar was not only a great general, he was also a great builder
and an able administrator. Under him, Babylon, which had been little more
than a provincial town, became one of the most splendid cities in the
ancient world. In the middle of it rose the gigantic temple of Bel or
Baal, in eight stages, now represented by a mound of ruins, which goes
under the name of Babil. A winding road led from the foot of it to the
shrine on the summit, wherein was a golden image of the god, forty feet
high, and a golden table in front of it for the showbread.
Nebuchadrezzar’s palace, now called the Kasr mound, was on a scale equally
vast, though the wall that surrounded it, according to the king’s own
statement, had been built in fifteen days; within were the famous hanging
gardens, raised on lofty arcades, and watered by means of a screw. In the
suburb of Borsippa, on the western side of the Euphrates, stood another
temple, the modern Birs-i-Nimrud. This was dedicated to Nebo, and had been
begun by an earlier king. But it was completed by Nebuchadrezzar, who
called it “the temple of the seven lights of the earth,” and built it in
seven stages, each coloured according to the supposed colours of the seven
planets. The upper stages were artificially vitrified, wood having been
piled up against the surfaces of the bricks of which they were composed,
and then set on fire. Both Borsippa and Babylon were surrounded by a
single line of fortification, consisting of a double wall. It was pierced
by a hundred gates, all of bronze. So broad were the walls, that two
chariots could pass one another upon them. Walls were also built on either
side of the river, which flowed through the centre of the city, and was
furnished with handsome quays. There were gates in these walls at the end
of each of the wide and straight streets by which the city was
intersected, and between every gate a ferry-boat plied. Besides the
ferry-boats there was also a drawbridge, which was drawn up every night.
Such was “great Babylon,” which Nebuchadrezzar boasted he had built “for
the house of the kingdom, by the might of his power, and for the honour of
his majesty.”
Records of Nebuchadrezzar’s building operations exist in plenty, but of
his annals only a small fragment has as yet been discovered. This,
however, contains an allusion to his campaign in Egypt, of which Jeremiah
and Ezekiel prophesied, and which an over-hasty criticism has denied. The
campaign, we learn, took place in the thirty-seventh year of his reign.
Other references to it have been detected on the Egyptian monuments, and
we gather from these that the Babylonian army swept the whole of the
northern part of Egypt, and penetrated as far south as Assouan, from
whence they were forced to retreat by the Egyptian general Hor. Amasis was
at this time king of Egypt, having dethroned and murdered Apries, the
Pharaoh Hophra of the Bible, whose miserable end had been foretold by
Jeremiah (xliv. 30).
No account has yet been discovered among the cuneiform documents of the
campaigns of Nebuchadrezzar against Tyre and Judah. But a curious memorial
of them was found two years ago on the northern bank of the Nahr el-Kelb,
or Dog River, about eight miles to the north of Beyrût. The ancient high
road from Damascus to the sea-coast led along the gorge through which this
river makes its way to the sea, and traces of it can still be seen cut
here and there in the rock. The foreign conquerors of Asia, whether
Egyptian or Assyrian have left monuments of themselves carved by the side
of this old road, where it winds round a promontory that forms the
southern bank of the river. Ramses II, Sennacherib, Esar-haddon, all have
recorded their names and deeds upon the face of the cliff; and the
obliterated monuments of other and perhaps older kings may still be seen
near to them. The existence of these monuments has long been known. But it
was never suspected that a long inscription of Nebuchadrezzar also existed
on the loftier cliff on the northern side of the river, completely
concealed from view under a mass of luxuriant shrubs and drooping
maiden-hair fern. It was brought to light by an accident, and though much
injured by time and weather is still partly decipherable. Unfortunately,
the royal author gives no history in it of his Syrian and Jewish
campaigns; the clearest part of the text is occupied only with a list of
the wines of the Lebanon, among which the wine of Helbon, near Damascus,
was the most highly prized.(13)
Nebuchadrezzar had a long reign of nearly forty-three years. His son and
successor, Evil-Merodach (“the man of the god Merodach”), lived hardly
three years after his accession, and then was murdered by his
brother-in-law, Nergal-sharezer, who seized the crown. The latter calls
himself the son of “Bel-suma-iskun, king of Babylon”—a title to which his
father could have had no right—and he seems to have been the Rab-Mag (a
word of unknown signification) who is mentioned by Jeremiah (xxxix. 3) as
among the princes of Babylon at the time of the capture of Jerusalem. The
chief event of his short reign of four years and four months was the
construction of a new palace. His son, who succeeded him, was but a mere
boy, and was murdered after a brief reign of four months. The throne was
then usurped by Nabu-nahid, the Nabonidos of the Greeks, who does not seem
to have belonged to the royal family, and calls his father,
“Nabu-balatsu-ikbi, the _Rubu-emga_,” which may possibly be the Rab-Mag of
the Old Testament. Nabonidos reigned for seventeen years, and witnessed
the rise of a new power in the east. This was the empire of Cyrus, about
whom the cuneiform records have recently given us information of a most
startling kind.
Among the clay documents lately discovered in Babylonia by Mr. Rassam are
three inscriptions, which have been published and translated by Sir Henry
Rawlinson and Mr. Pinches. The first of these is a cylinder, inscribed by
order of Cyrus, the second a tablet which describes the conquest of
Babylonia by Cyrus and the causes which led up to it, while the third is
an account given by Nabonidos of his restoration of the temple of the
Moon-god at Haran, and of the temples of the Sun-god and of Anunit at
Sepharvaim. Haran, we are told in the last-mentioned record, had been
taken and destroyed by the _Manda_, or “barbarians,” of Ekbatana, and the
temple of the Moon-god had shared in the general ruin of the city. “Then,”
says Nabonidos, “at the beginning of my long reign, Merodach, the great
lord, and Sin (the Moon-god), the illuminator of heaven and earth, the
strong one of the universe, revealed unto me a dream. Merodach spake with
me (thus): ‘O Nabonidos, king of Babylon, go up with the horse of thy
chariot; make bricks for the Temple of Rejoicing, and let the seat of Sin,
the great lord, enter within it.’ Reverently I spake to Merodach, the
lords of the gods: ‘I will build this house whereof thou hast spoken. The
barbarians went about it, and their forces were terrible.’ Merodach
answered me: ‘The barbarians of whom thou hast spoken shall not exist,
neither they nor their lands, nor the kings their allies.’ In the third
year when it came, when they (_i.e._, the barbarians) had caused Cyrus,
the king of Elam, his young servant, to march amongst his army, they
provoked him (to battle); the wide-spread barbarians he overthrew; he
captured Astyages, king of the barbarians, and seized his treasures; to
his own land he took (them).” After this Nabonidos carried out the will of
the gods. His “vast army” was summoned from Gaza on the one side to the
Persian Gulf on the other, and set to work to restore the temple of Haran,
which had been built three centuries before by the Assyrian king,
Shalmaneser II, and subsequently repaired by Assur-bani-pal.
Two statements will be noticed in the inscription which will appear
strange to students of ancient history. Cyrus is called “the young
servant” of Merodach, the patron-deity of Babylon, and “king of Anzan,” or
Elam, not of Persia. But both statements will be found to be borne out by
the two inscriptions of Cyrus himself, which we shall now quote. Both on
his cylinder and in the annalistic tablet Cyrus, hitherto supposed to be a
Persian and a Zoroastrian monotheist, appears as an Elamite and as a
polytheist.
