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STONES    CEYING    OUT. 


h-fil 


V 


)  Ellen 

STONES  CRYING  OUT 


ia  ijr*  garraitfos  0f  %  §i 

• 

CONCERNING  THE  TIMES  OF  THE  JEWS. 

THE  EVIDENCE  OP  THE  LAST  TEN  YEAES 


Jj»         JN»         iV«5 

ATTTHOB  OP  "  THB  BOOK  AND  ITS  STOBY,"  AND   "  THE  MISSING  LINK." 


SECOISD  EDITION,  CAKEFULLY  EEVISED. 


I     TELL    YOU     THAT,     IF    THESE     SHOULD     HOLD    THEIR     PEACE,     THE     STONES     WOULD 
IMMEDIATELY    CRY    OUT. LUKE    XIX.    40. 

"FOR    THE    STONE    SHALL   CRY    OUT   OF   THE   WALL,    AND   THE    BEAM    OUT   OF   THE   TIMBER 
SHALL   ANSWER    IT." — HAB.    II.    11. 

"A    TIME    TO    GATHER    STONES   TOGETHER."— ECCL.    III.    5. 

"WHY,  SEEING  TIMES  ARE   NOT  HIDDEN  FROM  THE  ALMIGHTY,  DO  THEY  THAT  KNOW 

HIM    NOT  SEE    HIS    DAYS?' JOB   XXIV.    1. 


LONDON: 

THE  BOOK  SOCIETY,  19,  PATEENOSTEB  BOW, 

AND  BAZAAB,  SOHO  SQTJAEE. 

XDCCCLXV. 

[T&e  Sight  of  Tranilation  it  Seiervtd.'] 


R,  LOHDOJ. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

INTRODUCTORY  CHAPTER       ••••••••  \  vii 


CHAPTER  I. 

PBOGEESS  IN  THE  IAST  TEN 

International  Exhibition — Telegraphic  Communication — Increase  of 
Correspondence — Photography — Secrets  of  Light  and  Colour — 
Improvements  in  Machinery— Locomotives — Occupants  of  the 
World's  Fair — Its  Visitors — The  Laureate's  Ode — Models  of  In- 
struments of  War — The  Biblo  Stall — Eevolutions  for  the  World — 
Revivals  for  the  Church — Israel's  Long  Chapter  in  the  World's 
History — God's  Treasure  Chambers  in  Chaldea  .... 


THE  "SEVEN  TIMES"  OP  THE  PATRIARCHS, 

BEFOBE  THE  GIVING  OP  THE  WEITTEX  1AW  THBOUGH  MOSES. 

CHAPTER  IT. 

• 

THE    CBADLE  OF  NATIONS,, 

Disinterment  of  Languages— Withstanding  Moses— Our  Lord's  Wit- 
ness to  Him — Divine  History — Biblical   Chronology — The  Far 


VI  CONTENTS. 

HC3 

Beginning — Enoch's  Prophecy — Adam  and  Methuselah — Marvels 
Before  the  Flood — Shem — Oral  Tradition — Eden — Ararat,  its 
Summit — Noah's  Descent — Shinar — Nimrod — First  Chaldean 
Empire — Urukh — Chedorlaomer — Hamitic  and  Semitic  Races — 
The  Toldoth  Beni  Noah— New  Nations  of  Africa— Ancient  Baby- 
lon— Its  Era  by  Stellar  Calculation — Temple  of  Mugeyer,  its 
Cylinders— Clay  Tablets — Warka— Fall  of  Chaldean  Empire— 
Early  Idolatry — Founding  of  Nineveh — Call  of  Abram — Nablus  23 

CHAPTER  HI. 

"EPHRAIM  is  ur  PIEST-BOEN." 

Promise  to  Abram — His  Altar — His  Conquest — Was  Melchisedek 
Shem  ? — Mount  Moriah— God's  Covenants — Offering  of  Isaac — 

•  Scenes  at  Shechem  and  on  Gerizim — Shiloh — Population — The 
Curse  and  the  Promise — The  Samaritans  at  Nablus — The  Yom- 
Kippoor — Recitation  of  the  Law — The  Pentateuch — Case  of  the 
Great  Roll — Visit  of  the  Prince  of  Wales  to  Nablus — Three 
Alphabets — Three  Chronologic*  —Who  are  the  Samaritans  ? — The 
Samaritan  Passover  .  .  .....  C3 


CHAPTER  IY. 

DOWN  INTO  "EGYPT. 

Jacob's  Migration — Egyptologers — Hebrew  Chronology — Menes — 
Time  of  Israel's  Sojourn — Their  Increase — Hebrews  named  on 
Egyptian  Monuments — Tombs  of  Kings — Slavery  of  the  People — 
Rameses — Thothmes,  their  Relics  in  our  Museum — Which  ia  the 
Pharaoh  of  the  Exodus? — Pharaoh's  Daughter — Memphis— Thebes 
— Karnak — Three  Periods  of  Egyptian  Art — Zodiac  of  Dendera — 
Portico  of  its  Temple  ......... 


CONTENTS.  Vii 

CHAPTER  V. 

« 

JOB  AND   HIS  EISA. 

TAGB 

Job's  Character  —  His  Era  —  The  Mingled  People—  Genuine  and 
adopted  Arabs  —  Job's  Descent/  the  Blessing  of  Ishmael  —  Job's 
Age  —  Above  and  Below  —  Early  Cultivation  of  Arabia  —  God's 
Judgment  concerning  Job  —  His  Revelation  to  the  Patriarch  — 
Language  of  Book  of  Job  —  Ethiopia  —  Length  of  Patriarchal 
Period  —  Eeligion  and  Morals  of  Times  of  Job—  Study  of  the  Cha- 
racter of  the  Patriarchs  —  Was  Job  a  grandson  of  Jacob  ?  .  .  Ill 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE  STONES  OP  ABABIA. 

The  Warka  Tablet  of  Mr.  Loftus—  First  Collectors  of  Himyaritic 
Inscriptions—  Rock  of  Hisn  Ghorab  —  Himyaritic  Altar—  Bronze 
Tablets  —  Mikal  Joseph's  Stones  from  Mareb—  Sons  of  Joktan— 
Researches  of  Arnaud  and  Fresnel  —  Inscriptions  on  Dyke  of 
Mareb  —  Fresnel's  Alphabet—  Account  of  the  Dyke  in  the  Koran 
—  Idolatries  of  the  Arabs  —  Athtor  —  Ashtoreth  —  The  Early  Dhou 
Nowas  —  Almakah—  The  Primeval  Arabic  —  Palgrave's  Recent 
Travels  in  the  Nejed  —  Affinity  between  Himyaritic  and  Early  San- 
scrit Alphabet—  The  Patriarch  Eber  —  Peopling  of  India—  Table  of 
Usher's  Chronology  .........  133 


CHAPTER  VII. 

STONES  OP  AEABIA,  ANOTHER   BEADING. 

Al  Kaswmi's  Key—  Mr.  Forster's  Friends  —  Inscription  on  Hisn 
Ghorab—  The  Tribe  of  Ad  —  The  Musnad  —  Mr.  Forster's  Alphabet 
—The  Pass  of  Hagar—  The  Second  Poem—  Dates  on  Inscriptions— 


viii  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

The  Dyke  of  Mareb — Arabian  Princess's  Epitaph— Job's  Descrip- 
tion of  the  Price  of  Wisdom — The  Ekkili — Ethiopia  Alphabet — 
Table  of  Moon's  Chinese  and  Arabic  Alphabets — A  Bible  for  the 
Blind— The  Fruits  in  Arabia  and  China  -  163 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

CHBONICLES  OP  THE  EXODUS. 

The  Call  of  Moses  to  his  Work — His  return  into  Egypt — An  Exodus 
of  the  Torgot  Tartars — The  Exodus  of  Israel — The  Passover — 
Paul's  Teaching  by  Types — Eetiew  of  Part  the  First  .  .  185 


THE  TIME,  TIMES,  AND  A  HALF  OF  ISRAEL'S 
PROBATION. 

FEOM  THE  COVENANT  WITH  ABRAHAM,  B.C.  1921,  TO  THE  FAIL  OP 
.  MANASSEH,  B.C.  661—667,  A  SPACE  OP  1260  YEARS,  OB  3|  x  360  =  1260. 

CHAPTEE  IX. 

THE  CHBONICLES  OP  THE  EXODUS. 

Israel's  Waymarka — The  Sinaitio  Inscriptions — Serbal  the  True 
Mount  Sinai— Wady  Feiran — Amalek — Subjects  of  Sinaitic  In- 
scriptions —  View  from  Serbal  —  Locality  of  the  Inscriptions  — 
Kibroth-hattaavah— The  Graves  in  Wady  Berah  ....  203 


CONTENTS.  IX 

CHAPTEE  X. 

CHBONICLES   OF   THE   EXODUS.  SACK 

The  Age  of  the  Inscriptions — The  Journey  Onward — Kadesh — The 
Blank  of  the  Thirty-Eight  Years— Mines  in  the  Desert— The 
Israelites  and  the  Hieroglyphs — Korah's  Eehellion — The  Wells  of 
Beer-sheba — Israel's  Two  Songs — The  Entrance  and  the  Exit — 
What  is  the  main  interest  of  these  questions  ?  —  The  Queen  of 
Sheba 243 

CHAPTEE  XI. 

HINEVEH — ITS  PALI,  AND  ITS  BESUBEECTION. 

The  very  old  Alliance  of  Susiana,  Assyria,  and  Chaldea — Their  Topo- 
graphy— Mention  in  Scripture — Destruction  of  Nineveh  by  the 
Tigris  and  by  JFire — Its  Era — Our  Lord's  Eeference  to  Jonas  and 
to  Nineveh— Its  Eesurrection  by  the  hand  of  Botta  and  Layard — 
Mr.  Layard's  Dream,  his  Discoveries,  his  Excavators — The  Chal- 
deans or  Nestorians,  their  Language,  their  Link  with  Israel — The 
Eise  of  the  Chaldean  Church  at  the  Day  of  Pentecost — The  Man 
Lions  and  Bulls — The  Negations  of  the  Nineveh  Eemains  in  the 
"  Saturday  Eeview" — Their  Chronological  Arrangement  —  Their 
Two  Ages— An  Introductory  Chamber — The  Mound  of  Asshur 
— The  Babylonian  King — The  Nimroud  Mound,  and  its  Nine 
Palaces— The  North-west  Palace— The  Tablet-King  —  Era  of  the 
North-west  Palace;  its  entrance — The  King  Worshipping,  Hunt- 
ing Lions,  Offering  Libation — Assyrian  Chariots — Palace  Gardens 
— Colour  on  Sculptures — Perishing  Ivories 269 

CHAPTEE  XII. 

THE   GODS   OP  NINEVEH. 

Supernatural  Forms  on  Monuments — Idolatry  of  Two  Kinds — Asshur 
and  his  Presence — Assyrian  Feroher— The  Eden  Cherubim — Egyp- 
tian Cherubim— The  World-power  — The  Wings  of  God  — The 


X  CONTENTS. 

PAG3 

Importance  of  these  Heathen  Symbols — The  Cherubim  of  the 
Tabernacle  and  the  Temple — The  Divine  Presence  over  the  Mercy- 
seat,  and  in  the  Pillar  of  Cloud — The  Chebar  Cherubim — The 
Sacred  Tree  of  the  Assyrians,  its  Attendants — The  One  Object  of 
Worship  in  the  Assyrian  North-west  Palace — Lord  Aberdeen's 
Stone  —  The  Offering  of  the  Cedar  Cone  —  The  Asshayrah  or 
"  GroTes"  of  the  Time  of  the  Judges  of  Israel— The  "  Accursed 
Thing,"  its  Voice  to  Israel — Inspired  Emblems  for  Assyria  and 
Israel — Nisroch— Dagon — Bel  and  the  Dragon — The  Mighty  Grave  311 

CHAPTEE  XIII. 

THE  HEBBEW  KINGDOM. 

Bronze  Bowls  —  Hebrews  in  the  North-west  Palace  —  A  Halting- 
place  beside  the  Winged  Bull  and  Lion — Eise  of  the  Jewish  King- 
dom— Saul — David — Solomon  —  The  Urim  and  the  Thummim — 
Solomon's  Glory— Tyre— The  Prophet  Jonah  ....  319 

CHAPTEE  XIV. 

THE  TALL  OF  JTJDAH. 

The  Central  Palace— Its  displaced  Slabs— The  Obelisk—The  Jewish 
Costume — The  Table  of  Kings — Syria — Nebo — Ages  represented 
on  the  Nimroud  Mound — The  South-west  Palace— The  Prophets 
— Isaiah — Kouyunjik  Gallery — Merodach-Baladan — Gallery  Slabs 
— Susian  Slabs  —  Elam — Outcasts  of  Elam  —  Battles  with  the 
Elamites — Daniel  in  Shushan — Sennacherib — His  Sieges — Subter- 
ranean Hall — Lachish — Figures  of  High  Priests  of  Israel — Baby- 
lonian Bowls  373 

CHAPTEE  XV. 

THE  STONES  OP  PERSIA. 

The  Eock  of  Behistun — Specimen  of  its  Languages — Persepolis— 
Inscription  on  the  Hall  of  Xerxes — The  Tomb  of  Cyrus  at  Murg- 


CONTENTS.  XI 

PAGB 

hab— The  Portrait  Pillar— The  Aryan  Eule — The  Behistun  In- 
scription— Assyrian  Tablets — Scripture  Names — The  Medes — 
Ahasuerus,  Xerxes — Medes  and  Persians — Zend  and  Sanscrit — 
The  Magi — The  Modern  Parsees — The  Assyrian  Tablets — Kings, 
Gods,  Places — Comparison  of  results  by  Cuneiform  Headers — A 
New  Decipherer — The  Black  Stone  of  Shush — Letters  without 
Arrow  Heads— A  Clay  Library — Syllabaries — Phoenician  Charac- 
ters— Count  Gobineau — Mr.  Forster — The  Inscription  Eeaders — 
The  French  Institute — Babylon — The  Birs-Nimroud — The  Sargo- 
nidse— The  Tomb  of  Daniel — Exploration  of  Palestine — Universal 
Israelite  Alliance — The  End 409 


APPENDIX  I. — Inscriptions  of  Tiglath-Pileser         .       •        .        .  459 
APPENDIX  II. — Inscription  of  Ashurakhbal ;  or,  Sir  H.  Eawlinson's 

Assur-Izzi-Pal 462 

APPENDIX  III. — Inscription  of  Pul 464 

APPENDIX  IV. — Extracts  from  the  Inscription  of  Sennacherib,  re- 
ferring especially  to    his    wars    with    Merodach-Baladan    and 

Hezekiah 46g 

APPENDIX  V.— Dr.  Oppert's  Beading  of  the  famous  Inscription  of 

Nebuchadnezzar  at  Borsippa      ' 459 

APPENDIX  VI.— Cy Under  of  Nebuchadnezzar  at  Senkereh      .        .  470 

List  of  Scriptures  quoted  in  this  Volume  ....  473 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTKATIONS, 

BY  C.  W.  SHEERES. 


SERBAL,  THE  MOUNT  OP  INSCRIPTIONS  .  Frontispiece. 
TABLES  o»  STONE  WITH  HEBREW  AND  SAMARITAN  ROLLS  OF  THE 

PENTATEUCH.    THE  GREEK  SEPTTJAGINT,  AND  ALEXANDRINE    PAGE 
VERSION  OP  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT       .  .  .1 

PORTRAIT  OF  PRINCE  ALBERT  .  .  .  11 

PORTRAIT  OF  GARIBALDI  .  .  .  .15 

JUDAH  CAPTIVE          .....  20 

ANTIQUE  LAMP  FROM  WARKA      .  .  .  .22 

MOUNT  ARARAT  ....  to  face    32 

ONE  OF  URUKH'S  BRICKS.  INSCRIPTION  STAMPED  IN  MONOGRAM  39 
INSCRIPTION  OF  URUKH  IN  ORDINARY  CUNEIFORM  CHARACTERS  43 
THE  FISH-GOD  .....  47 

THE  TEMPLE  OF  MUGEYER ' .  .  to  face    47 

CYLINDER  OF  NABONIDUS,  B.C.  555       .  ;  .  48 

UNBAKED  CLAY  TABLET  AND  ITS  ENVELOPE  .  .        50 

COFFIN  FROM  WARKA  .  „  .  .  62 

BABYLONIAN  FIGURES    .  .  .  .  .53 

ANCIENT  POTTERIES  ....  53 

BABYLONIAN  LAND-MARK  .  .  .  .57 

THE  VALE   OP    NABLUS   WITH  MOUNTS  EBAL  AND 

GERIZIM        ....  .to  face    G3 

THE  ROLL  OP  THE  SAMARITAN  PENTATEUCH  to  face  83 
THE  SAMARITAN  AND  PHOENICIAN  ALPHABETS  .  .  84 

HIEROGLYPHIC  OF  THE  HEBREWS  .  .  .96 

THE  ROSETTA  STONE  ....  101 

STATUES  OF  AMENOPHIS  ....      106 

PILLARS  OF  KARNAK  •  .  .  •  107 


XIV  LIST   OP   ILLUSTRATIONS. 

PASS 

PORTICO  OF  THE  TEMPLE  OF  DENDERA        .               .               .  109 

HIMYABJTIC  GRAVE-STONE      ....  134 

LETTERS  ON  HISN-GHORAB,  INSCRIPTION     .  .  .136 

STONE  BROUGHT  FROM  MAREB               .                .               .  140 

INSCRIPTIONS  FROM  THE  DYKE  OF  MAREB  .                .               .  144 

FRESNEL'S  HIMYARITIC  ALPHABET        .               .               .  145 

THE  ARAB  SHEIKH        .....  152 

THE  MOHAMMEDAN  HOUR  OF  PRAYER.                .                .  154 
OLD  SANSCRIT  ALPHABET             .               .               .              .157 

OLD  SANSCRIT  COMPARED  WITH  HIMYARITIC       .                .  157 

MODERN  SANSCRIT  ALPHABET       ....  158 

HIMYARITIC  INSCRIPTION  FROM  MAREB               .               .  174 
THE  ETHIOPIC  ALPHABET             .               .               .               .177 

MOON'S  ALPHABETS  FOR  THE  BLIND       .              .              .  181 
THE  PASSOVER  LAMB    .                .                .                .               .197 

MAP  OF  SINAI  DESERT  .                .                .             to  face  203 

ATTN  MOUSA — THE  WELLS  OF  MOSES        .               .               .  205 

SINAITIC  INSCRIPTION             .               .                .               .  211 

BEER'S  SINAI  ALPHABET                ....  212 

STONE  BROUGHT  HOME  BY  DR.  BONAB,                .               .  214 

"THE  PEOPLE" — ACTUAL  SIZE  OF  LETTERS,  FROM  LABORDE    .  215 

MR.  FORSTER'S  SINAI  ALPHABET         .               .               .  217 

SINAITIC  INSCRIPTION    .....  219 

THE  VALLEY  OF  FEIRAN               .                .             to  face  228 

KIBROTH-HATTAAVAH            .               .                .      toface  238 

INSCRIPTION  AT  BEER-SHEBA                 .                .                .  259 
FAMILY  OF  THE  MODERN  KALDANI  OR  NESTORIAN?,  EMPLOYED 

BY  MR.  LAYARD  IN  THE  EXCAVATIONS  OF  NINEVEH  .  281 

SPECIMEN  OF  SYRO-CHALDAIC       ....  282 

MAN-HEADED  AND  WINGED  LION         ...  286 

A  BABYLONIAN  KING     .....  292 

THE  KING  OF  THE  NORTH-WEST  PALACE             .                .  297 

THE  KING  OF  ASSYRIA  WORSHIPPING  IN  HIS  PALACE  TEMPLE  302 

THE  KING  OF  ASSYRIA  HUNTING  THE  LION        .               .  302 

PRESENCE  OF  ASSHUR  IN  THE  TRIUMPHAL  PROCESSION             .  303 

Krxo  OF  THE  NORTH-WEST  PALACE  ON  HIS  THRONE         .  304 

ASSYRIAN  FEROHER       .                .               .               .             .  .  313 

EGYPTIAN  CHERUBIM             ....  314 

SACRED  TREE  AND  KNEELING  FIGURES       .                .                .  326 

SACRED  TREE  AND  NISROCH  ....  326 

A  ROYAL  CYLINDER  OR  SIGNET  .  327 


LIST   OP   ILLUSTRATIONS.  XV 

P10B 

UPPER  SECTION  OF  LORD  ABERDEEN'S  STONE     .               .  329 

THE  EGYPTIAN  OFFERING  THE  LOTCS          .               .               .  330 

SACRED  TREE  AND  GRIFFINS  ON  DRESS  OF  KINGS  OF  NINEVEH  335 
DAGON             .                .                .               .                .                .343 

AGATE  SIGNET  OF  DAGON      ....  343 

BEL  AND  THE  DRAGO.    .....  345 

JEWS  BRINGING  TRIBUTE        .               .               .               .  351 

JERUSALEM                ....      toface  355 

THE  MAP  OF  ARABIA      .                .                .             toface  373 

MAN-HEADED  AND  WINGED  BULL                 .               .               .  373 

BLACK.  OBELISK  OF  NIMROUD                .                .               .  377 

THE  JEWISH  COSTUME   .....  379 

THE  GOD  NEBO       .  .  .  .386 

SENNACHERIB  IN  HIS  CHARIOT     ....  401 

SENNACHERIB  BEFORE  LACHISU            .               .               .  404 

CAPTIVES  TAKEN  IN  SUSIANA        ....  406 

BOWL  FROM  BABYLON            ....  408 

THE  ROCK  OF  BEHISTUN       .               .                .      toface  409 

VASE  OF  HALICARNASSUS       .               .               .               .  413 

PERSIAN,  MEDIAN,  ASSYRIAN,  AND  EGYPTIAN  NAME  OF  XERXES  414 

FIGURE  OF  CYRUS                                                                 -.  418 

His  INSCRIPTION            .....  419 

CYLINDERS  OF  TIGLATH-PILESER           .               .               .  432 

THE  BLACK  STONE  OF  SHUSH       .                         '      •               •  436 

LETTERS  WITHOUT  ARROW-HEADS          .               .               .  437 

LETTERS  WITH  HAMMER-HEADS     ....  438 

CYLINDER  OF  SENNACHERIB  . 

INSCRIPTION  OF  SENNACHERIB                      .  455 

THE  TOMB  OF  DANIEL  AT  SUSA                .             toface  456 


STONES    CRYING    OUT. 


AN   INTRODUCTORY   CHAPTER. 

"  THIS  is  a  book  wliicli  seems  to  want  connection/'  has 
been  said  by  some  few  of  the  readers  of  its  First  Edition, 
which  nevertheless  has  been  very  kindly  received  by 
the  public ;  and  the  writer  trusts  that  no  time,  expense, 
or  labour  in  revision,  has  been  spared  in  rendering  a 
Second  Edition  more  worthy  of  their  notice. 

It  appears  important  to  meet  the  objection  made,  by 
still  further  clearing  the  way  in  an  introductory  chapter. 

We  did  not  mean  it  to  be  a  book  "  which  might  be 
begun  anywhere,"  with  intent  to  find  something  in- 
teresting about  the  Bible.  It  has  a  very  definite  thread, 
and  that  is,  THE  HISTORY  OF  ISRAEL  and  their  fathers 
the  Patriarchs  ;  ISRAEL,  and  their  trial  or  Probation  era, 
up  to  the  time  of  their  rejection ;  and  the  ancient  stone 
monuments  witnessing  to  the  inspired  written  records 
concerning  this  nation.  ISRAEL  and  her  past,  affords 
the  main  scope  of  the  present  volume;  Israel  and  her 
present,  with  its  bearing  on  her  future  (as  again  the- 

b 


XV111  INTRODUCTOEI   CHAPTER. 

tliread  of  a  whole  world's  history),  is  the  contemplated 
subject  of  a  volume  yet  to  come — also  attended  by 
some  "  stones  crying  out "  of  a  more  modern  date. 

It  is  the  life  of  the  Hebrew  that  threads  all  history. 
For  him,  as  we  have  ventured  to  suggest,  old  Nineveh 
rises  from  her  tomb,  as  for  her  idolatrous  corruption  of 
God's  truth,  and  her  many  cruelties  to  the  chosen  race, 
she  had  been  buried  for  five-and-twenty  centuries.  For 
Israel  and  for  her  prophet  Moses*  sake  the  rocks  of 
Sinai,  peradventure,  have  been  keeping  their  dark 
sayings  unread  until  this  era,  and  they  are  yet  surely 
among  the  most  interesting  of  unsettled  mysteries. 

But  now  to  outline  the  way  in  which  we  have  ap- 
proached our  subject.  We  had  at  first  intended  to  treat 
of  the  two  periods  of  about  five-and-twenty  centuries, 
which  commence  and  end  our  present  span  of  human 
history: — The  first,  THE  PATEIAKCHAL  EEA,  preceding 
the  written  revelation ;  the  second,  the  sleep  of  Nine- 
veh, coincident  with  the  TIMES  OP  THE  GENTILES  ;  which 
two  periods  are  knit  together  by  the  PEOBATION-EEA  of 
God's  chosen  people. 

Abraham,  Manassch, 

Flood.     1921  u  c.  601  B.C. 


Patriarchal 
Times. 

Trial-Era  of 
Israel. 

Sleep  of  Nineveh. 
Rejection  of  Israel. 
Times  of  the  Gentiles. 

»d«m.                             J520. 

1200. 
Moses. 

2520.             1861  A.D 

Our  prescribed  space,  however,  only  permitted  us  to  scan 
the  first  and  the  middle  periods — the  Patriarchal  Times 
and  the  Times  of  Israel;  and  during  these  eras  the 


XIX 

student  of  the  Bible  is  asked  to  look  down  upon  the 
world  around  from  four  mountain  centres  :  from  Ararat, 
on  Patriarchal  life ;  from  Serbal,  and  Gerizim,  and  Zion, 
on  the  Hebrew  nation. 

But  the  persons  invited  to  retrace  their  steps  to 
these  ancient  Eastern  sites  of  Old  Testament  history, 
set  forth  on  their  pilgrimage  in  a  modern  era,  and,  we 
will  suppose,  from  a  western  metropolis.  At  the  ter- 
mination of  the  line  we  have  drawn,  and  at  our  end  of 
the  Times  of  the  Gentiles,  we  would  wish  them  first  to 
secure  a  coup-d'cfiil  of  the  world  as  it  is,  and  as  it  has 
recently  become,  in  consequence  of  some  great  Bevolu- 
tions  in  Europe  and  Asia,  and  of  the  wider  diffusion  of 
THE  BIBLE  in  all  languages.  Our  first  chapter  is,  there- 
fore, an  attempt  to  sum  together  the  general  points  of 
religious,  scientific,  and  industrial  advance,  which  the 
last  ten  years  of  time  have  made  on  the  foundation  of 
all  their  predecessors.  In  order  to  this,  a  walk  is 
proposed  through  the  arcades  of  the  International 
Exhibition,  the  one  held  in  London  in  the  year  1862, 
as  a  mode  of  obtaining  a  living  chronicle  of  the  im- 
provements in  arts  and  inventions  during  the  last 
decade,  especially  those  which  have  borne  upon  the 
acquisition  and  diffusion  of  knowledge,  whether  loco- 
motion, photography,  or  increase  of  correspondence. 
How  great  have  been  the  influence  of  all  these  on  the 
researches  of  travellers ! 

The  utmost  interest   of   the   Ten  years'   progress 


XX  INTRODUCTORY   CHAPTEE. 

has  "been  thought  by  many  to  culminate  in  the  proposed 
readings  by  Sir  Henry  Rawlinson  and  other  students,  of 
the  MONUMENTS  OF  NINEVEH,  deposited  in  our  National 
Museum  through  the  enterprise  of  Mr.  Layard  and 
Lord  Stratford  de  Eedcliffe  ;  and  these  at  once  lead  us 
back  to  "  The  Cradle  of  nations  "  (the  title  of  our 
second  chapter),  and  to  the  cradle  of  the  nation  of 
Israel  and  the  family  of  Abraham. 

The  small  and  classic  Lamp  which  the  Ancients  left 
beside  their  dead  in  tombs,  appears  now  about  to  be 
placed  in  the  hand  of  modern  readers.  The  learned 
men  of  many  nations  are  striving  to  rekindle  from  it  a 
light  whereby  to  read  the  arrow-headed  or  cuneiform 
characters,  which  expressed  the  thoughts  of  the  old 
Chaldeans,  Assyrians,  and  Persians,  ere  the  commence- 
ment of  profane  history,  and  which  only  fell  into 
gradual  disuse  after  the  time  of  Alexander's  conquests, 
about  330  B.C. 


«'K< 


ARROW-HEADED    CHABACTBBS. 

These  devoted  students  still  pursue  their  researches, 
in  the  firm  belief  that  while  much  uncertainty  attends 
them,  they  have  in  the  main  succeeded;  and  they 


INTKODUCTORY    CHAPTEK.  XXI 

declare  that  "  there  ought  no  longer  to  be  any  doubt 
in  the  minds  of  the  most  sceptical,  that  the  people,  the 
names,  and  the  events,  recorded  in  the  Bible  are  the 
same  with  those  of  which  they  read  011  Assyrian  tablets 
and  cylinders."  Sir  H.  Kawlinson,  in  all  good  faith, 
points  out  the  high  satisfaction  of  being  able — from  a 
source  of  quite  unimpeachable  integrity,  inasmuch  as  it 
proceeds  rather  from  the  enemies  of  the  Jews  than  from 
their  friends — to  verify  many  of  the  most  important 
historical  statements  which  occur  in  the  Old  Testament. 

This  is  especially  an  age  of  doubt.  There  are  doubters 
of  these  readings  of  the  arrow-heads — some  who  doubt 
seriously,  and  some  who  doubt  flippantly,  whether  the 
true  light  upon  them  has  yet  been  rekindled;  and 
probably  their  interpreters  will  comfort  themselves  that 
"nothing  is  ever  really  believed  until  it  is  doubted," 
while  they  day  by  day  seek  to  bring  forth  their  practical 
evidences  of  the  accuracy  of  their  decipherments;  and 
indeed  these  have  already  so  far  gained  the  ear  of  the 
intelligent  public,  that  if  they  are  to  be  Disbelieved, 
they  will  have  to  be  Disproved,  and  by  something  more 
than  sceptical  assertion. 

Meanwhile — in  this  age  of  doubt,  and  at  the  close 
oi  our  first  selected  Era  of  observation — the  Ten  years 
between  our  International  Exhibitions — there  have 
arisen,  not  only  those  who  would  puff  out  the  precious 
flicker  of  the  small  antique  Lamp  of  Mesopotamia's 
tombs;  but  those  who  would  adventure  to  dim  the 


XX11  INTRODUCTORY    CHAPTER. 

Divine  Light  of  that  LAMP  OP  GOD — Bis  own  inspired 
Word,  given  first  to  the  Jews  and  then  to  the  Gentiles, 
wherewith  to  explore  the  Past,  the  Present,  and  the 
Future. 

In  the  unshaken  trust,  that  "  to  withstand  MOSES," 
as  has  thus  been  attempted,  must  be  to  "resist  the 
truth,"  even  as  Jannes  and  Jambres  did  of  old  (2  Tim. 
iii.  8),  and  that  it  will  of  a  surety  be  manifested  "  folly 
unto  all  men,  as  theirs  also  was," — we  afresh  resolve  to 
ask  our  readers  to  return  with  us  to  the 

TIMES   OP  THE    EAELY   PATRIARCHS, 

and  to  examine  carefully  that  age  of  the  world  in  which 
Moses  lived,  and  his  relations  to  it — before  the  Bible 
began  to  be  written. 

It  was  the  notice  of  the  length  of  Nineveh's  sleep 
that  first  led  us  to  observe,  that  the  length  of  these 
Patriarchal  Times  was  curiously  similar — i.e.,  five-and- 
twenty  centuries,  a  little  more  or  less ;  and  that  taking 
the  chronology  of  the  Hebrew,  and  happily  of  the 
English  Bible,  and  reckoning  by  the  dates  given  in  the 
text  itself,  the  Times  before  the  Flood,  or  1656  years, 
were  but  two  centuries  short  of  the  period — which 
seems  to  modern  eyes  so  long — of  our  own  era,  counting 
from  the  birth  of  our  Saviour.  Yet  this  long  time  was 
spanned  by  only  two  human  lives.  Adam  lived  243 
years  with  Methuselah,  and  all  the  incidents  of  Eden 


JNTEODUCT011Y   CHAPTER.  XX111 

must  have  been  communicated  to  the  Ark  family  by  him 
who  had  dwelt  on  earth  for  more  than  two  centuries 
with  the  father  of  men. 

The  chosen  son  of  Noah,  Shem,  lived  on  to  see 
Isaac,  the  chosen  seed  of  Abraham,  grow  up  to  half  a 
century  old;  and  thus  Isaac  may  have  seen  him  who 
had  seen  the  friend  of  Adam.  Isaac  lived  on  to  the 
thirty- fourth  year  of  his  grandson  Levi ;  and  Levies  own 
daughter,  Jochebed,  was  the  mother  of  Moses :  by  only 
seven  links  of  oral  tradition,  therefore,  are  these  five- 
and-twenty  centuries  spanned. 

It  is  surely  impossible  to  study  the  Bible  without 
observing  the  importance  historically  attached  to  the 
number  seven  in  the  history  of  Israel ;  and  we  have 
incidentally  observed,  that  EBEB  has  scarcely  been 
enough  considered  in  patriarchal  stoiy.  He  is  the 
longest  liver  after  the  flood,  survives  his  great  grand- 
father, Shem,  by  thirty-one  years,  and  is  really  the 
ancestor  of  both  the  Arabs  and  the  Hebrews. 

EBEE  stands  out  in  the  new  world  as  seventh  from 
ENOCH,  who  it  is  said  was  "  seventh  from  Adam,"  and 
sees  Isaac  born — "  the  child  of  promise  " — the  seventh 
from  himself.  His  own  son  Peleg  stands  midway 
between  Noah  and  Abraham.  In  the  days  of  Peleg, 
came  "  division,"  in  the  days  of  Abraham,  "  choice/' 
Eber  sees  loth ;  and  is  it  not  likely  that  Eber  must  have 
spoken  the  primitive  Ark  language  ?  He  sees  the  birth 
of  the  three  ancestors  of  the  "  mingled  people  that 


XXIV  1NTEODUCTOEY   CHAPTEE. 

dwell  in  the  desert/'  for  lie  probably  outlives  Ms  own 
son,  Joktan,  and  is  found  on  the  earth  ninety-three  years 
with  Ishmael,  and  nineteen  with  Esau. 

We  thus  definitely  perceive  how,  beside  all  the  long 
lines  of  earth's  history,  runs  the  Arabian  thread.  The 
Arabs  have  withstood  the  armies  of  all  ages,  and  to  this 
day  have  defied  alike  the  Roman  eagle  and  the  Turkish 
crescent,  while  the  posterity  of  Isaac  have  been  obliged 
to  bow  to  the  yoke  of  both. 

We  have  assumed,  according  to  common  belief,  that 
the  country  of  Arabia  contributed  the  material  of  the 
first  book  to  the  Hebrew  Scriptures,  and  that  Job,  owing 
to  his  long  life,  may  have  been  personally  known  to 
Moses,  during  his  forty  years'  absence  from  Egypt.  (A 
short  table  of  Archbishop  Usher's  chronology,  p.  161, 
showing  the  ages  of  the  patriarchs,  as  reckoned  from 
the  Flood,  presents  this  possibility.) 

During  the  last  ten  years,  the  researches  of  the  Rev. 
Charles  Forster,  an  English  clergyman,  have  brought 
most  interesting  correlative  Rock-witness  to  bear  on  the 
Book  of  Job  (which  is  our  only  inspired  Arabian  record 
of  the  patriarchal  period),  and  also  on  the  -site  of  the 
true  Sinai.*  Mr.  Forster's  discoveries  have  been  much 
disputed,  though  they  were  accredited  by  the  highest 
legal  authorities  and  judges  of  evidence  in  this  country, 
and  looked  upon  with  favour  by  M.  Lottin  de  Laval, 
who,  to  the  honour  of  French  enterprise,  photographed 
*  See  likewise  "  The  Tent  and  the  Khan,"  by  Dr.  Stewart,  of  Leghorn. 


INTEODUCTOET   CHAPTEE.  SXV 

in  large  type,  in   the   year  1856,  330   fresh    SINAITIC 
INSCRIPTIONS. 

Mr.  Forster's  verification  of  SEEBAL  as  Sinai,  ought 
alone  to  secure  him  a  hearing  with  the  followers  of  M. 
Lepsius,  and  that  large  number  of  scholars  who  have 
accepted  the  proofs  brought  by  the  learned  German, 
whereby  he  has  rescued  the  five-peaked  monarch  of  the 
Desert  from  the  monastic  clouds  of  1000  years.  It 
has  been  our  aim  carefully  to  examine  and  clearly  to 
present  Mr.  Forster's  views  on  these  subjects  to  our 
readers,  without,  of  course,  presuming  to  verify  his 
conclusions. 

THE   UNCHOSEN    SONS. 

The  reader  is  especially  invited  in  this  book  to  con- 
template the  history  of  the  uncliosen  sons  of  Shem  and 
Abraham ;  those  Fathers,  chosen  of  the  Lord,  had  each 
one  chosen  son,  Arphaxad  and  Isaac.  In  Shem's  case 
Elam,  Assur,  Lud,  and  Aram,  were  left ;  in  Abraham's 
case,  Ishmael  and  all  the  sons  of  Keturah,  the  second 
wife,  and  even  other  sons  of  his  other  wives,  were  "sent 
away  while  he  yet  lived,  from  Isaac  his  son  unto  the 
east  country"  (Gen.  xxv.  6),  whence  we  hear  of  their 
coming  against  Israel,  in  Judg.  vi.  3,  with  the  Midian- 
ites  and  Amalekites,  "  like  grasshoppers  for  multitude/' 

The  tide  of  time  has  floated  many  of  these  names 
out  of  the  list  of  living  nations,  but  Elam  and  Aram 
still  survive  under  the  modern  appellations  of  Persia  and 
Syria,  while  the  "  mingled  people,"  the  sons  of  Ishmael 


XXVI  INTRODUCTORY   CHAPTER. 

and  Esau  (mingled  with  the  race  of  Joktan)  have  "been 
Lords  of  the  Desert  from  of  old  till  now,  and  it  is  very 
remarkable  that  if  we  ask  what  languages  the  men  of 
Persia,  Syria,  and  Arabia,  still  speak,  one  word  will 
answer  the  question.  They  all  speak  ARABIC,  not  the 
arrow-headed  language  of  ancient  Persia,  not  the  old 
Himyaritic  tongue  of  Eber,  or  of  the  Queen  of  Sheba, 
but  a  modern  form  of  the  latter,  expressed  by  quite 
different  signs,  into  which  all  the  dialects  of  Arabia  were 
resolved,  through  the  preparation  by  Mohammed  of  one 
book — the  Koran — which  has  now  for  twelve  centuries 
and  a  half  held  sway  over  them  all,  and  this  book  and 
this  tongue  have  spread  also  largely  into  Tartary,  India, 
China,  over  half  of  Africa,  round  the  sea-coasts  of  the 
Mediterranean,  and  also  to  Turkey.  The  Arabic  lan- 
guage and  the  Mohammedan  religion  have  everywhere 
gone  together — the  Semitic  language  for  the  unchosen 
sons  of  Shem — who  only  in  the  last  ten  years  have  been 
permitted  by  their  rulers  to  cast  their  eyes  on  the  true 
"Word  of  God,  which  the  fabulous  Koran  had  kept  back 
from  every  Arabic- speaking  nation  for  all  the  latter 
half  of  the  Times  of  the  Gentiles. 

The  history  of  Elam  with  its  "outcasts,"  whether 
Parsees  or  Gipsies — the  former  brought  now  so  thank- 
fully under  the  sway  of  England,  the  ruler  of  India — is 
profoundly  interesting,  and  the  coming  up  of  Nineveh's 
pictures  of  her  conquests  over  the  Susians  has  led  us 
to  retrace  it. 


INTRODUCTORY   CHAPTER.  XXVJi 

THE   PROBATION    EEA   OP   THE    CHOSEN   NATION. 

It  was  impossible  to  observe  the  two  periods  of  five- 
and-twenty  centuries — the  sleep  of  Nineveh  compre- 
hending as  it  did,  no  other  than  "  THE  TIMES  OP  THE 
GENTILES" — without  inquiry  as  to  the  length  of  the 
TIMES  OP  THE  JEWS.  These  must  have  begun  when 
Abram  was  called  out  of  Ur  of  the  Chaldees. 

The  Bible  marks  an  era  when  God  said  as  certainly 
that  He  would  "  cast  this  people  out  of  his  sight,  and 
let  them  go  forth/'  as  He  had  said  to  Abraham  that  He 
would  choose  them,  and  give  them  the  land  of  Canaan ; 
and  He  fixes  the  date  of  His  Divine  resolve  from 
the  time  and  sins  of  Manasseh,  though  it  is  recorded 
by  the  prophet  Jeremiah  at  a  somewhat  later  era. 
(Jer.  xv.  1,  4.) 

That  the  Jews  stood  rejected  in  the  mind  of  God, 
according  to  the  thrice-repeated  forewarning  delivered  by 
Moses  in  Leviticus  (chap.  xxvi.  18,  24,  28) — to  be 
fulfilled  upon  them  if  they  should  not  hearken  to  the 
law, — seems  proved  in  the  days  of  King  JOSIAH,  and 
nearly  half  a  century  before  the  destruction  of  their 
city,  586  B.C.  The  proof  consists  in  the  declaration  of 
the  prophetess  HULDAH  to  the  messengers  sent  by  Josiah 
(2  Kings  xxii.  15),  that  the  word  had  gone  forth  against 
Jerusalem,  that  it  should  become  ( '  a  desolation  and  a 
curse,"  but  that  he,  Josiah,  should  not  see  the  evil. 
Consult  also  Josephus,  Antiq.,  b.  x.,  ch.  iv. 


XXV111  INTRODUCTORY   CUAI>TER. 

That  this  rejection  of  the  Jews  is  not  final,  but  for  a 
definite  period,  we  may  assume  as  generally  acknow- 
ledged by  students  of  the  word  of  God,  without  enter- 
ing into  controversy. 

The  punishment  of  the  chosen  people  has  been 
"  double/'  i.e.,  double  the  length  of  their  trial  or  pro- 
bation era.  See  Isaiah  xl.  2,  and  Jer.  xvi.  16 — 18. 

" Behold,  I  will  send  for  many  fishers,  saith  the  Lord,  and  they  shall 
fish  them ;  and  after  I  will  send  for  many  hunters,  and  they  shall  hunt 
them  from  every  mountain,  and  from  every  hill,  and  out  of  the  holes  of 
the  rocks. 

"  For  mine  eyes  are  upon  all  their  ways :  they  are  not  hid  from  my 
face,  neither  is  their  iniquity  hid  from  mine  eyes. 

"  And  first  I  will  recompense  their  iniquity  and  their  sin  double  ;  be- 
cause they  have  defiled  my  land,  they  have  filled  mine  inheritance  with 
the  carcases  of  their  detestable  and  abominable  things." 

Then  if  "  seven  times"  be  "  double/'  according  to  the 
united  evidence  of  Moses  and  Isaiah,  and  Jeremiah, 
what  is  the  half  of  seven  times  ?  It  will  be  no  other, 
in  Scripture  computation,  than  "time,  times,  and  a 
half/'*  and  as  Israel  has  been  rejected  while  Nineveh 
has  been  sleeping,  for  five-and-twenty  centuries,  the 
idea  next  suggested  itself  that  the  Trial- Era  of  Israel 
would  be  found  to  comprise  about  twelve  centuries  and 
a  half. 

If  the  call  of  Abraham  is  taken  at  1921   B.C.  (again 

*  A  time  in  the  Book  of  Daniel  and  in  the  Eevelation  signifies  a; 
many  years  as  there  were  days  in  the  Hebrew  year,  viz.,  360. — Gaussen't 
"  Daniel."  See  also  "  Smith's  Dictionary  of  the  Bible,"  art.  Year.  Three 
times  and  a  half  360  are  1260,  and  double  this  number  is  seven  times  01 
2520. 


INTRODUCTORY   CHAPTER.  XXIX 

according  to  Usher),  the  dates  of  their  history  are  found 
comprised  in  three  numbers;  in  the  430  years  of  the  foun- 
dation of  the  family  in  Canaan,  and  their  bondage  in 
Egypt  (see  Gal.  iii.  16) ;  and  in  the  480  years  interven- 
ing between  the  Exodus  and  the  building  of  Solomon's 
temple  (see  1  Kings  vi.  1) ;  and  in  the  350  years  of  the 
subsequent  Hebrew  kingdom,  ending  in  the  days  of 
Manasseh ;  midway  between  the  total  deportation  of  the 
Ten  tribes  by  Shalmaneser,  and  the  carrying  captive  of 
the  Two  to  Babylon  by  Nebuchadnezzar.  To  each  of 
these  eras  stones  cry  out  in  testimony,  and  though 
they  bear  inscriptions  in  dead  languages,  they  are 
accompanied  by  sculptures  so  living  that  when  we  merely 
think  whence  we  have  obtained  them — they  do  not  wait, 
they  "  cry  "  to  us  to  believe  the  Word  of  the  Lord. 

On  these  subjects  we  may  surely  say,  "  Thy  word  is 
a  lamp  junto  my  feet,  and  a  light  unto  my  path."  It 
welcomes  as  its  witness  the  risen  Nineveh.  Jehovah  has 
bidden  her  throw  off  her  shroud  of  sand  and  ruin,  and 
stand  like  a  pale,  grim  spectre  in  the  midst  of  London  and 
Paris.  She  holds  in  her  hand  the  Old  Stone  Books  of 
which  the  Master  now  "has  need/'  His  prophet  Moses 
is  withstood,  and  the  generation  to  which  He  said  that 
Nineveh  should  arise  in  the  judgment  as  their  only  sign 
— the  Jews — do  still  abide  with  the  vail  upon  their 
hearts.  St.  Paul  describes  them  in  his  Epistles  to  the 
Corinthians — 

"  Until  this  day  remaineth  the  same  vail  untaten  away  in  the  reading 
of  the  Old  Testament,  which  rail  ia  done  away  in  Christ ;  but  even  to 


XXX  INTRODUCTORY    CHAPTER. 

this  day,  when  Moses  is  read,  the  vail  is  upon  their  heart.  Nevertheless 
when  it  (their  heart)  shall  turn  to  the  Lord,  the  vail  shall  be  taken 
away." — 2  COB.  in.  15. 

Let  Nineveh,  once  again  vanquish  Judah ;  but,  oh  ! 
that  it  might  now  only  overcome  her  unbelief. 

Was  not  the  Queen  of  Sheba  also  to  rise  in  the  judg- 
ment with  the  same  generation,  and  to  condemn  it? 
and  it  is  quite  true  that  some  inscribed  stones  in  her 
ancient  Himyaritic  tongue  (the  predecessor  of  modern 
Arabic),  lay  in  her  old  unvisited  capital  of  Mareb,  to 
which  Europeans  had  scarcely  ever  heretofore  been 
allowed  to  penetrate.  But  a  colporteur  of  the  Bible  in 
Arabia  is  lately  permitted,  at  the  risk  of  his  life,  to 
secure  them.  Other  bronze  tablets  in  the  same  lan- 
guage are  also  now  for  the  first  time  brought  to  London. 
The  Master  had  need  of  them,  and  they  are  come  at  tlie 
same  period  ivith  the  relics  of  Nineveh  and  not  before. 
These  twain,  these  signs,  and  no  others.  WILL*  JUDAH 

LISTEN    NOW,    OR  WILL     SHE     STILL     FORBEAR?      Have     her 

seven  times  of  punishment  passed  over  her  in  vain  ? 
or,  blinded  still,  does  she  await  their  full  and  bitter 
completion  ? 

Has  it  struck  her  that  she  did  inhabit  her  land 
though  she  lost  her  kingdom,  from  her  entrance  under 
Joshua,  1450  B.C.,  to  the  second  destruction  of  Jeru- 
salem, 70  A.D.  ?  For  1520  years,  though  "  scattered 
and  peeled,"  she  had  a  tabernacle  or  a  temple  there. 
She  only  needs  the  millennial  thousand  years  foretold  in 
our  New  Testament,  to  complete  her  ' e  seven  times,"  or 


INTRODUCTORY   CHAPTER. 

2520  years,  of  earthly  promise,  until  she,  and  all  whom 
she  will  then  have  led  to  the  feet  of  the  Saviour  and 
King  she  once  despised,  shall  be  absorbed  into  the  New 
Jerusalem  which  is  on  high. 

Scarcely  ten  years  have  passed  since  these  massive 
Assjo-ian  winged  lions  were  floated  over  the  ocean  into 
England's  keeping,  and  forsook  their  ancient  sites  by 
the  Tigris  side,  where  they  had  watched  for  long  ages  in 
darkness  over  the  ruins  of  the  Empires  which  they  had 
once  seemed  to  guard  in  their  glory. 

For  ten  years  they  have  stood,  as  now,  in  London, 
having  seen  fulfilled  all  the  "burden  of  Nineveh," 
uttered  by  the  prophet  Nahum.  Darkness  has  pursued 
the  Lord's  enemies  with  an  overrunning  flood,  an  utter 
end  was  made  of  them  (see  chap.  i.  8).  A  heathen 
oracle  had  announced  that  Nineveh  would  not  be  de- 
stroyed till  the  river  became  its  enemy.  Nahum  de- 
clared (ii.  6) — 

"  The  gates  of  the  rivers  shall  be  opened,  and  the  palace  shall  be 
dissolved." 

And  the  ravines  in  the  Nimroud  Mound  are  said  to 
mark  where  the  inundations  of  the  Tigris  washed  away 
the  magnificent  flights  of  stairs. 

Out  of  the  house  of  her  gods  is  cut  off  the  " graven 
image  and  the  molten  image,"  for  the  Lord  said — 

"  I  -will  make  thy  grave,  for  thou  art  vile."— NAB.  i.  14. 
«  Thou  shalt  be  hid."— iii.  11. 


XXXU  INTRODUCTORY  CHAPTER. 

All  tliis  for  five -and- twenty  centuries  these  sculptures 
have  seen  silently  fulfilling,  but  they  had  yet  to  come 
forth  and  prove  the  truth  of  another  threatening — 

"  I  am  against  tliee,  saith  the  Lord  of  hosts,  and  I  will  show  the 
nations  and  the  kingdoms  thy  shame.  I  will  set  thee  as  a  gazing-stock." 

And  to  confirm  another  prophecy — 

"This  generation fseeketh  after  a  sign,  and  there  shall  no  sign  be 
given  it  but  the  sign  of  the  prophet  Jonas." 

And  to  bring  a  fact  to  confound  unbelievers — THE 
FACT  that  JUDAH  has  rejected  for  nearly  nineteen  cen- 
turies— 

"  BEHOLD,  A  GBEATEE  THAN  JOFAS  is  HEEE." 

Alas  !  the  Nineveh  sculptures  are  come  forth  to  the 
light  of  day  to  find  that  God's  Israel  still  reposes  in  the 
cemetery  of  unbelief — a  "veiled"  figure,  with  Moses 
sitting  at  her  head.  It  is  as  though  that  son  of  Abra- 
ham, Dives,  had  at  last  prevailed  that  one  should  go 
unto  his  brethren  to  testify  unto  them  from  his  place 
of  torment.  Is  Abraham's  prophecy  yet  to  be  fulfilled  ? 

"If  they  hear  not  Moses  and  the  prophets,  neither  will  they  be  per- 
suaded, though  one  rose  from  the  dead." — LUKE  xvi.  31. 

We  humbly  trust  this  little  volume  may  have  a 
mission  TO  THE  JEWS  in  these  days.  We  pray  that  it 
may  have  one  also  TO  THE  GENTILES. 

It  has  often  grieved  us  to  watch  the  puzzled  air  with 
which  the  few  persons  who  wander,  three  days  a  week, 
into  the  long,  light  Nineveh  galleries  of  the  British 


INTRODUCTORY  CHAPTER.  XXX111 

Museum,  are  gazing  at  the  massive  picture-tablets  and 
strange  writing  there  to  be  found,  for  want  of  a  more 
simple  introduction  to  their  meaning. 

Their  eyes  are  resting-  on  the  actual  forms  which 
certainly  were  once  beheld  by  JONAH,  EZERIEL,  and 
DANIEL.  These  curious  STONE  pictures  have  been  surely 
given  of  God  to  England  for  no  less  a  purpose  than  to 
draw  the  attention  of  those  now  living  to  the  truth  of 
past  histories  in  His  WRITTEN  WORD.  They  are  the 
sculptures  of  the  ancient  Heathen,  but  they  are  also 
God's  galleries  of  illustration  to  the  hitherto  dark  sayings 
of  His  own  prophets. 

"  ASSHUR  shall  not  save  us,"  says  the  prophet  Hosea 
to  Israel  (ch.  xiv.  3) . — We  are  told  in  2  Kings  xvii.  30, 
that  "the  men  of  Cuth  made  NERGAL."— "BEL  boweth 
down,  NEBO  stoopeth,"  says  Isa.  xlvi.  1. — "  DAGON  was 
fallen  upon  his  face  to  the  ground  before  the  ark  of 
the  Lord,"  writes  the  prophet  Samuel  (1  Sam.  v.  4). — 
"As  he  (Sennacherib)  was  worshipping  in  the  house 
of  NISROCH,  his  God,  .  .  .  his  sons  smote  him  with 
the  sword"  (Isa.  xxxvii.  38). 

All  are  before  us  in  the  British  Museum.  And  we 
hope  that  many  an  intelligent  Bible-class  and  Sabbath- 
school  teacher  will  take  this  illustrated  volume  of 
"  STONES  CRYING  OUT  "  in  his  hands,  after  studying  it 
for  himself,  as  he  leads  an  inquiring  and  interested  class 
to  see  the  very  STONES  of  which  it  relates  the  story. 

It  is  certain  that,  as  these  STONES  could  never  have 

c 


XXXIV  INTRODUCTORY   CHAPTER. 

been  understood  without  the  BIBLE,  the  BIBLE  has  also 
waited  for  the  illustration  of  the  STONES.  Its  narratives 
concerning  the  times  of  the  Jews,  in  the  books  of  Joshua, 
Judges,  Samuel,  the  Kings,  and  Chronicles,  with  many 
of  the  images  and  allusions  of  the  Prophets,  could  never 
have  been  fully  understood  by  Western  nations  until 
these  identical  remains,  long  lost  and  buried,  had  come 
up  out  of  their  grave. 

Yet  how  very  little  are  these  sculptures  known  ! 
They  are  thought  no  longer  new  in  England,  and  they 
are  well-nigh  forgotten.  A  flower-show,  and  an  exhibi- 
tion of  modern  pictures,  or  statues,  will  be  crowded;  but 
here  are  forms  which  Jehovah  has  seen  it  needful  to  hide 
from  human  eyes  for  more  than  a  third  of  man's  era  on 
the  earth,  and  now  to  restore  to  sight,  and  there  is  no 
flocking  to  behold  them;  the  poor  and  unlettered  stroll 
in  on  wet  days,  but  we  have  never  yet  met  a  party  in 
the  Nineveh  galleries  of  the  Museum  that  seemed  to 
examine  them  with  a  hundredth  part  of  the  interest  they 
claim ;  and  this  is  for  the  want  of  tracing  a  few  broad 
outlines  concerning  them  drawn  by  the  pen  of  inspiration. 

The  most  important  of  these  up -risen  relics  are 
CHERUBIC.  They  express  the  Assyrian  ideas  that  must 
have  come  from  the  plain  of  Shinar,  and  even  from  the 
far-off  and  closed  door  of  Eden.  It  was  there  that  the 
Lord  first  placed  Cherubim  and  the  flaming  sword  which 
turned  every  way  to  keep  the  way  of  the  Tree  of  Life, 
and  it  was  from  a  certain  "  Presence  of  the  Lord  "  in 


INTRODUCTORY    CHAPTER.-  XXXV 

that  locality  that  Cain  "  went  out."  This  "  Presence/' 
as  we  afterwards  learn,  dwelt  for  Israel,  in  the  days  of 
Moses,  "between  the  Cherubim,"  over  the  ark;  and 
Ezekiel  and  Daniel  throw  light  on  the  mysterious  sub- 
ject, of  which  Berosus  the  Chaldean,  and  Herodotus 
the  Greek  historian  know  nothing.  No  reader  of  the 
Bible  will  approach  the  man-lions  without  thinking  of 
EzekieFs  symbolic  "living  creatures" — 

"  Which  had  the  likeness  of  a  man  .  .  .  and  their  feet  were  straight 
feet,  the  sole  of  their  feet  was  like  the  sole  of  a  calf's  foot  .  .  .  and  they 
had  hands  of  a  man  under  their  wings.  .  .  .  They  four  had  the  face  of 
n  man,  and  the  face  of  a  lion,  on  the  right  side  :  and  they  four  had  the 
face  of  an  ox  on  the  left  side ;  they  four  also  had  the  face  of  an  eagle. 
.  .  .  And  their  wings  were  stretched  upward ;  two  wings  of  every  one 
were  joined  one  to  another,  and  two  covered  their  bodies." — EZEK.  i. 

The  heathen  rendering  of  the  INSPIRED  idea  is  of 
course  not  perfect,  but  it  is  manifest  whence  it  came ; 
and  it  also  recalls  to  us  what  Ezekiel  saw  in  vision  by 
the  Eiver  Chebar,  as  recorded  in  his  tenth  chapter. 
The  HEAVENLY  Cherubim  "lifting  up  their  wings  to 
•mount  up  from  the  earth,  when  the  visible 

"  Glory  of  the  Lord  departed  from  off  the  threshold  of  the  house  of 
the  Lord,  and  stood  over  the  cherubims," 

forsaking  Solomon's  temple  for  ever,  some  half-dozen 
years  before  its  destruction  by  Nebuchadnezzar. 

Then  if  we  refer  to  Daniel  we  find  the  description  of 
his  first  symbolic  living  creature  of  Babylon,  which  suc- 
ceeded Assyria, — an  actual  sketch  of  these  man-lions — 

"  The  first  was  like  a  lion,  and  had  eagle's  wings.  I  beheld  till  the 
wings  thereof  were  plucked,  and  it  was  lifted  up  from  the  earth,  and 
made  stand  upon  the  feet  as  a  man." — DAN.  vii.  4. 


XXXVI  INTEODUCTOEY  CHAPTEE. 

The  eagle-headed  winged  figure  called  Nisroch,  with 
its  human  body,  is  also  partially  Cherubic,  as  it  often 
guards  the  only  symbols  worshipped  in  the  North-west 
Palace,  the  f '  Asshur "  and  the  "  Asshayrah,"  the 
Assyrian  emblem  of  the  Divine  Presence,  and  of  the  Tree 
of  Life  (see  pages  301  and  326). 

In  the  Scriptures  the  Cherubim  represent  the  abode 
of  the  PEESENCE  of  God ;  with  the  heathen  these  sym- 
bolic forms  represent  what  they  worshipped  in  lieu  of 
that  Presence. 

It  would  seem  that  on  the  mummy  cases  as  well  as 
in  the  Temples  of  Egypt,  is  always  found  the  "  orb  and 
wings"  which  was  Egypt's  symbol  of  the  Divine  Presence 
and  glory,  and  which  to  her  was  mystically  signified  in 
miniature  by  the  outspread  wings  of  the  Scarabaeus 
beetle.  On  one  of  these  mummy  cases  in  the  British 
Museum  the  Soul  is  represented  as  weighed  in  the 
balances  and  answered  for  by  the  embalmer  of  the 
body.  The  soul  was  believed  to  repose,  for  given  ages, 
in  the  tomb,  until  its  gradual  increase  in  virtue  and  size 
demanded  its  translation  to  heaven.  It  is  seen  on  this 
mummy  case,  after  its  weighing  in  the  balances,  less, 
larger,  larger  still,  and  at  last  fully  grown,  rising  up  to 
heaven  on  the  spread  wings  of  its  attendant  Scarabaeus, 
its  Cherubic  emblem.  Possibly  every  Egyptian  mummy 
had  its  emblematic  Scarabaeus,  from  the  numbers  of 
such  relics  found  in  their  tombs. 

Mr.  Layard  mentions  Assyrian  scarabaei   as  found 


INTRODUCTORY    CHAPTER.  XXXV11 

amid  the  debris  of  the  Nimroud  palaces.  God's  prophets 
of  the  captivity  must  have  seen  all  forms,  major  and 
minoi',  by  which  the  heathen  had  become  "  vain  in  their 
imaginations;"  but  how  preposterous  is  the  idea  that 
those  prophets  borrowed  the  figures  of  inspiration  from 
idolaters  ! 

St.  Paul,  who  never  saw  these  heathen  Cherubim, 
for  they  had  long  lain  buried  in  his  day  beneath  the 
Arab  villages,  says  of  their  sculptors  — 

"Professing  themselves  to  be  wise,  they  became  fools,  and  changed 
the  glory  of  the  uncorruptible  God  into  an  image  made  lite  lo  corruptible 
man,  and  to  birds,  and  four-footed  beasts,  and  creeping  things."  — 
.  i.  22,  23. 


Besides  the  light  upon  Cherubic  forms,  it  is  certain 
that  the  Word  of  God,  the  oldest  and  truest  book  in 
the  world,  throws  a  clearer  gleam  on  the  battle-fields 
and  hunting-grounds  of  Assyria  than  on  all  the  life-like 
productions  of  Grecian  art,  or  the  massive  antiquities 
of  Egypt;  and  in  directing  popular  attention  to  these 
allusions,  we  do  not  merely  point  to  the  fierce  coarse 
conquerors  of  a  former  age.  They  are  mighty  hunters 
'  '  before  the  Lord." 

It  is  from  the  ancient  relation  of  Assyria  to  Israel, 
and  from  her  drawing  the  Chosen  People  into  her  habits 
and  her  idolatries,  that  these  relics  deserve  such  earnest 
study,  and  it  is  possible  to  become  so  familiar  with  these 
monarchs  in  their  stiff  grand  robes  and  fringes,  as  to 
forget  the  first  impression  they  made  upon  us,  which 


XXXVUl  INTRODUCTORY   CHAPTER. 

most  people  will  confess  to  Lave  been  disappointing, 
because  the  estimate  of  their  value  was  so  very  vague. 

We  require  a  full  acquaintance  with,  the  facts  re- 
corded by  Moses  and  Joshua,  with  EzekieFs  symbols, 
and  Daniel's  heavenly  visions,  and  Isaiah's  history  and 
prophecy ;  we  must  have  in  our  minds  a  clear  summary 
of  the  succession  of  the  Hebrew  kings,  and  have  well 
digested,  what  JSTahum  said  should  happen,  ere  we  can 
enter  into  our  inheritance  of  teaching  from  these  Stones 
cf  Chaldea  at  the  end  of  thousands  of  years. 

It  is  said  that  in  the  nineteenth  century  "  nothing  is 
true  that  is  new,  and  nothing  is  new  that  is  true,"  but 
it  is  this  century  that  alone  can  put  together  all  the 
treasures  of  the  centuries  that  are  past. 

We  have  asked  what  these  Stones  say  to  the  JEWS, 
and  have  seen  that  their  final  message  to  them  is  con- 
cerning CHRIST. 

But  what  is  it  they  say  to  THE  GENTILES  ? 

It  was  declared  of  that  Saviour  whom  Judah  has 
hitherto  rejected,  that  "  in  His  name  shall  the  Gentiles 
trust,"  and  we  hear  explicitly  of  ts  Times  of  the  Gen- 
tiles," and  that  Jerusalem  shall  be  trodden  down  of 
the  Gentiles  until  these  "  Times  "  are  fulfilled. 

If  OUR  Times  began  with  the  BURIAL  of  NINEVEH 
and  Divine  rejection  of  the  Jews  till  they  should  have 
suffered  "  double"  for  all  their  sins,  and  if  their  pro- 
mised sign  appears,  what  may  be  inferred  of  our  Era  ? 
In  what  state  is  the  Gentile  world?  Is  it  sitting  at  the 


INTRODUCTORY   CHAPTER.  XXXIX 

feet  of  the  Christ  whom  Judah  refused,  or  is  it  not 
rather  become  the  temper  of  the  age  to  seek  to  over- 
turn and  doubt  His  Word  which  these  Stone  books  are 
come  forth  to  verify  ? 

"  When  the  Son  of  Man  cometh,  shall  he  find  faith  on  the  earth  ?" 

was  the  question  asked  by  the  very  Son  of  Man  himself. 
The  more  the  conquests  of  Sennacherib  are  studied 
on  the  walls  of  the  British  Museum,  the  more  it  will  be 
perceived  that  the  punishment  of  the  Jews  is  written 
there  for  the  eye  of  the  Common  People ;  but  still  the 
Book  says  of  Judah — 

"  Rejoice  not  against  me,  O  mine  enemy  ;  when  I  fall,  I  shall  arise ; 
when  I  sit  in  darkness,  the  Lord  shall  be  a  light  unto  me. 

"  He  will  turn  again,  he  will  have  compassion  upon  us ;  he  will  sub- 
due our  iniquities  ;  and  thou  wilt  cast  all  their  sins  into  the  depths  of 
the  sea. 

"  Thou  wilt  perform  the  truth  to  Jacob,  and  the  mercy  to  Abraham, 
which  thou  hast  sworn  unto  our  fathers  from  the  days  of  old." — MICAH 
vii.  8, 19,  20. 

And  to  this  Paul  adds — 

"  Now  if  the  fall  of  them  be  the  riches  of  the  world,  and  the 
diminishing  of  them  the  riches  of  the  Gentiles  j  how  much  more  their 
fulness?"— EOM.  xi.  12. 

And  David  declares — 

"  When  the  Lord  shall  build  up  ZlON,  he  shall  appear  in  his  glory." 
— Ps.  cii.  16. 

The  prophet  Isaiah  tell  us  that  the .  abundant  access 
of  the  Gentiles  does  not  come  in  till  the  Lord  is  risen 
upon  Zion — 


3d  INTRODUCTORY  CHAPTER. 

"  For,  behold,  the  darkness  shall  cover  the  earth,  and  gross  darkness 
the  people  ;  but  the  Lord,  shall  arise  upon  thee,  and  his  glory  shall  be 
seen  upon  thee. 

"And  the  Gentiles  shall  come  to  thy  light,  and  kings  to  the  bright- 
ness of  thy  rising."— ISA.  Is.  2,  3. 

We  merely  venture  to  put  it  as  a  query : — Notwith- 
standing all  the  advances  of  science,  notwithstanding 
all  the  circulation  of  the  Scriptures  during  the  last  half 
century,  notwithstanding  the  advance  of  education, 
what  is  the  mental  state  of  the  masses  of  the  people? 
Is  it  light,  or  darkness  ?  Ah,  even  in  favoured  Eng- 
land !  Is  the  Bible  understood  by  the  working  classes, 
and  how  much  has  it  been  explained  to  them  ?  Let  the 
answers  daily  brought  in  by  the  CITY  MISSIONARIES  and 
SCRIPTURE  EEADEES,  and  by  the  BIBLE-WOMEN  of  London 
tell.  Are  there  not  many  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
HEATHEN  in  England  still  ?  May  the  "  dumb  stones/' 
therefore,  begin  to  "  cry  out "  and  "  teach/'  but  a  far 
different  lesson  from  what  their  gravers  intended  !  They 
are  solemn,  silent  lecturers  on  the  historical  and  prophe- 
tical books  of  the  Jews.  "  He  that  hath  ears  to  hear, 
let  him  hear,"  and  interpret ;  for  rich  and  poor,  old  and 
young,  learned  and  unlearned,  are  concerned  in  the 
Cry.  Whatever  concerns  the  Bible  must  no  longer  be 
locked  up  in  learned  libraries;  the  enemy  soweth  tares; 
and  they  and  the  good  seed  are  both  to  grow  together 
until  the  harvest. 


INTRODUCTORY    CHAPTER,  xli 

DIVISION   OP   PICTURES   AND    INSCRIPTIONS. 

The  main  design  of  this  volume  is  to  lead  the 
reader  through  the  Nineveh  sculptures  in  the  British 
Museum  with  an  English  Bible  in  his  hand,  and  to 
examine  the  Stones  as  pictures  illustrative  of  the  Bible, 
"before  he  devotes  his  attention  to  man's  readings  of  the 
writings  of  the  Heathen  by  their  side — the  correctness  of 
which  might  in  many  ways  be  disputed.  The  Appendix, 
nevertheless,  contains  some  extracts  from  those  read- 
ings, which  are  very  interesting — which  verify  the 
facts  of  Scripture  by  their  allusions,  in  a  way  that  is 
marvellous  indeed  if  they  are  not  true  readings ;  and 
these  extracts  are  given  in  sequence,  according  to  the 
succession  of  the  kings  alluded  to,  stated  in  the  Table  of 
Chronology  in  p.  382. 

The  last  chapter  of  the  book  is  reserved  especially 
for  the  subject  of  the  Inscriptions. 

But  it  is  from  four  mountain  summits  that  we  have 
invited  the  reader,  to  survey  in  idea,  this  testimony  of 
rocks  and  stones. 

MOUNT  ARARAT. 

The  monuments  from  the  land  of  CHALDEA  will 
naturally  lead  us  to  the  vicinity  of  the  world's  first 
centre  after  the  Flood,  and  from  the  brow  of  the  hoary 
Ararat  we  may  still  look  down  on  the  Euxine,  the 
Caspian,  the  Persian  Gulf,  and  the  Mediterranean  Sea, 


x  INTEODUCTOEY   CHAPTER. 

for  it  is  tlie  modern  boundary  of  the  empires  of  Russia, 
Turkey,  and  Persia,  as  it  was  of  those  of  Assyria, 
]$edia,  and  Persia  of  old.  Erom  this  neighbourhood  are 
"stones  crying  out,"  if  read  aright,  concerning  Chal- 
dean kings  of  the  times  of  Abraham  and  Terah,  and, 
by  the  unmistakable  power  of  living  pictures,  concern- 
ing all  those  kings  of  Nineveh  who  led  Israel  into 
captivity. 

MOUNT   GEEIZIM. 

The  Siehem  of  patriarchal  times  occupies  our  Third 
Chapter,  which,  however,  also  touches  on  the  shifting 
scenes  of  many  ages  that  have  had  place  on  its  over- 
shadowing Mount  Gerizim,  down  to  a  recent  recitation 
on  its  summit  of  the  whole  history  of  the  Exodus,  and 
the  celebration  of  the  Samaritan  Passover  in  the  pre- 
sence of  his  ROYAL  HIGHNESS  THE  PEINCE  OF  WALES.* 

The  fourth,  fifth,  sixth,  and  seventh  chapters  arc 
parenthetical  as  regards  Siehem ;  we  have  to  go  down 
with  Israel  into  Egypt  in  times  still  patriarchal,  and 
point  to  the  STONES  of  desolation  that  border  the  Nile ; 
to  Rameses  broken  and  prone ;  to  the  Pharaohs  whose 
identity  is  forgotten ;  and  the  fifth,  sixth,  and  seventh 
chapters  lead  the  reader  with  MOSES  far  out  into  the 

*  The  wood  engraving  that  faces  page  79,  of  the  "  Precious  Koll  of 
the  Samaritan  Pentateuch,"  photographed  on  that  occasion  by  T. 
Bedford,  Esq.,  and  recently  exhibited  in  Bond  Street,  among  other 
remembrances  of  the  Eoyal  Tour,  appears  in  this  book  by  the  gracious 
permission  of  his  Eoyal  Highness,  and  of  Mr.  Bedford,  accorded  through 
the  Rt.  Hon.  the  Countess  of  Gainsborough. 


INTRODUCTORY   CHAPTER.  xliii 

free  air  of  ARABIA  to  find  fresh  illustrations  of  tlie  Book 
of  Job,  and  to  listen  to  the  long  silent  voice  of  the 
ECCK  of  Hisn  Ghorab. 

In  the  eighth  chapter  we  begin  to  enter  on  the 
TIMES  OP  ISSAEL,  a  people  multiplied  in  the  "  iron  fur- 
nace "  of  Egypt  to  the  number  of  between  two  and 
three  millions,  and  we  first  illustrate  their  Exodus  by 
the  tale  of  a  fatal  transit  of  the  Torgot  Tartars.  We 
behold  the  elected  People  in  contrast  commencing  their 
journey  as  "  on  eagle's  wings,"  and,  alas  !  we  soon 
come  to  the  Rocks  of  Sinai,  which,  if  read  aright,  are 
still  telling  of  their  "  provocation  in  the  wilderness." 

MOUNT    SERBAL. 

From  our  third  centre  of  SEEBAL,  which  is  also  our 
frontispiece,  the  reader  may  in  our  ninth  and  tenth  chap- 
ters, examine  with  Mr.  Forster,  the  SINAITIC  INSCRIPTIONS. 
Never  before  have  we  had  a  "  SINAI  PHOTOGRAPHED/'*  or 
a  voice  from  Serbal  uttered.  Since  the  reign  of 
Justinian — who  built  the  convent  on  the  so-called  Sinai 
— old  Monkish  legends  have  successfully  hidden  what 
now  appears  to  be  the  true  "  Mount  of  God."  It  is  true 
that  these  probable  road-marks  of  Israel  in  the  wilder- 

*  See  "  Sinai  Photographed,"  price  four  guineas,  folio,  by  Her.  Charles 
Jorster,  B.D.  Eichard  Bentley,  New  Burlington  Street,  1862.  Wo  arc 
happy  to  see  that  while  the  present  volume  has  been  passing  through  the 
press  a  new  work  by  the  same  author  lias  just  appeared,  entitled — 

"  ISEAEL  IS  THE  WlLDEBNESS ;   OB,  GLEANINGS    PHOM   THE   SCENES   OF 

THE  WANDEUINGS,"  small  STO.,  price  Cs. 


xllV  INTRODUCTORY   CHAPTER. 

ness,  are  intermingled  with  various  later  inscriptions,  yet 
they  are  to  a  practised  eye  entirely  distinct  from  them — 
and  it  will  be  the  inscriptions  which  must  eventually 
settle  the  question  of  the  true  Serbal.  The  illustrations  of 
WADY  FEIRAN  and  of  SARBUT-EL-KHADEM,  or  "  KIBROTH- 
HATTAAVAH,"  as  well  as  a  small  map  of  the  upper  Penin- 
sula, will  it  is  hoped  aid  the  reader  in  forming  distinct 
ideas  on  this  very  interesting  subject. 

But  we  cannot  pass  on  to  MOUNT  ZION  without 
turning  aside  once  more  to  Nineveh,  and  a  map  will 
here  again  help  to  point  out  what  the  Biblical  account 
would  indicate  to  be  the  relative  situations  of  NINEVEH 
and  CALAH,  to  RESEN  or  Nimroud}  the  great  city  between 
the  two,  see  Gen.  x.  12.  Four  chapters,  the  eleventh, 
twelfth,  thirteenth,  and  fourteenth,  are  then  devoted  to 
an  attempt  at  the  classification  of  these  Pictorial  Sculp- 
tures of  NINEVEH  in  the  British  Museum,  according  to 
their  age  and  time,  giving  particular  attention  to  the 
parts  of  the  ruins  in  which  they  were  found. 

By  Mr.  Layard's  researches  in  the  Nimroud  Mound, 
we  fortunately  have  represented  for  us  all  the  ages  of 
the  Assyrian  Empire,  and  one  of  his  excavations,  the 
North-west  Palace,  is  singled  out  as  far  the  oldest,  and 
as  reproducing  forms,  which,  if  the  suggestions  of  Mr. 
Ferguson  are  correct,  must  concern  the  times  of  the 
book  of  Judges  in  the  Bible  history ;  how  early  or  how 
late  in  these  times  cannot  be  definitely  settled — but 


INTEODUCTOEY   CHAPTEE.  xlv 

tlie  before-named  symbol  on  these  walls,  the  winged 
"  PRESENCE  "  over  a  "  Sacred  Tree,"  it  has  been  often 
observed,  is  not  found  in  any  other  palace  than  this, 
and  therefore  peculiarly  distinguishes  it.  Sir  Henry 
Rawlinson  and  his  brother  speak  of  it  as  the  symbol  of 
the  earliest  and  tutelar  Deity  of  the  country,  ASSHUE, 
whose  worship  was  so  universal  that  he  had  no  shrine 
or  temple  of  his  own.  They  admit  that  this  symbol  of 
"  the  Presence  "  became  sacred  to  the  Kings,  and  to 
them  only ;  but  they  do  not  seem  to  have  attached  to 
it  any  particular  importance. 

Other  writers  are  not  of  this  mind.  Mr.  Layard,  in 
his  earlier  work,  conjectures  that  it  is  the  emblem  for 
Baal,  familiar  to  us  as  named  in  Scripture.  Of  Baal  we 
hear  as  in  conjunction  with  Ashteroth,  and  as  this 
symbol  and  the  sacred  tree  are  confessedly  the  only 
objects  of  worship  in  the  earliest  Assyrian  Palace,  we 
have  ventured  to  bring  forward  the  opinion  of  many 
careful  observers,  among  others  of  Mr.  Ferguson  and 
Dr.  Margoliouth,  that  these  are  the  objects  which  the 
Israelites  are  so  frequently  accused  of  worshipping 
under  the  name  of  Baalim  and  Asshayrah,  or  "  Baalim 
and  the  groves."  The  sun  images  that  were  on  high, 
which  Josiah  cut  down,  see  2  Chron.  xxxiv.  4  (margin), 
and  the  graven  image  of  the  grove,  which  Manasseh  set 
up  in  the  courts  of  the  house  of  the  Lord  (2  Kings  xxi. 
7)  seem  to  describe  as  plainly  as  words  can,  the  forms 
of  which  representations  are  given  in  this  volume.  It 


INTRODUCTORY    CHAPTER. 

is  this  ASSHATRAH  that  has,  if  rightly  discerned,  such  a 
mighty  voice  to  Israel.  If  God  cast  them  off,  as  He 
says,  in  the  time  of  Manasseh,  for  their  determined 
worship  of  Baalim  and  the  groves,  how  wonderful  that 
He  brings  up  this  emblem  from  its  prison  in  the  earth 
to  the  sight  of  their  eyes  in  London,  at — according  to 
our  human  reckoning — the  approaching  close  of  their 
"  seven  times  "  of  sorrow.  Have  the  Jews  examined 
these  relics  ?  Do  they  know  what  they  mean,  and  what 
message  they  bring  to  tliem  ?  Let  them  see  whether 
this  is  or  is  not  "the  accursed  thing  of  Achan,"  and 
taking  their  own  Old  Testament  in  their  hand,  let  them 
look,  as  we  have  tried  to  help  them  to  do,  at  the 
"great  eagle,  long- winged  and  full  of  feathers,"  and 
"at  the  Assyrian,  the  rod  of  God's  anger,"  and  let 
them  speak  one  with  another  of  the  "  law,  the  psalm, 
the  proverb,  the  parable,  the  story" — for  which  the 
"Saturday  Review"  says  it  is  weary  of  waiting  from 
these  STONES — but  which  THE  JEWS  are  the  people  who 
of  all  others,  ought  to  be  able  to  bring  forth  to  us. 

We  have  asked  them  to  pause  under  the  shadow  of 
the  bull  and  the  lion  at  the  end  of  the  first  Nineveh 
gallery  in  the  British  Museum,  and  ere  they  mark  the 
relics  of  the  Central  Palace  to  let  pass  in  rapid  review 
before  their  minds  the  rise  of  their  kingdom  under 
Saul,  David,  and  Solomon ;  Jerusalem  as  she  was  and 
Jerusalem  as  she  is.  Our  fourth  mountain  centre — 


INTRODUCTORY  CHAPTER. 

MOUNT  ZION, 

will  then  arise  before  their  memory,  and  by  the  light  of 
the  black  obelisk  they  will  go  on  to  observe,  not  only 
their  RISE,  but  their  FALL.  They  can  tell  us  what  records 
they  have  of  their  ordained  costume,  and  tlwy  at  least 
will  not  enter  the  gallery  of  Kouyunjik,  and  gaze  on 
the  relics  of  Sennacherib,  in  that  and  the  Subterranean 
Chamber,  without  the  book  of  their  prophet  Isaiah — to 
weep  over  their  ancients,  ' '  their  captains,  their  judges, 
their  cunning  artificers,  and  their  eloquent  orators/' 
bowing  down  at  the  bidding  of  the  Assyrian  scorner. 
He  has  not  told  on  his  tablets  how  the  Lord  smote 
185,000  of  his  haughty  warriors  for  Judah/s  sake,  but 
Israel  knows  that  he  went  home  to  Nineveh  discomfited 
and  shorn  by  her  divine  Defender  (2  Kings  xix.  36) ; 
and  Mr.  Layard,  in  his  second  work,  mentions  four  ma- 
jestic and  unfinished  human-headed  bulls  (as  excavated 
at  Kouyunjik  in  Sennacherib's  palace),  still  entire, 
though  cracked  and  injured  by  fire.  More  knowledge 
of  art  was  shown  in  the  patterns  of  their  limbs  and 
muscles  than  in  any  other  sculptures  of  the  period. 
None  of  the  details,  however,  were  put  in,  and  parts  of 
the  figures  were  but  roughly  outlined.  They  resembled 
the  Khorsabad  bulls  now  in  the  hall  of  the  British 
Museum,  but  far  exceeded  them  in  beauty  and  gran- 
deur. "I  did  not  remove  them,"  says  Mr.  Layard. 
"  They  stood  as  if  the  sculptors  had  been  interrupted 
by  some  public  calamity,  and  had  left  their  work  incom- 


INTRODUCTORY   CHAPTER. 

plete.  Perhaps,"  lie  adds,  "  tlie  murder  of  Sennacherib 
by  his  sons,  as  he  worshipped  in  the  house  of  Nisroch, 
his  god,  put  a  sudden  stop  to  the  great  undertakings 
he  had  commenced  in  the  beginning  of  his  reign."  * 

The  "MOUNTAIN  OP  THE  LORD'S  HOUSE,"  Mount  Zion 
(Isa.  ii.  2),  unto  which  all  nations  are  some  day  to  flow, 
stands  almost  centrally  between  the  Mediterranean  and 
the  Jordan.  That  " House"  was,  perhaps,  the  most 
magnificent  edifice  ever  raised  by  man,  whether  for  its 
position,  its  architecture,  or  its  splendour.  The  Assyrian 
palaces  are  come  up  to  give  us  the  merest  hints  of 
Solomon's  buildings ;  but  of  the  latter  no  trace  is  left, 
except  in  the  Scripture  records.  The  sons  of  the  seventy 
years'  captivity  returned  to  Jerusalem,  but  only  to  vas- 
sallage  and  a  ruined  temple.  Syria,  Egypt,  Persia, 
Home,  have  since,  by  turns,  ruled  over  Mount  Zion— 
Rome  Pagan  and  Rome  Papal ;  and  after  all  the  fol- 
lowers of  Mohammed  have  defiled  the  hallowed  spot 
by  erecting  on  it  the  Mosque  of  Omar.  Saracen,  Turk, 
Christian,  Arab,  Mameluke,  and  Turk  once  more,  have 
there  lost  and  won  supremacy. 

An  exquisitely  illustrated  little  work  called  "  The 
Stones  of  Palestine,"  has  lately  been  published,  full  of 
photographs  \y  Mr.  Bedford,  the  miniatures  of  those 
he  took  with  such  great  skill  when  lately  travelling  in 
the  suite  of  the  Prince  of  Wales  in  the  Holy  Land.f 

*  See  "  Nineveh  and  Babylon,"  p.  120. 
t  Published  by  Seeley,  54,  Fleet  Street. 


INTKODUCTOBY   CHAPTER. 

It  will  be  quite  a  treasure  to   its  possessors,  and  we 
especially  hail  it  in  connection  with  our  particular  subject. 

The  way  in  which  many  clever  people  at  this  day  are 
using  their  minds  to  find  out  inconsistencies,  self-con- 
tradictions, and  impossibilities  in  the  wondrous  Book  of 
God,  had  led  the  writer  to  desire  to  examine  afresh  and 
personally  the  facts  of  the  Mosaic  history.  The  attempt 
has  been  made  to  do  so  by  the  help  of  the  restored  relics 
of  a  nation  cotemporary  with  the  ancient  Israel.  This 
has  led,  by  a  fresh  clue,  through  the  "  old  paths."  In 
the  first  edition  of  this  book  ideas  were,  perhaps,  too 
much  recorded  in  the  sequence  in  which  they  pri- 
marily presented  themselves.  It  is  hoped  that,  espe- 
cially with  regard  to  NINEVEH,  the  chapters  are,  in 
the  second  edition,  much  better  arranged.  They  have 
had  the  advantage  of  revision  from  those  most  ac- 
quainted with  the  subject,  and  Mr.  Layard  has  said  that 
theyappear  to  himcompiledwith  conscientious  care;  while 
several  friends  among  the  Jews  who  believe  in  Christ 
have  likewise  given  the  volume  a  careful  reading,  and, 
declaring  that  it  interested  them  deeply,  have  accorded 
to  it  the  benefit  of  their  suggestions. 

To  those  who  can  visit  the  original  monuments 
referred  to,  in  the  British  Museum,  this  volume  is  now 
offered  as  a  useful  and  chronological  guide,  in  pointing 
out  the  relative  value  of  such  remains,  in  corroboration 
of  sacred  history.  To  readers  at  a  distance  from  London 

d 


INTRODUCTORY   CHAPTER. 

the  illustrations  (to  which  two  or  three  of  great  interest 
are  in  this  edition  superadded)  may  serve  as  a  help  in 
the  examination  of  the  subject. 

The  construction  of  the  work  is  original,  though  it 
only  professes  to  be  a  collection  of  evidence,  and  no  one 
is  more  conscious  than  the  author  of  its  many  imper- 
fections. Indeed,  that  consciousness  increases  as  it 
approaches  to  its  close.  It  is  intended  to  be  suggestive, 
and  never  dogmatical,  and  to  elicit  further  information 
on  all  the  subjects  of  which  it  treats. 