The annalistic tablet, which is unfortunately somewhat mutilated, begins
with the first year of the reign of Nabonidos. The first three years after
his accession seem to have been occupied with disturbances in Syria. Then,
in the sixth year, we are informed, “Astyages gathered (his army) and
marched against Cyrus, king of Elam. But the soldiers of Astyages revolted
from him, and seized him and delivered him up to Cyrus. Cyrus (proceeded)
to the land of Ekbatana, the royal city. The silver, the gold, the
furniture, and the spoil of the land of Ekbatana he carried away, and
brought the furniture and the spoil which he has taken to the land of
Elam.—The seventh year the king (Nabonidos) was in the town of Tema (a
suburb of Babylon). The king’s son, the nobles, and his soldiers were in
Accad (or Northern Babylonia). The king did not go to Babylon, neither did
Nebo nor Bel. But they kept a festival; they sacrificed peace-offerings in
the temples of Saggil and Zida to the gods for (the preservation) of
Babylon and Borsippa. The governor inspected the garden and the temple.—In
the eighth year (no event took place).—The ninth year Nabonidos, the king,
was in Tema, the king’s son, the nobles, and his soldiers were in Accad.
Until the month of Nisan (March) the king did not go to Babylon, neither
did Nebo nor Bel. But they kept a festival; they sacrificed
peace-offerings to the gods in the temples of Saggil and Zida for the
preservation of Babylon and Borsippa. On the fifth day of Nisan, the
king’s mother, who was in the fortress of the camp on the river Euphrates,
above Sippara, died. The king’s son and his soldiers mourned for her three
days running. In the month Sivan (May), there was a mourning for the
king’s mother throughout the land of Accad. In the month Nisan, Cyrus,
king of Persia, collected his soldiers and crossed the Tigris below
Arbela, and the following month (marched) against the land of.... Its king
took (his) silver and himself; he made his own children mount (the pyre);
afterwards both king and children were (burnt) in the midst (of it)—The
tenth year the king was in Tema; the king’s son, the officers, and his
soldiers were in Accad. Until (Nisan) the king (did not go to Babylon),
neither did Nebo nor Bel. But they kept the festival; they sacrificed
peace-offerings to the gods in the temples (of Saggil and Zida) for the
preservation of Babylon and Borsippa. On the 21st day of Sivan (the
soldiers) of Elam marched into Accad. A prefect (was appointed?) in
Erech.—The eleventh year the king was in Tema; the king’s son, the nobles,
and his soldiers were in Accad. Until Elul (August), the king did not come
forth (to worship) Bel, but they kept the festival; they sacrificed
peace-offerings (to the gods in the temples of Saggil and Zida for the
preservation of) Babylon and Borsippa.”
Here a break occurs in the record. When the inscription becomes legible
again we find ourselves transported to the seventeenth year of Nabonidos,
when the tribes on “the lower sea” or Persian Gulf were in revolt. Cyrus,
who had failed to break through the Babylonian army in Accad, had spent
his time in intriguing with a disaffected party—probably the Jews—within
Babylonia itself, and at last, when all was ripe, prepared to attack his
enemy from the south-east. Nabonidos now turned to the gods for help, and
had the images of them brought to Babylon from their various shrines, in
the vain hope that their presence would save the city from capture. “The
gods of Marad, Zamama and the gods of Kis, Beltis and the gods of
Kharsak-kalama, were brought to Babylon; up to the end of Elul, the gods
of Accad which are above and below the sky were brought to Babylon but the
gods of Borsippa, of Cuthah, and of Sippara, were not brought. In the
month Tammuz (June) Cyrus gave battle to the army of Accad in the town of
Rutum, upon the river Nizallat. The men of Accad broke into revolt. On the
14th day (of the month) the garrison of Sippara was taken without
fighting. Nabonidos flies. On the 16th day Gobryas, the governor of Gutium
(Kurdistan) and the army of Cyrus entered Babylon without fighting.
Afterwards he takes Nabonidos, and puts him into fetters in Babylon. Up to
the end of the month Tammuz, some rebels from Kurdistan kept the gates of
the temple of Saggil closed, but there was nothing in the way of weapons
in the temple of Saggil, nor was there an opportunity (for fighting). On
the 3rd day of Marchesvan (October), Cyrus entered Babylon. The roads(?)
before him were covered. He grants peace to the city, to the whole of
Babylon Cyrus proclaims peace. Gobryas, his governor, was appointed over
the (other) governors in Babylon, and from the month Chisleu (November) to
the month Adar (February) the gods of Accad, whom Nabonidos had brought to
Babylon, were restored to their shrines. On the 11th day of the previous
Marchesvan, Gobryas (was appointed) over (Babylon), and the king
(Nabonidos) died. From the 27th of Adar to the 3rd of Nisan, (there was) a
mourning in Accad; all the people smote their heads. On the 4th day,
Kambyses, the son of Cyrus, arranged the burial in the temple of the
Sceptre of the World. The priests of the temple of the Sceptre of Nebo
went (to it).” The rest of the text, which is very imperfect from this
point, describes the honours paid by Cyrus and his son to the Babylonian
gods, their sacrifices of victims to Bel, and their restoration of Nebo to
his old shrine.
It is at this place that the cylinder of Cyrus comes in to complete the
story. Cyrus here says that Nabonidos had neglected the worship of the
gods, who accordingly were angry with him: “The gods dwelling within them
left their shrines in anger when (Nabonidos) brought them into Babylon.
Merodach went about to all men, wherever were their seats; and the men of
Sumer and Accad, whom he had sworn should attend him (besought him to
return). The favour he granted, he came back; all lands, even the whole of
them, rejoiced and ate. And he appointed a king to guide aright in the
heart what his hand upholds; Cyrus, king of Elam, he proclaimed by name
for the sovereignty: all men everywhere commemorate his name. The men of
Kurdistan and all the barbarians (of Ekbatana) he made bow down to his
feet, the men of the black-headed race (the Accadians), whom he had
conquered with his hand, he governed in justice and righteousness.
Merodach, the great lord, the restorer of his people, beheld with joy the
deeds of his vicegerent, who was righteous in hand and heart. To his city
of Babylon he summoned his march, and he bade him take the road to
Babylon; like a friend and a comrade he went at his side. The weapons of
his vast army, whose number, like the waters of a river, could not be
known, he marshalled at his side. Without fighting or battle he caused him
to enter into Babylon; his city of Babylon feared; in a place difficult of
access Nabonidos, the king, who worshipped him not, he gave into his hand.