We  would  hope  that  the  republication  of  this  volume 
is  timely,  for  it  must  indeed  be  obvious,  we  think,  to  all 
observers,  that  Jerusalem  and  the  Jews,  are  now  making 
further  demands  almost  daily,  on  the  world's  attention. 
At  this  era  of  their  history,  at  the  end  of  five-and- 
twenty  centuries  of  their  outcasting,  while  scattered 
through  all  countries,  their  number  is  nevertheless 
reckoned  at  from  seven  to  ten  millions  :  no  fewer  than  in 
the  days  of  their  glory.  Their  riches  are  so  great,  that 
there  can  never  be  a  war  in  Europe  without  their  con- 
sent, and  assistance  from  the  treasures  of  their  coffers, 
— and  they  have  formed  in  Paris,  since  1860,  a  UNI- 
VERSAL ISRAELITE  ALLIANCE,  to  facilitate  communication 
among  their  people  in  every  quarter  of  the  globe,  which 
is  contemplating  in  all  countries  the  institution  of 
schools,  and  will  of  course  lead  to  the  reading  of  their 
own  Scriptures  by  their  own  communities,  too  long 
neglected,  especially  in  the  East. 


INTRODUCTORY   CHAPTER. 


ll 


Meanwhile,  many  causes  have  conduced  to  turn 
attention  to  their  once  glorious  City.  A  resident  there, 
comparing  it  with  what  it  was  seventeen  years  since, 
remarks,  "  Jerusalem  was  then  poor  and  miserable,  the 
houses  mean  and  dirty,  the  streets  narrow  and  crooked: 
now  they  are  wide  and  straight,  and  alive  with  the  busy 
hum  of  traffic,  beautiful  gardens,  fine  churches,  syna- 
gogues, hospitals,  hotels,  and  stores,  are  everywhere  met 
with.  Russia  has  noble  buildings  overlooking  and  com- 
manding the  city,  and  the  rich  men  from  Constantinople, 
Bagdad,  Damascus,  Egypt,  England,  and  France,  are  each 
for  their  own  purposes  contributing  to  beautify  the  site." 

The  ill-treatment  of  Jews  by  Mohammedans  has  to 
a  great  degree  ceased,  and  the  amelioration  in  their 
condition,  throughout  the  world,  during  the  last  few 
years,  would  seem  to  indicate  their  restoration  to  be 
possibly  very  near  at  hand. 

At  the  same  time  the  private  enterprise  of  travellers, 
and  the  interest  of  Biblical  research,  and  it  may  be 
added  the  sufferance  of  Moslem  authorities,  hitherto 
unknown  during  all  the  ages  of  their  rule,  has  permitted 
the  investigations  of  those  competent  to  judge  concern- 
ing the  present  state  of  the  Mosque  of  Omar,  built  on 
Mount  Moriah. 

The  site  of  the  Ancient  Temple  is  fixed,  beyond  all 
possibility  of  doubt,  through  the  recent  discovery  by  Sig- 
nor  Pierotti,  of  the  complete  water  system  of  aqueducts, 
drains  and  reservoirs,  excavated  in  ±he  solid  rock,  and 


Ill  INTEOI)UCTOEY    CHAPTEE. 

still  existing  as  entire  as  when  all  were  in  daily  use  at 
the  period  of  the  Jewish  commonwealth.  These  have 
been  unaffected  by  the  demolition  of  the  structures 
above,  except  as  partially  blocked  up  by  the  falling  in 
of  the  debris  of  the  ruins.  See  Dr.  Wldtty's  Water  Sup- 
ply and  Sewerage  for  Jerusalem. 

So  much  for  the  ancient  foundations. 

It  will  be  a  new  and  interesting  fact  to  many  of  our 
readers,  that  they  may  obtain  the  map  of  a  proposed 
railway,  between  the  Mediterranean  and  Damascus,  by 
way  of  Jerusalem,  based  on  the  first  actual  survey  by 
Dr.  Charles  Zimpel.  It  is  published  by  Gr.  J.  Stevenson, 
54,  Paternoster  Eow,  London.  Dr.  Zimpel  has  been 
chief  engineer  to  various  railway  companies ;  he  accom- 
panies this  map  by  a  pamphlet,  showing  the  proposed 
course  of  this  railway.  The  present  road  from  Jaffa 
(Joppa)  to  Jerusalem  is  by  ascents  and  descents,  forty- 
two  miles  in  length.  It  can  only  be  passed  by  horse, 
mule,  or  ass ;  and  camels  are  used  for  the  transport  of 
goods.  It  is  passed  with  difficulty  in  the  rainy  season, 
and  often  leads  along  the  bed  of  winter  torrents. 

The  height  of  Jerusalem  above  the  sea  at  Jaffa  is 
2,600  feet,  a  circumstance  unfavourable  for  a  railway  in 
a  mountainous  country,  but  this  engineer  has  remarked 
a  valley  near  the  city,  called  Ismael  or  Surar,  which 
leaving  the  mountains  by  a  very  wide  gorge,  opens  into 
a  broad  valley,  and  carries  the  winter  torrent  Surar  into- 
the  Mediterranean. 


INTRODUCTORY   CHAPTER.  liii 

Dr.  Zimpel  tells  us  that  the  first  eleven  miles,  from 
Jaffa  to  Ramleh,  would  be  a  straight  line,  the  plain  of 
Sharon  would  then  be  entered,  and  afterwards  the  line 
would  by  a  double  curve  enter  the  valley  of  Surar.  A 
serpentine  course  would  further  conduct  to  the  plain  of 
Eephaim,  and  the  gardens  near  Jerusalem.  A  turnpike 
road  has  already  been  constructed  by  a  French  company, 
from  Beirut  to  Damascus,  of  a  length  of  sixty-four 
miles,  and  has  been  actually  open  for  a  year. 

Is  not  the  time  approaching  when  it  is  to  be  said, 
"Prepare  ye  the  way  of  The  People;  cast  up  the 
highway  ;  gather  out  the  stones ;  lift  up  a  standard  for 
the  people. 

"  Behold,  the  Lord  hath  proclaimed  unto  the  end  of 
the  world,  Say  ye  to  the  daughter  of  Zion,  behold  thy  sal- 
vation cometh ;  behold  His  reward  is  with  Him,  and  his 
work  before  Him.  And  they  shall  call  them  the  holy 
people,  the  redeemed  of  the  Lord.  And  thou  (Jerusa- 
lem) shalt  be  called,  '  sought  out'  a  city  not  forsaken." 
— Isa.  Ixii.  10—12. 

The  last  words  of  our  introduction  must  be  those  of 
heartfelt  thanks  to  the  many  helpers  whom  God,  we 
believe,  has  caused  to  be  favourable  to  the  production  of 
this  volume  amid  many  difficulties. 

Our  chapter  on  the  ROCK  OP  BEHISTUN  is  illustrated 
by  a  beautiful  woodcut,  the  drawing  for  which,  as  well 
as  those  of  Serbal,  Wady  Feiran,  and  the  Mountain 


liv  INTEODUCTOEY   CHAPTEK. 

Cemetery  of  Sarbut-el-Khadem,  with  many  others  in 
this  volume,  were  made  by  H.  Hopley  White,  Esq.,  an 
accomplished  friend  who  has  taken  great  interest  in  their 
elaboration,  for  the  sake  of  the  subjects  to  which  they 
refer.  His  drawing  of  the  Rock  was  most  carefully 
copied  from  the  lithograph  five  times  its  size,  which  is 
found  in  the  tenth  volume  of  the  "  Journal  of  the  Eoyal 
Asiatic  Society/' 

From  the  same  clever  pencil  we  have  also  drawings 

of  the  "Cylinders"  of  Tiglath-Pileser,  and  of  Sen- 
nacherib, taken  from  their  originals  in  the  British 
Museum  j  and  we  have  presented  our  readers  with  the 
translations  by  Rawlinson,  Dr.  Oppert,  and  others,  of 
the  inscriptions  on  these  cylinders.  Those  portions  have 
of  course  been  selected  which  relate  to .  the  facts  re- 
corded in  Scripture.  Much  other  information  has  often 
been  obtained  through  the  kind  courtesy  of  Mr.  Birch, 
and  Mr.  Coxe,  so  well  known  in  each  of  their  depart- 
ments in  that  wonderful  temple  of  knowledge. 

For  the  beautiful  outline  drawing  of  the  interior  of 
a  restored  Assyrian  temple  (after  Layard),  we  are  in- 
debted to  Professor  Rawlinson  and  the  publishers  of 
"  The  Five  Great  Monarchies." 

To  the  publishers  of  Roberta's  "  Sketches  in  the 
Holy  Land,"  also  of  Loffcus's  "  Chaldea,"  and  of  Mr. 
Vaux's  "Nineveh  and  Persepolis,"  for  the  loan  of  such  il- 
lustrations as  suited  our  purpose,  our  best  thanks  are  also 
due.  May  they  never  regret  the  help  they  have  given. 


INTRODUCTORY   CHAPTER.  1.V 

Above  all  to  HIM  whose  abounding  strength  has  made 
the  labour  of  research  into  all  that  concerned  His  Word 
a  continual  refreshment  and  delight,  and  who  we  trust 
may  have  "kept  us  from  falling"  into  any  grievous 
error — to  HIM  be  this  humble  attempt  to  point  to  the 
meaning  of  His  great  Stone  Books  devoutly  dedicated ; 
and  if  this  work  contains  any  seeds  of  truth  that  HE 
would  have  made  known,  may  no  defect  in  its  perform- 
ance hinder  them.  It  is  committed  to  His  care — to  do 
with  it  even  as  HE  will.  If  it  awaken  any  sons  or 
daughters  of  His  ancient  Israel  to  think  upon  His  ways 
and  speak  of  HIM  to  their  brethren — that  shall  be 
esteemed  a  more  than  abundant  reward. 

L..N..R. 


N.B.— A  list  of  Four  Hundred  PASSAGES  OP  SCBIPTTTRE  illustrated 
in  the  present  Volume  will  be  found  in  this  Second  Edition,  placed 
immediately  after  the  Appendix,  p.  473. 

A  list  of  COXOTTBED  DIAGRAMS,  wliich  ic&j  be  used  in  explanation 
of  these  subjects  by  Lecturers,  is  transferred  to  p.  489,  and  cornea 
alter  the  Index. 


TAIII.KS    OI1    STONE — WITH    HEDBHW   AND    SAMAKITilT    BOLI.S    O?    THB    UlTTiTBftH- 
IHB    CHEEK   SEPIDAGISI— ASK   ALEIANDB1NK  ViBSION   OV  THB  NEW   TESTAMENT. 


CHAPTER  I. 

PROGRESS  IN  THE  LAST  TEN  YEAES. 

INTERJTATIOXAL  EXHIBITION* — TELEGRAPHIC  COMMUNICATION — INCREASE  OF 

CORRESPONDENCE — PHOTOGRAPHY — SECRETS  OF  LIGHT  AND  COLOUR 

IMPROVEMENTS  IN  MACHINERY — LOCOMOTIVES — OCCUPANTS  OF  THB 
•WORLD'S  FAIR — ITS  VISITORS — THE  LAUREATE'S  ODE — MODELS  OF  IN- 
STRUMENTS OF  WAR — THE  lilBLE  STALL — REVOLUTIONS  FOR  THE  WORLD 

REVIVALS   FOIl   THE    CHURCH — ISRAEL'S   LONG    CHAPTER   IN    THE 

WORLD'S  HISTORY — GOD'S  TREASURE  CHAMBERS  IN  CHALDEA. 

COLLECTION  of  the  products  of  every  clime,  and 
of  the  industry  and  art  of  all  nations,  not  long  ago 
'fixed  the  world's  attention,  and  attracted  pilgrims 
from  every  shore  to  our  second  INTERNATIONAL 
EXHIBITION  in  London.  It  is  certain  that  there 
was  never  in  all  earth's  history  such  a  personal 
intercourse  of  her  various  races,  for  eveiy  treasure 
displayed,  must  necessarily  have  brought  with  it  some 


2  ELECTRIC   MESSAGES. 

person  or  persons  connected  with  its  invention  or  its 
sale.  Our  beloved  and  lost  Prince  Albert,  to  whom 
the  ee  world-compelling  plan"  of  thus  assembling  the 
nations  is  attributed,  was  withdrawn  by  a  Mighty 
Hand  from  witnessing  the  ripe  fruition  of  his  inten- 
tions. The  wise  man  who  had  stood  beside  the  throne 
of  England,  and  won  the  heart  of  its  Eoyal  Mis- 
tress, had  seen  the  summits  of  earthly  glory  in  peaceful 
times,  from  the  most  exalted  point  of  vision,  but  he  was 
not  permitted  to  compare,  as  we  can,  the  beginning  and 
end  of  these  last  wonderful  ten  years,  over  which  he 
exercised  in  this  kingdom  so  philanthropic  an  influence. 

"  Thou  changest  his  countenance,  and  sendest  him 
away."  "  And  who  may  say  unto  thee,  Lord,  what 
doestthou?" 

During  these  ten  years,  four  millions  have  been 
added  to  the  population  of  our  isles.  London  alone  has 
half  a  milhon  more  inhabitants.  Great  Britain  has  4000 
miles  more  of  Railway.  How  marvellous  are  the  changes 
that  such  rapidity  of  locomotion  has  brought  even  to  her 
"  country  towns  and  villages  ! " 

In.the  same  short  period,  we  are  told  that  the  city  of 
Paris  has  been  extended  to  double  its  previous  area; 
while  the  two  nations  of  France  and  England  have  learned 
to  speak  with  each  other  in  a  moment  of  time  by  sub- 
marine Telegraph,  and  both  of  them  to  communicate 
with  all  parts  of  Europe  and  the  North  of  Africa.  If  a 
conflagration  occur  in  St.  Petersburg,  or  in  Alexandria 
to-day,  it  can  be  known  in  London  next  morning.  The 
ELECTRIC  TELEGRAPH  was  first  laid  in  this  country  in  the 
year  1845.  Lines  are  now  erected  in  India,  in  Australia, 
and  in  New  Zealand,  at  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  in  the 
United  States,  and  in  Canada ;  and  very  soon,  we  shall 
hold  direct  communication  with  these  distant  countries. 


INCREASED  POSTAGE.  O 

On  the  first  March,  1865,  the  Government  received  a 
message  in  London,  from  Kurrachee  (India),  conveyed 
over  Asia  and  Europe  in  the  space  of  eight  hours  and  a 
half.  The  charge  of  £5  is  now  announced  for  conveying 
twenty  words  to  Calcutta,  Madras,  or  Bombay. 

Over  every  part  of  our  own  land  the  wondrous 
fluid  has  highway  made  for  it,  and  it  waits  as  an  obe- 
dient servant  to  bear  with  lightning  speed  either  the 
bidding  of  a  merchant,  which  may  make  or  unmake 
fortunes,  or  the  message  concerning  life  and  death, 
which  may,  humanly  speaking,  secure  recovery. 

In  no  particular  of  civilization  have  we  made  greater 
advance  than  in  our  CORRESPONDENCE.  It  is  not  200 
years  ago  since,  on  most  lines  of  road,  mails  came  in 
one  day,  and  only  went  out  the  next.  In  Cornwall, 
Lincolnshire,  and  Cumberland  letters  were  received  but 
once  a-week  in  the  time  of  Charles  I.  To  Tunbridge 
Wells  and  Bath  the  letter-bags  were  carried  on  horse- 
back at  the  rate  of  five  miles  an  hour ;  yet,  at  the  close 
of  Bang  Charles's  reign  the  nett  receipts  of  the  Post-office 
were  £50,000.  By  the  year  1838  they  had  grown  to 
more  than  a  million  and  a  half. 

Then  on  January  10th,  1840,  when  postage  was 
reduced  to  Id.  per  half-ounce,  letter-writers  multiplied 
accordingly ;  and  in  a  single  month  at  the  rate  of  half  a 
million.  The  number  of  public  receptacles  for  letters 
in  the  whole  of  the  United  Kingdom  for  1839  was  4500 ; 
now,  including  the  Pillar  Posts,  it  exceeds  14,000; 
the  increase  of  letters  being  more  than  sevenfold. 

The  total  average  of  letters  sent  in  the  United  King- 
dom, in  the  year  1839,  just  before  the  commencement  of 
PENNY  POSTAGE,  was  82  millions  and  a-half.  In  1851 
the  number  had  increased  to  410  millions ;  in  1861  it 
was  593  millions  and  a-quarter;  in  1862,  605  millions. 


4  PHOTOGRAPHY. 

The  increase  of  NEWSPAPERS  and  BOOKS  sent  by 
post  in  the  last  five  years  is  ten  millions  and  a-half ; 
in  1856  they  were  74,039,000,  and  in  1861  they  were 
84,597,000.  New  books  are  now  published  in  England 
at  the  rate  of  ten  or  eleven  a  day  all  the  year  round. 

It  is  scarcely  possible  to  realize  the  change  and  pro- 
gress which  these  few  figures  indicate  in  the  mental 
activity  and  increase  of  trade  among  the  inhabitants  of 
Great  Britain  and  Ireland.  They  belong  to  an  unexam- 
pled time  of  internal  peace  and  prosperity.  The  number 
of  letters  passing  between  England  and  France  is  fast 
increasing;  in  1861  there  were  a  million  more  than  any 
previous  year,  while  since  the  civil  war  began  in  America 
our  correspondence  with  the  United  and  Seceded  States 
has  fallen  off  by  about  a  million  and  a-quarter  letters  in 
the  year. 

In  1852,  PHOTOGRAPHY  was  little  more  than  a  chemical 
toy  for  the  children  of  leisure,  but  now  the  painting  of 
the  Sun  competes  with  the  Electric  wire,  in  annihilating 
the  results  of  space  and  distance.  It  aids  in  the  conviction 
of  a  criminal,  and  may  present  him  to  the  eye  of  justice 
wherever  his  utmost  speed  can  flee;  high  and  low,  good  and 
evil,  have  their  carte  de  visile.  The  agreeable  physiognomy 
of  our  present  Princess  of  Wales  had  already  made  its 
impression  in  every  corner  of  England,  ere  yet  the  royal 
choice  was  officially  announced.  By  the  same  means  we 
might  have  accompanied  the  Prince  through  all  his 
previous  Syrian  tour,  might  have  scanned  with  him  the 
grey  rocks  of  Palestine,  beheld  the  site  of  the  cave  of 
Machpelah,  and  gazed  upon  the  olives  of  Gethsemano. 
And  at  last,  by  the  intense  magnesian  light,  competing 
for  a  few  moments  with  the  sun,  we  shall  have  photo- 
graphs even  of  such  dark  places  as  the  interior  of  tho 
Pyramids  of  Egypt  ("  Athenreum,"  Feb.  25,1865,p.275). 


LIGHT  AND   COLOUK.  5 

Photography  in  the  last  Exhibition  could  only  pre- 
sent us  with  "  gloomy-looking  sombre  curiosities,"  which 
were  a  libel  on  humanity,  and  in  order  to  be  recognized 
they  had  to  be  looked  at  in  certain  lights ;  but  owing  to 
successive  discoveries  in  this  fascinating  art,  howwondrous 
have  been  its  developments  !  We  owe  to  albumen,  or 
white  of  egg,  and  collodion,  or  dissolved  gun-cotton,  its 
increased  perfection,  aad  we  are  informed  in  the  report 
of  the  Society  of  Arts,  "  that  by  means  of  photography  the 
most  fleeting  effects  of  Nature  may  all  be  caught,  and 
preserved  for  the  use  of  the  artist."  Ancient  records  and 
tablets,  inscriptions  on  rocks,  old  works  of  art,  decaying 
by  the  action  of  time,  are  copied  and  preserved ;  while 
precious  drawings,  relics  of  great  artists,  once  so  care- 
fully and  jealously  guarded  in  hidden  sanctuaries,  are  ren- 
dered accessible  to  the  million.  The  progress  of  works 
can  be  daily  recorded  for  the  information  of  the  engineer, 
the  finest  tracery  of  ancient  architecture  abroad  may  be 
realized  by  our  own  fireside.  Negretti's  transparent 
photographs  can  place  us  in  the  centre  of  the  glowing 
halls  of  the  Vatican,  or  carry  us  up  to  fields  of  glaciers 
on  the  side  of  Mont  Blanc,  or  convey  us  in  a  moment 
of  time  to  Egypt,  Syria,  China,  and  Japan. 

And  ere  we  leave  the  subject  of  LIGHT,  how  much  in 
these  ten  years  has  human  genius  unlocked  of  the  secrets 
of  COLOUR  !  and  with  what  unexpected  keys  !  Coal- tar  and 
the  petroleum,  or  earth-oils,  of  America  and  Canada  have 
produced  for  us  the  cool  and  exquisite  "mauve,"  the  burn- 
ing "Magenta,"  the  ruby  "Solferino,"  while  rose  and  coral, 
purple  and  green  tints,  seem  to  have  been  re-created  in 
freshness  and  beauty  from  other  chemical  sources. 

And  if  the  forms  of  mental  communication  and  de- 
light by  means  of  our  eyesight  are  thus  enlarged,  how 
increased  also  are  the  means  of  Locomotion.  New  pro- 


6  IMPROVEMENTS   IN   MACHINERY. 

cesses  of  treating  IRON  have  been  discovered,  and  the 
strength  of  our  machines  is  increased  accordingly.  Every 
year  the  railway  Engines  have  magnified  in  size  and 
power.  Previous  to  1851  they  had  attained  dimensions 
like  those  of  a  dray-horse  compared  to  a  pony ;  since 
then  they  have  assumed  the  proportion  of  elephants. 
Driving-wheels,  boilers,  cylinders,  all  are  larger.  One 
engine  is  now  fitted  with  apparatus  to  feed  itself  with 
water  as  it  runs  along  with  the  Irish  express.  France 
sent  another  built  to  work  with  superheated  steam. 
One  was  adapted  to  travel  on  ice,  and  another  on  moun- 
tain slopes,  and  a  third  was  constructed  for  a  noiseless 
railway  which  now  encircles  London  underground,  and 
consumes  its  own  smoke  and  steam. 

Yes,  man  has  put  fetters  on  the  elements  of  fire  and 
water,  and  made  them  do  his  bidding,  till  his  power 
seems  miraculous.  Ten  years  ago,  we  had  scarcely  com- 
menced the  reconstruction  of  our  Navy,  or  working 
Steamships  with  screws;  now,  in  consequence  of  the 
shortened  term  of  transit,  our  trade  with  all  the  world  has 
more  than  doubled  -(it  had  grown  from  £65,000,000  to 
£136,000,000  a-year,  i.e.  in  1862),  and  the  work  of  com- 
mercial reform  has  so  far  prospered  that  almost  every  load 
has  been  removed  from  the  springs  of  industry,  and  we 
have  ventured  to  admit,  free  of  duty,  nearly  all  the 
manufactures  of  the  foreigner  to  compete  with  the  un- 
taxed  industry  of  England. 

Manufacturing  machines  were  seen  operating  in 
the  Exhibition  on  huge  masses  of  the  iron  and  steel  of 
which  they  themselves  were  formed.  Quietly  and  irre- 
sistibly they  put  forth  their  powers ;  bent  bolts  and  bars 
of  iron  like  green  withes,  or  seized  red-hot  metal  and 
drew  it  into  threads  of  wire ;  yet  combining  the  utmost 
delicacy  with  their  resistless  strength,  they  would  drill 


OCCUPANTS   OP  THE   FAIE.  7 

you  a  hole  the  size  of  a  pin,  or  weave  you  a  tissue  of  fairy- 
like  gauze. 

It  is  of  little  use  for  the  poor  children  of  toil  now  to 
withhold  their  labour,  their  lack  can  be  supplied,  and  at 
less  expense.  There  are  machines  for  picking  cotton  in 
the  field;  for  sowing  corn  and  threshing  wheat,  winnowing 
it  and  sorting  grain;  for  planing,  carving,  moulding, 
and  morticing  wood,  and  for  making  bricks  at  the  rate 
of  30,000  an  hour ;  while  the  American  sewing  machines, 
now  become  familiar  in  every  work-room  in  London, 
have  all  made  their  way  into  common  use  in  the  course 
of  the  last  ten  years. 

We  suppose  that  the  abiding  impression  of  the  count- 
less thousands  of  pilgrims  to  the  mighty  show  of  1 862  would 
universally  be  that,  though  the  whole  was  inferior  in  its 
general  pictorial  effect  to  the  Exhibition  of  1851,  the 
objects  exhibited  were  in  themselves  far  superior  to 
those  of  the  previous  ten  years. 

If  any  of  the  visitors  had  a  pocket  copy  of  the  most 
ancient  of  books,  and  turned  to  the  27th  of  Ezekiel, 
under  the  head  of  "The  rich  supply  of  Tyrus,"  that 
great  ancient  city  of  the  Mediterranean  overthrown  by 
Nebuchadnezzar,  B.C.  571 — if,  as  we  say,  they  turned 
to  the  prophecies  about  that  city,  which  was  to  the  old 
world  in  its  spirit  of  commerce  what  LONDON  is  to  the 
new,  they  found  something  like  a  catalogue  of  the 
glories  and  riches  spread  before  their  eyes  in  the 
modern  building  also. 

In  1862,  the  MEN  OP  SYRIA  were  still  "  occupying  in 
the  fair,"  with  "  emeralds,  and  coral,  and  agate/'  and 
"  with  all  precious  stones,  and  gold."  The  Koh-i-noor 
was  sparkling  in  its  glory,  and  another  diamond,  "the 
Star  of  the  South,"  was  its  rival,  worth  a  million  sterling. 
The  largest  emerald,  the  largest  ruby,  and  the  largest 


8  ITS    JEWELLERS. 

amethyst  known  to  the  modern  world,  contributed  to 
the  blaze  of  gems,  while  the  elaboration  of  "  coral"  in 
its  varied  gradations  of  hue — of  white,  blush,  pink, 
scarlet,  and  crimson — as  arranged  for  necklaces  and 
tiaras,  must  have  been  the  arduous  labour  of  years. 
For  their  treasures  of  pearls  of  great  price,  the  jewellers 
seemed  to  have  ransacked  all  oceans.  There  was  a  cup 
of  a  single  topaz,  in  a  wondrous  setting,  while  those  of 
onyx  and  of  agate  were  strewed  among  beds  of  opals, 
and  sapphires,  and  brilliants ;  the  jasper,  the  beryl,  and 
the  carbuncle,  all  helping  to  illustrate  the  imagery  of 
another  chapter  of  the  "  OLD  BOOK/'  the  "  garnishing  of 
precious  stones"  in  a  Celestial  City,  <e  whose  builder  and 
maker  is  God."  (See  Rev.  xxi.)  They  announced  to 
the  dazzled  eye  that  it  might  now  be  said  to  England,  in 
her  glory  and  luxury,  as  to  Tyre  of  old,  "Thou 
sealest  up  the  sum,  full  of  wisdom,  and  perfect  in 
beauty."  "With  thy  wisdom  and  with  thine  under- 
standing thou  hast  gotten  thee  riches,  and  hast  gotten 
gold  and  silver  into  thy  treasures." 

But  the  prophet  Ezekiel's  catalogue  served  us  fur- 
ther than  this.  Strange  to  say,  "  Javan,  Tubal,  and 
Meschech"  were  all  still  found  among  the  merchants;  and 
of  silver,  iron,  tin,  and  lead — behold  the  "  trading  in  the 
fair !"  From  the  screens  for  cathedrals,  and  the  massive 
wrought-iron  gates,  to  exquisite  imitations  of  nature  in 
bronze,  and  castings  of  all  orders,  as  fine,  intricate,  and 
clear  as  if  they  had  been  chased. 

The  trophies  of  the  "  men  of  Arvad"  of  old  were 
matched  by  many  a  wonderful  shield  and  salver,  with 
their  delicate  workings  in  steel  and  silver.  The  sons  of 
Judah  were  no  less  "  merchants"  than  in  ancient  days. 
"Bright  iron"  contrasted  with  all  edible  products; 
wheat  and  honey,  "  wax  and  oil,"  balm  and  spices  from 


OPENING   OP   THE   EXHIBITION.  9 

a  hundred  realms  unknown  to  Tyre;  while  for  "broidered 
work"  and  "white  wool/'  and  "fine  linen"  of  every 
texture,  and  incalculable  variet}7  of  tints;  the  shawls  of 
the  East,  and  velvets  of  the  West,  muslins  and  laces  of 
fabulous  fineness  (a  single  robe  said  to  cost  four  hundred 
guineas),  the  world  had  surely  never  seen  such  marvels 
of  luxury  gathered  together  in  the  temple  of  her  fashions. 
in  any  former  day. 

And  when  did  she  behold  a  living  picture  of  such 
surpassing  and  gorgeous  splendour  as  was  presented  in 
the  hour  of  the  opening  of  the  Show — when  that  pro- 
cession of  the  men  of  many  lands  reached  the  dais,  and 
grouped  itself  under  the  eastern  dome  ?  It  was  so  vast 
and  far  away  from  many  of  those  who  saw  it,  that  they 
beheld  it  indistinctly,  and  as  in  a  dream;  but  the 
Eussian,  the  Greek,  the  Spaniard,  the  Turk,  indeed  all 
the  nations  of  EUROPE,  were  represented ;  the  wide,  wide 
EAST  had  sent  its  emissaries  in  their  changeless  costumes; 
the  AMERICAS,  and  all  islands  of  the  sea,  even  JAPAN, 
withheld  not  its  ambassadors.  The  dark  faces  of"  the 
sons  of  AFRICA  were  present.  Every  variety  of  em- 
broidery on  uniform  or  in  dress — every  form  and  colour 
lit  up  with  star  and  ribbon,  and  cross  and  garter,  min- 
gled in  glittering  profusion,  formed  a  base  around  the 
graceful  and  measured  array  of  the  2400  sweet  singers 
who  were  to  give  utterance,  as  with  one  voice,  to  the 
Poet's  words  of  power.  Now  and  again  a  ray  of  sun- 
shine streamed  transversely  through  the  brilliant  crowd 
under  the  dome,  or  among  flowers  of  which  a  gay  par- 
terre just  fringed  the  orchestra,  and  as  it  lit  up  the  long 
lines  of  listening  and  gazing  faces  which  crowded  the 
nave,  it  pointed  (in  deep  contrast  to  this  rich  and  glow- 
ing array)  at  a  few  of  the  sons  of  toil  who  had  prepared 
the  House  of  Fame.  Some  workmen  in  their  blouse 


1 0  COMPARISONS. 

dresses  were  looking  in  and  down  upon  the  show  from 
panes  they  had  quietly  taken  out  of  the  roof  for  the  pur- 
pose, and  to  an  eye  in  search  of  contrasts,  the  pomp  of 
the  scarlet  and  the  silver,  the  ebon  and  the  snow,  would 
not  have  been  complete  without  them. 

And  now  Earl  Granville,  the  Chairman  of  the  Com- 
missioners, addressing  the  Duke  of  Cambridge,  com- 
menced by  acknowledging  His  Royal  Highness  as  the 
representative  of  our  absent  and  mourning  QUEEN,  and 
allusion  to  the  solemn  past,  and  to  the  sad  blank  in  all 
this  array  of  human  glory,  claimed  universal  sympathy 
as  far  as  the  speech  was  heard.  Eleven  years  ago  it 
was  our  lost  PRINCE  ALBERT  who  stood  in  Earl  Gran- 
ville's  place,  and  concluded  his  address  to  HER  MAJESTY 
by  a  prayer  that  the  then  Exhibition  might ' '  have  for  its 
end  the  promotion  of  all  branches  of  human  industry, 
and  the  strengthening  of  the  bonds  of  peace  and  friend- 
ship by  the  blessing  of  Divine  Providence  among  all  the 
nations  of  the  earth." 

The  end,  it  was  said,  appeared  so  far  attained,  that 
the  voice  of  the  people  had  now  sufficiently  indicated 
that  such  a  display  should  become  decennial.  It  had 
been  deferred  one  year,  owing  to  the  outbreak  of  hosti- 
lities on  the  Continent  in  1859,  but  with  the  return  of 
peace  preparation  had  been  made  for  the  present  Exhi- 
bition, and  each  foreign  country  and  colony  had  again 
taken  possession  of  its  own  department  in  the  recent 
building.  The  articles  now  exhibited  "  would  show  that 
the  period  since  1851,  though  twice  interrupted  by 
European  wars,  had  been  marked  by  unexampled  pro- 
gress in  art,  science,  and  manufactures." 

Thus,  amid  strains  of  music,  prepared  by  the  first 
geniuses  in  the  musical  world,  and  which  are  also  de- 
clared to  have  been  unsurpassable,  the  choral  address  of 


THE  LAUREATE'S  ODE.  II 

the  day  was  ushered  in,  and  the  noble  ode  of  the  Poet 
Laureate,  found  clear  and  audible  utterance  from  that 
mighty  orchestra ;  two  thousand  voices  gliding  into  one, 
as  the  masterpiece  of  musical  art.  It  was  indeed  an 
Ode  not  to  be  forgotten  with  that  place  and  time : — 

"  Uplift  a  thousand  voices  full  and  sweet, 

In  this  wide  hall  with  earth's  inventions  stored ; 
And  praise  the  invisible  universal  Lord ! 
Who  lets  once  more  in  peace  the  nations  meet, 

"Where  science,  art,  and  labour  have  outpoured 
Their  myriad  horns  of  plenty  at  our  feet. 


FEIKCB    ALEZST. 


This  strain  repeated  itself,  and  then  came  the  wail  of 
bereavement,  and  the  mournful  melody  rang  soft  and 
slowly  to  the  memory  of  the  Royal  dead. 

"  Oh,  silent  Father  of  our  kings  to  be 
Mourned  in  this  golden  hour  of  jubilee, 
For  this,  for  all,  we  weep  our  thanks  to  thee." 

This,  too,  repeated  itself  till  its  tones  of  deep  tender- 


12  THE    ODE. 

ness  subsided  into  the  more  jubilant  strain,  but  still  in 
the  form  of  address  to  the  departed  Prince : — 

"  The  world-compelling;  plan  was  thine, 
And  lo  the  long  laborious  oiiles 
Of  palace  ;  lo !  the  giant  aisles 
Kich  in  model  and  design, 
Harvest  tool  and  husbandry, 
Loom,  and  wheel,  and  2ngin'ry, 
Secrets  of  the  sullen  mine, 
Steel  and  gold,  and  3orn  and  wine  5 
Fabric  rough  or  fairy  fine, 
Sunny  tokens  of  the  line. 
Polar  marvels,  ind  a  feast 
Of  wonder,  out  of  west  and  east, 
And  shapes  and  hues  of  part  divine ! 
All  of  beauty — all  of  use, 
That  one  fair  planet  can  produce. 

Brought  from  under  every  star, 
Blown  from  over  every  main, 
And  mixt  as  life  is  mixt  with  pain 
The  works  of  peace  with  works  of  war." 

**  Oh  ye,  the  wise  who  think,  the  wise  who  reign, 
From  growing  commerce  loose  her  latest  chain, 

.  And  let  the  fair  white- winged  peacemaker  fly 
To  happy  havens  under  all  the  sky. 
And  mix  the  seasons  and  the  golden  hours 
Till  each  man  find  his  own  in  all  men's  good, 
And  all  men  work  in  noble  brotherhood, 
Breaking  their  mailed  fleets  and  armed  towers, 
And  ruling  by  obeying  Nature's  powers, 
And  gathering  all  the  fruits  of  peace,  and  crowned  with  all  her 
flowers." 

The  Poet's  final  invocation  in  favour  of  PEACE  had  a 
strange  comment,  when,  after  the  pageant  was  over,  and 
that  picture  never  to  be  seen  again,  had  melted  away 
from  under  the  dome,  the  visitors  passing  down  the 
nave  on  the  left  hand,  surveyed  the  mighty  engines  for 


INSTRUMENTS   OP   WAS.  13 

WAR  which  had  been  invented  and  constructed  in  the 
interim  of  the  two  exhibitions.  There  was  the  model  of 
the  mighty  "WARRIOR,"  iron-cased,  and  directing  the 
thoughts  to  the  "MONITORS"  and  " MERRIMACS,"  that 
rush  "like  mountains  of  iron  against  each  other  on  the 
deep,  and  plunge  in  furious  collision,  beside  which  the 
meeting  of  two  railway  engines  on  the  line  would  be 
harmless  as  children's  play.  And  to  overcome  such 
ships  there  were  the  solid  bolts  of  steel  for  the  '  Arm- 
strong Guns'  that  were  to  cut  through  those  walls  of 
iron;  and  broadsides  of  a  weight  which  would  be  suf- 
ficient to  make  the  great  pyramid  itself  tremble  on  its 
foundations ;  terrific  instruments  of  death,  which  seemed 
prepared  to  realize  Milton's  picture  of  the  Infernal 
L>emons'  war." 

But  we  must  linger  no  longer  on  the  lower  floor  of 
the  building,  amid  the  blaze  of  gold  and  jewellery,  the 
wonders  in  metals  and  glass,  in  porcelain,  ebonies,  and 
ivories;  the  marvels  of  colour  or  of  form.  JSJ  either  is  it 
our  purpose  to  do  more  than  recall  to  the  mind  of  our 
readers  those  picture  galleries  containing  the  noblest 
efforts  of  art,  ancient  and  modern,  which  others  have 
memorialized.  We  have  a  different  task  in  hand. 

It  is  computed  that  about  six  millions  of  men, 
from  almost  every  nation  under  heaven,  entered  the 
doors  of  the  Great  Exhibition  of  1862  ;  and  before 
them,  as  we  have  said,  lay  represented  "  all  the  king- 
doms of  this  world,  and  the  glory  of  them,"  in  a 
nearer  approach  to  infinitude  than  had  ever  before  been 
gathered  together  in  one  place.  The  buzz  and  hum  of 
many  voices,  speaking  in  many  languages,  fell  upon  the 
ear  that  listened  for  it,  and  to  him  also  who  had  "  an 
ear  to  hear,"  from  under  that  entrance  dome,  in  a 
corner  of  the  gallery,  there  spoke  ONE  VOICE  mightier 


14       .  THE   VOICE   TO   ALL  THE   EARTH. 

than  them  all.  THE  ONLY  VOICE  THAT  UTTERED  ALL  THE 
LANGUAGES  of  all  those  guests  from  the  "  far  ends  of  the 
earth,"  proceeding  from  the  "  mouth  of  the  Jehovah."* 

By  a  visit  to  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society's 
stall  each  visitor  might,  in  his  own  language,  have  re- 
ceived "  the  wonderful  words  of  God/'  written  for  every 
man  "  in  his  own  tongue  wherein  he  was  born :"  Parthi- 
ans,  and  Medes,  and  Elamites  (now  Koords,  Armenians, 
Persians),  Chaldeans,  Jews,  Egyptians,  Arabs,  Italians, 
Greeks,  with  all  the  tribes  of  India  added  to  those  of 
China  and  Japan.  One  voice  was  speaking  to  them  all, 
"  He  that  hath  an  ear  to  hear,  let  him  hear  \" 

In  the  last  ten  years — since  the  last  gathering  toge- 
ther of  the  works  of  all  nations  in  this  country — God 
has  spoken  with  a  mighty  voice  to  call  attention  to  HIS 
OWN  ancient  HEBREW  and  GREEK  records ;  and  in  their 
many  renderings  has  now  said  to  almost  all  nations, 
besides  his  chosen  people,  ' '  He  that  hath  an  ear  to 
hear,  let  him  hear." 

How  has  HE  HIMSELF  in  the  chapter  of  events  in- 
scribed a  fresh  story  of  the  Book  in  human  annals  in  this 
decade?  Has  He  not  done  so  by  REVOLUTIONS,  which 
have  all  been  overruled  by  Him  to  make  way  for  His 
WORD  to  reach  the  common  people  ? 

What  has  been  the  work  of  God  in  ITALY  ?  Not  yet, 
indeed,  in  Home,  the  throne  of  the  Papal  earth,  has  the 
Word  free  course,  on  the  spot  where  its  apostles  were 
made  a  spectacle  to  the  world,  to  angels,  and  to  men. 
On  emerging  from  the  fifty  miles  of  its  surrounding 
Pontine  Marshes,  a  desert  of  mingled  morass  and  hillock, 
without  a  single  house  or  village,  when  the  frontier  of 
Rome  is  reached — and  in  the  last  ten  years  reached  by 

*  At  Kuruman,  in  South  Africa,  the  natives  call  tlie  Bible  "  Molomo 
oa  Tehova"— the  mouth  of  the  Jehovah. 


THE   BIBLE    FOE   ITALY. 


15 


railway — every  packet  and  paper  is  still  searched  ere  ifc 
enters  the  dismal  city — where  only  oil  lamps  have  till 
lately  been  allowed.  The  flashing  light  of  God's  truth, 
too,  is  feared  in  the  darkness  of  the  Vatican.  Yes, 
the  throne  of  the  Roman  earth  is  still  in  shadow ;  but 


Italians  could  tell,  as  they  passed  our  Exhibition  Bible 
stall,  of  things  most  new  and  striking  in  their  country — 
of  the  Bible  sold  in  open  day  at  NAPLES  -,  of  men  that 
read  it  and  were  not  cast  at  once  into  dungeons  for  that 
crime ;  and  that  their  noble  patriot  Garibaldi  had  said, 
"  the  Bible  is  the  cannon  that  must  liberate  ITALY." 
And  for  the  nations  under  Papal  dominion  ; — FRANCE, 


16  ARMIES   AND   NEW   TESTAMENTS. 

the  eldest  son  of  the  Church ;  since  the  Yaudois  pedlar 
hid  in  his  basket,  amid  laces  and  ribbons,  "the  gem 
shining  from  God/'  by  how  many  colporteurs  in  his  stead 
has  it  been  scattered  abroad  in  the  armies  of  France 
and  amongst  her  peasantry,  chiefly  by  the  influence  of 
one  good  man  especially  devoted  to  the  work.  De  Pres- 
sense  (the  elder)  lives  on,  to  count  his  3,250,000  copies 
distributed  in  the  last  thirty  years,  of  which  nearly 
1,000,000  have  been  scattered  in  these  last  ten. 

Who  until  this  era  had  thought  of  making  the  col- 
lecting together  of  armies  a  time  for  the  distribution  of 
New  Testaments  ?  letting  the  voice  of  God  speak,  possibly 
for  the  first  and  last  time,  to  those  who  were  to  fall 
upon  the  battle-field,  and  to  those  also  who  would  there 
learn  its  value,  and  finding  the  "  pearl  of  great  price"  in 
the  trenches  before  Sebastopol,  would  live  to  carry  it  back 
to  their  homes,  and  bid  it  speak  in  their  villages.  Yes, 
to  some  who  at  first  said,  "This  will  do  to  light  my 
pipe."  it  became  the  key  of  the  door  of  heaven,  for  it 
opened  to  them  another  world,  and  revealed  to  them  a 
Saviour  who  prepared  them  for  the  same  by  the  pardon 
of  their  sins. 

Then,  when  French  soldiers  met  in  friendly  array 
with  the  martial  hosts  of  England  to  subdue  the  pride  ot 
Russia,  in  1855,  and  to  assure  the  independence  of  Tur- 
key, how  did  the  Most  High  overrule  the  meeting  to  the 
shaking  of  the  Empire  of  ISLAM.  The  SULTAN  received  the 
Book,  and  compared  it  with  the  KORAN.  Was  he  influ- 
enced by  the  long  residence  of  our  Lord  Stratford  de 
Redcliffe  (an  English  ambassador  worthy  of  his  office) 
at  his  Oriental  court  ?  or  was  it  not  a  mightier  influence 
still,  that  pointed  to  the  hour  of  Fate  upon  the  clock  of 
Time,  and  bade  the  Commander  of  the  Faithful  to  the 
False  Prophet,  desire  his  ministers  to  prepare  that  Hatti 


REVOLUTIONS   AND   KEVIVALS.  17 

Hamayoun,  which  lifted  in  an  hour  the  heavy  yoke  of 
MECCA  from  the  necks  of  God's  old  protesting  children 
of  the  Eastern  world  (the  NESTORIAN  and  ARMENIAN 
CHURCHES),  in  their  darkness  and  their  weakness,  but 
in  His  OWN  appointed  season.  Of  what  this  has  prepared 
them  for,  and  of  what  has  followed  on  the  lifting  of  that 
yoke,  "  He  that  hath  ears  to  hear,  let  him  hear." 

REVOLUTIONS   AND   REVIVALS. 

The  Voice  of  God  has  spoken  by  REVOLUTIONS  and 
changes  throughout  the  world.  Not  only  from  ITALY,  as 
the  CENTRE  of  the  PAPACY  ;  from  CONSTANTINOPLE,  as  the 
CENTRE  of  MOHAMMEDANISM  ;  but  from  CHINA  and  INDIA 
as  the  CENTRES  of  HEATHENDOM  ;  where  His  WORD  has  been 
hidden,  where  a  false  book  has  supplanted  it,  and  where, 
by  modern  generations,  it  has  been  comparatively  un- 
known. 

HE  has  had  REVOLUTIONS  for  the  WORLD,  and  RE- 
VIVALS for  the  CHURCH,  His  UNIVERSAL  CHURCH.  He  has 
been  restoring  to  HER  the  light  of  His  countenance, 
perhaps  in  preparation  for  her  last  and  final  struggle 
with  the  powers  of  darkness  before  the  dawn  of  the 
millennial  day ;  and  He  is  now  pointing  the  eye  of  all 
intelligent  observers  to  the  Story  of  the  Book,  by  fresh 
interest  excited  in  the  peoples  of  whom  the  Book  treats. 
He  has  remembered  the  family  of  Japhet  dwelling  in 
the  tents  of  Shem,  and  He  has  not  forgotten  Shem's 
own  children.  For  surely  the  finger  of  modern  dis- 
covery points  far  more  distinctly  than  it  did  a  dozen 
years  ago  to  the  remnants  of  the  chosen  race  scattered 
through  the  wide  world — to  the  exiles  of  Judah,  and 
not  only  to  them,  but  to  those  other  children  of  the 
dispersion,  the  Israel  whom  they  yet  despise.  How 
marvellous  is  the  race — one,  yet  divided  !  The  "  twelve 

o 


18  ERA  OP  DISPERSION. 

tribes  scattered  abroad,"  to  whom  the  epistle  of  James 
is  written ;  the  casting  out  of  whom  has  been  as  certain 
as  the  choosing  of  them,  and  from  a  given  date  and 
cause.  See  the  prophet  Jeremiah  (xv.  1) : — 

SUPPOSED   ERA    GP   DISPERSION   OP   ISRAEL. 

"  Then  said  the  Lord  unto  me,  Though  Moses  and  Samuel  stood 
before  me,  yet  my  mind  could  not  be  toward  this  people :  cast  them  out 
of  my  sight,  and  let  them  go  forth. 

"  And  it  shall  come  to  pass,  if  they  say  unto  thee,  Whither  shall  we 
go  forth  ?  then  thou  shalt  tell  them,  Thus  saith  the  Lord ;  Such  as  are 
for  death,  to  death ;  and  such  as  are  for  the  sword,  to  the  sword ;  and 
such  as  are  for  the  famine,  to  the  famine ;  and  such  as  are  for  the 
captivity,  to  the  captivity. 

"  And  I  will  appoint  over  them  four  kinds,  saith  the  Lord  :  the  sword 
to  slay,  and  the  dogs  to  tear,  and  the  fowls  of  the  heaven,  and  the  heasts 
of  the  earth,  to  devour  and  destroy. 

"  And  I  will  cause  them  to  be  removed  into  all  kingdoms  of  the  earth, 
because  of  Manasseh  the  son  of  Hezekiah  king  of  Judah,  for  that  which 
he  did  in  Jerusalem." 

In  the  book  of  their  Law  (Lev.  xxvi.  18,  24,  28), 
they  had  been  forewarned  of  God  by  a  thrice  repeated 
prophecy,  that  should  they  deserve  to  be  thus  cast  off, 
they  would  be  chastised  seven  times  for  their  sins.  If 
the  "  time,  times,  and  a  half"  of  the  prophet  Daniel 
(chaps,  vii.  and  xii.)  have  their  explanation,  as  is  generally 
supposed,  in  a  period  of  1260  years,  then  "seven  times" 
must  indicate  2520  years,  or  the  first  period  doubled; 
and  the  commencement  of  such  period  in  the  reign  of 
Manasseh,  at  his  being  carried  captive  to  Babylon,  in 
the  era  of  Esarhaddon,  king  of  Nineveh,  might  date 
from  about  655  to  660  years  B.C.,  and  if  so,  the  close 
of  such  2520  years  would  fall  within  the  circle  of  this 
our  present  decade. 

"  By  the  end  of  the  reign  of  Esarhaddon,"  says 
Professor  Rawlinson  (which,  however,  he  fixes  from 


NEBUCHADNEZZAR.  19 

Ptolemy's  Canon,  at  about  687),  "the  triumph  of  the 
army  of  ASSYRIA  had  been  so  complete,  that  scarcely  an 
enemy  was  left  who  could  cause  her  serious  anxiety. 
The  kingdoms  of  Hamath,  Damascus,  and  SAMARIA  had 
been  successively  absorbed.  Phoenicia  had  been  con- 
quered; JUDEA  made  feudatory;  Philistia  and  Idumea 
had  been  subjected,  Egypt  chastised,  and  Babylon 
recovered.  A  time  of  profound  peace  in  her  empire 
succeeded  to  the  long  and  bloody  wars  of  Sargon.  We 
hear  nothing  of  Assyria  in  Scripture  after  the  reign  of 
Esarhaddon."— ("  Diet,  of  Bible,"  Assyria.) 

From  this  time  Jehovah  went  on  ' '  to  stretch  over 
Jerusalem  the  line  of  Samaria," — "the  line  of  con- 
fusion and  the  stones  of  emptiness"  (Isa.  xxxiv.  11)  ; 
"  wiping  Jerusalem  as  a  man  wipeth  a  dish,  wiping  it  and 
turning  it  upsido  down"  (2  Kings  xxi.  13) ;  the  process 
may  have  occupied  more  than  fifty  years.  Manasseh's 
own  repentance  in  his  captivity,  and  Josiah's  good  reign, 
stayed,  more  or  less,  its  extreme  fulfilment,  but  the 
prophetess  HULDAH,  on  whose  testimony  Josephus  lays 
special  stress  (Antiq*  b.  x.  c.  iv.),  declared  to  the  latter 
king  that  the  sentence  had  already  gone  forth  (see  2 
Kings  xxiii.  17  ),  and  about  606  B.C.  there  came  finally 
to  Jerusalem  "the  king  of  the  Chaldees,"  Nebuchad- 
nezzar (2  Chron.  xxxvi.  17,  18)  : — 

"  And  had  no  compassion  upon  young  man  or  maiden,  old  man,  cr 
him  that  stooped  for  age  :  God  gave  them  all  into  his  hand. 

"  And  all  the  vessels  of  the  house  of  God,  great  and  small,  and  th'e 
treasures  of  the  house  of  the  Lord,  and  the  treasures  of  the  king,  and 
of  his  princes ;  all  these  he  brought  to  Babylon." 

And  yet,  notwithstanding  this  utter  demolition,  every 
careful  student  of  history  must  discern  the  length- 
ened shadow  still  cast  by  the  Jewish  people  on  the 
dial-plate  of  time.  Forgotten  or  persecuted,  massacred 
or  spared,  they  never  die  out,  they  are  there  still. 


20  .  JDDAH   CAPTIVE. 

Where  is  there  a  nation  so  old  as  this  nation  ?  With 
its  cradle  in  remote  antiquity,  its  history  has  bridged  all 
these  centuries,  and  across  this  bridge  we  of  modern 
days  alone  communicate  with  ages  long  gone  by.  How 
is  this  ?  The  Jew  folds  in  his  vesture  his  imperishable 
Book,  of  the  Law  and  the  Prophets  given  him  of  God. 


JCDAH    CAPTIVB. 


Those  inspired  authorities  have  told  hij  story;  and  even 
the  science  and  literature  of  this  advanced  era  must 
come  to  him  and  his  old  ancestral  records  when  they 
would  seek  to  illuminate  the  lately  disinterred  remains 
and  monuments  of  the  men  that  were  his  foes.  Babylon, 
and  Assyria,  and  Egypt  are  gone  down  into  darkness, 
they  have  perished,  but  the  Jew  remaineth ;  with  him  a 
faith  has  succeeded  to  a  kingdom.  Their  languages, 


HER    SEALED   BOOK.  21 

all  dead  and  voiceless,  become  of  value  only  as  God 
gives  skill  to  modern  masters  of  tongues  to  recover  their 
meaning,  and  interpret  their  dark  sayings,  in  order  that 
they  shall  corroborate  HIS  OWN  BOOK. 

The  men  of  JDDAH  may  still  misinterpret  these 
records  for  themselves  concerning  the  Christ  of  God. 
Their  eyes  have  been  holden  that  they  should  not  see 
Him — the  Saviour  of  whom  all  their  prophets  bare 
witness ;  who  came  first  to  them  and  to  Jerusalem  ;  and 
being  rejected  of  the  royal  tribe,  turned  next  to  tho 
"  lost  sheep  of  the  house  of  Israel" — to  His  other  sheep 
who  were  not  of  this  fold.  Still  Judah  stands  with  tho 
book  which  might  have  made  her  wise  unto  salvation, 
and  still  she  guards  it,  prized,  though  sealed.  Her  "heart 
of  stone  "  is  itself  a  mighty  testimony  for  God  even  in  its 
silence  and  its  unbelief;  the  greatest  living  answer  to  the 
infidel,  and  therefore  now  to  be  continually  brought  for- 
ward before  the  eye  of  Gentile  Christians  ;  and  that  we  are 
approaching  the  era  when  the  recovery  of  the  chosen 
nation  shall  prove  to  be  "  the  riches  of  the  world"  far 
more,  according  to  St.  Paul,  than  even  their  fall  has  been, 
Eom.  xi.  12,  the  events  of  tho  last  fifty  years  combine 
to  indicate. 

To  what  purpose  is  it  tending,  all  the  progress  of 
this  now  rapid  and  restless  world  ?  The  progress  it  is 
making  in  evil  is  keeping  pace,  is  even  over- striving, 
with  all  it  makes  towards  good.  "  The  prince  of  this 
world"  still  "  reigneth ;"  and  the  vain  shadows  he  raises 
strive  thicker  and  faster  in  the  path  of  those  who 
serve  him — of  all  who  do  not  serve  God.  If  he  can 
only  hinder  men  from  pursuing  the  highest  end  of  their 
being,  he  spares  no  secrets  of  mental  development;  he 
always  pointed  to  the  tree  of  knowledge.  More  rapid, 
and  restless,  and  unsatisfactory  than  ever,  from  their 


22  THE   ANTIQUE   LAMP. 

bewildering  variety,  are  the  ways  that  lead  down  to  his 
chambers  of  death.  "  Men  have  sought  out  many  in- 
ventions." 

Only  the  humble  servants  of  a  better  Master  are 
taught  to  use  the  things  of  this  world  without  abusing 
them ;  to  make  all  progress  subservient  to  the  scattering 
of  their  Master's  word  of  salvation  and  peace.  Their 
daily  draughts  at  the  fountain  He  has  opened  in  the 
wilderness,  alone  can  slake  their  growing  thirst  for 
something  brighter,  higher,  holier,  than  all  this  world 
has  to  bestow ;  and  to  verify  that  word,  to  confirm  their 
faith  in  it  in  troublous  times,  God  has  recently  opened 
his  treasure-chambers  of  history,  and  bade  men  go  and 
muse,  as  never  they  might  before,  among  the  temples 
and  the  graves  of  old  Chaldea,  the  nursery  of  kingdoms. 
He  suffers  the  science  and  research  of  modern  days  to 
relight  the  lamp  the  ancients  left  in  Warka,  their  city  of 
tombs.  Let  us  take  it,  and  penetrate  into  their  mys- 
terious chambers.  They  will  tell  us  of  the  times  of 
Abram's  call  out  of  "  Ur  of  the  Chaldees." 


ABTIQtIE   LAilP    JEOM   TTAEKA. 


THE 


SEVEN  TIMES"  OF  THE  PATEIAECHS, 

BEFORE  THE  GIVING  OF  THE   WRITTEN  LAW 
THROUGH  MOSES, 


Before  the  Flood    ......  1656  years. 

To  the  Birth  of  Moses    ....     777  years. 

To  the  Exodus 80  years. 

first  7  years  of  Wilderness  Life    .         7  years. 

2520,  or  7  times  3GO. 

"A  "TiMS1  in  the  Book  of  Daniel  and  in  the  Revelation  signifies  M  ir."nf 
years  as  there  were  days  in  the  Hebrew  year,  viz.,  380." — GiuMe*  o.%»  Zu.iiV.  6-2 
also  "Smith's  Uiclionxry  of  t.:*e  Btli.e,"  J.-t.  Ycvr. 


BESUREECTION  OF  LANGUAGES.  25 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE  CBADLE  OF  NATIONS. 

DISINTERMENT  OF  LANGUAGES — WITHSTANDING  MOSES — OUR  LORD'S  WIT- 
NESS TO   HIM — DIVINE  HISTORY — BIBLICAL  CHRONOLOGY — THE  FAR 

BEGINNING — ENOCH'S  PROPHECY ADAM  AND  METHUSELAH — MARVELS 

BEFORE  THE  FLOOD SIIEM — ORAL  TRADITION EDEN ARARAT,   ITS 

SUMMIT — NOAH'S  DESCENT — SHINAR — NIMROD — FIRST  CHALDEAN  EM- 
PIRE— URUKH — CHEDORLAOMER — HAMITIC  AND  SEMITIC  RACES THE 

TOLDOTH  BENI  NOAH — NEW  NATIONS  OF  AFRICA ANCIENT   BABYLON 

ITS  ERA  BY  STELLAB  CALCULATION TEMPLE  OF  MUGEYER,  ITS  CYLIN- 
DERS— CLAY  TABLETS — WARKA — FALL  OF  CHALDEAN  EMPIRE — EARLY 
IDOLATRY — FOUNDING  OP  NINEVEH — CALL  OF  ABRAM. 

fT  is  by  the  disinterment  and  attempted  deciphering 
within  the  last  ten  years,  of  dead  languages  (lan- 
guages which  lived  before  Greek  and  Latin  became 
fthe  spoken  tongues  of  the  civilized  world),  that  we 
are  carried  back  to  cities  and  peoples  whose  names 
are  found  in  the  earliest  records  of  our  race  after 
the    Flood.     We    have    too    seldom    considered    the 
relatively    great    space    of   time,    of   which   the  Biblo 
gives  account,  and  no  other  book  is  left  to  tell,  of  the 
years  before  the  Flood.     Nor  do  we   often  realize  how 
much  of  the  history  of  those  years  and  their  deeds — the 
deeds   of   the  antediluvian    "giants,"    and    "men    of 
renown" — came  down  to   the  new   era  of  the  world, 
through  the  memories  of  the  family  "  saved  in  the  ark." 
We  are  not  left,  however,  to  the  traditions  of  men 
on  this  subject ;  for  while  these  must  have  existed,  and 
also  in   the   course    of   time    must    have    died    away, 
there  remains  to  us  one  brief,  grand,   inspired  record. 


26  DIVINE   EEVELATIONS. 

The  Creator  and  the  Destroyer  of  that  elder  race,  whose 
wickedness  was  great  in  the  earth,  Gen.  vi.  5,  "made 
known  his  ways  unto  Moses,"  and  left  it  to  the  "  perilous 
times  "  of  the  "last  days"  (Are  they  not  these  on  which 
we  ourselves  have  fallen  ?)  for  men  to  "  resist  the  truth" 
(see  2  Tim.  iii.  8),  and  withstand  Moses,  as  Jannes  and 
Jambres  (the  supposed  magicians  of  Egypt)  f<  with- 
stood "  him  of  old.  Singular  to  say,  it  is  also  written, 
"  But  they  shall  proceed  no  further,  for  their  folly  shall 
be  manifest  unto  all  men  as  their5  s  also  was." 

The  shadows  of  doubt  may  surely  depart  with  the 
divinely-inspired  testimony,  the  assurance  of  the  Lord  to 
Joshua,  "  As  I  was  with  Moses,  so  I  will  be  with  th.ee/ ' 
Josh.  i.  5 — with  our  Saviour's  record  of  Abraham's 
witness  to  the  souls  in  prison,  who  desired  a  messenger 
to  be  sent  to  those  still  in  the  flesh,  "  They  have  Moses 
and  the  prophets,  let  them  hear  them/'  Luke  xvi.  29 ; 
and  with  the  narrative  of  His  walk  with  the  disciples  to 
Emmaus,  when  "  beginning  at  Moses  and  the  prophets, 
Christ  expounded  to  them,  in  all  the  Scriptures  the  things 
concerning  Himself,"  Luke  xxiv.  27. 

Did  our  Lord  in  that  favoured  interview  go  back  to 
the  first  majestic  announcement  of  the  ways  of  God  to 
man  ?  "  In  the  beginning  God  created  the  heavens  and 
the  earth."  The  apostle  John  opens  his  Gospel  by 
declaring,  "  The  same  was  in  the  beginning  with  God. 
AH  things  were  made  by  Him,  and  without  Him  was  not 
anything  made  that  was  made."  This  is  the  account 
of  the  creation  laid  up  in  the  apostolic  archives,  and 
where  could  John  have  had  it  but  from  his  Master  ? 

Were  Cleopas  and  his  privileged  companion  told  of 
the  hour  when  the  foundations  of  the  earth  were  laid 
(Job  xxxviii.  4),  "  when  the  morning  stars  sang  together, 
and  all  the  sons  of  God  shouted  for  joy  ?"  Did  the  Great 


THE   ANTEDILUVIANS.  27 

Teacher  explain  to  His  devout  listeners  the  mighty  con- 
trast, and  span  for  them  the  outline  of  the  ages  from  the 
Creation  to  the  Cross?  Oh,  what  an  exposition  was 
then  given  by  God  himself  to  man  !  and  such  con- 
verse must  some  time  be  repeated  with  every  soul  that 
shall  be  taught  to  sing  "  the  song  of  Moses  and  the 
Lamb." 

THE    ANTEDILUVIANS. 

For  1656  years  the  Lord  bore  with  the  sins  of  tho 
Antediluvians ;  preserving  to  Himself  a  holy  line  in  the 
posterity  of  Adam's  third  son,  Seth,  who  are  said  to  have 
"  lived  by  faith"  (see  Heb.  xi.),  and  the  duration  of  whoso 
individual  and  successive  histories  furnishes  us  with  the 
chronology  of  the  period  from  the  day  that  Adam  stood 
before  the  Lord  ' '  a  living  soul." 

In  the  seventh  century  after  Adam,  there  arose  his 
seventh  lineal  descendant,  Enoch,  of  whom  it  is  said  that 
after  a  life  of  365  years  (during  which  "  he  walked  with 
God")  "  he  was  not,  for  God  took  him." 

Enoch,  though  living  in  that  early  period,  is  said  by 
Jude  to  have  had  committed  to  him  a  prophecy,  that, 
like  those  of  Paul  and  Peter,  concerned  ' '  the  last  days," 
and  the  second  coming  of  Christ,  "  with  ten  thousand  of 
His  saints,  to  execute  judgment  upon  the  ungodly  for  the 
hard  speeches  which  ungodly  men  have  spoken  against 
Himself."  The  veiled  intimations  of  a  future  Eedeemer 
and  a  future  Judge  must  therefore  have  been  the  theme 
of  converse  in  the  antediluvian  age,  to  which,  indeed, 
judgment  first  came. 

1656  years  are  less  merely  by  about  two  hundred 
than  the  era  of  time  that  seems  to  us,  the  children  of  a 
modern  day,  so  lengthened  since  the  birth  of  our  Lord 


20  ENOCH. 

in  Bethlehem;  these  years  were  spanned  by  only  two 
intersecting  human  lives,  those  of  Adam  and  Methuselah, 
for  "  Adam  lived  nine  hundred  and  thirty  years,  and  he 
died,"  and  Methuselah,  whose  name  given  by  his  father 
Enoch,  was  prophetic  of  the  flood  ("He  dies,  and  it  is 
sent")  must  have  lived  on  the  earth  243  years  with  his 
great  first-father. 

Enoch,  too,  must  have  dwelt  more  than  300  years 
with  Adam ;  his  own  translation  took  place  fifty-seven 
years  after  the  death  of  the  father  of  men.  "  By  faith 
Enoch  was  translated,"  says  Paul,  "  that  he  should  not 
see  death ;  and  was  not  found  because  God  had  trans- 
lated him ;  for,  before  his  translation,  he  had  this  testi- 
mony, that  he  pleased  God." 

There  were,  therefore,  in  the  archives  of  our  race  be- 
fore the  Flood  two  grand  outstanding  deviations  from  the 
ordinary  course  of  events  concerning  mankind.  Tho 
creation  of  Adam  and  Eve,  as  full  and  perfect  beings, 
who  knew  no  infancy,  and  the  translation  of  Enoch  from 
earth  to  heaven,  who  knew  no  death.  The  first  of  these 
events  has  never  been  repeated ;  the  second  has,  in  the 
taking  up  of  the  prophet  Elijah,  and  in  the  ascension  of 
our  Lord  in  His  own  risen  body. 

These  and  many  other  marvels  were  probably  fre- 
quent subjects  of  thought  and  converse  between  Noah 
and  his  grandfather,  Methuselah,  with  whom  he  may 
have  communed  600  years;  and  Shem,  the  great  grand- 
son of  the  family,  would  have  shared  in  the  traditions 
which  had  been  received  direct  from  Adam,  and  wero 
to  be  laid  up  in  HIS  memory  for  the  information  of  those 
who  should  live  500  years  after  the  Flood. 


THE  GARDEN  OP  EDEN.  29 


DEAL  TRADITIONS. 

TJie  very  long  life  of  SHEM  exceeding  that  of  all  his 
immediate  descendants,  except  Eber,  must,  by  the  He- 
brew chronology,  have  carried  him  into  the  era  of  ABRA- 
HAM, with  whom  he  was  cotemporary  for  150  years.  He 
therefore  lived  fifty  years  with  ISAAC,  and  died  only  ten 
years  before  the  birth  of  Jacob  and  Esau.  Isaac  lived 
on  till  the  thirty-fourth  year  of  his  grandson  LEVI,  the 
length  of  whose  life  (137  years),  with  that  of  his  son 
Kohath  (133  years),  and  his  grandson  Amram  (137 
years),  are  given  ITS  in  Exod.  vi.  16 — 20,  though  the 
ages  of  all  the  other  sons  of  Jacob  are  left  untold. 

The  line  is  thus  carried  singly  on  to  Moses  himself, 
who  was  the  son  of  Amram  and  Jochebed : "  Amram  took 
him  Jochebed  his  father's  sister  to  wife/'  she  being 
Levi's  own  daughter.  Now,  as  Levi  lived  103  years 
after  Isaac's  death,  this  daughter,  the  mother  of  Moses 
and  Aaron,  would  certainly  receive  from  her  father  Levi's 
own  lips  what  he  had  heard  from  Isaac,  and  Isaac  from 
Shem,  of  the  world  before  the  Flood.  How  few  the 
links — how  clearly  to  be  traced  !  Adam,  Methuselah, 
Shem,  Isaac,  Levi,  Jochebed,  MOSES,  who  is  only  the 
seventh  from  Adam,  in  another  sense  than  Enoch,  and 
as  regards  his  possible  aud  probable  reception  of  ORAL 
TRADITIONS  of  the  purest  character  concerning  the  history 
of  the  earth  and  man. 

THE   GARDEN  OF  EDEN. 

Such  considerations  may  carry  us  back  more  defi- 
nitely to  the  first  seat  of  human  habitation,  the  Garden 
of  Eden,  planted  by  the  Lord  God  in  the  neighbourhood 
of  four  rivers,  the  names  of  two  of  which  have  survived 


30  EDEN. 

the  Flood,  the  Euphrates  and  the  Tigris  (the  latter  is  the 
Hiddekel  of  Gen.  ii.  14,  and  of  Dan.  x.  4).  Enduring 
links  between  the  past  and  the  present,  these  two  rivers 
"  went  out  of  Eden  to  water  the  garden/'  which  was  the 
birth-place  of  our  race,  nearly  6000  years  ago  ;  and  they 
still  go  forth  encircling  desolate  plains  and  mighty 
mounds  of  earth,  which  have  for  2000  years  entombed  the 
old  stone  books  that  were  to  tell  us  in  their  appointed 
season  of  the  Chaldean  kings  of  the  times  of  Abraham. 
These  mounds  have  guarded  slab,  and  cylinder,  and 
brick,  inscribed,  not  by  God's  Chosen  People,  but  by 
their  enemies,  which  were  to  render  testimony  when 
most  needed  to  the  truth  of  their  Sacred  Book,  of  our 
Sacred  Book,  that  like  a  river  of  Truth,  with  the  Euphrates 
and  the  Tigris,  also  spans  the  ages. 

To  this  same  locality  of  Eden,  or  one  not  far  distant, 
judging  by  the  rivers,  we  are  brought  a  second  time,  by 
the  resting  of  the  Ark  amid  the  wilderness  of  waters,  on 
the  plateau  of  Ararat.  "And  the  ark  rested  in  the 
seventh  month,  on  the  seventeenth  day  of  the  month,  upon 
the  mountains  of  Ararat,"  Gen.  viii.  4 ;  rested  perhaps 
among  the  Armenian  highlands,  which  may  have  enclosed, 
as  it  were,  some  inland  sea,  during  the  further  decrease 
of  the  waters ;  and  it  seems  to  have  rested  ten  weeks 
on  this  calm,  subsiding  floor  before  the  tops  of  the 
mountains  around  (probably  the  lower  range  of  Ararat) 
were  seen. 

AEAEAT. 

And  why  was  this  region  made  a  second  time  the 
centre  whence  the  nations  were  to  radiate  to  different 
quarters  of  the  globe — Agri-dagh  (steep  mountain),  as  it 
is  called  by  the  Armenians;  Kuh-i-noh  (Noah's  mountain) 
by  the  Persians  ?  Probably  from  its  geographical  position. 


ABA  RAT.  81 

The  plain  of  the  Araxes  is  itself  3000  feet  above  the 
level  of  the  sea.  From  this  the  summits  of  the  Armenian 
highlands  rise  to  the  height  of  6000  or  7000  feet,  bearing 
on  their  shoulders  an  extensive  plateau,  whence  again, 
as  from  a  fresh  base,  spring  the  greater  and  the  lesser 
cones  of  Ararat.  This  plateau  is  equi-distant  from  the 
Euxine  and  the  Caspian  seas  on  the  north,  and  on  the 
south  from  the  Persian  Gulf  and  Mediterranean  Sea.  The 
river  Acampsis  connects  it  with  the  Euxine,  the  Araxes 
with  the  Caspian,  the  Tigris  and  Euphrates  with  the 
Persian  Gulf.  These  seas  were  the  highroads  of  pri- 
mitive colonization,  and  in  consequence  the  seats  of  the 
most  powerful  ancient  empires  of  Chaldea,  Assyria, 
Babylonia,  Media,  and  Persia.  Let  us  look  at  the  pre- 
sent dwellers  in  those  regions. 

"  Sick  at  heart  of  the  abominations  of  the  False  Pro- 
phet "  (says  Dr.  D WIGHT,  in  his  book  on  ARMENIA,  pub- 
lished in  1834),  "and  grieved  by  the  knowledge  that 
every  sect  and  nation  now  inhabiting  this  country — 
whether  Armenians,  Georgians,  Nestorians,  Turks,  Per- 
sians, or  Kurds — address  the  God  of  heaven  in  a  tongue 
they  do  not  understand,  I  walked  into  the  fields  to 
gaze  upon  Mount  Ararat,  and  recall  the  time  when  NOAH, 
in  this  very  valley,  builded  an  altar  unto  the  Lord,  and 
offered  his  burnt-offerings  of  a  sweet  savour  (Gen.  viii. 
21),  which  preceded  the  divine  and  solemn  covenant — 
'  Neither  will  I  again  smite  any  more  everything  living, 
as  I  have  done.  While  the  earth  remaineth,  seed-time 
and  harvest,  cold  and  heat,  summer  and  winter,  and  day 
and  night,  shall  not  cease/  " 

From  almost  every  point  between  the  cities  of  Nakh- 
chevan  and  Erivan,  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  river 
Araxes  (some  buildings  of  the  latter  are  seen  in  our  pic- 
ture), the  traveller  has  only  to  look  across  the  valley  to 


32  THE   BOUNDARY    STONE. 

take  into  one  distinct  field  of  vision,  without  a  single 
obstacle  intervening,  the  mighty  mountain  from  base 
to  summit.  From  Erivan  it  presents  two  peaks,  and 
appears  to  be  connected  with  a  range  of  lower  mountains, 
whose  retiring  outlines  still  leave  the  monarch  in  his 
lonely  majesty. 

From  Nakhchevan,  at  a  hundred  miles'  distance, 
Mount  Ararat  appears  to  rise  like  one  immense  ice-clad 
cone  from  the  low  valley  of  the  Araxes,  often  shining  with 
dazzling  splendour  against  the  expanse  of  the  blue 
heavens.  Sometimes  at  early  dawn  the  peak  is  whitened 
by  the  pure  light  of  day,  while  the  purple  of  night  still 
darkens  its  base.  The  first  rays  of  the  sun  begin  to 
crown  it  with  gold,  and  then  spread  downwards  to  its 
foundations  till  they  travel  over  the  plain  below.  If  it 
be  true,  as  most  suppose,  that  in  the  valley  of  the  Araxes 
we  are  to  look  for  the  site  of  Eden,  then  on  no  part  of 
the  earth  has  the  primeval  curse  rested  more  heavily  than 
on  the  original  paradise  of  Adam.  Nowhere  is  it  more 
true  that  man  eats  his  bread  in  the  sweat  of  his  brow, 
and  nowhere  are  thorns  and  thistles  more  spontaneously 
brought  forth.  Forbidding  precipices  of  rock  or  earth, 
without  a  blade  of  grass,  present  rich  colours  variegated 
from  white  to  fiery  red,  bespeaking  mineral  wealth  and 
vegetable  poverty.* 

The  region  of  Ararat  has  remained  age  after  age  the 
great  barrier  between  the  eastern  and  western  portion  of 
the  elder  world,  and  it  now  forms,  as  it  were,  the  boun- 
dary stone  of  the  three  great  empires  of  Kussia,  Turkey, 
and  Persia. 

NAKHCHEVAN  claims  the  honour  of  being  an  older  city 

*  The  name  of  the  first  of  Eden's  rivers  was  Pison  ;  "  that  is  it  which 
compasseth  the  whole  land  of  Havilah,  where  there  is  gold ;  aud  the  gold 
of  that  land  is  good,"  Gen.  ii.  11, 12. 


SUMMIT  OP  ARAEAT.  33 

than  Babylon.  Armenian  etymology  shows  that  the 
name  signifies  "  first  place  of  descent  or  lodging,"  and 
tradition  affirms  that  here  Noah  himself  remained.  The 
melons,  pomegranates,  and  especially  grapes,  growing 
in  its  gardens,  are  almost  unequalled  in  excellence. 
Melons  with  bread  seem  almost  the  sole  food  of  the 
people ;  but  owing  to  the  miasmata  arising  from  its  well- 
watered  gardens,  Nakhchevan  is  noted  for  its  sickliness 
as  much  as  its  fertility. 

The  taller  summit  of  Ararat  is  more  than  14,000  feet 
above  the  Araxes  plain;  the  lesser  summit  is  10,000 
feet.  After  several  unsuccessful  attempts  to  ascend  the 
mountain,  which  the  Armenians  believe  to  be  superna- 
turally  forbidden,  it  was  not  till  1829  that  Professor 
Parrot,  a  German,  under  Russian  auspices,  succeeded  in 
the  design.  Twice  he  was  repelled  by  the  snowy  crest, 
but  the  third  time  he  found  himself  on  a  slightly  convex 
and  nearly  cruciform  surface,  about  200  paces  in  circuit, 
which  at  the  margin  declined  rather  steeply  on  all  sides. 
This  was  the  silver  brow  of  Ararat,  composed  of  eternal 
ice,  unbroken  by  rock  or  stone.  On  the  east-south-east  he 
looked  down  on  the  lesser  Ararat,  whose  head,  as  viewed 
from  this  higher  point,  did  not  appear  like  a  cone,  as  it 
does  from  the  plain,  but  like  the  top  of  a  square  pyra- 
mid, with  larger  and  smaller  rocky  elevations  at  the 
edges  and  in  the  middle,  so  as  to  present  somewhat  the 
appearance  of  a  Druidical  circle,  with  its  central  object ; 
and  this  is  a  curious  fact,  when  taken  in  connection  with 
the  notion  which  many  entertain,  that  the  ark,  in  fact, 
rested  on  the  lesser  Ararat ;  as  it  is  not  easy  to  see  how 
its  inmates,  including  heavy  cattle,  could  possibly  have 
descended  from  the  higher  summit. 

Professor  Parrot's  party  spent  three  quarters  of  an 
hour  on  the  mountain  top,  and  after  planting  an  oaken 

D 


3-1  THE    DESCENT. 

cross  thereon,  they  descended.  In  going  down,  ' c  it  was 
a  glorious  sight  to  behold  the  dark  shadows  which  the 
mountains  on  the  west  cast  upon  the  plain,  and  then  the 
profound  darkness  which  covered  all  the  valleys,  and 
which  rose  gradually  higher  and  higher  on  the  side  of 
Ararat,  whose  icy  cone  was  still  illuminated  by  the  beams 
of  the  setting  sun." 

It  remains  to  be  added,  that  Ararat  has  since  been 
the  scene  of  a  fearful  visitation,  which,  in  a  few  moments, 
changed  the  entire  face  of  the  country. 

A  dreadful  earthquake  commenced  in  June,  1840, 
and  continued  at  intervals  till  September  in  the  same 
year.  As  the  most  destructive  shock  occurred  in  the 
day-time,  the  loss  of  life  was  not  great ;  but  the  destruc- 
tion of  property  was  immense,  and  traces  of  the  calamity 
will  be  borne  down  to  future  ages  in  the  fissures  and 
landslips  of  the  district.  Even  the  aged  mountain  did 
not  escape;  vast  masses  of  rock,  ice,  and  snow  were 
detached  from  its  sides,  and  thrown  at  a  single  bound 
into  the  valley  of  Akhori,  where  they  buried  a  village  and 
a  monastery,  and  where  the  fragments  lie  to  this  day, 
scattered  over  an  extent  of  several  miles.  Clouds  of 
smoke  and  sulphur  at  that  time  seemed  to  indicate 
volcanic  agency. 

THE   DESCENT. 

From  this  npper  region  wandered  down  the  earth's 
new  masters,  with  their  right  of  rule  over  the  animal 
creation,  Gen.  ix.  2 ;  but  with  the  divine  injunction,  as 
they  multiplied  and  grew,  to  spare  each  other's  blood  and 
life ;  and  as  that  old  serpent,  the  devil,  had  glided  into 
Eden,  neither  was  he  absent  at  the  descent  of  the  human 
race  from  Ararat.  There  was  God  and  His  new  covenant 
with  them,  and  His  bow  in  the  cloud ;  and  in  the  first 


WANDERINGS  OF   HAM.  35 

vineyard  that  Noah  planted,  again  the  tempter  pre- 
sented the  fruit  to  the  venerable  father,  and  stirred  the 
spirit  of  the  son  to  earn  his  curse.  To  him,  the  fallen 
archangel,  it  belonged  to  rekindle  in  the  heart  of  HAM 
the  memories  of  evil  which  had  caused  the  Lord  to 
repent  that  He  had  ever  made  man  upon  the  earth, 
Gen.  vi.  7. 

There  had  been  architects  in  the  old  world,  builders 
of  cities,  as  well  as  shepherds,  large  owners  of  vast  flocks 
and  herds,  mighty  masters  of  music  and  song,  and  arti- 
ficers in  metals,  we  know  not  how  wise,  for  men  lived  on 
then  to  test  their  own  experiments,  and  improve  upon 
them  for  successive  centuries,  and  the  memories  of  one  or 
two  may  probably  have  added  all  to  all.  With  the  total 
sum  of  our  modern  knowledge,  we  have  now  no  such  con- 
ditions of  its  development.  All  the  geography,  the  archi- 
tecture, and  the  science  of  that  ancient  earth,  was  doubt- 
less fresh  in  the  memory  of  HAM.  It  is  not  unlikely  that 
he  fled  at  once  from  the  face  of  his  father  Noah,  across 
the  desert  into  EGYPT  j  and  as  his  posterity  multiplied, 
we  are  told  that  they  did  so  in  the  NILE  VALLEY,  in  Gush 
or  Ethiopia,  in  the  oases  of  LIBYA  ;  and  had  crossed  back 
into  the  fertile  CANAAN,  and  also  settled  in  CHALDEA. 
"On  the  whole"  (says  the  Eev.  G.  Rawlinson,  in  his 
volume  on  the  Five  Great  Monarchies,  illuminated  by  all 
the  recent  discoveries  of  his  celebrated  brother),  "  it  is 
most  probable  that  the  hero-founder  of  cities,  NIMEOD  of 
the  tenth  chapter  of  Genesis,  passed  from  East  Africa  by 
way  of  Arabia,  to  the  valley  of  the  Euphrates,  shortly 
before  the  opening  of  what  is  called  by  man  the  historical 
period." 

The  researches  of  the  last  ten  years  in  those  regions, 
and  the  reading  of  their  disentombed  records,  have  thrown 
back  fresh  light  on  things  and  peoples  forty  centuries 


36  SIIINAR. 

old ;  according  to  the  shorter  chronology  of  the  Hebrew 
manuscripts,  and  our  English  version, — by  which  common 
readers  certainly  do  well  to  abide,  until  some  actual  remains 
be  found,  whether  in  Egypt  or  Chaldea,  that  shall  without 
doubt,  have  existed  at  a  time  previous  to  the  possible 
allowance  of  this  shorter  chronology;  of  which  the 
learned  do  not  at  present  offer  any  definite  or  unan- 
swerable proof. 

THE   LAND   OP   SHINAR. 

It  is  not  till  very  lately,  not  in  fact  until  the  last  ten 
years,  when  the  Rock  of  Behistun,  standing  so  long  a 
dumb  record  on  the  Persian  plains,  began  to  speak  with 
the  tongues  of  ancient  Persia,  Media,  and  Assyria,  that 
light  could  have  been  shed  on  the  labours  of  excavators 
and  explorers.  We  might  have  found  the  bricks  of  King 
Urukh  twenty  years  ago,  and  cast  them  to  their  heaps 
again,  not  knowing  that  our  hand  had  lighted  on  the 
most  ancient  written  records  of  the  human  race  in 
Chaldea. 

It  is  calculated  by  geographers,  from  the  present 
rapid  and  measured  growth  of  alluvium  at  the  head  of 
the  Persian  Gulf,  that  its  waters  once  reached  inland  120 
or  130  miles  further  than  at  present,  for  land  of  this 
length,  and  some  sixty  or  seventy  miles  in  breadth,  has 
been  evidently  gained  from  the  sea  in  the  course  of  4000 
years.  This  reduces  Ancient  Chaldea  bordering  on  the 
gulf  (the  Mesopotamia,  or  "  the  between-river  country" 
of  the  Greeks  and  the  Romans)  to  somewhat  narrow 
limits.  It  could  only  have  had  an  area  of  about 
23,000  square  miles,  not  more  than  that  of  the  modern 
kingdom  of  Denmark,  and  far  less  than  our  Scotland 
or  Ireland. 

Its  sole  geographical  features  were  its  rivers.    It 


NIMEOD.  37 

was  and  it  is  still  described  as  a  featureless  region, 
broken  only  by  single,  solitary  mounds.  It  seems,  how- 
ever, to  have  been  divided  into  Northern  and  Southern 
Chaldea,  and  in  each  of  these  districts  we  hear  of  a  sort 
of  tetrarchy,  or  special  prominence  of  four  cities,  such  as 
appears  to  be  indicated  in  the  Biblical  notice  of  Nimrod, 
the  grandson  of  Ham,  "  He  began  to  be  a  mighty  one 
in  the  earth,  and  the  beginning  of  his  kingdom  was 
Babel,  and  Erech,  and  Accad,  and  Calneh,  in  the  land  of 
Shinar,"  Gen.  x.  8 — 10.  The  modern  evidence  of  this 
obtained  by  explorers  distinctly  connects  with  the 
earliest  Chaldean  period  the  cities  of  BABYLON,  Us  or 
EEECH  or  Warka,  LAEKAH  or  LAESA  (see  Ellasar,  Gen. 
xiv.  1),  CALXEH  (or  Nopher  or  NIFFEE),  Borsippa,  or 
Sippora,  (or  Sepharvaiin) .  Sennacherib  in  a  later  age 
still  calls  himself  "king  of  the  four  regions  "  or  countries. 

NIMEOD. 

NIMEOD,  the  grandson  of  Ham,  whose  first  capital 
seems  to  have  been  Ur,  is  placed  not  only  in  Scripture 
but  by  the  local  memories  of  the  region  among  the 
foremost  men  of  the  old  world,  "  a  mighty  hunter :"  in 
him  the  Lord's  promise  seems  first  fulfilled,  "  And  the 
fear  of  you  and  the  dread  of  you  shall  be  upon  every 
beast  of  the  earth."  * 

Nimrod  was  deified  by  his  own  nation  under  the 
title  of  Belu  Nipru,  or  Bel-Nimrod.  When  the  mighty 
bulls  were  disinterred  by  Mr.  Layard,  the  Arabs  believed 
themselves  in  the  presence  of  old  Nimrod ;  his  ancient 

*  The  Senkereh  tablets  show  the  boldness  and  the  voracity  of  the 
Chaldean  lion.  "  We  have  not  as  yet,"  says  Rawlinson,  "  unearthed  any 
hunting  scenes  belonging  to  the  early  Chaldean  period  ;  but  there  can  be 
little  doubt  that  the  bow  was  the  chief  weapon  both  against  the  king 
of  beasts  and  the  wild  boar,  whose  living  representatives  to  this  day  both 
.still  haunt  the  Babylonian  marshes." 


38  CHALDEA. 

worshippers  are  supposed  to  have  placed  him  in  the 
sky. 