The men of Babylon, all of them, (and) the whole of Sumer and Accad, the
nobles and priests who had revolted, kissed his feet, they rejoiced in his
sovereignty, their faces shone. The god who in his ministry raises the
dead to life, who benefits all men in difficulty and prayer, has in
goodness drawn nigh to him, has made strong his name. I am Cyrus, the king
of legions, the great king, the powerful king, the king of Babylon, the
king of Sumer and Accad, the king of the four zones, the son of Kambyses
the great king, the king of Elam; the grandson of Cyrus the great king,
the king of Elam; the great-grandson of Teispes, the great king, the king
of Elam; of the ancient seed-royal, whose rule has been beloved by Bel and
Nebo, whose sovereignty they cherished according to the goodness of their
hearts. At that time I entered Babylon in peace. With joy and gladness in
the palace of the kings I enlarged the seat of my dominion. Merodach, the
great lord, (cheered) the heart of his servant, whom the sons of Babylon
(obeyed each) year and day.... My vast armies he marshalled peacefully in
the midst of Babylon; throughout Sumer and Accad I had no revilers. The
sanctuaries of Babylon and all its fortresses I established in peace. As
for the sons of Babylon ... their ruins I repaired, and I delivered their
prisoners. For the work (of restoring the shrine) of Merodach, the great
lord, I prepared, and he graciously drew nigh unto me, Cyrus, the king,
his worshipper, and to Kambyses, my son, the offspring of my heart, and to
all my army, and in peace we duly restored its front (in) glory. All the
kings who dwell in the high-places of all regions from the Upper Sea to
the Lower Sea, who dwell in (the high-places) of the kings of Phœnicia and
Sutar, all of them brought their rich tribute, and in the midst of Babylon
kissed my feet. From (the city of) ... to the cities of Assur and Istar
... Accad, Marad, Zamban, Me-Turnat, and Duran as far as the border of
Kurdistan, the fortresses (which lie) upon the Tigris, wherein from of old
were their seats, I restored the gods who dwelt within them to their
places, and I enlarged (for them) seats that should be long-enduring; all
their peoples I assembled, and I restored their lands. And the gods of
Sumer and Accad, whom Nabonidos, to the anger of the lord of gods
(Merodach), had brought into Babylon, I settled in peace in their
sanctuaries by the command of Merodach, the great lord. In the goodness of
their hearts may all the gods whom I have brought into their strong places
daily intercede before Bel and Nebo that they should grant me length of
days; may they bless my projects with prosperity, and may they say to
Merodach my lord that Cyrus the king, thy worshipper, and Kambyses his son
(deserve his favour).”
Such are the records, which have risen up, as it were, out of the tomb, to
revolutionise all our previous conceptions of that part of ancient history
with which they are concerned. We must give up the belief that Cyrus was a
monotheist, bent on destroying the idols of Babylon; on the contrary, from
the time when we first hear of him, he is a worshipper of Bel-Merodach,
the patron-god of Babylon, and the first care of himself and his son,
after his conquest of Babylonia, is to restore the Babylonian gods to the
shrines from which they had been impiously removed by Nabonidos. He asks
the gods to intercede on his behalf with Bel and Nebo, the two supreme
gods of Babylonian worship. It is clear, therefore, that Cyrus was a
polytheist, who, like other polytheists in other ages, adopted the gods of
the country he had conquered from motives of State policy. The Egyptian
monuments give the same account of his son Kambyses. They show that the
story told by Herodotus how Kambyses had scoffed at the gods of Egypt, had
destroyed their images, and had finally stabbed the sacred bull Apis, was
a mere Greek fable. Kambyses appears on contemporaneous monuments as the
friend of the Egyptian priests, the adorer of their gods, and the
benefactor of their temples. The very bull he was said to have murdered
has been discovered in its huge sarcophagus of granite, with a sculpture
above, wherein Kambyses is represented as kneeling before the bull-god,
while an inscription states that the bull was honoured with the usual
funeral, in which Kambyses himself took part.
The theory, accordingly, which held that Cyrus had allowed the Jews to
return to their own land, because, like them, he believed in but one
supreme god—the Ormazd or good spirit of the Zoroastrian creed—must be
abandoned. God consecrated Cyrus to be His instrument in restoring His
chosen people to their land, not because the king of Elam was a
monotheist, but because the period of Jewish trial and punishment had come
to an end. God’s instruments may be unworthy as well as worthy; it was
through the hardness of heart of an unbelieving Pharaoh that the
deliverance from Egypt had been accomplished in days long before. Nor is
there any contradiction between the treatment actually experienced by the
Babylonians and that which is predicted for them in the Book of Isaiah.
The language of the prophet is necessarily figurative, and when he
declares (Isa. xlvi. 1, 2) that Bel and Nebo had gone into captivity,
nothing more is meant than that the people whose gods they were, and whom
they represented, had passed under the yoke of a foreign conqueror.
And yet, though the prophet’s language was thus figurative, the prediction
was eventually fulfilled in a very literal way. The empire of Cyrus was
broken up after the death of Kambyses, and had to be reconquered by Darius
the son of Hystaspes, the real founder of the Persian Empire. Darius was a
Zoroastrian monotheist as well as a Persian, and under him and his
successors polytheism ceased to be the religion of the State. Twice during
his reign he had to besiege Babylon. Hardly had he been proclaimed king
when it revolted under a certain Nidinta-Bel, who called himself
“Nebuchadrezzar, the son of Nabonidos.” A cameo exists with his helmeted
profile, engraved by a Greek artist, and surrounded by the words, “To
Merodach, his lord, Nebuchadrezzar, the king of Babylon, has made (it) for
his life;” unless, perhaps, Professor Schrader is right in referring the
portrait, not to the pretender, but to the real Nebuchadrezzar of Biblical
history. Babylon endured a siege of two years, and was at last captured by
Darius only by the help of a stratagem. Six years afterwards it again rose
in revolt, under an Armenian, who professed, like his predecessor, to be
“Nebuchadrezzar, the son of Nabonidos.” Once more, however, it was
besieged and taken, and this time the pretender was put to death by
impalement. His predecessor, Nidinta-Bel, seems to have been slain while
the Persian troops were forcing their way into the captured city. After
the second capture of Babylon Darius pulled down its walls; and his son
Xerxes completed the work of destruction by destroying the great temple of
Bel, and carrying away the golden image of the god.
In Nidinta-Bel the line of independent Babylonian kings may be regarded as
having come to an end, since the leader of the second revolt was not a
native, but an Armenian settler. To him, therefore, we may apply the
magnificent description of the death of the last Babylonian monarch on the
battle-field, and his descent into the under-world, which we read in
Isaiah xiv. Illustrations have been taken by the prophet from Babylonian
mythology, in order to heighten the horror of the scene. The king of
Babylonia is compared to the morning star, whose movements the Babylonians
had been the first of mankind to record. He is represented as saying in
his heart, “I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the
(other) stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the assembly (of
the gods) in the furthest regions of the north.” This mount, as we have
seen in an earlier chapter, was the Olympos of the Accadians, by whom it
was called Kharsak-kurra “the mountain of the east.” Its peak was the
pivot on which the sky rested, and it was therefore also known as “the
mountain of the world.” It lay far away in the regions of the north-east,
the entrance, as it was supposed, to the lower world, and it was sometimes
identified with the mountain of Nizir, the modern Rowandiz, on whose
summit the ark of the Chaldean Noah was believed to have rested. From the
heights of this mountain, where he had vainly dreamed of sitting among the
gods, the Babylonian king was to be hurled into the world below. Here
again the prophet borrows his illustration from the mythology of Accad.
The heroes of the past are placed before us seated in Hades on their
shadowy thrones, from which they rise to greet the arrival of their new
comrade.
The best commentary on the description is to be found in the words of an
old Babylonian poem, which tells of the descent of the goddess Istar into
Hades, in search of her dead husband Tammuz. The poem opens as follows:—
“To Hades, the land whence none return, the land of darkness,
Istar the daughter of the Moon-god inclined her ear,
Yea, the daughter of the Moon-god inclined her ear.
To the house of darkness, the dwelling of the god Irkalla,
To the house out of which there is no exit,
To the road from which there is no return,
To the house from whose entrance the light is taken,
The place where dust is their nourishment, and mud their food;
Light is never seen, in darkness they dwell.”
Parallel with this is the description of Hades, supposed to be given by
the dead friend of Gisdhubar, in the great Chaldean epic in which the
account of the deluge is embodied. Here we read—
“To Hades, the land whence none return, I turn myself,
I spread like a bird my hands.
I descend, I descend, to the house of darkness, the dwelling of
the god Irkalla.
To the house out of which there is no exit.
To the road from which there is no return,
To the house from whose entrance the light is taken,
The place where dust is their nourishment, and mud their food,
And its chiefs are like birds covered with feathers;
Light is never seen, in darkness they dwell.
In that house, O my friend, which I shall enter.
There is treasured up for me a crown.
With those wearing crowns, who from days of old ruled the earth.
To whom the gods Anu and Bel have given names of rule.”
But it is time for us to return to the inscriptions of Cyrus. Next to the
fact that he was a polytheist, the most startling revelation they make is
that he was not a king of Persia at all. Persia seems to have been
acquired by him after his conquest of Astyages, at some time between the
sixth and ninth year of Nabonidos. Both he and his ancestors were kings of
Anzan or Elam. It is true, he could trace his descent back to a member of
the royal Persian clan, Teispes, who appears to have taken possession of
Elam during the troublous period that followed the fall of Assyria, and to
have resigned his Persian dominions to his son Ariaramnes, the
great-grandfather of Darius. It must be this conquest of Elam which was
prophesied by Jeremiah at the beginning of Zedekiah’s reign (Jer. xlix.
34-39), and the result of it was to make Cyrus an Elamite in education and
religion. The empire which he founded was not a Persian one; Darius, the
son of Hystaspes, was the real founder of that. It was only as the
predecessor of Darius, and for the sake of intelligibility to the readers
of a later day, that Cyrus could be called a king of Persia, as he is in
the Book of Ezra, where the original words of his proclamation, “king of
Elam” have been changed into the more familiar and intelligible “king of
Persia” (Ez. i. 2.). Elsewhere in the Bible (Isa. xxi. 1-10), where the
invasion of Babylonia is described, there is no mention of Persia, only of
Elam and Media, that is to say, of the ancestral dominions of Cyrus and
that kingdom of Ekbatana which he had annexed. This is in strict
accordance with the revelations of the monuments, and is a most
interesting testimony to the accuracy of the Old Testament records.
Another fact of an equally revolutionary kind which the inscriptions teach
us is that Babylon was not besieged and taken by Cyrus. It opened its
gates to his general long before he came near it, and needed neither
fighting nor battle for its occupation. It thus becomes evident that the
siege of Babylon described by Herodotus really belongs to the reign of
Darius, and has been transferred by tradition to the reign of Cyrus, and
that the late Mr. Bosanquet was right in asserting that the Darius of the
Book of Daniel is Darius the son of Hystaspes. Belshazzar, as we know from
an inscription of Nabonidos, which mentions him, was the eldest son of
that monarch, and he is no doubt the “king’s son” who commanded the
Babylonian army, according to the tablet translated above.
But besides the main facts to be derived from these newly found
inscriptions, there is much else in them which is worthy of regard. This
is especially the case with the inscription on the clay cylinder, in which
we find a reference to the restoration of the Babylonian captives to their
several homes. The experience of Cyrus had taught him that the old
Assyrian and Babylonian system of transporting conquered nations was an
error, and did but introduce a dangerously disaffected people into the
country to which they had been brought. Through this conviction, which
seemed to Cyrus himself merely the result of his own experience and
political sagacity, God worked to bring about the fulfilment of His
promises to the Jewish exiles. Those who chose to return to Jerusalem were
allowed to do so, and there rebuild a fortress which Cyrus considered
would be useful to him as a check upon Egypt. The nations which had been
brought from east and west were restored to their lands, along with their
gods, whom they were henceforth to worship in peace. Among them, as we
learn from the Old Testament, were the captives of Judah, the worshippers
of the one true God.
Another fact which we gather from the words of Cyrus is that Nabonidos had
offended the Babylonian priesthood, and had been accused by some of them
of impiety. His removal of the images of the local deities from their
shrines seems to have been regarded as a peculiar sin; and Cyrus goes so
far as to assert that Nabonidos had brought them into Babylon, “to the
anger of the lord of gods.” Indeed, he even says that the Babylonian king
had not worshipped the patron god of his own capital. How little, however,
this statement was really justified may be seen from the inscription of
Nabonidos quoted above, in which reference is made for the first time to
Cyrus, “the young servant” of Merodach.
The language used of himself by Cyrus reminds us sometimes of the inspired
words in which he is spoken of in the prophecies of Isaiah. When he says
that he “governed in justice and righteousness,” and that Merodach “beheld
with joy the deeds of his vicegerent, who was righteous in hand and
heart,” we cannot help thinking of God’s declaration that He had “raised
him up in righteousness,” (Isa. xlv. 13). When he says that “Merodach, who
in his ministry raises the dead to life, who benefits all men in
difficulty and prayer, has in goodness drawn nigh to him, has made strong
his name,” we almost fancy we hear an echo of the words of Scripture: “For
Jacob My servant’s sake, and Israel Mine elect, I have even called thee by
thy name; I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known Me. I am the
LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside Me. I girded thee,
though thou hast not known Me” (Isa. xlv. 4, 5).
The title given to Merodach—“the god who raises the dead to life”—is a
remarkable one, but it was a title which was applied to the god as early
as the Accadian epoch. In the religious hymns of the Accadians, Merodach
plays the part of a mediator and intercessor; if the gods are angry, it is
Merodach who intercedes for man. Mankind, in fact, are his especial care;
he was supposed to heal their diseases and to raise them after death to
life. Whether there was any reference here to the doctrine of the
resurrection is doubtful: more probably nothing further was meant than
that the spirit of the dead man, through the help of Merodach, was allowed
to drink of “the waters of life,” that bubbled up in Hades beneath the
golden throne of the spirits of earth, and so to ascend to the Accadian
heaven, “the land of the silver sky,” where the heroes lay reclined among
the gods on couches, feasting at banquets which knew no end.
Merodach was originally the Sun-god, and when Babylonia passed into the
hands of the Semites he still continued to be worshipped, as the
interceding god who hears prayers and “raises the dead to life.” But he
was now more specially honoured as Bel or Baal, “lord” a title which
properly belonged to an older deity, but which came in time to be almost
confined to Merodach, alone. When Bel and Nebo are mentioned together in
the Bible (Isa. xlvi. 1), it is Merodach, the tutelary divinity of
Babylon, that is meant, Nebo, “the prophet,” to whom peculiar honour was
paid at Babylon after the rise of the dynasty of Nebuchadrezzar, being
usually associated with him.
A large number of prayers have been discovered addressed for the most part
to Merodach, though there are some which are addressed also to the other
deities. These prayers are written in Assyrian, and constitute a sort of
manual of devotion. They are seldom of great length, one of the longest
being a prayer after a bad dream, which is, however, addressed to the
goddess Istar as well as to Merodach. Portions of it have been lost; what
remains may be quoted as an example of this species of literature, and is
as follows: “May the lord set my prayer at rest, (may he remove) my heavy
(sin)! May the lord (grant) a return of favour. By day direct unto death
all that disquiets me. O my goddess, be gracious unto me; when (wilt thou
hear) my prayer? May they pardon my sin, my wickedness, (and) my
transgression. May the exalted one deliver, may the holy one love. May the
seven winds carry away my groaning. May the worm lay it low, may the bird
bear it upwards to heaven. May a shoal of fish carry it away; may the
river bear it along. May the creeping thing of the field come unto me; may
the waters of the river as they flow cleanse me. Enlighten me like a mask
of gold. Food and drink perpetually before thee may I get. Heap up the
worm, take away his life. The steps of thine altar, thy many ones, may I
ascend. With the worm make me pass, and may I be kept with thee. Make me
to be fed, and may a favourable dream come. May the dream I dream be
favourable; may the dream I dream be fulfilled, May the dream I dream turn
to prosperity. May Makhir, the god of dreams, settle upon my head. Let me
enter Beth-Saggil, the palace of the gods, the temple of the lord. Give me
unto Merodach, the merciful, to prosperity, even to prospering hands. May
thy entering be exalted, may thy divinity be glorious; may the men of my
city extol thy mighty deeds.”