The  broad  and  monotonous  plains  of  Lower  [Meso- 
potamia suggest  little  variety  of  thought,  but  the  clear 
sky  and  level  horizon  made  the  people  astronomers,  and 
the  constellation  of  Orion  still  bears  in  Arabian  astronomy 
the  name  of  El  Jabbar,  the  giant.  YACUT,  an  Arab 
writer,  declares  that  Nimrod  attempted  to  mount  to 
heaven  on  the  wings  of  an  eagle,  and  makes  NIFFER  the 
scene  of  the  occurrence.  It  is  supposed  that  we  have 
here  an  allusion  to  the  building  of  the  Tower  of  Babel ; 
but  it  cannot  be  positively  determined  whether  Nimrod 
was  concerned  in  building  the  tower  of  the  eleventh  chap- 
ter of  Genesis,  though  Jewish,  Arabian,  and  Armenian  tra- 
ditions speak  of  him  as  a  rebel  and  apostate,  and  Josephus 
makes  him  a  prime  mover  in  this  ambitious  erection. 

THE   FIRST   CHALDEAN   EMPIRE. 

Sir  Henry  Eawlinson  supposes  the  founding  of  the 
Chaldean  Empire  by  Nimrod  at  2234  B.C.,  thirteen  years 
after  the  birth  of  Peleg,  in  whose  days  the  earth  was 
divided. 

"  Ur  of  the  Chaldees/'  the  modern  Mugheir,  or 
"mother  of  bitumen,"  situated  near  the  mouth  of  the 
Euphrates,  was  probably  the  most  important  of  its 
early  capitals,  and  a  chief  emporium  of  commerce.  The 
excavations,  conducted  by  Mr.  Loftus  and  Mr.  Taylor, 
in  its  mounds  have  brought  to  light  the  name  of  URUKH, 
which  appears  to  have  belonged  to  one  of  the  earliest 
kings  of  the  country.  The  basement  platforms  of  all  the 
most  ancient  buildings  throughout  this  entire  region  are 
the  work  of  this  URUkH,  who,  now  we  are  enabled  to 
read  his  bricks,  calls  himself  King  UE  and  "King  of 
ACCAD,"  and  is  thought,  says  Professor  Rawlinson,  to 


BEICKS   OP   URUEH. 


39 


"be  the  first  monarch  after  Nimrod  of  whom  any  remains 
have  been  obtained.  His  bricks  are  of  a  rude  and  coarse 
make ;  the  style  of  writing  upon  them  is  very  simple ; 
they  are  ill  fitted  together,  though  in  general  of  square 
form;  sometimes  they  are  only  sun-dried.  His  substitute 
for  lime  mortar  is  moist  mud  or  bitumen.  The  edges 
of  the  specimen  brick  here  given  have  been  broken. 


OSE  OF  tIKtIKH's  BEICKS — INSCBIPTION  STAMPED  IN  MOSOGBAjr. 

The  language  of  this  brick  is  Hamitic,  and  it  is 
deciphered  as  follows : — 

"  URUKH,  KING  OP  UR,  HE  is  THE  BUILDER  OF  THE 
TEMPLE  OF  THE  MOON-GOD." 

It  is  as  a  builder  of  gigantic  works  that  URUKH  is 
known  to  us.  The  basements  of  his  temples  are  of  an 
enormous  size.  It  is  calculated  that  thirty  millions  of 
square  bricks  have  been  used  in  the  construction  of  the 
one  at  Warka ;  and  it  is  evident,  from  the  size  and  num- 
ber of  this  king's  works,  that  he  had  the  command  of  a 


40  CHEDORLAOMER. 

vast  amount  of  naked  human  strength.  He  may  have 
been  an  oppressor  or  a  conqueror  who  thus  employed 
his  captives. 

His  buildings  are  carefully  placed  with  their  angles 
facing  the  cardinal  points,  and  are  dedicated  to  the  sun 
or  the  moon,  to  Belus,  Bel-Nimrod,  or  Beltis. 

We  are  probably  justified  in  concluding,  from  the 
careful  position  of  the  temples,  that  the  science  of  astro- 
nomy was  already  cultivated  in  that  day,  and  connected 
with  religion.  Rawlinson  places  the  reign  of  Urukh  at 
about  2093  B.C.*  This  would  be  in  the  time  of  Terah, 
Abraham's  father. 

It  appears  from  the  monuments  that  not  very  long 
after  his  reign,  a  change  of  dynasty  took  place  in  the 
country,  the  old  Karaite  and  Chaldean  line  being 
superseded  by  a  Semitic  or  an  Elamitish  family  which 
reigned  at  Ur,  but  possessed  a  more  extended  dominion 
elsewhere. 

Of  this  change  we  seem  to  have  a  remarkable  trace  in 
the  account  which  Scripture  gives  of  Chedorlaomer's 
Syrian  expedition. 

CHEDORLAOMER. 

Chedorlaomer  is  a  king  of  Elam,  the  early  name  for 
Persia,  yet  he  reigns  over  Lower  Mesopotamia ;  Amra- 
phel,  king  of  Shinar,  Arioch,  king  of  Ellasar,  and  Tidal, 
king  of  Nations,  are  his  tributaries  (see  Gen.  xiv.  1).  He 
marches  as  far  as  Canaan,  and  is  then  opposed  by  the 
native  princes,  whom  he  conquers,  and  for  twelve  years 
Bera,  king  of  Sodom,  and  his  allies,  are  content  to  serve 
Chedorlaomer,  after  which  they  rebel  once  more,  and  are 
chastised  by  their  conqueror,  who  now  comes  and  carries 
off  LOT,  the  nephew  of  Abraham,  with  their  spoils. 
*  "Ancient  Monarchies,"  vol.  i.  ch.  viii.,  p.  203. 


HAMITIC   AND    SEMITIC.  41 

The  great  hunter  Nimrod,  the  great  builder  Urukh, 
and  the  great  conqueror  Chedorlaomer,  are  the  veritable 
great  men  of  the  first  Chaldean  Empire,  Nimrod, 
especially,  to  the  present  day.  The  modern  Chaldeans 
remember  always  three  heroes,  Nimrod,  Solomon,  and 
Alexander.  Urukh  seems  to  have  been  commemorated 
by  the  Greeks  under  the  name  of  Orchamus  in  Ovid's 
Metamorphoses.  Chedorlaomer  is  surely  the  "  Kudur 
Lagamer,"  or  "  Eavager  of  Syria,"  of  the  tablets. 

HAMITIC   AND    SEMITIC. 

The  Rawlinson  brothers  are  rich  in  their  materials 
for  comparative  chronology,  and  deep  students,  not  only 
of  the  bricks  of  URUKH,  but  of  the  Babylonian  his- 
torian Berosus,  who  lived  in  the  fourth  century  before 
Christ,  and  is  quoted  by  Josephus  as  a  collector  of 
Chaldean  antiquities.  And  after  all  their  various  re- 
searches in  their  deep  subterranean  libraries,  hitherto 
inaccessible  to  mortal  eyes,  they  are  enabled  to  attest 
"  that  the  Mosaical  narrative  conveys  the  exact  truth/'* 
that  the  early  Babylonians  were  a  HAMITIC  race,  distinct 
from  the  Assyrian  SEMITIC.* 

Sir  Henry  remarked  in  one  of  his  lectures,  that  he 
found  all  places  in  the  region  of  Ancient  Chaldea  had 
double  names — those  derived  from  the  original  Cushites, 
and  those  introduced  by  the  Semites — which  often  caused 
confusion  in  attempting  to  identify  localities.  The 
Hamites  were  driven  out  by  the  Semites,  and  retreated 
to  the  mountain  regions,  taking  the  name  of  Sinjar  with 
them  (the  Hamite  vernacular  for  Shinar),  so  that  we  find 
it  given  to  the  mountains  of  Ararat  even  now. 

*  "  Ancient  Monarchies,"  TO!,  i.  p.  £5. 


42  TOLDOTH  BENI  NOAH. 

WITNESS  OP  THE  LEAENED  TO  THE  TOLDOTH  BENI  NOAH. 

The  extremest  scepticism,  says  tlie  brother  of  Sir 
Henry,  cannot  deny  that  recent  researches  in  Mesopo- 
tamia and  the  adjacent  countries  have  recovered  a  series 
of  monuments  belonging  to  these  very  earliest  times, 
together  with  a  vast  mass  of  written  historical  records 
in  the  languages  of  these  nations;  and  he  adds,  "  The 
best  linguists  in  Europe  have  now  accepted  the  decipher- 
ment of  the  cuneiform  inscriptions  as  a  thing  actually 
accomplished/' 

It  is  therefore  no  dream  or  myth  that  we  have  come 
into  possession,  in  the  last  ten  years,  of  records,  not 
Biblical,  which  confirm  the  Bible ;  which  take  us  back 
almost  4000  years  to  the  cotemporaries  of  Abraham ; 
which  turn,  as  it  were,  the  light  of  a  burning-glass  on 
certain  unlikely  portions  of  that  precious  old  document 
of  the  tenth  of  Genesis,  the  ' '  Toldoth  Beni  Noah/'  or, 
"Book  of  the  Generations  of  the  Sons  of  Noah/'  and 
commend  them  to  the  special  attention  of  those  who 
would  doubt  if  that  record  is  true. 

The  simple  statement  of  the  Bible  that  Nimrod,  the 
grandson  of  Ham,  had  the  beginning  of  his  kingdom  in 
Babel,  is  now  confirmed  by  these  clay  proofs  long  re- 
served in  darkness  for  the  perusal  of  the  men  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  who  have  peculiar  need  to  "  hold  fast 
their  faith  "  in  the  inspired  book. 

This  statement  concerning  Ham's  descendant  had 
puzzled  linguists  and  historians  from  time  immemorial, 
but  Eevelation  declared  it,  and  here  it  is  confirmed.  Sir 
H.  Rawlinson  says,  "  It  is  now  evident  that  the  earliest 
inhabitants  of  Babylon  spoke  a  language  distinct  from 
the  Semitic ;  a  Hamite  language,  of  which  there  remains 
at  present  a  few  traces  in  the  dialects  of  Africa.  The  ex- 


CUNEIFORM    CHARACTERS. 


43 


cavations  conducted  at  Niffer  (Calneh),  Warka  (Erech), 
and  Mugheir  (Ur  of  the  Chaldees),  resulted  in  the  dis- 
covery, among  the  most  ancient  remains,  of  this  par- 
ticular form  of  writing,  differing  greatly  from  the  later 


m$i 


JTrfr^pJilS^     ^ 


H;«SKflP 

1      '     '  I    I  i 


INSCRIPTION  o»  UEUKH  iir  OBDUTABI  CUNEIFORM  CHJLBACTKBS. 

Babylonian  language,  and  presenting  analogies  with  the 
second  column  of  the  Achamenian  inscriptions.  Its  voca- 
bulary is  pronounced  decidedly  Cushite  or  Ethiopian, 
and  it  approaches  among  modern  languages  to  the 
MAHRA  of  Arabia,  and  the  GALLA  of  Abyssinia."* 

*  The  GALLA  language  is  diffused  through  regions  west,  south,  and 
east  of  Abyssinia,  over  more  than  sixteen  degrees  of  latitude  ;  the  people 
to  whom  this  language  is  vernacular  are  still  barbarian,  and  may  be  in 
numbers  about  five  millions.  Dr.  Krapf  compares  them  to  the  ancient 
Germans,  always  at  war  with  each  other  and  their  neighbours.  They 
are  hated  and  dreaded  by  every  people  of  Eastern  Africa — Pagans, 
Christians,  and  Mohammedans.  Their  origin  is  obscure ;  they  have 
made  inroads  on  Abyssinia  since  1537.  Dr.  Krapf  supposes  they  come 
from  the  vicinity  of  the  White  Nile ;  their  complexion  is  fairer  than  that 
of  the  Abyssinians.  They  call  themselves  Orma,  Ilm  Orma — :<  the  sons 
of  men,"  and  excel  in  bodily  and  mental  endowments.  Around 
Abyssinia  their  tribes  are  agricultural  and  pastoral ;  but  south  of  the 


44  BABEL. 


THE  NEWLY  FOUND  NATIONS  OF  AFKICA. 

It  seems  that  the  recent  discoveries  in  the  equatorial 
regions  of  Africa,  and  the  tracing  at  last  of  THE  NILE  to 
its  source,  may  bring  us  acquainted  with  highly  intel- 
ligent nations  of  the  Chaldean  type,  tall,  Well-made 
men,  with  straight  noses  and  wavy  hair,  such  as  that  of 
the  Babylonians  on  the  pictorial  slabs  in  our  museum ; 
or,  according  to  Captain  Speke,  ' '  of  a  race  similar  to  the 
Abyssinian,  with  a  strong  admixture  of  the  Hindoo." 

Abyssinia  took  its  name  from  Habesche  (mixture,  or 
confusion),  the  union  between  the  children  of  Shern  and 
Ham.  It  is  said  that  the  King  of  Karagwe,  in  manners, 
may  be  compared  with  many  Europeans.  The  total 
separation  of  this  tribe  and  of  that  of  Uganda,  in  blood, 
language,  and  habits,  from  the  hostile  nations  of  Uzinza, 
north  of  the  equator,  and  their  superiority  of  government, 
is  very  remarkable.  The  palace  of  the  King  of  Uganda, 
however,  consists  only  of  hundreds  of  conical  tents 
spread  over  the  spur  of  a  hill.  In  Karagwe  the  king 
asked  Captain  Speke  "  what  became  of  the  old  suns, 
and  why  the  moon  made  faces  at  the  earth." 

But  to  return  to  our  researches  in  old  time. 

BABEL. 

We  possess  in  the  bricks  of  Urukh  in  the  British 
Museum  the  nearest  relics  to  those  times  of  Babel,  or 
Confusion,  when  "  the  Lord  did  confound  the  language 
of  all  the  earth,"  Gen.  xi.  9.  "There  is  no  appear- 

equator  they  are  nomad  and  warlike.  They  believe  in  a  supreme  Being, 
and  manifest  great  fear  of  evil  spirits,  whom  they  endeavour  to  appease 
by  offerings  of  slaughtered  animals.  The  Galla  language  has  Semitic 
elements,  but  it  is  evidently  not  Semitic.  It  is  highly  euphonious  and 
sonorous,  and,  as  we  see,  has  Hamilic  relations. 


BABEL.  45 

aiico  in  all  Chaldea,  so  far  as  it  lias  been  explored," 
says  Professor  Kawlinson,  "  of  any  building  which  can 
be  even  probably  assigned  to  a  date  before  Urukh.  The 
attempted  Tower  was  no  doubt  earlier ;  and  it  may  have 
been  a  building  in  stages,  of  the  same  kind  as  the 
temples  now  realized  from  their  actual  remains;  but 
there  is  no  certain  reason  to  believe  that  any  remnant 
of  this  primitive  edifice  has  continued  to  exist  to  our 
day.  The  Birs  Nimroud — thought  by  some  to  be  so — is 
the  great  temple  of  Nebo  at  Borsippa,  which  seems  to 
have  been  a  suburb  of  the  ancient  Babylon.  It  is  the 
most  perfect  representation  left  of  an  ancient  Babylonian 
temple-tower  in  seven  stages." 

The  Hebrew  or  Semitic  root  of  the  word  "  Babel " 
indicates  confusion,  but  the  native  or  Hamitic  etymo- 
logy, is  Bab-ilu — "the  gate  of  God."  The  latter  was 
possibly  the  original  intention  of  the  name  given  by 
Nimrod.  A  temple  was  in  all  likelihood  the  first  build- 
ing raised  by  the  primitive  wanderers,  and  in  the  gate  of 
this  temple  justice  would  be  administered  in  early  times, 
after  which  houses  would  grow  up  about  the  gate  ;  but 
the  intention  stated  in  Scripture  is  to  build  "  a  tower 
whose  top  unto  heaven ;"  the  words  "  may  reach,"  are 
only  additions  in  our  translation,  and  a  grand  aim  of  the 
builders  may  have  been  to  make  themselves  a  name  and 
centre  by  their  astronomical  observations.  One  suppo- 
sition concerning  the  title  of  UE  (light),  is  that  that  city 
was  the  seat  of  the  sun-worship,  and  we  know  that  all 
the  celebrity  of  the  Chaldeans,  early  and  late,  is  con- 
nected with  the  stars. 

We  have  many  descriptions  from  Greek  historians 
far  later  on  in  the  age  of  the  world,  which  point  back 
to  the  rise  of  the  ancient  "  kingdom  of  Babel,"  and  one 
of  these  is  of  especial  value. 


46  THE   SECOND   EMPIEE. 

When  ALEXANDER  completed  the  conquest  of  the 
second  Empire  of  Babylon,  B.C.  331,  Strabo  tells  us  that 
he  found  the  great  temple  of  Belus  in  so  ruined  a  con- 
dition that  it  would  have  required  the  labour  of  10,000 
men  for  two  months,  even  to  clear  away  the  rubbish 
with  which  it  was  encumbered.  His  design  for  restor- 
ing it  was  frustrated  by  his  own  death,  and  the  removal 
of  the  seat  of  Empire  to  Antioch. 

Ever  since  that  era  "  Great  Babylon  "  has  become 
"heaps,"  according  to  the  prophecies  (Jer.  li.  37).  Her 
walls,  nearly  the  height  of  the  dome  of  St.  Paul's,  twenty 
yards  thick,  and  extending  fifty-six  miles  round  the  city, 
have  been  all  "  thrown  down "  and  "  broken  utterly  •" 
they  became  but  a  quarry  for  the  building  of  neighbour- 
ing cities.  A  "  drought  is  upon  her  waters,"  Jer.  1.  38  ; 
her  system  of  irrigation,  on  which  the  whole  fertility  of 
the  land  depended,  is  all  "  dried  up,"  her  land  is  a 
"  wilderness,"  jackals  lie  there,  and  l '  owls  dwell  there," 
Isa.  xiii. ;  Jer.  1.  The  natives  regard  the  whole  site  as 
haunted,  and  neither  will  the  Arab  pitch  tent  there  nor 
the  shepherd  fold  sheep  there. 

The  important  fact  above  alluded  to  is  in  connection 
with  the  temple  of  Belus,  or  possibly  with  the  Birs 
Nimroud.  Callisthenes,  a  friend  of  Alexander's,  was  his 
companion  at  Babylon,  B.C.  331 ;  and  he  sent  thence  to 
Aristotle  a  series  of  observations  on  eclipses  made  in 
that  city  which  reached  back  1903  years.  B.C.  331+ 
1903=B.c.  2234.*  The  face  of  the  sky  had  been  read  and 
recorded  for  nearly  2000  years  in  that  one  spot. 
Epigenes  related  that  tablets  of  baked  clay  were  the 
medium  on  which  the  astronomical  observations  of  .the 
Chaldeans  were  recorded.  This  primitive  people  appear 
to  have  excelled  in  the  sciences  of  arithmetic  and 
*  See  note  in  Kawlinson's  "  Ancient  Monarchies,"  p.  189. 


THE  TEMPLE   OP   MUGEYEE.  47 


astronomy.  They  invented  dif 
ferent  kinds  of  dials,  and  divided 
the  day  into  those  periods  of  hours 
which  we  still  observe.  "  The  fish 
god  Cannes  (Noah) /'says  Berosus, 
"brought  the  Babylonians  civili- 
zation and  arts  out  of  the  sea." 


THE  FISH-GOD  OF  ASSYBIA. 


THE  TEMPLE   OP  MUGEYER. 

The  excavations  of  Mr.  Taylor  at  Mugeyer  were  made 
at  the  expense  of  the  British  Museum,  and  by  the  request 
of  Sir  Henry  Rawlinson.  Mr.  Taylor  carefully  ex- 
amined a  remarkable  temple,  of  which  his  original  illus- 
tration is  presented  on  the  following  page  by  the  kind 
permission  of  his  publisher.  It  was  erected  on  a  platform 
twenty  feet  above  the  plain,  having  two  longer  and  two 
shorter  sides,  with  their  angles  exactly  facing  the  four 
cardinal  points.  There  is  every  reason  to  conclude  that 
its  basement  story  (for  it  has  two  stages,  and  according 
to  the  information  of  the  Arabs  has  had  three)  exhibits 
the  workmanship  of  the  OLD  Chaldean  period.  Other 
discoveries  lead  to  the  conclusion  that  an  early  Chaldean 
temple  was  a  building  either  in  three  stages  or  seven,  of 
which  the  first  and  second  were  solid  masses  of  brickwork, 
ascended  by  steps  on  the  outside  faced  with  marble,  while 
the  last  was  a  house  or  chamber  highly  ornamented, 
containing  the  image  and  shrine  of  the  god,  and  perhaps 
used  as  a  sleeping  chamber  by  the  guardian  priest. 
The  inner  mass  of  the  bricks  was  often  only  composed 
of  the  sun-dried  squares  they  use  in  Persia  even  to  this 
day,  and  these  were  faced  with  kiln-dried  bricks  of 
small  size  laid  in  bitumen. 

Mr-  Taylor  penetrated  through  the  solid  mass  of 


48  THE   MUGEYER  CYLINDER. 

brickwork  to  the  very  base  of  the  above  edifice,  and 
found  nothing  to  reward  his  labours  until  in  experi- 
menting at  the  south  corner  of  the  upper  story  he  came, 
at  a  depth  of  six  feet  below  the  surface,  on  a  perfect 
inscribed  cylinder  standing  in  a  niche  formed  by  the 
omission  of  one  brick  in  the  layer.  He  then  secured  a 
precisely  similar  record  from  each  other  corner,  and  this 
led  to  the  supposition  that  the  memorial  cylinders  of 
the  builders  of  Babylonian  temples  would 
always  be  found  thus  deposited. 

The  Mugeyer  cylinders  are  now  in  the 
British  Museum.  They  are  invaluable  docu- 
ments in  confirmation  of  the  truth  of  Scrip- 
ture. They  inform  us  that  the  building  in 
its  present  condition,  being  the  Great 
Temple  of  the  Moon,  at  Hur,*  is  the  work 
of  Nabonidus,  the  last  of  the  Babylonian  CTLIKDI!R  OP  yA. 
kings ;  who  repaired  it  (his  date  is  known  BONIDUS>  B-c- 555- 
through  Ptolemy's  Canon  as  B.C.  555) ;  and  these  cylin- 
ders further  distinctly  state  that  Bel-sar-uzur  (BEL- 
SHAZZAK)  was  the  elder  son  of  Nabonidus,  and  that 
he  was  admitted  (as  was  common  with  eldest  sons)  to  a 
share  in  the  government. 

When  Cyrus  took  Nabonidus  prisoner  on  the  field  of 
battle,  Belshazzar  was  regent  or  governor  in  the  city  of 
Babylon,  and  thus  actually  king  of  the  Chaldees,  which 
agrees  with  the  statement  of  the  prophet  Daniel  (chap, 
v.  30).  Then  recklessly  indulging  in  impious  festi- 
vities, drinking  wine  out  of  the  golden  vessels  which 
his  ancestor,  Nebuchadnezzar,  had  taken  out  of  the 
temple  of  the  house  of  God,  he  trembled  before  the 
writing  of  the  spectral  hand  upon  his  wall ;  the  years 

*  Sir  Henry  Eawlinson  considers  this  identification  with  "  Ur  of  the 
Chaldees"  complete. 


CLAY  EECOEDS.  49 

of  his  kingdom  were  "  numbered  and  finished/'  and 
"  in  that  night  was  Belshazzar,  King  of  the  Chaldeans, 
slain." 

Such  was  the  close  of  the  second  Babylonian  kingdom. 
But  the  records  of  Nabonidus  should  only  at  present 
lead  us  back  to  the  age  of  the  basement  story  of  the 
Temple  of  Mugeyer,  and  to  the  first  Chaldean  kingdom. 

Sir  Henry  Kawlinson  regards  this  as  the  earliest  site 
colonized  by  the  Hamite  invasion,  and  assures  us  that 
the  cylinders  brought  from  thence  bear  the  names  of  a 
series  of  kings,  from  Urukh,  B.C.  2230,  up  to  Nabonidus. 
Among  them  is  that  of  Kudur  Mabuk  and  Kudur- 
lagamer,  the  Chedorlaomer  of  Abraham.  He  says, 
"  All  the  kings  whose  monuments  are  found  in  ancient 
Chaldea,  used  the  same  language  and  the  same  form  of 
writing.  They  professed  the  same  religion,  inhabited 
the  same  cities,  followed  the  same  traditions.  Temples 
built  in  the  earliest  times  received  the  veneration  of  suc- 
cessive generations,  and  were  repaired  and  adorned  by 
a  long  series  of  monarchs,  even  down  to  the  time  of  the 
Semitic  Nabonidus." 

CLAY  RECORDS. 

The  Chaldeans  inhabited  a  country  which  was  entirely 
destitute  of  stone,  and  even  its  wood  was  scarce  and  of 
bad  quality,  being  only  that  of  the  palm  trees  which 
fringed  the  rivers.  They  have  nevertheless  contrived 
with  their  excellent  clay  to  raise  vast  structures,  which 
must  have  provoked  comparison  with  the  pyramids  of 
Egypt.  Their  temples  were  plain  and  massive,  deficient 
in  external  ornament,  the  buttress  and  the  air-holo 
alone  breaking  the  uniformity  of  the  walls ;  but  their 
remains  are  still  impressive  as  they  loom  in  lonely 
grandeur  through  the  mists  of  the  surrounding  marshes. 


50 


CLAY  TABLET. 


Their  wonderful  TABLETS,  also  of  clay,  and  less  perishable 
than  those  of  stone,  have  reached  the  European  nations 
more  securely  than  papyri  or  parchment  rolls. 

They  are  rudely  shaped  into  a  form  resembling  a 
pillow,  and  thickly  inscribed  with  cuneiform  characters, 


UNBAKED  CLAY  TABLET  AITD  ITS  ENVELOPE. 

and  seem  to  be  documents  which  after  being  duly 
attested  have  in  general  been  enveloped  before  they 
were  baked,  in  a  cover  of  moist  clay,  upon  which  their 
contents  have  been  inscribed.  The  one  shown  in  the 
woodcut  is  considered  to  be  the  document  of  some  private 
person,  in  the  time  of  a  king  who  is  placed  by  Sir  Henry 
Rawlinson  at  the  close  of  the  first  empire  of  Chaldea, 
and  consequently  at  about  that  of  Israel's  Exodus  from 
Egypt. 

The  seals  or  signets  of  their  kings  or  great  men, 
formed  of  agate  or  jasper,  appear  to  have  been  used  in 
impressing  the  moist  clay,  and  these  signets  they  must 


WAEKA.  51 

have  known  how  to  engrave.  A  signet  cylinder  of  King 
Urukh  was  possessed  by  Sir  R.  Porter,  and  though  now 
lost  is  figured  in  Bawlinson's  "  Monarchies,"  p.  1 18 ;  and 
this  actually  presents  persons  in  fringed,  and  flounced, 
and  striped  garments.  In  Joshua's  time  a  rare  and 
beautiful  Babylonian  garment,  and  a  wedge  or  tongue 
of  gold,  were  the  ruin  of  Achan  when  imported  into 
Palestine. 

WAKKA. 

About  120  miles  south-east  of  Babylon,  are  some 
lofty  and  enormous  piles  of  mounds,  also  remarkable  for 
their  name  and  importance.  The  Arabs  call  them 
Warka ;  and  Sir  Henry  Rawlinson  states  his  belief  that 
this  word  is  derived  from  "  Erech,"  the  second  city  of 
Nimrod's  kingdom,  Gen.  x.  10,  the  original  Hebrew 
word  being  "Erk,"  or  "Ark."  Yet  although  Mugeyer 
may  claim  to  have  been  Ur  of  the  Chaldees  on  account 
of  the  reading  of  "  Hur  "  upon  its  cylinders,  it  is  sug- 
gested by  Loftus  that  the  ruined  sites  both  of  Mugeyer 
and  Warka  are  included  in  the  district  of  "  Ur." 

This  "  Ark  City,"  is  now  proved  to  have  been  the 
grand  burial-place  of  Mesopotamia.  The  mounds 
are  composed  of  coffins,  piled  in  layers  of  perhaps 
sixty  feet  in  depth.  From  the  foundation  of  Warka 
by  Nimrod  until  it  was  finally  abandoned  by  the  Par- 
thians,  a  period  of  probably  two  thousand  five  hundred 
years,  it  appears  to  have  been  a  place  of  graves. 
The  city  cannot  have  been  less  than  fifteen  miles  in 
circumference,  and  an  unknown  extent  of  desert  beyond 
the  walls  is  still  filled  with  relics  of  the  dead. 

The  Parthian  coffins  are  shaped  like  a  slipper. 
Hundreds  are  yearly  broken  up  by  the  Arabs  in  search 
of  gold  and  silver  ornaments,  and  they  bore  through 


THE   FRAGILE   COFFIN. 


one  coffin  into  another  for  this  purpose.  The  small 
antique  funereal  lamp  is  often  also  carried  off  from  vault 
or  trench.  One  or  two  of  these  fragile  coffins  have,  with 
great  care  and  pains,  been  brought  to  England,  and  may 
be  seen  in  the  Nineveh  galleries  of  the  British  Museum. 

They  are  -glazed  with  a 
rich  thick  green  enamel,  and 
were  only  removed  in  safety 
by  papering  them  within  and 
without. 

The  Persians  at  the  pre- 
sent time  convey  their  dead 
from  the  most  remote  places, 
and  even  from  India,  to  the 
holy  shrines  of  Kerbela  and 
Meshed'ali ;  sometimes  the 
corpse  is  slung  on  a  camel's 
back,  or  is  floated,  if  possible, 
down  a  river.  The  Tigris  and 
the  Euphrates  bore  the  dead 
of  Babylonia  to  the  dread 
solitude  of  the  Chaldean 
marshes.  To  this  day,  at 
Bagdad,  if  a  person  is  sick,  a 
relation  fastens  a  lighted  taper 
to  a  piece  of  wood,  commits 
it  to  the  stream  of  the  Tigris, 
and  prays  for  the  recovery  of 
his  friend.  Should  the  light 
be  extinguished  while  he  can 
see  it,  he  concludes  all  hope 
is  past. 

Among  the  lesser  objects 
exhumed  at  Warka  by  Mr. 


PAETHUJ?  COFFIN. 


ANCIENT   POTTERY. 


53 


Loftus,  were  the  accompanying  small  Babylonian  figures. 

An  old  man  with  a  flowing 
beard,  wearing  a  skull-cap 
and  long  robe  encircled 
round  the  waist  by  a  belt, 
his  hands  clasped  in  front, 
in  the  Oriental  attitude  of 
respect,  and  a  younger  per- 
sonage holding  something 
in  his  hands.  Though  stiff 
in  outline,  they  were  very  correctly  modelled,  and  com- 
posed of  stone- coloured  clay.  These  figures  were  con- 


sidered possibly  to  belong  to  the  earliest  type  of  funereal 
remains.  The  pottery  found  in  the  vaults  is  seized  upon 
by  the  Arabs  for  modern  domestic  use.  In  the  change- 
less East,  the  fashion  of  the  pitchers  would  be  the  same 
to  the  present  day.  Those  in  our  museum  are  probably 
only  of  the  Roman  period. 

FALL  OP   THE   BABEL   EMPIRE. 

The  local  extent  of  early  Chaldea  seems  to  have  been 
much  less  than  that  of  the  second,   and  Babylonian 


54  FALL  OP  FIRST  EMPIRE. 

monarchy,  founded  on  the  same  site.  The  first  dynasty 
of  Urukh,  according  to  Berosus,  lasted  four  hundred 
and  fifty- eight  years;  and  then  there  followed  nine 
Arab  kings,  who  ruled  two  hundred  and  forty-five 
years,  a  total  of  700  years. 

Crushed  by  a  race  far  inferior  to  themselves,  the 
first  Chaldeans  and  their  kingdom  perished.  The  Arab 
race  has  left  no  monuments,  and  barely  a  trace  of  itself 
in  the  country,  while  the  ancient  Chaldeans,  the  stock 
of  Cush  and  people  of  Nimrod,  did  not  sink  into  com- 
parative obscurity  till  about  1500 .B.C.,  at  about  the  time 
of  Moses.  Their  language  fell  then  into  disuse,  and  came 
to  be  a  learned  tongue,  studied  only  by  the  priests  and 
the  literati  ;  as  "  Moses  was  learned  in  all  the  wisdom  of 
Egypt." 

Whether  we  call  these  people  Hamites,  Scyths,  or 
Chaldees,  they  were,  in  reality,  the  inventors  of  the 
cuneiform  character,  having  first  made  rude  pictures  or 
hieroglyphics,  which  in  time  assumed  the  form  of  letters. 
It  seems  this  alphabet  was  in  use  1000  years  before  it 
was  employed  to  represent  the  sounds  of  a  language 
like  the  Assyrian,  differing  wholly  in  structure  and 
character  from  itself.  When  the  Semitic  peoples  began 
to  make  use  of  it,  they  retained  the  old  Hamite  values 
of  the  letters,  and  only  modified  the  sounds  to  their  own 
purpose.  The  sciences  of  Assyria,  even  to  the  latest 
times,  appear  to  have  been  recorded  in  the  old  Hamite 
language,  so  that  the  acquisition  of  this  tongue  must 
have  been  an  essential  part  of  Assyrian  education. 

The  language  of  that  Hamite  family  had,  of  course, 
relation  to  the  original  language  of  Canaan,  which  had 
been  peopled  by  the  same  race.  It  seems  to  have 
been  understood  by  Abraham,  for  he  communicated 
easily  with  the  children  of  Heth  (Gen.  xxiii.)  This 


EAELY  IDOLATRY.  55 

ancient  Babel  monarchy,  only  less  ancient  than  the 
Egyptian,  claims  priority  over  every  empire  and  kingdom 
which  has  grown  up  upon  the  soil  of  Asia. 

When  the  Cushite  settlers  crossed  the  Bed  Sea,  to 
come  back  to  the  lands  of  Shinar,  and  began  to  erect 
temples,  build  cities,  and  establish  a  regular  government, 
Assyria,  Media,  Babylonia,  Persia  derived  from  the 
Chaldees  the  character  of  their  writing.  Each  people 
added  its  own  inventions  to  the  ancient  lore,  but  Chaldea 
was  their  first  teacher. 

On  the  early  sites  chosen  by  Nirnrod — Babel  and 
Erech  and  Accad  and  Calneh — there  arose  fresh  king- 
doms, in  later  centuries,  governed  by  Semitic  races ;  but 
the  old  stamped  bricks  of  Urukh,  and  the  gigantic 
foundations  of  his  temples  recently  traced,  tell  of  the 
times  when,  hindered  by  God,  men  "  left  off  to  build  " 
for  a  time,  because  of  the  confusion  of  tongues ;  and  not 
understanding  one  another's  speech,  were  scattered 
abroad  upon  the  face  of  all  the  earth ;  yet  the  proof 
remains  of  the  solid  grandeur  of  their  Hamitic  inten- 
tions. The  early  history  of  the  chief  Hamite  nations 
shows  great  power  of  organizing  extensive  kingdoms, 
of  acquiring  material  greatness,  and  checking  the  in- 
roads of  neighbouring  nomadic  people  ;  but  among 
them  were  developed,  we  may  well  suppose,  the  earliest 
idolatries  after  the  flood,  and  whether  in  Egypt  or 
Chaldea,  we  find  the  same  elements.  Idolatry  was  the 
departure  of  man  from  God,  and  its  sources  were 
threefold. 

EAELY  IDOLATEY. 

It  consisted  first  in  separating  the  idea  of  the  ONE 
Divinity  into  that  of  his  various  attributes,  as  a  ray  of 
pure  light  is  separated  by  a  prism ;  and  then  it  invented 


56  WORSHIP  OP  NOAH. 

symbols  and  made  images  of  each,  severally ;  according 
to  the  longing  of  human  nature  for  the  visible  and  the 
actual. 

A  second  form  of  idolatry  consisted  in  the  Deification 
of  the  heavenly  bodies ;  they  being  seen  to  move  in  the 
clear  field  of  the  Eastern  skies  were  thought  to  be  living 
existences,  and  hence  the  universal  worship  of  the  sun, 
the  moon,  the  planets,  and  of  fire. 

To  these  two  forms  of  idolatry  were  added  a  third, 
the  Deification  of  Ancestors  and  early  Kings,  especially 
of  Noah  and  his  sons,  whose  history  was  made  familiar 
by  oral  tradition,  and  often  all  these  three  elements  of 
mistaken  worship  were  mingled  together  in  a  chaos  of 
confusion. 

The  worship  of  Noah  was,  at  first  in  Egypt  and  after- 
wards in  Chaldea,  strangely  united  with  the  worship  of  the 
Sun.  Osiris,  the  Egyptian  sun-god,  was  a  deification  of 
Noah,  and  he  entered  into  the  ark  which  was  symbolized 
by  the  crescent  Moon.  Noah  was  worshipped  at  No,  at 
"populous  No,"*  or  Thebes,  named  from  Theba,  the  ark ; 
in  Chaldea  he  was  worshipped  at  "  Erech,"  otherwise 
the  place  of  the  ark,  as  "Ami,"  or  "Ana,"  or  "Cannes,"  or 
"Hoa."  His  most  important  titles  are  those  which  make 
him  the  god  of  science  and  knowledge,  "  the  intelligent 
fish,"  the  teacher  of  mankind,  the  lord  of  understanding; 
one  of  his  emblems  is  the  wedge,  or  arrowhead,  the 
essential  element  of  cuneiform  writing  which  seems 
to  assign  to  him  the  invention,  or  at  least  patronage,  of 
the  Chaldean  alphabet.  Another  is  a  serpent,  a  symbol 
emblematic  of  superhuman  knowledge ;  the  name  of 
Hoa  appears  on  a  very  ancient  stone  tablet  brought 
from  Mugeyer  or  Ur,  and  Berosus  represents  him  as 
one  of  the  primeval  gods.  There  are  two  or  three  most 

*  Nahum  iii.  8. 


NINEVEH. 


57 


curious  Babylonian  monuments  in  the  museum,  thought 
to  have  been  landmarks,  and  covered  with  curses  on 
those  who  remove 
them.*  They  are  at  the 
head  of  the  stairs 
which  descend  to  SENNA- 
CHERIB'S hall.  One  of 
them  is  of  marble,  in 
the  shape  of  a  massive 
fish.  On  the  head,  which 
is  three-sided,  a  large 
serpent  is  carved,  and 
around  him,  are  scattered 
arrow-headed  characters, 
which  their  readers  say, 
commence  the  curses 
of  the  inscription.  An 
arrow-head  of  some  size 
also  appears  as  an  offer- 
ing on  an  altar.  The 
age  of  this  monument 
is  defined  as  1120  B.C., 
but  it  belongs  to  the 
remains  of  Babylon,  not 
tto  those  of  the  most 
ancient  kingdom  of  Chal- 
dea,  which  we  have  been 
anxious  to  set  apart  for 
ourselves  and  our  readers, 
and  thereby  to  realize 

only    the   land   out   of    which    Abraham    was    called. 

The   posterity   of  Elam,  the  first   son   of  Shem,    are 

traced  through   Chedorlaomer    (Gron.   xiv.    1),   to  the 

*  '•'  Cursed  be  he  that  removeth  his  neighbour's  landmark." 


CALL   OF   ABRAHAM. 

province  lying  south  of  Assyria  and  east  of  Persia, 
which  is  called  by  early  geographers,  Susiana;  as  in 
Dan.  viii.  2,  we  read  of  Shushan,  the  palace  which  is 
in  the  province  of  Elam. 

We  would  now  close  this  chapter  with  the  one  great 
event  on  which  so  much  of  the  history  of  the  human 
race  has  since  depended. 

THE  CALL  OF  ABRAHAM. 

"  The  God  of  glory,"  says  Stephen  in  the  book  of 
Acts  (chap.  vii.  ver.  2),  appeared  unto  our  father  Abraham 
when  he  was  in  Mesopotamia,  before  he  dwelt  in  Charran 
(Haran),  and  said  unto  him,  "  Get  thee  out  of  thy  country, 
and  from  thy  kindred,  and  from  thy  father's  house,  and 
come  into  the  land  which  I  shall  show  thee."  At  this 
period,  about  1921  B.C.,  Abraham  being  seventy-five  years 
old,'  Shem,  Arphaxad,  Salah,  and  Heber,  his  more  remote 
ancestors,  were  yet  living,  though  perhaps  not  together, 
while  the  shorter  lives  of  Peleg,  Eeu,  Serug,  and  Xahor, 
his  nearer  grandfathers,  had  been  concluded.  Terah,  his 
father,  removes  with  his  illustrious  son,  and  shortly  after 
his  arrival  in  Haran,  dies  also. 

Haran  is  the  point  from  which  the  great  caravan 
routes  diverge  towards  the  different  fords  of  the 
Euphrates  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  Tigris  on  the  other ; 
and  round  its  wells,  as  we  afterwards  learn  (Gen.  xxix.  2), 
a  large  portion  of  Terah's  descendants  (Nahor's  children) 
continued  to  linger,  amongst  whom  Eliezer  sought  Re- 
bekah  as  a  wife  for  his  master  Isaac,  and  to  whom  Jacob 
returned  on  the  same  errand,  after  the  continued  Arabian 
usage  of  seeking  kinswomen  and  cousins  in  marriage  in 
the  next  generation. 

But  the  God  who  had  called  first  an  individual  in 
Adam,  and  then  a  family  in  Noah,  was  now  about  in 


DIVINE   TEACHING.  59 

Abram  to  elect  a  KACE,  who  should  be  a  witness  for  His 
name  in  the  world.  Abraham  was  to  become  "THE 
PEIEND  OP  GOD."  The  Arabs  still  know  him  by  that 
name,  "  El-khalil- Allah ;"  the  apostle  James  so  calls  him, 
James  ii.  23.  We  find  it  written  in  Isaiah  xli.  8  :  "  But 
thou,  Israel,  art  my  servant,  Jacob  whom  I  have  chosen, 
the  seed  of  Abraham  my  friend;"  and  Jehoshaphat 
appeals  to  God  (2  Chron.  xx.  7),  "  Thou  gavestthis  land 
to  the  seed  of  Abraham,  thy  friend  for  ever."  It  is 
not  for  us  to  look  to  any  quality  in  the  human  creature  that 
elicited  this  divine  love,  and  caused  such  a  choice  in  its 
infinite  condescension,  yet  one  alone  is  mentioned 
(Gen.  xv.  6)  "Abram  believed  in  the  Lord,  and  He  counted 
it  unto  him  for  righteousness."  He  had  the  simple 
faith  of  a  little  child  in  what  God  had  said  and  done,  and 
declared  He  meant  to  do.  He  distinguished  "  the  God  of 
glory  "  from  all  the  inventions  and  devices  of  Chaldean 
imagination.  He  worshipped  neither  Noah  nor  Nimrod, 
and  amid  all  the  seductions  and  growing  luxuries  of  his 
Hamitic  neighbours,  he  gave  his  heart  to  "  the  most 
High  God."  He  reposed  as  a  child  in  the  strength  of 
God  (such  is  the  force  of  the  original  Hebrew),  and 
thus  he  became  (Rom.  iv.  11)  "the  father  of  all  them 
that  believe." 

And  now  having  called  forth  the  love  and  trust  of 
Abraham's  heart,  his  wondrous  "Friend"  begins  to 
teach  him  lessons  of  truth  alike  from  the  dust  beneath 
his  feet,  and  the  stars  above  his  head.  The  Chaldeans 
took  water  and  slime  and  made  bricks,  like  those  of 
Urukh,  on  which  they  wrote  continually  their  own  name 
and  their  own  glory ;  but  God  wrote  with  His  finger  on 
the  dust  of  the  earth,  that  if  those  atoms  could  be 
counted,  so  should  Abraham's  seed  be ;  and  He  brought 
him  forth  abroad  out  of  his  tent  by  night  and  from  tho 


60  THE    PLAIN   OP   MOKEH. 

starry  book  of  the  Chaldean  sky,  in  which  men  had  already 
formed  for  themselves  idols,  again  God  bade  him  only 
see  the  number  of  his  seed,  and  rise  above  the  worship 
of  "  the  host  of  heaven." 

Once  more  desired  to  go  forward,  "not  knowing 
whither  he  went,"  the  patriarch  Abram  passes  "unto 
the  place  of  Sichem,  unto  the  plain  of  Moreh ;  and  the 
Canaanite  was  then  in  the  land,"  Gen.  xii.  6.  He  has 
not  escaped  from  the  neighbourhood  of  Hamitic  power. 
There  were  then  but  two  abodes  of  settled  life  in  Canaan 
— its  oldest  city,  Arba  (Hebron),  the  "  city  of  the  four 
giants ;"  the  other,  the  circle  of  the  five  cities  in  the 
vale  of  the  Jordan — Sodom  and  Gomorrah,  Admah, 
Zeboim,  and  Zoar.  The  warlike  Amorite  chiefs,  Mamre 
and  his  two  brothers,  were  camped  along  -the  mountain 
tops,  and  the  Horites  dwelt  in  the  caves  of  their  distant 
Petra,  where  Chedorlaomer  afterwards  conquered  them, 
and  with  them  the  giant  Rephaim,  the  Zuzims,  and  the 
Emims. 

But  where  does  Abram  first  sojourn  ?  Not,  at  Hebron, 
and  not  in  Sodom;  it  is  in  SICHEM  God  repeats  the 
promise  to  his  "  friend,"  "  to  thy  seed  will  I  give  this 
land  \"  He  halts  beneath  the  terebinth  or  turpentine  tree 
of  Moreh,  and  the  place  is  remembered  even  to  this  day. 
Sichem  is  a  vale  of  sweet  waters,  and  amid  all  the  sites 
of  Palestine,  none  are  so  charming  as  that  dale.  "  Here 
alone,"  says  Vandevelde,  "  is  found  the  blue  gray  haze 
which  is  usually  so  lacking  in  the  land  where  tints  of 
fire  and  purple  edge  closely  on  the  glittering  lights, 
causing  the  hard  outlines  peculiar  to  the  perfect  transpa- 
rency of  the  Eastern  sky."  In  Sichem  only  the  blue 
distance  fades  away,  as  in  an  English  landscape.  The 
situation  of  the  town  is  one  of  surpassing  beauty.  It 
is  exactly  at  the  water  summit,  or  shoulder  of  the  hills  ; 


NABLUS.  61 

and  streams  issuing  from  its  numerous  springs,  flow  down 
the  opposite  slopes  of  the  valley,  spreading  verdure  in 
every  direction.  "  The  land  of  Syria,"  said  Mohammed, 
"  is  beloved  by  Allah  beyond  all  lands ;  and  the  part 
of  Syria  which  he  loveth  most  is  the  district  of  Jerusa- 
lem ;  and  the  place  which  he  loveth  most  in  the  district 
of  Jerusalem  is  the  mountain  of  Nablus."  A  position 
affording  such  natural  advantages  would  hardly  fail  to 
be  occupied  as  soon  as  any  population  existed  in  the 
country. 

The  vale  of  Nablus  is  said  to  differ  from  all  other 
scenes  in  the  Holy  Land,  and  it  owes  its  peculiar  beauty 
to  the  many  fountains,  rills,  and  water  courses  in  which 
it  abounds.  Here  is  always  shade,  not  now  of  the  oak 
or  the  terebinth,  but  of  the  olive  grove,  so  soft  in  colour 
and  so  picturesque  in  form,  that  we  can  willingly  dis- 
pense with  the  want  of  all  other  foliage  for  its  sake. 

The  valley  is  far  from  broad,  not  exceeding  in 
some  places  a  few  hundred  yards,  and  as  you  advance 
under  the  shadow  of  the  trees  along  the  brook  side, 
you  are  charmed  by  the  minstrelsy  of  a  host  of  singing 
birds.  Mounts  Ebal  and  Gerizim  rise  in  rough  lofty 
ridgy  precipices  immediately  above  it,  apparently  to 
the  height  of  800  feet  on  either  side,  and  all  who  have 
ascended  these  summits  speak  of  the  gardens,  the 
orchards,  and  the  corn-fields  of  the  wide  luxuriant  vale 
below.  This  view  always  breaks  upon  the  traveller  in 
such  striking  and  refreshing  contrast  to  the  barren  hills 
of  Judea. 

We  may  follow  in  idea  the  Father  of  the  Faithful 
to  the  heights  of  Gerizim  from  the  plain  of  Moreh.  Its 
elevation  above  the  neighbouring  hills  is  so  great  as 
to  deserve  the  supremacy  which  Josephus  gives  it,  "  The 
highest  of  all  the  mountains  of  Samaria."  From  the 


62  GERIZIM. 

wide  rocky  platform  on  its  summit  with  the  cave  beside 
it,  still  existent,  Abram  would  embrace  a  view  of  the 
Mediterranean  Sea  on  the  west,  the  snowy  heights  of 
Hermon  on  the  north,  and  on  the  east  the  far-off  wall 
of  mountains  beyond  the  Jordan,  while  the  lovely  ex- 
panse of  the  plain  lay  stretched  as  a  carpet  of  many 
colours  beneath  his  feet. 

A  recent  traveller  corroborates  this  possibility — the 
Eev.  J.  Mills,  in  his  "  Three  Months'  Eesidence  at 
Nablus."  He  speaks  of  Mount  Gerizim  as  strewn  all 
over  with  the  remains  of  former  buildings,  and  says,  that 
one  square  room  in  the  north-eastern  corner  of  the  ruins, 
is  now  used  as  a  mosque.  Here  the  once  magnificent 
temple  of  the  Samaritans  occupied  the  most  imposing  site 
in  the  whole  of  Palestine.  "  On  my  first  visit,  in  1855, 
I  obtained  from  the  top  of  the  mosque  a  most  glorious 
view,  extending  from  the  trans- Jordanic  mountains  on 
the  east,  to  the  Mediterranean  on  the  west,  upon  the 
blue  bosom  of  which  I  could  distinctly  see  the  gliding 
of  white  sails.  The  view  was  much  grander  than  even 
that  from  Mount  Tabor." 


THE   VALE    OF   NABLUS.  63 


CHAPTER  III. 

"EPKRAIM  IS  MY  FIEST  BORN." 

THE  PROMISE  OP  THE  LORD  TO  ABRAM — HIS  ALTAR — HIS  CONQUEST — \VA3 
MELCHISEDEK  GHEM  ? — MOUNT  MORIAH — GOD*  8  COVENANTS — OFFERING 
OP  ISAAC — SCENES  AT  SHECHEM  AND  ON  GERIZIM— SHILOH — POPULA- 
TION— THE  CUIISE  AND  THE  PROMISE THE  SAMARITANS  AT  NABLrS 

— THE  YOM-KIPPOOR — RECITATION  OF  THE  LAW — THE  PENTATEUCH — 
CASE  OF  THE  GREAT  ROLL — VISIT  OF  THE  PRINCE  OF  AVALES  TO 
NABLUS — WHO  ARE  THE  SAMARITANS  ? — THE  SAMARITAN  PASSOVER. 

tlie  Lord  appeared  unto  Abrarn  and  said, 
"Unto  thy  seed  will  I  give  this  land;  and 
there  builded  he  an  altar  unto  the  Lord  who 
appeared  unto  him,"  Gen.  xii.  7.  Is  it  not 
as  likely  that  this  divine  appearance  took  placo 
upon  the  mountain  as  in  the  plain  ?  From 
Gerizim  only  could  ee  the  land "  be  seen.  In  theso 
early  times  we  first  hear  of  altars  as  built  in  spots 
hallowed  by  religious  associations,  or  by  the  appearance 
of  God.  The  first  altar  mentioned  in  Scripture  is  that 
built  by  NOAH  when  he  left  the  ark,  and  the  second  is 
by  ABRAHAM  when  he  thus  entered  his  future  heritage ; 
and  it  is  worthy  of  remark  that  Gerizim,  or'  its  imme- 
diate neighbourhood,  has  been  the  seat  of  primitive 
worship  from  that  hour  to  this.  It  has  been  "  a  holy 
place"  to  Israel,  or  one  so  called,  for  nearly  4000  years. 
What  scenes  have  taken  place  on  this  spot !  The 
historical  testimonies  to  the  identity  of  the  modern 
Nablus  and  the  ancient  '*  Sichem  "  are  perfectly  satis- 
factory and  undisputed.  After  Abram's  first  journey 
into  Egypt,  and  his  return  "very  rich  in  cattle,  in 


64  3IELCETSEDEK. 

silver,  and  in  gold/'  he  again  dwells  in  the  land  of  Canaan, 
conquers  Chedorlaomer,  and  receives  the  blessing  of 
Melchisedek.  Mr.  Mills  coincides  entirely  in  the  modern 
opinion  that  the  meeting  with  the  "King  of  Salem"  (Gen. 
xiv.  18)  occurred  on  Gerizim,  and  that  to  Melchisedek, 
as  the  royal  guardian  and  master  of  the  most  ancient 
and  conspicuous  sanctuary  of  Palestine,  Abraham  paid 
the  tenth  of  his  recently-acquired  spoil.  The  same 
belief  is  entertained  by  Jerome  and  Eusebius,  who  speak 
of  the  interview  as  taking  place  on  "  Ar-Gerizim,"  the 
mountain  of  the  Most  High.* 

The  opinion  of  the  ancient  Jews  and  Samaritans  that 
Melchisedek  may  have  been  SHEM,  is  not  without  possi- 
ble foundation ;  and  what  so  probable  as  that  the  father 
of  the  Shemitic  race  was  the  "  priest  of  the  Most  High 
God/'  and  that  he  would  be  cognizant  of  the  promise 
made  to  his  most  favoured  descendant  ? 

St.  Paul,  in  his  comment  on  Melchisedek,  in  the 
seventh  of  Hebrews,  as  a  priest  and  king  greater  than  any 
priest  of  the  tribe  of  Levi,  and  of  an  order  prefiguratory 
of  the  priesthood  of  our  Lord  Himself,  alludes  to  his  un- 
named descent  and  perpetuity  of  office.  The  perpe- 
tuity of  Melchisedek's  priesthood,  if  he  were  SHEM, 
might  be  realized  in  his  living  ninety-seven  years  with 
Methuselah,  who  had  spent  centuries  with  Adam,  while 
his  own  life  ran  on  sixty-two  years  beyond  his  long-lived 
son  Arphaxad.  He  must  have  seen  Peleg — in  whose 
days  the  confusion  of  tongues  took  place — with  E-eu, 
Serug,  Nahor,  and  Terah,  with  their  generations,  pro- 

*  The  name  of  Salem  recurs  in  the  history  of  Jacob,  Gen.  xxxiii.  18, 
cs  a  city  of  Shechem,  also  in  the  apocryphal  book  of  Judith,  chap.  iv. 
4 ;  and  Dr.  Robinson  mentions  Salem  as  a  village  lying  east  of  Nablus, 
across  the  great  plain.  Mr.  Mills  says,  "  that  this  was  the  Salem  of 
Melchisedek,  appears  to  me  all  but  certain."  The  distance  is  not  very 
great  between  Jerusalem  and  Nablus.  "  I  have  passed  it  again  and 
again,"  adds  the  author  just  named,  "  in  the  shortest  winter  days." 


MOEIAH.  65 

bably  dio  out,  and  must  have  seemed  to  them,  indeed, 
to  have  "  neither  beginning  of  days  [in  their  dispen- 
sation] nor  end  of  life."  Shem  outlived  his  father 
Noah  by  150  years,  and  he  died  only  thirty-one  years 
before  Eber,  his  great  grandson,  who  was  the  longest 
liver  after  the  flood,  and  ancestor  of  both  the  Arabs  and 
the  Hebrews.  "  Eber  died  being  464  years  old ;  ha  was 
the  seventh  from  Enoch,  and  not  far  inferior  to  him 
in  godliness/'*  We  are  not  told  when  Ham  or 
Japheth  died,  or  either  of  their  wives.  Our  whole  atten- 
tion is  directed  to  the  line  of  Shem,  as  that  in  which 
Abraham  was  to  come  and  to  receive  the  promise. 

MOUNT   MOEIAH. 

The  word  Moriah,  or  Moreh,  means,  according  to 
Hengstenberg,  "  appearance  of  Jehovah,"  and  it  was  in 
the  place  of  Sichem,  on  the  plain  of  Moreh,  that  the 
first  recorded  appearance  of  the  Lord  took  place. 

It  is  also  probable'that  after  the  slaughter  of  the  kings 
for  Lot's  sake  and  ere  Abram  returned  to  his  abode 
in  Mamre,  the  solemn  vision  of  the  fifteenth  chapter 
of  Genesis  may  have  occurred  on  Mount  Gerizim,  when 
the  horror  of  the  bondage  passed  before  him  in  his 
slumber,  and  the  lamp  of  the  Divine  Presence  moved 
between  the  divided  members  of  the  animals  chosen  for 
sacrifice. 

GOD'S   COVENANT. 

The  heifer,  the  she  goat,  and  the  ram,  were  cut  in 
twain,  for,  after  the  fall,  man,  as  guilty,  needed  to  be 
always  represented  by  a  sacrifice  of  slain  beasts.  Thus 

*  See  "  A  Consent  of  Scripture,"  by  H.  Brougliton,  dedicated  to  Queen 
Elizabeth,  on  Shem  as  Melchisedek. 

p 


60  GOD'S  COVENANTS. 

accepted,  the  Creator  made  a  COVENANT  with  His  creature, 
in  the  Hebrew  Berlth,  a  word  derived,  according  to 
Geseuius,  from  barah,  to  cut;  see  also  Jer.  xxxiv.  18,  19. 
A  covenant,  in  men's  ideas,  now  generally  implies  con- 
ditions on  either  side ;  but  the  first  covenant  after  the 
Flood,  as  made  with  Noah,  was  one  of  free  and  eternal 
promise,  when  the  Bow  was  set  in  the  cloud  as  the  token 
that  God  would  remember  "His  covenant  that  the 
waters  should  no  more  become  a  flood  to  destroy  all 
flesh." 

That  which  is  commonly  called  the  OLD  TESTAMENT 
COVENANT  of  God,  was  made  with  Abram,  and  it  in- 
cluded both  temporal  and  spiritual  blessings  promised 
to  a  particular  race,  a  promise  of  the  "  land  "  and  of  the 
"  seed  " — a  covenant  in  which  God  only  asked  for  faith 
on  Abram' s  side.  This  promise,  St.  Paul  remarks,  could 
not  be  annulled  by  any  breach  of  the  Law,  which  was 
given  430  years  afterwards ;  the  apostle  speaks  of  it  as 
"confirmed  before  of  God  in  Christ"  (Gal.  iii.  17) ;  there- 
fore to  this  incident  of  the  past  our  Lord  alludes,  when 
He  says,  "  Your  father  Abraham  rejoiced  to  see  my  day : 
and  he  saw  it  and  was  glad." 

As  Noah  had  received  the  token  of  the  Bow,  to  seal  the 
Covenant  of  Ararat,  so  to  Abram  was  appointed  a  seal  or 
sign  of  the  covenant  concerning  the  temporal  inheritance 
— that  of  Circumcision.  This  is  still  observed  by  all  his 
posterity ;  the  rite  has  been  handed  down  from  father  to 
son  for  4000  years,  as  instituted  on  the  plains  of  Mamre, 
when  first  prescribed  to  the  ' '  father  of  nations  "  and  the 
mother  of  kings  of  people  (Gen.  xvii.  16).  This  sign 
was  to  be  shared  with  Ishmael,  his  son  by  the  bond- 
woman, and  even  with  servants  and  slaves  born  in  the 
household.  There  were  other  signs  of  this  covenant, 
that  of  the  SABBATH  a  DAY  of  rest,  holy  to  the  Lord,  a 


THEIR   SIGNS.  67 

sign  between  Him  and  the  children  of  Israel  for  ever 
that  He  had  brought  them  out  of  the  house  of  bondage 
(see  Deut.  v.  15),  and  then  came  the  writing  of  the  cove- 
nant of  the  Law  itself  at  Mount  Sinai  inscribed  by  the 
finger  of  God — the  Law  for  the  chosen  people,  which 
was  to  lift  them  up  from  the  level  of  surrounding 
heathen  kingdoms,  and  give  them  sacred  writings — A 
BOOK  inspired  of  God — which  it  thenceforth  became  the 
great  purpose  of  their  national  existence  to  obey,  and  to 
transmit  to  their  children. 

The  signs  of  God's  Covenant  yet  stand  sure  !  The 
Bow  still  spans  the  heavens,  the  DAY  and  the  BOOK  still 
bless  the  earth.  The  messenger  of  the  NEW  COVENANT, 
the  Saviour,  "  came  not  to  destroy  but  to  fulfil."  The 
Sabbath  is  still  "  the  pearl  of  days  "  to  His  children,  the 
spiritual  Israel — though  the  seventh  day  has  been 
changed  for  the  first  of  the  week,  to  memorialize  not 
His  rest  as  the  Creator  of  the  world,  but  His  rising  as 
its  Redeemer  from  the  tomb.  Israel,  scattered  and 
chastised  seven  times  for  her  sins,  still  observes  the  sign 
of  circumcision,  and  so  do  the  race  of  Ishmael.  The 
Levitical  priesthood,  who  were  to  be  zealous  for  the 
administration  of  the  Law  to  the  people,  made  it  void 
by  the  traditions  of  their  Mishna  and  Gemara;  their 
office  has  merged  into  that  of  prophets  and  apostles, 
and  also  into  a  wider  ministry — the  ministry  of  all 
saints  all  over  the  world — having  a  holy  zeal  for  Christ 
and  for  His  Word,  to  which  priest-cro/2,  not  priesthood, 
is  ever  more  and  more  opposed. 

THE   OFFERING   OF   ISAAC. 

To  return  to  Abraham's  sacrifice,  and  to  the  burning 
lamp,  which  a  second  time  signified  the  "  appearance  of 
Jehovah/'  and  ratified  the  promise  of  the  gift  of  the 


68  SCENES    ON   GEEIZIM. 

land  to  the  seed  of  the  yet  childless  man,  who  were  to 
be  in  number  as  the  stars. 

That  the  vision  took  place  on  Gerizim,  and  that  this 
first  covenant  with  the  "  father  of  the  faithful"  was  con- 
firmed on  the  same  spot,  seems  implied  by  the  promise 
of  Gen.  xv.  16,  "In  the  fourth  generation  they  shall 
come  hither  again." 

Between  that  "  coming  again"  intervened  the  birth 
of  Ishmael  and  of  Isaac,  and  the  offering  up  of  Isaac 
himself  for  sacrifice,  probably  about  forty  years  after  the 
time  of  the  vision,  and  when  Isaac,  as  Josephus  says, 
was  about  twenty-five  years  old.  Josephus  is  often 
proved  to  be  right,  but  not  always  or  invariably  so.  It 
is  on  his  tradition  and  authority,  rather  than  on  any 
statement  of  the  Scriptures,  that  the  scene  of  Isaac's 
offering  has  been  transferred,  in  popular  belief,  to 
Mount  Moriah,  one  of  the  hills  of  Jerusalem.  Yet 
when  the  destroying  angel  stayed  his  hand  at  the  thresh- 
ing-floor of  Araunah  the  Jebusite  (2  Sam.  xxiv.  16), 
there  is  no  allusion  made  to  any  previous  act  of  the 
Lord's  mercy  shown  in  that  locality ;  and  neither  at  the 
building  or  at  the  dedication  of  Solomon's  Temple  on 
the  same  spot,  when  the  glory  of  the  Lord  filled  the 
House,  are  we  ever  reminded  that  He  had  already 
sanctified  it  by  any  previous  appearance  to  Abraham 
or  salvation  to  Isaac ;  the  narrative  merely  goes  back 
to  the  lesser  event  of  staying  the  plague  at  the  threshing- 
floor  of  Araunah. 

We  are  therefore  inclined  to  believe,  with  various 
thoughtful  travellers,  that  the  offering  of  Isaac  took  place 
on  Gerizim  and  not  at  Jerusalem.  The  reference  in 
Amos  vii.  9  confirms  the  idea  that  these  hills  of 
Samaria  were  the  "  high  places  of  Isaac,"  which  were 
to  become  "  desolate ;"  the  sanctuary  of  Israel  which 


SHECHEM.  69 

was  to  be  "laid  waste  ;JJ  the  house  of  Jeroboam  which  was 
to  be  "given  to  the  sword."  "  Our  fathers  worshipped  in 
this  mountain,"  said  the  woman  of  Samaria  to  our 
Saviour,  when  He  came  to  Sychar,  in  the  days  of  His 
flesh,  and  although  He  answered  her,  in  an  era  when 
the  prophecy  of  Amos  had  been  long  fulfilled, — "  Ye 
worship  ye  know  not  what,  the  hour  cometh  when  ye 
shall  neither  in  this  mountain,  nor  yet  at  Jerusalem, 
worship  the  Father," — the  reply  recognized  the  two 
high  places  of  the  chosen  people,  of  which  Gerizim 
stood  first  in  venerated  antiquity  and  in  chronological 
order.  "  When  Isaac  was  to  be  offered,  Abraham  was  in 
the  land  of  the  Philistines.  From  Beersheba,  or  Gaza, 
the  southern  point  of  Palestine,  he  would  move  along 
the  plain,  and  on  the  morning  of  the  third  day  would 
arrive  in  Sharon,  where  the  massive  height  of  Gerizim  is 
visible  '  afar  off/  see  Gen.  xxii. ;  and  from  thence  half 
a  day  would  bring  him  to  its  summit,  whereas  Mount 
Moriah,  at  Jerusalem,  is  not  visible  till  the  traveller  is 
close  upon  it."* 

SCENES   AT    SHECHEM. 

The  locality  thus  sacred  in  the  lives  of  ABRAHAM  and 
ISAAC,  was  not  less  so  to  JACOB.  He,  too,  pitched  his 
tent,  and  built  his  altar  in  Shechem,  and  when  he  left  it 
in  sorrow  for  the  violence  of  his  sons,  and  put  away 
from  his  household  their  strange  gods,  and  went  up  to 
Bethel,  he  hid  the  idols  and  the  ear-rings  under  "the 
Oak  of  Shechem."  It  was  a  place  of  oaks  (terebinths) 
then,  as  it  is  of  olives  now. 

It  was  at .  Shechem  the    cruel   brethren  sold  their 

father's  favourite,  Joseph,  to  the  Ishmaelites  going  down 

to  Egypt  with  balm  and  spicery   (the  first  caravan  we 

hear  of  in  Scripture),  and  so  led  their  own  way  into  the 

*  "Sinai  and  Palestine," ro.  248. 


70  BLESSING  AND   CURSE. 

land  of  bondage.  It  was  to  Shechem  and  Gerizitn  that 
they  came  again  in  the  fourth  generation,  according  to 
the  vision  of  their  great  forefather,  bringing  Joseph's 
bones,  which  they  had  carried  with  them,  by  his  desire, 
through  all  their  forty  years  of  desert  wandering  (Gen. 
1.  25) ;  and  they  buried  them  in  Shechem,  in  the  inheri- 
tance of  the  children  of  Joseph  (Josh.  xxiv.  32).  "At 
the  mouth  of  the  Valley  of  Shechem  two  slight  breaks 
are  visible,  in  the  midst  of  the  vast  plain  of  corn — one 
a  white  Mussulman  chapel,  the  other  a  few  fragments  of 
stone;  the  first  covers  the  alleged  tomb  of  Joseph, 
Ishmael's  mark  of  present  triumph  over  Isaac's  exiled 
race ;  the  other,  THE  WELL,  choked  up  by  ruins,  but  still 
the  well  of  '  our  father  Jacob.' " 

Here,  while  the  ark  remained  in  the  valley,  up  the 
sides  of  the  twin  mountains  stood  the  thousands  of  Israel, 
the  chiefs,  the  judges,  the  Levites,  the  women,  the  chil- 
dren, and  the  stranger,  six  tribes  uttering  the  curses 
from  the  barren  Ebal,  and  six  the  blessings  from  the 
pleasant  Gerizim,  and  as  each  curse  and  blessing  was 
pronounced  there  came  with  a  vast  voice  from  each  of 
those  living  hills  the  Amen  of  the  consenting  multitudes 
(Josh.  viii.  33). 

"  Those  who  have  seen  the  spot,"  says  Mr.  Mills, 
"can  readily  realize  the  scene.  Just  where  the  two  moun- 
tains approach  each  other  nearest  are  the  two  lower 
spurs,  looking  like  two  noble  pulpits  prepared  by  nature 
— and  here  the  Levites  would  stand  to  read.  The  valley 
running  between  looks  just  like  the  floor  of  a  vast  place 
of  worship.  The  slopes  of  both  mountains  recede 
gradually,  and  offer  room  for  hundreds  of  thousands  to 
be  conveniently  seated. 

"  An  objection  has  been  made,  that  the  distance 
between  the  two  mountains  is  too  great  for  the  human 


BLESSING  AND   CURSING.  71 

voice  to  traverse;  and  this  would  have  greater  force 
with  those  who  imagine  the  reading  to  have  taken  place 
on  the  very  summits  of  the  mountains.  I  am  not  aware 
whether  any  experiment  to  test  the  point,  had  ever  been 
made  upon  the  spot,,  previously  to  my  own.  In  company 
with  two  friends  I  pitched  my  tent  in  the  valley,  where  I 
supposed  the  Ark  formerly  to  have  stood.  I  clambered 
up  Gerizim  and  one  friend  up  Ebal,  the  third  party 
remaining  with  the  men  at  the  tent.  I  opened  my 
Bible,  and  read  the  command  concerning  the  blessings  in 
Hebrew,  and  every  word  was  heard  most  distinctly  by 
the  friend  in  the  valley,  the  Rev.  David  Edwards  of  New- 
port, as  well  as  by  Mr.  John  Williams  of  Aberystwith, 
who  stood  on  Mount  Ebal.  The  latter  then  read  the 
cursings  in  Welsh,  and  we  heard  every  word  and 
syllable. 

"  It  has  been  observed  by  many  authors  how  much 
farther  one  can  see  and  hear  in  Palestine  than  in  Great 
Britain,  owing  to  the  different  state  of  the  atmosphere. 
Dr.  Robinson  mentions  a  spot  in  Lebanon  where  the 
voice  can  be  heard  for  two  miles."* 

Shechem  was  afterwards  named  as  one  of  those  six 
cities  of  refuge  where  the  avenger  of  blood  stayed  his 
hand,  and  might  not  take  his  prey. 

And  now  there  is  another  scene  at, Shechem.  The 
stalwart  Joshua,  the  Lord's  captain,  ' '  goes  the  way  of  all 
the  earth,  and  again  he  gathers  all  the  tribes  here,  and 
the  elders  and  the  judges  present  themselves  before 
God."  After  reciting  the  Lord's  dealings  with  them  he 
says — 

"  Choose  you  this  day  whom  ye  will  serve ;  .  •  .  but  as  for  me  and 
my  house,  we  will  serve  the  Lord. 

*  "  Three  Months'  Eesidenee  at  Nablus.",  By  Kev.  John  Mills. 
Murray,  Albemarle  Street,  1864. 


72  JOSHUA   AND    GIDEON. 

"  Now  therefore,  put  away,  said  lie,  the  strange  gods  which  are  among 
you.  ...  So  Joshua  made  a  covenant  with  the  people  that  day,  and  set 
them  a  statute  and  an  ordinance  in  Shechem. 

"  And  Joshua  wrote  these  words  in  the  Book  of  the  law  of  God,  and 
took  a  GBEAT  STONE  (for  a  witness),  and  set  it  up  there  under  an  oak  that 
was  by  the  sanctuary  of  the  Lord"  (Josh.  xxiy.  15,  23,  25,  26). 

JOSHUA  is  the  great  hero  of  Ephraim  in  his  day, 
GIDEON  its  great  judge.  The  Prophet  SAMUEL,  though  a 
Levite,  was  a  native  of  Ramah  in  Mount  Ephraim ;  and 
Saul  belonged  to  a  tribe  closely  allied  to  the  family  of 
Joseph.  So  that  during  the  priesthood  of  the  former, 
and  the  reign  of  the  latter,  the  supremacy  of  Ephraim 
may  be  said  to  have  been  practically  maintained. 

Gideon  had  seventy-one  sons,  and  the  mother  of  one 
of  them  was  a  native  of  Shechem.  That  son,  Abimelech, 
slew  all  the  others  except  one,  named  Jotham,  that  he 
might  reign  alone  over  the  men  of  Israel.  They  made 
him  king  by  the  plain  of  the  pillar  in  Shechem  (proba- 
bly Joshua's  pillar).  And  when  Jotham,  who  had 
hidden  himself  and  escaped  the  slaughter,  heard  that 
Abimelech  was  king,  he  went  and  stood  in  the  top  of 
Mount  Gerizim — the  public  or  sacred  place  of  the  city — 
and  lifted  up  his  voice,  uttering  the  parable  of  the  trees, 
suggested  no  doubt  by  the  varied  foliage  of  the  valley 
below.  They  had  chosen  the  bramble  for  king,  as  he 
said ;  and  the  same  chapter  records  Abimelech' s  beating 
down  their  city  and  sowing  it  with  salt,  "  all  their  evil 
being  rendered  on  their  own  heads,  according  to  the 
curse  of  Jotham  the  son  of  Jerubbaal"  (Judges  ix.  57). 
Shechem  is  then  no  more  mentioned  till  its  rebuilding  in 
the  period  of  the  monarchy. 

IT  13  THEREFORE  IMPORTANT  FULLY  TO  REALIZE  THE 
IMPORTANCE  OP  THE  CENTRES  OF  SHECHEM  AND  SHILOH, 
FOR  THE  SPACE  OF  MORE  THAN  400  YEARS  TO  ANCIENT 


NEW   EEA  AT   SHECHEM.  73 

ISRAEL.  As  the  kingdom  of  Chaldea  in  reference  to  the 
Second  Babylon, — so  was  Samaria,  or  the  land  of 
Ephraim,  in  reference  to  Judah  and  Jerusalem.  How 
rich  are  the  archives  of  its  first  era  in  patriarchal  history  ! 

The  stories  of  the  election  of  the  kings  of  Israel  in 
SHECHEM  opens  its  second  chapter  and  a  new  era.  It  was 
the  first  capital  of  the  new  kingdom  of  Israel  as  dis- 
tinguished from  the  kingdom  of  Judah  after  the  rise  of 
Jerusalem  into  the  capital  during  the  reign  of  David. 

The  territory  of  Ephraim  was  central  for  situation, 
it  lay  in  the  way  of  communication  for  travellers  through 
Palestine.  From  north  to  south,  from  Jordan  to  the  sea, 
from  Galilee  and  Damascus  to  Philistia  and  Egypt,  the 
road  lay  "  through  Samaria."  Shechern  is  considered  to 
be  the  portion  given  to  Joseph  by  Jacob  when  near  his 
end — "  the  portion  above  his  brethren."  This  central 
tract  and  this  "  good  land"  were  naturally  allotted  to 
the  powerful  house  of  Joseph  in  the  first  division  of  the 
country  ;  and  it  is  very  true,  as  Stanley  says,  that  "  we 
are  so  familiar  with  the  supremacy  of  the  house  of 
JUDAFT,  that  we  are  apt  to  forget  its  recent  date  compa- 
ratively with  that  of  EPHRAIM." 

Alas  !  as  the  psalm  of  Asaph  tells  us  (Ps.  Ixxviii.  9) : — 

<c  The  children  of  Ephraim  being  armed,  and  carrying  bows,  turned 
back  in  the  day  of  battle. 

"  They  kept  not  the  covenant  of  God,  and  refused  to  walk  in  hia 
law.  ,  .  . 

"  Then  the  Lord  ....  refused  the  tabernacle  of  Joseph,  and  chose 
not  the  tribe  of  Ephraim  : 

"But  chose  the  tribe  of  Judah,  the  Mount  Zion  which  He  loved." 

But  notwithstanding  this,  ere  Rehoboam,  the  foolish 
son  of  the  wise  Solomon,  ascended  the  throne  of  all 
Israel,  the  Lord  turned  once  again  to  Epllraiui,  his  first- 
born, with  a  tenderness  that  belongs  only  to  that  dear 


74  SHILOH. 

relation ;  and  taking  Jeroboam,  the  Ephrathite  of  lowly 
lineage,  declared  to  him  the  rending  of  the  kingdom  by 
the  mouth  of  Ahijah  the  prophet,  and  accompanied  the 
information  with  the  startling  offer  of  ten  parts  of  that 
kingdom  to  himself — "  If  thou  wilt  walk  in  my  ways, 
and  do  that  which  is  right  in  my  sight,  as  David  my 
servant  did,  then  I  will  be  with  thee,  and  build  thee  a 
sure  house,  as  I  built  for  David,  and  will  give  Israel 
unto  thee."  Jeroboam  rebuilt  Shechem  and  dwelt 
there,  but  his  reign  of  twenty-two  years  did  nothing 
but  confirm  his  people  in  idolatry ;  the  first  of  nineteen 
evil  kings,  whose  dominion  endured  in  Samaria  for  two 
and  a  half  centuries.  We  will  not  investigate  any  details 
of  their  history  till,  in  a  future  chapter,  we  can  compare 
Assyrian  records  of  them,  lately  disinterred,  with  those 
given  us  in  the  Scriptures. 

SHILOH. 

It  is  surely  not  without  a  deep  and  marked  intent  of 
God,  that  in  this  present  generation  the  attention  of 
European  travellers  and  explorers,  and  consequently  of 
most  thinkers  and  readers,  is  chiefly  fixed  on  the  locali- 
ties of  SCRIPTURE  HISTORY.  We  have  seen  that  the 
capital  of  Ephraim  and  of  the  kingdom  of  Israel  was 
Shechem  ;  its  great  sanctuary  was  SHILOH. 

The  sites  of  heathen  oracles  had  been  always  shrines 
for  classic  pilgrimages,  but  the  site  of  SHILOH  was  com- 
pletely forgotten  from  the  time  of  Jerome  until  the 
year  1838.*  Yet  here  the  tabernacle  of  the  wilderness 
erected  by  Joshua  abode  300  years  (Josh,  xviii.  1).  The 
"tent"  or  "tabernacle,"  that  last  relic  of  the  nomad 
life  of  the  chosen  people,  is  described  in  the  Rabbinical 
traditions  as  a  structure  of  low  stone  walls,  with  a  tent 
*  See  "  Kobinson's  Researches,"  vol.  iii.,  pp.  87:  88. 


JEWISH    POPULATION.  75 

drawn  over  the  top,  exactly  answering  to  the  Bedouin 
villages  of  the  present  day,  where  the  stone  enclosures 
often  remain  long  after  the  tribes  and  tents  have 
vanished.  But  for  the  precision  with  which  the  site  of 
Shiloh  is  described  in  the  Book  of  Judges  (ch.  xxi.  19), 
its  situation  could  never  have  been  identified  with  the 
present  "  Seilun  :" — 

"  Shiloh,  •which  is  on  the  north  side  cf  Bethel,  on  the  east  side  of 
the  highway  that  goeth  up  from  Bethel  to  Shechem,  and  on  the  south  of 
Lebonuh." 

Shiloh  is  ten  miles  south  of  Shechem,  and  twenty- 
five  north  of  Jerusalem.  The  area  of  both  the  kingdoms 
of  Israel  and  Judah  at  the  death  of  Solomon  was 
scarcely  13,000  square  miles,  or  rather  more  than  that 
of  the  six  northern  counties  of  England.  The  kingdom 
of  Judah  was  rather  less  than  Northumberland,  Durham, 
and  Westmoreland,  3683  square  miles ;  the  kingdom  of 
Israel  nearly  as  large  as  Yorkshire,  Lancashire,  and 
Cumberland,  9  433  square  miles ;  and  if  Jeroboam,  living 
B.C.  957,  could  bring  into  the  field  800,000  fighting  men 
of  twenty  years  old  and  upwards  (see  Numb.  i.  3),  the 
whole  population  of  Israel  may  perhaps  have  amounted 
to  about  four  millions. 

POPULATION. 

Reckoning  from  similar  data,  when  Asa  some  thirty 
years  afterwards  brought  into  the  field  580,000  men, 
it  would  imply  a  population  of  nearly  three  millions  in 
Judah,  or  seven  millions  in  both  kingdoms. 

The  population  of  the  counties  above  named  in  our 
own  country  was,  by  the  census  of  1861,  over  four 
millions.  That  of  London  is  now  supposed  to  be  more 
than  three  millions  (and  this  has  increased  by  the  number 
of  half  a  million  in  the  last  ten  years) .  It  may  give  us  a 


70  THE    DESOLATE   LAND. 

comparative  idea  of  the  whole  Hebrew  population  in  the 
palmiest  days  of  their  dominion  to  suppose  that  it  more 
than  doubled  that  of  London,  or  was  by  a  third  larger  than 
the  population  of  our  northern  counties.  For  a  sparsely 
peopled  country  of  similar  size  and  character  to  Palestine, 
we  may  look  at  Wales  with  its  million  of  people,  but 
the  well-nigh  sevenfold  populousness  of  Syria  in  the 
past  is  well  attested  by  universal  witness,  and  we  need 
not  doubt  it. 

We  pass  within  the  borders  of  the  Land,  aware  of  its 
small  extent ;  that  its  length  from  Dan  to  Beersheba  is 
not  two  hundred  miles,  and  that  the  breadth  of  Western 
Palestine,  from  Jordan  to  the  Mediterranean,  is  rarely 
more  than  fifty.  We  behold  it  as  it  is,  "  the  land  of 
ruins,"  above  all  other  countries  in  the  world.  Not  of 
ruins  on  a  scale  like  those  of  Greece,  or  Italy,  or  Egypt, 
but  of  ruins  everywhere  ;  not  a  hill-top  but  is  covered 
by  the  vestiges  of  some  fortress  or  city  of  former  ages. 
The  Saracens,  the  Crusaders,  the  Romans,  the  Greeks, 
the  Jews,  even  the  Canaanites,  have  all  left  their  tokens 
in  the  land, — so  long  the  "battle-field  of  Babylon 
and  Egypt,"  the  "  high  bridge  between  the  Nile  and 
the  Euphrates/'  the  "  thoroughfare  and  prize  of  the 
world." 

And  if  the  above  be  the  picture  of  Western  Palestine, 
the  good  land  beyond  the  Jordan,  the  features  of  deso- 
lation are  equally  marked  in  Eastern  Syria,  especially  as 
inclusive  of  Hauran  and  the  Lebanon.  Here  the  relics 
of  Baalbec  and  Palmyra  still  tower  in  the  wilderness, 
while  hundreds  of  deserted  villages  dot  the  red  desert. 
Eastern  Syria  has  for  the  last  1500  years  nearly,  for  the 
last  four  hundred  utterly,  been  deserted  by  civilized  and 
almost  by  nomad  population,  "  desolate  with  desolation," 
as  the  margin  reads  of  Isaiah  vi.  11 — 13  : — 


THE   CUESE   AND   THE   PROMISE .  77 

"Then  said  I,  Lord,  how  long?  And  He  answered,  Until  the  cities 
be  wasted  without  inhabitant,  and  the  houses  without  man,  and  the  laud 
be  utterly  desolate, 

"  And  the  Lord  have  removed  men  far  away,  and  there  be  a  great 
forsaking  in  the  midst  of  the  land. 

"  But  yet  in  it  shall  be  a  tenth,  and  it  shall  return,  and  shall  be 
eaten  ;  as  a  teil-tree,  and  as  an  oak,  whoso  substance  is  in  them,  when 
they  cast  their  leaves  :  so  the  holy  seed  shall  be  the  substance  thereof." 

This  prophecy  was  uttered  in  the  year  that  king 
Uzziah  died,  the  tenth  king  of  Judah,  B.C.  758,  rather 
more  than  a  hundred  years  before  the  final  resolve  of 
Jehovah  concerning  their  dispersion  (see  p.  18),  as 
attached  to  the  sin  of  Manasseh  in  Jerusalem. 

THE   CUESE   AND   THE   PROMISE. 

For  more  than  five  and  twenty  centuries  has  Israel 
now  been  "  outcast,"  and  Judah  "  dispersed"  to  the  four 
corners  of  the  earth,  hated  and  slaughtered,  despised 
and  oppressed.  How  is  it,  that  when  the  Gentiles  reckon 
up  her  scattered  children  and  count  them,  "  sown  among 
the  nations"  from  all  countries,  they  seem  still  to  be  seven 
millions,  no  fewer  than  in  the  days  of  their  glory  ?  And 
they  are  to  number  yet  more  than  this.  The  prophet 
Hosea  confirms  the  promise  to  Abraham  (Hos.  i.  10) ; 
he  depicts  their  outcasting  and  also  their  return  : — 

"  Yet  the  number  of  the  children  of  Israel  shall  bo  as  the  sand  of 
the  sea,  which  cannot  be  measured  nor  numbered ;  and  it  shall  come  to 
pass,  that  in  the  place  where  it  was  said  unto  them,  Ye  are  not  my  people, 
there  it  shall  be  said  unto  them,  Ye  are  the  sons  of  the  living  God. 

"  Then  shall  the  children  of  Judah  and  the  children  of  Israel  be 
gathered  together,  and  appoint  themselves  one  head,  and  they  shall  come 
up  out  of  the  land :  for  great  shall  be  the  day  of  (God's  seed)  Jezreel." 

THE    SAMARITANS   AT   NABLOUS. 

The  last  ten  years  have  been  fruitful  in  fresh  sketches 
and  interesting  descriptions  of  that  remnant  of  Israel 


78  THE   SAMARITANS. 

who,  under  the  name  of  SAMABITANS,  yet  dwell  on  the 
site  of  the  ancient  Shechem ;  about  150  in  number,  in 
their  humble  synagogue,  at  the  foot  of  Mount  Gerizim, 
a  few  of  them  worship  still — the  oldest  and  the  smallest 
sect  in  the  world. 

Distinguished  by  their  noble  physiognomy  and  stately 
appearance  from  all  other  branches  of  the  race  of  Israel, 
they  are  left  "  in  the  midst  of  the  land,"  as  the  gleaning 
grapes  when  the  vintage  is  done.  Some  graphic  details 
from  the  pen  of  George  Grove,  Esq.,  who  visited  them 
in  October  1861,*  will  introduce  the  reader  to  this  sin- 
gular people.  This  gentleman  was  so  fortunate  as  to  be 
present  at  their  celebration  of  the  Yom-Kippoor,  or  Day 
of  Atonement,  the  one  only  fast  which  they  keep  in  the 
year,  with  ultra-Jewish  rigour.  Not  any  food  then 
passes  their  lips  for  twenty-four  hours,  and  during  that 
time  the  whole  Pentateuch  is  recited  from  beginning  to 
end  by  the  priests,  and  all  the  congregation  with  them 
as  far  as  their  memories  allow,  in  a  sort  of  plain  song, 
but  in  hideous  discordance.  Meantime  their  unfortunate 
children  wail  and  cry  from  hunger  and  thirst,  which  must 
not  be  satisfied.  Towards  the  close  it  becomes  a  furious 
race  of  screeching  recitation;  then  the  worshippers 
approach  and  kiss,  or  touch,  the  rolls  of  the  Law,  and 
are  dismissed  with  a  blessing  to  their  pipes,  for  smok- 
ing is  generally  their  first  refreshment. 