The tone of this prayer is not very high, and it reveals how much
superstition was mixed with even the best aspirations of Assyrian
spiritual life. It is, therefore, somewhat surprising that a series of
penitential psalms exists, coming down from the earliest period of
Babylonian history, which breathe a much more exalted and purer spirit.
These psalms are not written in Accadian, but in the closely-allied
dialect of Sumer or Shinar, and an Assyrian interlinear translation is
attached to them. From time to time expressions that occur in them remind
us of the Book of Psalms. No more suitable way can be found of concluding
our review of the illustrations of the Old Testament Scriptures afforded
by modern discovery, than by giving at full length a translation of one of
these touching relics of old time. In reading it we do indeed feel that
even in the darkest ages of ignorance and heathenism God was still moving
the hearts of men, “that they should seek the Lord, if haply they might
feel after Him and find Him:”
“My Lord is wroth in his heart; may he be appeased again.
May God be appeased again, for I knew not that I sinned.
May Istar, my mother, be appeased again, for I knew not that I
sinned.
God knoweth that I knew not; may he be appeased.
Istar, my mother, knoweth that I knew not; may she be appeased.
May the heart of my God be appeased.
May the heart of Istar, my mother, be appeased.
May God and Istar, my mother, be appeased.
May God cease from his anger.
May Istar, my mother, (cease from her anger).
The transgression (I committed my God) knew.
[The next few lines are obliterated.]
The transgression (I committed Istar, my mother, knew).
(My tears) I drink like the waters of the sea.
That which was forbidden by my God, I ate without knowing.
That which was forbidden by Istar, my mother, I trampled on
without knowing.
O my Lord, my transgression is great, many are my sins.
O my God, my transgression is great, many are my sins.
O Istar, my mother, my transgression is great, many are my sins.
O my God, who knowest that I knew not, my transgression is great,
many are my sins.
O Istar, my mother, who knowest that I knew not, my transgression
is great, many are my sins.
The transgression that I committed I knew not.
The sin that I sinned I knew not.
The forbidden thing did I eat.
The forbidden thing did I trample on.
My Lord, in the anger of his heart, has punished me.
God in the strength of his heart has received me.
Istar, my mother, has seized upon me and put me to grief.
God, who knoweth that I knew not, has afflicted me.
Istar, my mother, who knoweth that I knew not, has caused
darkness.
I prayed and none takes my hand.
I wept and none held my palm.
I cry aloud; but there is none that will hear me.
I am in darkness and hiding, I dare not look up.
To God I refer my distress, I utter my prayer.
The feet of Istar, my mother, I embrace.
To God, who knoweth that I knew not, my prayer I utter.
To Istar, my mother, who knoweth that I knew not, my prayer I
address.
[The next four lines are lost.]
How long, O God (shall I suffer)?
How long, O Istar, my mother (shall I suffer)?
How long, O God, who knoweth that I knew not, (shall I feel thy)
strength?
How long, O Istar, my mother, who knoweth that I knew not, shall
thy heart (be angry)?
Thou writest the number (?) of mankind, and none knoweth it.
Thou callest man by his name, and what does he know?
Whether he shall be afflicted, or whether he shall be prosperous,
there is no man that knows.
O my God, thou givest not rest to thy servant.
In the waters of the raging flood take his hand.
The sin he has sinned turn into good.
Let the wind carry away the transgression I have committed.
Destroy my manifold wickedness like a garment.
O my God, seven times seven are my transgressions, my
transgressions are (ever) before me.(14)
APPENDIX I.
The text of the Treaty between the Hittites and Ramses II (Dr. Brugsch’s
translation):—
In the year 21, in the month of Tybi, on the 21st day of the month, in the
reign of king Ramessu Mi-Amun, the dispenser of life eternally and for
ever, the worshipper of the divinities, Amun-Ra (of Thebes), Hor-em-khu
(of Heliopolis), Ptah (of Memphis), Mut, the lady of the Asher Lake (near
Karnak), and Khonsu, the peace-loving, there took place a public sitting
on the throne of Horus among the living, resembling his father, Hor-em-khu
in eternity, in eternity, evermore.
On that day the king was in the city of Ramses (Zoan), presenting his
peace-offerings to his father, Amun-ra, and to the gods, Hor-em-khu-Tum,
the lord of Heliopolis (On), and to Amun of Ramessu Mi-Amun, to Ptah of
Ramessu Mi-Amun, and to Sutekh, the strong, the son of Nut, the goddess of
heaven, that they might grant to him many thirty years’ jubilee feasts,
and innumerable happy years, and the subjection of all peoples under his
feet for ever.
Then came forward the ambassador of the king and the governor (of his
house, by name..., and presented the ambassadors) of the great king of the
Hittites (Khita), Khita-sir, who were sent to Pharaoh to propose
friendship with the king, Ramessu Mi-Amun, the dispenser of life eternally
and for ever, just as his father, the Sun-god (dispenses it), each day.
This is the copy of the contents of the silver tablet, which the great
king of the Hittites, Khita-sir, had caused to be made, and which was
presented to the Pharaoh by the hand of his ambassador Tartibus and his
ambassador Ra-mes, to propose friendship to the king, Ramessu Mi-Amun, the
bull among the princes, who places his boundary-marks where it pleases him
in all lands.
The treaty which had been proposed by the great king of the Hittites,
Khita-sir, the powerful, the son of Maro-sir, the great king of the
Hittites, the powerful, the grandson of Sapalili, the great king of the
Hittites, the powerful, on the silver tablet, to Ramessu Mi-Amun, the
great prince of Egypt, the powerful, the grandson of Ramessu I, the great
king of Egypt, the powerful,—this was a good treaty for friendship and
concord, which assured peace (and established concord) for a longer period
than was previously the case for a long time. For it was the agreement of
the great prince of Egypt in common with the great king of the Hittites,
that the god should not allow enmity to exist between them, on the basis
of a treaty.
To wit, in the times of Mauthaner, the great king of the Hittites, my
brother, he was at war with (Meneptah Seti I) the great prince of Egypt.
But now, from this very day forward, Khita-sir, the great king of the
Hittites, shall look upon this treaty, so that the agreement may remain,
which the Sun-god, Ra, has made, which the god Sutekh has made, for the
people of Egypt and for the people of the Hittites, that there should be
no enmity between them for evermore.
And these are the contents:—
Khita-sir, the great king of the Hittites, is in covenant with Ramessu
Mi-Amun, the great prince of Egypt, from this very day forward, that there
may subsist a good friendship and a good understanding between them for
evermore.
He shall be my ally; he shall be my friend. I will be his ally; I will be
his friend; for ever.
To wit: in the time of Mauthaner, the great king of the Hittites, his
brother, Khita-sir, after his murder, placed himself on the throne of his
father as the great king of the Hittites. I strove for friendship with
Ramessu Mi-Amun, the great prince of Egypt, and it is (my wish) that the
friendship and the concord may be better than the friendship and the
concord which before existed, and which was broken.
I declare: I, the great king of the Hittites, will hold together with
(Ramessu Mi-Amun) the great prince of Egypt, in good friendship and good
concord. The sons of the sons of the great king of the Hittites will hold
together and be friends with the sons of the sons of Ramessu Mi-Amun, the
great prince of Egypt.
In virtue of our treaty for concord, and in virtue of our agreement (for
friendship, let the people) of Egypt (be bound in friendship) with the
people of the Hittites. Let a like friendship and a like concord subsist
in such measure for ever.
Never let enmity rise between them. Never let the great king of the
Hittites invade the land of Egypt, if anything has been plundered from it
(the land of the Hittites). Never let Ramessu Mi-Amun, the great prince of
Egypt, overstep the boundary of the land (of the Hittites, if anything
shall have been plundered) from it (the land of Egypt).
The just treaty which existed in the times of Sapalili, the great king of
the Hittites, likewise the just treaty which existed in the times of
Mauthaner, the great king of the Hittites, my brother, that will I keep.
Ramessu Mi-Amun, the great prince of Egypt, declares that he will keep it.
(We have come to an understanding about it) with one another at the same
time from this day forward, and we will fulfil it, and will act in a
righteous manner.
If another shall come as an enemy to the lands of Ramessu Mi-Amun, the
great prince of Egypt, then let him send an embassy to the great king of
the Hittites to this effect: “Come, and make me stronger than him.” Then
shall the great king of the Hittites (assemble his warriors), and the king
of the Hittites (shall come) and smite his enemies. But if it should not
be the wish of the great king of the Hittites to march out in person, then
he shall send his warriors and his chariots that they may smite his
enemies. Otherwise (he would incur) the wrath of Ramessu Mi-Amun (the
great prince of Egypt. And if Ramessu Mi-Amun, the great prince of Egypt,
should banish for a crime) subjects from his country, and they should
commit further crime against him, then shall the king of the Hittites come
forward to kill them. The great king of the Hittites shall act in common
with (the great prince of Egypt).
(If another should come as an enemy to the lands of the great king of the
Hittites, then shall he send an embassy to the great prince of Egypt with
the request that) he would come in great power to kill his enemies; and if
it be the intention of Ramessu Mi-Amun, the great prince of Egypt,
(himself) to come, he shall (smite the enemies of the great king of the
Hittites. If it is not the intention of the great prince of Egypt to march
out in person, then he shall send his warriors and his two)-horse
chariots, while he sends back the answer to the people of the Hittites.
If any subjects of the great king of the Hittites have offended him, then
Ramessu Mi-Amun (the great prince of Egypt, shall not receive them in his
land, but shall advance to kill them) ... the oath with the wish to say, I
will go ... until ... Ramessu Mi-Amun, the great prince of Egypt, living
for ever ... that he may be given for them (?) to the lord, and that
Ramessu Mi-Amun, the great prince of Egypt, may speak according to his
agreement for evermore....
(If servants shall flee away) out of the territories of Ramessu Mi-Amun,
the great prince of Egypt, to betake themselves to) the great king of the
Hittites, the great king of the Hittites shall not receive them, but the
great king of the Hittites shall give them up to Ramessu Mi-Amun, the
great prince of Egypt (that they may be punished).
If servants of Ramessu Mi-Amun, the great prince of Egypt, leave his
country, and betake themselves to the land of the Hittites, to make
themselves servants of another, they shall not remain in the land of the
Hittites, (but shall be given up) to Ramessu Mi-Amun, the great prince of
Egypt.
If, on the other hand, there should flee away (servants of the great king
of the Hittites, in order to betake themselves to) Ramessu Mi-Amun, the
great prince of Egypt, (in order to stay in Egypt), then those who have
come from the land of the Hittites in order to betake themselves to
Ramessu Mi-Amun, the great prince of Egypt, shall not be (received) by
Ramessu Mi-Amun, the great prince of Egypt, (but) the great prince of
Egypt, Ramessu Mi-Amun, (shall deliver them up to the great king of the
Hittites.
And if shall leave the land of the Hittites persons) of skilled mind, so
that they come to the land of Egypt to make themselves servants of
another, then Ramessu Mi-Amun shall not allow them to settle, he shall
deliver them up to the great king of the Hittites.
When this (treaty) shall be known (by the inhabitants of the land of Egypt
and of the land of the Hittites, then shall they not offend against it,
for all that stands written on) the silver tablet, these are words which
will have been approved by the company of the gods, among the male gods,
and among the female gods, among those, namely, of the land of the
Hittites, and by the company of the gods among the male gods and among the
female gods, among those, namely, of the land of Egypt. They are witnesses
for me (to the validity) of these words, (which they have allowed.
This is the catalogue of the gods of the land of the Hittites:—
(Sutekh of the city of) Tunep,
Sutekh of the land of the Hittites,
Sutekh of the city of Arnema,
Sutekh of the city Zaranda [_or_ Ta-Orontes],
Sutekh of the city of Pilka [_or_ Pairaka],
Sutekh of the city of Khisasap,
Sutekh of the city of Sarsu,
Sutekh of the city of Aleppo,
Sutekh of the city of...,
(Sutekh of the city of...),
Sutekh of the city of Sarpina,
Astartha [_or_ Antarata] of the land of the Hittites,
The god of the land of Zaiath-khirri,
The god of the land of Ka...,
The god of the land of Kher...,
The goddess of the city of Akh...,
(The goddess of the city of....) and of the land of A ... ua,
The goddess of the land of Zaina,
The god of the land of ... nath ... er.
(I have invoked these male and these) female (gods of the land of the
Hittites, these are the gods) of the land, as (witnesses to) my oath.
(With them have been associated the male and the female gods) of the
mountains, and of the rivers of the land of the Hittites, the gods of the
land of Kazawatana. Amun, Ra, Sutekh, and the male and female gods of the
land of Egypt, of the earth, of the sea, of the winds, and of the storms.
With regard to the commandment which the silver tablet contains for the
people of the Hittites and for the people of Egypt, he who shall not
observe it shall be given over (to the vengeance) of the company of the
gods of the Hittites, and shall be given over (to the vengeance of the)
company of the gods of Egypt, (he) and his house and his servants.
But he who shall observe these commandments, which the silver tablet
contains, whether he be of the people of the Hittites or (of the people of
the Egyptians), because he has not neglected them, the company of the gods
of the land of the Hittites and the company of the gods of the land of
Egypt shall secure his reward and preserve life (for him) and his
servants, and those who are with him and who are with his servants.
If there flee away of the inhabitants (one from the land of Egypt), or two
or three, and they betake themselves to the great king of the Hittites,
(the great king of the Hittites shall not) allow them (to remain, but he
shall) deliver them up, and send them back to Ramessu Mi-Amun, the great
prince of Egypt.
Now with regard to the (inhabitant of the land of Egypt), who is delivered
up to Ramessu Mi-Amun, the great prince of Egypt, his fault shall not be
avenged upon him, his (house) shall not be taken away, nor his (wife), nor
his (children). There shall not be (put to death his mother, neither shall
he be punished in his eyes, nor in his mouth, nor on the soles of his
feet), so that thus no crime shall be brought forward against him.