Mr.  Grove  was  present  at  the  beginning  of  the  reci- 
tation in  the  evening,  and  left  them  to  continue  it 
through  the  night.  He  rejoined  them  the  next  after- 
noon about  two  hours  before  the  close,  and  gives  us 
the  following  picture,  in  words,  of  what  he  saw  and 
heard : — 

*  Vacation  Tourists'  Notes  of  Travel,  Vol.  ii.  Hacmillan  and  Co.  1862. 


THE  LAW.  79 

BECITA.TIQN  OP  THE  LAW. 

"  The  sound  of  the  service  was  much  the  same  as  it 
had  been  last  night,  only,  if  possible,  more  discordant ; 
but  the  aspect  of  the  scene  was  most  pleasing,  and 
struck  me  even  more  than  at  first.  Many  of  the  men 
were  models  of  manly  beauty,  tall  and  dignified  in  form, 
and  with  lofty,  open,  and  most  engaging  countenances. 
There  is  no  posture  in  the  world  more  noble  and  grace- 
ful than  that  in  which  Orientals  sit  on  the  ground.  But 
all  these  were  not  sitting.  A  few  were  standing  in  a  still 
more  striking  posture  ;  propped  up  against  the  wall,  like 
Belisarius  in  the  well-known  picture,  on  long  staves,  and 
holding  out  both  hands  in  an  attitude  of  deprecation  or 
adoration. 

"  The  pure  white  dresses,  just  relieved  by  the  little 
dash  of  colour  in  the  crimson  tarbooshes,  emerging  from 
their  white  turbans,  or  of  a  red  or  yellow  scarf  escaping 
here  and  there;  the  quaint  charm  and  glister  of  the 
antique  glass  chandeliers,  the  venerable  vaults  above, 
and  the  rich  solid  hue  of  the  carpets  under  foot,  were  all 
tempered  by  the  sweet  soft  light  of  the  Eastern  after- 
noon as  it  flowed  in  at  the  door,  or  wavered  down  from 
the  apertures  overhead — these  things  combined  to  form  a 
picture,  which,  to  a  deaf  man,  would  have  been  without 
alloy,  and  was  so  beautiful  as  to  make  even  me  (who  am 
not  deaf)  forget  the  discordant  voices  for  a  few  moments 
as  I  contemplated  it. 

"  When  at  length  the  two  great  songs,  with  which 
Deuteronomy  concludes,  had  been  reached,  there  was  a 
general  stir,  and  a  movement  towards  the  front  of  the 
sanctuary.  The  priests  came  forth  from  behind  a  curtain 
of  dull  red  and  gold,  clad  in  dresses  of  very  light  green 
satin  down  to  the  feet,  and  the  recitations  proceeded  with 


80  THE    EOLLS. 

greater  clamour  and  impetuosity  than  ever.  Then  the 
two  great  rolls,  which,  according  to  the  Samaritans 
themselves,  have  stood  to  them  in  the  place  of  the  ancient 
glories  of  their  temple  ever  since  its  destruction,  and 
have  certainly  been  the  desire  and  despair  of  European 
scholars  since  Scaliger's  time,  were  brought  forth,  en- 
veloped in  coverings  of  light  blue  velvet,  and  placed 
on  a  sloping  stand  in  the  centre  of  a  recess.  And  at 
last  the  reading  of  the  law  was  ended,  amidst  a  perfect 
tumult,  by  the  reiteration  of  two  syllables — f  TO-RAH/ 
THE  LAW — at  least  thirty  times. 

"  Then  the  two  priests  again  emerged  from  behind 
the  curtain,  this  time  with  the  fringed  garment  prescribed 
in  Num.  xv.  37,  covering  the  head,  and  reaching  nearly 
to  the  knees;  they  put  off  the  velvet  coverings,  and 
exposed  the  cases  of  the  rolls  to  view.  That  to  the  right 
was  bright  silver,  and  evidently  of  modern  make,  the 
other  puzzled  me  more.  It  was  too  distant  for  me  to  see 
any  of  its  details,  but  the  whole  effect  struck  me  as  being 
Venetio-Oriental  work,  of  the  time  of  those  fine  silver  and 
silver  gilt  articles  which  have  been  reproduced  lately  by 
Elkington  in  London.  This  was  the  signal  for  prostra- 
tions, fresh  prayers,  and  fresh  responses,  which  lasted  at 
least  a  quarter  of  an  hour. 

"  And  now  came  the  great  event  of  the  day,  and  of 
the  year.  The  priests  opened  the  cases,  so  as  to  expose 
their  contents  to  view;  and  then,  with  their  backs  to 
the  congregation,  and  their  faces  to  Mount  Gerizim,  held 
them  up  over  their  heads,  with  the  sacred  parchments 
full  in  view  of  the  whole  synagogue.  Every  one  pros- 
trated himself,  and  that  not  once,  but  repeatedly,  and 
for  a  length  of  time.  Then  the  devout  pressed  forward 
to  kiss,  to  stroke  fondly,  to  gaze  on  the  precious  trea- 
sures. Several  children  were  allowed  to  kiss.  Fresh 


CASE  OF   EOLL.  81 

intoning  and  vociferation  followed,  which  I  can  compare 
to  nothing  but  the  Psalms  for  the  day  as  performed  at  St. 
George's-in-the-East  during  the  riots,  when  a  majority 
SAID  and  a  minority  SANG  them ;  and  even  that  wanted 
the  force  and  energy  which  here  lent  such  a  dreadful  life 
to  the  discord.  These  responses,  I  was  afterwards  told, 
were  avowals  of  their  beliefs  in  Jehovah  and  in  Moses. 

"  At  intervals  during  this  time  the  kissing  and 
stroking  of  the  rolls,  as  they  lay  in  state  on  the  sloping 
stand,  was  going  on  to  an  extent  which  must  seriously 
injure  them,  and  would  be  fatal  if  it  happened  oftener. 
The  one  in  the  old  case  was  the  favourite,  for  it  is  brought 
out  with  great  reluctance,  and  all  kinds  of  subterfuges 
are  resorted  to  to  avoid  showing  it  to  travellers. 

"  My  weariness  now  became  extreme,  and  meanwhile 
the  poor  fainting  children  lay  strewed  around,  like  so 
many  Ishmaels  in  the  last  stage  of  existence  for  the 
want  of  water  and  food.  At  last  the  Holy  Books  were 
consigned  to  their  retirement  behind  the  veil,  there  to 
remain  for  another  year,  and  by  degrees  the  community 
dispersed.  A  little  lamp  was  lowered  from  the  ceiling, 
lighted,  and  left  burning  in  the  twilight  before  the 
sanctuary,  and  the  Yom-Kippoor  for  the  year  1270  (as 
the  Samaritans  reckon  according  to  the  Mohammedan 
era)  was  at  an  end. 

CASE    OF   THE    GREAT   EOLL. 

"Later  in  the  evening/'  says  Mr.  Grove,  "it  so- 
happened  that,  through  the  good  offices  of  my  host, 
he  and  I  met  the  priest  at  the  synagogue,  and  In 
consideration  of  a  liberal  BACKSHEESH,  and  the  present  of 
my  knife,  I  was  allowed  to  examine  the  case  of  the  Great 
Roll,  and  even  to  make  some  rubbings  of  parts  of  it — 
very  imperfectly,  for  I  had  not  at  all  the  proper  things 


82  CASE    OP   THE    EOLL. 

with  me.  He  began  by  assuring  me  it  was  1400  years 
old.  I  told  him  if  he  took  away  1000  years,  I  thought 
he  would  not  be  far  from  the  truth,  and  so  it  proved,  for 
not  only  was  my  former  conjecture  confirmed,  but  on 
examination,  the  priest  himself  found  a  date  which  he 
read  as  equivalent  to  A.D.  1420. 

"It  is  a  beautiful  and  curious  piece  of  work;  a 
cylinder  of  about  two  feet  six  inches  long  and  ten  or 
twelve  inches  in  diameter,  opening  down  the  middle. 
One  of  the  halves  is  engraved  with  a  ground  plan  of  the 
Tabernacle,  etc.,  showing  every  post,  tenon,  veil,  piece 
of  furniture,  vessel,  etc.,  with  a  legend  attached  to  each, 
all  in  raised  work.  The  other  half  is  covered  with  orna- 
ment only,  also  raised.  It  is  silver,  and  I  think  (but  the 
light  was  very  imperfect)  parcel  gilt.  My  visit  would, 
no  doubt,  have  been  very  much  resented  by  the  com- 
munity if  they  had  known  of  it ;  and  the  feeling  of  this 
added  to  it  a  curious  zest.  As  it  was,  I  could  not  help 
fancying  that  I  was  committing  sacrilege ;  stealing  in 
in  the  dark  and  thus  handling  holy  things.  Of  the  roll 
itself  I  say  nothing,  partly  because,  knowing  nothing  of 
the  subject,  I  hardly  looked  at  it ;  and,  partly,  because 
it  had  been  thoroughly  examined  by,  or  for,  Dr.  Levisohn, 
one  of  the  missionary  staff  of  the  Russian  Government, 
at  Jerusalem. 

VISIT   OF   THE   PEINCE    OP   WALES   TO   NABLU3. 

The  visit  of  His  Eoyal  Highness  the  Prince  of 
Wales  to  Nablus  during  the  summer  of  the  year  1862, 
has  served  to  draw  renewed  attention  to  the  precious 
manuscript  above  described,  and  to  the  Fountain  of 
Inspiration  at  the  source  whence  it  sprang. 

The  wonderful  art  of  photography  has  lent  its  aid  to 


THE    SAMARITAN   PENTATEUCH. 


THE    EOTAL   VISIT.  83 

repeat  and  prolong  the  enjoyment  of  the  Eoyal  tour ; 
and  by  expending  a  shilling  the  humblest  Englishman 
in  London  might  have  followed  in  the  route,  and  beheld 
the  Shechem  of  the  Old  Testament,  the  Sychar  of  the 
"New,  the  Neapolis  or  Nablus  of  modern  days,  nestling 
between  the  Mounts  of  cursing  and  blessing,  the  Ebal 
and  Gerizim  represented  at  the  beginning  of  this  chap- 
ter, our  woodcut  being  an  excellent  representation  of 
the  photograph.* 

By  the  gracious  permission  of  His  Royal  Highness, 
and  the  kindness  of  Mr.  Bedford,  the  photographer,  we 
are  also  able  to  present  to  our  readers  a  beautiful  wood- 
cut of  the  celebrated  Roll  in  its  Case,  from  that  most 
pictorial  sun-painting  which  memorialized  the  Prince's 
visit.  The  silken  embroidered  cover  is  here  distinctly 
visible.  Its  few  remaining  guardians  speak  Arabic,  the 
tongue  of  their  Mohammedan  conquerors.  They  are,  how- 
ever, taught  their  ecclesiastical  language.  "  I  brought 
away/'  says  Mr.  Grove,  ' '  a  primer,  from  which  the  little 
Samaritans  are  taught  in  the  school  at  Nablus,  and  it  is 
covered  with  the  thin  sprawling  form  of  venerable  letters; 
much  more  rude  and  complicated  than  the  usual  Sama- 
ritan type  in  the  Polyglotts."  We  have  lately  received 
the  written  alphabet  of  this  ancient  roll,  from  the  Rev. 
J.  Mills,  who  obtained  it  at  Nablus,  and  has  kindly 
allowed  the  use  of  it  for  this  volume. 

The  Samaritans  say  that  their  roll  is  the  identical 
ono  written  by  Abishua,  the  great  grandson  of  Aaron, 
fourth  high  priest;  but  even  more  reasonable  critics 
carry  its  date  back  to  centuries  before  the  coming  of 
our  Lord. 

*  A  collection  of  photographic  pictures,  taken  during  the  tour  in 
tbe  East  of  His  Eoyal  Highness  the  Prince  of  Wales,  was  exhibited  on  his 
return  for  some  months  at  the  German  Gallery,  168,  New  Bocd  Street. 


84 


SAJIABITAN  AND  PHffiNICJAN  ALPHABETS. 


THE  WBITTEN  SAMABIT.AN  ALPHABET. 


c 


itchz       vkdgb       a 


thtslirktsp      osnm      e 


THE  PEINTED  SAMAEITAN  ALPHABET    07  MONUMENTS  AND  COINS. 


kkh    i        t  kh    z      wu     h      d     g     b    a 


tth     sh     r     q    ts    pph     a      s      n    m     1 


THE  PHCENICIAN  ALPHABET. 


ky        tchzvhdgba 


t       slirktzpesnml 


THE   THREE   ALPHABETS.  85 

Mr.  Mills  lias  resided  with,  the  Samaritans  at  Nablus, 
on  two  different  occasions,  in  the  years  1855  and  1860, 
and  had  daily  intercourse  with  Amram  their  priest.  In 
Nablus  alone,  is  now  to  be  found  the  remnant  of  these 
few  Samaritans.  Their  race  has  died  out  of  Cairo,  Gaza, 
and  Damascus — where  they  used  to  be  occasionally  met 
with — and  amidst  all  the  vicissitudes  of  all  these  years, 
Gerizim,  the  oldest  sanctuary  in  Palestine,  has  retained 
its  sanctity  to  the  end. 

The  first  alphabet  in  the  foregoing  page,  is  that  in 
which  this  ancient  Roll  is  written ;  these  are  the  only  cha- 
racters used  by  the  Samaritans  in  sacred  writings,  "nor 
are  they  acquainted,"  says  Mr.  Mills,  "with  the  monu- 
mental type"  (that  of  the  second  alphabet  here  given), 
"  except  as  they  have  seen  it  in  Walton's  Polyglott." 
Much  has  been  said  to  show  that  the  Samaritan 
alphabets  are  certainly  derived  from  the  Phoenician — 
all  three  are  here  presented  for  comparison, — but  Mr. 
Mills  concludes  the  "  old  written  Samaritan  alphabet,  to 
have  been  given  by  Moses,  either  modified  from 
characters  previously  existing,  or  independently  framed 
by  him  under  Divine  influence." 

He  also  seems,  like  Mr.  Grove,  to  have  seen  the 
ancient  roll,  which  is  not  generally  exhibited  to  travellers, 
and  mentions  its  red  satin  cover  embroidered  with 
golden  letters — the  roll  being  kept  in  a  silver  case  which 
exposes  but  one  whole  column  of  the  text  at  a  time. 
"  It  is  written,"  he  says,  "  on  a  material  older  than  parch- 
ment, and  I  was  told  by  Yacub,  the  priest's  nephew,  that 
the  name  of  the  writer  is  interwoven  as  a  kind  of  acrostic 
in  the  Book  of  Deuteronomy.  Dr.  Levisohn  and  Mr- 
Kraus,  on  examining  the  roll  after  I  saw  it,  declare  that 
they  found  that  this  acrostic  actually  exists.  The 
precious  relic  of  antiquity  is  worn  and  torn  in  many 


86  THE    SAMARITAN   PENTATEUCH. 

places,    and    patched    with    re-written    parchment.     I 
think  two-thirds  of  the  original  might  still  be  read/' 

Several  of  the  Christian  fathers  had  mentioned  a 
Samaritan  Pentateuch,  as  existing  apart  from  that  of 
the  Jews' ;  Jerome  was  the  last  of  these,  and  after  him  it 
was  lost  sight  of  for  a  thousand  years,  and  then  the 
learned  men  of  Europe  opened  a  negotiation  with  the 
Samaritans  to  obtain  fresh  copies  of  it.  It  was  not,  how- 
ever, till  1623  that  a  fac-simile  seems  to  have  reached 
the  library  of  the  Oratoire  in  Paris.  In  1630,  Arch- 
bishop Usher  obtained  six  copies,  and  about  seventeen 
copies  or  parts  of  copies  are  now  in  England,  which  have 
been  critically  examined.  Six  of  these  are  in  the 
Bodleian  Library  at  Oxford,  and  one  (in  the  form  of  a 
book)  in  the  Cotton  Library  in  the  British  Museum. 
They  are  all  written  either  on  parchment  or  on  silk 
paper ;  one  of  them  is  attributed  to  the  eighth  century, 
the  age  of  Mohammed.  This  treasure  has,  of  course, 
been  multiplied  by  printing  it.  It  was  printed  first  from 
the  copy  in  Paris,  and  afterwards  as  corrected  from  three 
of  Archbishop  Usher's  MSS.  for  the  London  Polyglott. 

It  is  said,  however,  that  there  are  but  two  or  three 
complete  copies  of  the  Samaritan  Pentateuch  in  Europe. 
Various  accounts  of  its  origin  have  been  given,  but  Mr. 
Mills's  opinion  appears  the  most  rational  and  consistent. 

"  Copies  of  the  Pentateuch,  must  have  been  multiplied 
among  Israel  as  well  as  among  Judah,  and  preserved 
by  the  one  as  carefully  as  by  the  other.  Nor  is  it 
probable  that  the  people,  when  carried  captive  into 
Assyria,  took  with  them  all  the  copies  of  the  Law,  so 
that  not  one  remained  among  the  remnant  left  behind. 
'The  remnant  of  Israel'  are  mentioned  in  the  reign  of 
Josiah  as  being  sufficiently  numerous  to  make  it  worth 
while  to  collect  their  subscriptions  for  the  repair  of 


SAMARITAN    PEIESTHOOD.  87 

the  temple  at  Jerusalem  (2  Chron.  xxxiv.  9).  Whatever 
copy  the  Samaritans  had  of  the  Law  became  their 
religious  text  book,  and  has  ever  since  remained  among 
them,  separate  on  the  one  hand,  from  that  of  the  Jews, 
and  on  the  other  hand  from  the  copy  of  the  Gentiles, 
who  had  the  Greek  translation  of  the  Septuagint.  The 
Samaritan  copy  seems,  as  well  as  the  Jewish,  to  have 
flowed  from  the  autograph  of  Moses,  and  the  two,  to  be 
only  different  recensions  of  the  same  original." 

It  is  likewise  written  in  Neh.  xiii.  28,  that  "one  of 
the  sons  of  Joiada,  the  son  of  Eliashib  the  high  priest, 
was  son-in-law  to  Sanballat  the  Horonite :  therefore 
(says  Nehemiah)  I  chased  him  from  me."  What  more 
natural  than  that  he  should  go  over  to  his  father-in-law,  the 
Samaritan  chief,  which  it  is  reported  he  did,  with  a  large 
number  of  priests  and  laymen,  and  that  he  (by  name 
Manasseh)  became  the  first  priest  of  the  sanctuary  on 
Gerizim.  If  so,  the  priesthood  of  the  Samaritans  was 
inaugurated  by  a  priest  directly  descended  from  Aaron, 
in  a  city,  the  inhabitants  of  which,  to  use  the  words  of 
Josephus,  "  were  chiefly  deserters  from  the  nation  of  the 
Jews." 

And  it  is  also  to  be  remembered  that  a  priest  of  their 
own  people  was  sent  by  their  conqueror  Shalmaneser, 
to  teach  "  the  manner  of  the  God  of  the  land  "  (who 
was  supposed  to  be  offended)  to  the  people  whom  that 
monarch  had  transferred  to  this  district,  after  he  made  it 
desolate.  He  had  "  brought  men  from  Babylon,  and 
from  Outhah,  and  from  Ava  and  from  Hamath,  and  from 
Sepharvaim,  and  placed  them  in  the  cities  of  Samaria, 
instead  of  the  children  of  Israel."  (See  2  Kings  xvii.) 
It  is  said  that  this  priest  taught  them  how  they  should 
fear  the  Lord,  and  perhaps  the  teaching  was  not  ah1  in 
vain,  though  the  majority  made  gods  of  their  own  whose 


88  THE    THEEB    CHEONOLOGIES. 

fear  was  mingled  with  that  of  Jehovah.  (Alas  !  the 
ancient  Israel  had  done  the  like.) 

These  particulars  seem  necessary  to  be  given  in 
accounting  for  the  conservation  of  their  roll  of  the 
Pentateuch. 

Mr.  Mills  mentions  the  variations  that  exist  between 
the  Samaritan  Roll  and  Jewish  MSS.  "  Apart  from 
a  few  verbal  discrepancies,  and  the  great  number  of 
variations  in  the  mere  letters,  the  principal  differences  are 
contained  in  the  history  of  the  plagues  of  Egypt ;  the 
utterances  of  the  Almighty  against  Pharaoh,  are  all 
uniformly  recorded  twice  in  the  Samaritan,  and  there  are 
a  vast  number  of  smaller  additions,  some  of  which  are 
most  interesting  and  important." 

Dr.  Kennicott  has  remarked  on  this  subject :  "  If  the 
Samaritan  shall  be  found  in  some  places  to  correct  the 
Hebrew,  yet  will  the  Hebrew  copy  in  other  places  correct 
the  Samaritan.  Each  copy  therefore  is  invaluable. 
Both  have  been  often  transcribed,  both  therefore  may 
contain  errors,  they  differ  in  many  instances,  therefore 
the  errors  must  be  many.  Let  the  genuine  words  of 
Moses  be  ascertained  by  their  joint  assistance." 

The  most  important  point  of  variation,  as  is  well 
known,  is  in  the  Chronology. 

From  Between  the  Delude  Prom  the 

Adam  to  the  and  the  birth  Creation  of  man  to  the 

Delude.  ol  Christ.  present  Kra. 

The  Hebrew  gives      1656  2348        -f- 1864  =        5868 

The  Samaritan  gives  1307  3131        -|-  1864  =         6302 

The  Septuagint  gives  2262  3099        +  1864  =s        7225 

From  the  internal  evidence  of  Scripture,  the  authority 
of  the  Hebrew  version  has  been  generally  considered 
paramount,  and  the  "  old-fashioned  chronology "  of 
Archbishop  Usher;  happily,  is  still  appended  to  our 
authorized  English  Bible. 


THE    SAMARITANS.  89 


THE    PRESENT    SAMARITANS. 

The  mingled  seed  of  the  present  Samaritans  have 
been  greatly  persecuted.  From  the  time  when  Vespasian 
slaughtered  1 1,000  of  them  on  their  holy  mountain,  to 
that  of  the  petty  oppression  of  the  Turkish  Beys,  the 
hand  and  tongue  of  every  dweller  in  the  East — Heathen, 
Jew,  Mohammedan — seems  to  have  been  against  them. 
This  persecution  has  had  its  usual  effect.  It  has  attached 
them  more  closely  than  ever  to  their  faith,  and  has 
perpetuated  their  peculiarities,  their  rites,  their  books, 
and  their  alphabet,  to  a  minute  degree  of  conservation, 
which  is  almost  incredible.  The  Samaritans  always  call 
themselves  the  children  of  Joseph,  and  the  Jews 
'•  Yehudim/  or  f  Judathites/  Nothing  is  more  striking 
than  their  habit  of  insisting,  in  the  nineteenth  century 
of  the  Christian  era,  on  the  distinction  between  '  Judah 
and  Ephraim/  with  all  the  strength  and  animosity  that 
could  have  been  thrown  into  the  terms  in  the  days  of 
Jeroboam  or  Amaziah. 

The  inhabitants  of  Nablus  with  few  exceptions  are 
Arabs,  and  of  course  Mohammedans ;  there  may  be  from 
500  to  600  Christians ;  152  Samaritans ;  and  Jews  about 
100.  Ishmael  has  still  the  dominion  over  the  "  high- 
places  of  Isaac." 

The  very  name.  Samaritan  was  with  the  Jew  a  term 
of  extreme  reproach  and  contempt;  they  said  to  our 
Lord  Himself,  "  Thou  art  a  Samaritan  and  hast  a  devil," 
John  viii.  48.  But  the  Samaritans  expected  the  Messiah, 
John  iv.  25,  and  when  He  came  many  of  them  received 
and  believed  on  Him. 

The  Jews  "  had  no  dealings  with  the  Samaritans," 
but  the  Saviour  had.  He  abode  among  this  people  for 
two  days,  after  conversing  with  the  woman  of  Samaria 


90  THE   PASSOYES. 

as  He  sat  on  the  well  at  this  same  Sychar,  and  ' '  many- 
believed  because  of  His  own  word."  Did  He  point  them 
to  this  copy  of  their  venerated  law,  and  determine  that 
it  should  endure  among  them  till  the  hour  of  His  coming 
again,  as  a  witness  to  Him  in  the  place  of  its  earliest 
utterance  in  the  Land  of  Promise  ? 

"We  are  thrice  told  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  that 
there  were  churches  of  God  in  Samaria,  Acts  viii.  1,  ix. 
31,  xv.  3.  The  apostle  Philip  was  a  preacher  of  the 
Gospel  there,  "  working  miracles,"  and  the  people  with 
one  accord  gave  heed  to  him  and  were  baptized,  both 
men  and  women,  Acts  viii.  6.  By  Peter  and  John  they 
received  afterwards  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  ver.  17. 
These  Apostles  preached  the  Gospel  in  many  villages 
of  the  Samaritans,  following  the  example  of  their  Master, 
who  "must  needs  go  through  Samaria/'  and  forgot  not 
His  ancient  ISRAEL. 

How  interesting  would  be  any  relics  of  these  Apos- 
tolic Christian  Churches ! 

THE    SAMAEITAN    PASSOVER. 

Dean  Stanley  gives  us  an  account  of  the  celebration 
of  the  Samaritan  passover  as  seen  by  the  Prince  of  Wales. 
On  the  evening  of  Saturday,  the  13th  of  April,  1862, 
they  ascended  Mount  Gerizim,  and  arriving  on  its  rocky 
platform,  found  the  whole  community  of  152  persons 
encamped  in  tents  a  few  hundred*  yards  below  the 
summit.  The  women  were  shut  in  the  tents.  Fifteen 
of  the  men,  with  the  priest  Amram,  were  clothed  in  long 
white  robes,  with  their  feet  bare. 

"  Presently  there  appeared  among  the  worshippers 
six  sheep,  driven  up  by  six  youths,  dressed  in  white 
shirts  and  drawers.  The  sun,  which  had  hitherto 
burnished  the  Mediterranean,  now  sank  to  the  ridge 
overhanging  Sharon.  The  whole  history  of  the  Exodus, 


THE   PASSOVEE.  91 

from  the  plagues  of  Egypt,  was  then  furiously  chanted. 
The  setting  sun  touched  the  ridge  ;*  the  youths  with  a 
wild  murmur  drew  forth  long  bright  knives  and 
brandished  them  aloft,  the  sheep  were  thrown  on  their 
backs,  the  knives  rapidly  drawn  across  their  throats ;  a 
few  convulsive  silent  struggles,  '  as  a  sheep — dumb — 
that  openeth  not  his  mouth/  and  the  six  forms  lay  life- 
less on  the  ground,  the  blood  streaming  from  them — the 
one  only  Israelitish  sacrifice  lingering  in  the  world. 

"  Two  holes  had  been  dug  upon  the  mountain,  and 
in  one  a  fire  was  kindled  with  dry  heath  and  briers, 
such  as  are  named  in  Jotham's  parable,  uttered  not  far 
from  this  very  spot.  On  this  fire  two  cauldrons  of 
water  were  heated,  while  bitter  herbs  were  handed 
round,  wrapped  in  a  strip  of  unleavened  bread.f  The 
water,  boiling,  was  poured  over  the  sheep  by  the  youths, 
and  their  fleeces  plucked  off.  Certain  parts  of  the 
animals  were  then  thrown  aside  and  burnt,  and  they 
were  afterwards  spitted,  each  on  a  long  pole,  at  the 
bottom  of  which  was  a  transverse  stick  to  prevent  the 
body  from  slipping  off.  In  this  act  Justin  Martyr,  in  the 
second  century,  had  seen  the  likeness  of  the  Crucifixion. 

"The  sheep  were  then  carried  to  the  second  circular 
pit,  with  a  fire  kindled  at  the  bottom,  and  roasted  to- 
gether in  this  oven,  by  stuffing  them  in  vertically  and 
carefully,  head  downwards.  A  hurdle  was  then  placed 
over  the  mouth,  covered  with  bushes  and  wet  earth,  to 
keep  in  the  heat  till  the  meat  was  done.  J 

*  "  Thou  shalt  sacrifice  tlie  Passoyer  at  even,  at  the  going  down  of 
the  sun." — Deut.  xvi.  6. 

t  "  With  unleavened  bread  and  with  bitter  herbs  they  shall  eat  it." 
—Ex.  xii.  8. 

J  "They  shall  eat  the  flesh  iu  that  night,  roast  with  fire.  .  * 
Eat  not  of  it  raw,  nor  sodden  at  all  with  water,  but  roast  with  fire." — 
Ex.  xii.  8,  9. 


92  EATING   IN    HASTE. 

"  Five  hours  or  more  now  elapsed  in  silence,  and 
most  of  the  party  retired  to  rest.  The  whole  male  com- 
munity then  gathered  round  the  oven's  mouth,  the 
covering  of  the  hole  was  torn  off,  and  there  rose  into  the 
still  moonlight  sky  a  vast  column  of  smoke  and  steam. 

'  Smokes  on  Gerizim's  Mount  Samaria's  sacrifice.' 

EEGINALD  HEBEB. 

"  The  six  sheep  were  dragged  on  their  spits,  and  laid 
in  a  line  between  two  files  of  the  Samaritans,  still  in 
white  robes  5  but  now  with  shoes  on  their  feet,  staves  in 
their  hands,  and  ropes  round  their  waists.* 

c '  Recitation  recommenced,  of  prayer  or  Pentateuch, 
soon  as  suddenly  terminated  by  their  all  sitting  down 
in  Arab  fashion,  and  beginning  to  eat.  The  feast 
was  conducted  in  rapid  silence  as  of  hungry  men.f 
To  the  priest  and  the  women,  separate  morsels  were 
carried  round.  The  remains,  mats  and  all,  were  then 
burned  on  a  hurdle  over  the  hole  where  the  water 
had  been  boiled ;  the  ground  being  searched  in  every 
direction  for  each  consecrated  particle.  J 

"By  the  early  morning  the  whole  community  had 
descended  from  the  mountain,  and  occupied  their  usual 
habitations  in  the  town."  § 

Such  was  the  wild,  pastoral,  barbarian,  yet  still 
instructive  commemoration,  witnessed  by  our  Prince  oL 
England,  of  the  escape  of  the  people  of  Israel  from  the 
yoke  of  the  Egyptian  king. 

*  "  Thus  shall  ye  eat  it ;  with  your  loins  girded,  your  shoes  on  your 
feet,  and  your  staff  in  your  hand." — Ex.  xii.  11. 

t  "  Ye  shall  eat  it  in  haste." — Ex.  xii.  11. 

t  "  Ye  shall  let  nothing  of  it  remain  until  the  morning  ;  and  that 
which  remaineth  of  it  until  the  morning  ye  shall  burn  with  fire,:*  etc. — 
Ex.  xii.  10,  46 ;  DEUT.  xvi.  4. 

§  Thou  shalt  turn  in  the  morning  and  go  unto  thy  tents.  Deut.  xvi. 


DOWN   INTO  EGYPT.  93 


CHAPTER  IV. 

DOWN    INTO    EGYPT. 

JACOB'S  MIGBATION  —  EGYPTOLOGERS  —  HEBREW  CHRONOLOGY—  MENES  — 
TIME  OF  ISRAEL'S  SOJOURN  —  THEIR  INCREASE—  HEBREWS  NAMED  ON 
EGYPTIAN  MONUMENTS  —  TOMBS  OF  KINGS  —  SLAVERY  OF  THE  PEOPLE 
-  RAMESES  -  THOTHMES,  THEIR  RELICS  IN  OUR  MUSEUM  —  WHICH  IS 
THE  PHARAOH  OF  THE  EXODUS  ?  —  PHARAOH'S  DAUGHTER  —  MEMPHIS 
—  THEBES  —  KARNAK  -  THREE  PERIODS  OF  EGYPTIAN  ART  —  ZODIAC  OF 
DENDERA  —  PORTICO  OF  ITS  TEMPLE. 


way  that  Ham  appears  to  have  gone  away 
from  the  first  centre  of  Ararat,  to  found  the 
kingdom  of  Mizraim,  upon  the  base  of  his 
mighty  memories  of  an  elder  world,  that  way 
also  went  the  more  blessed  children  of  Shem. 
Jacob  —  his  sons  and  his  grandsons,  threescore 
and  six  (Joseph's  family,  already  in  Egypt,  completing 
the  number  of  seventy  souls,  Gen.  xlvi.  27;  or  seventy- 
five  according  to  Acts  vii.  14)  —  Jacob  went  down  at  the 
invitation  of  his  darling  and  prospered  son,  and  the 
Lord  appearing  to  him  again  at  Beersheba,  had  bidden 
him  not  fear  to  take  the  journey  ;  had  promised  there  to 
make  of  him  a  great  nation  ;  had  even  said,  "  I  will  go 
down  with  thee  into  Egypt,  and  I  will  also  surely  bring 
thee  up  again."  The  idea  of  the  nation  is  then  dropped, 
and  it  is  said,  "  And  Joseph  shall  put  his  hand  upon 
thine  eyes." 

In  following  out  the  history  of  Shechem  —  as  it  led 
us  on  to  the  rise  and  fall  of  the  house  of  Joseph,  the 
kingdom  of  Israel  —  we  passed  by  the  parenthesis  of 


94  MINES,   FIEST  KING. 

Egypt  and  the  Exodus :  but  as  manhood  retraces  child- 
hood, we  must  now  not  forget  the  house  of  bondage  in 
which  "  the  People "  began  their  education,  and  where 
"  the  more  they  were  afflicted  the  more  they  grew." 
The  science  of  Egyptology  has  not  made  the  advances 
that  it  might  have  done,  if  the  fine  minds  that  have 
devoted  themselves  to  the  subject  had  kept  to  the 
Scripture  chronology.  Have  not  ten  years'  labour  been 
lost  amid  the  mists  and  myths  of  Bunsen's  theory  of 
10,000  years  between  the  Flood  and  the  birth  of  Christ  ? 
and  are  we  not  obliged  to  come  back  to  the  fact  that 
nothing  in  true  history,  or  on  the  monuments,  either 
of  Egypt,  Babylon,  or  China,  is  found  to  contradict  after 
all  the  chronology  of  the  Hebrew  Bible  ?  No  monu- 
ment, according  to  Champollion,  was  really  older  than 
2200  before  our  era. 

The  records  of  Herodotus,  Diodorus  Siculus,  and 
Josepbus ;  the  lists  of  Manetho,  and  the  canon  of  Era- 
tosthenes, give  the  name  of  MENES,  or  Mizraim,  as  the 
first  man  who  reigned  in  Egypt  (much  the  same  sort  of 
reign  probably  as  his  nephew  Nimrod's,  in  Chaldea) . 

The  name  of  Menes  is  also  found  in  hieratic  characters 
inscribed  in  the  TUEIN  PAPYRUS,  brought  from  Thebes 
by  Drovetti,  and  supposed  to  have  been  written  in  the 
thirteenth  century  B.C.  On  the  shattered  but  precious 
TABLET  OF  ABYDOS  in  the  British  Museum,  Eameses  the 
Great  is  depicted  as  adoring  the  cartouches  of  twenty  or 
more  of  his  ancestors.  A  second  priceless  tablet  of 
Abydos  has  just  been  discovered  (1864)  in  the  same 
temple  in  Upper  Egypt,  with  a  far  more  perfect  list  of 
Pharaohs,  seventy-six  in  number,  beginning  with  Menes, 
and  coming  down  to  Sethos,  the  father  of  Rameses. 

In  the  Book  of  Exodus,  xii.  40,  it  is  said  that  "  the 
sojourning  of  the  children  of  Israel  who  dwelt  in  Egypt 
was  430  years."  That  this  430  years  comprises  the 


POPULATION.  95 

whole  period  from  the  call  of  Abraham  to  the  Exodus,  we 
learn  from  St.  Paul's  comment,  in  his  Epistle  to  the 
Galatians  (iii.  16,  17),  who  shows  that  this  date  extends 
from  the  covenant  of  promise  to  the  giving  of  the  Law. 

In  the  MSS.  of  the  Samaritan  Pentateuch  (referred 
to  in  the  last  Chapter)  the  passage  reads :  "  Now  the 
sojourning  of  the  children  of  Israel,  and  of  their  fathers 
which  they  sojourned  in  the  land  of  Canaan  and  in  the 
land  of  Egypt,  was  430  years."  In  the  best  copies  of 
the  Codex  Alexandrinus  in  the  British  Museum  (the 
Greek  version  from  which  our  Lord  and  His  apostles 
often  quoted)  the  statement  is  the  same. 

Now  in  Egypt,  it  is  calculated  by  those  who  have 
devoted  their  attention  to  such  statistics,  that  the  chil- 
dren of  Israel  may  have  doubled  their  numbers  during 
every  fifteen  years  of  their  stay.  "  According  to  a  table 
of  Euler,  indeed,"  says  Malthus,  "  the  period  of  doub- 
ling need  be  only  124  years  ;  this  proportion,"  he  adds, 
"has  actually  occurred  for  short  periods."  There  is, 
therefore,  no  difficulty,  according  to  high  authority,  in 
concluding  that  the  seventy  souls  who  went  down  into 
Egypt,  had  increased  during  their  215  years' sojourn  to 
upwards  of  two  millions — their  probable  number,  in- 
cluding their  women  and  children,  when  they  came  up 
out  of  the  land  of  bondage. 

But  is  there  any  satisfactory  evidence  from  the  monu- 
ments of  Egypt  of  the  existence  of  the  Israelites  at  the 
period  when  Scripture  chronology  supposes  them  to  have 
been  there,  between  B.C.  1706  and  B.C.  1491  ? 

The  mention  of  the  Hebrews  is  extremely  rare  in 
Egyptian  history,  although  the  greater  part  of  the  hie- 
ratic papyri  have  been  written  at  an  epoch  very  near 
that  of  the  Exodus. 

"All  the  most  recent  information,"  says  M.  Chabas, 


96  HEBREWS   DT   EGYPT. 

a  member  of  the  Egyptian  Institute,  and  a  good  modern 
authority  on  the  subject,  "  leads  us  to  the  conclusion  that 
the  prodigious  increase  of  the  Hebrew  nation,  their 
afflictions,  and  their  deliverance,  took  place  under  the 
Rameses  dynasty/'* 

We  need  not  expect  to  find  the  word  IsRAEit  in  the 
Egyptian  papyri — that  would  probably  be  a  name  used 
by  the  people  in  speaking  of  themselves,  as  GOD'S 
name  for  them ;  but  they  were  long  known  to  foreigners 
only  as  THE  HEBREWS.  Joseph  is  spoken  of  as  a  Hebrew, 
Gen.  xxxix.;  the  nation  as  O^"a37,  Hebrews,  in  Pharaoh's 
order,  Exod.  i.  They  were  not  known  as  Jehudim  (Jews) 
until  after  the  schism  of  Jeroboam. 

We  are  also  acquainted  from  Scripture  with  the 
nature  of  the  employment  of  the  Hebrews  in  Egypt — 
they  "  built  treasure  cities."  The  Egyptians  made  it  a 
merit  with  their  gods  that  they  had  caused  many  of  their 
captives  to  build  temples  or  palaces  in  their  honour. 

Two  documents  exist  in  the  Museum  of  LeydenJ 
%  *  which  speak  of  a 

l\  V^l  *  H^  stranger  race  inEgypt 
*  '  '  *  *  *  occupied  in  works 

APERI-U.  f  ,          ,•  j 

or  construction,    and 

these  records  date  from  the  Eeign  of  Rameses  II. 
Of  this  hieroglyphic  group,  which  reads  APERI-U,  it 
may  be  said  that  it  is  the  correct  transcription  of  the 
Hebrew  D"n2p,  HEBERIM. 

"  Well  constituted  rules  of  philology  permit  us  to 
identify  the  name  of  the  Hebrews  with  this  ethnic  de- 
nomination, 'APERI-U  ,'"  says  M.  Chabas  ;  P  with  the 
Egyptians  being  near  neighbour  to  B.  This  race  are 
said  in  the  hieroglyphics  to  have  been  charged  with 

*  Chabas  Melanges,  8vo,  1862,  p.  47. 

t  Gesenius  interprets  "  Israel "  as  "  soldier  of  God." 

J  Hieratic  Papyri,  Nos.  3i8,  349. 


T01IBS  OF  KINGS.  97 

the  transport  of  stones;  and  we,  who  know  the  enor- 
mous blocks  which  were  used  by  the  Egyptian  builders, 
may  well  conceive  what  must  have  been  the  crushing 
labour  of  those  who  had  to  convey  such  masses  to  the 
points  of  their  erection. 

The  same  name,  APERIU,  is  on  a  tablet  at  El  Ham- 
mamat.     On  this  they  are  called — 
"APERIU  EN  NE  PETU  ANTT,"   or,   "THE  FOREIGN  APERIU 
OP  PETU  ANTI." 

This  tablet  is  dated  some  years  after  the  Exodus. 
It  also  throws  light  on  the  longing  of  the  people  for  fish 
in  the  desert,  as  it  records  that  two  hundred  fishermen 
were  attached  to  an  industrial  colony,  of  which  the 
"  APERI  u "  formed  a  section,  to  the  number  of  eight 
hundred. 

There  is  also  an  allusion  to  their  building  for  Ra- 
ineses  a  temple  to  the  god  of  the  place,  to  which  were 
attached  gardens  of  flowers,  and  which  had  abundant 
provision  of  wine,  fish,  flesh,  and  fowl ;  all  manner  of 
luxuries  being  there  enjoyed. 

The  same  authority  suggests  that  the  name  of  Patum, 
found  in  this  connection  in  the  hieroglyphics,  is  pro- 
bably the  same  as  that  of  the  city  Pithom  in  the 
Scripture. 

TOMBS  OF  ZINGS. 

"  Nothing  that  can  be  written  or  told,  prepares  the 
traveller  for  the  awful  grandeur  which  he  finds  in  the 
tombs  of  the  Theban  kings.  Sculptured  portals  hewn 
in  the  face  of  a  wild  limestone  cliff,  lead  each  into  a 
gallery  opening  into  successive  halls,  rock-hewn  and 
painted  like  palaces.  Here  lie  all  the  kings  in  glory, 
'  every  one  in  his  own  house  '  (Isa.  xiv.  18)."  "  Every 
Egyptian  king  seems  to  have  begun  his  reign  by  pre- 
paring his  sepulchre,"  says  Stanley.  "  The  length  of  the 


98  TOMBS   OF   THEBAN   KINGS. 

reign  can  be  traced  by  the  extent  of  the  chambers,  or 
the  completeness  of  their  finish.  In  one  or  two  instances 
the  king  had  died  and  the  grave  closed  over  his  imper- 
fect work.  At  the  entrance  of  each  tomb  stands  its 
owner  making  offerings  to  the  sun. 

"  Only  a  small  portion  of  the  mythological  pictures  on 
the  walls  of  these  tombs  has  ever  been  represented  in 
engravings,  and  Egypt's  gods  and  genii  must  yet  be 
studied  in  these  caverns,  where  the  colours  are  fresh  as 
when  first  painted  on  the  stucco.  The  eye  becomes  in- 
volved in  endless  processions  of  jackal-headed  divinities, 
mummies,  and  serpents,  meandering  above,  below,  and 
around,  white  and  black,  and  red  and  blue,  legs  and 
arms  and  wings  spreading  in  enormous  forms  at  last 
over  the  ceiling,  beneath  which  lies  the  granite  sarco- 
phagus, and  within  that  the  coffin  of  the  king." 

According  even  to  the  short  chronology,  the  Egyp- 
tians had  been  a  settled  nation  for  more  than  600  years 
from  the  time  of  the  Flood,*  before  the  entrance  of  the 
Israelites  into  Goshen;  and  added  to  this,  they  may 
have  begun  their  history,  says  Dr.  Bonar,  as  heirs  to  the 
wisdom  and  science  of  the  antediluvians,  rising  up  at  once 
a  full  grown  nation,  who  had  preserved  the  discoveries  of 
an  elder  world.  If  population  with  them  were  doubled 
every  fifteen  years,  five  or  six  millions  had  by  that  time 
peopled  the  valley  of  the  Nile,  and  lived' and  died  under 
Hamite  influence,  desiring,  as  at  Babylon,  to  make  them- 
selves a  name.  Hence  as  early  as  the  Fourth  dynasty 
they  seem  to  have  built  the  largest  pyramids,  carving 
their  tombs  in  the  quarries  whence  the  stone  was  taken. 

Notwithstanding  all  the  relics  that  are  left  to  us  of 
Egypt,  the  first  800  years  after  the  Flood  belong  to  an 
obscure  age,  for  which  there  is  very  little  monumental 
*  See  Table,  p.  161. 


SEHVICE   OP   ISRAEL.  99 

evidence.  Manetho's  history  itself  has  perished,  and  we 
only  possess  some  fragments  of  it  as  preserved  by  Syn- 
cellus.  In  the  sandhills  of  Memphis  there  may  be 
many  more  records,  but  we  are  obliged  to  turn  to  the 
Bible  for  all  that  is  definitely  known. 

The  prophet  Isaiah,  writing  800  years  after  the 
Exodus  of  Israel,  puts  this  song  into  the  mouth  of 
Judah : — 

"  0  Lord  our  God,  lords  beside  Thee  have  had  dominion  over  us 
[and  this  must  have  especially  included  Egypt]. 

"  Dead  they  shall  not  live;  deceased  they  shall  not  rise:  therefore 
hast  Thou  visited  and  destroyed  them,  and  made  all  their  memory  to 
perish" — ISA.  xxvi.  13,  14. 

The  Book  of  Exodus  opens  with  one  striking  fact — 
the  confession  of  a  new  king,  who  must  have  been  a 
Rameses,  and  whose  first  observation  when  he  came  to 
the  throne  is  recorded  :  "  Behold  .the  children  of  Israel 
are  more  and  mightier  than  we."  He  then  appears  to 
have  had  sufficient  power  to  "set  over  them  task- 
masters," and  make  their  lives  bitter  with  hard  bondage. 
In  mortar  and  in  brick,  and  in  all  manner  of  service  in 
the  field  they  were  made  to  serve  with  rigour,  and  yet 
still  "  the  people  multiplied  and  waxed  very  mighty  " 
(Exod.  i.) 

In  Egypt  the  royal  majesty  is  always  represented 
by  making  the  king,  not  like  Saul  or  Agamemnon, 
"  from  the  head  and  shoulders,"  but  from  the  foot  and 
ankle  upwards,  higher  than  the  rest  of  the  people. 

"  What  the  towers  of  a  cathedral  are  to  its  nave  and 
choir,"  says  Stanley,  "  that  the  statues  of  the  Pharaohs 
were  to  the  streets  and  temples  of  Thebes.  There  were 
avenues  of  them  towering  high  above  plain  and  houses ; 
three  of  gigantic  size  still  remain.  One  was  the  granite 
statue  of  Rameses  himself,  who  sat  on  the  right  side 


STATUES   OP   EAMESES. 

of  tlic  entrance  to  his  palace.  It  has  been  cast  down, 
and  the  Arabs  have  now  scooped  their  mill-stones  out  of 
his  face,  but  you  can  still  discern  what  he  was,  the  largest 
statue  in  the  world.  Far  and  wide  must  have  been  seen 
his  enormous  head  and  his  vast  hands  resting  on  his 
elephantine  knees.  Reposing  after  his  conquest  in 
awful  majesty,  the  Osiride  statues  which  support  the 
portico  of  the  temple  seem  pigmies  before  him.  '  Son 
of  man,  speak  unto  Pharaoh  king  of  Egypt/  says  the 
Lord  by  Ezekiel  (xxxi.  2),  '  Whom  art  thou  like  in  thy 
greatness  ?'  Upon  these  words  the  vast  statues  are  a 
wonderful  comment.  And  if  thus  Rameses  sat  before 
Thebes,  so  he  did  before  the  more  ancient  Memphis,  and 
now  near  that  city,  deep  in  a  forest  of  palms,  in  a  little 
pool  of  water  left  by  the  inundations  which  year  by  year 
always  cover  the  spot,  lies  a  gigantic  trunk  back  up- 
wards. The  name  of.  Rameses  is  on  the  belt,  the  face 
is  visible  in  profile  and  quite  perfect,  the  same  as  at 
Ibsambul.  There,  too,  you  sit  on  the  sand  and  look  up 
at  the  great  Rameses,  sculptured  out  of  the  bowels  of  a 
hill  in  Nubia,  and  his  features,  magnified  ten  fold, 
ear,  mouth,  and  nose,  every  link  of  his  collar,  and  every 
line  of  his  skin  sinks  into  you  with  the  weight  of  a 
mountain." 

"And  at  Ibsambul,  there  was  not  one  Rameses,  but 
four,  yet  only  one  sits  unbroken,  revealed  from  his 
royal  helmet  to  the  toe  of  his  enormous  foot ;  the  faces 
of  the  two  more  northern  figures  emerge  from  the 
sand,  which  reaches  up  to  their  throats ;  and  on  that 
which  is  shattered  from  the  legs  upwards  there  are  in- 
scriptions of  the  very  earliest  Greek  adventurers  who 
penetrated  into  Asia.  The  most  curious  has  been  again 
buried  by  the  sand.  It  is  the  oldest  Greek  inscription 
in  the  world,  made  by  a  Greek  soldier,  who  came  here 


RELICS   IN    OUE   MUSEUM.  101 

to  pursue  some  deserters  in  the  last  days  of  the  Egyp- 
tian monarchy."* 

If  we  cannot  go  to  Egypt  to  realize  Rameses,  TUB 
STONES  OF  EGYPT  have  been  brought  to  us.  The  visitor 
to  our  Crystal  Palace,  at  Sydenham,  may  see  the 
statues  of  Nubia,  reproduced,  life-size,  looking  down  upon 
their  companions  the  Sphinxes  crouching  among  the 
palm  leaves,  with  a  mysterious  meaning  in  their  faces 
unread  by  a  modern  world ;  and  still  more  touching  to 
the  reader  of  Egyptian  history,  and  to  every  mind  that 
has  explored  ah1  that  is  said  about  EGYPT  in  the  Bible 
— still  more  impressive  is  it  to  walk  down  the  gallery 
of  Egyptian  Antiquities  in  the  British  Museum.,  to  mark 
the  Rosetta  Stone, 
whose  inscription, 
in  three  languages, 
gives  a  wondrous 
key  to  the  dark  say- 
ings on  the  monu- 
ments —  and  there 
also  to  find  the 
scattered  members 
of  the  colossal  gran- 
ite forms  of  Rameses 
or  Thothmes — both 
the  Pharaohs  of 
Scripture — the  en- 
ormous foot,  the 
gigantic  fist,  the 
haughty  and  hel- 

meted   head.      Here  IHK  BOSBTTA  STOHB. 

are  the  stones  which  Israel  may  have  seen  in  Egypt  ero 
they  were  cast  down — but  now,  behold  the  "  high  arm 

*  "  Sinai  and  Palestine ;"  Introduction. 


102  PHARAOH  OF  THE  EXODUS. 

of  the  wicked  \"  "  it  is  broken/'  as  Job  said,  (xxxviii. 
15).  The  giant  arm  and  hand  in  red  granite  is  a 
mute  comment  on  the  following  words  : — • 

"Thus  saith  the  Lord  God:  I  have  broken  the  arm  of  Pharaoh, 
king  of  Egypt,  and  lo,  it  shall  not  be  bound  up  to  be  healed.  .  .  . 
.  .  And  I  will  scatter  the  Egyptians  among  the  nations,  and  disperse 
them  through  the  countries,  ....  and  they  shall  know  that  I 
am  the  Lord."— EZEK.  sxx.  21,  23,  26. 

Rameses  was  a  family  name  like  Pharaoh,  borne  by 
many  kings  in  the  Twentieth  dynasty,  and  by  at  least  two 
in  the  Nineteenth.     While  it  is  not  easy,  amid  contesting 
theories,  to  fix  their  distinctive  dates,  and  these  are,  as  it 
were,    "blotted   out," — the   names  of  two  women  are 
recorded  for  ever  in  the  Bible,  Shiphrah  and  Puah,  who 
feared  God,  and  risked  their  own  safety  in  the  days  of  per- 
secution, saving  alive  the  infants  of  the  Hebrews  whom 
they  were  called  to  destroy*     The  last  king  of  the  Nine- 
teenth dynasty,  Si  Ptah  Menephtha,  "the  light  of  the 
sun,"  was  not  buried  in  his  own  tomb,  and  lie  may  have 
been  the  Pharaoh  who  perished  in  the  Red  Sea.    Others 
say  that  THOTHMES  II.  must  have  been  this  Pharaoh,  and 
that  two    astronomical   notes    of  time   are   extant   on 
contemporary   monuments   of  Thothmes   III.  his  suc- 
cessor,  which   may    be    combined   with   an   incidental 
mention  by  the  king  himself  in  his  annals — first  trans- 
lated by  Mr.  Birch — of  the  day  of  his  coming  to  the 
throne.     It  is  supposed  necessarily  to  result  that  his 
accession,  and  consequently  the  death  of  his   brother 
and  immediate  predecessor,  Thothmes  II.,  took  place 
on  the  Egyptian  day  answering  to  May  4-5,  B.C.  1515. 
It  is  added  that,   "  as  astronomically  verified,  this  day 
was  the  twelfth  of  the  second  spring  moon,  the  Hebrew 
'  second  month/  " 


PHARAOH'S  DAUGHTZB.  103 

On  a  comparison  of  Numb,  xxxiii.  (the  inspired 
itinerary  of  the  wilderness  journeys  of  Israel)  with 
Exod.  xvi.  1,  we  see  that  just  a  month  had  intervened 
between  the  Exodus  and  their  coming  into  the  wilder- 
ness of  Sin,  during  which  month  would  have  taken 
place  the  overthrow  of  one  Pharaoh  and  the  accession  of 
another. 

Those  who  wish  further  to  study  this  subject  can 
refer  to  an  interesting  article  on  chronology  in  Cassell's 
Bible  Dictionary,  part  ix.  The  date  just  given,  B.C. 
1515,  comes  within  2i  years  of  the  Usher  date  of  the 
Exodus,  B.C.  1491.  We  must  leave  the  subject  to  the  con- 
sideration of  our  readers.  Of  that  mighty  event,  Manetho, 
the  Egyptian  historian,  only  makes  fabulous  mention  as 
"the  extrusion  of  Moses  with  a  horde  of  Jewish  lepers 
and  robbers  •"  and  the  vanquished  of  the  Lord,  might 
very  probably  hide  their  pride  and  shame  by  some  kind 
of  mystification  on  the  monuments  of  the  actual  year  of 
the  occurrence : — 

"Thou  hast  made  all  their  memory  to  perish." 

PHARAOH'S  DAUGHTEE. 

An  early  queen  of  the  Eighteenth  dynasty,  whose 
name,  Termuthis,  is  read  in  hieroglyphics  as  Hatasu,  and 
sometimes  as  Amoun-khnumt — "  devoted  to  justice " 
— erected  an  obelisk  at  Thebes,  which  is  still  standing, 
while  the  colossus  of  Rameses  lies  low.  On  this  obelisk 
are  inscribed  such  titles  as  "  Lady  of  both  Countries ;" 
"  Great  Royal  Sister ;"  "  PHARAOH'S  DAUGHTER  !"  She 
is  the  one  queen  regent  in  the  lists,  and  had  therefore 
power  to  influence  a  jealous  priesthood  to  initiate  Moses, 
her  supposed  heir,  in  all  the  wisdom  of  Egypt,  where  the 
prince  was  also  the  priest. 


104  MOSES   AND   MEMPHIS. 

MOSES   IN   THE   DESEET. 

From  this  tuition,  however,  Moses  was  withdrawn 
by  the  hand  of  his  Mightiest  Teacher,  when  forty  years 
of  age,  and  sent,  as  we  learn  from  Acts  vii.  30,  for  just 
as  long  a  space  of  time,  to  be  a  stranger  in  the  wilder- 
ness— in  the  simplicity  of  desert  and  shepherd  life,  to 
forget  much  probably,  and  learn  more ;  here  his  mind 
was  enriched  by  meditation,  and  his  soul  fed  in  obscurity 
and  solitude.  It  was  here  that  the  Spirit  of  the  living 
God  instructed  and  prepared  him  to  write  the  Book  of 
Genesis,  from  whose  first  page  a  child  may  learn  more 
in  an  hour  than  all  Egypt's  wise  men  knew  without  it 
by  the  study  of  their  lives.  Perhaps  Moses  possessed 
earlier  documents,  handed  down  through  his  grandfather 
Levi ;  but  whether  he  did  or  not,  the  "  Lord  was  with 
him  "  in  his  task,  and  has  preserved  the  fruit  of  his  in- 
spired labour  to  this  day.  He  wrote  the  only  ancient 
history  we  can  trust,  the  one  by  which  all  others  must 
stand  or  fall. 

MEMPHIS. 

Go  look  at  Memphis,  for  there  the  Pharaohs  lived  at 
the  time  of  the  Exodus.  Its  pyramids  are  the  sepul- 
chres of  the  kings  of  Lower  Egypt,  and  they  are  their 
country's  oldest  monuments ;  the  groups  stood  round 
about  the  city.  Dashur,  Sakara,  Abousir,  and  Ghizeh. 

Moses,  Joseph,  perhaps  Abraham  saw  them.  Job 
had  heard  of  them  (ch.  iii.  14).  In  sand  hills  at  their  feet 
are  the  shaft-like  mummy  pits,  where  the  commonalty 
of  Memphis  were  buried,  and  there  are  long  galleries 
only  recently  discovered,  hewn  in  the  rock,  opening 
every  fifty  yards  into  high  arched  vaults,  under  each  of 
which  reposes  the  most  magnificent  black  marble  sarco- 
phagus, a  chamber  rather  than  a  coffin,  grander  than 


THEBES.  105 

those  of  the  Theban  kings ;  each  the  last  resting  place 
of  the  successive  corpses  of  the  bull  Apis ;  for  the  chil- 
dren of  Ham,  who  once  "  knew  God/'  had  changed  His 
incorruptible  glory  "into  an  image  made  like  to  corrup- 
tible man,  and  to  birds  and  four-footed  beasts,  and 
creeping  things."  Here  they  are !  the  Pharaohs,  the 
Ibises,  the  Bulls,  and  the  Beetles,  left  to  illustrate  the 
first  chapter  of  the  Epistle  of  St.  Paul  to  the  Romans ; 
and  for  the  sins  to  which  God  gave  them  up,  who  served 
the  creature  rather  than  the  Creator,  they  have  yet  to 
enter  into  judgment. 

From  these  "pleasures  of  sin,"  we  are  told,  in  the 
Book  of  Hebrews,  xi.  24,  Moses  was,  by  his  own  choice, 
withdrawn.  He  gave  them  up  with  joy  to  suffer  afflic- 
tion with  "  the  people," — the  people  of  God — "  esteem- 
ing the  reproach  of  Christ  [how  wondrous  an  anachro- 
nism!] greater  riches  than  the  treasures  in  Egypt."  The 
1 '  day "  which  Abraham  saw,  in  vision  of  the  future, 
must  also,  therefore,  have  been  revealed  to  Moses. 

THEBES. 

In  that  long  calm  oasis  of  his  shepherd  life,  how  the 
pictures  of  Egypt  must  have  passed  before  his  memory  ! 
The  land  of  Midian  lay  around  the  eastern  gulf  of  the 
Red  Sea,  and  was  supposed  to  have  been  settled  by  the 
posterity  of  Midian,  fourth  son  of  Abraham  and  Keturah. 
The  solitudes  where  Moses  kept  the  sheep  of  Jethro, 
his  father-in-law,  are  described  by  a  recent  traveller,  as 
seen  from  Mount  Sinai  (so  called),  a  valley,  in  rear  of 
the  mount.  Here  he  remembered,  possibly,  the  statues  of 
Amenophis  III.,  which  abide  on  the  plain  of  Thebes  to 
this  day,  the  only  two  out  of  an  avenue  of  eighteen  like 
them,  whose  remains  strew  the  ground. 

Amenophis  lived  some  reigns  earlier  than  the  first  Ra- 


100 


STATUES   OP   AMENOPHIS   III. 


mcses.  The  statues  and  their  thrones  (not  the  pedestals) 
are  cut  out  of  one  stone ;  they  sit  where  they  were  first 
erected,  and  the  Nile  waters  have  washed  their  feet  for 
three  and  thirtj*  centuries  with  every  year's  inundation. 


BT1TUBS   Of   AMENOJHI3  IIT. 


At  other  seasons  they  rise  from  the  green  plain,  and  the 
African  sky  glows  red  behind  them.  They  are  sixty 
feet  high ;  their  faces  are  fearfully  mutilated.  They  too 
are  the  STONES  OP  EGYPT — symbols  of  her  desolation. 

KARNAK. 

And  Moses  knew  also  the  pillars  of  Karnak.  Some 
of  its  ancient  temples  were  founded  by  Amenophis. 
In  IJhe  long  defile  of  these  ruins,  every  age  is  said  to 
have  borne  its  part,  from  the  time  of  Joseph  to  the 
Christian  era. 

The  present  Egyptian  government,  has  begun  to 
clear  away  the  vast  masses  of  earth  and  sand,  which  have 


PILLARS    OP   KAENAK. 

half  buried  them  for  centuries.  We  shall  thus  be  able  to 
peruse  the  old  stone  books  which  Egypt  renders  up  as 
witnesses  to  Moses.  The  Sculptures  of  the  Era  of 
Moses,  are  far  more  truthful  and  delicate  than  those  of 
the  time  of  the  Ptolemies.  The  elegant  columns  still 


gleam  with  fragments  of  colour ;  Eehoboam  the  captive 
Judah  Melek  (or  king),  as  deciphered  by  Champollion, 
offers  direct  testimony  to  the  victories  of  Shishak 
(Sheshonk),  1.  Kings,  xiv.  25. 

Even  in  our  small  representation,  borrowed,  with  the 


108  JEWISH   CAPTIVES. 

preceding  one,  by  permission,  from  Mr.  Roberts'  beau- 
tiful illustrations  of  the  "  City  of  the  Hundred  Gates," 
the  colossal  Pharaoh  may  be  discerned  making  offerings, 
and  on  the  dilapidated  remains  of  a  palace  at  Karnak 
there  is  a  hieroglyphic  account  of  the  deity  Amen-Ea 
addressing  Amenophis,  in  which  mention  is  made  of  a 
shepherd  race,  whom  he  promises  to  restrain  within 
their  own  territories ;  this  probably  refers  to  the  Jews 
and  the  land  of  Goshen.  At  Gournou,  near  Thebes, 
there  is  a  tomb  on  which  the  hieroglyphics  read  :  "  The 
reception  of  the  tribute  of  the  land  brought  to  the  king 
by  the  captives  in  person." 

The  races  of  prisoners  are  represented  as  engaged  in 
the  occupation  of  making  bricks,  and  are  carefully 
watched  by  Egyptian  taskmasters,  one  of  the  captives 
belongs  to  Lower  Egypt,  whose  people  are  distinguished 
by  their  red  complexion ;  the  other,  of  a  different  colour 
and  cast  of  features,  seems  to  be  Jewish. 

On  this  tomb  of  Rekshare,  near  Thebes,  a  degra- 
ded race  is  everywhere  figured,  performing  acts  of 
drudgery,  in  torn  and  patched  garments.  The  state- 
ment of  Scripture  concerning  their  being  obliged  to 
gather  straw  for  themselves  to  complete  their  tale  of 
bricks,  is  corroborated  by  Rosellini,  who  remarks  that 
the  bricks  now  found  in  Egypt  belonging  to  the  period 
of  one  particular  Pharaoh,  have  always  straw  mingled 
with  them,  although  in  those  most  carefully  made  it 
is  found  in  small  quantities. 

These  bricks,  mixed  with  straw,  are  to  be  seen  in 
the  room  with  the  mummies,  at  the  British  Museum. 

In  the  architecture  of  Egypt  there  appear  to  be  three 
distinct  epochs.  Very  fine  specimens  of  the  earliest  are 
seen  in  the  temples  and  palaces  of  Karnak,  and  Luxor, 
and  at  Ibsambul,  and  these  are  coeval  with  the  Hebrews. 

The  temples  of  Edfou  and  Dakhe  belong  to  the  second 


THREE    EGYPTIAN   EPOCHS. 


109 


epoch  of  Egyptian  art,  and  on  these  the  alphabet  of 
phonetic  hieroglyphs  enables  us  to  read  the  names  of 
Grasco-Egyptian  Kings  and  Queens.  They  belong  to 
the  times  of  the  Ptolemies. 

The  temple  of  Dendera  or  Tentyra  is  the  third  and 
most  recent,  and  in  this  last  period  the  legends  of  the 
Roman  Emperors  are  inscribed,  from  Augustus  down  to 
Antoninus  Pius.  Most  people  have  heard  of  the  Zodiac 
of  Dendera,  which  Dupuis  declared,  and  even  Burck- 
hardt  supposed,  to  be  so  many  thousand  years  older 
than  the  chronology  ot  Scripture  allows.  It  was  a 
large  black  stone  in  the  ceiling  of  the  temple,  and  is  now 
in  Paris,  secured  by  the  vain  enterprise  of  savans,  who 


POBTICO   OP  THB   TEMPLB   OP   DKXDEEA, 


slept  within  the  precincts  that  they  might  carry  it  away  ; 
but  when  obtained,  so  far  from  proving  tobe  of  the  extreme 
antiquity  that  had  been  supposed,  Champollion  read  upon 
it  the  names  of  Augustus,  Tiberius,  Claudius,  Nero,  and 
Domitian.  The  principles  on  which  this  and  other 


110  MORNING   IN   THE    DESERTS. 

Egyptian  Zodiacs  were  formed  seem  to  have  been  astro- 
logical rather  than  astronomical. 

The  beautiful  sketch,  over  leaf,  after  Boberts,  is 
inserted  chiefly  to  point  attention  to  the  orb  and  wings, 
which  are  so  well  known  on  all  Egyptian  sculptures,  and 
which  are  the  symbol  of  the  early  worship  of  the  sun, 
as  we  shall  have  occasion  to  refer  to  a  similar  form  on 
the  Assyrian  and  Persian  monuments. 

"  Through  the  night  the  dews  fall  heavily,"  writes 
Lieut.  Burton  in  his  African  travels,  "  the  moon  shines 
bright,  the  breeze  blows  cool,  the  jackal  sings  lullaby, 
till  the  '  wolfs  tail '  appears  in  the  heavens  (the  Persian 
name  for  the  first  brushes  of  gray  light,  which  are  the 
forerunners  of  the  dawn)  ;  then  a  mist  floats  along  the 
horizon,  beautifying  the  haggard  land — its  flayed  rocks 
and  skeletons  of  mountains;  and  the  sun  at  once 
appears,  rejoicing  '  as  a  strong  man  to  run  a  race.' " 
This  is  morning  in  the  deserts,  as  the  quiet  dwellers  in 
English  homes  never  see  it;  and  the  first  idolaters  in 
Egypt  worshipped  their  sun/  and  named  their  kings 
from  him  ;  but;  we  would  rather  take  it  for  a  sign  of  the 
spiritual  morning  which  is  now  dawning  on  the  darkness 
of  Africa.  The  Holy  Scriptures  are  taking  flight  even 
into  her  deserts,  hitherto  in  small  portions,  and  by  slow 
degrees.  Three  translations  of  the  Bible,  NOT  AFRICAN, 
have  during  the  last  century  exercised  a  silent  individual 
influence  there,  which  the  future  may  bring  clearly  to 
light;  the  ARABIC,  the  ENGLISH,  and  the  DUTCH.  And 
now  to  these  are  added  the  AMHARIC  for  Abyssinia, 
with  the  KAFFIR,  the  SECHUANA,  and  other  dialects,  for 
the  millions  of  the  Southern  part  of  the  continent. 

We  must  pay  our  awful  debt  to  Africa  in  the 
"Pearl  of  Great  Price."  The  Sun  of  Righteousness 
may  dawn  in  sudden  power  over  her  long  gloomy  skies, 
as  does  her  sun  in  the  heavens. 


JOB  AND   HIS  EfiA.  Ill 


CHAPTER  Y. 

JOB    AND  HIS  ERA. 

JOB'S      CHARACTER — HIS      ERA — THE      MINGLED      PEOPLE— GENUINE       AND 

ADOPTED   ARABS— JOB'S   DESCENT,    THE    BLESSING    OF     ISHMAEL JOB'S 

AGE  — ABOVE  AND  BELOW — EARLY  CULTIVATION  OP  ARABIA — GOD*S 
JUDGMENT  CONCERNING  JOB — HIS  REVELATION  TO  THE  PATRIARCH — 
LANGUAGE  OF  BOOK  OF  JOB — ETHIOPIA — LENGTH  OF  PATRIARCHAL 
PERIOD— RELIGION  AND  MORALS  OF  TIMES  OF  JOB— STUDY  OF  THE 
CHAKACTER  OF  THE  PATKIAKCHS — "WAS  JOB  A  DESCENDANT  OF  JACOB 
OK  USAU  ? 

yf^pVETERE  was  one  servant  of  God  in  the  Patriarchal 
|  times  of  whom  the  Omniscient  said  Himself — 
"  There  is  none  like  him  in  the  earth,  a  perfect 
and  an  upright  man:  one  that  feareth  God 
and  escheweth  evil."  His  character  seems  to 
have  been  given  to  Moses  as  a  study  for  the 
years  of  his  wilderness  training.  He  was  a  king  of 
men  among  the  Arabian  races,  towering  mentally,  at 
least,  over  them  all;  taught  of  God  himself  in  all 
the  knowledge  of  the  Patriarchal  era.  Placed  as  his 
biography  is  in  the  midst  of  our  Bibles,  (though  it 
stands  first  in  many  ancient  Syriac  copies  of  the  Old 
Testament,)  it  is  difficult  to  realize  that  all  that  JOB 
knew  must  have  been  treasured  in  the  patriarchal  families 
of  ARABIA  in  his  time.  There  are  many  reasons  for  sup- 
posing that  after  the  days  of  Peleg  and  the  division  of 
the  earth  then  recorded,  Southern  Arabia  was  the  chosen 
retreat  of  the  Patriarch  HEBER,  and  even  of  his  great 
great  grandfather  NOAH.  Of  this  we  have  some  further 
traces  to  notice.  Job  may  be  enthroned  in  our  memories 
as  the  grand  living  representative  of  the  early  Arabians. 


1J2  THE  MINGLED  PEOPLE. 

God  has  left  Himself  three  or  four  LIVING  MONUMENTS 
upon  the  earth  to  the  truth  of  the  written  Revelation 
in  PEOPLES  that  endure  to  this  day — the  Jews,  the 
Samaritans,  the  Arabs,  and  the  Gipsies,  with  their 
changeless  habits  and  Eastern  credentials;  and  the 
Bible  best  helps  us  to  unravel  their  origin. 

The  early  Arabian  religion,  judging  by  the  book  of 
Job,  seems  in  no  respect  to  have  differed  from  that  of 
Abraham,  only  we  do  not  there  find  proof  that  the  Arabians 
were  acquainted  with  the  "  call "  of  the  Father  of  the 
Faithful,  or  revelations  made  to  him  after  he  came  to 
Canaan ;  and  if  we  are  right  in  our  discernment  of  which 
Job  or  Jobab,  in  the  Scripture  genealogies,  is  presented 
to  us  in  the  Book  of  Job,  this  noblest  descendant  of 
Ishmael  was  not  born  till  some  twenty  years  after  the 
death  of  his  celebrated  ancestor,  the  son  of  Hagar  and  of 
Abraham.  (See  table,  p.  161 .) 

THE    MINGLED   PEOPLE. 

"  The  mingled  people  that  dwell  in  the  desert"  may 
well  describe  the  mixed  races  of  Arabia.  The  Arabians, 
by  their  own  writers,  are  divided  into  two  classes — the 
"  genuine"  and  the  "  adopted"  Arabs.  The  genuine 
Arab-el- Arabi  trace  their  descent  to  Joktan,  whom  they 
call  Kahtan,  Joktan  having  thirteen  sons  (Gen.  x.), 
many  of  whose  names  are  still  preserved  in  those  of 
existing  Arab  tribes.  Their  settlements  are  mentioned 
in  the  Bible,  and  the  last  one  named  is  a  Jobab. 

"  And  Joktan  begat  Almodad,  and  Sheleph,  and  Hazarmaveth,  and 
Jerah. 

"  And  Hadoram,  and  Uzal,  and  Diklah. 

"  And  Obal,  and  Abimael,  and  Sheba. 

"  And  Ophir,  and  Havilah,  and  Jobab :  all  these  were  the  sons  of 
Joktan. 

"  Their  dwelling  was  from  Mesha  aa  thou  goest  unto  Sephar,  a  mount 
of  the  East." — Q-EK.  x.  26-30. 


TOE   MINGLED   PEOPLE.  113 

The  location  of  Mesha  is  still  uncertain,  but  Sephar 
is  well  established  as  being  the  same  as  Zafari,  or  Isfor, 
or  Dhafor,  the  sea-port  town  on  the  east  of  the  modern 
Yemen,  which  is  the  south-western  corner  of  the  penin- 
sula of  Arabia.  Yemen  extends  two  or  three  hundred 
miles  along  the  shore  of  the  Indian  Ocean. 

But  the  Arab  writers  refer  to  the  adopted  as  well  as 
to  the  genuine  Arabs ;  and  the  former  have  Ishmael  and 
(as  we  have  seen)  Esau  for  their  progenitors ;  and  besides 
these  there  are  the  children  of  Abraham  by  Keturah,  his 
last  wife.  Keturah  had  six  sons,  and  one  of  these  was 
Midian.  We  are  told  that  Abraham  sent  them  away 
from  Isaac,  his  son,  while  he  yet  lived,  "  eastward  into 
the  east  country" — i.  e.,  into  the  countries  lying  imme- 
diately eastward  of  Palestine — viz.,  Arabia,  Mesopo- 
tamia, and  Babylonia. 

The  descendants  of  these  "  mingled  people"  to  this 
day  inhabit  Arabia,  that  singular  peninsula  which  has  been 
called  "  the  Minor  Africa,"  whose  plateau  of  central  table 
land  terminates  on  the  north-west  in  the  hills  of  Sinai,  and 
on  the  north-east  slopes  down  into  the  deserts  of  Syria. 

The  northern  portion,  Arabia  Deserta,  is  the 
"  parched  ground"  of  Isa.  xxxv.  7,  stretching  far  and 
wide  under  a  burning  cloudless  sky>  and  for  a  portion 
of  the  year  untempered  by  showers  and  almost  destitute 
of  springs,  where  the  winds  raise  intolerable  clouds  of 
fine  dust.  There  is  not  a  single  navigable  river  in  all 
Arabia,  indeed  very  few  streams  find  their  way  to  the 
sea.  The  country  is  watered,  if  at  all,  by  wadis — i.  e.} 
channels  of  land  depressed  a  few  feet  below  the  sur- 
rounding level,  down  which,  in  the  rainy  season,  run 
rills  or  brooks,  which  are  so  picturesquely  used  by  Job 
as  an  image  of  the  pity  he  expected  from  his  friends 
(Job  vi.  14 — 20)  and  found  not. 

I 


114  EL  HEDJA  AND  THE  NEJD. 

"My  brethren  hare  dealt  deceitfully  as  a  brook,  and  as  the  stream  of 
brooks  they  pass  away.  .  .  .  What  time  they  wax  warm  they  vanish, 
when  it  is  hot  they  are  consumed  out  of  their  place.  .  .  .  They  go 
to  nothing  and  perish." 

Hadramaut  is  on  the  southern  coast  of  Arabia ;  it  is 
considered  to  be  named  from  Hazarmaveth,  one  of  the 
sons  of  Joktan,  Gen.  x.  26.  It  is  situated  to  the  east 
of  Yemen  "  the  happy/'  and  its  coast  stretches  some 
six  or  seven  hundred  miles  onward  to  that  of  Omar. 

Besides  this  division  of  the  southern  coast  which 
is  the  border  of  the  Indian  Ocean  for  a  thousand  miles, 
there  is  also  El  Hedja,  on  the  shore  of  the  Red  Sea,  more 
famous  in  modern  days  as  the  Holy  Land  of  the  Moham- 
medans, containing  Mecca,  where  their  prophet  was 
born,  and  Medina,  where  he  was  buried.  Neither  must 
we  omit  to  notice  in  the  earliest  records  of  the  empire 
the  NEJD,  or  inland  of  Arabia,  between  Hadramaut  and 
the  Syrian  desert ;  there  was  an  old  civilization  in 
Arabia's  inner  heart,  which  till  recently  has  been  very 
little  suspected. 

In  the  days  of  the  prophet  Jeremiah,  he  took  the  cup 
of  God's  fury  (Jer.  xxv.  15)  and  carried  it,  figuratively, 
by  the  Lord's  will,  when  Nebuchadnezzar  had  conquered 
Jerusalem,  to  Egypt  and  Tyre,  to  Edom,  Moab,  and 
Ammon,  to  the  kings  of  Elam  and  the  Medes,  to  all 
the  kings  of  Arabia,  and  all  the  kings  of  the  mingled 
people  that  dwell  in  the  desert,  Dedan,  and  Tema,  and 
Buz,  and  all  that  dwell  in  the  utmost  corners/5 

But  the  Arabs  still  dwell  in  the  wilderness  of  Paran, 
fulfilling  to  the  letter  the  message  of  the  angel  of  the 
Lord  to  Hagar  concerning  Ishmael :  "  He  will  be  a  wild 
man ;  his  hand  will  be  against  every  man,  and  every 
man's  hand  against  him."  They  abide  in  the  presence 
of  their  brethren — "  a  people,"  says  Gibbon,  "whom  it 
is  dangerous  to  provoke,  and  fruitless  to  attack."  The 


JOB   KING  OP  EDOM.  115 

arras  of  Sesostris  and  Cyrus,  of  Pompey  and  Trajan, 
could  never  achieve  the  conquest  of  Arabia.  Cambyses 
did  not  attack  Egypt  without  the  permission  of  the 
Arabs,  and  Alexander  could  never  subdue  them.  Five 
times  were  the  victorious  legions  of  Borne  arrayed 
against  them,  and  five  times  compelled  to  retreat.  As 
fierce  as  they  are  free,  they  have  defied  the  Roman 
eagle  and  the  Turkish  crescent,  while  the  posterity  of 
Isaac  have  been  obliged  to  bow  to  the  yoke  of  both. 

After  all  the  controversies  concerning  the  era  and 
identity  of  Job,  it  seems  most  probable  that  he  was  one 
of  the  kings  who  reigned  in  the  land  of  Edom  u  before 
there  reigned  any  king  over  the  children  of  Israel."  If 
so,  in  Gen.  xxxvi.  31,  Moses  gives  his  ancestry  amid  the 
generations  of  "  Esau/'  who  "  is  Edom/'  one  of  whose 
wives  was  his  cousin  Bashemath,  Ishmael's  daughter, 
and  their  son  Reuel  had  again  a  son  Zerah.  Zerah  is 
reckoned  among  the  dukes  of  Edom.  Kings  succeeded 
dukes. 

"  Bela  the  son  of  Beor  reigned  in  Edom :  and  the  name  of  his  city 
was  Dinhabah. 

"  And  Bcla  died,  and  Jobab  the  son  of  Zerah  of  Bozrali  reigned  in 
his  stead."— GEK.  xxxvi.  32,  33. 

The  Job  of  our  Bibles  was  probably  the  great  grand- 
son of  Esau,  and  while  Jacob's  posterity  were  multiply- 
ing in  Egypt,  Esau  is  inheriting  his  blessing  of  the  bye- 
ways,  the  fatness  of  the  earth  and  of  the  dew  of  heaven, 
and  sharing  in  Ishmael's  blessing  also  (Gen.  xvii.  20) ;  is 
multiplied  exceedingly — his  line  of  princes  is  begun,  and 
it  may  be  assumed  that  Job  was  one  of  them. 

The  Rev.  Charles  Forster,  in  his  valuable  work  on 
the  Geography  of  Arabia,  identifies  the  Job  of  the  Bible 
with  this  king  of  Edom — and  Dinhabah,  his  city,  with 
the  present  O'Daib  standing  alone  in  the  northern 


116  ISHMAEI/S  BLESSING. 

desert,  in  the  direction  of  Chaldea  and  the  Euphrates. 
It  should  be  remarked  that  King  Jobab  is  succeeded  by 
Husham,  of  the  land  of  Temani,  reminding  us  of  Eliphaz 
the  Temanite;*  and  O'Daib  is  the  chief  town  of  the 
Beni  Temin  to  this  day. 

The  names  of  Job's  daughters,  Kezia  and  Jemima,  are 
still  likewise  preserved  in  the  same  district ;  Kezia,  per- 
haps, in  the  Kassanitoe,  on  the  coast  of  the  Hedjaz ;  and 
Jemima,  the  dove,  is  recorded  by  Arab  writers  to  have 
been  the  first  queen  of  the  land.  She  may  have  been  the 
ancestress  of  the  Beni  Ayoub  (Ptolemy's  Agubeni), 
the  sons  of  Job,  still  one  of  the  most  famous  of  the 
Arab  tribes. 

That  Job  was  a  patriarchal  king  may  be  argued  from 
Job  xxix. : — 

"  When  I  went  out  to  the  gate  through  the  city,  when  I  prepared  my 
seat  in  the  street ! 

"  The  young  men  saw  me,  and  hid  themselves  :  and  the  aged  arose 
and  stood  up. 

"  The  princes  refrained  talking,  and  laid  their  hand  on  their  mouth. 

"  The  nobles  held  their  peace.'' 

He  adds — 

"  I  put  on  righteousness,  and  it  clothed  me  :  my  judgment  was  as  a 
rohe  and  a  diadem." — JOB  xxix.  14. 

It  appears  that  to  the  royal  descendant  of  Ishmael 
and  Esau,  the  blessing  of  the  children  of  Shem  was  not 
denied.  "Bless  me,  even  me  also,  oh  my  father." 
"Hast  thou  not  reserved  a  blessing  for  me?  Hast 
thou  but  one  blessing  ?"  said  poor  Esau,  in  his  bitter- 
ness. And  did  not  the  "reserved  blessing"  fall  on 

*  It  is  evident  that  Eliphaz  was  in  communication  with  the  longest 
lived  of  the  early  patriarchs.  He  says  to  Job,  "  With  us  are  the  gray- 
headed  and  very  aged  men,  much  older  than  thy  father,"  Job  iv.  10. 
The  first-born  son  of  Esau  had  been  named  Eliphaz,  and  Job's  friend 
may  hare  been  of  this  earlier  generation. 


DIVINE   WITNESS    TO    JOB.  117 

Job?  How  far  nobler  are  the  annals  of  this  second 
king  of  Edom  (even  with  all  his  faults  recorded),  as 
regards  the  civilization  they  intimate,  than  any  of  the 
hard- won  relics  from  Chaldea's  clay  inscriptions,  or  in- 
deed from  Egypt's  idols  of  granite  and  marble. 

Throughout  the  Septuagint  version  of  the  Scrip- 
tures, Job  and  his  three  friends  are  styled  kings.  This 
version  makes  the  full  age  of  Job  240  years,  and  if  we 
accept  its  authority,  we  may  take  his  biography  as  filling 
up  the  space  between  Joseph  and  Moses,  during  which 
era  there  is  no  personal  narrative  beside,  of  any  of  God's 
servants  on  the  earth.  Job  stands  sixth  in  descent 
from  Abraham  through  Ishmael,  Bashemath,  Reuel,  and 
Zerah  (see  Gen.  xxxvi.) ;  and  Moses,  on  his  mother's 
side,  was  also  the  sixth,  and  on  his  father's  the  seventh 
descendant  from  the  same  great  ancestor  through  Isaac. 
Job's  lengthened  life,  therefore,  may  have  brought  him 
within  the  personal  knowledge  of  Moses,  during  his 
forty  years'  absence  from  Egypt ;  or  Moses  may  have 
conversed  with  those  to  whom  Job  and  his  story  were 
intimately  and  personally  known. 

There  is  such  a  wonderful  dramatic  character  about 
this  book  ;  it  is  so  truly  a  "  living  oracle,"  that  many  of 
its  students  have  been  disposed  to  look  upon  it  in  the 
light  of  a  beautiful  and  philosophical  romance,  con- 
structed for  the  display  of  certain  principles ;  but  this 
is  to  ignore  DIVINE  witness  to  the  fact  of  Job's  indivi- 
duality in  the  Book  of  the  Prophet  Ezekiel : — 

"  Though  these  three  men,  Noah,  Daniel,  and  Job,  were  in  it  [the 
Land],  they  should  deliver  but  their  own  souls  by  their  righteousness, 

BAITH  TDB  LOBD   GOD." — EZEK.  XIV.  14. 

And  to  Divine  witness  is  added  also  apostolic  reference  : 

"  Ye  have  heard  of  the  patience  of  Job,  and  have  seen  the  end  of 
the  Lord." — JAMES  v.  11. 


118  ABOVE  AND  BELOW. 

The  general  opinion  of  the  Church  of  God  has 
always  been  in  unison  with  the  testimony  of  Scripture 
on  this  subject,  and  to  Moses  is  commonly  accorded  the 
renown  of  being  either  the  writer  or  compiler  of  the 
,thrilling  history. 

Job  makes  no  reference  to  Israel  or  their  Exodus, 
although  very  distinct  allusions  to  the  deluge  and  the 
pyramids;  and  this,  with  the  length  of  his  life,  has 
tended  to  raise  the  question  concerning  his  era. 

The  one  hundred  and  forty  years  granted  to  Job  on 
his  recovery,  as  likewise  his  second  family,  appear,  how- 
ever, to  have  been  by  special  blessing.  In  his  former 
period  of  prosperity  and  dignity,  he  was  probably  a  king 
by  election,  for  not  one  of  the  eight  kings  mentioned  in 
the  thirty-sixth  of  Genesis  is  the  son  of  his  predecessor. 

It  may  have  been  a  problem  in  the  mind  of  Moses, 
worked  out  during  his  meditations  in  the  desert,  how  to 
reconcile  the  apparently  unmerited  sufferings  of  his  own 
people  with  the  love  and  justice  of  Jehovah.  The 
beginning  of  God's  inspiration  to  his  human  soul  may 
have  been  the  lifting  of  the  curtain  from  heaven's  side  of 
the  history  of  Job.  In  all  the  Bible,  till  we  come  to  the 
Book  of  Revelation,  there  is  scarce  such  another  window 
into  the  invisible  world. 