In the same way shall it be done, if inhabitants of the land of the
Hittites take to flight, be it one alone, or two or three, to betake
themselves to Ramessu Mi-Amun, the great prince of Egypt; Ramessu Mi-Amun,
the great prince of Egypt, shall cause them to be seized, and they shall
be delivered up to the great king of the Hittites.
(With regard to) him who (is delivered up, his crime shall not be brought
forward against him). His (house) shall not be taken away, nor his wives
nor his children, nor his people; his mother shall not be put to death, he
shall not be punished in his eyes, nor on his mouth, nor on the soles of
his feet, nor shall any accusation be brought forward against him.
That which is in the middle of this silver tablet and on its front side is
a likeness of the god Sutekh ... surrounded by an inscription to this
effect: “This is the (picture) of the god Sutekh, the king of heaven and
(earth).” At the time (?) of the treaty which the great king of the
Hittites, Khita-sir made....
APPENDIX II.
Translation of a cylinder of Nabonidos, king of Babylonia, containing the
name of Belshazzar. The cylinder is one of four, each containing the same
text and buried at the four corners of the temple of Sin, the Moon-god, at
Mugheir or Ur.
COL. I.
“Nabonidos, the king of Babylon, the beautifier of Bit-Saggil and
Bit-Zida, the worshipper of the great gods, am I. The temple of the king
who provides plenty (Sin), the tower of the temple of Gis-nu-gal,(15)
which is within Ur, which Lig-Bagas, an ancient king, had made but did not
finish, Dungi, his son, completed its work. I looked into the cylinders of
Lig-Bagas and Dungi his son, and (read) how Lig-Bagas had made this tower
but did not finish it, and how Dungi his son completed its work.
Subsequently this tower became old, and accordingly above the old platform
which Lig-Bagas and Dungi his son had made I built the walls(16) of this
tower, as of old, with cement and brick, and I founded and erected them
for Sin, the lord of the gods of heaven and earth, the king of the gods,
even the gods of gods, who inhabit heaven, the great ones, the lord of the
temple of Gis-nu-gal within Ur, my lord.”
COL. II.
“O Sin, lord of the gods, king of the gods of heaven and earth, even the
gods of gods, who inhabit heaven, the great ones, for this temple, with
joy at thy entrance, may thy lips establish the blessings of Bit-Saggil,
Bit-Zida, and Bit-Gis-nu-gal, the temples of thy great divinity; set the
fear of thy great divinity in the hearts of his (_i.e._, Nabonidos’) men
that they err not; for thy great divinity may their foundations remain
firm like the heavens. As for me, Nabonidos, the king of Babylon, preserve
me from sinning against thy great divinity, and grant me the gift of a
life of long days; and plant in the heart of Bilu-sarra-utsur
(Belshazzar), the eldest son, the offspring of my heart, reverence for thy
great divinity, and never may he incline to sin; with fulness of life may
he be satisfied.”
INDEX.
Abraham, origin of word, 46;
birthplace of, 46;
campaign of, 47;
in Egypt, 50.
Accadian account of the Deluge, 27;
translation of, 29.
Accadian Olympos, 35.
Accadians, the, 20.
Achæmenian inscriptions, 10.
Adam, origin of word, 27.
Ahab, date of death of, 103.
Alphabet, origin of, 74.
Aram, 44.
Ararat, 35.
Arpad, fall of, 108.
Arphaxad, 43.
Asshur, or Assur, 43.
Assur-bani-pal, 131.
Assyrian king, the last, 132.
Assyrian prayers, 157.
Assyrian texts of inscriptions, 13.
Assyrians, rites of, 67.
Babel, Tower of, 37.
Babylon, description of, 138;
rebuilt by Esar-haddon, 129.
Babylonian empire, rise of, 135.
Babylonian gem, 25.
Babylonian king, the last, 151.
Babylonian libraries, 21.
Babylonian psalm, 159.
Babylonian Sabbath, 24.
Babylonians, rites of, 67.
Bel, prayer to, 68.
Canaan, 41.
Carchemish, battle of, 138.
Chaldæan account of the Deluge, 27;
translation of, 29.
Chaldæans, meaning of the word, 21.
Chedor-laomer, campaign of, 47.
Cherub, origin of word, 26.
Chronological tables, 133, 161.
Circumcision, rite of, 66.
Creation, legend of the, 22;
translation of, 23.
Cuneiform inscriptions, decipherment of, 9;
Grotefend’s guess, 10;
studies of Lassen and Rawlinson, 12;
discoveries of Layard, 14;
of Smith and Rassam, 15;
hieroglyphic origin of, 15.
Cush, 40.
Cyprus, names of, 40.
Cyrus, empire of, 141;
not a Persian, 143;
cylinder of, 146;
a polytheist, 149;
not King of Persia, 153;
language of, 156.
Damascus, capture of, 107;
overthrow of, 111.
Darius, 150.
Deluge, Accadian account of, 27.
Egypt during sojourn of Israelites, 58.
Egypt, the burden of, 130.
Egyptian traditions, 49.
Elam, 42.
Esar-haddon, 130.
Evil-Merodach, 141.
Exodus, the, time of, 60; stages of, 62.
Fall of man, Babylonian account of, 25.
Genesis, Book of, confirmations of, 19;
the creation, 22;
the Sabbath, 24;
the fall of man, 25;
the site of Paradise, 26;
the Deluge, 27;
monotheism of, 34;
site of Ararat, 35;
the Tower of Babel, 37;
dispersion of mankind, 38;
Abraham, 46;
Joseph, 51.
Gisdhubar, adventures of, 28.
Gomer, 39.
Goshen, land of, 56.
Grotefend, guess of, as to decipherment of inscriptions, 10.
Ham, 38.
Hamath, discovery of Hittite inscriptions at, 95.
Haran, site of, 46.
Hazael, contest of, with Shalmaneser, 105.
Hebrew inscriptions, 82.
Hezekiah, illness of, 116;
deliverance of, 126;
library of, 127.
Hiddekhel, origin of word, 26.
Hittite inscriptions, discovery of, 95.
Hittites, empire of, discovery of, 92;
cities of, 94;
origin of, 96;
dress of, 97;
art of, 98.
Hyksos, the, 50.
Istar, descent of, into Hades, 152.
Japhet, 38.
Javan, 39.
Jehovah, origin of the word, 63.
Jerusalem, capture of, by Shishak, 100;
capture of, by Sargon, 117.
Jerusalem, underground, 91.
Joseph in Egypt, 51.
Josiah, 137.
Kadesh, 94.
Kirjath-sepher, 94.
Klein, Dr., discovers Moabite Stone, 76.
Lassen’s studies of inscriptions, 12.
Lud, 44.
Madai, 39.
Media, 136.
Merodach, the god who raises the dead to life, 156.
Merodach-baladan, wars of, 116.
Mizraim, 40.
Moab, language of, 79.
Moabite Stone, the, discovery of 76;
translation of inscription, 77;
language of, 79;
forms of the letters, 82.
Months, names given to, 72.
Moses, origin of the word, 66.
Nabonidos, inscription concerning, 141.
Naville, M., discovery of, 62.
Nebuchadrezzar, 138;
wars of, 139;
inscription of, 140.
Nimrod, 44.
Nineveh, fall of, 132.
Nizir, land of, 35.
Omri, tribute of, 105.
Palestine, early travels in, 59.
Paradise, site of, 26.
Pharaoh, origin of word, 51.