Down  below  is  Job  writhing  in  the  dust,  his  glory 
departed — so  altered,  that  his  friends,  who  have  come 
from  their  own  place  to  mourn  with  him,  know  him 
not;  the  -wisdom  of  Teman  cannot  comfort  him;  his 
sorrowful  soul  is  saying  that  ha  has  not  deserved  this 
dealing  from  God,  and  then  the  reproof  of  his  friends 
is  added  to  the  heap  of  his  afflictions. 

Down  below  all  is  darkness.  Up  above,  Moses  sees 
the  Lord  of  love  and  pity  only  proving  His  child  in  the 
fire,  delighting  in  his  patience,  and  causing  him  to  hold 


THE   END  OP  THE   TRIAL.  119 

fast   his   integrity,   and  confuting  by  this  means    the 
Accuser  of  the  brethren. 

Down  below  lies  poor  Job,  casting  back  in  his 
memory  for  what  shall  have  brought  his  woes  upon 
him,  driven  by  the  harshness  of  those  who  came  at. 
first  to  comfort  him,  to  show  himself  righteous  in  his 
own  eyes.  Up  above  is  the  Lord  listening,  remember- 
ing the  submission  of  his  dear  child,  when  the  first 
strokes  of  the  rod  fell  upon  him. 

"  The  Lord  gave,  and  the  Lord  hath  taken  away ;  blessed  be  the 
name  of  the  Lord." 

"  Shall  we  receive  good  at  the  hand  of  God,  and  shall  we  not  receive 
evil?"— JOB  i.  21,  ii.  10. 

The  Refiner  is  watching  the  furnace,  though  He  heats 
it  seven  fold,  and  He  is  waiting  for  the  tried  silver, — 
He  is  going  to  find  the  ransom  (xxxiii.  24)  and  deliver 
from  the  pit.  He  has  inspired  the  lips  of  Elihu,  and 
to  his  mighty  words  Job  finds  no  reply.  The  Lord  con- 
firms them  with  the  whirlwind,  and  gives  Job  such  a 
vision  of  HIMSELF  in  light  and  power  as  vanquishes  at 
once  the  least  disposition  to  appeal  against  any  of  His 
ways,  and  the  last  finish  of  complete  submission,  is  now 
evident  in  His  servant,  for  he  says  : — 

"  I  have  uttered  things  too  wonderful  for  me, 

"Wherefore  I  abhor  myself,  and  repent  in  dust  and  ashes." — 
JOB  xlii.  3,  6. 

Then  the  Lord  also  accepted  Job,  and  appointed  him 
an  intercessor  for  his  friends. 

"  And  the  Lord  turned  the  captivity  of  Job,  when  he  prayed  for  his 
friends :  also  the  Lord  gave  Job  twice  as  much  as  he  had  before." — 
JOB  xlii.  10. 

EARLY  ARABIAN   CIVILIZATION. 

The  civilization  described  in  the  Book  of  Job  is 
very  wonderful.  A  city  and  streets  are  alluded  to 


120  CIVILIZATION   IN   UZ. 

in  the  Land  of  Uz  as  well  as  tents  and  tabernacles ; 
wines  and  dainty  meats  at  feasts ;  the  couch  and 
look\ng-glasses  of  polished  metal,  tell  of  care  for 
furniture ;  the  harp,  the  organ,  the  tabret,  and  the 
timbrel  accompanied  the  dance ;  gold  ear-rings,  the 
robe  and  diadem,  precious  stones  and  jewels  are  all 
named;  the  mining  and  refining  of  metals  was  under- 
stood, and  the  use  of  money.  There  was  writing,  en- 
graving, and  weaving ;  fishing  and  riding,  and  shooting 
with  steel  bows ;  Job  had  500  yoke  of  oxen,  and  the 
Chaldeans  carry  off  his  3000  camels,  a  valuable  booty, 
as  these  animals  were  always  highly  prized  for  the  con- 
veyance of  commerce.  But  after  all,  this  civilization  in 
the  land  of  EDOM  is  only  parallel  with  that  of  ancient 
EGYPT  and  of  early  CHALDEA  at  the  same  era,  and  we 
must  remember  that  these  were  the  adjacent  countries. 
A  king  of  Edom  would  not  be  unacquainted  with  the 
luxuries  and  possessions  of  surrounding  nations.  The 
grand  references  to  the  animal  creation  in  the  final 
address  of  Jehovah  to  his  servant  assure  us  that  Job 
must  have  been  familiar  with  the  war-horses  of  the 
Assyrians,  which,  as  we  may  now  observe  from  their 
sculptures,  were  of  noble  blood  (perhaps  Arabian),  and 
are  drawn  from  the  finest  models. 

"  Their  horses  are  swifter  than  the  leopards,  and  are  more  fierce  than 
the  evening  wolves  !'* 

exclaims  the  prophet  Habakkuk  (i.  8)  of  the  horses 
of  the  Chaldeans. 

"  From  afar  he  snuffeth  the  battle, 
The  thunder  of  the  captaiua  and  the  shouting." 

See  JOB  ixxix.  25. 

The  behemoth,  or  hippopotamus,  "whom  I  made 
with  thee,"  says  Jehovah  (thus  possibly  distinguishing 
this  beast  from  the  megatherium  or  saurian  of  a  former 


THE   BEHEMOTH.  121 

ago).  The  behemoth — haunting  alike  the  Nile  and  the 
Jordan,  the  "  dry  land/'  and  "  the  covert  of  the  reed 
and  the  fen ;"  he  seems  especially  alluded  to  as  swimming 
through  the  sudden  floods  of  the  Jordan,  swelled  by  the 
melted  snows  of  the  Lebanon.* 

And  the  "  leviathan/'  or  crocodile.  Job  was  evi- 
dently not  ignorant  of  the  habits  of  this  tyrant  lord  of  the 
Egyptian  river,  whose  empire  is  "the  border  of  the  seas," 
whose  impenetrable  skin  no  weapon  could  pierce  ;  in  the 
animal  creation,  "  king  over  all  the  children  of  pride." 

There  is  reason  to  suppose  that  in  the  days  of  Job 
these  monsters  of  the  Nile,  being  comparatively  undis- 
turbed by  man,  may  even  have  attained  to  a  greater  size 
than  they  do  in  the  present  day.  "  None  is  so  fierce 
that  dare  stir  him  up/'  says  Jehovah.  "Who,  then, 
is  able  to  stand  before  ME  ?" 

This  admitted — the  Mighty  One  overlooks  the  irri- 
tation of  His  servant,  so  sorely  tried,  and  silences  the 
friends  who  had  aggravated  his  sorrow,  by  the  final 
judgment :  "  Ye  have  not  spoken  of  Me  the  thing  that 
is  right,  as  my  servant  Job  hath."  To  the  all- seeing 
eye  it  was  known  how  true  it  was  that  Job  had  been  a 
man  of  peace,  a  judge  and  a  father  to  the  poor,  eyes  to 
the  blind,  and  feet  to  the  lame  ;  bountiful  and  hospita- 
ble— ( '  the  greatest  of  all  the  men  of  the  East."  Before 
any  part  of  our  Bible  was  written,  he  had  "  esteemed 
the  words  of  God  more  than  his  necessary  food."  He 
was  diligent  in  all  appointed  sacrifices  for  sin — a  man 
of  prayer — and  with  Abraham  he  had  enjoyed  the  patri- 
archal vision  of  a  Eedeemer,  to  "  stand  in  the  latter  day 
upon  the  earth." 

By  the  testimony  of  God  himself,  there  was  not  in 
all  the  earth  such  a  perfect  and  upright  man,  and  very 
*  Schultens  thinks  the  elephant  is  intended  ;  Good,  the  Mammoth. 


122  THE   WISDOM   OP   TEJIAN. 

much  more  of  his  wisdom  and  knowledge  is  placed  on 
record  than  of  any  other  of  the  patriarchs.  He  seems 
to  have  been  famous  both  in  heaven  and  earth.  We  have 
in  Genesis  the  narrative  of  noble  facts  and  deeds,  and 
short  interlocutory  scenes,  which  serve  to  develop  divers 
characters.  Yet  where,  but  in  Job,  shall  we  find  an  in- 
troduction to  the  majestic  current  of  thoughts  and  memo- 
ries handed  down  through  the  families  of  Shem  ? 

"  Oh,  that  Ishmael  may  live  before  Thee  \"  said 
his  father  Abraham,  and  in  answer  to  this  prayer  the 
sons  of  Ishmael  seem  to  have  had  their  own  possession 
and  their  own  "  blessing "  in  the  land  of  the  sons  of 
Joktan.  How  mighty  are  the  slow,  grand  utter- 
ances of  those  long-lived  men,  who  were  besides  the 
"  sons  of  God/'  who  drank  into  the  depth  of  their  souls 
the  primeval  revelations  of  truth,'  whether  given  by  voice 
or  vision,  or  dream  of  the  night,  to  which  Eliphaz  refers 
(iv.  12 — 18).  How  these  spiritual  giants  of  earth's  first 
2500  years  towered  above  their  fellows,  when  God  kept 
them,  by  His  grace,  from  worship  of  the  heavenly  bodies, 
forgetting  the  Creator  in  the  works  of  His  hands  ! 

"  If  I  beheld  the  sun  when  it  shined  [says  Job],  or  the  moon  walking 
in  brightness ; 

"  And  ray  heart  hath  been  secretly  enticed,  or  my  mouth  hath  kissed 
my  hand ;  Ishould  have  denied  the  God  that  is  above." — JOB  xxxi.  26 — 28. 

He  makes  no  reference  to  the  fleshly  mind  of  Egypt, 
which  took  the  bull  appointed  for  sacrifice,  and  lifted  it 
into  an  idol,  by  the  same  species  of  delusion  with  which 
a  modern  school  of  error  looks  for  salvation  in  the  sacra- 
ments, and  mistakes  the  sign  for  the  thing  signified. 

Whether  we  listen  to  Job  or  his  friends,  notwithstand- 
ing the  heat  of  their  temper,  as  we  come  up  from  Chaldea 
or  Egypt,  we  marvel,  with  Moses,  at  the  wisdom  of 
Teman,  and  glorify  the  God  of  their  fathers. 


ETHIOPIA.  128 

The  book  of  Job  is  written  in  old  Hebrew;  one 
hundred  and  ninety-six  manuscripts  of  it  have  been 
collated  by  Kennicott,  and  its  magnificent  poetical  de- 
scriptions prove  that  Job  had  all  the  expansion  of  the 
Semitic  mind.  A.  great  evidence  of  the  remote  antiquity 
of  the  book  is  that  the  friends,  being  Arabians  of  various 
districts,  yet  apparently  continued  to  speak  some  common 
language,  while  there  was  evident  need  of  an  interpreter 
in  EGYPT  at  the  time  that  Joseph's  brethren  came  down 
there ;  but  then  Egypt  was  peopled  from  a  Hamite  stock, 
as  was  also  early  Chaldea  and  Canaan. 

ETHIOPIA. 

Ethiopia,  like  Chaldea,  presents  the  strange  pecu- 
liarity of  an  originally  Hamite  origin  of  its  population, 
and  of  their  speech  becoming  afterwards,  nevertheless, 
Semitic;  it  is  the  Cush  of  the  Toldoth  Beni  Noah,  of 
Gen.  x.,  and  of  the  Hebrew  history ;  a  country  traversed 
by  two  branches  of  the  Nile,  forming  a  series  of  cataracts ; 
in  Isa.  xviii.  it  is  referred  to  as  the  land  shadowing 
with  wings,  which  is  beyond  (or  by  the  side  of)  the 
waters  of  Cush.  bsbs  0^533;  the  original  Hebrew  words, 
refer  to  the  Tsaltsal,  or  winged  fly  of  Ethiopia,  which  Mo- 
ses also  mentions  (Deut.  xxviii.  42).  The  noxious  Tsetze 
mentioned  by  Dr.  Livingstone  must  be  a  species  of  the 
Tsaltsal.  The  papyrus  boats,  "  vessels  of  bulrushes,"  are 
also  regarded  as  a  characteristic  feature  of  the  country. 

Job  knew  Ethiopia  as  famous  for  the  precious  topaz, 
Job.  xxviii.  19  ;  and  the  Hebrews  carried  on  commerce 
with  its  people  in  after  days,  in  ebony,  ivory,  frank- 
incense, and  gold.  In  Isa.  xlv.  ]  4  the  Ethiopians  and 
Sabeans  are  mentioned  together,  the  latter  as  "  men  of 
stature ;"  their  fine  appearance  led  to  their  being  chosen 
as  attendants  in  royal  households.  The  Ethiopians  are 


124  THE   PATRIARCH   JETHRO. 

once  in  Scripture  coupled  with  the  Arabians,  as  occupy- 
ing the  opposite  shores  of  the  Eed  Sea,  2  Chron.  xxi. 
16,  but  elsewhere  they  are  connected  with  African 
nations,  particularly  Egypt,  Phut,  "Lub,  and  Lud.  The 
Sabeans  appear  to  have  been  their  most  powerful  tribe. 

The  name  of  Zerah  was  Ethiopia;  the  reader  will 
remark  it  as  belonging  to  Job's  father;  in  after  days 
(see  2  Chron.  xiv.  9)  there  came  out  against  Israel  "  Zerah 
the  Ethiopian,  with  an  host  of  a  thousand  thousand, 
and  three  hundred  chariots,"  and  the  Ethiopians  were 
destroyed  before  the  Lord. 

The  probable  connection  of  this  "  mingled  people  " 
with  Midian,  must  be  inferred  from  the  wife  of  Moses 
being  named  an  Ethiopian  (Numb.  xii.  1),  and  yet  Zip- 
porah  is  called  the  daughter  of  the  Priest  of  Midian. 

We  cannot  but  remark  the  reverence  which  Moses 
paid  to  his  father-in-law,  Jethro,  who  is  called  by  various 
names  in  Scripture  —  JETHER,  or  the  excellent,  while 
Hobab  (Judg.  iv.  11)  may  mean  "beloved;"  in  Exod. 
ii.  18  he  is  called  Eeuel,  and  again  Eaguel,  in  Numb.  x.  29, 
where  it  is  intimated  that  he  had  a  son  named  Hobab. 

Moses  did  obeisance  to  him,  Exod.  xviii.  7,  as  he 
restored  his  wife  Zipporah  and  her  sons,  when  the 
whole  body  of  the  Israelites  came  and  encamped  at  the 
Mount  of  God,  in  the  old  district  so  well  known  to 
Moses  in  his  forty  years  of  solitude ;  and  then  the  father- 
in-law  rejoiced  with  his  son  for  all  the  goodness  that  the 
Lord  had  shown  to  Israel,  and  declares  his  patriarchal 
knowledge  that  the  Lord  is  greater  than  all  gods. 

Jethro  then  takes  a  burnt-offering  and  sacrifices  for 
God,  provides  a  feast,  and  calls  to  it  Aaron  and  the 
elders  of  Israel ;  and  when  his  blessing  to  Moses  is  con- 
nected with  St.  Paul's  comment,  that "  the  less  is  blessed 
of  the  better,"  Heb.vii.  7,  we  are  much  inclined  to  believe 


LENGTH   OP  PATRIARCHAL  TIMES.  125 

with  Dr.  Bonar,  that  Jethro  was  one  of  those  patriarchal 
priests  in  Arabia,  who,  like  Melchisedek  in  Canaan,  and 
Job  in  the  land  of  TJz,  preserved  in  different  lands  the 
knowledge  of  the  true  God  before  there  was  any  written 
Revelation,  at  least  any  that  has  come  down  to  us. 

Jethro  mingles  his  counsel  with  such  words  of 
paternal  authority  and  wisdom,  as  would  imply  a  far 
greater  age  than  Moses,  who,  it  will  be  remembered, 
was  then  himself  eighty  years  old.  With  much  sagacity 
and  experience,  and  with  affectionate  solicitude,  he 
says,  on  observing  the  constant  consultations  of  the 
people  with  their  leader  :  "The  thing  that  thou  doest  is  not 
good,  thou  wilt  surely  wear  away,"  and  suggests  a  mode 
of  effectual  help  from  others ;  and  his  advice  was  so  ad- 
mirable and  well-timed,  that  Moses  hearkened  to  the 
voice  of  his  father-in-law,  and  "  did  all  that  he  said." 

We  have  here  introduced  this  after  passage  in  the 
life  of  Jethro  because  of  his  being  an  example  of  what 
was  known  and  believed  in  PATRIARCHAL  TIMES,  which, 
we  must  remember,  comprehended  an  immense  period 
of  the  history  of  the  world.  They  were  AS  LONG  as  the 
TIMES  OP  THE  GENTILES,  if  we  count  our  own  period  back 
— beyond  the  coming  of  the  Lord — to  about  B.C.  660,  when 
the  chosen  nation  was  pronounced  rejected,  because 
of  the  sin  of  Manasseh  (seep.  18)  :  and  if  we  would  study 
the  Bible  aright  we  must  endeavour  to  realize  this. 

The  Book  which  embalms  the  story  of  God's  patriarchs 
is  also  the  one  that  throws  most  light  on  the  egotistic 
monumental  records  of  the  proud  and  perished  kings  of 
Egypt  and  of  Chaldea. 

RELIGION  AND   MORALS   OP   THE   TIMES   OP  JOB. 

We  may  learn  much  from  the  Book  of  Job,  even  of 
the  religion  and  morals  that  we  need  for  our  own  day. 


128  BIN  OP  ANTEDILUVIANS. 

The  character  and  attributes  of  God  are  clearly  indicated. 
He  is  represented  as  sovereign,  omniscient,  unchangeable, 
wise,  holy,  of  terrible  majesty,  and  yet  merciful.  The 
Creator,  the  Governor,  the  Judge  of  the  earth,  commu- 
nicating his  will  by  Eevelation,  appointing  man's  times, 
and  having  in  His  hands  all  power  of  life  and  death  ; — con- 
trolling all  beings,  even  Satan,  once  a  son  of  God,  but 
now  a  fiendish,  crafty  tempter  to  mankind,  permitted 
for  a  time  to  trouble,  but  never  to  destroy  God's 
people. 

There  are  many  duties  to  our  fellow-creatures  spoken 
of,  which  might  be  well  considered  now.  Covetousness 
is  regarded  in  the  light  of  idolatry,  and  that  scepticism 
is  severely  reproved  which  ignores  the  Providence  of 
God.  It  seems  stated  in  this  book  (xxii.  17)  that  this 
was  the  irreligion  that  provoked  God  to  destroy  the 
antediluvians, — 

"  Which  were  cut  down  out  of  time ;  whose  foundation  was  overflown 
with  a  flood. 

"  Which  said  unto  God,  Depart  from  us,  and — What  can  the  Almighty 
do  for  them  P" 
or, 

"  Were  questioning  what  the  Almighty  had  done  for  them,  when  yet 
He  had  filled  their  houses  with  good."* 

The  sins  against  our  fellow-men,  especially  notecL  are 
contempt  for  older  people  on  the  part  of  the  young 
(xix.  18) ;  disrespect  of  servants  to  masters  (xix.  16), 
and  ill-treatment  of  servants  by  masters  (xxxi.  13)  ; 
neglect  of  kinsfolk  and  acquaintances  (xix:.  14, 15);  false- 
heartedness  of  friends  (vi.  15) ;  murder  (xxiv.  14) ; 
seduction  (xxxi.  1 — 8) ;  robbery,  whether  removing 
landmarks,  or  stealing  property,  or  stealing  men,  or 

*  See  "  Translation  of  the  Book  of  Job,"  with  Notes,  by  the  Kev.  Car- 
teret  P.  Carey,  Guernsey,  an  illustrated  and  a  most  interesting  volume. 
Wertheim  and  Macintosh,  1858. 


IDEAS   IN   THE    BOOK  OP   JOE.  127 

extortion  (xxiv.  2,  11;  xxxi.  38 — 40);  tyrannical  des- 
potism (xxiv.  21) ;  ialdng  raiment  as  a  pledge  from  the 
poor  (xxii.  5,  6) ;  withholding  food  from,  the  famishing 
(xxii.  7) ;  ill-treating  widows,  dealing  unkindly  with 
the  fatherless  (xxxi.  16,  17) ;  oppressing  the  helpless 
(xxiv.  4 — 11) ;  rejoicing  at  the  fall  of  an  enemy  (xxxi.  29). 

Fearing  God,  and  departing  from  evil,  seems  to  have 
been  the  religion  of  that  time,  and  Job  possessed  it. 
Acquaintance  with  God,  and  calling  upon  Him  in  prayer, 
perseverance  in  piety,  enduring  affliction  with  submis- 
sion, confession  of  sin  and  sacrifice  for  it,  repentance, 
self-loathing  and  glorifying  God,  are  all  illustrated. 
Duties  to  our  neighbour  in  all  relations  of  life  are 
enjoined;  self-restraint,  hospitality,  charity — the  very 
virtues  of  a  gospel  day,  and  wondrous  also  is  the  revela- 
tion on  man's  final  destiny ;  though  it  was  not  indeed  the 
' '  immortality  brought  to  light  through  the  gospel." 

The  grave  was  then  regarded  as  a  place  of  separation 
from  the  earth ,  so  that  the  occupant  would  be  unconscious 
nnd  insensible  of  all  that  transpired  there — a  place  of  dark- 
ness, not  to  be  desired  by  the  unprepared  (xxxvi.  20) ; 
there  was  no  deliverance  for  the  ungodly  from  it  (xxxvi. 
18) ;  no  pardon  there,  and  it  was  a  place  into  which  the 
sins  of  the  wicked  accompany  them  (xx.  11).  God's 
powder  and  wrath  are  felt  in  that  lower  world  (xxvi.  6) . 
A  good  man,  however,  has  hope  in  his  death;  the 
grave  to  him  is  a  place  of  calm  rest,  where  the  wicked 
cannot  trouble,  and  the  voice  of  the  taskmaster  is  no 
more  heard,  and  the  slave  at  last  is  free. 

It  was  then  considered  that  even  in  the  grave 
there  is  a  separation  between  the  righteous  and  the 
Avicked,  for  that  the  wicked  dead  are  not  gathered 
into  the  lot  of  the  righteous  (xxvii.  19).  The  pious 
man  might  look  forward  to  a  time  appointed  by 


128  PATBIAKCHAL   EELIQION. 

God  when  Ms  renovation  should  come,  and  when 
his  iniquities  would  be  found  to  be  all  obliterated 
(xiv.  13).  The  hope  of  this  appears  to  have  been  so 
firm  in  the  mind  of  Job,  that  he  prays  earnestly 
that  its  record  may  be  transmitted  to  posterity.  The 
wonderful  allusion  to  a  Kedeemer,  or  "  Vindicator/'  as 
some  translate  it,  at  some  future  period  to  stand  upon 
the  earth,  shows  marvellously  the  strength  of  patriarchal 
faith — of  those  who  had  "not  seen,  and  yet  had  believed." 

From  the  Book  of  GENESIS  we  obtain  many  facts  that 
illustrate  our  information  from  the  Book  of  JOB  concern- 
ing the  institutions  of  the  PATRIAKCHAL  age.  We  hear  of 
places — mountain  solitudes — set  apart  for  worship,  of 
doing  things  before  the  Lord,  of  going  out  from  His  pre- 
sence, of  building  altars  to  Him,  of  setting  up  stones  for 
pillars,  and  pouring  on  them  anointing  oil.  We  hear  of 
the  Shepherd  of  the  stone  of  Israel  (Gen.  xux.  24) ; 
one  of  the  earliest  names  by  which  the  God  of  Jacob  was 
known.  There  were  then  certainly  some  appointed 
quarters  to  which  the  earliest  "  sons  of  God"  resorted  for 
worship.  The  coat  of  many  colours  was  perhaps  a 
priestly  garment — imposition  of  hands  was  attached  to 
the  paternal  blessing. 

Noah  knew  the  clean  from  the  unclean.  Blood  was 
withheld  for  food ;  murder  demanded  death ;  impurity 
was  forbidden ;  oaths  and  vows  were  binding ;  marriage 
with  idolaters  was  deprecated ;  birthright  respected ;  due 
honour  paid  to  parents,  and  punishment  followed  him 
who  set  light  by  his  father  or  his  mother.  All  the 
ground  work  of  the  Levitical  code  was  already  under- 
stood in  the  Patriarchal  families.* 

The  seed  of  the  woman  promised  to  Adam,  which 

*  "  Scripture  Coincidences,"  by  the  Kev.  J.  Blunt,  is  a  delightful 
book  on  this  subject. 


MODERN  LIGHT  ON   JOB.  129 

was  to  bruise  the  serpent's  head,  was  already  earnestly 
desired,  even  desired  so  greedily  that  Ishmael  was  born 
after  Isaac  was  promised.  The  "  father  of  the  faithful/' 
urged  by  Sarah,  took  wrong  ways  to  secure  it,  and  did 
not  wait  for  God,  and  from  that  day  to  this,  Ishmael  has 
in  consequence  been  always  Isaac's  scourge. 

It  is  of  great  importance  to  the  Bible  student  to  read 
the  Book  of  Job,  with  all  the  light  which  modern  dis- 
coveries are  casting  upon  its  antique  pages.  It  is  as 
remarkable  for  its  obscurity  as  its  sublimity.  Its  obso- 
lete words,  its  intense  concentration  of  language,  and 
incidental  allusions  to  things  long  forgotten  (some  of 
which  are  recently  come  to  light),  mark  its  primeval 
antiquity.  It  reproduces  for  us  a  past  age,  with  a  local 
colouring,  which  we  shall  appreciate  more  and  more  as 
we  become  acquainted  with  the  civilization  of  early 
Arabia.  The  Arabs  in  their  ignorance  have  well  guarded 
its  relics  from  ordinary  travellers  from  age  to  age, 
and  their  old  language,  still  almost  dead,  has  probably 
yet  to  render  up  fresh  confirmations  of  the  Book  of  Job. 

It  is  worth  remarking,  that  in  a  notice  appended  to 
the  Septuagint  Version  of  the  Scriptures — showing  the 
general  opinion  at  the  time  of  the  translators — it  is  said  of 
Job,  "  This  is  translated  out  of  a  Syriac  book,  '  Job  dwelt 
in  the  land  of  Ausitis,  on  the  confines  of  Idumea  and 
Arabia.  He  had  for  his  father,  Zare,  one  of  the  sons  of 
Esau,  and  was  fifth  in  descent  from  Abraham/ ;' 

The  book  of  Job  assumes  its  full  value  when  con- 
sidered as  the  only  inspired  Arabian  record  of  the  Patri- 
archal period.  "We  should  strive  against  the  too  widely 
spread  idea  that  it  is  not  worth  our  while  to  go  back 
to  this  period,  for  that  it  is  but  re- visiting  a  gallery 
of  the  portraits  of  our  ancestors,  who  have  little  in 
common  with  the  present  and  the  practical. 

I 


130  THE   SOCIETY  OP  PATRIARCHS. 

The  finger  of  God  seems  now  itself  to  be  turning  the 
pages  of  the  Old  Testament,  and  pointing  to  His  ancient 
Aristocracy,  the  men  who  were  His  friends,  "  who  be- 
lieved Him,"  who  often  heard  His  voice  from  heaven,  to 
whom  He  "appeared,"  and  who  were  His  "living 
epistles  "  to  the  heathen  around  them. 

They  have  an  undying  story ;  the  study  of  it  would 
ennoble  character  in  these  days.  How  racy,  how  salient 
the  points  of  their  biography !  Their  very  faults  are  a 
gospel  to  us  !  Their  society  is  inspiring,  and  ever  fresh  to 
the  mind  worn  out  with  modern  littlenesses  and  external 
life ;  and  why  ?  because  these  "  Fathers"  held  communion 
with  the  I  AM.  He  impressed  them  more  or  less  with 
His  own  sublimity — they  reflected  their  Creator;  and 
who  was  this  Creator  ?  HIM  "  by  whom  all  things  were 
made  I"  No  other  than  the  ADONAI,  the  second  person 
in  the  Trinity,  the  "CHRIST"  whom  they  were  suffered 
to  see  in  prophetic  vision  "  coming  to  save ;"  whose 
"reproach  they  esteemed,"  whose  "day  they  saw." 
Yes,  and  perhaps  to  them  and  to  the  relics  of  their 
period  it  will  be  given  to  make  unanswerable  answer  to 
the  doubters  and  the  scoffers  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

The  next  chapter  will  throw  some  light  on  Job's 
intense  desire  for  the  preservation  of  his  certain  hope 
of  a  Redeemer  to  come  upon  the  earth. 

We  hope  our  readers  will  refer  to  Mr.  Carey's  book 
concerning  him,  and  to  the  proofs  he  brings  that  the 
age  in  which  this  patriarch  lived  was  almost  certainly 
that  of  the  sojourn  of  the  Israelites  in  Egypt,  i.  e., 
about  thirty-five  centuries  ago ;  also  that  the  land  of 
Uz  was,  in  all  likelihood,  identical  with  that  of  Edom 
in  its  original  boundaries,  and  its  position  on  the  eastern 
side  of  the  range  of  Mount  Seir,  facing  the  Great 
Arabian  Desert. 


WAS   JOB   THE    GBANDSON   OF   JACOB?  131 

As  tliis  book  professes  to  be  a  collection  of  evidence, 
while  we  state  more  fully  that  which,  appears  to  us  to 
have  most  weight  in  the  scale,  it  is  not  permissible  to 
ignore  the  opinions  of  others. 

The  Jews  very  naturally  believe  that  after  the  era  of 
the  great  Lawgiver,  no  man,  or  set  of  men,  could  havo 
lived  under  the  favour  of  God  irrespectively  of  the  pre- 
scriptions of  the  Mosaic  law.  They  therefore  place  Job 
before  Moses ;  but  a  learned  writer  of  their  nation,  Dr. 
M.  Margoliouth,  in  the  appendix  to  his  brochure  of 
Sacred  Minstrelsy,  claims  JOB  also  as  a  branch  of  the  Isaac 
seed,  and  supposes  him  the  grandson  of  Jacob,  and  one 
of  the  sons  of  Issachar — ' e  Tola  and  Phuvah,  and  Job, 
and  Shimron,"  represented  as  going  down  into  Egypt 
with  this  patriarch  (Gen.  xlvi.  13). 

The  children  of  Issachar,  in  David's  after  days,  are  said 
to  have  "  had  understanding  of  the  times  to  know  what 
Israel  ought  to  do."  "  Wise  men  that  knew  the  times," 
are  mentioned  as  consulted  500  years  after  this  in 
Shushan  the  palace  (Esth.  i.  13),  and  hence  our  author 
argues,  that,  though  Job  did  go  down  into  Egypt,  he 
became  "  the  greatest  of  all  the  men  of  the  East,"  and 
may  both  on  account  of  his  wealth  and  his  wisdom,  have 
separated  himself  from  his  brethren,  for  he  may  have 
foreseen  the  change  which  was  ultimately  to  take  place  in 
the  condition  of  Jacob's  posterity  after  their  first  warm 
welcome  in  the  land  of  Goshen,  and  while  free  to  do  so, 
may  have  returned  to  the  land  of  Uz. 

Uz,  the  first-born  of  Nahor,  is  erroneously  written 
Huz,  in  the  English  version,  Gen.  xxii.  21.  He  would 
be  the  cousin  of  Isaac,  and  his  district  probably  bore  his 
name.  Buz  was  his  brother,  and  in  the  history  of  Job, 
we  cannot  forget  "  Elihu  the  son  of  Barachel  the  Buzite, 
of  the  kindred  of  Earn,"  or  Aram.  Elihu  describes  him- 


132  UZ   AND   EDOM. 

self  as  young,  and  his  auditors  very  old.  He  so  evidently 
speaks  by  inspiration,  that  he  has  been  sometimes  con- 
sidered as  an  incarnation  of  the  Jehovah.  Bildad  the 
Shuhite  is  possibly  desceuded  from  Shuah  the  son  of 
Abraham  by  Keturah. 

"We  may  be  permitted  to  repeat,  that  while  the  land  of 
Uz  might  thus  be  associated  with  Nahor,  the  unclwsen  son 
ofTerah,  whose  descendants  however  came  into  the 
chosen  line  through  Kebekah,  there  is  also  a  scriptural 
identification  of  Uz  with  Edom — 

"  Rejoice  and  be  glad,  O  daughter  of  Edom,  that  dwellesfc  in  the 
land  of  Uz."—  LAM.  iv.  21. 

And  of  Teman  with  Edom  ( Jer.  xlix.  7) ;  of  Dedan,  and 
also  of  Buz  with  Esau  in  the  handing  of  the  cup  of  prod's 
fury  to  the  "  mingled  people,"  and  "  all  the  kings  of  the 
land  of  Uz"  (Jer.  xxv.  15),  that  equally  favours  the  con- 
clusion, of  the  Job  of  Scripture  being  the  Jobab  of 
Edom.  Dr.  Margoliouth  also  admits  that  the  name  of  the 
son  of  Issachar,  in  Hebrew  is  written  mi,  and  that  of 
the  suffering  Patriarch  nVS- 

Whichever  be  the  line  of  Job's  descent,  his 
lengthened  life  might  have  brought  him  into  communi- 
cation with  Moses  in  the  desert.  He  sprang  in  either 
case  from  the  Semitic  root,  which  accounts  for  his 
communion  with  God,  and  patriarchal  knowledge  of  His 
ways  ;  but  how  could  a  grandson  of  Jacob  have  omitted 
to  refer  to  Abraham's  call,  and  to  the  chosen  seed  ? 
From  a  descendant  of  Ishmael  or  Esau,  the  omission 
might  perhaps  be  expected. 


STONES   OP  AEAEIA.  133 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE  STONES  OF  AEABIA. 

THE  WARKA  TABLET  OF  MR.  LOFTUS — FIRST  COLLECTORS  OP  HIMTARITIC 

INSCRIPTIONS — ROCK  OF  HISN  OHORAB HIMYARITIC  ALTAR BRONZE 

TABLETS MIKAL  JOSEPH'S  STONES  FROM  MAREB SONS  OF  JOKTAN 

RESEARCHES  OF  ARNAUD  AND  FRESNEL — INSCRIPTIONS  ON  DYKE  OF 
MAREB — FRESNEL'S  ALPHABET — ACCOUNT  OF  THE  DYKE  IN  THE 
KORAN — IDOLATRIES  OF  THE  ARABS — ATHTOR — ASHTORETH — THE 
EARLY  DHOU  NOWAS — ALMAKAH — THE  PRIMEVAL  ARABIC — PAL- 
GRAVE'S  RECENT  TRAVELS  IN  THE  NEJED — AFFINITY  BETWEEN 
HIMYARITIC  AND  EARLY  SANSCRIT  ALPHABETS — THE  PATRIARCH 

EBER — TABLE   OF   USHEfi's   CHRONOLOGY. 

"  Oh  that  my  words  were  now  written  !  [says  Job]  oh  that  they  were 
printed  in  a  book ! 

"  That  they  were  graven  with  an  iron  pen  and  lead  in  the  rock  for 
ever! 

"FOE  I  KNOW  THAT  MY  KEDEEMEB  LIVETH." — JOBjdl.  23—25. 

ND  these  mighty  words  have  been  "  printed  in 
a  book ;"  chronologically  the  first  book  of  our 
Bibles.  The  graving  in  the  rock  was  the  habit 
of  Job's  era,  and  the  light  of  the  last  ten  years 
has  fallen  full  upon  the  "  testimony  of  the 
rocks/'  in  more  ways  than  one,  though  we  have 
not  yet  recovered  all  the  languages,  even  of  rock 
inscriptions. 

Mr.  Birch  and  others  have  diligently  groped  their  way 
among  the  hieroglyphics  and  papyri  of  Egypt;  Kawlin- 
son,  Oppert,  and  Talbot  think  that  they  read  the  arrow- 
heads of  Nineveh ;  but  who  yet  reads  the  Himyaritic  ? — 
that  Semitic  branch  of  language  which  Max  Miiller  tells 


134 


THE   WAEKA   GRAVE-STONE. 


as  sprang  from  the  Arabian  peninsula,  and  which  yet  con- 
ceals some  of  the  most  ancient  documents  in  the  world  ? 
The   accompanying  specimen  of  the  character  was 
found  by  Mr.  Loftus  at  Warka.*      His  servant  was  one 

day   giving    instructions    to 

ITi   /T\  8  j[?  X*  iji    the  workmen  at  the  foot  of  a 
I  §     vL/ 1      2  \/    i  jj    mound  they  had  been  exca- 
1^"'  i    »^  i     ijt-xf    Bating,    when     the    ground 
J  r^Tj  yC   \A    jf  I  y  P    under  his  horse's  feet  sud- 
denly gave  way,  and  preci- 
pitated him   into   a   vaulted 
tomb,  without  coffin  or  other 
relics,  seven  feet    long  and 
four  feet  wide.    It  had  already 
been  plundered  by  the  Arabs. 


At 


was     a 


HIMYAKITIC    GHATE-STOKE. 


ttft  ^.u  one  extremity  „*.„  v. 
wM  rou£n  limestone  slab,  stand- 
a&iJ  ing  on  end,  with  the  accom- 
panying imperfect  Himyaritic 
inscription,  recording  (it  is  supposed)  the  death 
of  Hanatasar,  son  of  Esau,  son  of  Hanatasar.  Mr.  Loftus 
considered  this  discovery  to  be  of  much  value  and  interest, 
as  the  first  inscription  of  the  kind  found  in  Mesopotamia, 
and  tending  to  show  a  connection  with  southern  Arabia, 
where  the  Himyaritic  preceded  the  Kufic  and  the  Arabic. 
This  stone  may  now  be  seen  in  the  British  Museum, 
in  the  corner  of  the  Subterranean  Phoenician  Court, 
which  is  on  a  level  with  the  Sennacherib  tablets. 

The  traveller  who  had  first  called  attention  to  the  exist- 
ence of  inscriptions  in  a  peculiar  character  in  the  Southern 
districts  of  Arabia  wasCarsten  Niebuhr,  who  was  informed 
that  there  existed  at  Zafar  and  Haddafa  inscriptions  which 
neither  Jews  nor  Mohammedans  could  decipher. 
*  Seep.  51. 


THE   BOCK   OP   HISN   GHOEAB.  135 

The  princes  of  Himyar,  in  South  Arabia,  may  possibly 
have  been  contemporary  with  the  dukes  and  kings  of 
Northern  Arabia,  or  Edom.  Moses  has  devoted  the  whole 
of  the  thirty-sixth  of  Genesis  to  the  archives  of  Edom, 
or  the  posterity  of  Esau,  by  his  Canaanitish  and  Ishrnael- 
itish  wives,  Adah  the  Hittite,  Aholibamah  the  Hivite, 
and  Bashemath,  Ishmaers  daughter.  It  is  the  forgotten 
language  of  a  forgotten  kingdom,  coeval  with  that  of 
Edom,  that  comes  under  notice  in  this  chapter ;  and  as 
Job  and  all  his  friends  were  Arabians,  should  we  have 
received  the  book  of  Job  in  ancient  Hebrew  unless  Moses 
had  first  rendered  it  into  that  kindred  tongue  ?  Some 
have  said  that  the  Himyaritic  itself  is  the  most  ancient 
Hebrew. 


An  inscription  inHimyaritic  characters  was  discovered 
in  1 834  by  the  officers  of  the  Honourable  East  India  Com- 
pany's surveying  vessel  the  "  Palinurus  "  at  Hisn  Ghorab, 
on  the  shores  of  South  Arabia.  As  Captain  Haines,  the 
commander  (afterwards  political  agent  at  Aden),  sailed 
along  the  coast,  his  eye  was  caught  by  a  great  black- 
browed  bluff  or  headland,  on  the  summit  of  which  he 
descried  through  his  glass,  a  small  beacon  or  watch- 
tower.  He  ordered  out  a  boat's  crew  to  explore  further, 
and  three  of  his  officers,  after  some  battling  with  a  heavy 
surf,  rounded  the  headland,  and  glided  through  a  nar- 
row entrance  into  a  little  quiet  bay,  where  a  mountain 
rose  before  them  with  the  ruins  of  an  ancient  city  spread 
along  its  side. 

Amid  these  they  ascended,  and  after  toiling  for  two 
hours,  lighted  upon  a  zig-zag  path  which  led  them  to  a 
high  rock-terrace,  and  a  great  Inscription  of  ten  lines 
in  these  strange  characters,  of  which  we  copy  merely 
two  letters  to  give  an  idea  of  its  size  and  appearance. 


136 


LETTERS  ON  HISN   GHOEAE. 


They  are  each  four  inches  long  by  one-third  of  an  inch 
in  breadth,  and  one-tenth  of  an  inch  in  depth.  They 
are  not  simply  engraved,  but  are  cut  in  notches,  and 
were  said  to  sparkle  when  the  rays  of  the  sun  struck 
upon  them.  The  three  first  discoverers,  Messrs.  Crut- 
tenden,  Hutton,  and  Saunders,  took  each  a  copy  of  the 
whole  inscription,  which  consisted  of  ten  lines,  from 
which  a  collated  transcript  was  made  and  published  in 
Lieut.  Wellsted's  "  Travels  in  Arabia,"  vol.  ii.,  p.  424. 


ALTAE  AND  TABLETS.  137 

To  this  remarkable  inscription  in  Hadramaut  a  second 
visit  -was  paid  by  another  young  Indian  officer,  Lieu- 
tenant Berthon,  in  the  year  1845,  when  in  command  of 
the  "  Constance "  sloop-of-war,  and  in  company  with 
Lieutenant  Cruttenden,  one  of  the  original  discoverers ; 
the  second  survey  yielded  some  additional  particulars. 

The  inscription  had  been  cut  on  a  stone  of  a 
different  colour  from  the  black  or  reddish  brown  face 
of  the  mountain — a  very  light  gray  or  lead-coloured 
stone  which  seemed  white  in  comparison  with  the  sur- 
rounding tints ;  there  was  no  other  such  stone  in  the 
face  of  the  mountain,  yet  there  was  a  great  quarry  of  the 
same  kind  on  the  top  of  the  cliff,  from  which  all  the  stones 
to  build  the  ancient  city  had  been  taken ;  the  inscription- 
stone  did  not  appear  to  have  been  inserted,  but  to  be  a 
vein  of  the  quarry  coming  out  on  the  face  of  the  cliff. 
It  was  at  a  height  of  four  hundred  feet  above  the 
quiet  land-locked  bay.  The  words  seemed  to  have  been 
"  graven"  "  with  an  iron  pen"  on  this  salient  white-gray, 
or  lead-coloured  surface  "  in  the  rock  for  ever." 

A  Himyaritic  altar,  supposed  of  libation,  was  next 
presented  to  the  British  Museum  by  Captain  Haines, 
which  may  also  be  seen  in  the  Phoenician  Court,  and 
is  figured  p.  61  in  Cassell's  "  Bible  Dictionary/' 

Twenty-eight  inscriptions  on  bronze  tablets,  in  the 
same  ancient  characters,  are  for  the  present  deposited 
in  the  mummy  room.  These,  with  two  on  stone,  were 
presented  by  two  English  officers,  Col.  Coghlan  and 
Lieut. -Col.  Playfair,  each  having  held  the  office  of  politi- 
cal agents  at  Aden,  and  the  collection  has  been  com- 
pleted hitherto  by  the  purchase  of  six  inscriptions 
on  stone  from  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society, 
into  whose  possession  they  came  in  the  spring  of  last 
year,  by  means  of  a  colporteur  named  Mikal  Joseph. 


138  MIKAL  JOSEPH'S  STONES. 

:e  The  number  of  Himyaritic  inscriptions  now  in  the 
Museum  amounts  to  forty-two.  Most  of  them  have  been 
sent  to  England  during  the  last  year.  The  addition  is 
considered  important,  as  antiquities  of  this  class  have 
not  hitherto  found  their  way  into  European  museums." 

"  Owing  to  the  great  rarity  of  these  monuments,  and 
the  uncertainty  of  the  correctness  of  the  transcripts 
hitherto  published,  which  have  been  made  by  travellers 
frequently  under  disadvantageous  circumstances,  it  has 
been  deemed  advisable  to  prepare  fac-similes  of  those  in 
the  British  Museum,  without  at  present  attempting  elabo- 
rate interpretation  or  literary  comment,  which  must  have 
delayed  the  publication." — Introductory  Remarks  to 
Himyaritic  inscriptions  printed  by  order  of  Hie  Trustees 
of  the  British  Museum,  1863. 

MIKAL  JOSEPH'S    STONES    FROM   MAEEB. 

The  details  of  information  concerning  the  inscrip- 
tions which  were  obtained  by  Mikal  Joseph,  the  colpor- 
teur, are  very  interesting.*  He  is  a  native  of  Bagdad,  who 
made  a  successful  but  most  hazardous  journey  to  Arabia, 
undertaken  for  the  sale  and  circulation  of  the  Scriptures, 
under  the  auspices  of  the  Bible  Society  for  Bombay. 

"  He  proceeded  in  the  first  instance  to  Aden,  where 
he  sold  342  Old  and  New  Testaments,  or  portions  of 
the  Bible  in  the  Arabic  and  Hebrew  languages, 
either  to  residents  or  visitors  of  that  station,  Moham- 
medans and  Jews  (of  Arabia),  or  Christians  (from 
Britain  and  India).  From  Aden  he  went  to  Mokha  and 
Hodeida,  on  the  shores  of  the  Eed  Sea. 

"  It  here  became  doubtful  whether  or  not  he  should 
venture  into  the  interior,  on  account  of  the  unsettled 

*  They  are  to  be  found  in  the  Eeport  of  the  British  and  Foreign 
Bible  Society  for  1863,  p.  169. 


INSCRIPTIONS    ON   STONES.  139 

state  of  the  country,  and  Major  Playfair,  the  acting  politi- 
cal agent  at  Aden,  who  took  a  very  kind  interest  in  his 
movements,  wrote  to  him  to  say  that  the  probability  was 
that  he  would  be  murdered  if  he  sought  to  fulfil  his  in- 
tention of  going  thither.  The  matter  was  left  to  his  own 
decision  by  the  Committee  of  the  Bombay  Bible  Society. 
He  did  resolve,  in  the  strength  of  God,  to  attempt  to 
penetrate  into  the  mountains  of  Arabia  Felix;  and 
though  not  without  difficulty,  he  got  safely  to  Sana, 
the  capital  of  the  province,  and  even  to  Mareb,  the  ancient 
Sheba  of  Scripture.  In  this  country  he  sold  243  copies 
of  the  Scriptures. 

"  In  the  ruins  of  the  castle  or  palace  of  this  ancient 
city  he  found  some  inscriptions  on  stone  in  the  Him- 
yaritic  character,"  says  the  Secretary,  "  like  those  I  had 
shown  him  in  '  The  Lands  of  the  Bible '  on  his  leaving 
Bombay ;  and  he  obtained  six  of  them,  which  he  carried 
with  him  on  his  leaving  for  the  coast.  They  very  much 
increased  the  danger  of  his  return  journey;  and  the  wild 
Arabs  of  the  hills,  on  more  than  one  occasion,  seemed 
about  to  take  his  life,  partly  on  their  account.  He  soon 
afterwards  wisely  parted  with  them,  committing  them  to 
the  care  of  Major  Playfair." 

These  stones,  obtained  at  such  hazard,  are  now  to  be 
seen  in  the  British  Museum,  and  from  the  Appendix  to 
the  "  Fac-similes"  above-named  we  extract  the  following 
particulars  concerning  them : — 

"Plate  xv. No.  30,  obtained  at  MAKES  by  MiJcal  Joseph. 
It  contains  the  name  of  Wahbil,  king  of  Saba,  and  there 
is  an  invocation  to  the  god  Dhu  Samawi,  "niattn,  the 
God  of  heaven." 

Plate  xvi.  No.  32,  from  MAREB,  brought  by  MiJcal 
Joseph.  "  The  deities  mentioned  in  this  inscription  seem 
to  be  Athtor,  Almakah,  and  Shems." 

A  third  of  these  stones,  also  from  MAREB,   appears 


X    §  O    Athtor,   f^j   p    CD  y  Haubas, 

D  1     rh    Almakah,  3  T  2  Y.X   HDhatKhamii 
2  4  t    ©  fl  I  X  H  Dhat  Badhanim, 


?  ®  2  Hi  H  ®  Dhu  Samawi. 
According  to  the  Alphabets  of  Roediger  and  Fresnel. 


THE    MUSNAD.  141 

to  give  the  names  of  kings  of  Saba  (Dhuraydan  and 
Alashrach) ;  but  on  three  or  four  out  of  the  six  brought 
by  the  colporteur,  there  is,  singular  to  say,  the  name  of 
Dhu  Samawi,  the  God  of  heaven.  This  reading,  it 
must  be  observed,  is  according  to  Fresnel's  alphabet, 
or  a  blending  of  Fresnel's  and  Roediger's,  whose  deri- 
vation we  shall  presently  show. 

Inscription,  Plate  xvn.  No.  34,  of  the  Museum  list, 
copied  on  our  opposite  page,  is  seven  inches  high,  and 
eleven  inches  long,  with  incised  letters.  It  is  a  dedi- 
cation to  several  divinities — Dhu  Samawi,  Athtor, 
Haubas,  Almakah,  Dhat  Khamin,  and  Dhat  Badhanim, 
names  known  from  other  inscriptions.  This  stone  also 
was  brought  from  Mareb  by  MiJcal  Joseph,  and  was 
purchased  from  the  Bible  Society.  All  the  names,  ex- 
cepting the  first  and  last,  are  to  be  found  in  an  inscrip- 
tion from  the  Harem  of  Balkis,  copied  by  Arnaud. 

The  tablets  presented  by  Colonel  Coghlan  seem 
chiefly  dedicated  to  Almakah. 

"The  Himyaritic  language,"  says  again  the  Ap- 
pendix to  the  facsimiles,  "is  so  called  from  having 
been  used  by  the  descendants  of  Himyar,  a  Joktanite 
king  of  Yemen.  It  is  named  Musnad  by  the  Arabic 
writers,  one  or  two  of  whom  are  said  to  have  preserved 
alphabets  of  the  character  with  the  corresponding  Arabic 
letters.  These  alphabets  have  formed  the  basis  of  the 
interpretation  of  the  inscriptions  as  far  as  it  has  been 
attempted  by  learned  Orientalists  in  Berlin  and  in  Lon- 
don. The  writing  is  in  horizontal  lines,  which  are  read 
from  right  to  left,  and  the  words  are  supposed  to  be 
separated  by  a  vertical  stroke. 

"  The  Himyaritic  is  considered  by  Arabic  authorities 
to  be  a  form  of  Arabic  that  preceded,  and  was  ultimately 
superseded  by,  the  Ishmaelite  Arabic,  or  language  of  the 


142  THE    SONS   OF  JOKTAN. 

Hedjaz.  The  Himyaritic  is  closely  allied  to  ETHIOPIC  and 
HEBBEW,  and  the  AMHAKIC  has  chiefly  helped  to  interpret 
it.  It  is  not  improbable  that  it  may  contain  remains 
of  the  language  of  the  earlier  races  of  Arabia,  such 
as  the  Adites  and  Amalekites." — Introductory  Remarks. 

THE    SONS   OF   JOKTAN. 

"  The  Mohammedan  writers  agree  in  setting  forth/' 
says  Dr.  Wilson  in  his  "  LANDS  OF  THE  BIBLE/'  vol.  ii. 
p.  652,  "  that  Kahtan,  or  Joktan,  the  son  of  Eber,  of 
Genesis  x.,  and  his  sons,  whose  names  are  still  attached 
to  different  provinces  in  the  south  of  Arabia,  settled  in 
that  country.  By  them,  as  by  Hud,  Heber,  or  B her,  their 
grandfather,  the  Patriarchal  faith  was  upheld  in  some 
degree  of  purity.  Kahtan  had  a  son  named  Tarab,  the 
inventor  of  the  Arabic  language,  from  whom  are  de- 
scended all  the  Arabs  of  Yemen.  Yarab  left  a  son 
called  Yashhab,  who  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Abd 
Shems,  '  an  adorer  of  the  sun.'  This  prince  had  several 
sons,  as  Kahtan,  Amru,  and  Hmyar.  From  the  latter 
of  these  were  descended  the  whole  race  of  princes  who 
reigned  inYemen  till  the  time  of  Islam." 

"  The  Himyaritic  princes  had  each  for  several  genera- 
tions their  own  special  provinces,  till  the  supreme  power 
was  concentrated  in  El  Hareth  ul  Rayesh,  who  assumed 
the  name  of  Tobba,  and  reigned  at  Sheba.  The  Queen 
of  Sheba,  who  visited  Solomon,  is  called  by  the  Arabs 
Balkis,  and  is  said  to  have  embraced  Judaism." 

1 '  All  Arabian  geographers  identify  the  present  Mareb, 
or  Saba,  the  capital  of  Sana,  with  Sheba."  The 
traditions  of  Arabia — "always  to  be  respected  where 
they  cannot  be  disproved" — hand  down  the  name  of 
Saba,  or  Sheba  (the  son  of  Joktan,  brother  of  Peleg, 
p.  112)  as  the  builder  of  the  far-famed  Dyke  of  Mareb. 


M.   ARNAULTS   DIFFICULTIES.  143 

They  speak  of  him  as  the  seventh  from  Noah,  and  first 
king  of  the  Sabeans. 

THE  RESEARCHES  OF  ARNAUD  AXD  FRESNEL. 

The  researches  of  M.  Arnaud  called  the  attention  of 
our  Continental  neighbours  to  this  subject  of  the  Him- 
yaritic  inscriptions  as  early  as  the  year  1844. 

It  was  at  that  time  still  more  difficult  than  at  present 
for  Europeans  to  penetrate  to  Mareb.  M.  Arnaud,  from 
the  Turkish  army  at  Mocha,  passed  as  French  physician 
into  the  service  of  the  Imaum  of  Sana,  in  Yemen.  He 
obtained  leave  to  visit  the  famous  Dyke,  which  realized 
all  that  had  been  told  of  it  in  Arabian  story.  Ho 
found  many  Himyaritic  inscriptions  in  the  e '  pillar-text" 
character  on  ruined  buildings,  and  some  even  on  the 
foundation  stones  of  the  Dyke  itself. 

It  was  with  immense  difficulty  that  he  persuaded  the 
Arabs  to  let  him  take  any  copies  of  these  inscriptions. 
Even  women  and  children  were  crying  out,  "Drive 
away  this  sorcerer,  this  infidel,  who  brings  misfortune 
with  him ;  all  the  evil  on  earth  may  come  to  us  through 
him ;  he  shall  not  copy  the  writings  on  our  stones." 

Notwithstanding  incessant  persecution  and  threats 
from  the  Bedouins,  who  promised  to  put  him  to  the 
torture  in  order  to  discover  the  secret  by  which  he 
was  going  to  find  and  carry  off  their  treasures,  M. 
Arnaud  did  succeed  in  copying  fifty-sis:  of  these  inscrip- 
tions at  Sana,  Keribah,  and  Mareb,  and  copies  of  them 
are  to  be  found,  with  a  very  interesting  account  of  his 
adventures,  in  the  JOURNAL  ASIATIQUE  for  1845,  fourth 
series,  torn.  v.  pp.  211 — 245,  309 — 345,  vol.  vi.  pp.  1G9 
—191 ;  and  in  the  same  journal,  vol.  vi.  pp.  194—237, 
386 — 398,  are  M.  Fresnel's  comments  upon  the  subject. 

"We  left  the  camp/'  says  M.   Arnaud,  "on  the 


144  THE  DYKE  INSCRIPTIONS. 

morning  of  the  18th  July,  1843,  and  turned  towards  the 
east  to  pursue  our  route  down  the  bed  of  the  torrent  of 
Dana,  between  the  two  mounts  of  Balak,  which  once 
formed  the  basin  of  the  Dyke." 

The  heat  of  the  sun  had  just  begun  to  make  itself 
felt  when  our  traveller  rejoiced  in  his  first  view  of  the 
ancient  foundations.  He  climbed  the  right  bank  of  the 
torrent,  encumbered  with  trees  and  dead  branches,  and 
found  himself  between  two  well-preserved  masses  of 
stone,  on  which,  were  many  inscriptions,  which  he 
hastened  to  copy  ;  and  after  three  days  of  earnest 
labour,  in  spite  of  the  Arabs  pointing  their  guns  at  him 
perpetually,  he  brought  away  fifty-six  inscriptions  in  all, 
but  he  declares  that  he  endured  more  anxiety  and  vexa- 
tion in  that  short  period  than  during  all  the  eleven  years 
he  had  passed  out  of  France. 

Several  of  these  inscriptions  were  in  one  line,  as 
follows,  and  will  form  studies  for  the  curious  :  — 


NO.  XT. 


NO.  XVI. 


<=>?[? 


NO.   XIX. 


These  and  many  others,  copied  by  M.  Arnaud 
at  Sana,  were  sent  to  the  Asiatic  Society  of  Paris  by 
M.  Fresnel,  the  consul  of  France  on  the  Eed  Sea,  and 
thus  were  brought  before  the  literati  of  Europe.  Gese- 
nius,  Eoediger,  and  Fresnel  himself,  each  formed  an 
alphabet,  taking  for  their  basis  two  forms  of  Himyaritic 


PEESNEI/S  ALPHABET. 


145 


TABLE  OF  FRESNEL'S  HIIIYABITIC  ALPHABET. 


a. 

9 
Ti 


9 
3' 

s 


o 

& 


vP 


OR 

0  a 

XZ 

SO 
Q 

nr 


HHJHHH 


G 

6 

JwTtfl 

*/       • 

UJ 


B 

IB 


* 


r^  P 


VVY 
t 

ctisjmcilon  1 

=  in 


w 

J 

I 
t 


0 

f 
3 

I 

m 
n 

e 
i 


146  FEESNEL'S  TRANSLATIONS. 

alphabets  which  they  found  in  Arabic  MSS.  in  the 
Library  of  Berlin. 

Frcsnel's  is  herewith  given,  with  its  English  and  Ara- 
bic equivalents.  Roediger's  almosts  entirely  resembles  it. 

From  their  united  decipherments  such  results  as  the 
following  have  been  attained,  but  none  of  more  import- 
ance : — 

Gesenius  reads — <{  The  King  of  the  Himyarites." 

Fresnel  reads — t{  Karibal,  great  chief,  surnamed 
Jehnam,  King  of  Saba,  and  Dhouraydoun,  son  of 
Dhamar'aly,  sub-chief,  and  Halkarmer,  son  of  Karibal, 
have  instituted  or  dedicated  three  measures  of  incense 
to  the  Divinity  Almakah,  for  the  health  and  the  pardon 
of  the  two  houses  of  Salhan  and  Halarnamib." — (See 
<c  Journal  Asiatique,"  Sept.  1843,  p.  219.)— 

fe  It  is  possible/'  says  the  Museum  Appendix,  "  that 
monuments  such  as  these,  full  of  invocations  to  idols, 
may  belong  to  the  earlier  times  of  the  empire.  Two 
inscriptions  have  been  discovered,  bearing  dates,  accord- 
ing to  Fresnel,  the  one  from  Sana,  573,  and  the  other 
from  Hisn  Ghorab,  640.  It  does  not  appear  to  have  been 
determined  from  what  era  these  dates  are  calculated." 

M.  Fresnel  tells  us  that  he  chiefly  occupied  himself 
in  seeking  the  names  of  Gods,  men,  and  places  in  these 
inscriptions,  and  that  he  perceives  a  repetition  of  the 
same  formula  in  many  of  them  at  the  end  of  the  text,  as 
if  they  were,  in  fact,  used  like  the  "•  bismillah"  in  all  the 
writings  of  the  Arabs  to  this  day.  He  considers  the  last 
three  names  in  each  formula  to  refer  to  feminine  deities, 
and  the  first  three  to  gods  masculine,  and  supposes  that 
then*  witness  is  evoked  by  the  writer  of  the  inscription. 

Some  light  is  thrown  on  these  subjects  by  the  Pre- 
liminary Discourse  to  the  KOEAN,  see  as  follows :— 


INUNDATION   OF   ARAM.  147 

"The  first  great  calamity  that  befell  the  tribes 
settled  in  Yemen  was  the  inundation  of  Aram,  which 
happened  soon  after  the  time  of  Alexander  the  Great, 
and  is  famous  in  Arabian  history.  Abdshems,  sur- 
named  Saba,  having  built  the  city  called  Saba  (and 
afterwards  Mareb),  made  a  vast  mound  or  dam  to  serve 
as  a  reservoir  for  the  water  that  came  down  from  the 
mountains.  This  building  stood  like  a  mountain  itself 
above  the  city,  and  was  esteemed  so  strong  that  it  could 
never  fail.  The  water  was  kept  in  on  every  side  by  a 
work  so  solid  that  many  houses  were  built  upon  it,  and 
every  family  had  a  certain  portion  of  the  water,  distri- 
buted by  aqueducts  ;  but  at  length  God  sent  a  mighty 
flood  which  broke  down  the  mound  by  night,  while  the 
people  slept,  and  carried  away  the  whole  city,  with  the 
neighbouring  towns  and  people. 

"The  tribes  which  remained  in  Yemen  after  this 
devastation  continued  till  seventy  years  before  Moham- 
med, when  Ethiopia  sent  forces  to  assist  the  Christians 
of  Yemen  against  the  cruel  persecutions  of  their  King 
Dhou  Nowas,  a  bigoted  Jew,  whom  they  forced  into  the 
sea.  Badhan,"  it  is  added,  "was  the  last  of  the 
Himyarite  princes  who  submitted  to  Mohammed,  and 
changed  his  religion."  (See  Dhat  Badhanim  on  the 
stone,  p.  138.) 

The  religion  of  the  Arabs  under  their  Himyaritic 
princes  seems  to  have  been  idolatrous  in  various  ways — 
as  Sabeans  they  worshipped  stars  and  angels — though 
merely  as  inferior  deities  and  mediators  with  God. 
They  called  the  Most  High  God  ALLAH,  and  subordi- 
nate deities  Al  Ilahat,  the  goddesses. 

It  was  from  this  gross  idolatry  or  worship  of  ' '  com- 
panions of  God,"  as  the  Arabs  continue  to  call  them, 
that  Mohammed  reclaimed  his  countrymen,  bringing 


148  ASHTOEETH. 

them  back  to  the  truth  that  "  there  is  but  one  God" 
though  he  added  to  it  the  falsehood,  "  and  Mohammed 
is  his  prophet."  He  is  said  to  have  destroyed  even  tho 
image  of  Abraham,  kept  sacred  in  the  Caaba. 

ATHTOE. 

By  FresnePs  alphabet  is  read  the  name  of  the  goddess 
N.  V  9  Q  ATHTOE,  on  the  newly-discovered  tablets, 
and  this  may  be  identified  with  Ashtoreth, 
known  to  us  as  the  goddess  of  the  Sidonians  and  Phoeni- 
cians, an  early  reference  to  whom  is  made  in  Scripture,  as 
far  back  as  1913  B.C.  In  Gen.  xiv.  5,  we  have  a  notice 
of  a  place  called  "  Ashteroth  Karnaim,"*  named  after 
the  idol  worshipped  there.  The  word  Karnaim  signifies 
horns,  and  the  literal  reading  would  be  "Ashteroth 
with  horns."  • 

On  either  side  of  a  granite  monument  of  the  time  of 
Thothmes  III.  (just  after  that  of  the  Exodus  of  Israel), 
at  the  end  of  the  Egyptian  Gallery  in  the  British  Museum, 
may  be  seen  a  figure  of  the  Egyptian  goddess  ATHOE, 
with  an  orb  upon  her  head,  enclosed  within  horns, 
pointing  upwards. 

"  The  goddess  Astarte  of  the  Greeks,  a  later  form 
of  Ashteroth,  is  said  to  have  placed  upon  her  own  head 
the  head  of  a  bull,  as  the  sign  of  royalty.  She  repre- 
sented THE  MOON,  as  Adonis  did  the  sun ;  and  her  horns 
are  also  the  horns  of  a  new  or  crescent  moon.  Orpheus 
styled  her  '  the  bull-horned  moon/ — thus  the  original 

*  This  place  is  generally  supposed  to  be  the  same  as  Tell  Ashtereh, 
about  ten  miles  east  of  Tiberias.  Og,  King  of  Bashan,  the  last  of  the 
gigantic  Rephaim  princes,  reigned  in  Ashteroth  (Gen.  xiv.  5 ;  Josh, 
xii.  4),  and  in  the  division  of  the  land  afterwards  (1  Chron.  vi.  71)  i* 
was  given  to  the  sons  of  Gershom,  the  son  of  Levi. 


DOAN  AND  HADRAMAUT.  149 

of  the  crescent-crowned  Astarte  was  an  object  of  worship 
as  far  back  as  the  times  of  Abraham."* 

Phoenicians  may  not  only  have  brought  their  lan- 
guage and  their  system  of  writing  it,  but  their  idolatries, 
it  seems,  from  South  Arabia  or  Egypt.  M.  Fresnel 
wishes  to  lay  especial  stress  on  the  ethnological  fact  that 
from  the  very  earliest  age  Doan  and  Hadramaut,  in 
South  Arabia,  sent  forth  colonies  on  all  sides,  to  Asia, 
Africa,  and  even  Europe,  receiving  none  in  return,  the 
ancient  tribe  of  "  AD,"  of  which  all  Arabian  tradition 
speaks,  alone  continuing  to  dwell  within  their  own  border. 
"  This  tribe  had  for  a  prophet  Heber,  one  of  Abra- 
ham's ancestors,  who  gave  his  name  to  the  Hebrews, 
and  whom  the  Arabs  call  Houd.  From  Yemen  emi- 
grated the  finest  specimens  of  the  human  race — the  red 
men  of  Himyar,  Edom,  and  Erythrea,  ever  radiating 
towards  the  limit  of  the  black  and  the  white  races." 
("  Journal  Asiatique,"  p.  393,  vol.  vi.)  "At  forty  leagues 
from  Zhafar  there  is  a  mountain  called  by  the  inhabitants 
of  Mareb  '  Nous,'  near  which  is  found,  not  the  KABE 
HOUD,  or  tomb  of  Heber,  but  the  KABE  SALEH,  or  the 
tomb  of  the  Father  of  Heber." 

ALMAKAH. 

We  may  take  notice  of  another  name  in  the  inscrip- 
tions, Almaltdh,  y1  &  Tj  A  *1_  — on  which  neither 
Scripture  nor  the  Greek  mythology  seem  to  throw  any 
light ;  but  as  the  names  of  kings  and  queens  as  well 
as  gods  are  supposed  to  be  given,  this  may  be  either ; 
— and  Balkamah,  or  Balkis,  the  Arab  name  for  the 
Queen  of  the  South,  the  Queen  of  Sheba,  has  been 
suggested  as  its  rendering. 

*  See  "  Palestine,"  by  the  Kev.  II.  S.  Osburn,  of  America.    Triibner, 
1859. 


150  PEIMEVAL  ARABIC. 

THE  PRIMEVAL  ARABIC. 

"  Alas,  there  is  more  than  one  language/'  says  Sir 
George  Cornewall  Lewis,  "  whose  letters  are  as  legible  as 
a  modern  newspaper,  but  which  we  cannot,  nevertheless, 
interpret.  This  may  be  said  of  the  Etruscan,  the  Lycian, 
the  Oscan,  and  other  South  Italian  dialects,  in  which  the 
efforts  of  the  most  accomplished  linguists  have  proved 
utter  failures." 

But  is  it  possible  that  we  have  left  unnoticed  some 
ancient  key,  that  would  lead  to  the  true  decipherment  of 
all  yet  unread  Semitic  tongues ;  and  might  not  this  key  be 
found  in  the  first  language  spoken  by  the  Arkite  family, 
forlOOyears  after  the  flood?  "One  people,  of  one  speech," 
they  remained,  until  the  days  of  Peleg,  and  the  building 
of  Babel.  Then  their  language  was  "  confounded,"  and 
the  choice  of  the  line  of  Shem  immediately  follows. 
If  Noah,  Arphaxad,  Salah,  and  Heber,  are  distinctly 
traced  in  the  traditions  of  Southern  Arabia,  where  else 
should  we  look  for  their  primeval  language  ? 

The  following  allusions,  in  the  Preliminary  Discourse 
to  the  Koran,  to  "  ancient  monuments  "  of  the  first 
language  of  the  Arabians,  are  of  much  value  now  that 
the  antique  stones,  of  which  this  chapter  treats,  are  at 
last  presented  to  the  eyes  of  the  Western  world. 

"The  Arabians  greatly  commend  their  language  as 
so  harmonious,  expressive,  and  copious,  that  no  man 
unless  possessed  of  inspiration  can  become  perfect 
master  of  it.  They  tell  us  that  the  greater  part  of  it 
has  been  lost,  which  is  not  strange,  considering  that  in 
this  very  old  character  so  little  was  written.  They  add 
that  it  was  known  to  Job,  their  countryman,  and  also  to 
the  Himyarites,  who  called  the  characters  '  El  Musnad ;' 
but  the  art  of  writing  it  was  '  not  publicly  taught,  nor 
indeed  suffered  to  be  used  except  with  permission.' 


MOHAMMED  AND   THE    KORAN.  151 

Mention  is  then  made  of  a  few  of  the  ancient  monuments 
existing  in  this  character,  of  which,  however,  '  most  of 
the  Arabs,  and  those  of  Mecca  in  particular,  were  for 
many  ages  perfectly  ignorant/  It  is  added  that  Mora- 
mer,  of  a  city  of  Irak,  invented  the  modern  Arabic 
character  a  little  while  before  the  institution  of  Moham- 
medanism. His  letters  were  quite  different  to  the 
Himyaritic,  and  though  rude,  very  much  like  the  Cufic. 
The  fragments  of  the  Koran  itself  were  at  first  written 
in  Moramer's  letters,  which  are  clumsy  and  inelegant, 
consisting  mostly  of  straight  strokes,  and  evidently  de- 
rived from  the  Estrangelo  Syriac  alphabet.  These  pro- 
fessed 'revelations*  were  originally  handed  about  on 
palm-leaves  and  pieces  of  parchment,  and  were  not  col- 
lected into  a  volume  until  two  years  after  the  death  of  the 
prophet,  at  the  age  of  sixty-three,  about  A.D.  634." 

Mohammed  began  to  retire  to  the  cave  of  Heva  to 
write  these  fragments  after  his  marriage  with  Khadija, 
in  his  thirtieth  year ;  and  it  is  very  singular  that  the  date 
of  the  inspiration  of  this  False  Book  was  at  the  close 
of  "seven  times,"  or  about  2520  years  from  the  call  of 
Abraham,  who  is  always  in  the  Koran  presented  as  the 
prototype  of  a  true  believer  (1921  B.C.  +  599  A.D.  = 
2520).  Adam,  Noah,  Abraham,  Moses,  and  CHRIST  are 
all  held  up  as  rising  in  authority  and  station — in  their 
due  gradation  one  above  another — but  "  Mohammed  is 
the  last  and  most  illustrious  apostle  of  all,  and  with  him 
the  divine  missions  cease."  He  travelled  at  this  period 
both  into  Syria  and  Southern  Arabia,  and,  it  may  be, 
adapted  or  rejected  what  truth  he  pleased  from  the 
communications  of  a  Nestorian  monk,  but  left  out  the 
heart  and  soul  of  all  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures — THE 
COMING  SAVIOUK — and  set  up  himself  in  its  stead. 

The  construction  of  the  Koran  can  be  looked  upon, 
as  a  matter  of  no  light  moment.  It  was  Satan's  finished 


152  TWO  TEIBES   OP  AEABIA. 

lie  for  the  Eastern  world,  his  imitation  of  the  Revelation 
of  God ;  and  fabulous  as  much  of  it  is,  it  has  sufficed 
to  keep  back  Christ  from  all  the  Arabic  speaking  nations 
for  the  latter  half  of  the  times'  of  the  Gentiles,  even  for 
the  space  of  1260  years. 

At  a  hundred  and  thirty-seven  years  old  Ishmael 


TUB  ABAB    SHEIKH. 


died  (Gen.  xxv.  17),  and  was  "  gathered  to  his  people  j" 
whence  some  have  hoped  he  passed  away  in  the  patri- 
archal faith  to  the  patriarchal  blessing ;  and  for  ages  his 
land  of  Arabia  continued  to  be  divided  between  the 
tribes  of  the  Himyar  and  the  Koreish ;  the  latter  claim- 
ing direct  descent  from  Ishmael,  the  others  from  Joktan. 
Mohammed  was  the  son  of  a  most  distinguished  branch 
of  the  Koreish,  and  his  grandfather  and  uncle  were 
chief  priests  of  the  Caaba ;  under  his  influence  and  that 
of  his  book,  the  old  vernacular  language  of  the  older 
tribes,  the  Himyaritic,  merged  into  the  one  dialect  of 
the  Koreish,  superseded  in  the  tenth  century  by  the 


THE   ARABIAN    THEEAD.  153 

Nishki,  which  has  ever  since  remained  in  use,  not  only 
among  those  nations  who  write  Arabic,  font  also  among 
the  Turks  and  Persians. 

When  Henry  Martyn  spoke  of  undertaking  a  ver- 
sion of  the  NEW  TESTAMENT  in  Arabic,  he  said,  "  We  shall 
then  begin  to  preach  in  Arabia,  Syria,  Persia,  Tartary, 
part  of  India  and  China,  half  of  Africa,  and  to  all  the 
seacoasts  of  the  Mediterranean,  and  Turkey — and  one 
tongue  shall  suffice  for  them  all." 

Still,  therefore,  beside  the  long  lines  of  earth's  his- 
tory, almost  since  the  flood,  runs  the  Arabian  thread. 
The  voice  of  the  Lord  spoke  to  Hagar  in  the  wilderness 
of  Shur,  by  the  well  Beer-lahai-roi — "  the  well  of  Him 
that  liveth  and  seeth" — and  foretold  that  her  child 
"  would  be  a  wild-man — his  hand  against  every  man, 
and  every  man's  hand  against  him,  and  that  he  should 
dwell  in  the  presence  of  all  his  brethren."  Therefore 
he  outlives  the  kingdoms  of  Israel  and  Judah,  and  all 
the  kingdoms  of  Daniel's  dream,  with  his  shifting  sands 
for  a  throne,  and  his  camels  and  his  palm-trees  for  a 
possession.  "  Abraham,  ISHMAEL,  Isaac,  and  Jacob,"  is 
the  way  he  reads  his  genealogy ;  he  excuses  his  robberies 
of  those  who  cross  his  path,  by  saying,  "  When  Ishnaael 
was  turned  out  of  doors  by  his  father  Abraham,  he  had 
the  open  plains  and  deserts  given  him  by  God  for  his 
patrimony,  with  permission  to  possess  whatever  he 
could  find  there."  So  that  instead  of  confessing  that  ho 
"  robs,"  he  only  thinks  he  "  gains,"  and  in  his  own  camp 
nothing  is  ever  known  to  be  stolen. 

"Ye  are  an  intermediate  nation,  O  Arabians," 
said  their  lawgiver  to  them,  "  witnesses  against  the  rest 
of  mankind  !  Wherever  ye  be  turn  your  faces  towards 
the  holy  temple  of  Mecca." 

Still  therefore  on  the  sands  his  followers  spread  their 


154 


TEAVELS    IN    THE   NEJED. 


prayer-carpet — truly  witnesses  against  any  of  the  disciples 
of  a  better  Master  who  neglect  to  commune  with  HIM, 
the  Ever  Present. 

A  recent  traveller  (Mr.  Gifford  Palgrave)  has  pene- 
trated, at  the  risk  of  his  life,  into  the  recesses  of  the 
Nejed,  the  great  central  plateau  of  Arabia.  He  has 
lately  returned  to  England  after  an  absence  of  eighteen 


IIOHIMMBDAW    HOUB    OP    PKATE3. 


years,  having  been  long  accustomed  to  converse  in 
nothing  but  Arabic.  He  lately  crossed  in  disguise,  as  a 
wandering  doctor,  from  Gaza,  in  Southern  Syria,  to  Oman, 
in  the  south-east  of  Arabia.  He  wishes  to  dispel  the 
illusion  which  confuses  the  idea  of  the  wandering  Be- 
douin with  that  of  the  Arab  proper,  and  tells  us  that 
those  nomads  merely  encircle  a  more  settled  central 
kingdom,  in  which  exist  cities  with  20,000  inhabitants, 
with  their  shops,  bazaars,  and  mosques,  tasteful  streets, 
and  three-storied  houses.  The  kingdom  of  the  Waha- 


ME.   PALGKAVE   IN   OMAN.  155 

bites  is  mentioned,   and   Hail,   the   capital   of  Djebel 
Schomur ;  its  monarch  is  called  the  Sultan  of  the  Nejed. 

A  most  severe  code  of  Mohammedanism  has  been 
revived  at  this  centre  within  the  last  hundred  years, 
showing  what  Islamism  must  have  been  in  the  palmy 
days  of  its  early  enthusiasm.  Yet,  on  the  other  hand, 
says  Mr.  Palgrave,  "  my  being  a  Christian,  of  which  I 
made  no  secret,  subjected  me  to  no  inconvenience. 
Except  in  the  large  towns,"  he  adds,  "  Islamism  is  any- 
thing but  obtrusive,  and  it  is  usually  intermingled  with 
certain  superstitious  observances  strongly  suggestive  of 
a  lingering  trace  of  the  old  Sabean  worship  of  the  sun, 
which  existed  before  Mohammed  drove  out  Paganism. 

(t  In  Northern  Arabia  the  people  pray  as  the  first 
ray  of  the  sun  rises  above  the  horizon,  and  so  continue 
till  his  whole  disc  is  clear,  and  again  in  the  evening, 
reversing  the  order,  of  course.  This  is  a  ritual  which  is 
stringently  prohibited  in  the  Koran." 

Again,  in  Oman  (in  the  South)  Mr.  Palgrave 
found  that  the  people  were  in  the  habit  of  praying  not 
to  the  sun  at  east  or  west,  but  with  their  faces  to  the 
north ;  and  on  inquiry,  he  learned  to  his  surprise  that 
the  name  they  applied  to  the  north  star  was  that  very 
same  mysterious  title  JAH,  assumed  by  the  Almighty  to 
Himself  in  the  book  of  Exodus.  This  he  was  inclined 
to  attribute  to  the  idea  of  fixity  which,  in  their  ignorance 
of  modern  astronomy,  they  would  probably  attribute  to 
the  only  star  that  seemed  to  them  always  to  occupy  the 
same  place.  In  conclusion,  Mr.  Palgrave  remarked 
that  all  Anti-Islamitic  nations  were  always  to  be  found 
in  the  East,  nestled  among  the  mountains.* 

A  very  curious  record  in  relation  to  the  above  may  be 

*  See  also  the  hill  tribes  of  India,  as  distinct  from  the  Buddhists  and 
Brahmins. 


156  WOESHIP   OF  THE  NOETH   STAR. 

seen  in  "  The  Illustrated  Translation  of  the  Book  of  Job" 
(referred  to  at  p.  126  of  this  vol.)  In  the  notes  on  Job 
xxxi.  there  is  reference  to  Sanchoniathon,  the  oldest  Pho3- 
nician  writer,  who  tells  us  that  the  first  inhabitants  of 
Phoenicia  raised  their  hands  to  heaven,  towards  the  sun, 
whom  they  regarded  as  sole  master  of  the  heavens,  and 
honoured  under  the  name  of  Beel  or  Baal  Samin  (Lord 
of  heaven).  The  tribe  of  Himyar  was  consecrated  to 
the  sun.  An  ancient  Arabic  author,  Abulfarage  (Hist. 
Dyn.,  p.  1 84),  relates  that  the  Sabeans,  when  they  pray, 
turn  towards  the  north  pole.  They  pray  three  times 
a  day — at  the  rising  of  the  sun,  at  mid- day,  and  at 
sunset — and  they  bow  three  times  before  that  star.  What 
singular  illustrations  have  the  last  ten  years  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  brought  to  light  of  the  times  of  Job  !  This 
order  of  worship  that  the  Patriarch  disclaims : 

"  If  I  should  see  the  sun  when  it  shineth, 
Or  the  moon  walking  splendidly, 
And  my  heart  should  be  secretly  enticed, 
And  my  hand  should  kiss  my  mouth, 

That  also  would  be  an  iniquity  [to  be  dealt  with  by]  the  judges ; 
For  I  should  hare  denied  the  God  Most  High." 

EELATION   BETWEEN    THE   HIMYAEITIC   AND   SANSCEIT 
ALPHABETS. 

The  Ishmaelite  Arabs  of  Northern  Arabia  are 
named  in  Scripture  as  the  earliest  caravan  merchants ; 
Joseph's  brethren  sold  him  to  the  Midianite  merchant- 
men (in  Dothan,  near  to  Shechem),  and  they  brought 
Joseph  into  Egypt,  Gen.  xxxvii.  28.  The  Joktanite 
Arabs  of  the  south  appear  to  have  been  the  chief  traders 
of  the  Red  Sea,  "  sea- faring  Arabs,"  carrying  their  com- 
merce to  the  shores  of  India  and  even  China  also  ;  and 
if  they  carried  their  commerce  into  some  parts  of  India, 
and  possibly  colonized  there,  some  very  curious  proof 
exists  that  they  also  carried  the  Semitic  alphabet. 


HIMYABITIC   AND    SANSCRIT.  157 

This  may  be  found  in  "  Essays  on  Indian  Antiqui- 
ties/' by  the  late  Jas.  Prinsep,  F.R.S.,  among  his  "  Mo- 
difications of  the  SANSCRIT  alphabet,  ranging  in  date 
from  543  B.C.  to  1200  A.D."—  a  work  edited  by  Mr.  B. 
Thomas. 

The  first  of  these  alphabets  is  of  the  era  of  the  rise 
of  Buddhism  in  the  fifth  century  before  Christ,  and  we 
give  it  as  follows,  with,  the  value  of  the  letters  as  deci- 
phered by  Mr.  Prinsep  :  — 

OLD  SANSCBIT  ALPHABET. 


KCOWI 

k  k  hg  gh.  n   ch.  chh,  j    jh,    n    t    th    d    dh.    n 


A©  13  DJ_l  toDn 

tth.ddh.npph.bbh.   my     r    Ivhs 

The  likeness  of  fourteen  of  the  above  letters  to  four- 
teen of  the  Himyaritic  alphabet  will  strike  the  eye  of 
th.e  most  cursory  observer,  but  it  does  not  appear  that 
their  powers,  as  at  present  explored,  are  in  the  least 
similar  :  — 


SANSCBIT. 


K   U 


6  O  4-   I  C  H  A 
£  D  I-4  A 

HmrAEi: 

90  x  I  (  h 
n1  K  fl 


HIMTAEITIC. 


158  INDO-EUKOPEAN  LANGUAGES. 

MODERN  SANSCEIT. 


cfff  ^T 


ACTS  ii.  11.* 

This  likeness  of  form  would  not  have  been  perceived 
from  the  present  Sanscrit  letters  (the  Devanagiri),  the 
form  in  which  this  ancient  language  was  found  existent 
in  the  last  century  of  our  era  ;  —  when  the  successes  of  the 
British  in  India  led  to  the  examination  of  its  monu- 
mental remains,  and  the  Stones  and  Rocks  of  Girnar 
and  Asoka  in  Hindustan  —  as  well  as  the  fragile  leaves  of 
the  palm  tree  carefully  concealed  in  temples  —  gave  up 
their  treasures  to  the  researches  of  the  lamented  Prinsep, 
and  created  a  new  era  in  the  science  of  language. 

The  SANSCRIT  was  then  declared  to  be  the  missing 
link  in  the  chain  of  causes  and  effects.  The  gramma- 
tical principles  on  which  it  was  based  were  found  to 
pervade  the  Greek,  the  Latin,  the  German,  the  Icelandic, 
and  in  fact  all  the  tongues  now  called  "  Indo-European," 
and  yet  the  Sanscrit  was  not  their  mother  tongue. 
Professor  Max  Miiller  admits  it  was  only  their  elder 
sister.  It  sprung  from  the  same  stem  as  they  did,  and 
this  stem  he  pronounces  Aryan  or  Japhetic,  while  at 
the  same  time  he  declares  it  not  impossible  that  Aryan 
and  Semitic,  though  distinct  families  of  languages,  may 
have  had  a  common  origin. 

All  the  present  alphabets  of  Northern  and  Southern 
India,  from  Thibet  to  Ceylon,  might  be  traced  back 
through  various  gradations  to  the  oldest  form  of  the 
Sanscrit  in  the  Inscriptions  of  Asoka.  According  to  the 
statement  of  the  Northern  Buddhists,  the  first  written 

*  We  owe  this  specimen  to  the  kindness  of  Mr.  Watts,   Crown 
Court,  Temple  Bar. 


THE   PATEIAECH  EBEE.  159 

edition  of  their  sacred  books  appeared  only  in  the  first 
century  B.C.,  notwithstanding  their  previous  use  of 
characters  for  monumental  purposes. 

The  likeness  of  the  OLD  SANSCRIT  letters  to  the 
HIMYAEITIC  is  surely  much  closer  than  to  the  PHOENICIAN, 
which  they  have  been  formerly  supposed  to  resemble  (see 
p.  84). 

THE    PATEIAECH    EBEE. 

On  the  whole  it  is  very  interesting  for  readers  of 
the  Bible  to  trace  and  connect  the  scattered  notices  of 
the  Patriarchal  Races  in  the  Sacred  Volume,  as  distinct 
from  the  CHOSEN  PEOPLE  OP  ISEAEL. 

EBEE  first  stands  out  after  the  flood  as  seventh  from 
Enoch  (who  was  seventh  from  Adam),  and  is  similarly  a 
prophet  and  a  teacher,  but  it  is  in  Southern  Arabia. 
Eber  outlives  Shem,  his  great  grandfather,  by  thirty- 
one  years, — is  in  fact  the  longest  liver  after  the  flood, 
and  is  the  ancestor  of  both  the  Arabs  and  the  Hebreivs. 
He  outlives  Abraham  by  four  years.  His  own  son 
PELEO-  stands  midway  between  Noah  and  Abraham.  In 
the  days  of  Peleg  came  "  division,"  in  the  days  of 
Abraham  "  choice."  Eber  sees  both,  and  Eber  must 
certainly  have  spoken  the  primitive  Ark-language. 
Eber  dies  not  till  1817  B.C.  As  he  was  seventh  from 
Enoch,  he  sees  ISAAC  born,  the  seventh  from  himself — 
"the  child  of  promise."  Eber  dwells  on  the  earth 
ninety-three  years  with  Ishmael,  seventy-nine  with 
Isaac,  nineteen  with  Jacob  and  Esau,  but  he  has  passed 
away  before  Joseph  or  Job,  and  if  tradition  may  be 
trusted,  his  dwelling  was  among  his  Joktanite  descen- 
dants, whose  settlements,  marked  in  Gen.  x.,  are  dis- 
tinct to  this  day,  and  who,  receiving  Ishmael  and  Esau 
into  their  Arabian  stock,  were  the  fathers  of  the  Arabs 
— the  "  mingled  people." 


160  INDIA. 

THE   PEOPLING  OP    INDIA. 

"  The  Big  Veda/'  says  Dr.  Margoliouth,  in  a  lecture 
on  India  and  the  Indians,  ' '  terms  the  aborigines  of  this 
country,  among  other  names,  Asooras.  I  am  persuaded 
they  have  several  different  ancestors  in  the  patriarchs 
who  peopled  the  earth,  not  long  after  the  Flood.  There 
is  probably  a  relation  between  the  Asooras,  and  the 
Asshurim  of  Scripture.  In  the  inscriptions  of  Nineveh, 
Asshur  is  invariably  written  Asura.  The  Bible  mentions 
three  families  of  that  name  :  first,  as  descended  from  Ham 
(Gen.  x.  11)— 

'  Out  of  that  land  [Shinar]  went  forth  Asshur,  and  builded  Mneyeh.' 
Secondly,  as  descended  from  Shem  (Gen.  x.  22) — 

'  The  children  of  Shem  ;  Elam,  and  Asshur.' 
Thirdly,  from  Abraham  by  Keturah  (Gen.  xxv.  3)— 

*  And  the  SODJ  of  Dedan  [her  grandson]  were  Asshurim,'  etc. 

"  I  would  suggest,  that  these  respective  Asooras 
successively  found  their  way  into  the  vast  continent, 
which  we  call  India.  We  still  find  a  trace  of  the  name 
in  the  "  Soora "  tribe  of  Orissa  j  the  physiognomies  of 
the  aborigines  are  very  varied.  When  the  children  of 
Abraham  followed  the  descendants  of  Ham  and  Shem 
into  those*  regions,  we  can  account  for  the  high  sounding 
Brahma ;  the  last  invaders  knew  that  Abraham  warf  the 
friend  of  God,  and  their  offspring  eventually,  through 
ignorance,  made  a  god  of  him.  Later  Brahmins  conjured 
up  the  fable  of  the  egg,"  etc. 

The  greater  part  of  the  posterity  of  Abraham,  were  a 
"  mingled  people  "  who  were  all  to  stand  by,  and  see 
the  fulfilment  of  the  promise  to  their  ancestor — "  In 
Isaac  shall  thy  seed  be  called." 

"The  kindreds,  places,   and  times,"   says    Queen 


TABLE   OF   CHRONOLOGY. 


161 


Elizabeth's  old  "  Consent  of  Scripture  "  "  are  the  lights 
of  the  narrations  of  the  Bible,  and  are  registered  so  pro- 
fitably that  it  should  be  blasphemy  to  affirm  any  one  of 
them  idle."  Yet  how  are  these  lost  by  the  wilful  varia- 
tions of  the  chronology  of  the  Septuagint  translation  ! 

We  subjoin  a  table  of  Archbishop  Usher's  chrono- 
logy up  to  the  death  of  Moses,  calculated  by  the 
verbal  statements  of  the  Hebrew  Bible,  to  enable  every 
careful  reader  of  these  pages  to  reckon  easily  the  pos- 
sible juxtaposition  of  the  patriarchal  lives. 

TABLE   OF   ARCHBISHOP   USHER^S   CHRONOLOGY. 


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600 
98 

... 

... 

... 

350 
500 

1998 
1848 

950 
598 

Arphaxad 

'"2 

2346 

... 

440 

1908 

438 

Salah  . 

37 

2311 

... 

470 

1878 

433 

Eber  . 

67 

2281 

... 

531 

1817 

464 

Peleg  . 

.. 

101 

2247 

... 

340 

2008 

239 

Reu  . 

.. 

131 

2217 

... 

370 

1978 

239 

Serug  . 

.. 

163 

2185 

..« 

393 

1955 

230 

Nahor 

193 

2155 

... 

34,1 

2007 

148 

Terah  . 

.. 

222 

2126 

... 

427 

1921 

205 

Abraham 

,, 

352 

1996 

•»» 

527 

1821 

175 

Ishmael 

..  . 

438 

1910 

... 

575 

1773 

137 

Isaac  . 

452 

1896 

632 

1716 

180 

(Jacob 

512 

1836 

... 

659 

1689 

147 

lEsau 
Joseph 

512 
603 

1836 
1745 

Supposed 

659 
713 

1689 
1635 

147 
110 

Job  . 

597 

1751 

Supposed 

837 

1511 

240 

Levi  . 

.. 

598 

1750 

... 

735 

1613 

137 

Kohath 

623 

1725 

... 

756 

1592 

133 

Amram 

702 

1646 

... 

839 

1509 

137 

Moses 

777 

1571 

... 

897 

1451 

120 

162  THE  BOOK  OP  THE  DESEET. 

May  a  diligent  recurrence  to  the  Hebrew  dates  tend 
to  lead  our  readers  to  a  fresh  delight  in  the  Book  of 
Job,  the  true  "  book  of  the  Chronicles  "  of  this  early  time, 
which  gathers  together  all  the  knowledge  of  God  in- 
herited by  the  men  of  the  Arabian  desert.  What  light 
does  that  book  throw  on  the  ethnological  records  of 
Genesis  ?  "  The  Desert  of  Sinai,"  by  Dr.  Bonar,  gives 
a  fair  introduction  to  its  beauties.  He  says  : — 

"  There  is  no  book  in  the  Bible  which  so  necessarily 
requires  illustration  from  desert  scenes  and  desert 
customs  as  does  that  of  Job ;  and  for  the  reader  who 
has  dwelt  for  a  few  weeks  among  these,  this,  book 
assumes  a  double  interest  and  attraction.  Two  or  three 
times  in  the  course  of  every  chapter  he  lights  upon 
words,  figures,  and  allusions  which  seem  robbed  of  half 
their  point  and  power  when  interpreted  in  connection 
with  European  or  even  with  Syrian  ways,  and  laws,  and 
scenery. 

"  From  the  first  chapter  to  the  last,  the  Book  of 
Job  is  the  book  of  the  tent  and  the  desert,  as  truly  as 
Ecclesiastes  is  the  book  of  the  palace,  Proverbs  the 
book  of  the  city,  Canticles  the  book  of  the  garden, 
Romans  the  book  of  the  forum,  Hebrews  the  book  of 
the  altar,  and  the  Apocalypse  the  book  of  the  temple/* 


MK.  FOBSTER'S  RESEARCHES.  1G3 


CHAPTER  YIL 

THE  STONES  OP  ARABIA,  ANOTHER  READING. 

AL     KASWlNl's      KEY — MR.     FORSTER'S      FRIENDS — INSCRIPTION     ON     HISX 

GHORAB THE  TRIBE    OF  AD — THE  MUSNAD — MR.  FORSTER'S  ALPHABET 

THE  PASS  OF  HAGAR THE  SECOND  POEM — DATES  ON  INSCRIPTIONS — 

THE    DYKE    OF   MAREB— ARABIAN  PRINCESS'S  EPITAPH — JOB'S  DESCRIP- 
TION   OF    THE   PRICE    OF   "WISDOM — THE     EKKILI — ETHIOI'IC   ALPHABET 

TABLE       OF       MR.       MOON'S         CHINESE      AND       ARABIC       ALPHABETS 

BIBLE   FOR     THE    BLIND THE   FRUITS    IN   ARABIA    AND    CHINA. 

>)N  the  last  chapter  we  collected,  as  we  imagine,  all 
the  present  information  on  the  subject  of  Him- 
yaritic  inscriptions,  which  will  be  considered 
authentic  by  some  of  our  readers;  but  whatever 
be  the  date  of  the  most  recently  discovered 
tablets  and  stones,  it  cannot  be  denied  that  this 
subject  conducts  us  to  very  ancient  associations,  for  we 
have  gone  back  to  Noah, — and  the  leap  into  the 
<c  mystical "  will  not  be  so  great  if  we  now  venture  to 
present  Mr.  Forster's  researches  concerning  the  Rock  of 
Hisn  Ghorab.  By  a  different  alphabet,  and  with  what 
he  calls  "  Al  Kaswini's  key,"  he  has  obtained  results 
which  are  certainly  much  more  "  telling"  than  those  of 
Fresnel;  and,  notwithstanding  the  storm  of  prejudice 
which  for  a  dozen  years  has  burst  upon  his  devoted 
head,  he  has  now  published  two  new  books  on  this 
his  favourite  subject,  and  continues  to  maintain  his 
ground. 

The  Rev.  Charles  Forster,  B.D.  is  no  unknown  novice ; 


164  HIS   FRIENDS   AND   DEFENDERS. 

his  " Mahometanism  Unveiled/'  and  his  "Geography 
of  Arabia/'  had  long  been  considered  standard  works  ; 
yet,  for  the  sake  of  strangers  to  his  writings,  it  is  per- 
haps necessary  to  mention  that  his  <f  Voice  of  Israel "  has 
been  so  marked  by  the  ban  of  modern  scholars  that  many 
have  been  prevented  from  reading  it.  Yet  he  is  a  man  of 
deep  learning  and  piety.  One  of  the  six  preachers  of  Canter- 
bury cathedral,  and  Eector  of  Stisted,  Essex,  he  was  the 
intimate  friend  of  Bishop  Jebb,  and  presents  his  readers 
with  an  autograph  attestation  of  the  interest  of  the  late 
Archbishop  Howley  in  all  that  he  advances ;  Lord  Lynd- 
hurst,  no  mean  judge  of  evidence,  was  on  his  side ;  also 
Lord  Harrowby  and  Sir  E.  H.  Inglis.  These  may  be  men- 
tioned as  well  known  names ;  the  research  must  stand  on 
its  own  merits,  and  with  Mr.  Forster  it  is  no  mere  question 
of  literature.  He  is  truly  a  defender  of  the  faith  against 
the  rationalistic  tendencies  of  the  age,  and  the  investiga- 
tions on  which  he  has  bestowed  an  earnest  life  are  well 
worth  some  of  the  time  which  is  often  unsparingly 
lavished  on  lighter  topics ;  though,  perhaps,  we  may 
admit  that  the  enthusiastic  way  in  which  he  announced 
his  discovery  of  the  Sinaitic  alphabet  has  aided  to  preju- 
dice the  cool  heads  of  those  who  merely  open  and  skim 
his  book,  and  laugh  at  his  superstructure  as  "  too  good 
to  be  true,"  without  patience  to  examine  his  argu- 
ments.* 

When  Mr.  Forster  first  heard  of  the  inscription 
on  the  Rock  of  Hisn  Ghorab,  he  was  employed  upon 
"The  Geography  of  Arabia,"  for  which  he  had  had 
occasion  to  consult  old  Arabic  authorities,  among 
others,  Schultens.  The  tidings  of  Captain  Haines's  in- 

*  See  "The  Voice  of  Israel  on  the  Eocks  of  Sinai,"  1852;  and 
"Sinai  Photographed,"  1862.  Eichard  Eentky,  New  Burlington 
Street. 


POEM   ON    HISN    GHOEAB.  165 

0  „     scription,  reported  in  the  travels  of 

el,  jX-  Wellsted,  recalled  to  his    memory 
&Z  a  rare   tract   of  Schultens — whose 

tt  ~*  title  was    "Monumenta  Vetustiora 

°  i  I-H  Arabiee,"  which  spoke  of  engraved 

^     £jj  °     marbles    among   ruined  towers    in 

«/     XC  i   Hadramaut,     near    the    Emporium 

^^  5t  t— -4 

^ )     M       o  o    of    Aden.     On    reference    to    that 

w*     S     v»  ^  work,    he     found    mentioned    two 

°Z{      o       <+n  *?  most  ancient  poems,  discovered  by 

•  o      £4     P3  ^  Abderrahman,   viceroy   of  Yemen, 

M      §      >H  $>  between  the    fortieth    and   fiftieth 

£*3      ^rf       °  *^* 

"***     &4       *  •**  7ears  of  th0  Hegira,  or  about  A.D. 

& '  5!  'S*  660"670-     Schultens  had  taken  his 

J£  J2J  information  from  the  "  Cosmography 

*T*  23  of  Al  Kaswini,"  a  far  earlier  writer, 

BT*      ®       tC  X  who     had     declared,    that     when 

£3     t^     <tt  §    Abderrahman    discovered    the    in- 

hC{     ^     ^s  ^  scriptions,    the    fortress    had    laid 

*=3     ^      in  "**    long   in   ruins,    and    also    that  the 

h-i     Q       g  >H    Arabs  of  the  seventh  century  of  our 

>^4     on      °^  ^    era  referred  the  poems  to  the  times 

^s     ^1      BT*  SC    of  the  Adites    (their  heroic    age). 

2     A,      ^  ^    These  Arabs  were  able  to  translate 

»— »     £3       o  ^    tne    inscriptions,    though    in    their 

J3     ^  H    ancient  character,  and  Al  Kaswim, 

*•»"    >*     PBI  2    who  wrote  in  the   fourteenth  cen- 

^^              O               1^1  **^ 

h-<  °H    tury,   gives  the  translation  in  the 

£*  ^    Arabic  of  the  seventh.     We  here 

J£      P|      °£  ^j    present  the  first  four  lines  of  the 

^      OH  £J   poem  in  its  original  characters,  and 

^     °^  F3    add  the  proposed  decipherment  of  the 

.j     ^'  trl    whole,  by  Mr.  Forster,  as  translated 
^    from  Schultens'  Arabic  and  Latin. 


166  THE   TEIBE   OF   AD. 

THE   TEN-LINE   POEM   ON   HISN   GHOKAJB. 

""We  dwelt,  living  long  luxuriously  in  the  zenanas  of  this  spacious 
mansion,  our  condition  exempt  from  adversity.  Rolled  in  through  our 
channel, 

"  The  sea,  swelling  against  our  castle,  with  angry  surge.  Our  foun- 
tains flowed  with  murmuring  fall  above. 

"The  lofty  palms  whose  keepers  the  dry  dates  flung  broadcast  over 
our  valley  date-grounds,  they  cast  from  the  hand  the  arid  rice. 

"We  hunted  the  mountain  goats,  also  the  young  hares,  on  the  hills  ; 
with  ropes  and  reeds  we  drew  forth  the  struggling  fishes. 

"  We  walked  with  slow  proud  gait  in  needleworked  many-coloured 
silk  vestments,  whole  silks,  grass-green  chequered  robes. 

"Over  us  presided  kings  far  removed  from  baseness,  and  stern 
ehastisers  of  wicked  men,  and  they  noted  down  for  us,  according  to  the 
doctrine  of  HEBER, 

"  Good  judgments  written  in  a  book  to  be  kept ;  and  we  believed 
m  the  miracle  mystery,  and  in  the  resurrection  mystery,  and  in  the  nostril 
mystery. 

"  Made  an  inroad  robbers,  and  would  do  us  violence.  We  rode  forth, 
we  and  our  generous  youth,  with  stiff  and  sharp-pointed  spears,  rushing 
onward, 

"  Proud  champions  of  our  families  and  our  wives,  fighting  valiantly 
upon  coursers  with  long  necks,  dun-coloured,  iron-gray,  and  bright  bay. 

"With  our  swords  still  wounding  and  piercing  our  adversaries,  until 
charging  home,  we  conquered  and  crushed  this  refuse  of  mankind." 

After  careful  comparison  of  the  Himyaritic  and  Arabic 
ten-line  poems,  Mr.  Forster,  having  formed  his  alphabet, 
tested  its  veracity  by  himself  translating  the  following- 
short  two-line  inscription,  found  below  the  other  by 
the  recent  discoverers,  but  not  named  by  El  Kaswini. 

Found  near  the  long  inscription,  lower  down  the 

terrace. 

"  Divided  into  parts  and  inscribed  from  right  to  left,  and  marked 
with  points,  this  song  of  triumph  Sarash  and  Dzerah.  Transpierced 
and  hunted  down,  and  covered  their  faces  with  blackness. — Aws  (or 
TJz)  the  Beni  Ac." 

In  1845  Captain  Haines  appears  to  have  transmitted 


THE   TBIBE    OF  AD.  167 

the  MS.  journal  of  his  voyage  in  the  "  PaHnurus "  to 
the  Royal  Geographical  Society,  in  attendance  at  one  of 
whose  meetings  Mr.  Forster  heard  it  read,  and  was  alike 
surprised  and  delighted  to  find  that  it  comprised  the 
two  following  mementos — viz.,  that  the  same  surveying 
officers  on  the  same  voyage  found  many  similar  inscrip- 
tions to  the  east  of  Wady  Shaekowee  (though  it  does  not 
appear  they  were  copied ;  it  seems,  however,  that  they 
spread  along  a  space  of  five  degrees) ;  and  when  landing 
on  the  coast  between  Cape  Fartaque  and  Hisn  Ghorab, 
Captain  Haines  recorded  that  he  had  fallen  in  with  a 
chief  tribe  of  the  Bedouins,  who,  on  being  questioned 
as  to  their  origin,  proudly  replied,  "  We  are  the  sons 
of  AD,  the  son  of  Aws,  the  son  of  Aram,  the  son  of 
Shem,  the  son  of  Noah." 

"  If  there  be  any  tribe  of  the  ancient  Arabs  upon 
whose  origin  and  extraction  there  has  been  a  universal 
national  consent,"  remarks  Mr.  Forster,  "that  tribe  is 
the  lost  tribe  of  Ad."  The  account  of  this  primeval 
people  is  thus  given  by  Mr.  Sale,  in  his  Introduction 
to  the  Koran  : — "  The  tribe  of  Ad  were  descended 
from  Ad,  the  son  of  Aws,  the  son  of  Aram,  the  son  of 
Shem,  the  son  of  Noah,  who,  after  the  confusion  of 
tongues,  settled  in  El  Akkaf,  or  the  Winding  Sands, 
in  the  province  of  Hadramaut,  where  his  posterity 
greatly  multiplied.  The  descendants  of  Ad  in  process 
of  time  falling  from  the  worship  of  the  true  God  into 
idolatry,  God  sent  the  prophet  Hud,  or  Heber,  to  preach 
to  them  and  reclaim  them ;  but  they  refusing  to  acknow- 
ledge his  mission,  or  to  obey  him,  God  sent  a  hot  and 
suffocating  wind,  which,  entering  at  their  nostrils,  de- 
stroyed them  all,  a  very  few  only  excepted,  who  believed 
in  Hud,  and  retired  with  him  to  another  place.  There 
is  a  small  town  now  standing,  called  Kabr  Hud,  or  the 


168  THE   LOST   MUSNAD. 

Sepulchre  of  Hftd.  God  had  afflicted  the  Adites  with  a 
drought  for  four  years,  so  that  all  their  cattle  perished, 
and  themselves  very  nearly." 

"  The  occurrence  of  the  name  of  Aws  at  the  foot  of 
the  inscription  of  Hisn  Ghorab  certifies  to  us  the  posses- 
sion in  that  monument,"  says  Mr.  Forster,  "of  a  genuine 
relic  of  the  long-lost  tribe  of  AD,  and  these  rock- 
engraven  records  are  open  at  this  day  to  the  inspection 
of  every  voyager  who  may  touch  upon  the  coast  of 
Hadramaut." 

THE    LOST   MUSNAD. 

The  scene  of  Al-Kaswini's  ancient  poems,  it  will  be 
perceived,  was  really  the  same  as  that  of  Captain  Haines's 
actual  discoveries, — "  engraved  marbles"  were  men- 
tioned amid  "  ruined  towers,"  in  Hadramaut,  and  a  ten- 
line  inscription.  When  Mr.  Forster  counted  Schulten's 
lines,  they  were  also  ten  in  number ;  therefore  the  thought 
naturally  suggested  itself,  as  he  says,  that  the  one  would 
possibly  explain  the  other. 

His  studies  in  Arabic  had  already  acquainted  him 
with  the  loss  of  the  Musnad  or  Himyaritic  characters  of 
the  Arabians,  whose  total  disappearance  was  deplored 
by  Sir  William  Jones  as  "  the  great  gap  between  us  and 
the  earliest  records  of  mankind ;"  and  his  acquaintance 
with  Arabic  dictionaries  had  made  him  cognizant  of  the 
large  obsolete  portion  of  that  richest  of  languages  which 
lay  buried  among  these  primeval  roots.  Arabic  was 
the  tongue  of  science  and  philosophy  for  centuries, 
during  which  Europe  was  barbarian.  The  remains  of  its 
literature  to  this  day  are  among  our  richest  treasures,  and 
the  field  is  wide,  for  the  Lexicon  of  Freytag  contains 
6000  roots  and  60,000  words.  The  Lexicon  of  Firuzabad 
filled  sixty  volumes,  and  required  a  camel  to  carry  it 
-from  place  to  place,  and  its  very  compendium,  pub- 


OBSOLETE   ARABIC.  1G9 

lished  at  Calcutta,  in  two  quarto  volumes,  is  called  the 
Kamus,  or  Ocean,  of  which  it  is  said  in  Eastern  fashion, 
that  it  has  500  words  for  lion,  400  for  misfortune,  200 
for  snake,  and  1000  for  a  sword. 

Such  is  the  common  record  in  most  of  the  Biblical 
Dictionaries.  Not  half  of  the  synonymes  of  course  are  in 
use ;  and  Arabic  scholars,  from  Pocock  downwards,  have 
frequently  observed  that  one  half  of  the  Arabic  Lexicons 
are  taken  up  by  words  which  are  rarely  if  ever  met  with 
in  any  Arabic  writings.  When  at  Paris  in  1844  Mr. 
Forster  met  with  one  of  the  first  Arabic  scholars  in 
Europe,  who,  after  studying  Arabic  for  thirty  years,  was 
unable  to  account  for  this  anomaly,  and  he  added,  "  Tho 
problem  is  now  solved,  the  language  on  Hisn  Ghorab  is 
the  lost  Himyaritic." 

Mr.  Forster  declares  his  conviction  that  without  the 
help  of  the  key,  unconsciously  supplied  by  Al  Kaswini, 
no  sagacity  of  mind, or  skill  in  languages  could  have  availed 
to  read  the  rock  of  Hisn  Ghorab ;  but,  having  the  key, 
and  the  one  inscription,  he  believes  that  his  continued 
and  careful  comparisons  have  elicited  a  different  alphabet 
to  Fresnel's,  formed  on  the  principles  that  in  cognate 
Semitic  languages  "  letters  of  the  same  known  form  have 
the  same  known  powers,"  and  that  short  alphabets  are 
the  sine  qua  non  of  all  very  ancient  languages. 

His  Himyaritic  alphabet  is  given  afresh  in  the  ap- 
pendix to  his  "  Sinai  Photographed,"  p.  332,  and  we 
hope  he  will  excuse  us  for  transplanting  it,  as  our  only 
aim  is  to  induce  the  students  of  language  to  refer  to  what 
he  has  said  for  himself.  The  page  includes  also  a  some- 
what different  character  of  the  Himyaritic  found  in  an 
inscription  over  the  entrance  of  the  ruins  at  Nakb  el 
Hajar  (the  Pass  of  Hagar),  which  Mr.  Forster  refers  to 
the  first  century  of  our  era;  Charibael,  king  of  the 


170  ME.  FORSTER'S  HIMYARITIC  ALPHABET. 


MR.  FORSTER'S  HIMYARITIC  ALPHABET. 
Alphabet  of  Hisu  Ohorab.          Arabic.  Hebrew.  English.  Alph.  of  Nakb  el  Haja 


I    1 

PHY3TYYY 

Ah 
B    X.J 


H 

1  11 
TTKHKttH 


3££ 
IS 

DJU 

III 
X 


<• 


no 
rr 
n 


A 
B 
T 
II 
KH 
D 
DZ 
R 
Z 
S 

sn 
s 

A.a 

K 

L, 

M 

N 

UV 

IT 

I 


M  t  « 
fY  t 


a 


? 
15 

0 
X 


WH  n 

H 


2:^  I 
I 


NASB   EL   HAJAK.  171 

Homerites,  a  contemporary  with  tlie  Emperor  Claudius, 
having  restored  and  enlarged  that  formidable  fortress, 
originally  founded  by  Abu  Mohareb,  a  prince  of  the  race 
of  Koreish. 

Mr.  Forster  thinks  he  unlocks  this  inscription,  like- 
wise, with  Al  Kaswini's  key,  and  he  reads  it  thus  : — 

INSCRIPTION   OP   NAKB   EL  HAJAB. 

"  Abode  in  this  mansion  Abu  Mohareb  and  Behenna  upon  its  first 
erection.  Dwelt  in  it  joyfully  in  filial  obedience,  Nowas  and  Wanba. 
The  Praetorian  Prefect,  Charibael  Lord  of  the  Palace. 

"  Benificently  constructed  the  hospitium  and  the  well  ....  he 
erected  also  the  Oratory,  the  fountains  and  tanks,  and  built  the  Zenana  in 
his  era." 

Mr.  Forster  considers  the  son  "  Nowas"  in  the  in- 
scription to  be  Dzu  Nowas,  the  last  king  of  the 
Homerites,  who  perished  about  seventy  years  before 
Mahomet  in  battle  with  the  Abyssinians.*  But  he  has 
no  hesitation  in  carrying  back  the  inscription  on  HISN 
GHORAB  from  the  times  of  the  Cassars  to  those  of  the 
Pharaohs.  The  book  of  Job  prepares  us  for  Arabian 
poetical  description,  and  the  allusions  on  this  stone 
to  the  early  patriarch  Heber,  with  its  relation  to  the 
sublimest  utterance  of  Job  himself,  are  even  startling. 

"We  believed  in  the  miracle  mystery,  and  in  the  resurrection 
mystery,  and  in  the  nostril  mystery." 

The  latter  expression  seems  only  another  form  of"  the 
breath  of  life  '"  "  the  spirit  of  God  in  my  nostrils,"  says 
Job,  xxvii.  3.  "This  conveys  a  physical  truth,"  adds 
Mr.  Forster,  "  and  is  no  mere  figure  of  speech.  Let  the 

*  M.  Caussin  de  Perceval  is  disposed  to  place  the  later  and  more 
flourishing  period  of  the  Himyaritic  Kings  of  Yemen  between  the  date 
of  100  B.C.  and  A.D.  525.  "As  these  later  kings  were  greatly  inclined  to 
Judaism,  the  monuments  filled  with  the  names  of  idols  probably  belong 
to  an  earlier  time  than  theirs." 


172  AL  KASVViNi's   SECOND   POEM. 

process  of  respiration  through  the  nostrils  be  suspended 
for  a  few  moments,  and  the  difficulty  of  breathing,  with 
the  painful  sense  of  exhaustion,  will  teach  the  most 
sceptical  that  it  was  into  man's  nostrils  God  breathed 
the  'breath  of  life.'" 

The  combat  described  in  the  ninth  line  as  fought  on 
horseback — 

.    .    .    "fighting  valiantly  upon  coursers  with  long  necks,  dun- 
coloured,  iron-gray,  and  bright  bay," — 

cannot  but  recall  the  "horse  and  his  rider"  of  the  book 
of  Job,  XTon'y,  19 — 21. 

AL   KASWiNi'S    SECOND   INSCRIPTION. 

But  there  is  a  second  inscription,  reported  by  Al 
Kaswini,  as  found  over  the  gateway  of  a  castle  beyond 
Hisn  Ghorab,  and  which  is  possibly  now  destroyed  ;  its 
translation,  as  given  by  him  in  modern  Arabic  and  Latin, 
is  rendered  by  Mr.  Forster  as  follows.  It  has  a  mar- 
vellous reference  to  the  extract  from  the  Introduction  to 
the  Koran,  p.  167: — 

POEM  rr. 

"  We  dwelt  at  ease  in  this  castle  a  long  tract  of  time, 

Nor  had  we  a  desire  but  for  the  region  lord  of  the  vineyard ; 

Hundreds  of  camels  returned  to  us  each  day  at  evening ;  their  eye  plea- 
sant to  behold  in  their  resting  places. 

And  twice  the  number  of  our  camels  were  our  sheep  ;  in  comeliness 
like  white  does,  and  also  the  slow-moving  kine. 

We  dwelt  in  this  castle  seven  years  of  good  life;  how  difficult  from 
memory  its  description ! 

Then  came  years  barren  and  burnt  up ;  when  one  evil  year  had  passed 
away,  then  came  another  to  succeed  it. 

And  we  became  as  though  we  had  never  seen  a  glimpse  of  good. 

They  died,  and  neither  foot  nor  hoof  remained. 

Thus  fares  it  with  him  who  renders  not  thanks  to  God ; 

His  footsteps  fail  not  to  be  blotted  out  from  his  dwelling." 


DATES   ON   MONUMENTS.  173 

This  inscription  is  of  seven  lines.  It  recalls  the 
expression  of  Moses,  used  two  centuries  after  Joseph's 
famine, — 

"  Our  cattle  shall  go  with  us,  not  a  hoof  shall  be  left  behind." 

For  here  is  surely  reference  to  that  event,  felt  "in 
all  lands,"  "  over  all  the  face  of  the  earth."  We  can  trace 
that,  by  our  chronological  table  at  page  161,  to  its  second 
year,  being  the  one  of  Jacob's  arrival  in  Egypt  (Gen. 
xlv.  11).  He  was  then  130 years  old  (Gen.  xlvii.  9),  and 
died  when  he  was  147,  i.  e.,  A. p.  659  (Gen.  xlvii.  28.) 
The  famine  began,  therefore,  nineteen  years  earlier,  A.P. 
640,  when  Joseph  was  37  years  of  age  (See  Gen.  xli. 
46).  The  date  of  640,  which  is  reported  by  Fresnel, 
in  the  "  Journal  Asiatique"  (tom.vi.,  p.  237,  4th  series), 
and  noticed  in  the  Museum  Appendix  as  inscribed 
on  Hisn  Ghorab  (the  only  date  on  Himyaritic  monu- 
ments save  tivo),  would  exactly  coincide  with  Usher's 
chronology  of  the  Mosaic  Period,  if  it  were  attached  to 
the  second  inscription  rather  than  the  first. 

But  it  is  to  the  first  inscription  describing  prosperity 
that  the  date  belongs.  It  is  said  to  be  inscribed  in  red 
paint  upon  the  rock;  and  it  has  been  copied  into 
"  Smith's  Biblical  Dictionary  "  (article  Arabia,  p.  96)  as 
604 — possibly  only  by  a  printer's  error — but  if  it  be  really 
604,  that  description  might  well  belong  to  a  previous 
o-eneration  of  Adites,  and  would  have  been  written 
about  the  time  of  the  birth  of  Joseph,  and  probably 
of  Job,  nearly  forty  years  before  Jacob  came  into  Egypt. 
The  other  date  mentioned  by  Frcsnel  of  573  is  on  a 
stone  found  at  Sana  (No.  iii.  of  the  inscriptions  copied  by 
Arnaud  in  the  "  Journal  Asiatique,"  torn,  vi.),  so  often 
referred  to.  It  is  as  follows;  and  Mr.  Forster  does  not 
appear  to  have  hitherto  deciphered  it ;  Fresnel  has  found 


174  THE   DYKE   OP   MAKEB. 

in  it  the  name  .Alihat  (the  Goddesses)  ;  the  date  573 
would  fall  in  the  time  of  Esau.  <(  It  is  in  relief,"  says 
Fresnel,  '  '  and  given  in  an  extremely  ornamental  style." 

HIMYAETTIC  INSCRIPTION  PE05I   M4EEB. 


Mf  IffiMift  fl*»17«HAoo|»1«1HW«Hl¥>^B  1  •<> 

The  foundation  stones  of  the  Dyke  of  Mareb,  if  we 
may  trust  a  date  of  30  inscribed  upon  one  of  them, 
are  almost  as  old,  perhaps,  as  the  tower  of  Babel,  and 
nearly  two  centuries  older  than  the  foundation  of  Urukh's 
temples  in  Chaldea.  (See  p.  38.) 

"  Of  the  hoar  antiquity  of  these  records,"  says  Mr. 
Forster,  "scepticism  dares  not  raise  a  doubt.  The 
foundation  of  the  Dyke  by  Saba,  and  its  destruction  in 
the  age  of  Alexander  the  Great  by  the  Sil  al  Aram,  or 
Flood  of  Aram,  had  been  the  theme  of  Arabian  history 
through  all  succeeding  ages.  The  inscriptions  upon  it* 
were  printed  in  the  '  Journal  Asiatique/  and  as  I  read 
them  by  my  previously  published  alphabet  of  Hisn 
Ghorab,  the  proper  name  NOAH  in  its  Arabic  form 
occurs  in  four  of  them,  with  the  word  '  a  deluge  '  on  one 
side,  and  '  a  wooden  ark  '  on  the  other.  What  event  so 
likely  to  be  chronicled  by  this  early  descendant  of  Noah 
as  the  miraculous  preservation  of  his  great  ancestor,  the 
second  father  of  the  human  race,  amidst  the  waters  of  a 
drowned  world  ?" 

Mr.  Forster  cites  from  another  Arabic  author,  Ebn 
Heshain  (and  as  also  copied  by  Pocock),  a  corroborative 
allnsion  to  JOSEPH'S  FAMINE. 

*  See  three  inscriptions,  p.  142. 


THE   PEINCESS   OP   YEMEN.  175 

Ebn  Hesham  relates  that  a  flood  of  rain  laid  bare  to 
view  a  sepulchre  in  Yemen,  in  which  lay  a  woman 
having  on  her  neck  seven  collars  of  pearls,  and  on  her 
hands  and  her  feet  bracelets  and  ankle-rings,  and  arm- 
lets, seven  on  each,  and  on  every  finger  a  ring,  in  which 
was  set  a  jewel  of  great  price,  and  at  her  head  a  coffer 
filled  with  treasure,  with  this  inscription  : — 

"  In  thy  name,  O  god,  the  god  of  Hamyar, 
I,  Tajah,  the  daughter  of  Dzu  Shefar,  sent  my  steward  to  Joseph, 
And  he  delaying  to  return  to  me,  I  sent  my  handmaid 
With  a  measure  of  silver  to  bring  me  back  a  measure  of  flour  ; 
And  not  being  able  to  procure  it,  I  sent  her  with  a  measure  of  gold ; 
And  not  being  able  to  procure  it,  I  sent  her  with  a  measure  of  pearls  ; 
And  not  being  able  to  procure  it,  I  commanded  them  to.  be  ground ; 
And  finding  no  profit  in  them,  I  am  shut  up  here. 
Whosoever  may  hear  of  me,  let  him  commiserate  me. 
And  should  any  woman  adorn  herself  with  an  ornament 
From  my  ornaments,  may  she  die  no  other  than  my  death." 

The  BIBLE  tells  us  that  "all  countries  came  into 
Egypt  to  JOSEPH  to  buy  corn."  (Gen.  xli.  57.)  The 
ascending  scale  of  silver,  gold,  and  pearls,  in  the  above 
narration,  may  possibly  be  understood  only  as  the 
Oriental  expression  for  the  advances  of  price  tendered ; 
yet  nothing,  at  the  same  time,  has  been  of  more  common 
occurrence  in  the  awful  records  of  famine  than  the  barter 
of  the  precious  metals,  even  in  equal  quantities,  for  a 
supply  of  the  coarsest  food. 

When  Mr.  Cruttenden,  one  of  the  discoverers  of  the 
Hisn  Ghorab  inscriptions,  was  at  Sana,  in  1847,  he  was 
told  that  jewels,  particularly  pearls,  are  found  in  the 
watercourses,  even  in  this  century,  after  heavy  rains. 
The  district  round  Mareb  has  always  been  memorable  in 
Arabian  history  for  its  sufferings  from  inundations,  and 
hence  the  building  of  its  Dyke  to  carry  off  the  waters. 

Eliphaz,  in  the  book  of  Job,  speaks  of  "  famine,"  in 


176  THE   PRICE   OP  WISDOM. 

which  God  alone  shall  redeem  from  death  (v.  20), 
and  at  which  the  righteous  shall  laugh  (v.  22).  Bildad 
says,  "  The  strength  of  the  wicked  shall  be  hunger- 
bitten"  (xviii.  12).  "For  want  and  famine  they  are 
solitary,"  adds  Job  (xxx.  3).  He  also  speaks  of  sweep- 
ing up  silver  as  the  dust,  and  in  chapter  xxviii.  his  com- 
parison of  the  insufficiency  of  gold  or  gems  for  the 
purchase  of  wisdom  is  so  magnificent  that  the  narration 
of  the  Princess  of  Yemen  is  far  surpassed  by  it : — 

"  Where  shall  wisdom  be  found  ?  .  .  .  .  Man  knoweth  not  the 
price  thereof.  ....  It  cannot  be  gotten  for  gold,  neither  shall 
bilver  be  weighed  for  the  price  thereof. 

"  It  cannot  be  valued  with  the  gold  of  Ophir,  with  the  precious 
onyx,  or  the  sapphire. 

"  The  gold  and  the  crystal  cannot  equal  it,  and  the  exchange  of  it 
shall  not  be  for  jewels,  or  vessels  of  fine  gold. 

"  No  mention  shall  be  made  of  coral  or  of  pearls,  for  the  price  of 
wisdom  is  above  rubies. 

"  The  topaz  of  Ethiopia  shall  not  equal  it,  neither  shall  it  be  valued 
with  pure  gold." 

The  most  ancient  language  of  the  Noachic  family, 
spoken  in  generations  preceding  Abraham,  is  probably 
placed  before  our  eyes  in  the  Himyaritic  or  earliest 
Arabic.  Fresnel  found  a  dialect  still  spoken  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  Zafora,  the  ancient  Ophir,  (?)  called 
Ekkili,  and  this  is  supposed  to  represent  the  modern 
phase  of  the  ancient  Himyaritic,  and  to  be  the  parent 
of  the  Ethiopic.  The  present  form  of  Arabic  has 
been  far  more  widely  spoken  than  ever  was  the 
Hebrew.  To  a  hundred  millions  of  scattered  Moham- 
medans it  is  a  native  tongue,  and  all  these  are  bound 
together  by  one  False  Book,  which  for  more  than  twelve 
centuries  has  fixed  its  spoken  and  written  dialect. 
Only  within  the  last  ten  years  has  any  reader  of  the 
Koran  dared  to  open  the  Holy  Scriptures  of  the  Hebrew 


THE  ETHIOPIC  ALPHABET.  177 

or  the  Christian  ;  but  now  the  Spirit  of  God  begins  to 
speak  His  own  pure  and  holy  word  to  the  children  of 
Esau,  who  sold  his  birthright,  and  a  colporteur  who 
carries  this  word  at  the  peril  of  his  life  into  the  heart 
of  these  isolated  districts,  the  seats  of  the  eldest  patri- 
archs, brings  back  their  stone  tablets,  inscribed  with 
their  primeval  language,  and  shows  us  what  may  possibly 
be  the  ancestral  source  of  written  dialects.  He  may  yet 
give  skill  to  some  of  His  children  to  decipher  these  letters 
with  certainty,  if,  indeed.  He  has  not  given  it  already. 
They  shall  be  read  again,  if  it  be  needful,  to  confirm  the 
truth  of  His  own  Word. 

We  subjoin  the  Ethiopic  or  Gheez  alphabet,  the 
ancient  language  of  Abyssinia,  which  can  be  compared 
with  the  Himyaritic,  pp.  145,  170. 

THB  ETHIOPIC  ALPHABET. 

UAih0>uj£ft*n**jftn 

h»     la        h»        ma        ea        r»       ea       k»       b»      tb»     cl>»     na       »       k» 

(DOHp^?maae^T 

w«        6       sa      j»      d»       g»       U       p»      tz»      u        fa        pa 

While  collecting  together  various  alphabets  which 
may  possibly  elicit  further  information  from  sources  yet 
unsuspected,  it  is  not  for  a  compiler  to  express  an 
opinion  on  the  validity,  or  non- validity,  of  present  read- 
ings ;  the  primary  aim  is  to  excite  further  attention  to  the 
subject,  and  possibly  to  induce  future  travellers  to  secure 
more  photographs  of  rare  and  remarkable  inscriptions. 

ME.    MOON'S   ARABIC   FOE   THE   BLIND. 

And  now  there  is  still  another  set  of  characters, 
available  for  writing  AEABIC,  which  have  been  brought 
down  to  the  comprehension  even  of  the  Blind. 

N 


178  ABABIC   FOE   THE   BLIND. 

In  searching  as  above  for  the  affinities  of  the  older 
languages  of  the  world,  we  ascend,  in  the  Himyaritic,  to 
extremely  simple  forms,  •which  are  admitted  to  have 
strong  relations  to  those  used  in  tongues  of  a  more 
modern  date — the  Phoenician,  the  Greek,  and  the  ROMAN 
— into  the  alphabet  of  the  last  of  which,  it  is  proposed 
at  this  time  to  reduce  the  obscure  and  varied  signs  of 
the  Oriental  languages  in  general,  of  course  by  means  of 
their  equivalents  in  sound. 

The  sooner  this  aim  could  be  carried  out  the  sooner 
would  be  prepared  A  LINK  FOE  ALL  NATIONS.* 

Meanwhile,  Mr.  Moon — himself  a  Blind  Man,  though 
not  born  blind,  now  working  in  the  dark,  with  his  mind 
bent  on  one  noble  idea,  that  of  placing  the  BIBLE  within 
reach  of  the  Blind  of  all  nations — has  made  many  steps, 
towards  the  production  of  a  UNIVERSAL  ALPHABET-  for  his 
fellow  sufferers,  which  may  become  of  equal  use,  perhaps 
to  those  who  see. 

The  construction  of  this  alphabet  is  so  beautifully 
simple,  that  ten  minutes*  application  with  intent  to  learn 
it,  will  render  a  seeing  person  perfectly  acquainted  with 
its  powers,  and  enable  him  at  once  to  become  a  teacher 
to  any  blind  person  of  his  acquaintance.  In  order  to 
this,  however,  he  must  send  to  Mr.  Moon,  of  104, 
Queen's  Road,  Brighton,  for  his  alphabet  and  the  Lord's 
Prayer  in  raised  type,  price  3d.,  enclosing  stamps  and 
stamped  envelope  for  its  return  by  post.  The  forms  not 
raised,  are  given  on  the  next  leaf,  with  their  adapta- 
tion to  the  Chinese  and  Arabic  languages. 

Let  us  look  at  the  forms  of  the  letters.  They  consist 
of  a  series  of  angles,  curves,  and  lines — only  one  or  two 
in  each  sign ;  all  but  the  most  integral  portion  of  the 
Roman  letter  is  left  out.  Five  of  the  forms  used  in  it, 
each  turned  different  ways,  make  twenty  letters  out  of 


ME.    MOON'S   ALPHABET.  179 

the  twenty-six :  thus  /\  stands  for  A  K  V  and  X  in  the 
varied  positions  of  y\  <  \/  >.  Seven  of  the  letters 
are  like  our  own ;  twelve  are  like  them  with  parts  left 
out.  Seven  are  new,  and  very  simple  characters.  It  is 
easily  learned,  even  by  children  and  old  persons,  and 
has  obtained  the  unqualified  preference  of  the  Blind 
themselves,  who  ought  to  be  best  aware  of  their  own 
necessities. 

There  were  forty  systems  of  Eeading  for  the  Blind 
previously  in  use,  whose  friends  and  pupils  have  natu- 
rally fought  hard  for  their  time-honoured  precedence. 
Mr.  Moon's  characters  appear  to  us  to  be  the  most  suited 
for  the  use  of  the  uneducated  blind ;  the  word  spelt 
n  a  b  r,  for  instance,  in  Lucas's  system,  is  in  Mr.  Moon's 
n  e  i  y  h  b  ou  f ;  his  Bible  therefore,  although  more 
expensive  to  print,  is  more  readily  intelligible.  The 
whole  Bible  in  English  has  been  printed  in  Moon's 
characters  in  less  than  ten  years  from  their  construction ; 
and  thousands  of  blind  persons  have  attained  the  power 
of  reading  them.  At  the  date  of  their  invention,  or  as 
some  say  adaptation  from  former  systems,  in  1845,  there 
did  not  exist  one  hundred  and  fifty  adult  blind  readers  in 
Great  Britain  by  aid  of  all  the  alphabets,  and  it  is  com- 
puted that  there  are  now  above  four  thousand  in  this  and 
other  countries. 

Mr.  Moon  has  gradually  adapted  his  English  alphabet 
to  fifty  other  languages,  and  has  also  printed  the  Lord's 
prayer,  and  a  gospel  or  portion  of  the  Bible  in  each,  by 
the  help  of  benevolent  friends.  In  Swedish,  Norse, 
Dutch,  German,  French,  Italian,  Spanish,  the  blind  of 
Europe  may  read  in  their  own  tongues  the  wonderful 
words  of  God.  In  the  CHINESE  and  ARABIC  the  road  is 
now  open  also,  and  in  these  two  Oriental  languages 
alone  the  Word  of  God  can  speak  to  hundreds  of 


180  THE   BLIND   IN   FOEEIGN   COUNTRIES. 

millions  of  men.  Upwards  of  half  a  million  of  the 
races  who  dwell  in  Egypt,  Persia,  and  Arabia,  and 
along  the  northern  coasts  of  Africa  are  suffering  from 
the  loss  of  sight.  And  if  the  blind  of  the  East, 
who  have  hitherto  never  been  taught  at  all,  receive 
into  their  minds  the  truth  of  the  Scriptures,  it  will 
be  a  mighty  means  of  spreading  the  same,  whether 
among  Jews,  Mohammedans,  or  Eastern  Christians, 
many  q£  whom  would  stop  to  listen  to  blind  readers  by 
the  wayside,  who  would  never  look  into  the  Holy  Book 
for  themselves. 

"  Comfort  is  coming  for  the  blind  in  Syria,"  says 
Mrs.  Thompson,  of  Beirut,  in  a  recent  letter.  "  Did  I 
tell  you  of  the  delight  of  a  blind  teacher  at  Sidon,  to 
whom  we  sent  a  copy  of  a  chapter  of  Mr.  Moon's  raised 
Gospel  of  St.  John  in  Arabic  ?  I  wish  you  could 
have  witnessed  his  intense  gratification,  as  he  passed  his 
hands  for  the  first  time  over  the  letters.  It  seemed  to 
supply  to  him  a  long-felt  want,  and  to  provide  him  with 
a  source  of  exquisite  enjoyment  and  benefit.  He  learned 
the  alphabet  very  readily,  and  conquered  half  of  it  in 
less  than  an  hour." 

Another  friend  writes: — "I  was  much  pleased  to 
receive  from  you  the  pamphlet  of  the  Gospel  of  St. 
John  for  the  blind.  Yesterday  afternoon  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Ford  silently  placed  Moslim  KafouFs  hand  upon  the 
page  of  the  raised  letters,  and  I  wish  Mr.  Moon  had 
been  here  to  have  enjoyed  with  us  the  beaming  glance  of 
delight  with  which  the  blind  man  welcomed  this  miracle 
of  now  being  able  to  read,  as  his  finger  slowly  travelled 
over  his  new  precious  specimen  of  the  sacred  page." 

And  there  is  equal  proof  that  the  characters  are  legible 
in  CHINA.  Archdeacon  Cobbold  first  made  trial  of  them 
by  a  seeing  boy,  who,  after  two  months'  labour,  was 


MOON'S   ALPHABETS    FOR   THE   BLIND.  181 

MOON'S   ALPHABET   FOE   THE    ENGLISH   BLIND. 
AB  C         1>         E  I*          CHI 

A  u  c  D  r  r  n  •  i 

ar       K        i,         M         w         o         P 


H.  STTT  V  TT        3:        Y         25 

\  /  —  u  v  n>J7 

ALPHABET   FOR   THE   CHINESE   BLIND. 
AB  CT>E  PGHI 


JKI.M  N  O  P  Q 

J<     L~l     ,J    O   --    -^ 

B  STU  V          "WXYZ 

\  /  —  u  vn>j7 

ALPHABET  FOR  THE  BLIND  IN  ARABIC. 


V 

A       B     TH     TH        G         H         H         D  D  R 


.JJ     ^>-- 

ZSSHJ          J          T          T          OO 


r  ~-f 

F        Q,         KL         MNEUI 


182  THE    BLIND   IN   CHINA. 

able  to  spell  any  word  in  the  Ningpo  colloquial  dialect, 
whereas  it  is  said  that  eighteen  years  are  required  to 
make  an  accomplished  scholar  in  the  antique  native 
character.  The  complicated  nature  of  those  ANCIENT 
signs  renders  it  quite  impossible  to  adapt  them  to  the 
blind,  for  one  of  them  would  need  as  many  strokes  as 
are  to  be  found  in  a  dozen  of  Mr.  Moon's  letters. 

A  blind  Chinese  girl  named  "  Agnes  Gutzlaff," 
who  was  first  taught  by  Lucas's  system,  collects  around 
her,  a  large  audience  to  listen  as  she  reads  the  Gospel  of 
St.  Luke  in  Chinese  in  a  house  by  the  wayside.  They 
crowd  around  the  doors  and  windows  to  see  that  great 
wonder  of  a  blind  girl  reading — and  as  they  say, 
"  reading  such  wonderful  words."  She  had  been  rescued 
when  a  child,  from  beggary,  in  the  streets  of  Canton  by 
the  first  Mrs.  GutzlafF,  sent  to  England,  and  there  well 
educated  in  the  Avenue  Road  Institution  of  the  London 
Society  for  teaching  the  blind  to  read.  She  now  uses 
Mr.  Moon's  system  as  well  as  Lucas's. 

The  Gospel  history  shows  us  that  when  on  earth,  the 
Son  of  Man  entered  with  the  deepest  sympathy  into  the 
wants  of  the  BLIND,  and  still,  when  they  have  learned  to 
know  Him  through  His  Word,  He  fixes  their  heart  in  an 
especial  manner  on  Himself.  Their  brain  is  undistracted 
by  the  influences  of  light  and  colour,  and  their  attention 
is  never  called  off  by  the  expression  of  the  countenances 
of  those  around  them — the  book  which  we  who  see  are 
ever  reading. 

They  never  feel  as  we  do  the  thrill  produced  by  a 
smilo  of  love  from  a  fellow  creature,  and  they  see  no 
eye  glisten  in  responsive  sympathy  with  their  acts  or 
speech;  so  their  fellowship  with  "the  Brother  born  for 
adversity"  is  all  the  sweeter  and  more  exclusive.  They 
feel  that  His  love  guides  every  step  of  their  helpless  way. 


EASIEST   FORM   OF   ARABIC.  183 

With  the  poor,  and  the  halt,  and  the  maimed,  they  are 
the  last  chosen  guests  at  His  great  supper,  and  those 
indeed  with  whom  the  house  "  is  filled/'  when  the  first- 
bidden  had  refused  to  come. 

A  learned  friend  at  Bath  writes  thus  : — "  Accept  my 
thanks  for  sending  me  specimens  of  Mr.  Moon's  raised 
alphabet  for  the  blind  in  the  Arabic  language.  It  gives 
me  much  satisfaction  to  find  that  his  method  of  repre- 
senting the  twenty-eight  letters  of  the  Arabic  alphabet, 
by  his  ingenious  symbols,  will  answer  the  purpose. 

"  They  so  correspond  with  the  Arabic  letters,  that 
Arabs,  whether  blind  or  sighted,  may  now  learn,  to  read 
Arabic  by  Mr.  Moon's  plain  characters  more  readily  than 
by  their  own  complicated  signs.  These  symbols  are 
equally  applicable  to  the  Hebrew,  Syriac,  Turkish,  and 
Persian  languages  :  except  that  in  representing  them 
four  additional  symbols  will  be  required  for  those  four 
letters  which  in  Persian  are  called  Pe,  Chim,  Zhe,  Grav. 
Mr.  Moon's  alphabet  is,  I  think,  likely  to  speed  the 
work  of  printing  portions  of  different  Oriental  Bibles,  for 
persons  who  can  see,  in  European  or  Roman  characters." 

Mr.  Moon  himself  reports : — 

"  I  have  lately  received  a  visit  from  Dr.  Van  Dyck, 
one  of  the  missionaries  from  Beirut,  to  settle  with  me 
respecting  our  plan  for  embossing  the  Bible  in  the 
Arabic  language  for  the  blind.  Nothing,  he  says,  can 
be  better  suited  to  them  than  the  alphabet  we  have 
arranged,  and  he  has  kindly  offered  to  render  me  assist- 
ance in  preparing  the  proofs  for  the  press.  As  he  is 
one  of  the  best  Arabic  scholars  in  the  East,  this  help  is 
very  valuable,  especially  as  he  is  engaged  in  preparing 
&  new  translation  of  the  Bible  in  Arabic  for  seeing 
persons. 

"I  am  told  that  a  blind  Coptic  youth,  in   Cairo, 


184  THE    BIBLB   FOE   BLIND   COPTS. 

remarked  'that  it  must  have  been  nothing  less  than 
Divine  inspiration  that  suggested  Moon's  letters  for 
putting  eyes  into  the  fingers  of  the  blind/  and,  oh,  may 
thousands  now  be  thereby  enabled  to  grope  their  way 
into  the  kingdom  of  light,  and  love,  and  endless  joy  !" 

It  is  very  delightful  to  think  that  by  these  simplest 
of  all  written  forms  of  letters  it  is  possible  to  express  the 
thoughts  of  God  in  such  a  language  as  the  Arabic,  with 
its  old,  old  history — living  and  dead. 

And  what  an  addition  to  this  joy  it  is  to  find  that 
these  few  symbols  may  be  equally  applied  to  the  Hebrew, 
Syriac,  Turkish,  and  Persian  languages,  with  trifling 
variations  I  Who  will  not  now  seek  in  this  way  to 
speed  the  march  of  God's  Word  through  the  East  ? 

The  similarity  of  many  of  Mr.  Moon's  letters  to  the 
Himyaritic — though  perfectly  unconscious  on  his  own 
part — wjll  strike  many  readers  who  compare  the  charac- 
ters on  p.  181,  and  the  tablet  at  p.  134. 


MOSES  IN   MIDIAN.  185 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

CHRONICLES  OF  THE  EXODUS. 

THE  CAIL  OP  MOSES  TO  HIS  WORK — HIS  RETURN  INTO  EGYPT— AN  EXODUS 
OP  THE  TORGOT  TARTARS — THE  EXODUS  OF  ISRAEL— THE  PASSOVER — 
PAUL'S  TEACHING  BY  TYPES — REVIEW  OF  PART  THE  FIRST. 

FTER  forty  years  in  the  deserts  of  Midian,  the 
adult  length  of  a  modern  life,  Moses  must  return 
to  his  suffering  brethren,  refreshed  by  his  won- 
derful outlook  on  the  times  of  Patriarchal  piety, 
and  with  his  mind  purified  by  its  contrast  to  the 
Egyptian  idolatries. 

As  he  kept  the  flock  of  Jethro,  his  father-in-law,  the 
priest  of  Midian,  his  heart  must  have  often  ached  at 
stray  tidings  of  the  oppressions  of  Israel ;  for  his  people 
were  in  a  "furnace  of  iron"  (Deut.  iv.  20),  while  he  was 
breathing  the  free  air  of  the  wilderness  ;  but  his  second 
education  among  those  sands  and  mountains  had  tamed 
down  the  fire  of  his  early  indignation  till  he  had  become 
the  meekest  man  upon  earth  (Num.  xii.  3).  He  had 
studied  the  patience  of  Job,  and  what  earthly  history 
could  better  have  prepared  him  for  the  mission  of  his 
forty  years  to  come  ? 

The  scene  of  his  wanderings  is  mentioned ;  "  he  led 
the  flock  to  the  back  side  of  the  desert,  and  came  to  the 
mountain  of  God,  even  to  Horeb ;"  or  literally,  Horeb- 
ward  (Exod.  iii.  1).  Dr.  Bonar  tells  us  that  Horeb  is  a 
region,  and  the  name  for  the  whole  region,  while  Sinai  is 
the  mountain.  And  he  remarks,  "  Sinai  is  mentioned  as 


186  THE   BURNING  BUSH. 

the  ( Mount  of  God '  before  the  giving  of  the  law."  And 
now  THE  ANGEL  OP  TITE  LORD,  in  a  flame  of  fire,  out  of  the 
midst  of  a  bush,  called  unto  Moses,  twice  repeating  his 
mortal  name,  and  when  Moses  said,  ' ( Here  am  I,"  the 
Divine  voice  warned  him — 

"  Draw  not  nigh  hither :  put  off  thy  shoes  from  off  thy  feet ;  for  the 
place  whereon  thou  standest  is  holy  ground. 

"  Moreover  He  said,  I  am  the  God  of  thy  Father,  the  God  of  Abraham, 
the  G-od  of  Isaac,  and  the  God  of  Jacob.  And  Moses  hid  his  face  ;  for  he 
was  afraid  to  look  upon  God." 

The  next  utterance  of  the  Divine  voice  was  full  of 
precious  sympathy  to  the  ear  of  Moses  : — 

"I  have  surely  seen  the  affliction  of  my  people.  I  have  heard  their 
cry  by  reason  of  their  taskmasters ;  for  I  KNOW  THEIB  SOBEOWS  ;  and  I 
am  come  down  to  deliver  them  out  of  the  hand  of  the  Egyptians." 

The  burning  bush  is  identified  by  Stanley  with  the 
wild  acacia,  the  shaggy  thorn-bush — the  outgrowth  of 
these  wastes — now  found  only  on  Mount  Serbal,  and  it 
is  the  most  characteristic  tree  of  the  whole  range.  It  is 
often  tangled  by  its  desert  growth  into  a  thicket,  as  it 
spreads  out  its  gray  foliage  and  white  blossoms  over 
the  sands.  A  slightly  different  form  of  the  tree  is  the 
"  Shittah,"  or  shittim  wood  of  which  the  pillars  of  the 
tabernacle  were  made.  This  tree,  though  the  chief 
growth  of  the  desert,  is  very  rare  in  Palestine.  The 
gum  which  exudes  from  it  is  said  to  be  the  old  Arabian 
frankincense,  and  is  brought  from  Serbal  by  way 
of  Tor. 

Not  in  any  colossal  outward  form  such  as  the  priests 
of  Egypt  figured,  did  GOD  reveal  himself  to  Moses,  but  in 
accordance  with  the  scene  around,  from  the  thicket 
blazing  with  unearthly  fire  amid  the  rocky  ledges  of  the 
hill  side.  And  of  how  much  did  the  Divine  voice  speak  to 


THE    CHOSEN   LEADER.  187 

Moses  out  of  the  bush  in  that  one  interview  !  He  was  told 
to  what  land  the  people  should  go — whom  they  should 
conquer — and  how  they  should  be  brought  forth  out  of 
Egypt.  Again  a  window  is  opened  in  heaven,  and  Moses 
is  permitted  to  perceive  the  intentions  of  God;  and 
utters  the  deep  whisper  of  his  humble  self-distrust  — 
the  "  Who  am  I  ? "  following  the  former  "  Here  am 
I,"  which  marked  the  instrument  "made  meet  for 
the  Master's  service." 

Then  followed  a  promise  and  a  token. 

"  And  He  said,  Certainly  I  will  be  with  thee ;  and  this  shall  be  a  token 
unto  thee.  When  thou  hast  brought  forth  the  people  out  of  Egypt,  ye 
shall  serre  God  UPON  THIS  MOUNTAIN." 

The  whole  prophetic  history  of  the  Plagues  of  Egypt 
is  compressed  into  the  Eevelation  from  the  burning  bush ; 
but  those  forty  quiet  years  of  God's  teaching  had  so 
prepared  the  mind  of  Moses  against  elation  at  being 
singled  out  as  a  listener  to  this  wondrous  "  talk  from 
heaven/'  that  his  faith  had  not  yet  risen  to  the  circum- 
stances, and  he  still  would  shrink  from  the.  mighty  call. 
But  the  "  Who  am  I  ? "  is  not  to  hinder  the  "  Here  am  I," 
and  at  last  he  goes  to  tell  Jethro,  his  father-in-law,  that 
ho  must  return  into  Egypt ;  and  Jethro  said  to  Moses, 
"  Go  in  peace." 

Having  commenced  the  journey  with  Zipporah,  his 
wife,  and  his  two  sons,  they  had  proceeded  some  way, 
and  were  resting  in  an  inn  or  caravanserai,  when,  appa- 
rently because  of  the  neglect  to  circumcise  his  younger 
son — it  may  have  been  owing  to  an  objection  of  his  wife's 
— "  the  Lord  met  him  and  sought  to  kill  him ;"  and  she 
is  made,  in  haste  and  fear,  herself  to  fulfil  the  sign  of  the 
Abrahamic  covenant,  and  at  this  time  appears  to  have 
been  sent  back  for  a  time  with  her  sons  to  the  house  of 


188  EXODE    OP   THE   TARTARS. 

her  father  Jethro.  That  Moses  accompanied  them  back 
seems  also  probable  from  the  next  incident  recorded.  He 
was  not  to  have  his  wife  for  a  companion  in  his  arduous 
mission,  but  his  brother — 

"  And  the  Lord  said  to  AAEON,  Go  into  the  wilderness  to  meet  MOSES. 
And  he  went,  and  met  him  in  the  mount  of  God,  and  kissed  him." 

During  the  journey  of  the  brothers  into  Egypt,  the 
Revelation  of  the  bush  was  repeated  by  Moses  to  Aaron, 
who  thus  received  the  Divine  commission;  and  then 
began  the  splendid  series  of  miracles  which  announced 
to  the  great  idolatrous  nation  that  the  era  of  the  servi- 
tude of  the  Lord's  people  was  over,  and  that  Pharaoh 
must  "  let  Israel  go." 

These  miracles  appear  to  have  been  not  more  neces- 
sary to  overawe  the  tyrant  than  to  instruct  and  impress 
the  bondmen  themselves,  amongst  whom  the  knowledge 
and  worship  of  Jehovah  seems  to  have  been  gradually 
decreasing.  They  were  in  "  anguish  of  spirit  and  cruel 
bondage." 

At  last,  geeing  the  first-born  of  every  family  cut 
down  by  the  God  of  the  Hebrews,  Pharaoh  hastily  gave 
the  midnight  word  that  the  Israelites  should  depart; 
"  Yea,  with  a  strong  hand  did  he  drive  them  out  of  the 
land;"  for  the  stretched -out  arm  of  Jehovah  had 
"  smitten  Egyptwith  all  His  wonders,"  and  "  THE  PEOPLE" 
forsook  "the  house  of  bondage,"  in  number  600,000 
fighting  men,  besides  children  and  a  mixed  multitude. 

THE  EXODE  OP  THE  TOEGOT  TAETAES. 

Before  we  follow  them  into  the  wilderness,  \ve  will 
attempt  to  illustrate  the  ancient  by  the  help  of  the 
modern,  and  to  give  an  idea  of  the  Exodus  from  Egypt 
by  a  few  previous  details  of  a  flight  of  the  Calmuck 


FROM    RUSSIA   TO   CHINA.  189 

Khan  and  his  people  from  the  territories  of  RUSSIA  to  the 
frontiers  of  CHINA  in  the  last  half  of  the  last  century.* 

"It  was  a  wild  barbaric  movement,  something  like  the 
migration  of  swallows  or  locusts,  while  the  gloomy  ven- 
geance of  Russia  and  her  vast  artillery  hung  upon  the 
rear.  It  was  in  some  sense  an  '  Exodus '  like  that  of 
Scripture,  of  families  with  their  slaves  and  their  herds  ; 
the  detachment  from  Russia  of  almost  the  whole  Cal- 
muck  nation  was  effected  by  this  astonishing  transit 
across  the  pathless  deserts  of  Central  Asia,  intersected 
continually  by  rapid  rivers,  which  had  to  be  traversed 
by  fords  known  only  to  few. 

"  With  frost  and  snow  around  them,  famine  in  front, 
and  the  sabre  behind,  they  sought  the  shadow  of  the 
Chinese  wall.  They  set  forth  on  the  5th  of  January, 
in  the  'year  of  the  Tiger,'  1770  A.D.,  600,000  souls, 
200,000  of  them  being  women  and  children,  in  troops 
of  20,000,  in  waggons  or  on  camels. 

"  They  fired  on  their  departure  the  whole  of  their 
villages  for  10,000  square  miles  in  one  simultaneous 
blaze.  Being  obliged  to  set  forth  in  the  winter,  when 
the  ice  formed  their  bridges,  their  sufferings  probably 
index  those  of  the  destroying  nations,  Huns,  Avars,  and 
Mongol  Tartars,  who  rolled  down  in  floods  on  Europe, 
yet  still  without  the  women.  The  children  of  Israel  were 
at  least  four  times  their  number,  and  had  also  women 
and  children  ;  but  these  were  saved  from  the  pursuit  of 
enemies,  and  their  residence  in  the  desert  was  a  con- 
tinual halt  of  forty  years. 

"  The  Calmucks  made  a  rapid  march  of  eight  months, 

in  which  all  but  250,000  of  them  perished.     They  first 

travelled  forty-three  miles   a  day  for  seven  days,  the 

weather  being  cold  but  bracing;  then  milk  from  the 

•  See  De  Quincy,  "  Grave  and  Gay,"  1854. 


190  HARDSHIP   AND   DEATH. 

over-driven  cattle  began  to  fail  for  the  children,  and 
meanwhile  the  Cossacks  fell  upon  their  rear,  and  9000 
fighting  men  perished  by  the  sword.  But  now  again 
the  women  and  children  must  arise  and  march  in  silent 
wretchedness  through  savannahs,  steppes,  and  deserts — 
on  to  the  defile  of  Torgai. 

"  One  whole  day,  and  far  into  the  night,  the  flight  con- 
tinued with  suffering  greater  than  before,  for  the  cold 
now  became  more  intense.  On  the  second  morning  the 
snow  fell,  and  for  ten  days  continued  to  fall  without 
ceasing,  checking,  however,  at  the  same  time  the  advance 
of  their  pursuers ;  bright  frosty  weather  succeeded,  so 
that  in  three  days  the  smooth  expanse  became  firm 
enough  for  the  tread  of  the  camels. 

"  And  now  the  time  was  come  that  they  no  longer  en- 
joyed plenty  during  their  transit ;  the  cattle  had  perished 
in  such  vast  numbers  on  the  previous  marches,  that  the 
rest  were  ordered  to  be  slaughtered  and  salted.  This  led 
to  a  general  banquet.  At  this  point  70,000  persons  of  all 
ages  had  already  perished,  and  tidings  were  now  received 
that  large  masses  of  troops  were  converging  from  every 
point  of  Central  Asia  to  the  fords  of  the  River  Torgai, 
to  intercept  them;  while  the  enemy  with  his  artillery 
was  in  their  rear. 

"  On  the  2nd  of  February,  however,  they  overthrew  the 
Cossacks,  who  had  long  occasion  to  remember  the  bloody 
battle  of  Ouchim. 

"  Still  they  were  informed  that  a  large  Russian  army 
was  advancing  upon  them  under  General  Fraubenberg, 
reinforced  by  10,000  Bashkirs.  These  had  sent  a  sig- 
nificant assurance  to  the  Czarina  that  '  they  would  not 
trouble  her  majesty  with  prisoners.' 

"And  now,  in  speed  lay  the  only  hope  of  the  wander- 
ers, in  strength  of  foot,  not  arm.  Onward  they  pressed, 


THOSE    LEFT  IN   THE   DESEET.  191 

marking  their  sad  march  over  the  solitary  steppe  by 
a  chain  of  corpses.  The  very  old  and  the  very  young1, 
the  sick  man  and  the  mother  with  her  baby,  dropped  fast 
away,  abandoned  to  the  wolves  of  the  wilderness. 

"  And  so  on  they  sped  for  2000  miles ;  for  the  first 
seven  weeks  the  severity  of  the  cold  had  forced  them 
nightly  to  the  desperate  sacrifice  of  their  baggage  wag- 
gons when  they  had  passed  no  forests,  and  conld  spare 
no  wood  from  their  camels'  lading ;  and  often  the  morn- 
ing light  found  dead  and  stiff  a  circle  of  men,  women, 
and  children,  gathered  by  hundreds  round  one  central 
fire.  Myriads  were  left  behind  from  mere  exhaustion, 
and  had  no  chance  of  surviving  twenty-four  hours. 

"At  last,  however,  frost  and  snow  forbore  to  persecute; 
more  genial  latitudes  and  genial  seasons  came  even  to 
them.  April  was  over,  and  at  the  end  of  May  they 
hoped  to  repose  for  many  weeks  in  a  fertile  neighbour- 
hood beyond  the  Torgai. 

"  Two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  souls  had  now 
perished,  and  not  a  single  beast  survived,  except  the 
camels  and  the  horses;  the  former  looked  like  mum- 
mies, arid  and  dusty  creatures,  lifting  up  their  speaking 
eyes  to  the  eastern  heavens.  The  Khan  Oubuka  wept 
bitter  tears  for  the  suffering  he  had  caused.  He  said  he 
would  return  and  submit  to  the  Czarina,  who  would  wel- 
come back  the  tribe ;  but  this,  Zebek,  a  Lama  priest, 
vigorously  opposed.  Was  this  misery  to  be  without 
fruits  ?  they  were  already  half  way.  Forward,  their 
route  was  through  fertile  lands;  backward,  through  a 
howling  wilderness,  rich  only  in  memorials  of  their 
sorrow.  If  Catherine  should  pardon,  she  would  never 
again  confide ;  besides  the  reasons  for  revolt  remained 
unimpaired;  but  it  was  not  revolt.  It  was  but  an 
allegiance  of  100  years  to  Russia,  and  a  return  to  their 


192  THE   END  OP   THE  MARCH. 

own  sovereign.  They  had  now  tried  both  governments, 
and  they  liked  that  of  China  best. 

"  Their  councils  were  interrupted  by  another  onset 
of  the  ferocious  Bashkirs,  who,  nevertheless,  were  caused 
to  retreat  by  Zebek ;  but  again  flight  became  neces- 
sary. 

"  Every  variety  of  wretchedness  attended  these  poor 
Calmucks ;  the  summer's  heat  succeeded  the  winter's 
frost ;  meantime,  the  unprincipled  Zebek  attempted 
treacherously  the  life  of  Oubuka,  who  was  however 
rescued  from  his  snares.  This  rescue  was  accomplished 
by  a  Eussian  prisoner  whom  he  befriended,  and  who 
made  his  way  back  from  this  point  to  St.  Petersburg, 
tracing  it  easily  by  the  line  of  skeletons.  He  mentions 
heaps  of  money  as  lying  untouched  in  the  desert,  from 
which  he  and  his  party  took  all  they  could  carry.  This 
traveller,  Weseloff,  who  had  been  carried  off  for  political 
reasons,  was  the  only  son  of  a  doating  mother.  Her 
affliction  at  his  loss  had  been  excessive,  still  she  had 
survived  it ;  his  sudden  re-appearance  before  her  killed 
her  on  the  spot. 

"  The  poor  fugitives  plundered  and  foraged  to  avoid 
starvation ;  this  provoked  the  original  inhabitants,  who 
fought  them  in  front,  as  did  the  enemy  in  the  rear. 

"  The  Bashkirs  were  always  ready  to  fight,  and  the 
Calmucks  to  run,  towards  the  final  haven  of  China. 
Every  day  battle  raged  for  hours,  and  madness  and 
frenzy  like  that  of  wild  beasts  took  possession  of  the 
wretched  combatants. 

"  On  a  fine  morning  in  August,  1771,  Kien  Long,  the 
Emperor  of  China,  was  pursuing  game  in  a  wild  frontier 
district  lying  outside  the  Great  Wall.  Many  hundred 
square  leagues  of  uninhabited  forest  invited  him  onward. 
He  was  standing  at  the  door  of  his  pavilion,  watching 


THIEST   OP   THE   DESEET.  193 

the  morning  sun  on  the  margin  of  the  central  deserts  of 
Asia,  when  to  the  west  there  arose  a  vast  and  cloudy 
vapour,  which  slowly  diffused  itself  over  the  heavens. 
By  and  by  the  mists  unrolled,  or  rather  rolled  forwards 
in  billowy  volumes. 

"  The  imperial  escort  surrounded  the  pavilion.  In  the 
course  of  two  hours  the  cloud  gradually  parted,  and  dis- 
closed the  heads  of  camels,  and  men  and  horses,  then 
came  the  flashing  of  arms,  shrieks  rose  upon  the  air, 
the  groaning  clamour  of  infuriated  multitudes  mad  with 
desperation  and  thirst.  The  Emperor  had  been  aware  of 
the  migration  of  the  horde,  but  had  not  expected  them 
on  his  frontiers  for  three  months.  They  seemed  to  be 
making  for  a  large  fresh-water  lake  about  seven  miles 
distant,  and  the  Chinese  cavalry  followed  them  there  to 
behold  the  end  of  this  vast  Exodus,  winding  up  with  an 
appropriate  scene  of  hellish  fury. 

"  The  lake  of  Tengis  lies  in  a  hollow  among  moun- 
tains ;  the  Chinese  cavalry  descended  to  it  by  a  difficult 
road  which  overlooked  the  march  of  the  Calmucks. 
They  had  for  ten  days  been  traversing  a  hideous  desert, 
where  no  drop  of  water  could  be  found.  On  the  eighth 
day  the  scant  allowance  failed  utterly,  and  for  two  days 
thirst  had  been  raging.  They  were  pressing  on  toge- 
ther, the  cruel  Bashkir  and  the  wretched  Calmuck,  noble 
and  simple,  all  with  blackened  faces  and  drooping 
tongues.  Many  of  them  had  become  lunatic.  The 
maddening  appetite  lasted  one  half -hour,  and  then  came 
the  scene  of  parting  vengeance ;  the  waters  of  the  lake 
were  dyed  with  blo6d,  heads  were  hewn  off  like  swathes 
before  the  mower's  scythe.  Yet  fresh  myriads  pressed 
and  rushed  on  to  the  lake,  and  in  their  frantic  thirst 
swallowed  the  blood-dyed  water.  Then,  as  the  Bash- 
kirs, aware  of  the  approach  of  the  Chinese,  gathered  into 

o 


194  THE   CHINESE   WELCOME. 

1  globes '  and  '  turms '  for  flight,  the  Chinese  governor  of 
the  fort  poured  in  his  broadsides  on  them  till  the  lake 
became  one  vast  seething  caldron  of  blood  and  carnage, 
and  at  last  the  enemy  retreated. 

"  The  wanderers  found  rest  in  lands  of  great  fertility 
assigned  to  them  on  the  banks  of  the  Eiver  Ily.  A  long 
Chinese  state  paper  gives  all  the  above  circumstances  of 
the  Calmuck  migration  drawn  up  by  the  Emperor  him- 
self. 

1 '  He  states  that  he  was  informed  of  the  migration  of 
the  horde,  and  had  prepared  for  them,  divided  lands, 
provided  stuffs  for  them  for  their  dress,  and  grain  to 
support  them  for  a  year,  household  utensils,  and  for  each 
several  ounces  of  silver;  cows  and  sheep  also  were  allotted 
them.  All  this  was  done,  says  another  Chinese  docu- 
ment at  the  emperor's  own  expense,  and  amounted  to  an 
immense  sum.  Thus  after  their  year  of  misery,  they 
were  settled  down  into  pastoral  life  and  reclaimed  from 
roving. 

"  Oubuka,  after  the  affair  on  the  banks  of  the  Torgai, 
had  necessarily  suspected  his  cousin,  Zebek.  This  de- 
signing chief  afterwards  wove  nets  even  for  the  life  of 
the  Chinese  emperor  himself,  which  being  discovered,  he 
perished  by  assassination  at  an  imperial  banquet. 

"Oubuka  continued  a  fatherly  lord  to  his  tribe.  From 
their  hills  they  still  look  out  upon  the  wilderness  in 
which  half  a  million  of  their  race  perished.  Some  who 
survived  lost  their  memory,  all  their  past  life  was  wiped 
out  as  with  a  sponge,  others  lost  their  reason,  whether 
in  the  form  of  pensive  melancholy,  tempestuous  mania, 
raving  frenzy,  or  moping  idiocy. 

"  Two  great  monuments  arose  in  after  years  of  the 
year  of  the  Tiger.  About  six  years  after  their  arrival  in 
China  a  "romanang"  was  held,  i.  e.}  a  national  commemo- 


THE  EXODUS  OP  ISRAEL.  195 

ration  with  most  rich  and  solemn  music,  of  the  afflictions 
of  the  desert. 

"  Besides  this,  the  Emperor  Kien  Long  erected  some 
mighty  columns  of  granite  and  brass  on  the  margin 
of  the  steppes,  on  which  the  inscription  runs  thus : — 

"By  THE  WILL  OP  GOD 

HEBE,  UPON  THE  BBINK  OP  THESE  DESEBTS, 

WHICH  FBOM  THIS  POINT  BEGUN  AND  STBETCH  AWAY — 

PATHLESS,  TBEELESS,  AND  WATEBLESS — 

FOE  THOUSANDS  OP  MILES,  AND  ALONG  THE  MABQINS  OP  MIGHTY  NATIONS — 
RESTED  PBOM  THEIB  LABOUBS  AND  QBEAT  AFFLICTIONS, 

UNDEB  THE  SHADOW  OP  THE  CHINESE  WALL, 

AND  BY  THE  PATOTJB  OP  KtEN  LONG,  GrOD'S  LlEUT.  UPON  EARTH, 

THE  ANCIENT  CHILDBEN  OP  THE  WILDEBNESS,  THE  TOBGOT  TABTABS, 

FLYING  BEPOBE  THE  WBATH  OP  THE  RUSSIAN  CZAB, 
WANDEBING  SHEEP  WHO  HAD  STBAYED  AWAY  PBOM  THE 

CELESTIAL  EUFIBE 
IN  THE  YEAB  1616,  A.D. 

BUT  ABB  NOW  MEBCIFULLY  GATHEBED  AGAIN  APTEB  INFINITE  SOBBOW, 
INTO  THE  FOLD  OF  THEIB  FOBGIVING  SHEPHEBD. 
HALLOWED  BE  THE  SPOT  FOB  EVEB, 

AND  THE  DAY, 
SEPT.  STH,  1771,  A.D." 

THE  EXODUS  OF  ISRAEL. 

What  a  contrast  to  this  Exodus  of  the  Tartars  was 
the  Exodus  of  Israel !  Elected  by  most  wondrous  love 
to  be  "  a  peculiar  treasure  above  all  people,"  a  "  king- 
dom of  priests,"  and  a  "  holy  nation,"  THEY  began  their 
journey  as  on  eagles'  wings  (Ex.  six.  4). 

"  Oh,  Jacob,  saith  the  Lord,  I  am  the  Holy  One  of  Israel,  thy  Saviour  : 
I  gave  Egypt  for  thy  ransom,  Ethiopia  and  Seba  for  thee." — Is.  xliii.  3. 

THEY  were  to  set  forth  on  wilderness  travel  where  the 
Lord  would  "furnish  their  table,"  where  pure  crystal 
water  would  burst  from  the  rock  for  them,  and  make 


196  THE   DIVINE   LEADER. 

streams  in  the  desert ;  the  ' '  doors  of  heaven  would  be 
opened/'  and  the  "corn  of  heaven"  rained  down  on 
THEM,  even  ' '  angels'  food ;"  or  as  the  margin  reads, 
"the  bread  of  the  mighty"  (Ps.  Ixxviii.  25).  It  was  like 
coriander  seed,  Avhite,  "  a  small  round  thing,  as  small  as 
the  hoar-frost  on  the  ground ;  in  taste  like  wafers  made 
with  honey."  If  they  had  been  content  with  this  ethereal 
yet  substantial  aliment,  this  corn  of  heaven,  they  would 
have  known  no  disease.  It  was  promised — 

"  The  Lord  shall  bless  thy  bread  and  thy  water,  and  I  will  take  away 
sickness  from  the  midst  of  thee." — Ex.  xxiii.  25. 

They  were  to  be  exempt  from  "the  diseases  of 
Egypt;"  and  as  they  began  this  miracle  journey,  the 
Lord  pointed  their  eyes  to  their  Leader. 

"  Behold  I  send  an  ANGEL  before  thee,  to  keep  thee  in  the  way,  and  to 
bring  thee  into  the  place  which  I  have  prepared. 

"  Beware  of  Him,  and  obey  His  voice,  provoke  Him  not ;  for  He  will 
not  pardon  your  transgressions  :  for  my  name  is  in  Him." 

The  last  day  of  the  sojourn  in  Egypt  was  over,  the 
predicted  430  years  from  the  call  of  Abraham  complete, 
and  in  the  14th  night  of  the  month  Nisan,  our  April, 
then  made  the  first  month  of  the  Jewish  year,  the  Lord 
ordained  a  new  reckoning  of  time  for  this  His  peculiar 
people. 

"  This  month  shall  be  unto  you  the  beginning  of  months  ;  it  shall  be 
the  first  month  of  the  year  to  you." — Ex.  lii.  2. 

The  first-born  of  Israel  were  to  be  passed  over,  when 
the  first-born  of  every  house  in  Egypt  was  smitten, 
"  the  chief  of  their  strength  in  the  tabernacles  of  Ham" 
(Ps.  Ixxviii.  51) ;  and  the  ' '  Lamb  of  God,"  no  other  than 
the  "Angel  of  the  Way,"  was  to  be  slain  and  fed  upon 
by  every  household  of  Jacob  for  itself;  when  this  had 
been  done,  they  could  no  longer  remain  in  Egypt.  Each 
was  to  take  of  the  blood  of  the  lamb,  and  strike  it  on  the 


THE   PASSOVER  LAMB. 


197 


two  side-posts*  and  on  the  upper  door-post  of  the  houses 
wherein  they  should  eat  it,  and  so  escape  "the  de- 
stroyer's "  finger  of  death.  Thus  between  evening  and 
evening  Moses  and  his  people  "  kept  the  passover,  and' 
the  sprinkling  of  blood,  lest  He  that  destroyed  the  first- 

*  The  accompanying  sketch  was  made  by  Miss  Whateley  from  life 
studies  in  Egypt. 


198  PAUL'S  TEACHING  BY  TYPES. 

born  should  touch  them"  (Heb.  xi.  28)  j  and  the  Master — 
prefigured  alike  by  the  slain  lamb  and  the  ' '  Angel  of  the 
Way" — nearly  1500  years  afterwards,  on  the  same  14th 
night  of  the  month  Nisan,  directed  the  passover  to  be  pre- 
pared for  Himself  and  His  disciples.  In  the  course  of  that 
night  HIMSELF,  the  arche-type,  was  arrested,  in  the  morn- 
ing tried,  and  in  the  next  afternoon  crucified  and  buried. 
We  are  always  safe  in  learning  from  types  when 
apostles  teach  us ;  and  in  the  wonderful  depths  of  God's 
ancient  Word  there  are  closed  doors  into  which  no  hasty 
reader  enters,  into  which  none  could  have  dared  to  enter 
unless  the  key  of  inspiration  had  unlocked  their  divine 
mysteries.  Was  not  Paul  surely  taught  of  the  Spirit 
concerning  the  history  of  his  people  when  he  went  into 
.Arabia,  as  he  tells  the  Galatians  ?  (i.  17.)  This  wide  word 
"Arabia/*  must  have  included  the  rocks  of  Edom  and 
Petra,  whence  Arabians  came  to  the  festivals  at  Jerusalem 
(Actsii.  11);*  perhaps  also  his  steps  were  turned  to  those 
mountain  heights  by  the  Red  Sea,  once  familiar  to  the 
footsteps  of  Moses  and  Elijah,  and  hallowed  by  the  pre- 
sence of  God.  His  allusions  to  Sinai  and  Agar,  remarks 
Dr.  Bonar,  are  almost  surely  those  of  one  who  had 
looked  upon  those  peaks.  Moses  and  Paul,  the  lawgiver 
and  the  expounder  of  the  law,  meet  in  spirit  on  the  same 
mountain,  and  hold  fellowship  across  a  void  of  more  than 
1500  years,  the  intermediate  link  being  Elijah,  the  great 
reviver  of  the  law  in  the  prophetic  period. 

It  is  Paul  "who,  living  over  again  the  wilderness  pil- 
grimage of  Israel,  teaches  us  that  all  its  incidents  hap- 
pened unto  us  for  ensamples,  and  also  that  these  typical 
histories  "  are  written  for  our  admonition,  on  whom  the 
ends  of  the  world  are  come"  (1  Cor.  x.  11).  He  points 
to  the  people  as  commencing  their  journey  by  a  bap- 
*  See  "  Life  and  Epistles  of  St.  Paul,"  People's  Edition,  vol.i0  p.  49. 


THE   LAMB   OP   GOD.  199 

tism  unto  Moses  in  the  cloud  and  in  the  sea.  He  calls 
their  manna  "  spiritual  meat/'  their  water  from  the  rock 
"  spiritual  drink,"  and  he  adds  in  plain  exposition, 
' '  That  rock  was  Christ."  It  is  more  especially  the  be- 
loved John,  who  dilates  on  Jesus  as  the  "  Lamb  of  God"* 
(John  i.  29) ;  "  the  Lamb  slain  from  the  foundation  of 
the  world "  (Rev.  xiii.  8) ;  slain  on  the  altar  of  Abel, 
in  the  sacrifices  of  Noah  and  Abraham,  and  on 
the  Passover  night — all  shadows  of  the  sacrifice  on 
Calvary,  and  marking  the  shed  blood  of  a  sinless  victim, 
the  only  porch  of  entrance  to  the  privileges  of  the  chosen 
people.  The  heavenly  manna,  the  "  living  water ;"  the 
' '  spiritual  rock,"  the  Passover  Lamb,  were  all  figures  to 
convey  divine  truth  to  the  senses  of  a  race  who  could 
only  be  taught  by  their  senses,  who  were  in  their  mental 
childhood.  They  were  all  introductory  to  a  written  law 
on  TABLES  OP  STONE,  which  was  visibly  to  form  the  cha- 
racter of  God's  child  Israel  in  the  desert,  but  which 
had  been  inferentially  taught  also  to  the  Patriarchal 
world  even  through  the  antediluvian  age. 