Pharaoh Necho, 136.
Phœnician ritual, 68.
Phut, 41.
Pishon, origin of word, 26.
Pithom, site of, 62.
Pool of Siloam, site of, 84;
recent discoveries at, 90.
Ramses, sites of, 60.
Rawlinson’s studies of inscriptions, 12.
Rimmon, 104.
Rimmon-nirari, conquests of, 107.
Rowandiz, 35.
Sabbath, Babylonian, 24.
Samaria, capture of, 113;
re-settlement of, 114.
Sarah, origin of word, 46.
Sargon, wars of, 116;
capture of Jerusalem by, 117;
death of, 120.
Scythians, the, 131.
Sennacherib, wars of, 120;
inscription of, 120;
bas-relief of, 124;
at Lachish, 125;
defeat of, 126;
murder of, 127.
Shalmaneser II, campaigns of, 101;
inscription of, 102;
conquers Hazael, 105;
erects his own image, 105;
obelisk of, 106.
Shem, 38.
Shishak, capture of Jerusalem by, 100.
Siloam inscription, discovery of, 83;
site of, 84;
translation of, 87;
language of, 88;
date of, 88.
Sisuthros, adventures of, 28;
translation of legend concerning, 29;
meaning of the name, 36.
Sumirians, the, 20.
Tariff of Sacrifices, translation of, 69.
Tiglath-Pileser, campaigns of, 108;
death of, 112.
Two Brothers, Tale of the, 54.
Ur, site of, 46.
FOOTNOTES
1 Deut. ii. 23, Jer. xlvii. 4, Amos ix. 7.
2 Brugsch, “History of Egypt” (Eng. Tr.) I, p. 158.
3 Brugsch, “History of Egypt” (Eng. Tr.), I, pp. 309-311.
4 Called Anab, “(the city of) grapes,” in Josh. xi. 21.
5 The invention of the existing Masoretic system of vowel-points and
accents is ascribed to Mokha of Tiberias (A.D. 570) and his son
Moses, who are said to have based it on a system invented shortly
before by Akha the Babylonian. Only a very few MSS. are known
written in the Babylonian system of punctuation.
6 A coin from Gaza, of the fourth century B.C., is now in the British
Museum, on one side of which is the figure of the Canaanitish Baal
in a chariot of fire, but otherwise with the attributes of the Greek
Zeus, and with the word YHU (_i.e._, Yahu or Yeho) written above him
in old Phœnician letters.
7 The Assyrian inscriptions show that the true form of the name of the
king of Damascus was Rezon, like that of the founder of the kingdom
(1 Kings xi. 23), the Biblical form with _i_ being due to the same
vocalic change as that in _Toi_ (2 Sam. viii. 9) by the side of
_Tou_ (1 Chr. xviii. 9), or Hiram (1 Kings v. 1) by the side of
Huram (2 Chr. ii. 11). Hezion in 1 Kings xv. 18 is probably a
copyist’s error for Rezon.
8 Compare 2 Kings xv. 29.
9 The name of Baladan in 2 Kings xx. 12 (and Isa. xxxix. 1) is due to
the error of a copyist, like Berodach for Merodach. His eye must
have run back to the name of Merodach-baladan in the preceding line.
Merodach-baladan means “Merodach has given a son,” and without
“Merodach” would be incomplete.
10 “That day” in the A. V. should be corrected into “to-day” (Isa. x.
32).
11 The following chronological table will enable the reader to
understand without difficulty the order of the events described in
the preceding chapter:—
B.C.
1130. Reign of Tiglath-Pileser I, in Assyria: campaigns in Syria and
Cilicia.
900. Recovery of Assyria after a period of decline.
858. Accession of Shalmaneser II.
853. Battle of Karkar.
851. Death of Ahab.
850. Campaign of Shalmaneser against Hadadezer (Ben-hadad II).
845. Campaign against Hadadezer.
843. Murder of Hadadezer by Hazael.
841. Campaign against Hazael; tribute paid to Shalmaneser by Jehu.
823. Shalmaneser II succeeded by Samas-Rimmon.
810. Samas-Rimmon succeeded by Rimmon-nirari.
804. Damascus captured by the Assyrians: tribute paid by Samaria.
781. Rimmon-nirari succeeded by Shalmaneser III.
773. Campaign against Damascus.
745. April. Pul, who takes the name of Tiglath-Pileser II, usurps
the Assyrian throne.
743-40. War with Hamath; submission of Uzziah; fall of Arpad.
738. Tribute paid to the Assyrians by Menahem and Rezon.
734. Damascus besieged; the tribes beyond the Jordan carried away;
Jehoahaz (Ahaz) of Judah becomes an Assyrian vassal.
733 (? 729). Pekah put to death; Hosea succeeds.
732. Damascus taken; Rezon slain. Ahaz at Damascus.
727. Tiglath-Pileser succeeded by Shalmaneser IV.
722. Sargon seizes the throne and captures Samaria.
721. Merodach-baladan conquers Babylonia.
720. Hamath conquered; Sabako (So) of Egypt defeated at Raphia.
712. Embassy of Merodach-baladan to Hezekiah.
711. Capture of Jerusalem and Ashdod by Sargon.
710. Merodach-baladan driven from Babylonia.
705. Murder of Sargon; his son Sennacherib succeeds on the 12th of
Ab.
704. Merodach-baladan holds Babylon for six months.
701. Campaign against Judah; battle of Eltekeh; retreat of
Sennacherib from Jerusalem.
681. Murder of Sennacherib; accession of Esar-haddon.
676. Manasseh appears among the Assyrian tributaries. Egypt
conquered.
670. Assur-bani-pal (Sardanapalus) associated in the government on
the 12th of Iyyar.
668. Esar-haddon dies; Assur-bani-pal succeeds on the 27th of Ab.
665. Destruction of Thebes (No-Amun) by the Assyrians.
?606. Fall of Nineveh, Esar-haddon II or Sarakos being the last
king.
12 See Jer. xlvii. 1.
13 Compare Ezek. xxvii. 18.
14 The following chronological table will assist the reader in
understanding the sequence of events in the preceding chapter:—
B.C.
609. Battle of Megiddo; Josiah slain; Pharaoh Necho overruns Western
Asia.
606. Necho defeated at Carchemish by Nebuchadrezzar; foundation of
the Babylonian empire.
604. Nebuchadrezzar succeeds his father Nabopolassar.
599. Jerusalem captured; Jehoiachin sent to Babylon.
588. Destruction of Jerusalem; murder of Gedaliah.
567. The Babylonians overrun Egypt, then governed by Amasis.
561. Nebuchadrezzar succeeded by his son Evil-Merodach.
559. Nergal-sharezer, son of Bel-sum-iskun, seizes the Babylonian
crown.
555. Nergal-sharezer succeeded by Laborosoarchod.
555. The crown seized by Nabonidos, son of Nabu-balatsu-ikbi.
552. The dream of Nabonidos.
549. Conquest of Astyages of Ekbatana (Media) by Cyrus, king of
Elam.
548. Death of “the king’s mother” (Nitokris).
538. Overthrow and death of Nabonidos; Cyrus occupies Babylon.
529. Death of Cyrus and accession of Kambyses.
521. Darius, the son of Hystaspes, elected to the throne of Persia.
520-19. Revolt of Babylon under Nidinta-Bel.
513. Second revolt of Babylon under Arakha.
15 “The wood of the great prince.”
16 Literally, “I took the framework.”