Our  Lord  reproaches  the  Sadducees  with  not  knowing 
those  Scriptures  which  they  had  received,  because  they 
had  not  deduced  the  doctrine  of  a  future  life  from  the 
statement,  "I  am  the  God  of  Abraham,  the  God  of 
Isaac,  and  the  God  of  Jacob."  It  was  there  if  they  had 
sought  it  out. 

And  thus  we  arrive  at  the  close  of  the  first  ( '  seven 
times"  of  God's  reckoning,  of  the  2520  years  which  passed 
over  the  earth,  ere  the  Tables  of  the  Law  were  given  to 
Moses  on  Mount  Sinai.  (See  our  first  half-title  page, 
and  table  of  chronology,  p.  161.) 

*  The  attachment  of  John  was  to  the  person  of  the  Saviour.  He 
leaned  on  His  breast  at  supper.  He  may  have  possessed  the  most  of 
susceptibility  to  the  powers  of  the  unseen  world. 


200  REVIEW   OF   PART  THE   FIRST. 

We  hope  our  readers  will  not  have  felt  it  unprofitable 
to  have  revisited  the  "  Cradle  of  Nations/'  the  CENTRE 
of  ARARAT,  and  the  sepulchres  of  WAREA  ;  being  aided  in 
their  researches  by  that  most  ancient  and  incontestable 
document,  the  tenth  of  Genesis. 

It  has  prepared  us  to  explore  our  SECOND  field,  THE 
TRIAL  ERA  OP  THE  CHOSEN  PEOPLE,  that  we  have 
glanced  at  them  in  the  earliest  phases  of  their  history 
as  "Hebrews"  and  Israelites,  before  they  became 
"  Jews"  in  Jerusalem  and  Judah.  We  have  identified 
them  with  Sichem  or  Nablus,  and  marked  their  mar- 
vellous remnant  still  clasping  their  Pentateuch, at  the 
foot  of  Gerizim,  and  observing  their  ancient  rites  on  the 
summit  of  that  same  mountain  of  the  "  appearance  of 
Jehovah,"  where  Isaac  was  offered,  and  whence  Abra- 
ham probably  took  his  first  view  of  the  Promised  Land. 

Then  we  have  followed  the  shepherd  Patriarch  into 
Egypt,  and  marked  the  infancy  of  the  nation  in  its  nur- 
sery by  the  Nile.  We  have  asked  questions  of  those  silent 
pillars  and  prostrate  Pharaohs,  and  taken  note  of  the 
newly- discovered  inscriptions  of  Arabia,  and  the  testi- 
mony of  "the  mingled  people." 

And  how  much  more  thankfully  than  ever  have  we 
turned  towards  the  inspired  light  of  the  Book  of  Job, 
as  a  chronicle  of  those  patriarchal  times  !  The  candle  of 
the  Lord,  wherewith  we  may  search  through  the  mists 
of  bygone  ages — for  Job  is  no  myth,  and  he  stands  side 
by  side  with  Moses,  to  illumine  an  era  as  long  and  as 
fruitful  in  interest  as  our  modern  times  of  the  Gentiles. 

Our  subsequent  inquiries  will  be  more  rich  in  monu- 
mental evidence,  and  we  shall  now  attempt  to  scan  the 
story  of  THE  PEOPLE,  from  their  Exodus  to  their  scat- 
tering abroad  among  the  nations. 


THE  TIME,  TIMES,  AND  A  HALP 
OP  ISEAEL'S  PBOBATIOK 


FROM  THE   COVENANT   WITH  ABRAHAM,   B.C.   1921, 

TO    THE    FALL    OF    MANASSEH,    B.C.    661-667, 

A  SPACE  OF  1260  YEARS,  OR  3i  x  360  =  1260. 


ABEAM'S  BIRTH,  B.C.  1996,  less  75  =  1921 ;  His  CALL,  B.C.  1921, 
less  430  =  B.C.  1491 ;  TEE  EXODUS  PEOM  EGYPT,  B.C.  1491, 
less  480  =  B.C.  1011 ;  THE  BUILDING  OF  SOLOMON'S  TEMPLE, 
B.C.  1011,  less  350  =  B.C.  661 ;  (or,  between  B.C.  661  and 
B.C.  677),  the  Casting  out  of  Israel  for  the  sin  of  Manasseh. 
(See  p.  19.) 

See  proof  of  dates  in  Holy  Scripture. 

GBH.  xii.  1,  3, 4.—"  Now  the  Lord  had  said  unto  Abram,  Get  thee  out  of  thy 
country  ....  unto  a  land  that  I  will  shew  thee  ....  and  in  thee  shall  all  the 
families  ef  the  earth  be  blessed.  '  And  Abram  was  seventy  and  fire  yeass  old 
when  he  departed  out  of  Haran." 

GAL.  iii.  17. — "  And  this  I  (Paul)  say,  that  the  covenant  that  was  confirmed 
before  of  God  in  Christ,  the  law,  which  was  four  hundred  and  thirty  years  after, 
cannot  disannul,  that  it  should  make  the  promise  of  none  effect." 

1  KINGS  vi.  1. — "And  it  came  to  pass  in  the  four  hundred  and  eightieth  year 
after  the  children  of  Israel  were  come  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt,  in  the  fourth  year 
of  Solomon's  reign  over  Israel,  that  he  began  to  build  the  house  of  the  Lord." 

2  Chron.  Trriii  6— 7.— Manasseh,  king  of  Judah,  having  "  built  altars  for  all  the 
host  of  heaven  in  the  two  courts  of  the  house  of  the  Lord  :  and  used  enchantments, 
and  used  witchcraft,  and  dealt  with  a  familiar  spirit,  and  set  up  a  carved  image, 
his  idol,  in  the  house  of  God,"  is  carried  captive  by  Esarhaddon  to  Babylon,  B.C.  661. 

J»B.  iv.  1,  4. — "Then  said  the  Lord  unto  me  (Jeremiah),  Though  Moses  and 
Samuel  stood  before  me,  yet  my  mind  could  not  be  towards  this  people ;  cast  them 
out  of  my  sight  and  let  them  go  forth.  .  .  .  And  I  will  cause  them  to  be  removed 
into  all  kingdoms  of  the  earth  because  of  Manasseh  the  son  of  Hezekiah,  king  of 
Judah,  for  that  which  he  did  in  Jerusalem." 

BEGINNING  OP  THE   TIMES  OP  THE   GENTILES. 

Saosduchinos,  supposed  the  same  as  Ifebuchadnezzar,  succeeds  his  father  Esar- 
haddon in  the  kingdoms  of  Assyria  and '  Sabylon,  B.C.  667.— CANON  OF  PTOLBHY. 


PASSAGE   OP   THE   BED    SEA.  203 


CHAPTER  IX. 

CHKONICLES  OF  THE  EXODUS. 

ISRAEL'S  WAYMARKS  —  THE  SINAITIC  INSCRIPTIONS  —  SERBAL  THE  TRTTK 
MOUNT  SINAI  —  WADY  FEIRAN  —  AMALEK.  —  SUBJECTS  OF  SINAITIC  IN- 
SCRIPTIONS —  VIEW  FROM  SERBAL  —  LOCALITY  OF  THE  INSCRIPTIONS  — 
EIBROTH-HATTAAVAH—  THE  GRATES  IN  WADY  BERAH. 


Lord  placed  the  sea  between  "  the  people  " 
and  their  enemies.  "  Their  persecutors  Thou 
threwest  into  the  deeps,  as  a  stone  into  the 
mighty  waters/'  Neh.  ix.  11.  This  was  the 
miracle  that  crowned  all  the  other  ten.  The 
first-born  of  Egypt  had  perished,  but  the  burial 
alive  of  her  peers  and  her  princes  must  now  attest 
the  power  of  Jehovah,  and  humble  the  pride  of  the 
kingdom  whose  Pharaoh  had  defied  "  the  Holy  One  of 
Israel." 

"  Among  all  the  events  and  miracles  of  the  Exodus/' 
says  Mr.  Forster,  "  none  has  given  birth  to  a  greater 
variety  of  theories  and  speculations,  than  the  Passage 
of  the  Red  Sea.  The  reason  is  obvious.  If  this  first 
great  miracle  of  the  Exode  can  be  established  in  all  its 
fulness,  none  of  those  which  follow  ft  can  be  shaken  or 
explained  away  ;  and  on  the  other  hand,  if  this  transac- 
tion can  be  reduced  to  low  proportions,  and  explained 
by  natural  and  secondary  causes  (such  as  an  ebb-tide 
and  shoals,  and  a  narrow  crossing  at  Suez),  all  belief  in 
the  after  miracles-  must  suffer  with  it." 


204  CROSSING   THE   BED   SEA. 

How  is  the  crossing  described  in  the  song  of 
Moses  ? 

"  With  the  blast  of  Thy  nostrils  the  waters  were  gathered  together. 
The  floods  stood  upright  as  an  heap ; 
The  depths  were  congealed  in  the  heart  of  the  sea. 
The  enemy  said :  I  will  pursue,  I  will  overtake,  I  will  divide  the 

spoil. 

I  will  draw  my  sword,  my  hand  shall  destroy  them. 
Thou  didst  blow  with  Thy  wind ;  the  sea  covered  them  ; 
They  sank  as  lead  in  the  mighty  waters." 

EXOD.  xv.  8—10. 

We  must  realize  "  the  people  "  as  a  whole  nation 
encamped  on  the  Egyptian  side  of  the  Eed  Sea,  in  Wady 
Tarawtk,  or  "  The  Valley  of  the  Nocturnal  Travellers/' 
Here  is  commemorated  by  its  Arabic  name  "  the  night " 
of  Exod.  xii.  42  ;  that  night  of  the  Lord  to  be  observed 
of  all  the  children  of  Israel  in  their  generations. 

Captain  Moresby  has  laid  down  Wady  Tarawik  in 
his  chart  as  Wady  Mousa,  corresponding  with  "  Ayun 
Mousa,"  the  wells  on  the  opposite  coast.  "When  I 
asked  our  Sheikh/'  says  Dr.  Wilson,  "if  this  name 
was  correct,  he  said,  •'  this  is  indeed  the  path  of  our  Lord 
Moses/  "  This  Wady  Tarawik,  or  Mousa,  is  eighteen 
miles  in  length — the  only  level  and  open  space  in 
which  two  millions  of  people  with  their  tents  and 
flocks  could  encamp,  in  order  to  enter  the  sea  at  one 
given  time,  and  march  across  the  uncovered  gulf  like  a 
vast  army,  intent  on  reaching  the  opposite  shore,  with- 
out the  loss  of  a  needless  hour. 

Mr.  Forster  is  a  great  and  admitted  authority  on 
the  geography  of  Arabia,  and  he  has  brought  the  whole 
force  of  his  research  to  bear  on  the  traces  of  Scripture 
narratives  as  borne  out  in  the  meanings  of  modern 
names  of  places  in  the  present  day,  beginning  from 


SINAI 

AND  THE 

UPPER  DESERT 


MAP   OF   SINAI   AND   THE   UPPER   DESEKT. 


AYUN  MOUSA. 


205 


ATUM  UODSi,  TH1  WILLS  OT  MOSES. 

Ayun  Mousa,  or  the  Wells  of  Moses,  of  which  we  can 
present  our  readers  with  a  sketch  from  the  pencil  of 
the  author  of  "  Ragged  Life  in  Egypt,"  during  her  stay 
in  Cairo. 

Mr.  Forster  tells  us  that  there  are  on  the  Arabian  side 
six  wadys,  or  landing-places,  facing  Wady  Tarawik  : — 


206  THE  LANDING  PLACES. 

1.  Aynn  Mousa.  2.  Wady  Beiyaneh,  derived  from 
ar  rani,  "  the  people,"  THE  VALLEY  OP  THE  PEOPLE. 
3.  Wady  Kurdhiyeh,  from  Kardah,  THE  VALLEY  OP  THE 
CONGEEGATION.  4.  Wady  el  Ahtha,  from  ati  atiu,  "  a 
pilgrim,"  THE  VALLEY  OP  THE  PILGRIMS.  5.  Wady 
Sudr,  from  sadar,  OUT  OP  THE  WATEB,  "  a  road  leading 
men  up  from  the  water."  6.  Wady  Wardan,  from 
wardan,  the  "waterers;"  it  means  "entering  into  the 
water,"  THE  VALLEY  OF  DESCENT  INTO  THE  WATEK. 

' c  Can  these  local  names,"  it  is  asked,  ' '  facing  the 
very  scene  of  the  Scripture  miracle,  have  come  together 
by  chance  ?  Can  the  .Scripture  terms,  the  '  People/ 
the  ( Pilgrims,'  occur  on  the  very  scene  of  the  Exode, 
yet  have  no  reference  to  God's  people  Israel?" 
"  Ayun  Mousa"  says  Miss*  Whateley,  "  is  supposed  by 
many  to  be  the  first  well  at  which  they  drank  after 
thus  crossing  the  sea.  Marah  was  three  days' 
journey  from  the  coast,  and  they  could  .  not  have  gone 
three  days  without  drinking ;  and  it  is  not  unlikely,  as 
this  well  is  only  a  very  short  distance  from  the  place 
where  they  must  have  crossed,  according  to  the  topo- 
graphy of  Scripture,  that  they  stopped  and  filled  their 
water-skins  and  pitchers,  and  with  that  aid  reached 
1  Marah ;'  for  it  is  only  on  arriving  there  that  we  hear 
that  they  murmured." 

Ayun  Mousa  is  a  strange  spot,  a  plot  of  tamarisks, 
with  its  seventeen  wells,  literally  an  island  in  the  desert, 
and  now  used  as  the  Eichmond  of  Suez,  says  Stanley, 
who  further  in  one  of  his  magic  word  sketches,  pre- 
sents, as  seen  from  Ayun  Mousa,  "the  white  sandy 
desert,  the  deep,  black,  river-like  sea,  and  the  dim, 
silvery  mountains  of  Attaka  on  the  other  side.  Behind 
that  high  African  range,"  he  says,  "  lies  Egypt,  and  the 
green  fields  of  the  Nile,  her  vast  cities  and  her  ancient 


MODERN  WAYMAKKS.  207 

monuments; — before  the  pilgrims  spreads  the  wide  desert 
of  stone  and  sand,  with  no  trace  of  human  habitation, 
where  they  might  wander,  as  far  as  they  saw,  for  ever 
and  ever." 

"  I  rose  at  six,"  says  Dr.  Bonar — when  encamped 
at  Ayun  Mousa,  on  his  way  to  the  Sinaitic  Desert, 
January  18,  1857 ; — "  the  east  was  beginning  to  be 
streaked  with  pale  red,  which  betokens  immediate  sun- 
rise. We  rode  off  about  nine  through  the  wide  desert 
plain ;  first  through  soft  sand,  then  hard  gravel,  then 
stones,  all  generally  of  a  white  colour. 

"  No  trace  of  a  road  appeared,  but  the  waymarks  are 
visible  everywhere ;  consisting  of  small  heaps  of  stones 
set  up  on  each  side,  which  are  carefully  preserved  by 
the  Bedouins,  for  even  they  might  at  times  be  at  a  loss 
as  to  the  way,  so  great  is  the  sameness  of  the  region 
for  miles  on  every  hand.  Jeremiah  says  (xxxi.  21) : — 

'  Set  thee  up  waymarks,  make  thee  high  heaps  :  set  thine  heart  to' 
ward  the  highway.' 

"  The  sand  does  not  seem  to  obliterate  these,  or  if  it 
does,  they  are  renewed  from  time  to  time ;  they  became 
a  welcome  sight  in  the  waste  of  the  desert,  where  else 
there  was  no  mark  or  foot  trace  of  any  kind  whatever. 

"  Thus  we  reached  Wady  Shudh,  probably  the  same 
as  the  wilderness  of  Shur." 

"  Moses  brought  Israel  from  the  Bed  Sea,  and  they  went  out  into  the 
wilderness  of  Shur."— Ex.  IT.  22. 

And  now  in  Wady  el  Amout  begins  the  "  great  and 
terrible  wilderness,"  with  its  towering  mounds  of  rough 
sand,  its  stupendous  precipices  of  half-baked  rocks,  and 
in  the  distance  wild  brown  spectral  mountains.  These 
are  the  "  ragged  rocks"  (Isa.  ii.  21),  with  their  summits 


208  THE   INSCBIPTIONS. 

of  spikes  or  tall  spires,  and  their  vast  sides  furrowed  by 
enormous  quarries,  dug  side  by  side  in  succession  for 
rniles — "a  land  of  deserts  and  of  PITS"  (Jer.  ii.  6). 

The  limestone  ranges  of  the  Tih,  abutting  on  the 
Valley  of  the  Nile,  furnished  the  quarries  of  the  pyra- 
mids, -while  the  sandstone  cliffs  in  the  Wady  Mokatteb 
offered  ready  tablets  for  the  Sinaitic  Inscriptions. 

THE    SINAITIC    INSCRIPTIONS. 

Research  among  these  important  remains  has  elicited 
an  amazing  difference  of  opinion.  It  is  now  about 
twelve  years  since  Mr.  Forster  introduced  himself  as 
the  expositor  of  certain  mysterious  symbols  inscribed 
abundantly  on  the  rocks  and  mountains  of  the  very 
Desert  of  the  Wanderings.  Nobody  doubts  the  identi- 
fication of  the  desert,  and  we  have  been  long  accustomed 
to  believe  the  history  that  relates  to  the  locality. 
Nothing  was  more  likely  than  that  "  The  People,"  the 
only  people,  every  resting-place  on  whose  journey  was 
marked  out  by  Divine  and  visible  guidance — that  these 
people  coming  up  from  a  land  of  inscriptions  on  rocks, 
should  inscribe  somewhat  during  the  forty  years  of  their 
winding  and  devious  course  in  the  wilderness. 

Yet  when  a  man  of  learning  and  piety,  well  known 
in  the  Church  of  England,  well  connected,  and  able  to 
impress  his  convictions  on  minds  of  such  an  order  as 
we  have  before  noticed — when  he  makes  these  inscrip- 
tions the  object  of  a  deep  devotion  and  life  study,  and 
announces  that  he  can  read  them  by  help  of  Hebrew* 
Samaritan,  Phoenician,  ancient  Arabic,  and  Coptic  alpha- 
bets— how  is  it  that  the  general  impression  hitherto 
made  on  the  public  mind,  and  endorsed  by  the  authori- 
ties of  literature  (often  without  condescending  to  read 
what  Mr.  Forster  has  said),  is,  that  his  rendering  of 


THE    EEPOKT    OP   COSMA.S.  209 

this  solemn  rock- witness  may  be  interesting  and  poetical, 
and  may  even  seem  probable,  but  that  it  certainly  is 
not  true  ? 

The  learned  have  settled  it  on  the  contrary,  that  these 
inscriptions  will  be  ultimately  discovered  to  be  nothing 
but  ' '  Abdallah  the  son  of  Abdallah,"  and  the  like ;  and 
they  maintain  that  it  is  a  delusion  to  suppose  that  they 
are  "  The  Voice  of  Israel  from  the  rocks  of  Sinai "  ? 

In  the  consideration  of  this  subject  in  1864,  it 
appears  that  we  have  to  deal  with  the  INSCRIPTIONS,  as 
at  present  known  and  presented  to  the  public  by  oilier 
parties  than  Mr.  Forster,  who  need  not,  therefore,  be 
considered  as  responsible  for  his  material.  This  presen- 
tation is  far  more  full  and  perfect  than  it  could  have 
been  twelve  years  ago. 

The  first  modern  notice  of  these  inscriptions  on  the 
Continent  had  been  by  Montfaucon,  a  Parisian  author, 
so  long  ago  as  1706.  He  introduced  to  the  world  a  quo- 
tation from  a  book  called  "  Christian  Topography,"  by 
Cosmas  "  Indicopleustes,"  an  Egyptian  monk,  who 
visited  Sinai  in  the  year  A.D.  518,  nine  years  prior  to 
the  traditional  date  of  the  building  of  the  Convent  of 
St.  Catherine  by  the  Roman  emperor,  Justinian. 

"One  sees,"  says  Cosmas,  "in  that  wilderness,  all 
the  rocks,  even  those  broken  off  from  the  cliffs  at  all 
the  resting  places,  written  over  with  sculptured  Hebrew- 
characters,  as  I  myself,  who  traversed  these  localities  on 
foot,  do  testify,  which  inscriptions  certain  Jews  of  our 
caravan,  having  read,  interpreted  to  us,  etc.  In  fact, 
the  Israelites  exuberated  in  writing,  which  is  preserved 
even  until  now,  for  the  sake,  as  I  think,  of  the  unbelievers. 
It  is  open  to  all  who  will,  to  visit  these  localities  and  to 
see  for  themselves." 

Not  till  one  hundred  and  fourteen  years  after  Mont- 

p 


210         ME.  GRAY  AND  PKOFESSOR  BEEE. 

faucon's  notice,  in  1 820,  does  any  further  mention  seem 
to  have  been  made  of  these  SINAITIC  rocks,  and  then 
the  Rev.  J.  F.  Gray,  an  English  clergyman,  took  copies 
of  the  characters  upon  them,  of  which  he  published  one 
hundred  and  seventy-seven  in  the  "  Transactions  of 
the  Royal  Society  of  Literature,"  vol.  ii.,  part  i.,  but 
for  ten  years  longer  they  still  failed  to  attract  the  atten- 
tion of  any  but  the  learned. 

In  1840,  Professor  Beer,  of  Germany,  proposed  an 
alphabet  for  their  decipherment,  rejected  the  testimony 
of  Cosmas,  and  conjectured  that  their  age  only  ante- 
dated that  of  Cosmas  himself  by  one  hundred  and  fifty 
years.  Since  then,  controversy  has  been  ever  "  darken- 
ing counsel"  on  this  subject,  and  it  has  become  a  literary 
habit  to  doubt  Mr.  Forster's  interpretations,  and  to 
suppose  that  the  inscriptions  belong  to  the  fourth  cen- 
tury of  our  era,  or  to  two  or  three  centuries  prior  to  the 
Christian  era,  and  to  assert  that  they  have  been  made 
by  "early  Christians,"  "Pagans,"  " Nabatheans," — 
by  any  hands  but  those  of  Israel. 

Those  who  are  seeking  information  for  themselves 
upon  this  subject,  may,  in  the  Library  of  the  British 
Museum  obtain  three  or  four  editions,  so  to  speak,  of 
these  curious  Inscriptions.  Pococke  and  Niebuhr  had 
each  given  to  the  world  a  few  specimens  in  their  books 
of  travels,  but  the  first  adequate  materials  for  the  forma- 
tion of  Sinaitic  alphabets  were  supplied,  as  above,  by 
the  Rev.  J.  F.  Gray. 

The  following  is  an  accurate  woodcut  of  an  in- 
scribed fragment  of  red  sandstone,  found  by  Mr.  Gray 
about  six  hours  from  Wady  Mokatteb,  on  the  road  to 
Sarbut-el-Khadem.  The  original  may  be  seen  in  the 
Egyptian  Gallery  of  the  British  Museum  on  a  high 
ledge  on  the  left-hand  side  when  entering  the  Gallery. 


A    SINAITIC   INSCKIFTION. 


211 


It  is  No.  177  of  Plate  xii.  of  Mr.  Gray's  catalogue,  and 
Mr.  Forster  reads  it  thus — 


SINilTIC     INSCRIPTION. 


"  The  People  kicketh  like  an  Ass ; 
The  People  drives  to  the  water  JEHOVAH." 

By  the  alphabet  of  Professor  Beer  it  is,  however, 
read  thus — 

"  Omai,  son  of  Wai,  desires  that  he  may  be  remembered." 

The  specimens  brought  home  by  Mr.  Gray  were 
copied  by  stealth,  and  by  letting  loose  the  camels  of 
his  Arab  guides  while  they  slept,  so  that  in  the  morning 
they  must  of  necessity  seek  them,  and  meanwhile  leave 
the  traveller  to  his  purpose. 

The  student  may  next  inspect  the  collection  of  Pro- 
fessor Beer,  of  Leipsic,  the  friend  and  fellow-labourer 
of  Gesenius,  which  he  called  "  a  Century  of  Sinaitic 
Inscriptions ;"  it  comprises  examples  from  all  the  tra- 
vellers who  had  mentioned  them,  and  varieties  of  copies 
of  the  same  inscriptions.  To  this  was  prefixed  the 
translations  of  the  Professor  in  Hebrew  characters, 
and  the  alphabet  by  which  he  proposed  to  translate 
them. 


212 


BEEK'S  SINAI  ALPHABET. 


PEOFESSOE  BEEE'S  SINAI  ALPHABET. 


B 
G 
D 
H 
V 

z 

CH 
T 


K 
L 


K 


n 

b 


I   L 

/I  /I /I 


N 
S 
E 
P 

TZ 
K 
E 

SH 
T 


0 


I) 


& 


3-3 

Pfjn 
IP/ 


THE    GEEEK  INSCRIPTIONS.  213 

Dr.  Lepsius  in  his  folio  "  Denkmaeler,"  band  xi., 
abth.  vi.,  gives  many  pages  of  Sinaitic  Inscriptions,  care- 
fully copied  from  the  originals  in  the  course  of  his  travels ; 
and  by  these,,  English  as  well  as  German  scholars  appear 
to  have  studied  the  subject.  A  recent  comment  by  Levy, 
in  vol.  xiv.,  p.  454,  of  the  "  Journal  of  the  German 
Oriental  Society,"  is,  that  in  two  or  three  cases,  a  Greek 
Inscription  is  found  side  by  side  with  a  Sinaitic  one,  or 
the  two  are  included  within  an  encircling  line,  so  that  one 
may  be  concluded  to  be  the  translation  of  the  other. 

One  of  these,  No.  127  of  Lepsius,  has  above  it  the 
outline  of  a  man  with  his  arms  uplifted.  The  Greek  is 
easily  read — 

"  Let  be  remembered  AUB(OS),  the  son  of  Ers(os)  for  good." 
The  Sinaitic  line  above  it,  reads  by  Beer's  alphabet — 

"  Let  be  remembered  for  good  Aus(u),  the  son  of  Hers(u)." 
But  Mr.  Forster  renders  it — 

"  Prayeth  unto  God  the  Prophet  (upon)  a  hard  great  stone  (hia) 
hands  sustaining  Aaron,  Hur ;" 

and  calls  the  Greek  a  "  barbarous  scrawl  and  a  superfe- 
tation,  unworthy  of  note  or  comment." 

The  mouldings  of  M.  de  Laval  do  not  give  this  in- 
scription combined  with  the  Greek  at  all.  Thus,  and 
in  more  cases  besides  this,  the  readers  are  at  issue; 
and  it  is  not,  of  course,  for  a  simple  collector  of 
evidence  to  profess  implicit  faith  in  either  school; 
but  as  we  have  always,  hitherto,  been  referred  to 
German  scholars  and  their  treatises  for  the  disproof  of 
Mr.  Forster's  theories,  it  may  be  as  well  to  bring 
together,  as  carefully  as  possible,  the  summary  of  what 
is  to  be  said  on  both  sides,  for  further  judgment. 

The  publishers  of  Dr.  Bonar's  "  Desert  of  Sinai/' 


214  DE.  BONAB'S  STONE. 

have  kindly  allowed  the  use  of  the  cut  at  p.  160  of 
that  volume,  which  represents  a  piece  of  rock  brought 
from  Wady  Mokatteb  by  Dr.  Bonar,  with  two  or  three 


8TOSE    BBOCGHT   HOJIE   BY   DH.    BONAR. 


letters  upon  it  on  which  the  dottings  of  a  pointed  tool 
(which  is  a  characteristic  feature  of  the  ancient  inscrip- 
tions in  general)  appear  very  distinctly. 

Mr.    Forster    considers     that    the   initial   key-note 
of  "the  people,"  given  on  the   opposite   page  in  its 

actual  proportions  as  it  is 
found  on  the  rocks,  is  the 
master  key  to  the  whole  of 
those  inscriptions.  The  op- 
posite party  can  see  no  such 
meaning  in  these  letters, 
which  commence  almost  all 
' THE  PEOPLE."  th'e  sentences,  but  translate 

them  always  as  the  word  "  salutes/'  or  "  desire  to  be  re- 
membered," in  reference  to  some  particular  individual. 


TUB  PEOPLE."    Act-ial  Size  of  Letteri,  from  Laborde. 


216  MK.  FOKSTER'S  HEADINGS. 

On  the  opposite  page  is  presented  Mr.  Forster's 
Sinai  alphabet,  and  he  declares  that  no  fewer  than  twelve 
of  the  letters  of  these  ancient  inscriptions  are  identical 
^vith  those  of  our  present  Hebrew,  and  the  remainder  are 
to  be  found  in  the  Samaritan,  the  Phoenician,  or  Greek, 
and  in  the  Himyaritic,  Ethiopic,  or  Coptic  alphabets. 
But  it  must  be  continually  borne  in  mind,  he  adds,  that 
while  the  characters  are  'mostly  our  present  Hebrew,  the 
language  they  utter  is  the  old  Arabic,  for  jive  out  of  six 
of  the  Sinaitic  words  may  be  found  in  the  Arabic  dic- 
tionaries, chiefly  among  the  lost  or  obsolete  Himyaritic 
words. 

"The  learned  Hebraist,"  says  Mr.  Forster,  "can 
produce  no  rational  sense  from  these  inscriptions  deci- 
phered by  the  Hebrew  lexicon,  while  to  the  old  Arabic 
lexicon  they  uniformly  yield  senses  simple,  serious,  and 
scriptural ;  senses  tallying  throughout  with  the  Mosaic 
history,  and  illustrative  of  the  events  and  miracles  of 
the  Exode."  He  also  remarks  that  it  is  a  mistake  to 
suppose  that  the  SINAITIC  alphabet  materially  depends 
on  that  of  Hisn  Ghorab ;  on  the  contrary,  he  .says,  so 
widely  do  they  differ,  that  not  more  than  four,  of  the 
special  Hisn  Ghorab  characters  (and  three  of  those 
four  also  Ethiopic)  are  to  be  found  at  Sinai.  The 
Himyaritic  alphabet  is,  in  fact,  so  peculiar,  that  without 
Al  Kaswini's  key,  it  could  never  have  been  recovered. 

In  the  year  1854,  Lord  Lyndhurst  and  Lqrd  Har- 
rowby,  asked  the  sanction  of  the  British  government 
for  the  mission  of  the  late  Capt.  H.  T.  Butler  and  his 
brother,  the  Rev.  Pierce  Butler,  to  Sinai,  to  make  further 
researches  and  collect  fresh  groups  of  characters.  In 
this  expedition  Mr.  Forster  took  great  interest,  and  in 
the  year  185G  the  splendid  plates  of  M.  Lottin  de 
Laval  also  came  to  his  aid,  containing  470  fac-similes  of 


FOESTEE  S    SINAI    ALPHABET. 


217 


FOKSTER'S   SINAI  ALPHABET. 


A 

n  l 

s 

A  A 

B 

TBbT 

A 

\O^E:> 

C 

— 

F 

•9   r  >^  j  *vP 

D 

toy  r  T 

TS 

Jj*  ^k. 

V 

10 

K 

«»J»j>> 

z 

HX 

R 

qn 

H 

^UOO 

SL 

kM^ 

I 

3> 

T 

1? 

C 

OXX 

L 

J 

M 

Oft  Q  6,0  6" 

N 

JvKLJ 

218  M.  LAVAL'S  MOULDINGS. 

as  many  moulded,  and  therefore  certainly  accurate,  in- 
scriptions from  the  Sinaitic  valleys.  These  were  printed 
under  the  patronage  of  the  French  government,  and 
must  of  course  eclipse  all  former  copies. 

M.  Laval  professes  to  agree  in  many  ways  with  the 
opinions  of  Mr.  Forster,  "  without  adopting  all  his  illu- 
sions ; "  he  thinks  he  is  right  in  the  age  of  the  un- 
known letters.,  whatever  he  may  be  in  his  translations ; 
he  recommends  that  further  careful  mouldings  should 
be  taken  of  the  numerous  inscriptions  in  Wady  Aleyat, 
and  also  on  Serbal  itself,  which  his  own  state  of  health 
prevented  his  accomplishing.  His  examples  are  chiefly 
taken  from  the  valleys  around  Serbal,  and  from  Sar- 
but-el-Khadem. 

The  two  volumes  of  M.  Lottin  de  Laval's  work,  are 
accessible  in  the  British  Museum  ;  his  inscriptions  are 
all  lithographed  from  casts  in  plaster,  in  which  material 
the  letters  were  moulded,  as  the  artist  says,  with 
"severe  exactness  ;"  and  these  original  mouldings  are 
to  be  seen  in  the  Louvre. 

This  most  recent  witness,  the  fruits  of  whose  labour 
must  now  certainly  take  precedence  in  time  and  method 
of  copying,  of  those  of  Beer,  says  of  the  Greek,  Latin, 
and  Arab  inscriptions,  that  their  modern  age  is  proved 
by  the  way  in  which  they  are  executed,  and  that  they 
have  been  made  with  the  point  of  a  sword  or  poignard, 
on  the  slightly  elevated  rocks  despised  by  the  Semitic 
writers.  The  ancient  ones,  he  adds,  have  been  pricked 
out  laboriously  in  the  granite  with  edged  tools.  He  re- 
marks, likewise,  on  the  sign  of  the  cross,  that  instead 
of  finding  it  an  integral  part  of  the  ancient  inscriptions, 
he  can  affirm  it  to  be  very  rare  on  the  rocks  at  all,  and 
when  it  appears,  mostly  recent. 

We    have    copied,   by  permission,   at   the   British 


SINAITIC   INSCRIPTION. 


219 


Museum,  from  the  work  of  M.  Lottin  do  Laval,  an 
inscription,  which  is  also  to  be  found  in  Mr.  Forster's 
volume,  page  197,  and  which  he  deciphers  thus  : — 


StWAITIC   INSCRIPTION. 


"  Causes  to  descend  into  the  deep  valley,  MOSES,  the  Tribes 
"  Leader  of  the  way — he  causes  to  descend  into  the  deep  the  young 
ostrich,  the  sea  foaming 

"  Divides  it  asunder,  power  given  him  by  GOD. 

The  discoveries  of  Captain  Butler  and  his  brother 
appear  to  have  added  in  various  ways  to  Mr.  Forsfcer's 
knowledge  of  the  inscriptions,  for  after  cross- questioning 
their  Arab  guides  these  gentlemen  persuaded  them  to 
direct  them  up  the  Djebel  Maghara  to  a  mountain  cavo, 
where  they  found  a  triple  inscription — two  columns  in 


220  THE    SINAI   OSTEICH. 

hieroglyphics  and  one  in  the  Sinai  character, — illustrated 
by  a  magnificent  figure  of  an  Ostrich,  sculptured  on  a  large 
scale;  the  wings  ruffled,  the  neck  outstretched,  the 
throat  expanded,  the  mouth  open,  as  in  the  act  of  crying 
aloud.  Of  this  unique  monument  a  cast  was  taken  on 
prepared  paper,  from  which  Mr.  Forster  presents  a 
splendid  and  life-like  photograph. 

Over  the  bird's  head  was  a  legend  in  the  Sinaitic 
characters,  beginning  with  the  monogram  of  "  THE 
PEOPLE,"  and  Mr.  Forster  reads  it :  "  THE  PEOPLE,  raising 
up  the  head  and  stretching  out  the  neck  aloft,  wanders 
from  land  to  land,  from  the  face  of  persecution,  crying 
aloud."  It  will  be  remembered,  that  Jeremiah  connects 
the  apostate  Israel  of  his  day  with  the  ostrich  : — 

"  The  daughter  of  my  people  is  cruel  lite  ostriches  in  the  wilder- 
ness."— LAM.  iv.  3. 

The  interest  of  Mr.  Forster's  recent  books  on  this 
subject  does  not  after  all  rest  alone  on  the  translation 
of  the  inscriptions ;  his  alphabet  might  even  be  wrong  in 
some  of  its  letters,  and  yet  we  may  be  largely  indebted 
to  him  for  investigating  and  maintaining  the  age  of 
these  ancient  letters,  and  for  bringing  out  in  the  course 
of  his  study,  from  various  parts  of  Scripture,  fresh  lights 
on  the  Mosaic  narrative  of  the  Wanderings  in  the 
wilderness ;  light  upon  Serbal  as  the  true  mountain 
of  the  law-giving ;  light  on  Wady  Feiran  and  its  un- 
failing waters ;  light  upon  Amalek,  and  light  upon  the 
grand  Cemetery  of  the  Desert,  Kibroth-hattaavah ; 
light  on  the  crossing  of  the  Eed  Sea  and  the  Jordan, 
on  Koran's  rebellion,  and  on  the  "Wells  of  Beer-sheba. 
Earnest  Bible  students  should  carefully  read  his  books, 
and  not  allow  a  first  prejudice  against  his  translations 
to  prevent  their  reception  of  the  general  benefit  of  his 
researches. 


SEEBAL  THE   TRUE   SINAI.  221 


SERBAL  THE  TEUE   MOUNT  SINAI. 

The  most  remarkable  fact  that  Mr.  Pierce  Butler's 
journey  develops  and  corroborates,  is  the  one  which, 
since  its  announcement  by  Lepsius,  has  been  received 
by  most  persons  who  thoroughly  examine  the  question 
at  issue  (and  here  Mr.  Forster  and  his  learned  German 
brethren  are  of  one  mind),  viz.,  that  MOUNT  SEEBAL  is 
the  scriptural  Mount  Sinai.  They  have  united  to 
declare  that  Mount  Serbal  was  identified  with  Mount 
Sinai  by  the  Christians  of  the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries, 
and  that  the  present  so-called  Mount  Sinai  only  became 
considered  to  be  so,  in  the  sixth  century  after  Christ, 
when  Justinian  erected  his  monastery  of  St.  Katerin 
on  the  mount  to  which  it  has  given  name. 

The  proofs  which  were  decisive  to  the  mind  of 
M.  Lepsius  we  must  leave  his  readers  to  explore.*  Mr. 
Forster  draws  his  conclusions  from  the  varied  and 
carefully  studied  information  of  travellers,  concerning 
the  localities  of  the  Sinaitic  inscriptions. 

If  then  we  inquire  where  these  are  mainly  to  be 
found,  Mr.  Forster  believes  they  mark  the  route  by 
which  Moses  indicates  that  the  people  came  out  from 
Egypt  to  Serbal.  Yarious  travellers  agree  in  the 
report  that,  commencing  near  Suez,  the  Wadys  War- 
dan,  Maghara,  Mokatteb,  Feiran,  and  Aleyat,  are  all  full 
of  them,  and  the  last,  "  Wady  Aleyat"  leads  up  to  the 
five-peaked  SEEBAL,  whose  two  easternmost  summits, 
according  to  Burckhardt  and  Dr.  Stewart,  are  covered 
with  inscriptions.  Ruppell  finds  them  on  the  second 
peak  from  the  west ;  Stanley  saw  them  on  the  top  of 
the  third  or  central  peak ;  and  Mr.  Pierce  Butler 

*  See  "  Discoveries  in  Egypt,  Ethiopia,  and  Sinai,1.'  by  Dr.  J.  E. 
Lepsius.  Edited  by  Mackenzie.  1852. 


222  THE   WADY  ALEYAT. 

especially  tells  us  that  innumerable  inscriptions  clothe 
the  northern  side  of  the  mountain. 

"  The  "Wady  Aleyat,"  he  says,  ' '  is  one  vast  chaos  of 
ruins,  of  rocks  precipitated  from  the  face  of  the  moun- 
tain above  by  some  great  convulsion  of  nature.  The 
face  of  the  perpendicular  summit  towers  2000  feet 
in  height  above  this  mountain-valley  (see  frontispiece), 
which  Stewart  describes  as  five  miles  in  extent,  and 
he  considers  this  valley  and  that  of  Wady  Eimm  to  have 
been  of  quite  sufficient  extent  for  the  gathering  of  the 
tribes,  at  the  foot  of  the  mount.*  From  every  part  of 
the  Wady  Aleyat,  SEKBAL  can  be  seen,  there  are  no  pro- 
jecting spurs  to  hide  his  summit ;  the  precipitous  sides 
rise  clear  from  the  rough  ground,  and  the  propriety  of 
the  inspired  description  is  fully  realized,  "  the  mount 
that  might  be  touched." 

Stewart  descended  from  Serbal  as  daylight  was 
fading,  and  depicts  the  agony  of  walking  when  footsore 
over  the  loose  angular  stones  of  Wady  Aleyat.  He 
reached  his  tent  utterly  exhausted  and  bruised  with 
severe  falls  sustained  by  stumbling  over  rocks  in  the 
darkness ;  and  he  elsewhere  speaks  of  the  "  avalanches" 
of  rock  and  stone  which  during  the  course  of  ages  have 
been  brought  down  from  the  mountain  by  the  winter 
torrents,  and  have  so  covered  Wady  Aleyat  as  to  suggest 
the  idea  that  the  clouds  must  have  some  time  rained 
down  boulders  instead  of  hailstones.  Yet  it  is  not 
deficient  in  verdure,  and  scattered  over  its  surface  also 
are  the  Saut  or  Shittah  trees  of  Scripture  (see  p.  186), 
not  one  of  which  trees,  he  observes,  are  found  in  the 
plain  of  El  Eahah,  or  in  the  Wadys  round  Gebel  Mousa. 

But  it  is  Mr.  Pierce  Butler  who  in  his  ascent  of  the 
Serbal,  by  daylight,  from  this  rocky  valley,  struck  into 
an  untrodden  path,  and,  as  he  clambered  through  those 
*  Sec  "The  Tent  and  the  Khan,"  p.  111. 


VIEW   FROM   SEEBAL.  223 

wrecks  of  nature,  discovered,  to  his  great  astonishment, 
that  hundreds  upon  hundreds  of  the  fallen  stones  were 
covered  with  Sinai  tic  inscriptions.  "  So  numerous  were 
the  instances  that  it  seemed  that  every  second  stone 
was  inscribed."  Mr.  Butler  adds,  that  the  granite  rocks 
thus  shiverfcd  were  largely  interspersed  with  blocks  of 
trapstone,  black  on  the  surface,  but  lemon-coloured 
inside ;  this  latter  material  had  been  studiously  selected 
for  the  inscriptions,  and  the  black  surface  threw  out  the 
lemon- coloured  characters.  Burckhardt  remarks  that 
no  inscriptions  are  found  either  on  Gebel  Mousa  or  on 
Mount  St.  Catherine. 

Stewart  describes  the  view  from  the  summit  of 
Serbal  as  the  grandest,  but  the  most  desolate,  to  be 
found  upon  the  earth's  surface.  Between  each  of  the 
five  peaks,  he  says,  there  is  a  ravine  so  steep  and 
narrow  that  the  ascent  seems  perfectly  impossible. 
The  easternmost  and  highest  peak  is  ascended  by  a 
mighty  flight  of  rock  stairs  which  wind  round  its 
shoulder.  "As  we  neared  the  huge  block  of  grey 
granite  which  crowns  the  summit,  the  Sinaitic  inscrip- 
tions began  again  to  appear,  and  that  block  itself,  with 
several  lying  around  it,  are  covered  with  them,  though 
many  were  so  defaced  that  it  would  be  impossible  to 
copy  them." 

Let  us  descend  once  more  by  the  Wady  Aleyat  amid 
the  "wreck  of  nature,"  heretofore  described,  which 
Mr.  Forster  considers  to  be  "  the  standing  result  and 
evidence  of  the  shock  which  the  mountain  experienced 
at  the  GIVING  OF  THE  LAW,"  when  Scripture  tells  us  it 
was  shaken  to  its  foundations — "  And  the  whole  mount 
quaked  greatly"  (Exod.  xix.  18).  This  must  have 
resembled  an  earthquake,  for  there  are  no  signs  of 
volcanic  agency  throughout  the  region.  "  The  earth 
trembled  and  shook"  (Ps.  Ixxvii.  18),  says  the  psalmist 


224  WADY   FEIRAN. 

long  afterwards,  in  reference  to  the  events  of  the 
Exodus,  and  the  witness  of  Paul  follows  (Heb.  xii.  26), 
" Whose  voice  then  shook  the  earth."  "  The  shivered 
rocks  are  thrown  down  by  Him/*  says  the  prophet 
Nahum  (i.  6) ;  and  Mr.  Forster  adds,  "  Can  facts  attest 
more  literally  the  awful  sequel  than  do  the  precipices 
here  rifted  beneath  the  feet  of  Jehovah?  If  a  certainty 
of  the  locality  is  still  recoverable  by  actual  record,  in 
Scripture  signs,  MOUNT  SEEBAL  is  THE  TRUE  MOUNT 
SINAI/'  * 

WADY  FEIEAN. 

"  Descending  from  Wady  Aleyat  we  reach  Wady 
Feiran,"  says  Dr.  Bonar,  "  level  and  spacious,  sandy  and 
bare,  and  from  half  a  mile  to  a  mile  wide,  it  winds  round 
immense  mountains  of  trap  covered  with  debris ;  and 
here  we  noticed  many  inscriptions,  some  on  hard  blocks 
of  granite.  There  is  Serbal,  with  its  five  rugged  spires, 
ever  frowning  down  upon  us  in  its  magnificence.  The 
next  turn  to  the  left  has  brought  us  to  a  thousand 
noble  palms  in  a  lovely  hollow  like  a  garden — 

'A  palm-grove  islanded  amid  the  waste.' 

Here  our  tents  were  pitched,  and  exquisite  were  the 
changes  of  starlight  and  moonlight  as  we  wandered 
among  those  ancient  trees.  Here  the  hosts  of  Israel 
must  surely  have  found  rest  for  their  year  at  the  base  of 
Sinai." 

Dr.  Bonar  did  not  visit  Serbal,  and  his  belief  in  the 
monkish  Sinai  or  Gebel  Mousa  was,  at  the  time  he 
wrote  (1858)  not  apparently  disturbed.  "Neither," 
says  he,  "  can  Wady  Feiran  be  Eephidim ;  nay,  there 
is  proof  that  it  was  not  Rephidim,  for  there  must 
always  have  been  water  here.  So  that  Israel  could  not 
have  lacked  it,  as  we  read  that  they  did  at  Kephidim." 


PROOFS  FKOM  THE  PSALMS.  225 

Dr.  Lepsius,  however,  and  all  Ms  followers,  maintain 
that  Wady  Feiran  must  have  been  Rephidim  from  its 
proximity  to  Serbal,  and  Mr.  Forster  agrees  with  them, 
giving,  however,  full  notice  to  Dr.  Bonar's  assertion,  that 
"in  Rephidim  there  was  no  water  for  the  people  to  drink." 
Remarking  on  Exod.  xvii.  1.  "It  surely  was"  he  says, 
' '  the  waterless  waste  which  the  sacred  narrative  describes 
when  the  Israelites  arrived  there,  and  the  Wady  Feiran, 
with  its  waters  and  palm-groves,  the  noblest  oasis  of 
the  peninsula,  then  first  sprang  into  being;  when  by 
the  Divine  command,  Moses  smote  the  rock,  and  the 
living  waters  gushed  out  and  remained  to  this  day  (like 
the  fallen  rocks  of  Wady  Aleyat),  a  standing  record  of 
a  great  miracle.  Mr.  Forster  looks  for  his  evidence  in 
passages  from  the  Book  of  Psalms.  In  Ps.  cv.  41,  we 
read : — 

"  He  opened  the  rock  :  and  the  waters  gushed  out :  the  rivers  ran 
in  the  dry  places." 

In  Ps.  Ixxviii.  15,  16  : — 

"He  clave  the  rocks  in  the  wilderness,  and  gave  them  drink  as 
out  of  the  great  depths. 

"  He  brought  streams  also  out  of  the  rock,  and  caused  waters  to  run 
down  like  rivers." 

The  latter  part  of  Ps.  cvii.  relates   exclusively  to 
Israel  in  the  wilderness,  and  its  record  is  as  follows  : — 
*'He  maketh  the  wilderness  a  standing  water, 
And  water  springs  of  a  dry  ground ; 
And  there  He  setteth  the  hungry, 
That  they  may  build  them  a  city  to  dwell  in  : 
That  they  may  sow  their  land  and  plant  vineyards, 
To  yield  them  fruits  of  increase." 

"The  Wady  Feiran,"  says  Mr.  Forster,  "is  the 
only  spot  in  the  peninsula  of  Sinai  where  water  springs 
run  like  rivers ;  where  an  ancient  city  exists,  or  ever 
did  exist ;  or  where  corn  did,  or  ever  could  grow." 

Q 


226  A   FOKMER   LAKE. 

It  is  certain,  from  Dent.  ix.  21,  that  "a  running 
brook  descended  out  of  Mount  Horeb"  after  Moses  had 
smitten  it,  and  that  this  brook  became  a  broad  stream 
in  the  valley  beneath,  upon  whose  waters  Moses  cast 
the  dust  of  the  golden  calf,  and  which  gave  space  for 
all  the  children  of  Israel  to  drink  of  the  waters  thus 
sprinkled.  The  stream  of  Wady  Feiran  runs  now  for 
six  miles  through  the  valley. 

The  expression — 

"  He  maketh  the  wilderness  a  standing  water," 

is  confirmed  by  an  observation  ofLepsius.  "Soon  after 
leaving  the  outskirts  of  Feiran,"  he  says,  "  we  saw 
before  us  a  tall  craggy  peak  called  Buob,  which  almost 
intercepted  the  valley,  and  to  the  right  and  left  a 
number  of  mounds  of  earth,  from  sixty  to  one  hundred 
feet  high ;  the  largest  and  indeed  the  only  ones  I  had 
seen  since  we  left  the  valley  of  the  Nile.  They  con- 
tinued along  the  valley  on  both  sides,  and  showed  that 
there  had  once  been  an  elevated  basin  here  containing 
water — a  lake  which  had  not  then  found  an  outlet,  for 
that  is  the  only  way  so  large  a  body  of  earth  could  have 
been  deposited.  The  geographical  position  of  the 
whole  mountain  range  in  this  district,  bears  marks  of 
the  same  phenomenon.  All  the  streams  from  the  east 
and  north,  some  of  them  in  large  sheets  of  water,  unite 
here  at  the  end  of  Wady  Feiran/' 

Do  we  not  read  the  history  of  its  miraculous  source 
in  Exod.  xvii.  in  the  hour  when  God  said,  "  I  ivill 
stand  before  thee  there  upon  the  rock  in  Horeb.  Take 
with  thee  the  elders  of  Israel,  and  thy  rod  wherewith 
thou  smotest  the  river ;  take  it  in  thine  hand  and  go." 
Was  not  this  the  converse  miracle  to  that  of  the  Eed  Sea  ? 
The  Lord  bound  the  river  by  the  rod  of  Moses,  and 


THE   LONELY   DESERT.  227 

made  a  dry  path  through  its  billows,  and  again  He  burst 
rocky  bars,  and  let  flow  "the  fountain  of  Israel," 
which  Patil  tells  us  followed  them  in  their  wanderings, 
a  type  of  Christ ;  they  doubtless  returned  to  its  re- 
freshing borders  and  also  to  the  neighbouring  Wady 
Hebron  for  a  part  at  least  of  the  thirty-eight  years 
during  which  they  did  not  journey  to  the  Promised 
Land — during  which  time  each  of  them  who  was  older 
than  twenty  when  he  came  out  of  Egypt,  except 
Joshua  and  Caleb,  found  a  grave  in  the  scorching 
sands. 

"  It  is  impossible  to  conceive  the  weariness  "  (says 
Bartlett  in  his  "  Forty  Days  in  the  Desert")  "  that  is  felt 
by  the  solitary  wanderer  in  this  great  and  terrible 
wilderness.  Ravine  succeeds  to  ravine,  each  more  for- 
saken and  desolate  than  the  last,  with  its  bed  of  sand 
or  gravel,  overhung  with  mountains,  whose  bold,  awful 
abrupt  forms,  with  their  colouring  of  brown,  black,  red, 
find  yellow,  glare  under  the  fiery  sun  like  a  portion  of  some 
early  world  untenanted  by  man.  The  mechanical  and 
silent  footfall  of  the  camel  passes  noiselessly  from  morn 
to  night  among  the  voiceless  crags.  It  is  then  we  re- 
member and  realize  the  incidents  of  Israel's  toilsome 
march,  and  understand  their  horror  at  being  transported 
from  verdant  Egypt  into  the  heart  of  solitudes  so  deep. 

'So  lonely  'tis  that  God  Himself 
Scarce  seemeth  there  to  be.' 

"  How  blissful  is  the  sudden  change  to  WADY  FEIEAN  ! 
'  Most  like  a  poet's  dream '  it  burst  upon  us.  The 
cliffs  around  still  towering  indeed  bare  and  perpendicular, 
but  instead  of  a  gravelly  valley  there  arose  as  by  enchant- 
ment tufted  groves  of  palm  and  fruit  trees.  Presently 
a  stream  of  running  water,  rushing  through  the  tarfa 


228  THE    GREEN   OASIS. 

trees,  led  us  on  to  the  shade  and  the  unequalled  verdure 
of  the  Valley  of  Feiran. 

"  There  in  the  heart  of  the  wilderness  of  rock  and 
sand,  when  weary  of  the  stunted  bush  and  nauseous 
scanty  pool,  I  pitched  my  tent  beneath  a  group  of 
palms  which  bent  to  shelter  it ;  the  spring  came  down  the 
valley,  and,  rippling  among  green  sedges,  formed  a  small 
transparent  basin  at  the  foot  of  a  fragment  of  limestone 
rock  fallen  from  the  mountain  wall  above,  and  was  deco- 
rated like  a  natural  altar  with  freshest  foliage.  The  camels 
were  scattered  about  the  bowery  thickets,  cropping  the 
thick  blossom  with  avidity,  and  the  Arabs  revelled  around. 

"  My  oasis  of  palms  were  not  a  solitary  group.  On 
stepping  out  from  my  tent  I  was  in  an  almost  tropical 
wilderness.  In  the  palm  groves  of  Egypt  the  stumps  are 
trimmed  and  straight,  but  here  this  most  graceful  of  trees 
is  all  untended;  its  boughs  springdirect  from  the  earth  and 
form  tufts  and  avenues  and  over-arching  bowers,  through 
which  sunlight  falls  tremblingly  on  the  shaded  turf. 
Among  them  some  few  branches  shooting  upright,  lift 
high  above  the  rest  their  lovely  coronal  of  rustling  fans 
and  glowing  branches  of  dates.  Some  droop  to  the  ground 
like  wavy  plumes,  others  form  mossy  alleys  resounding 
with  the  songs  of  birds.  The  wind  plays  over  the 
rustling  foliage  with  the  gentlest  murmurs ;  fig,  pome- 
granate, and  acacia  mingle  their  foliage  with  the  palm, 
and  here  in  its  season  is  seen  the  waving  corn.  Where  else 
did  Israel  grow  the  corn  that  was  ordered,  in  Lev-  ii.  14, 
to  be  offered  with  their  meat-offerings  to  the  Lord  ? 

"  Now  for  the  ownership  and  sole  possession  of  such 
a  stream,  was  it  not  probable  that  the  sons  of  the  desert 
would  speedily  strive  ? 

"  '  Then  came  Amalek,'  says  Moses, '  and  fought  with 
Israel  in  Eephidim/  Exod.  xvii.  8." 


AMALEK.  220 


AMALEK. 

The  Amalekites  were  a  very  ancient  and  powerful 
people.  From  Gen.  xiv.  7  it  is  evident  that  they 
were  a  warlike  race  before  Abraham's  time,  and  were 
smitten  by  Chedorlaoiner,  and  that  part  of  them 
dwelt  south  of  Mount  Seir.  Balaam's  reference  to 
them  indicates  that  they  were  the  first  of  the  desert 
nations  in  antiquity  and  power.  They  are  mentioned 
by  the  prophet  Samuel  (1  Sam.  xxvii.  8)  as  of  "  old 
the  inhabitants  of  the  land,  as  thou  goest  to  Shur, 
even  unto  the  land  of  Egy'fit."  They  seem  to  have 
followed  Israel  out  of  the  wilderness  of  Sin,  and  fallen 
upon  their  rear  while  the  foremost  were  pressing  to- 
wards the  flood.  "He  met  thee  by  the  way/'  says 
Moses  afterwards  to  Israel  (Deut.  xxv.  18),  "  and  smote 
the  hindmost  of  thee,  even  all  that  were  feeble  behind 
thee.  When  thou  wast  faint  and  weary,  and  he  feared 
not  God.  .  .  .  .  Therefore  thou  shalt  blot  out  the 
remembrance  of  Amalek  from  under  heaven." 

Arabic  authors  mention  Amalek  (Imlik)  as  an 
aboriginal  tribe  of  their  country,  descended  from  Ham, 
more  ancient  than  the  Ishmaelites.  They  give  the 
same  name  to  the  Canaanites  and  Phoenicians.  The 
editor  of  "  Calmet's  Dictionary"  supposes  more  than  one 
root  of  the  Amalekite  race.  The  most  ancient  Amalek 
being  the  people  conquered  by  Chedorlaomer,  a  people 
dwelling  east  of  Egypt,  and  between  that  country  and 
Canaan.  Philo  calls  the  Amalekites  who  fought  with 
the  Israelites,  Phoenicians;  but  a  second  branch  of 
Amalek  were '  manifestly  descended  from  Esau,  by 
Eliphaz  ;  and  there  would  have  been  quite  time  for  the 
multiplication  of  this  race  into  a  warlike  host  in  150 
years  ere  they  fought  Israel  in  Eephidim  (see  table. 


230          THE  PEATEB  AND  THE  CUBSE. 

p.  161),  especially  as  we  find  that  in  the  same  period 
the  tribe  of  Ephraim  could  muster  40,500  fighting 
men  (Num.  i.  33).  These  Amalekites  were  not  the 
Canaanites,  for  they  are  mentioned  distinctly  from 
them  in  Num.  xiv.  45.  They  are  spoken  of  in 
Judges  as  in  connection  with  Moab  and  Midian ;  and 
"  all  the  children  of  the  east,  lying  in  the  valley  like 
grasshoppers  for  multitude,  and  their  camels  as  the 
sand  of  the  sea."  And  in  the  book  of  Samuel  they 
had  been  linked  with  the  Kenites,  when  Saul  utterly 
destroyed  them,  but  saved  alive  their  flocks  and  Agag 
their  king. 

These  desert  nations  were  afterwards  confederate 
against  Jehovah,  as  we  hear  in  Psalm  Lxxxiii. : — 

"The  tabernacles  of  Edom,  and  the  Ishmaelites;  of  Moab,  and  the 
Hagarenes ;  Gebal,  and  Ammon,  and  Amalek ;  the  Philistines  with  the 
inhabitants  of  Tyre  ;  Assur  also  is  joined  with  them. 

"  O  my  God  (says  the  Psalmist)  make  them  as  the  stubble  before 
the  wind." 

In  the  prophecy  of  Obadiah,  this  terrible  prayer  is 
met  by  threatenings  as  awful : — 

"The  Lord  will  destroy  the  wise  men  out  of  Edom,  and  understand- 
ing out  of  the  mount  of  Esau.  .  .  . 

"For  thy  violence  against  thy  brother  Jacob  shame  shall  corer 
thee,  and  thou  shalt  be  cut  off  for  ever.  .  .  . 

"  And  the  house  of  Jacob  shall  be  a  fire  ;  and  the  house  of 
Joseph  a  flame ;  and  the  house  of  Esau  for  stubble  ;  and  there  shall  not 
be  any  remaining  of  the  house  of  Esau ;  for  the  Lord  hath  spoken  it." 

In  the  first  battle  of  Israel  with  their  enemies  suc- 
cess appears  to  have  depended  entirely  on  Moses,  who 
watched  the  strife  from  a  neighbouring  hill,  with  the 
rod  of  God  in  his  hand  (Exod.  xvii.  8,13).  On  the 
appeal  to  divine  power,  symbolized  by  the  lifting  of 
that  rod,  everything  rested. 


SL'UBAL.  231 


VIEW   FROM    SEKBAL.          ^ 

Let  us  once  more  suppose  ourselves  with  Dr.  Stewart 
on  the  summit  of  Mount  Serbal.  He  wonders  that  Mr. 
Burford  has  never  enterprised  a  panorama  from  this 
mountain  tdp,  where  almost  all  the  Arabian  peninsula 
lies  mapped  at  the  feet  of  the  spectator,  except  that  the 
so-called  Sinai  range  intercepts  the  view  of  the  eastern 
gulf  of  the  Red  Sea. 

We  look  on  the  north  towards  the  high  mountainous 
desert  of  El  Tih,  one  single  vast  plateau  of  sandstone, 
which  descends  towards  the  south  by  two  steps,  "so 
that  the  prospect,"  says  M.  Lepsius,  "seems  bounded 
by  two  lofty  mountain  precipices  retreating  at  about  equal 
distance  into  the  far  space ;"  the  lower  and  nearer  one 
sinks  by  gradual  descent'  into  the  plain  of  El  Ramleh, 
"the  Sandy  Valley,"  and  at  its  eastern  end  lies  the 
well  of  El  Huderah,  the  Hazeroth  of  Scripture ;  at  the 
western  end  rises  Sarbut-el-Khadem,  800  feet  from  the 
plain. 

Dr.  Stewart  remarks  that  when  the  three  million  host 
left  the  foot  of  Mount  Serbal,  and  marched  forth  in  bat- 
talions, they  would  naturally  be  led  through  the  largest 
and  most  unincumbered  wadys  of  the  district,  such  as 
Wady-el-Shiekh  and  Wady  Berah,  and  it  is  of  the  latter 
name  that  Moses  first  treats.  The  cloud  by  day  and 
the  fire  by  night  were  the  appointed  guides  for  Israel's 
rest  or  travel ;  and  in  their  first  three  days'  journey  from 
the  Wilderness  of  Sinai  "  the  cloud  of  the  Lord  was 
upon  them  by  day  when  they  went  out  of  the  camp  " 
(Num.  x.  34.)  "  We  know  also  that  it  went  before 
them  to  lead  them  (Exod.  xiii.  21),  and  yet  under  its 
shadow  the  first  thing  we  hear  is  that  they  complained 
and  "  the  Lord  heard  it,  and  his  anger  was  kindled." 


282  SUBJECTS   OP   INSCRIPTIONS. 

Then  they  had  His  "  fire"  in  exchange  for  His  "  shadow/' 
and  it  consumed  in  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  camp  till 
quenched  at  the  prayer  of  Moses ;  and  he  called  the 
name  of  the  place  Taberah. 

The  Hebrew  root  130  literally  signifies  burning, 
but  figuratively  anger  or  wrath.  The  sense  of  the 
Arabic  word  lerah,  is  the  wrath  of  God.  The  Arabic 
name  of  the  Wady  Berah  is  therefore  the  record  of  this 
fact — the  valley  of  the  wrath  of  God.  Mr.  Forster, 
who  points  this  out  in  p.  56  of  "  Sinai  Photographed/' 
refers  also  to  the  Psalmist's  description  of  this  identical 
judgment : — 

"The  heavy  wrath  of  God  came  upon  them  and  slew  the  wealthiest 
of  them,  and  smote  down  the  chosen  men  that  were  in  Israel." — Ps. 
Ixxviii.  31. 

SUBJECTS   OP   THE   INSCRIPTIONS. 

A  great  number  of  the  inscriptions  are  attended  by 
a  rough  drawing  of  the  event-  or  circumstance  to 
which  they  allude.  "The  People/'  "the  Tribes/'  are 
most  often  depicted  as  a  restive  camel,  a  wild  ass,  a 
wild  goat,  headstrong  and  kicking  ;  and  are  described 
as  reviling,  murmuring,  or  greedy.  Unlike  the  vain- 
glorious Egyptians,  from  whom  they  came  out,  who 
never  recorded  their  own  defects,  the  whole  scope  of 
this  rock- witness  (if  read  aright  by  Forster,  who,  it  must 
be  remembered,  is  no  sham  or  quack,  but  a  learned 
Christian  clergyman)  is  one  extensive  epitaph  on  the 
generation  who  fell  in  the  wilderness ;  the  fathers  of  the 
race  who,  better  trained  and  desert-bred,  attained  the 
Promised  Land.  The  following  is  the  tenor  of  the 
meaning  given  to  many  of  the  inscriptions  : — 

"The  people,  the  Hebrews,  lusting  after  Egypt,  fall  into  commo- 
tion." 


INSCRIPTIONS.  233 

"  The  people,  a  yearling  wild  ass — headstrong,  mindless,  and  mad." 
"The  people  raileth,  reviling,  cursing  aloud,  a  braying  ass,  vociferous." 
"  The  people,  a  lean  emaciated  she-camel,  goes  forth  into  the  desert 

a  roarer — a  she-camel  with  a  murmuring  mouth." 
"  The  people  devour  greedily  and  enormously." 
"  Roars  the  huge  unbroken  she-Lamel,  angering  Jehovah.    Rebellious 

in  the  burning  desert." 

"  Subdued  by  thirst,  the  high-humped  she-camel  speed*  with  long 

steps." 

A  very  large  number  of  the  inscriptions  also  bear 
testimony  to  the  grand  miracles  of  the  EXODE  : — 

PASSING  THEOUGH   THE  BED   SEA. 

"  The  sea  enters  by  night  the  people ;  the  sea,  and  the  waves 
roaring." 

"Divideth  asunder  the  leader  the  sea,  its  waves  roaring.  Enter  and 
pass  through  the  midst  of  the  waters,  the  people." 

"  The  people  pass  quickly  over  through  terror,  like  a  horse  ;  the  soft 
wet  mud  at  the  bottom  of  the  sea." 

"  Weep  for  their  dead ;  the  enemies,  the  virgins  wailing.  The  sea 
pouring  down,  overwhelmed  them ;  let  loose  to  reflow  the  waters." 

"  Fleeth  the  people  ;  descend  into  the  deep  the  tribes.  Enter  the 
waters,  the  people." 

"  The  people  enter,  and  penetrate  through  the  midst." 

"  The  people  are  filled  with  stupor  and  mental  perturbation, 
JEHOVAH  although  their  keeper  and  companion." 

WATER  FEOM  THE  BOCK. 

Numbers  of  the  writings  are  said  to  refer  to  the  gift 
of  water  from  the  rock  : — 

"  The  people  the  hard  stone  satiates  with  water,  thirsting." 

"  The  hard  rock  water — a  great  miracle." 

"  The  people  wending  on  their  way  drink,  drinking  with  prone 
mouth,  gives  them  to  drink  again  and  again,  Jehovah." 

"  The  people  in  the  waterless  desert,  swill  drinking  again  and  again, 
the  people  a  roarer,  the  water  flowing  in  the  desert,  drink  like  the  camel 
hi  one  long  draught." 

Tho  expression  "drinking  with  prone  mouth,"  is 
very  frequent,  says  Mr.  Forster ;  so  frequent  as  to  mark 


234  RECORDS    OF   THE    EEC    SEA. 

the  greediness  which  it  expresses  as  a  national  charac- 
teristic. The  passage  in  Jud.  vii.  5 — the  "word  of 
the  Lord  to  Gideon" — 

"Every  one  that  lappeth  of  the   water  with  his  tongue, as  a  dog 
lappeth,  him  shalt  thou  set  by  himself," 

throws  a  striking  light  upon  this  propensity  of  the 
ancestors  "of  the  Hebrews :  and  bears  historical  testi- 
mony in  an  after  day  to  the  truth  of  these  decipher- 
ments. 

LOCALITY   OP   THE    INSCRIPTIONS. 

Now  the  locality  of  the  Sinaitic  inscriptions  in  relation 
to  their  siibject,  appears  to  us  a  most  important  feature 
in  proof  of  their  correct  decipherment.  Mr.  Forster 
deciphers  no  less  than  twenty-eight  records  of  the 
miracle  in  the  Red  Sea.  Five  of  these  occurred  on  the 
rock  at  the  first  landing  points,  in  the  Wady  Sudr,  or 
"  Cedre,"  signifying  according  to  Golius,  "  a  way  leading 
up  out  of  the  water/'  and  all  of  them  in  nearly  adjoining 
valleys,  with  the  exception  of  only  one  or  two  in  the 
Wady  Mokatteb.  This  fact  speaks  volumes,  and  it  is 
confirmed  by  others  of  similar  character. 

If  we  accept  the  idea  that  the  only  true  clue  to  the 
grand  routes  of  the  Israelites  is  to  be  found  in  the  main 
line  of  the  Sinaitic  inscriptions,  these  have  already  led 
us  through  the  Wady  Feiran,  up  the  Valley  Aleyat,  and 
we  have  found  them  covering  the  peaks  of  Serbal. 
While  according  to  the  mouldings  of  M.  Lottin  de  Laval, 
the  very  few  inscriptions  on  the  Monkish  Sinai,  are  not 
truly  Sinaitic  but  imitative,  and  containing  different 
letters.  His  mouldings  are  more  valuable  than  his 
opinion,  as  he  naturally  holds  by  the  legends  of  his 
church.  They  much  more  nearly  resemble  the  Kufic, 
and  even  modern  Arabic. 


EXTENT   OP   A   CAMP.  235 

Descending  from  Serbal,  we  trace  the  true  writings, 
however,  in  continuous  succession  from  its  foot  to  the 
summit  of  Sarbut-el-Khadem,  a  line  of  march  of  about 
three-and-thirty  miles,  corresponding  exactly  with  the 
"  three  days'  journey  "  between  Sinai  and  Kibroth-hat- 
taavah  of  Num.  x.  33 ;  and  from  these  points  there  is 
both  an  upper  and  a  lower  route.  Mr.  Forster  thinks  that 
both  were  traversed  by  the  Israelites  after  the  camp  broke 
up  from  Sinai,  the  former  apparently  by  Moses  and  the 
host.  The  latter  probably  by  the  "  mixed  multitude  " 
and  other  followers  of  the  camp.  They  would  meet  in 
the  plain  of  Ramleh,  the  only  one  in  the  neighbourhood 
of  sufficient  extent  to  have  contained  the  people  with 
their  tents  and  baggage,  and  "  very  much  cattle." 

Amodern  encampment  in  the  Hauran,is  thus  described 
by  Mr.  Graham  :  "  The  camp  was  a  very  great  one, 
stretching  away  for  miles,  while  the  whole  plain  was 
literally  covered  with  flocks  of  goats  and  the  camels  of 
the  Arabs."  When  a  great  tribe  crosses  the  desert, 
while  all  is  safe,  they  spread  over  an  immense  space  of 
ground.  It  is  often  several  hours'  ride  from  one  end  to 
the  other  of  the  strolling  mass,  but  when  danger 
threatens,  the  caravan  is  rapidly  concentrated  and 
speedily  arranged  for  battle. 

"Now  the  Scripture,"  says  Mr.  Forster,  "  has  given 
us  the  true  dimensions  of  the  camp  of  Israel  at  Karnleh. 
It  lay  along  the  plain  for  twelve  miles,  or  a  days'  jour- 
ney in  length,  for  this  is  the  literal  sense  of  Num. 
xi.  31  ;  and  around  this  vast  camp  were  brought  the 
feathered  fowls — the  tf  solus  "  two  cubits  high  upon  the 
face  of  the  earth  ;  a  word  which  the  Septuagint  and  the 
Vulgate  have  rendered  "  quails,"  and  with  which  has 
been  connected  the  extraordinary  idea  of  small  birds  lying 


236  QUAILS   OE   CEANES? 

two  cubits  high  upon  the  face  of  the  earth.     The  Psalmist 
tells  us,  in  Ps.  Ixxviii.  27 — 

"  He  rained  flesh  upon  them  as  dust, 
And  winged  fowls  as  the  sand  of  the  sea." 

At  the  commencement  of  four  short  Sinaitic  inscrip- 
tions in  the  Wady  Mokatteb,  Mr.  Forster  found  the  old 
Arabic  word  nuham,  which  Golius  translated  "red 
geese/'  and  as  the  sea,  was  signified  by  the  next  word, 
the  reading  of  the  "whole  was — 

"  The  red  geese  ascend  from  the  sea 
Lusting,  the  people  eat  on  at  them." 

Or, 

"  Lusting  the  people  feed  to  repletion." 

Mr.  Forster  then  began  to  think  that  probably  the 
Hebrew  salu  of  Moses  might  not  mean  quails,  but 
cranes,  a  kind  of  long-legged  red  goose,  two  cubits  in 
stature.  <;Such  birds  are  said  in  "Encycl.  Brit/'  some- 
times to  resort  to  the  coasts  of  Picardy,  in  France,  in 
such  prodigious  flocks  as  to  prove  a  pest  to  the  inhabi- 
tants. In  1740  they  destroyed  all  the  corn  near  the  sea 
coast.  They  were  knocked  on  the  head  with  clubs,  but 
their  numbers  were  so  prodigious  that  this  availed  but 
little ;  when  the  north  wind,  which  had  brought  them, 
ceased  to  blow,  they  took  their  leave. 

Mr.  Forster  announced  this  discovery  concerning  the 
cranes  from  the  sea  in  his  "Voice  of  Sinai"  twelve 
years  ago,  and  he  was  much  surprised  and  pleased  to 
find  that  in  an  unpublished  journal  of  Canon  Stanley's, 
he  mentions  this  fact — "  On  the  evening  and  morning  of 
our  encampment,  immediately  before  reaching  the 
Wady  Huderah,  the  sky  was  literally  darkened  by  the 
flight  of  innumerable  birds,  which  proved  to  be  some 


GLUTTONY   AND   DEATH.  .  237 

large  red-legged  cranes,  three  feet  Tiigli,  with  black  and 
white  wings,  measuring  seven  feet  from  tip  to  tip,  which 
we  had  seen  in  like  numbers  at  the  first  cataract  of  the 
Nile."  Canon  Stanley  writes  of  this  fact  (though  he 
does  not  print  what  he  wrote)  as  ' '  one  that  would  delight 
Mr.  Forster."  He  adds  that  Schubert  saw  similar  flights 
on  nearly  the  same  spot,  which  must  be  close  to  Kibroth- 
hattaavah,  and  that  he  and  his  friends  had  eaten  one  of 
these  birds  upon  the  Nile,  and  had  found  it  very  good 
food."  When  seen  at  Huderah,  they  were  on  the  wing 
from  the  Gulf  of  Akaba  across  the  Sinai  peninsula,  and 
flying  over  the  very  scene  of  the  miracle. 

How  wondrous  a  confirmation  of  the  fact  that  God 
has  at  last  suffered  these  mysterious  writings  to  be  read 
by  modern  eyes,  and  to  tend  in  their  measure  to  confirm 
the  truth  of  the  Mosaic  narratives.  These  large  birds 
it  seems  were  spread  abroad  round  about  the  camp  to 
dry  their  flesh  in  the  burning  sands,  for  this  was  a  com- 
mon Egyptian  custom. 

In  a  wady  close  to  Serbal  is  found  the  following : — 

"  The  people  make  many  journeys,  pilgrimizing  in  the  vast  wilder- 
ness." 

In  Wady  Mokatteb  we  have : — 

"  The  people  devour  enormously  and  voraciously." 

"The  people  devour  greedily,  they  drink  like  horses,  they  clamour 

tumultuously. 

Disobedient  to  all  authority.    Sucking  the  marrow  from  the  bones. 
Devouring  flesh  ravenously,  dancing,  shouting  they  play." 

How  similar  is  this  to  the  Scriptural  account  of 
them  (Exod.  xxxii.  6)  quoted  by  St.  Paul  (1  Cor.  x.  7), 
as  it  is  written — 

<{The  people  sat  down  to  eat  and  to  drink, 
And  rose  up  to  play." 


238  THE   MOUNTAIN   CEMETEKY. 

Drunkenness  and  gluttony,  were  vices  against  which 
the  Israelites  of  the  Exode  were  warned  by  Moses ;  see 
the  laws  made  against  these  sins  (Deut.  xxi.  18 — 21), 
and  that  no  less  a  punishment  than  death  was  decreed 
to  be  inflicted  on  their  account. 

"  And  while  the  flesh  was  yet  between  their  teeth,  ere  it  was  chewed, 
the  wrath  of  the  Lord  was  kindled  against  the  people,  and  the  Lord  smote 
the  people  with  a  very  great  plague.  And  He  called  the  name  of  that 
place  Kibroth-hattaavah,  because  there  they  buried  the  people  that 
lusted." — NUM.  xi.  33, 34. 

KIBKOTH-HATTAAVAH. 

Yes,  Kfbroth-hattaavah  or  Sarbut-el-Khadem,  is  a 
place  of  graves,  a  mountain  cemetery  ;  and  graves  are 
also  scattered  in  the  surrounding  valleys.  This  mountain 
and  its  monuments  were  known  to  geographers  in  the 
sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries — to  Ortelius  in 
1600  A.D.,  and  to  Goldsmidcht  in  1700 — as  an  Israelite 
station.  Niebuhr  rediscovered  it  in  1 762.  Laval  speaks  of 
the  ascent  as  very  toilsome  up  the  precipitous  red  sand- 
stone rock.  "  A  narrow  track  winds  along  the  face  of  the 
precipice  at  the  head  of  the  ravine,  where  a  false  step 
would  have  been  death,  and  at  the  top  we  came  upon  a 
level  ridge,  and  a  tract  of  high  table  land  resembling  the 
Saxon  Switzerland,  and  intersected  by  deep  ravines, 
while  higher  peaks  lay  all  around  it.  Here  with  a  dark 
chasm  on  either  side  are  situated  the  singular  and 
mysterious  monuments  of  Sarbut-el-Khadem." 

This  mountain  had  been  spoken  of  to  M.  Niebuhr 
as  Jebel-el-Mokatteb.  On  ascending  it,  he  says,  he  was 
astonished  to  find  on  the  summit  a  superb  Egyptian 
cemetery.  "I  give  this  description  of  it,"  he  adds, 
"  though  I  had  seen  nothing  in  Egypt  like  it ;  the  space 
is  filled  with  stones  from  5  to  7  feet  high,  covered  with 


THE    LONG-LEGGED   GEESE.  239 

hieroglyphs,  and  the  more  one  examines  these  stones,  the 
more  one  is  convinced  that  they  are  tombstones,  in- 
scribed with  epitaphs.  In  the  midst  of  the  stones  has 
been  erected  a  building  of  which  only  the  walls  remain, 
and  a  little  chamber  at  the  end  sustained  by  square 
pillars,  and  these  are  also  covered  with  inscriptions." 

In  a  second  visit,  Niebuhr  succeeded  in  copying 
these  so-called  hieroglyphical  inscriptions  which,  he 
remarks,  are  as  fine  as  any  of  the  remains  in  Egypt. 
One  feature  particularly  attaching  to  them  however,  is, 
that  the  goat,  an  animal  native  to  the  desert,  abounds 
in  these,  while  in  Egypt  we  notice  always  the  bull,  and 
never  the  goat. 

On  a  first  inspection  of  Mr.  Forster's  copies  from 
Niebuhr's  plates  of  the  tablets  of  Sarbut-el-Khadem,  any 
cursory  observer  would  say,  "  Oh,  these  are  Egyptian 
hieroglyphics ;"*  but,  on  a  more  patient  examination,  this 
interpreter  points  us  in  the  first,  second  and  third  plates 
of  Niebuhr  to  unmistakable  figures  of  the  nuhams,  or 
long-legged  geese,  as  the  prominent  symbols;  twenty-five 
of  these  birds  occur  in  the  first  tablet,  ten  in  the  second, 
and  fifteen  in  the  third.  The  way  of  their  capture  is 
likewise  indicated  by  a  succession  of  archers,  the  same 
as  on  Egyptian  monuments ;  there  are  no  fewer  than 
eighteen  on  the  first  tombstone.  The  Israelites  of  the 
Exode  were  a  nation  of  archers. 

"The  children  ofEphraim    being  armed  and  carrying    bows." — 
Ps.  kxviii.  9. 

The  birds  which  darkened  the  air  would  fall  by  tens 
of  thousands  before  the  arrows  of  600,000  armed  men, 
and  besides  the  archers  there  occur  figures  running  with 

*  See  Mr.  Forster's  new  volume  "  Israel  in  the  Wilderness."    Price 
Six  Shillings.    Bentley  :  New  Burlington  Street.     1865. 


240  TOMES  ABOVE   AND   BELOW. 

sticks,  which  may  depict  the  pursuit  of  the  "  feathered 
fowls."  Owls  are  also  prominent,  "ill-omened,  and 
emblems  of  death."  Among  all  these  figures  are  com- 
mingled Sinaitic  characters.  Mr.  Forster  thus 
deciphers  by  his  alphabet  some  of  the  mixed  legends 
and  devices. 

"  From  the  sea  the  cranes  congregate  to  one  spot ; 
The  archers  shoot  at  the  cranes  passing  over  the  plain. 
Evil-stomached  they  rush  after  the  prey — 
The  sepulchre  their  doom — their  marrow  corrupted  by  God. 
The  sleepy  owl,  emblem  of  death,  God  sends  destruction  among  them. 


The  mother  of  sepulchres — the  black  and  white  geese, 

A  sudden  death.     Greedily  lusting  after  flesh,  die  the  gluttons. 

The  mountain  top  ascend  the  Hebrews, 

They  eat,  devour,  consume,  till  nothing  is  left,  exceeding  all  bounds. 

Their  bodies  corrupted,  by  gluttony  they  die." 

It  is  not  wonderful  that  Israel  should  have  chosen  for 
the  nobles  of  the  people  a  mountain  sepulchre.  The 
Egyptians  never  did  this;  their  monuments,  palaces, 
temples,  and  tombs  were  all  on  level  ground,  they  had 
nothing  to  do  with  "  high  places  •"  and,  remarks  Mr. 
Forster,  "  they  whose  ancestors  filled  the  mummy  pits 
of  Thebes,  or  Memphis,  would  never  carry  their  dead 
out  to  Sarbut-el-Khadem ;  but  Moses  himself  was  com- 
manded to  go  up  to  the  top  of  Mount  Nebo  and  die. 
Aaron  was  '  to  go  up  to  Mount  Hor,  and  die  there.'  The 
Israelites  as  well  as  the  votaries  of  Baal,  were  always 
wont  to  worship  on  'high  places/  and  it  is  clear 
from  '  the  sepulchres  in  the  mount/  mentioned  in 
2  Kings  xxiii.  16,  that  they  were  also  wont  to  bury  on 
high  places." 

Mr.  Forster,  however,  considers  that,  while  Sarbut-el- 
Khadem,  and  the  Kibroth-hattaavah  of  Num.  xi.  34, 


GRAVES   IN  WADT  BEKAH.  241 

are  one  and  the  same,  it  is  yet  self-evident  that  the 
scene  of  the  plague  could  not  have  been  limited  to  this 
locality,  or  its  countless  victims  interred  on  one  spot. 
The  mountain  top  could  have  been  the  burial-place  only  of 
the  guilty  priests  and  princes  of  Israel,  as  the  costliness 
of  the  monuments  and  the  difficulties  of  the  ascent 
combine  to  certify.  The  common  people,  the  guilty 
multitude,  must  have  had  other  and  numerous  grave- 
yards ;  and  the  identification  of  the  place  would  be 
incomplete  could  this  not  be  proved  to  be  the  case. 
But  here  a  service  of  no  common  moment  has  recently 
been  rendered  to  Scripture  history  and  evidences  by 
Dr.  Stewart,  of  Leghorn,*  who  has  recovered,  in  the 
adjoining  wadys,  at  different  and  distant  points,  a  series 
of  ancient  tombs  and  cemeteries,  distinguishing  the 
whole  region,  and  called  universally  by  the  Arabs  to 
this  day,  "  Turbet  es  Yahoud,"  the  "  Graves  of  the 
Jews." 

"  Turning  to  descend  the  hill,"  says  Stewart,  "  my 
attention  was  directed  to  a  number  of  cairns  of  stone, 
which,  from  their  blackened  appearance,  had  evidently 
remained  untouched  for  ages.  Others,  however,  had 
been  opened,  and  the  stones  were  scattered  about ;  a 
small  hole  had  been  made  in  the  centre  of  each,  pro- 
bably in  search  of  treasure.  In  two  of  those  which 
were  undisturbed  a  huge  stone  had  fallen  in  from  the  top, 
revealing  two  narrow  chambers  formed  of  granite  blocks, 
each  of  which  could  only  have  contained  a  single  body. 

"  The  next  day,  as  we  travelled  up  the  Wady  Berah, 
we  came  upon  more  tombs,  with  several  chambers  in 
each.  The  whole  of  this  part  of  the  wady,  opposite 
Wady  Tamner,  seems  to  have  been  covered  with  graves, 
the  stones  of  which  are  scattered  abroad  in  all  direc- 
*  See  "  The  Tent  and  the  Khan."  Hamilton,  Adams,  &  Co.  1857. 


242  IKSCEIPTIOXS   AND   GRAVES. 

tions.  There  is  no  vestige  of  a  town  or  village.  The 
plain  is  too  distant  from.  Feiran  for  these  graves  to  have 
any  connection  with  the  ancient  city  there,  and  the  idea 
of  pilgrims  having  died  here  in  snch  numbers  is  not  to 
be  entertained,  even  if  the  graves  themselves  did  not 
betoken  an  earlier  existence." 

Dr.  Stewart,  therefore,  believes  they  are  the  graves 
of  the  Israelites,  and  the  same  as  the  graves  of  greedi- 
ness at  Kibroth-hattaavah.  But  if  Wady  Berah  be 
indeed  the  Taberah  of  Scripture,  if  the  Israelites 
marched  this  way  and  died  here,  it  may  fairly  be  ex- 
pected that  their  route  shall  be  traced  by  their  road- 
marks,  the  Sinaitic  inscriptions.  Dr.  Stewart  says  no- 
thing about  these,  but  Dr.  Robinson  unconsciously  comes 
in  to  supply  the  missing  link  of  evidence. 

In  passing  through  Wady  Berah,  the  sepulchre  and 
burial-grounds  escaped  his  notice,  but  he  observed 
and  notices  the  usual  writings.  ' '  I  struck  across  the 
valley  "  he  says,  "  and  on  a  large  rock  found  four  in- 
scriptions in  the  usual  unknown  character.  Just  by  our 
tent  was  also  a  huge  detached  rock  covered  with  similar 
writings,  but  much  obliterated.  Indeed  we  found  these 
writings  at  almost  every  point  where  the  overhanging 
or  projecting  rocks  seemed  to  indicate  a  convenient 
resting-place." 

"The  occurrence  of  the  Sinaitic  inscriptions  in  connec- 
tion with  the  graves  in  Wady  Berah  is  a  new  point  in 
the  evidence,  since,  if  it  be  admitted  that  the  tombs  are 
those  of  the  Israelites,  it  is  in  vain  to  question  the 
Israelite  authorship  of  the  adjoining  inscriptions.  >' 


THE  AGE  OF  THE  INSCRIPTIONS.  243 


CHAPTER  X 

CHRONICLES  OF  THE  EXODUS. 

TUB  AGE  OP  THE  INSCRIPTIONS  —  THE  JOURNEY  ONWARD  —  KADESH  —  THE 
BLANK  OP  THE  THIRTY-EIGHT  YEARS  -  MINES  IN  THE  DESERT  —  THE 
ISRAELITES  AND  THE  HIEROGLYPHS  —  KORAH's  REBELLION  —  THE  WELLS 
OP  BEER-SHEBA  —  ISRAEL'S  TWO  SONGS  —  THE  ENTRANCE  AND  THE 
EXIT  —  WHAT  IS  kTHE  MAIN  INTEREST  OP  THESE  QUESTIONS  ?  —  THE 
QUEEN  OP  SIIEBA. 


grand  point  of  difference  between  Mr.  Forster 
and  his  learned  opponents,  is  not  merely  in  the 
alphabets  by  which  they  profess  to  read  the 
Sinaitic  rocks,  but  in  the  age  of  the  inscriptions. 
Professor  Beer  "  doubts  whether  the  oldest  can 
be  parted  from  the  most  recent  by  an  interval  of 
more  than  a  century  and  a  half.  He  considers  them  all 
Nabathean,  and  their  general  date  the  middle  of  the 
fourth  century,  A.D.  ;  in  defence  of  which  idea  Professor 
Levy  recently  brings  various  coins  and  medals  of  the 
Nabatheans,  on  which  are  found  some  similar  letters. 

"But  the  testimony  of  Cosmas,  who  first  noticed  them 
in  518,  A.D.,  was  different.  How  was  it  that,  in  his  age, 
so  shortly  afterwards,  all  knowledge  and  tradition  of  the 
meaning  of  the  characters  was  lost  among  the  Arabs  of 
the  district,  but  that  certain  Jews  professed  to  under- 
stand and  interpret  their  meaning,  and  assigned  them 
to  the  age  of  Moses  and  the  Exode,  and  to  their  own 
ancestors,  the  ancient  Israelites,  during  their  wander- 
ings in  the  Desert  of  Sin  ?" 

Mr.  Forster  considers  that,  had  the  monuments 
been  HEATHEN  and  the  localities  unconnected  with  the 


244  "THEM  THAT  WERE  WRITTEN." 

events  of  Scripture  history,  there  might  have  been 
no  such  reluctance  to  admit  their  antiquity.  On 
either  side  of  the  Arabian  Desert,  Egypt,  and  Assyria, 
as  may  be  seen  in  this  volume,  abound  in  written 
monuments  of  as  high  and  far  higher  antiquity.  The 
hoar  old  age  of  the  stones  of  Ipsambul,  of  Philos,  and  of 
Thebes,  is  credited  by  the  veriest  atheists,  and  in  some 
recently  recovered  monuments  of  Chaldea,  the  claim 
is  advanced  of  an  antiquity  ascending  nearly  to  the 
confusion  of  tongues.  Why  then  are  these  Sinaitic 
inscriptions  or  contemporary  evidences  of  the  authen- 
ticity of  the  Books  of  Moses  to  be  dismissed,  when 
their  claim  to  be  so  was  declared  twelve  hundred  years 
ago  ?  Their  numbers  computed  by  thousands,*  their 
extent  by  miles,  and  their  positions  often  fathoms,  not 
feet,  above  the  valley  floors,  they  cannot  have  been 
the  pastime  of  chance  pilgrims  or  travellers,  and,  we 
may  add,  they  cannot  have  been  the  work  of  hands 
from  the  Arabian  side  (the  Nabatheans),  for  the  great 
mass  of  the  genuine  Sinaitic  inscriptions  are  found  on 
the  Egyptian  side  of  the  peninsula,  in  the  very  route  of 
the  Israelitish  wanderings  as  recorded  by  Moses. 

There  is  a  remarkable  and  interesting  episode  in  the 
sacred  narrative  of  Num.  xi.  25 — 30.  When  the 
Spirit  of  the  Lord  had  been  poured  out  upon  the  seventy 
elders  they  went  up  to  the  tabernacle  to  prophecy,  two 
out  of  their  number  remaining  behind,  Eldad  and  Medad, 
though  the  spirit,  it  is  said,  rested  upon  them  also, 
"  and  they  were  of  them  that  were  written."  This  phrase 
is  confessedly  obscure.  It  has  been  understood  to  refer 
to  certain  tickets  or  tablets  inscribed  by  Moses  with  the 
word  "  elder,"  and  given  to  each  of  the  seventy  as  their 
passport  to  office. 

*  Of  which  vre  as  yet  in  England  possess  only  hundreds. 


WADY   MOKATTEB.  245 

In  a  work  entitled,  "  A  Pilgrimage  to  the  Land  of 
my  Fathers,"  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Moses  Margoliouth,  pub- 
lished in  1850,  a  new  interpretation  of  the  original 
Hebrew  was  proposed.  The  writer,  to  whom  Hebrew 
was  a  native  tongue,  discovers  in  the  phrase  in  ques- 
tion a  reference  to  the  Sinai  tic  inscriptions.  For  the 
enigmatic  rendering  "they  were  of  them  that  were 
written,"  he  would  substitute  the  following,  which  he 
says  is  the  literal  translation  of  the  words,  DsmrO2  HEni 
Vhaymah  baccthoobeem,  "  They  were  among  the  cthoo- 
beem,  or  inscriptions." 

"  On  examining  what  different  travellers  have  written 
about  the  locality  of  those  inscriptions,"  says  Dr.  Mar- 
goliouth,  "  I  am  convinced  that  Eldad  and  Medad 
were  then  in  that  famous  region,  at  the  awfully  memo- 
rable place  Kibroth-hattaavah,  the  very  spot  where  the 
inscriptions  are  found." 

Mr.  Forster  remarks  upon  this,  "  that  the  identity 
of  the  Mosaic  term  Catoobim,  and  the  Arabic  local 
name  Mokatteb,  is  by  no  means  to  be  overlooked. 
It  is  most  significant,  for,  the  high  antiquity  of  the 
names  of  Eastern  places  taken  into  account,  there 
arises  a  strong  probability  that  the  present  name, 
"Wady  Mokatteb,  may  have  been  the  name  borne  by 
that  '  Written  Valley '  from  the  time  of  Moses  and  the 
Exode."* 

He  also  adds  : — 

"  The  relative  positions  of  the  tabernacle,  the  camp, 

*  In  "  The  Historical  Geography  of  Arabia,"  Mr.  Forster  demon- 
strates that  nearly  all  the  patriarchal  tribes  specified  in  the  Book  of 
Genesis — "  according  to  their  families,  after  their  places by  their  names" 
— are  to  be  found  both  in  the  classical  and  modern  geography  of  Arabia, 
disposed  along  the  yery  lines  of  country  assigned  to  them  by  Moses  in 
the  oldest  history  in  the  world. 


246  THE   JOUENEY   ONWAED. 

and  the  written  valleys,  at  this  time  in  Israel's  rear,  will 
be  found  of  great  collateral  value  to  this  author's  argu- 
ment. The  tabernacle,  we  know,  was  always  pitched  in 
the  Israelite  marches  in  front  of  the  host ;  and  here  it 
is  expressly  stated,  e  the  ark  of  the  covenant  of  the 
Lord  went  before  them  in  the  three  days'  journey,  to 
search  out  a  resting  place  for  them/  Consequently  it 
was  pitched  northward,  towards  Hazeroth.  The  camp 
stretched  behind  it,  towards  Sarbut-el-Khadem  and  the 
entrance  to  the  Wadys  Maghara  and  Mokatteb.  Eldad 
and  Medad,  therefore,  who  remained  behind  the  other 
elders  in  the  camp,  had  every  facility  of  access  to 
the  inscribed  valleys,  a  circumstance  which  tells  with 
fresh  force  on  those  hitherto  obscure  but  henceforth 
most  luminous  words — 

'  And  they  were  among  the  inscriptions.' " 
THE   JOURNEY   ONWAED. 

The  way  of  "  the  people "  after  their  fatal  stay  of 
a  month  at  Kibroth-hattaavah,  lay  onward  through  a 
great  and  terrible  wilderness  by  the  mountain  of  the  Amo- 
rites  to  Kadesh  Barnea  (Deut.  i.  19).  There  are  eleven 
days'  journey  from  Horeb  unto  Kadesh  Barnea  (Deut.  i. 
2) ;  and  as  thirty-eight  years  of  their  wilderness  journeys 
elapsed  between  their  leaving  Kadesh  Barnea  and  their 
returning  to  it  and  going  over  the  Brook  Zered  (see 
Deut.  ii.),  and  they  departed  from  Horeb  only  in  the 
second  month  of  the  second  year  of  the  wanderings,  a 
space  of  ten  months  lies  between  the  two.  A  month 
they  spent  in  burying  their  dead  at  Kibroth-hattaavah, 
a  week  at  Hazeroth,  while  Miriam,  being  leprous,  was 
shut  out  from  the  camp ;  and  at  Kadesh  itself  they  abode 
many  days  while  waiting  for  the  spies. 


BLANK  OF  THIRTY-EIGHT  YEARS.  247 


KADESH. 

Kadesli  was  a  city  on  the  uttermost  border  of  Edom 
(Num.  xx.  16).  It  was  also  a  wilderness :  they  "pitched 
in  the  wilderness  of  Zin,  which  is  Kadesh"  (Num.  xxxiii. 
36).  The  present  Ain-el-Weibah  is  considered  by 
Robinson  to  mark  its  site  j  but  there  appear  also  to  be 
reasons  for  considering  that  Kadesh  may  have  been  the 
more  westerly  station  of  Ain  Kades,  near  Gerar,  the 
Gerar  of  Abimelech.  The  identification  of  the  brook 
Zered  might  settle  this  question. 

At  Kadesh  they  were  in  the  high  road  for  speedy 
entrance  to  the  Promised  Land,  at  the  end  of  the  second 
year  j  but  alas  !  they  doubted  the  leading  even  of  the 
fire  and  the  cloud,  and  actually  said  one  to  another,  "  Let 
us  make  us  a  captain,  and  let  us  return  into  Egypt." 
They  were  saved  from  instant  destruction  from  the  pre- 
sence of  the  Lord,  who  came  down  in  His  glory,  only  by 
the  prayer  of  Moses,  and  were  pardoned  "according 
to  his  word."  But  the  Lord  said : — 

"  Because  ail  those  men  which  hare  seen  my  glory,  and  my  miracles, 
•which  I  did  in  Egypt  and  in  the  wflderness,  hare  tempted  Me  now 
these  ten  times... rarely  they  shall  not  see  the  land  which  I  sware  unto 
their  fathers." — Num.  xiv.  22. 

And  it  was  commanded  afresh  : — 

"  To-morrow  turn  you,  and  get  you  into  the  wilderness  by  the  way 
of  the  Bed  Sea." 

THE    BLANK  OF   THE    THIRTY-EIGHT   YEARS. 

And  of  the  thirty-eight  years  that  followed  we  have 
hitherto  thought  we  knew  nothing,  till  we  find  them  again 
at  Kadesh  in  the  fortieth  year  after  their  departure 
from  Egypt. 

At  Kadesh  Miriam  dies,  and  is  buried.     Here  again 


248  BLANK   OF   THIRTY-EIGHT   YEAES. 

the  new  generation  of  the  people  chode  with  Moses,  and 
said,  "  Would  God  that  we  had  died  when  our  brethren 
died  before  the  Lord."  The  children  like  the  fathers 
lusted  after  Egypt ;  and  Moses  and  Aaron  for  once  lost 
their  patience,  and,  forgetting  the  calm  power  of  the  rod 
of  God,  smote  the  rock  twice,  when  they  had  been  com- 
manded but  to  speak  to  it,  and  said,  "  Hear  now,  ye 
rebels,  must  we  fetch  you  water  out  of  this  rock  ?"  and 
so  lost  their  own  entrance  to  the  land,  because  of  the 
waters  of  Meribah. 

Mr.  Forster  finds  in  one  of  the  inscriptions,  moulded 
by  Lottin  de  Laval,  the  following : — 

"  The  congregation  at  Kadesh. 

Smiting  the  rock,  like  a  great  river  depart  passing  forth  the  waters, 
MOSES,  their  shepherd,  a  meek  and  lowly  man, 
To  the  thirsty  gives  water  to  drink." 

Dr.  Stewart  refers  to  this  as  a  gross  anachronism, 
and  enough  to  upset  the  whole  theory  of  Mr.  Forster's 
alphabet ;  but  ought  it  fairly  to  be  thus  viewed  ?  If  the 
Rock  records  were  made  by  men  inspired  of  God,  and  were 
to  remain  as  evidence  to  doubters  in  these  days  of 
"the  provocation  in  the  wilderness,"  there  was  every 
reason  that  they  should  be  completed.  What  makes 
it  impossible  that  shepherds,  who  had  executed  some 
of  the  previous  inscriptions  under  the  inspired  elders, 
should  go  back  to  add  others  to  the  list  ?  The  desert 
of  the  wanderings  is  no  trackless  waste  of  Central 
Asia,  as  Mr.  Forster  says.  It  is  only  a  narrow  penin- 
sula scarcely  a  hundred  miles  across,  and  the  pastors 
and  their  flocks,  and  the  followers  of  the  camp,  must 
always  have  been  scattered  abroad  in  every  direction 
through  its  narrow  wadys,  and  over  its  habitable  table 
lands.  Many  among  these  may  have  been  employed  in 


MINES   IN   THE    DESERT.         .  249 

executing  the  Rock  records,  which  were  likely  to  have 
attracted  every  eye,  and  to  have  proved  a  chief  point  of 
interest  and  occupation  in  the  wilderness  life.  The 
shepherds  of  Israel  could  not  forget,  it  is  certain,  the 
palm  shades  of  Wady  Feiran  or  Wady  Hebron,  and 
surely  may  have  perpetually  revisited  them. 

MINES   IN   THE  DESEET. 

It  is  also  obvious  that  the  costly  and  elaborate  monu- 
ments of  the  cemetery  of  Sarbut-el-Khadem,  could  not 
have  been  executed  in  the  first  month  of  Israel's  stay 
there.  A  part  of  the  thirty- eight  years  must  have  been 
spent  in  a  return  to  that  vicinity,  and  the  tombstones  of 
that  mountain  top  are  no  work  of  shepherds.  How 
they  can  ever  have  been  attributed  to  Egyptian  miners, 
of  whom  nothing  is  heard  elsewhere,  one  is  at  a  loss  to 
conceive.  It  seems  that  no  visitors  have  hitherto  suc- 
ceeded in  finding  the  mines,  yet  Lepsius  declares  they 
must  lie  below  in  Wady  Maghara ;  and  that  to  the  east 
and  west  of  the  small  temple  dedicated  to  Athor,  on  the 
summit,  may  be  seen  great  mounds  of  slag.  He  adds 
that  these  artificial  mounds  are  250  feet  long  by  120 
broad;  and  that  there  is  a  tongue  of  land  that  forms 
a  terrace,  and  projects  out  into  the  valley,  coated  over 
with  slag  four  or  five  feet  thick,  and  covered  to  its 
base  with  slag  also.  It  appears,  he  says,  that  this  open 
spot  was  chosen  for  the  smelting  of  ore,  on  account  of 
the  keen  draughts  of  wind  perpetually  blowing  here. 

But  if  mining  were  in  early  times  carried  on  here 
by  Egyptians,  by  way  of  Tor  and  the  Red  Sea ;  still  the 
working  in  metals  ordained  at  Sinai  for  the  tabernacle 
service  (and  skill  in  which  was  especially  imparted  by 
God  to  Bezaleel  and  Aholiab),  must  have  taken  place 


250  WHO   WEBE   THE   MINERS.? 

somewhere,  and  possibly  at  Sarbut-el-Khadem.  The 
brazen  altar  which  Bezaleel  had  made  was  in.  existence  at 
the  time  of  Solomon,  who  offered  a  thousand  burnt  offer- 
ings upon  it  when  it  was  more  than  five  hundred  years 
old.  The  brazen  serpent  that  Moses  had  made  was  only 
broken  up  three  hundred  years  after  Solomon's  time  by 
Hezekiah,  because  the  people  of  Israel  worshipped  it. 
The  fabrication  of  the  serpent  seems  indeed  to  have  been 
suddenly  commanded  when  they  were  in  the  vicinity  of 
Edom,  after  the  death  of  Miriam,  Mr.  Forster  con- 
siders at  Zalmonah,  the  present  Maan,  ten  miles  south 
of  Mount  Hor;*  but  all  the  metal  furniture  of  the  taber- 
nacle must  have  had  a  foundry,  and  that  must  have 
existed  not  far  from  Sinai. 

The  researches  and  mouldings  of  M.  Lottin  de  Laval 
bring  down  to  the  present  day  the  remains  of  what  has 
been  supposed  Egyptian  art  in  Sarbut-el-Khadem.  He 
brought  away  the  fac-similes  of  more  than  eighty  monu- 
ments, or  fragments  of  monuments,  mostly  of  colossal 
dimensions,  to  be  reproduced  in  Paris  either  in  Roman 
cement  or  plaster.  He  says  the  Bedouins  accused  an 

A  v 

English  captain  of  remaining  a  month  on  this  mountain 
in  the  year  1848,  seeking  for  vases  and  turquoises  under 
all  the  tombs ;  since  which  the  Arabs  themselves,  always 
imagining  they  should  find  hidden  treasure,  have 
achieved  the  profanation  of  these  primitive  and  curious 
remains. 


THE   ISEAELITES   AND   THE   HIEROGLYPHS. 

That  the  carvings  here  should  be  Egyptian  in  device, 
even  if  executed  by   Israel,    Mr.   Forster  points   out 

*  HereBurckhardt  noticed  an  extinct  volcano,  possibly  an  abandoned 
copper  mine.    See  "  Sinai  Photographed,"  p.  14. 


ISRAELITES  AND   HIEROGLYPHS.  251 

as  probable,  nay,  that  it  would  be  wonderful,  in- 
deed, if  they  were  not.  "  In  considering/'  he 
says,  "  the  question  of  the  use  of  the  Egyptian 
language  and  characters  by  the  Israelites  in  the  wilder- 
ness, one  great  point  has  hitherto  been  often  over- 
looked, namely,  the  multitude  of  native  Egyptians 
who  went  forth  with  them  out  of  Egypt  (see  Exod.  xii. 
38;  Num.  xi.  4).  In  Lev.  xxiv.  10  we  read  of  an 
Israelitish  woman  whose  father  was  an  Egyptian,  and 
this  proves  occasional  intermarriage.  The  inscriptions 
of  a  people  so  long  resident  in  Egypt,  would  naturally 
be  accompanied  by  some  Egyptian  hieroglyphics.  Was 
not  Moses  himself  '  learned  in  all  the  wisdom  of  the 
Egyptians/  and  certain,  therefore,  sometimes  to  clothe 
his  Egyptian  wisdom  in.  Egyptian  words,  namely,  in 
hieroglyphics  ?" 

The  bodies  of  both  Jacob  and  Joseph  had  been 
embalmed  by  Egyptian  physicians  (Gen.  1.  2,  3,  26), 
and  buried  in  state,  which  certainly  involves  the  use  of 
hieroglyphics  on  their  coffins.  The  bones  of  Joseph 
accompanied  the  nation  in  their  Exode,  and  these 
Egyptian  characters  must  thus  have  been  perpetually 
before  their  eyes. 

Hieroglyphic  writing,  therefore,  could  not  have  been 
forbidden  to  them,  though,  as  they  became  separated 
from  those  who  had  used  it  they  would  gradually  less 
and  less  employ  it ;  and  use  it,  only  as  we  use  the  Roman 
or  Saxon  names  of  the  days  and  weeks,  without  refer- 
ence to  their  heathen  origin.  In  the  hieroglyphic 
tablets  at  Sarbut-el-Khadem,  however,  and  on  the 
rocks,  animals  peculiar  to  the  Arabian  peninsula  are 
constantly  substituted  for  brute  Egyptian  deities.  No 
Egyptian  would  have  substituted  the  long-horned  Ibis 
for  Apis  his  god,  and  Niebuhr  has  noticed  this  discre- 


252  DATE   OP  KIBEOTH-HATTAAVAH. 

pancy.  The  human  figures  are  sometimes  representa- 
tions of  the  Pharaohs,  sometimes  of  the  false  gods  of 
Egypt.  Many  of  the  Israelites  were  no  doubt  idola- 
ters in  Egypt,  indeed  there  is  Scripture  proof  of  it. 
In  Ezek.  xx.  the  prophet  is  told  to  "cause  them  to 
know  the  abominations  of  their  fathers."  In  Egypt 
they  had  been  commanded  not  to  defile  themselves  with 
idols,  but  they  rebelled,  and  did  not  forsake  them ;  and 
God  said : — 

"  I  will  pour  out  my  fury  upon  them,  to  accomplish  my  anger  against 
them  in  the  midst  of  the  land  of  Egypt. 

"  But  I  wrought  for  my  name's  sate  that  it  should  not  be  polluted  be- 
fore the  heathen,  among  whom  they  were,  .  .  .  Wherefore  I  caused  them 
to  go  forth  out  of  the  hind  of  Egypt,  and  brought  them  into  the  wilder- 
ness."—EZEK.  IT.  8 — 10. 

After  this  it  is  recorded  that  God  gave  them  His 
Sabbaths  to  be  a  sign  between  Him  and  them ;  and  it  is 
four  times  mentioned — 

"  My  Sabbaths  they  greatly  polluted ...  for  their  eyes  were  after  their 
fathers'  idols." 

This  accounts  for  the  temple  of  Athor  on  the  height 
of  Sarbut-el-Khadem,  and  it  was  at  this  point  that  the 
"  mixed  multitude  "  probably  began  to  be  sifted  out  of 
the  host.  The  latest  stele  or  monument  found  in  this 
cemetery  is  said  by  Lepsius  to  be  the  last  king  of  the 
Nineteenth  dynasty,  and  since  that  era  he  supposes  the 
place  "to  have  been  deserted  by  the  Egyptians." 

What  if  the  Israelites  thus  dated  their  Kibroth- 
hattaavah,  in  the  second  year  of  their  wanderings  ! 
That  last  king  of  the  Nineteenth  dynasty  was  the  one 
not  buried  in  his  own  tomb,  and  would  here,  by  another 
incidental  proof,  be  identified  as  the  Pharaoh  of  the 
Exodus.  (See  p.  102.) 

It  seems  to  have  been  by  degrees  that  God  refined 
and  purified  their  language,  as  well  as  then*  ideas. 


MIXED   WRITINGS.  253 

"  When  Israel  went  out  of  Egypt,  the  house  of  Jacob  from  a  people 
of  strange  language." — Ps.  cxiv.  1. 

"  Egjpt,  where  I  heard  a  language  that  I  understood  not." — Ps. 
Ixxii.  5. 

The  voice  of  Israel  as  uttered  on  the  rocks,  recurs 
very  much  to  the  tongue  of  Eber,  their  early  ances- 
tor, in  sound  and  meaning  too.  These  rock  writ- 
ings are  only  to  be  read  by  the  ancient  Arabic  dic- 
tionaries, yet  the  form  of  many  of  the  letters  is  Egyp- 
tian, as  might  be  expected.  Is  it  not  probable  that  on 
the  tables  of  stone,  inscribed  by  the  Divine  finger,  Moses 
received  for  them  that  purer  and  less  copious  Hebrew" 
language,  which  was  to  mark  them  as  God's  people  Israel 
from  then  till  now  ? 

Kitto,  in  his  article  on  Arabia,  in  his  "  Biblical 
Dictionary,"  tells  us  that  the  Arabic  alphabet  contains 
all  the  Hebrew  letters,  but  differently  pronounced  in 
different  dialects,  and  therefore  their  value  is  not  the 
same.  The  order  of  the  letters  is  not  now  the  same, 
but  it  was  so  once,  and  a  comparison  of  the  actual  state 
of  Hebrew  and  Arabic  in  their  earliest  form,  evinces  a 
degree  of  affinity  that  exceeds  expectation.  Nine-tenths 
of  the  Hebrew  roots  of  words  may  be  found  in  the 
Arabic  dictionaries,  but  the  Arabic  language  has  by  far 
the  most  copious  development.  (See  p.  168.) 

Twenty-two  letters.of  the  demotic  Egyptian  alphabet, 
according  to  Lottin  de  Laval,  are  constantly  to  be  found 
in  the  Sinaitic  inscriptions.  Therefore,  although  they 
came  into  Egypt  with  their  native  Aramean,  or  primitive 
Syrian  dialect,  and  Joseph  spoke  to  them  by  an  in- 
terpreter (Gen.  xlii.  23),  we  may  be  permitted  to  sup- 
pose that  the  poor  dialect  of  the  pastoral  people  had 
been  increased  at  the  expense  of  the  language  of  their 
sovereign  masters.  And  surely,  adds  the  French  savant, 


254  KORAH'S  REBELLION. 

the  intelligent  Hebrew  people  coining  out  of  a  country 
of  inscriptions,  would  be  likely  to  use  the  granite  of 
Sinai,  as  a  monument  to  thank  God  for  the  recovery  of 
their  liberty. 

"  I  was  surprised  to  find,"  says  Dr.  Stewart,  "  on 
several  of  the  tablets  in  the  Wady  Maghara,  a  line  or 
two  of  what  seemed  to  be  the  Sinaitic  characters,  which 
abound  on  the  rocks  of  the  neighbouring  Wady,  followed 
by  many  lines  of  hieroglyphics.  In  another  there  is  a 
line  of  Sinaitic  writing,  and  twelve  of  hieroglyphics.  As 
I  do  not  remember  to  have  seen  this  noticed  in  any 
book  of  travels,  I  would  invite  the  particular  attention 
of  future  explorers  to  these  tablets.  For  if  it  be  found 
on  further  examination  that  they  contain  genuine  Sinaitic 
inscriptions,  as  well  as  hieroglyphics,  this  will  go  far  to 
settle  the  age  to  which  all  the  others  belong." 

Mr.  Forster  confirms  this  important  remark  by  a 
specimen  of  a  triple  tablet,  two  hieroglyphic  inscrip- 
tions, and  one  Sinaitic  by  their  side,  photographed  from 
a  cast  of  it  taken  by  Mr.  Pierce  Butler,  in  a  mountain 
cave  in  the  same  Wady  Maghara. 

KORAH'S  REBELLION. 

We  were  brought  back  to  the  point  of  Sarbut-el- 
Khadem  by  considering  the  occupations  of  the  thirty- 
eight  unnoted  years  in  the  Scripture  narrative  of  the 
wanderings.  In  Mr.  Forster's  recent  book  he  has  pub- 
lished an ' (  ESSAY  ON  THE  DATE  OP  KORAH'S  KEBELLION,"  B.C. 
1471,  as  not  agreeing  with  that  in  the  margin  of  our 
EnglishBibles, B.C.  1452.  Archbishop  Usher  has  assigned 
Korah's  death  to  the  second  year  of  the  Exode,  B.C.  1490 ; 
but  it  is  hereby  convincingly  shown  that  it  occurred  in 
or  near  the  twentiethf  or  B.C.  1471.  The  fact  is  proved 


KORAH'S  EEBELLION.  255 

by  the  case  of  Zelophehad  and  his  daughters.  The 
death  of  their  father  occurred  at  the  time  of  Korah's 
death.  They  thus  witness  thereof  to  Moses : 

"  Our  father  died  in  the  wilderness,  and  he  was  not  in  the  company 
of  them  that  gathered  themselves  together  against  the  Lord  in  the  com- 
pany of  Korah  j  but  died  in  his  own  sin." — NUM.  xxvii.  3. 

He  was  evidently  of  those  who  died  on  the  morrow 
from  the  plague,  that  fell  upon  such  as  had  accused  Moses 
of  killing  the  people  of  the  Lord,  see  Num.  xvi.  49. 
In  the  last  year  of  the  Exode  the  five  daughters  made 
their  appeal  to  Moses  for  their  father's  inheritance,  as 
they  had  no  brothers,  and  each  became  a  bride  in  her 
own  tribe  of  Manasseh  (see  Num.  xxvii.,  and  also 
chap,  xxxvi).  If  the  date  of  the  father's  death  were  in 
1490  B.C.,  the  youngest  of  the  daughters  would  have 
been  in  her  fortieth  year  or  older  at  the  time  of  her 
marriage,  which  is  not  in  the  least  probable.  Further 
proofs  to  the  same  point  are  given  from  the  contem- 
porary genealogies  of  Levi,  Joseph,  and  Reuben. 

"  In  this  awful  episode  of  Korah's  rebellion,"  Mr. 
Forster  adds,  " a  light  breaks  in  upon  the  very  middle  of 
those  unrecorded  thirty-eight  years,  a  record  all  the  more 
valuable  as  evidence  to  the  reality  of  the  Mosaic  history, 
for  the  national  character  of  the  Israelites  in  all  stages  of 
their  wanderings  seems  to  have  been  the  same.  They 
murmured  at  Marah  and  Rephidim,  wept  and  lusted  at 
Taberah  and  Kibroth-hattaavah,  and  openly  rebelled  at 
Meribah,  as  they  had  done  about  Korah.  The  consis- 
tency of  crime  and  punishment  throughout  the  forty 
years  marks  the  historical  fidelity  of  the  Mosaic  narra- 
tives, which  the  wisdom  of  fools  would  in  these  days 
question  and  impugn.  The  national  transgressions  and 
divine  punishments  all  worked  out  the  doom  of  that 


256  THE   TREASURES   IN   THE   AEK. 

generation  of  the  people,  'whose  carcases  were  to 
perish  in  the  wilderness/ 

"  The  rebellion  of  Korah,  isolated  as  it  stands,  lets 
in  light  on  other  transactions  at  this  period  of  the 
Exode.  That  rebellion  gave  birth  to  the  series  of  divine 
enactments  which  follow  in  the  seventeenth,  eighteenth, 
and  nineteenth  chapters  of  Numbers,  which  establish  anew 
in  more  stringent  terms  the  total  distinctness  of  the  orders 
and  offices  of  the  priests  and  Levites  from  the  duties  of 
the  rest  of  the  congregation. 

*'  Foremost  among  those  enactments,  stands  the 
miracle  of  Aaron's  miraculously  budded  rod.  It  is 
remarkable  that  this  miracle  of  the  Exode,  which 
comes  in  to  enlighten  its  very  darkest  period,  has 
but  one  fellow  in  the  whole  Mosaic  history,  the  per- 
petual preservation  of  the  manna,  an  omer  of  which 
was  to  be  kept  for  all  generations  of  the  people,  that 
they  might  see  the  bread  wherewith  they  had  been  fed 
in  the  wilderness.  In  like  manner  Aaron's  rod,  with  its 
miraculous  buds  upon  it,  was  to  be  kept  also  for  a  per- 
petual memorial  against  the  rebels  (Num.  xvii.  10). 

' '  But  it  is  to  St.  Paul,  in  his  epistle  to  the  Hebrews, 
that  we  owe  the  knowledge  how  this  divine  command- 
ment was  fulfilled. 

"  Hebrews  ix.  3,  4,  points  us  to — 

*  The  ark  of  the  covenant  overlaid  round  about  with  gold,  wherein  was 
the  golden  pot  that  had  manna,  and  Aaron's  rod  that  budded,  and  the 
tables  of  the  covenant.' 

"  Between  the  laying  up  of  the  memorials  of  the  manna 
and  the  rod,  as  we  now  learn,  may  have  occurred  an 
interval  of  twenty  years,  the  manna  was  laid  up  in 
B.C.  1491,  the  rod  probably  about  B.C.  1471 ;  the  union 
in  the  ark  of  the  mementos  of  these  two  miracles,  and 


THE   WELLS   OF   BEER-SHEBA.  257 

their  being  preserved  with  the  tables  of  the  covenant, 
bespeaks  their  imperishable  value." 

But  if  any  would  from  this  narrative  deduce  example 
for  the  undue  assumption  of  authority  on  the  part  of 
the  ecclesiastical  orders — one  deadly  error  of  these  pre- 
sent days — the  great  apostle  of  the  Gentiles  specifies 
that  it  was  "  the  time  past  in  which  these  things  were  or- 
dained," and  points  to  the  functions  of  the  Levitical 
priesthood,  only  as  illustrative  of  the  eternal  priesthood 
of  Christ,  his  beloved  Master,  entering  in  once  for  all 
into  the  holy  place,  and  offering  Himself  without  spot 
unto  God,  thereby  putting  away  the  sin  alike  of  Jew 
and  Gentile,  and  then  sitting  down  "  a  priest  after  the 
order  of  Melchisedek "  at  "  the  right  hand  of  God, 
from  henceforth  expecting  till  His  enemies  be  made 
His  footstool."  See  also  Heb.  vii.  18,  19. 

THE   WELLS    OF   BEEE-SHEBA. 

Before  leaving  the  subject  of  the  Sinaitic  inscriptions, 
we  must  note  that  one  chief  objection  raised  against  the 
reality  of  Mr.  Forster's  interpretations  has  been  the  im- 
perfect construction,  and  abrupt,  and  broken  sense  which 
they  present.  In  reply,  he  produces  from  the  books  of 
Moses  themselves  a  perfect  example  of  this  very  style. 

The  passage  in  question  is  the  Song  of  Israel,  Numb. 
xxi.  16 — 18.  Let  the  reader  judge: — 

"  And  from  thence  they  went  to  Beer,  that  is,  the  well  whereof  the 
Lord  spake  unto  Moses,  Gather  ilie  people  together,  and  I  will  give 
them  water. 

"  Then  Israel  sang  this  song — 

"  Spring  up,  O  well ; 
Sing  ye  unto  it : 
The  princes  digged  the  well, 
The  nobles  of  the  people  digged  ife, 
By  the  lawgiver, 
With  their  staves." 

S 


258  THE   WELLS    OP   BEEE-SHEEA. 

Moses  himself  tells  us  that  this  passage  is  a  song, 
yet  it  is  so  abrupt  as  to  require  the  sense  to  be  filled  up 
mentally  in  order  to  its  being  intelligible.  Our  trans- 
lators have  added  the  words  by  "  the  direction  of  the 
lawgiver.5' 

The  continuity  may  be  thus  shown  : — 

"  The  princes  digged  the  well  by  direction  of  the  lawgiver, 
The  nobles  of  the  people  digged  it  with  their  staves." 

The  reader  is  probably  aware  that  we  have  the  his- 
tory of  four  wells  of  Beer-sheba : — The  well  of  water  that 
HAGAE  saw  ( Gen.  xxi.  19) ;  the  well  that  ABRAHAM  dug, 
and  called  to  Abimelech  to  witness  (Gen.  xxi.  30) ;  the 
well  that  Isaac  dug  (Gen.  xxvi.  25)  ;  and  the  well  of 
Moses  (Numb.  xxi.  16). 

An  extract  from  the  journal  of  the  Rev.  A.  W. 
Thorold,  Feb.  26,  1848,  gives  the  following  interesting 
particulars  of  the  locality  : — 

"  In  half  an  hour  we  reached  Beer-sheba,  on  the  side 
of  a  mountain  stream,  with  a  gravelly  rocky  bed.  The 
first  well  we  saw  was  circular,  lined  with  masonry,  and 
with  deep  grooves  cut  in  the  curbstones  by  the  friction 
of  ropes.*  It  is  five  feet  in  diameter,  and  forty-two 
deep,  and  evidently  very  ancient.  All  round  were  a 
number  of  camel  troughs,  roughly  hewn  out  of  single 
masses  of  stone,  now  five  in  number,  but  formerly  ten. 
The  surrounding  scenery  reminded  me  forcibly  of  the 
north  of  Yorkshire,  between  Sedbergh  and  Hawes. 

"  A  little  further  on  is  another  well  of  really  mag- 
nificent dimensions — twelve  and  a  half  feet  in  diameter, 
and  forty-four  and  a  half  deep,  down  to  the  surface  of 
the  water.  Tuese  measurements  are  Dr.  Kobinson's. 

*  This  gives  it  a  curious  appearance  as  if  frilled  or  fluted  all  round. 
See  Sonar's  "  Land  of  Promise." 


ANOTHER   SINAITIC    INSCRIPTION.  259 

There  were  ten  camel  troughs  still  remaining  here,  out 
of  twelve.  We  then  came  to  a  third  well  of  the  same 
dimensions  as  the  first,  and  which  I  do  not  remember 
to  have  seen  mentioned  by  other  travellers.  The  only 
thing  that  deserves  notice,  with  respect  to  the  latter 
well,  is  an  inscription  cut  into  one  of  the  'stones,  and 
which  seemed  to  be  of  the  same  class  of  writing  as  the 

Sinaitic  in  Wadi  Mokatteb.     1  carefully  copied  it  at 

» 
the  time,  it  is  as  follows  :      p  \  >/  . 

When  our  friend  made  this  note  in  his  journal, 
neither  of  Mr.  Tomer's  works  on  the  Sinaitic  inscrip- 
tions had  been  written.  The  above  notice  of  the  oc- 
currence of  the  three  Sinaitic  characters,  was  lately 
communicated  to  Mr.  Forster,  whose  remarks  upon 
them  are  as  follows  : — "  With  Robinson,  I  have  not  a 
moral  doubt  that  these  are  the  wells  sunk  by  Abraham 
and  Isaac.  The  inscription,  read  from  left  to  right, 
reads  most  plainly  aun.  The  definition  of  this  Arabic 
word  in  Golius  is  c  Quies,  tranqidllitas'  and  in  Richard- 
son, quiet,  peace,  tranquillity.  This  exactly  tallies  with 
the  circumstances  of  the  treaty  sworn  to  by  Isaac  and 
Abimelech,  at  the  third  of  the  four  wells."  See  Gen. 
xxvi.  23 — 33.  Read  from  right  to  left,  however,  re- 
marks a  Hebreiv  scholar,  the  letters  read  Sli-e-l>-a,  or, 
"  the  oath." 

For  Mr.  Forster' s  rendering  (in  old  Arabic)  would 
stand  verse  31 : — 

"  And  they  rose  up  betimes  in  the  morning,  and  sware  one  to  another : 
and  Isaac  sent  them  away,  and  they  departed  from  him  in  peace." 

For  the  other  reading  (in  Hebrew)  verse  28  : — 

"  And  they  said,  We  saw  certainly  that  the  Lord  was  with  thee  :  and 
we  said,  Let  there  be  now  an  oath  betwixt  us,  even  betwixt  us  and  thee, 
and  let  us  make  a  covenant  with  thee." 


260  THE   WELL   OF   THE    PEACE. 

The  two  smaller  wells,  then,  would  appear  to  have 
been  dug  by  Abraham  and  Isaac,  and  the  large  one  by 
"  the  people,  the  tribes,"  as  they  began  to  enter  into 
the  land  of  promise. 

In  Stewart's  visit  to  these  wells  he  remarks,  "  There 
was  abundance  of  water  in  both,  but  nothing  wherewith 
to  draw  it  up.  There  is  no  rope  and  pitcher  attached 
for  the  benefit  of  all  comers.  Each  clan  of  the  Arabs 
has  a  rope  belonging  to  it,  and  those  who  come  to  draw 
bring  the  rope  as  well  as  the  pitcher.  The  woman  of 
Samaria  said  to  our  Lord,  '  Sir,  thou  hast  nothing  to 
draw  with,  and  the  well  is  deep/ 

"  By  these  very  wells,  in  all  probability,  Abraham, 
Isaac,  and  Abimelech  have  sat.  Hence  Abraham 
journeyed  with  Isaac  to  Mount  Moriah  to  offer  him  in 
sacrifice;  hence  Jacob  fled  to  Padan  Aram  after  ac- 
quiring the  birthright  and  blessing  belonging  to  his 
brother ;  here  Samuel  made  his  sons  judges ;  and  hence 
Elijah  wandered  out  into  the  Southern  Desert,  and  sat 
down  under  a  shrub  of  Retem,  just  as  the  Arabs  sit 
down  under  it  now.  Over  these  swelling  hills  the 
flocks  of  the  patriachs  once  roved  by  thousands,  where 
now  we  find  only  a  few  camels,  asses,  and  he-goats." 

At  an  hour's  distance  north-east  from  Beer-sheba  lies 
the  ruined  fortress  of  El  Lechieyeh,  which  Dr.  Stewart 
considers  to  be  Lachish,  one  of  the  fortified  cities  of  the 
South  of  Judah. 

ISRAEL'S  TWO  SONGS  IN  TUB  WILDERNESS. 

"VVe  have  manifold  records  of  Israel's  murmurs  in  the 
wilderness — alas,  how  typical  of  our  own  ! — and  we  hear 
but  of  two  songs,  the  song  after  crossing  the  Red  Sea, 
and  the  song  of  the  well  at  Beer-sheba.  There  are  thirty- 


ISRAEL'S  TWO  SONGS.  261 

nine  years  between  these  songs  of  praise.  We  complain, 
as  "  the  people "  did,  oftener  than  we  give  thanks, 
during  the  process  of  our  training  in  the  wilderness, 
and  while  the  Egyptian  in  our  characters  is  dying  out 
under  God's  discipline ;  but  when  the  lesson  is  taught 
us  to  say  in  all  things,  "  not  our  will  but  thine  be  done," 
we  are  near  to  the  Promised  Land.  We  have  to  learn  to 
draw  water  from  the  wells  of  salvation,  and  the  way  to 
do  this  is  to  betake  ourselves  diligently  to  the  study  of 
God's  holy  Word.  We  must  dig  into  that  well,  from 
whence  all  the  streams  of  truth  flow.  It  is  not  enough 
to  know  from  the  Scriptures  merely  the  way  of  salvation. 
They  must  be  searched  for  those  truths  that  He  deeper 
beneath  their  surface ;  and  we  must  dig  these  wells  for 
others.  The  patriarchs  left  behind  them  "wells"  and 
"  groves ;"  the  wandering  Arab  strikes  his  tent,  and 
leaves  but  the  ashes  of  kis  extinguished  fire. 

Have  we  not  observed  that  Christians  whose 
minds  are  occupied  by  the  study  of  God's  Word, 
and  who  are  patiently  digging  into  it,  are  the 
happiest  and  most  fruitful  Christians  ?  Their  "  hearts 
are  enlarged,"  they  will  seldom  be  offended  or 
perplexed  about  their  own  frames  and  feelings; 
they  are  drinking  of  the  living  water  that  springs 
up  as  they  dig.  Most  of  the  evils  within  us  and 
around  us,  arise  from  our  PARTIAL  knowledge  of 
the  Word  of  God. 

THE  ENTRANCE  AND  THE  EXIT. 

Mr.  Forster  considers  that  the  closing  miracle  of  the 
Exode,  the  passage  of  the  Jordan,  is  the  true  measure 
of  the  character  of  the  former  miracle  at  the  passage  of 
the  Bed  Sea.  The  divine  object  being  one  and  the 


262  JORDAN. 

same,  a  rapid  and  simultaneous  transit,  the  extent  of 
front  presented  by  the  host  of  Israel  to  the  river  would 
in  the  latter  case  be  equal  with  the  extent  of  front  pre- 
sented to  the  sea  in  the  former  example. 

"  Now,  at  the  Jordan  all  the  measurements  are 
certain  and  clear.  The  Israelites  lay  encamped  before 
the  river.  The  river  was  emptied  out  in  front  of  the 
camp,  for  a  space  of  from  sixteen  to  eighteen  miles. 
The  miracle  commenced  when  the  soles  of  the  feet  of 
the  priests  who  bore  the  ark  of  the  Lord,  touched  the 
brim  of  the  water.  The  priests  were  commanded  to  go 
forward,  enter  the  river  bed,  and  stand  firm  on  dry  land 
in  the  midst  of  Jordan.  The  waters  of  Jordan  are  piled 
up  below  and  fail  from  the  Dead  Sea,  and  the  host  of 
Israel  pass  over  on  either  side  of  the  symbol  of  the 
divine  presence,  while  the  priestly  bearers  halt  in  the 
middle  of  the  bed.  This  is  all  recorded  in  the  fourth 
chapter  of  Joshua. 

*  The  sea  saw,  and  fled,  Jordan  was  driven  back.     .     .     . 

'  What  ailed  thee,  O  thou  sea,  that  thou  fleddest  ?  thou  Jordan,  that 
thou  wast  driven  back  ?' — Ps.  cxiv.  3,  5.* 

"  These  two  verses  settle  the  whole  question.  The 
stupendous  scale  of  both  miracles,  and  the  value  of  every 
word  of  Scripture  employed  to  describe  them,  is  corro- 
borated by  a  decisive  proof  in  the  after  description  by 
Joshua  (the  sole  adult  survivor  of  the  first  miracle 
except  Caleb),  to  the  generation  born  in  the  wilderness, 

*  This  sea,  scripturally  called  "the  Salt  Sea,"  by  the  western  world 
<:  the  Dead  Sea,"  is  the  final  receptacle  of  the  river  Jordan,  the  lowest  and 
largest  of  the  three  lakes  which  interrupt  the  rush  of  his  descending 
course  from  the  Lebanon.    The  Salt  Sea  has  no  visible  outlet.    The  level 
of  its  waters,  more  than  1,300  feet  below  the  surface  of  the  ocean,  is  the 
lowest  in  the  world.     It  is  nowhere  said  that  tlie  sinful  cities  of  the  plain 
were  submerged  in  this  sea.    They  had  been  destroyed  450  years  before 
the  passage  of  the  Israelites,  by  "  fire  and  brimstone  rained  from  hearen." 


JOSHUA'S  COMPARISON.  263 

and  to  those  who  were  '  little  ones '  at  the  crossing  of 
the  Jordan  (see  Deut.  i.  39),  and  in  that  day  had  no 
knowledge  between  good  and  evil. 

'  For  the  Lord  your  God  dried  up  the  waters  of  Jordan  from  before 
you,  until  ye  were  passed  over,  as  the  Lord  your  God  did  to  the  Eed 
Sea,  which  He  dried  up  from  before  us,  until  we  were  gone  orer.' — 
JOSH.  iv.  23. 

"  Joshua  certainly  knew  the  facts  of  both  miracles, 
and  had  not  the  one  been  the  counterpart  of  the  other, 
he  would  not  have  compared  them ;  and  the  change  of 
persons  from  '  you'  and  '  ye'  to  '  us'  and  '  we'  dis- 
tinguishes with  historical  exactness  the  past  and  the  then 
present  generation." 

"  Mr.  Forster's  book,"  says  a  writer  in  the  "Christian 
Observer,"  "  seems  to  have  been  presented  to  the  world 
at  a  most  opportune  period.  The  flood-gates  of  infi- 
delity are  opened  anew ;  all  the  old  objections  to  the 
truth  of  Scripture  reappear,  and  seemingly  new  ones 
are  produced  likewise.  At  such  a  crisis  a  new  class  of 
evidence  meets  us,  which  cannot  now  be  passed  by  with 
silent  contempt. 

"InMr.Forster's  book  we  behold  the  veritable  inscrip- 
tions of  Sinai.  They  comprise  not  one  Pagan  symbol,  no 
Isis  or  Osiris,  or  Apis,  or  sacred  cat  or  crocodile — but 
many  symbols  are  there,  never  found  in  Egyptian  mum- 
mies, tombs,  or  temples.  Mr.  F.  makes  a  great  point 
of  reading  any  inscriptions  (the  alphabet  of  which  is 
forgotten)  as  assisted  by  the  rude  picture  that  accompanies 
them.  From  many  of  these,  carefully  studied,  an  alpha- 
bet, he  thinks,  may  be  safely  formed,  and  further  inscrip- 
tions thence  rendered,  but  that  all  guessing  at  the  value  of 
letters  without  pictorial  guides  is  mostly  uncertain.  He 
also  assumes  that  in  early  Semitic  languages,  owing  to 


264  MR.  FORSTER'S  PRINCIPLES. 

the  unchanging  character  of  all  things  in  the  East, 
the  alphabet  is  always  short,  and  that  letters  of  the  same 
known  forms  should  be  assumed  to  possess  the  same  known 
powers. 

"  Those  principles  we  must  leave  to  be  worked  out  by 
the  students  of  language.  With  regard  to  the  results 
Mr.  Forster  deduces,  we  are  sure  that  truth  never  fails  to 
triumph  at  last,  least  of  all  the  truth  of  God.  And  if 
these  investigations  among  the  rocks  of  the  wilderness, 
through  which  Jehovah  once  led  His  people,  do  not  silence 
the  powerful  array  of  modern  infidels,  they  will  at  least 
give  courage  to  many  a  Christian  heart,  and  lay  anew  in 
some  minds  the  foundations  of  that  perfect  confidence  in 
the  veracity  of  Moses  and  the  truth  of  his  narratives, 
which  ought  never  to  have  been  disturbed." 

"Do  not  think,"  eaid  our  Saviour  to  the  Jews  (John  v.45 — 47),  "  do 
not  think  that  I  will  accuse  you  to  the  Father  :  there  is  one  that  accuscth 
you,  eTen  Moses,  in  whom  ye  trust. 

"  For  had  ye  believed  Moses,  ye  would  have  believed  Me :  for  lie 
wrote  of  Me. 

"  But  if  ye  believe  not  bis  writings,  how  shall  ye  believe  my  words?" 

The  interest  of  research  into  the  HIMYARITIC  and 
SINAITIC  inscriptions,  which  has  hitherto  been  supposed 
to  be  confined  to  the  learned,  really  rests,  as  it  will  now 
be  perceived,  on  their  relation  to  the  Biblical  narrative. 
Are  they  or  are  they  not,  the  earliest  remains  of  the 
family  of  Shem — the  primeval  relics  of  Semitic  lan- 
guage ?  Is  the  inscription  on  the  Kock  of  Hisn  Ghorab 
— coming  to  light  afresh  in  1 834  A.D. — the  same  as  that 
discovered  by  the  Viceroy  of  Yemen,  and  translated  into 
Mohammedan  Arabic,  660  A.D.  (about  thirty  years  after 
the  production  of  the  Koran)  ?  Both  documents  are 
stated  to  consist  of  ten  lines,  and  both  are  specified  as 
found  amid  ruins  in  Hadramaut.  If  identical,  where 
does  Aws  or  Uz  carry  us  but  to  the  Book  of  Job,  the 


REASONS  FOR  THIS  KESEARCH.  265 

only  inspired  Arabian  record,  and  to  the  Sabeans,  of 
that  patriarch's  day?  Did  he  not  speak  of  enduring 
engraving  on  a  rock  ?  And  judging  from  the  tenor 
of  Schulten's  Arabic  translation  of  this  rock,  does  it  or 
does  it  not  speak  words  kindred  to  Job's  sublimest 
utterances  ?  (See  p.  166.) 

If  rightly  read,  as  it  never  could  have  been  without 
Al  Kaswlni's  key,  the  Rock  of  Hisn  Ghorab  carries  us 
back  to  the  teachings  of  the  patriarch  EBER,  and  an 
alphabet  can  be  formed  from  it,  which  renders  readable 
other  such  remains — remains  that  none  else  than  Mr. 
Forster  profess  to  be  able  to  make  sense  of,  but 
which  are  written,  as  all  admit,  in  the  language  of  the 
Queen  of  Sheba,  who  comes  out  in  Scripture  history 
after  an  interval  of  some  600  years  from  Job,  as  visit- 
ing King  Solomon  and  "  communing  with  him  of  all 
that  was  in  her  heart"  (1  Kings  x.  2).  No  service  of  an 
interpreter  is  mentioned  as  necessary  between  them, 
as  it  had  been  at  the  court  of  Pharaoh  between  Joseph 
and  his  brethren.  The  communication  appears  to  have 
been  personal  and  intimate,  and  this  Queen  seems  the 
representative  of  strangers  mentioned  in  Solomon's 
dedication  prayer  (1  Kings  viii.  41),  who  came  from  a  far 
country  to  hear  of  the  great  name  of  Jehovah,  known 
more  fully  to  His  chosen  people  Israel. 

She  came  to  prove  him  with  hard  questions — with 
those  problems  of  life  in  which  the  Arabian  mind  delights, 
and  which  perplexed  the  hearts  of  the  speakers  in  the 
Book  of  Job — and  Solomon  answered  all  her  questions, 
and  gave  unto  her  all  her  desire,  so  that  she  went  home 
owning  that  the  half  had  not  been  told  her  concerning 
his  wisdom  and  prosperity,  and  she  saw  that  "  because 
the  Lord  had  loved  Israel  for  ever,  therefore  He  had 
made  Solomon  kins-." 


266  THE    QUEEN   OP    SHE3A. 

The  "  wisdom  of  Solomon "  no  doubt  included  the 
knowledge  of  this  Queen's  ancient  Semitic  dialect. 
She  represented  the  Joktanite  Sheba  of  Gen.  x.  28. 
Sheba  was  the  tenth  of  Joktan's  sons.  The  kingdom 
founded  by  the  Joktanites  was,  for  many  centuries, 
called  the  kingdom  of  Sheba,  after  this  tenth  son,  until 
the  name  of  Himyer  took  its  place.  The  Joktanites 
appear  to  have  been  preceded  by  an  aboriginal  race, 
whom  the  Arab  historians  describe  as  a  people 
of  gigantic  stature,  "dwelling  with  the  Jinn  in 
the  deserted  quarter  and  in  caves;"  these  may  have 
been  of  Hamitic  descent,  the  sons  of  Eaamah,  the 
sons  of  Gush,  for  Raainah  had  a  son  named  Sheba 
(Gen.  x.  7). 

It  is  Strabo  who  first  mentions  the  Homeritse,  or 
Himyarites,  B.C.  24 ;  but  the  Arab  historians  who  should 
know  better,  place  the  name  of  Himyer  very  high  on 
their  list.  It  seems  probable  that  there  was  a  modern 
kingdom  of  Himyer  and  an  ancient  one,  that  the  oldest 
meaning  of  the  name  is  red  man,  and  that  it  belongs  to 
the  chief  and  often  reigning  family  of  the  kingdom  of 
Sheba,  or  Saba. 

The  word  Himyer  appears  to  be  derived  from  the 
Arabic  ahmar,  "  red ;''  aafar  also  signifies  ' '  red,"  and 
may  point  to  Ophir ;  and  the  Red  Sea  was  most  probably 
' '  the  sea  of  the  red  men."*  An  intimate  connection  is 
supposed  to  have  existed  between  the  Phoenicians  and 
the  Himyarites ;  the  admixture  of  Cushite  and  Semitic 
races  in  the  South  Arabian  kingdom  produced  two 
results,  as  in  Egypt  and  Assyria,  viz.,  a  genius  for 
massive  architecture  and  rare  seafaring  ability.  The 
Cushitic  element  has  left  memorials  of  its  presence  in 
the  vast  ruins  of  Mareb  and  Sana,  while  the  Joktanitio 
<*  See  "  Dictionary  of  the  Bible,"  art.  Bed  Sea. 


SOLOMON   AND   H1EA1I.  267 

or  Semitic  type  prevailed  in  the  colonizing  habits  of  the 
Arabian  population. 

The  colonies  of  the  Phoenicians  circled  the  Mediter- 
ranean, and  they  have  left  tokens  of  their  presence  at 
Cyprus,  in  Malta,  in  Crete,  on  the  mainland  of  Greece, 
in  Sicily,  in  Sardinia,  on  the  east  and  south  of  Spain, 
in  the  ancient  Tarshish,  and  on  the  north  of  Africa.  Like 
the  Himyarites  they  were  a  people  with  an  alphabet, 
and  they  have  left  its  relics  at  ports  as  distant,  and  after 
crossing  oceans  as  terrible,  as  those  traversed  by  their 
Himyarite  brethren  on  the  Indian  and  Chinese  seas. 

It  is  easy  to  perceive  what  made  Solomon  call  for 
the  assistance  of  Hiram  to  build  the  temple  of  Jerusalem 
— a  monarch  with  an  income  of  nearly  £400,000  a  day 
commanded  the  riches  and  the  service  of  the  known 
world.  The  Queen  of  Sheba  gives  us  an  admiring  por- 
trait of  the  great  king  she  had  travelled  so  far  to  see, 
the  attendance  of  his  ministers  and  their  apparel.  The 
whole  equipment  of  his  court  overcame  her  with  sur- 
prise and  wonder,  and  left  no  more  spirit  in  her.  "  Forty 
thousand  stalls  of  horses  for  his  chariots,  and  twelve  thou- 
sand horsemen  "  made  up  the  measure  of  his  magnificence 
(1  Kings  iv.  26).  If  he  went  on  a  royal  progress  it 
was  in  snow  white  raiment,  riding  in  a  chariot  of  cedar 
decked  with  silver  and  gold  and  purple ;  his  body- 
guard the  tallest  and  handsomest  of  the  sons  of  Israel, 
also  arrayed  in  Tyrian  purple,  their  long  black  hair, 
according  to  Josephus,  "  sprinkled  freshly  every  day 
with  gold  dust ;"  but  the  teaching  of  the  Son  of  Man, 
1000  years  afterwards,  passes  sentence  on  all  that  kingly 
pomp ;  it  says  of  a  simple  lily  of  the  field,  that  "  Solo- 
mon in  all  his  glory  was  not  arrayed  like  one  of  these." 
Rising  up  in  His  own  purity,  victory  over  temptation, 
self-sacrifice,  and  sympathy  for  all  men,  and  in  the  self- 


268  THE   PRIMEVAL   LANGUAGE. 

negation,  that  in  his  own  world  gave  Him  "  no  place 
even  where  to  lay  His  head/' — well  might  He  say,  as 
He  did  say,  "  Behold,  a  greater  than  Solomon  is  here  \" 

It  was  not  in  the  line  of  Joktan,  represented  by  the 
Queen  of  Sheba,  that  the  promised  seed  had  come,  but 
by  Peleg  his  brother,  through  Reu,  Serug,  Nahor,  Terah, 
and  Abraham,  that,  in  Isaac  and  Jacob,  the  pedigree  of 
the  chosen  nation  ran  on  to  David  and  Solomon.  Yet 
had  not  the  native  Aramean  and  primitive  Arabian 
tongues  been  once  alike  ?  Had  not  Joktan  and  Peleg 
once  spoken  the  same  language  ?  Had  not  Ishmael 
and  Isaac  also  ?  Had  not  Jacob  and  Esau  ?  In  three 
Semitic  currents  flowed  the  blood  of  the  "  mingled 
people"  whose  thoughts  are  uttered  in  the  Book  of 
Job  •  and  did  not  the  Aramaic  speech — passing  through 
an  Egyptian  sojourn — come  forth  to  leave  its  last  traces 
on  the  rocks  of  Mokatteb,  and  to  be  afterwards,  by 
Moses,  refined  and  restrained  into  the  Hebrew  of  the 
Pentateuch  ? 


AS3YKIA.  269 


CHAPTER  XI. 

NINEVEH— ITS  FALL  AND  ITS  RESUKKECTION. 

THE  VERY  OLD  ALLIANCE  OP  SUSIANA,  ASSYRIA,  AND  CHALDEA — THEIR 
TOPOGRAPHY — MENTION  IN  SCXIPTURE — DESTRUCTION  OF  NINEVEH 
BY  THE  TIGRIS  AND  BY  FIRE — ITS  ERA — OUR  LORD'S  REFERENCE 

TO    JONAS    AND    TO    NINEVEH ITS    RESURRECTION    BY    THE  HAND 

OP  BOTTA   AND   LAYARD — MR.   LAYARD'S  DREAM,  HIS  DISCOVERIES, 

HIS  EXCAVATORS THE  CHALDEANS  OR  NESTORIANS,  THEIR  LANGUAGE, 

THEIR  LINK.  WITH  ISRAEL — THE  RISE  OF  THE  CHALDEAN  CHURCH  AT 
THE  DAY  OF  PENTECOST — THE  NEGATIONS  OF  THE  NINEVEH  REMAINS  IN 
THE  "SATURDAY  REVIEW" — THEIR  CHRONOLOGICAL  ARRANGEMENT 

THEIR    TWO    AGES AN  INTRODUCTORY  CHAMBER — THE  MOUND  OF 

ASSHUR — THE  BABYLONIAN  KING — THE  NIMROUD  MOUND,  AND  ITS 
NINE  PALACES — THE  NORTH-WEST  PALACE — THE  TABLET  KING — ERA 

OF  THE  NORTH-WEST  PALACE  J  ITS  ENTRANCE THE  KING  WORSHIPPING, 

HUNTING  LIONS,  OFFERING  LIBATION — ASSYRIAN  CHARIOTS — PALACE 
GARDENS — COLOUR  ON  SCULPTURES — PEEISHLNG  IVORIES. 

'N  a  later  age  than  that  which  we  have  been 
hitherto  considering,  we  cannot  forget  the  Kings 
of  Assyria,  as  described  in  the  pages  of  Scripture, 
playing  a  fierce  part  in  the  history  of  Israel — 
Sargon  and  Sennacherib,  Pul  and  Tiglath-Pileser, 
nor  their  gods  Nisroch  and  Dagon,  Bel,  Nebo,  and 
Assur,  after  whom  the  chosen  people  went  astray.* 

Our  former  chapter  on  the  early  Chaldeans  closed 
with  the  extinction  of  their  empire,  after  a  rule  (accord- 
ing to  Berosus)  of  458  years,  succeeded  by  that  of  Arab 
kings,  who  have,  however,  left  scarcely  any  trace  be- 

*  "  They  were  the  ruin  of  Ahaz,  and  of  all  Israel."— 2 
ixviii.  23. 


270  AN   OLD   ALLIANCE. 

hind  tliem.  Concerning  the  origin  of  Assyrian  inde- 
pendence nothing  can  be  said  to  be  accurately  known. 
Assyria  seems  at  first  to  have  been  included  in  the 
dominions  of  the  Kings  of  Babylon,  and  it  can  only 
be  roughly  conjectured  when  she  shook  off  their  yoke. 
"  Yet  it  is  at  any  rate  clear,"  says  Sir  H.  Kawlinson, 
"that  about  the  year  1273  B.C.,  Assyria  had  become 
one  of  the  leading  states  of  the  East,  and  exercised  a 
paramount  authority  over  the  tribes  upon  her  borders. 
The  seat  of  government  at  this  early  time  appears  to 
have  been  at  Asshur,  or  the  modern  Kalah  Shergat,  on 
the  right  bank  of  the  Tigris,  sixty  miles  south  of  the 
later  Assyrian  capital  of  Nineveh. 

A  very  old  alliance  in  this  locality,  comes  before  us 
in  Scripture  history.  Coeval  with  Abraham  in  Genesis 
xiv.,  we  hear  of  Amraphel,  King  of  Shinar  (Is  not  this 
the  plain  where  the  Babel  Tower  was  built  ?)  AKIOCH, 
King  of  Ell-asar  (Assur),  and  Chedorlaomer,  King  of 
Elam ;  and  as  we  know  Abraham's  date  at  this  period, 
theirs  also  must  be  under  1920  B.C.,  and  perhaps 
AEIOCH  is  Sir  H.  Kawlinson's  lately  discovered  UKUKH, 
or  one  of  his  line.  At  any  rate  here  are  Chaldea  and 
the  land  of  Assur,  and  Elam,  in  conjunction.  Elam  at 
that  time  being  supreme,  fighting  and  carrying  away 
captive  the  kings  of  Palestine,  and  Abraham's  nephew 
Lot  among  the  spoil.  (This  is  some  500  years  before 
the  repetition  of  the  same  Mesopotanrian  raid  by 
Chushan-rishathaim,  the  first  conqueror  of  Israel  after 
their  Exodus  from  the  land  of  Egypt.)  So  that  Scrip- 
ture evidence  carries  back  an  Assyrian  and  Chaldean 
allied  sovereignty  to  the  date  of  nearly  2000  B.C. 

Of  the  three  great  countries  which  occupied  the 
Mesopotamian  plain,  Assyria  was  the  northernmost.  It 
commenced  immediately  below  the  Armenian  mountains, 


DESTKUCT10N   OF   NINEVEH.  271 

and  extended  to  Bagdad.  The  true  heart  of  Assyria 
was  the  country  bordering  close  upon  the  Tigris ;  within 
such  bounds  lay  Khorsabad,  Mosul,  Nimrud,  and 
Kalah  Sherghat. 

South  of  Assyria,  and  parallel  to  one  another,  lay 
the  two  countries  of  Babylonia  and  Susiana  (the  Elam 
of  Scripture).  The  latter  was  a  slip  of  land  300  miles 
long,  and  from  50  to  100  broad,  intervening  between 
the  Zagros  Mountains,  and  the  River  Tigris. 

Babylonia  lying  side  by  side  with  Susiana,  and 
bordered  on  the  south  by  the  great  district  of  Arabia, 
composed  the  tract  between  the  Tigris  and  the  Eu- 
phrates (the  between  river  country) .  It  was  somewhat 
longer  than  either  Susiana  or  Assyria,  its  length  being 
400  miles  along  the  course  of  the  river.  The  highlands 
immediately  overlooking  the  Mesopotamia!!  plain  were 
those  of  Armenia,  Persia,  and  Media. 

The  King  of  Babylon  is  called  by  the  Lord  "his 
hammer,"  and  the  Assyrian  his  ' e rod"  (Isa.  x.  5) .  He  has 
many  figures  for  the  Assyrian :  the  "  cedar  in  Lebanon/' 
whose  root  was  by  great  waters;  there  was  not 
' '  any  tree  in  the  garden  of  God  like  unto  him  in  his 
beauty;"  "all  the  trees  of  Eden  envied  him."  (See 
Ezek.  xxxi.  8,  9.)  Then  we  read  that  his  branches  are 
fallen,  his  boughs  are  broken,  and — 

"All  the  people  of  the  earth  are  gone  down  from  his  shadow,  and 
have  left  him"  (verse  12). 

It  has  been  generally  assumed  that  the  destruction 
of  Nineveh  and  the  extinction  of  the  empire  took  place 
between  the  time  of  Zephaniah  and  that  of  Ezekiel, 
about  606  B.C.  The  city  never  rose  again  from  its  ruins. 
Tho  total  disappearance  of  Nineveh  is  fully  confirmed  by 
the  records  of  profane  history.  Herodotus  speaks  of 
the  Tigris  as  "  the  river  on  which,  the  town  of  Nineveh 


272  DESTRUCTION   OP  NINEVEH. 

formerly  stood."  When  he  wrote,  not  two  centuries  had 
elapsed  from  the  fall  of  the  city.  He  must  have  passed 
it  on  his  way  to  Babylon,  and  so  accurate  a  recorder 
of  what  he  saw  would  scarcely  have  omitted  to  describe 
any  ruins  or  remains  which  might  still  have  existed. 

Ctesias  speaks  of  an  extraordinary  rise  of  the  Tigris, 
which  swept  away  a  portion  of  the  city  wall,  and  so  gave 
admittance  to  the  enemy.  The  Assyrian  monarch,  con- 
sidering further  resistance  to  be  vain,  fired  his  palace, 
and  destroyed  himself,  and  Cyaxares  completed  the 
ruin  of  the  once  magnificent  capital  by  razing  the  walls 
and  delivering  the  whole  city  to  the  flames  ;  the  elements 
of  water  and  fire  combining  to  fulfil  the  prophecy  of 
Nahum — 

"  The  gates  of  the  rivers  shall  be  opened,  and  the  palace  shall  be 
dissolved." — NAHUM  ii.  6. 

"  The  gates  of  thy  land  shall  be  set  wide  open  unto  thine  enemies ; 
the  fire  shall  devour  thy  bars." — NAHUM  iii.  13. 

The  other  royal  palaces  of  the  region  show  equal 
traces  of  fire  with  those  of  Nineveh ;  and  calcined  ala- 
baster, masses  of  charred  wood  and  charcoal,  colossal 
statues  split  through  with  the  heat ;  all  that  composed 
and  decorated  the  antique  royal  structures  went  down 
together  into  ruins  and  heaps  to  be  forgotten  for  twico 
twelve  hundred  years.  The  upper  strata,  sand-swept 
and  grass-grown  through  the  springs  of  age  after  age, 
preserved  the  monuments,  to  come  up  as  a  sign  from 
heaven,  to  us  who  live  in  the  nineteenth  century  after 
Christ. 

When  these  palaces  were  buried  Israel  had  gone 
into  captivity,  and  Judah  was  already  rejected.  Her 
royal  city  of  Jerusalem  was  within  thirty  years  of  its 
destruction  by  Nebuchadnezzar,  but  the  world  had  yet 
to  wait  nearly  600  years  for  the  grandest  events  of  its 


CHRIST'S  REFERENCE  TO  NINEVEH.  273 

human  history — the  miraculous  birth  and  death,  the 
resurrection  and  ascension  of  Christ,  its  Divine  Re- 
deemer. 

During  the  thirty-three  years  that  He  trod  the  soil 
of  the  ancient  East — while,  in  the  depths  of  his  humility 
"He  came  to  his  own,  and  his  own  received  Him  not" 
— the  eye  of  the  All-seeing  must  surely  have  beheld 
these  heathen  relics  piled  in  darkness  beneath  the 
foundations  of  Arab  villages.  He  remembered  his 
prophet  Jonas,  and  took  him  for  a  sign  of  His  own 
tarrying  in  the  tomb;  and  He  remembered  Nineveh 
and  its  burial,  when  he  said  it  should  rise  in  the  judg- 
ment with  the  generation  to  whom  He  spoke,  which 
could  have  been  none  other  than  the  Jews,  His  country- 
men. He  named  another  name  with  Nineveh,  that  of 
the  Queen  of  Sheba ;  and  as  we  have  read  His  words 
for  1800  years,  we  have  understood  them  vaguely  as 
doubtless  the  Jews  did,  as  having  reference  to  past 
history,  and  deducing  a  lesson  from  it ;  and  also  to  a 
future  day  of  retribution,  when  comparative  advan- 
tages shall  be  weighed  in  the  balances,  and  many  who  have 
enjoyed  the  richest  privileges  shall  be  "  found  wanting." 

But  the  discoveries  of  the  last  few  years — the  sculp- 
tures and  remains  of  Nineveh,  now  actually  come  up 
out  of  their  graves,  have  made  the  old  Biblical  cities  of 
Mesopotamia  a  theme  of  the  present  to  us,  as  well  as  of 
the  past  and  the  future ;  and  they  are  placed  side  by 
side  in  our  Museum  with  the  few  relics  of  the  ancient 
Sheba,  which  must  occasion  solemn  and  startling  queries 
whether  there  may  not  have  been  an  intermediate 
fulfilment  of  His  predictions  present  also  to  the  Saviour's 
mind ;  and  which  He  now  makes  manifest  to  no  other 
times  than  our  own — primarily  and  obviously  for  the 
sake  of  His  ancient  people. 

T 


274  AUSTEN   LAYAED. 

His  outcast  Israel,  His  rebellious  Judah  are  still 
amongst  us  in  these  isles  of  the  West.  They  have  nearly 
passed  through  their  double  term  of  punishment  from 
the  hour  of  their  rejection.  Are  they  like  the  Scribes 
and  Pharisees,  still  seeking  a  sign  ?  still  vainly  looking 
for  a  Kedeemer  long  since  come  to  them,  and  rejected 
by  them  ?  It  is  a  generation  to  which  "no  sign  shall  be 
given  but  the  sign  of  the  prophet  Jonas." 

By  the  fact  that  Nineveh  is  arisen,  we  are  directed 
to  the  prediction  that  it  was  to  arise,  and  now  we  hasten 
to  the  question,  How  came  its  relics  to  England  and  to 
France  ? 

In  the  year  A.D.  1840,  Austen  Layard,  a  wandering 
scholar,  has  been  exploring  the  graceful  ruins  of  Asia 
Minor,  where  the  fallen  column  is  buried  in  the  thick 
foliage  of  the  myrtle,  or  rose  flowers  of  the  Oleander ; 
and  he  passes  on  with  a  friend  who,  like  himself,  is 
careless  of  comfort,  and  unmindful  of  danger,  to  the 
regions  beyond  the  Euphrates,  the  plains  to  which  Jew 
and  Gentile  look  alike  as  the  cradle  of  their  race.  Without 
treading  on  the  remains  of  Nineveh  and  Babylon,  they 
thought  their  pilgrimage  was  incomplete. 

They  rode  into  the  desert  without  guide  or  servants, 
escaped  many  risks  among  the  plundering  Arabs,  and 
at  the  end  of  three  weeks  entered  Mosul  and  visited 
the  ruins  there,  which  had  been  supposed  up  to  that 
time  to  be  the  remains  of  Nineveh.  Again,  they  rode  into 
the  desert  towards  the  mound  of  Kalah  Sherghat.  They 
rested  for  the  night  at  a  small  Arab  village,  around 
which  are  the  vestiges  of  an  ancient  city,  and  from  the 
summit  of  an  artificial  eminence  they  looked  down  on  a 
broad  plain,  separated  from  them  by  the  River  Tigris. 

A  line  of  lofty  mounds  bounded  it  to  the  east,  and 
one  of  a  pyramidal  form  rose  high  above  the  rest. 


THE   MOUND    OP   NIMEOUD.  275 

Beyond  it  could  be  faintly  traced  the  waters  of  the  Zab. 
This  was  the  pyramid  that  Xenophqn  had  described, 
and  near  which  the  ten  thousand  had  encamped,  and  the 
ruins  around  it  were  those  which  the  Greek  general  saw 
twenty-two  centuries  before,  and  which  were  even  then 
the  remains  of  an  ancient  city.  Xenophon  called  the 
place  Larissa,  but  tradition  persevered  in  naming  it 
Nimroud,  thus  connecting  it  with  one  of  the  first  set- 
tlements of  the  human  race.  Tradition  also  said  that 
strange  figures  carved  in  black  stone  had  been  long 
buried  among  the  ruins,  but  now  the  vast  and  shapeless 
mound  was  covered  with  grass,  and  showed  no  traces 
of  the  hand  of  man  except  when  the  winter  rains 
formed  here  and  there  a  ravine  in  its  almost  perpen- 
dicular sides ;  and  a  few  fragments  of  pottery,  or  an 
inscribed  brick,  sent  back  a  thought  into  the  past. 
Such  fragments  previously  collected  by  Mr.  Rich,  the 
East  India  Company^s  resident  at  Bagdad  at  that  time, 
only  filled  a  case  of  three  feet  square,  in  the  British 
Museum,  and  with  a  few  cylinders  and  gems  in  other 
places,  were  the  principal  relics  of  old  Nineveh  and 
Babylon  in  any  way  known  to  Europe. 

The  careful  account  which  Mr.  Rich  drew  up,  how- 
ever, of  the  site  of  the  ruins  was  of  greater  value,  and 
it  formed  the  groundwork  of  all  further  inquiries  into 
the  topography  of  Babylon. 

As  Mr.  Layard  left  Mosul,  and  descended  the  Tigris 
on  a  small  raft,  he  had  a  nearer  view  of  the  mound  of 
Nimroud,  covered  with  the  richest  verdure,  and  the 
meadows  around  it  bright  with  flowers  of  every  hue. 
"  The  Arab  who  guided  him  gave  himself  up  to  reli- 
gious ejaculations  as  they  approached  a  formidable 
cataract,  over  which  they  were  carried  with  some  vio- 
lence, and  he  then  explained  that  it  was  caused  by  a 


276  M.    BOTTA   AT    KODYUNJIK. 

great  dam  built  by  Nimrod ;  and  that  in  the  autumn, 
before  the  winter  rains,  its  huge  stones,  united  by  clamps 
of  iron,  were  frequently  visible  above  the  stream. 

"  Such  monuments  were  looked  on,  even  in  the  days 
of  Alexander,  as  the  great  works  of  an  ancient  nation. 
The  Arab  further  explained  the  purpose  of  the  dam  as  a 
causeway  for  the  mighty  hunter,  Nimrod,  to  cross  to  the 
opposite  palace,  now  represented  by  the  mound  of 
Hammum  Ali.  Such  are  still  the  favourite  themes  of 
the  inhabitants  of  the  plains  of  Shinar." 

This  desert  journey  made  a  deep  impression  on 
Mr.  Layard,  and  he  formed  the  design  of  thoroughly 
exploring,  whenever  it  might  be  in  his  power,  these 
wonderful  remains. 

M.  Botta,  the  French  consul  at  Mosul,  soon  after- 
wards commenced  excavations,  aided  by  his  govern- 
ment, in  the  great  mound  of  Khorsabad,  and  to  him  is 
due  the  honour  of  having  disinterred  the  first  Assyrian 
monuments.  He  sank  a  well  on  the  mound,  and  at  a 
small  distance  from  the  surface  came  to  the  top  of  a 
wall,  which  was  found  to  be  lined  with  slabs,  covered 
with  sculptured  representations  of  battles  and  sieges. 
What  a  page  was  then  suddenly  opened  to  the  modern 
world  in  the  records  of  a  people  long  past  away  ! 

The  dresses  of  the  figures  belonged  so  plainly  to  the 
ancient  world,  that  they  gave  no  clue  to  the  epoch  of  their 
sculpture ;  and  of  the  arrow-headed  inscriptions  accom- 
panying the  bas-reliefs  it  could  only  be  said  that  they 
preceded  the  conquests  of  Alexander ;  for  it  is  gene- 
rally admitted  that  after  the  subjugation  of  the  west  of 
Asia  by  the  Macedonians,  this  kind  of  writing  ceased  to 
be  employed.  M.  Botta  had  discovered  an  Assyrian 
edifice,  the  first  probably  that  had  been  exposed  to  the 


DISCOVERY   OP    FIRST   MONUMENTS.  277 

view  of  man  since  the  fall  of  the  Assyrian  empire,  but  it 
was  soon  perceived  that  these  precious  slabs  had,  by  the 
action  of  fire,  been  reduced  to  lime,  and  that  they  rapidly 
fell  to  pieces  on  exposure  to  the  air.  They  would  scarcely 
hold  together  until  the  pencil  and  the  pen  secured  an  evi- 
dence of  their  existence,  but  the  same  fate  did  not  befall 
all  the  monuments  found  at  Khorsabad.  The  French 
government  replied  with  readiness  to  the  request  of  M. 
Botta,  and  a  skilful  artist  was  at  once  placed  tfnder  his 
direction.  By  the  beginning  of  the  year  1845  the 
remains  of  Khorsabad  had  been  completely  uncovered, 
and  the  consul  did  not  return  to  Europe  without  many 
fine  specimens  of  Assyrian  sculpture,  now  in  the  Louvre, 
and  a  rich  collection  of  inscriptions.  What  M.  Botta 
conveyed  to  Paris,  M.  Jules  Oppert — who  is  by  birth  a 
Jew — has  ever  since  occupied  himself  in  studying,  and, 
on  the  general  meaning  of  these  cuneiform  characters, 
the  French  savant  is  agreed  with  Sir  Henry  Eawlinson, 
Dr.  Hincks,  and  Mr.  Fox  Talbot,  who  are  the  main 
authorities  on  the  subject  at  the  present  day. 

But  it  is  to  the  first  and  ever  fresh  accounts  of  Austen 
Layard  that  we  still  delight  to  turn  as  to  the  one  grand 
fairy  tale  among  the  realities  of  modern  days. 
Encouraged,  in  the  year  1845,  by  the  liberal  promise  of 
Sir  Stratford  Canning,  the  English  ambassador  at  Con- 
stantinople, that  he  would  for  a  limited  period  himself 
undertake  the  expenses  of  excavation  in  Assyria,  Mr. 
Layard  left  Constantinople  with  introductions  to  the 
proper  authorities,  and  crossing  mountain  and  steppe 
as  fast  as  horses  could  carry  him,  reached  Mosul  in 
twelve  days,  by  the  middle  of  October  of  that  year. 
He  soon  afterwards  dropped  down  the  Tigris  on  a  small 
raft,  on  which  were  Mr.  Eoss,  a  friendly  English  mer- 
chant, a  mason,  a  servant  or  two,  a  few  tools,  and  a 


278  MR.  LAYARD'S  DBEAM, 

supply  of  arms.     He  announced  only  that  he  was  going 
to  hunt  wild  boars. 

After  five  hours'  voyage,  Mr.  Layard  describes  his 
first  night  in  Naifa,  a  ruined  Arab  village*  near  the 
banks  of  the  river,  where  his  host,  Awad,  a  poor  and 
plundered  Sheikh  was  his  first  selected  excavator ;  and 
while  he  volunteered  to  walk  three  miles  in  the  middle 
of  the  night  to  secure  co-labourers  from  certain  Arab 
tents,  th4  young  adventurer  lay  down  and  dreamed. 

He  dreamed,  not  unnaturally,  of  palaces  under- 
ground, of  gigantic  monsters,  of  sculptured  figures,  and 
endless  inscriptions,  and  fancied  himself  wandering  in  a 
maze  of  chambers  from  which  there  was  no  outlet.  At 
last  he  rose  from  his  carpet  at  the  dawning  of  the  day, 
and  found  Awad  and  sis  Arabs  actually  awaiting  his 
directions. 

.  A  few  minutes  brought  them  to  the  Mound  of  Nim- 
roud,  and  the  Arabs  watched  the  objects  he  collected. 
They  also  searched  amid  the  broken  pottery  and 
fragments  of  bricks,  and  among  these  handfuls  of 
rubbish  he  traced  with  joy  the  remnants  of  a  bas-relief, 
and  saw  that  the  material  on  •which  it  was  carved  had 
been,  like  that  of  Khorsabad,  exposed  to  fire. 

A  piece  of  alabaster  appeared  above  the  soil;  on 
digging  downwards,  it  proved  to  be  the  upper  part  of 
a  large  slab,  and  the  Arabs  worked  on  till  ten  slabs 
were  uncovered  on  that  first  day.  They  formed  a 
square  chamber,  with  one  stone  missing  at  the  corner, 
and  this  gap  was  supposed  to  be  the  entrance.  They 
dug  down  the  face  of  the  stones,  and  an  inscription  in 
the  arrow-headed  characters  was  soon  exposed  to  view. 
A  second  wall  of  inscriptions  came  to  light  on  the  same 
day,  but  the  slabs  had  evidently  been  subjected  to 

*  See  "  Nineveh  and  its  Hemains,"  i.  12.     1849. 


AND   ITS   ACCOMPLISHMENT.  279 

intense  heat,  and  threatened  to  fall  to  pieces  so  soon  as 
uncovered. 

Before  the  discoverer  relinquished,  in  1853,  the  noble 
task  he  had  undertaken,  that  first  day's  work  was 
succeeded  by  the  discovery  of  seventy-one  halls  and 
chambers,  whose  walls,  all  pannelled  with  slabs,  pictori- 
ally  described  the  habits  and  customs  of  their  builders 
in  at  least  two  miles  of  bas-reliefs.  The  pavement  of 
the  oldest  of  these  halls  is  described  as  being  thirty-five 
feet  below  the  surface  of  the  mound. 

Had  these  remains  of  buried  cities  then  been  utterly 
undisturbed  until  now  from  the  time  of  Nineveh's  glory? 
Not  entirely  so.  On  the  next  morning,  Mr.  Layard 
found  a  slab  on  which  was  rudely  inscribed  in  Arabic 
characters  the  name  of  Ahmed  Pasha,  a  former  gover- 
nor of  Mosul.  A  native  of  the  village  of  Selameiyeh 
remembered  that  some  Christians  were  employed  to  dig 
into  this  mound  about  thirty  years  before  in  search  of 
stone  for  the  repair  of  the  tomb  of  a  Mussulman  saint 
buried  near  the  Tigris.  It  appears  they  uncovered  this 
slab,  and  not  being  able  to  move  it,  they  cut  upon  it 
the  name  of  their  employer,  the  Pasha.  The  same 
informant  mentioned  sculptured  figures  which  they  had 
broken  in  pieces  and  used  to  repair  the  tomb. 

Eastern  philosophy  and  Mohammedan  fatality  would 
look  upon  such  discoveries  as  of  very  little  value,  and 
11  unprofitable  to  inquire  into."  In  their  own  words 
' '  it  would  not  concern  them  what  amount  of  dirt  and 
confusion  the  infidels  might  have  eaten  before  the 
coming  of  Islam." 

But  it  was  now  the  finger  of  a  European  directing 
the  labour  of  the  Asiatic  that  was  to  be  used  of  God  to 
point  out  the  fulfilment  of  His  prophecies,  and  the  truth 
of  the  histories  contained  in  His  Book. 


280  THE   FIRST   WITNESSES. 

Mr.  Layard  found  his  excavators  among  the  Arabs 
and  Tyari ;  the  latter  people  being  the  Chaldean  Chris- 
tians of  the  mountains.  For  them  he  built  a  large  hut 
upon  the  mound,  separate  from  the  Mohammedans, 
who  often  bestowed  upon  them  the  abuse  usually  heaped 
on  Christians  in  the  East — for  the  house  of  Ishmael  still 
wars  with  that  of  Isaac. 

There  were  priests  and  deacons  of  that  ancient 
Chaldean  Church  among  the  workmen.  In  the  interim 
between  this  and  the  Day  of  Pentecost,  their  race  have 
been  the  "  salt "  of  the  Eastern  world  during  the  "  dark 
ages"  of  Europe.  The  Tablet  of  Segnanfoo  cries  out 
in  witness  that  they  had  penetrated  with  their  Bible 
even  to  China. 

And  now  it  was  the  hand  of  ISAAC  and  of  ISHMAEL 
(not  of  JUDAH)  that,  under  the  direction  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxon,  was  used  of  God,  to  raise  the  pall  and  loosen  the 
shroud  of  the  Assyrians,  their  enemies  of  old.  They 
had  perished,  but  Israel  remaineth,  brought  low  and 
humbled,  but  still  "  the  beloved  of  the  Lord."  "  I  often 
watched  the  Chaldeans  or  Nestorians,"  says  Mr.  Layard, 
"  as  they  reverently  knelt,  their  heads  uncovered,  under 
the  great  Bulls,  celebrating  the  praises  of  Him  whose 
temples  the  worshippers  of  those  frowning  idols  had 
destroyed." 

And  surely  THE  LORD  beheld  "  his  People,"  and  the 
children  of  Abraham  his  Friend — and  had  brought  them 
and  none  other,  to  bow  down  before  Him,  at  this  fresh 
entrance  to  the  crumbling  halls  of  the  Assyrian  kings. 

Speaking  of  this  ancient  people,  Dr.  Pritchard 
says :  "  The  Chaldee  of  the  late  Scriptures  of  the  Old 
Testament,  and  of  the  Targums,  are  specimens  of  their 
language  from  early  times  ;  and  according  to  their  own 
testimony,  the  Chaldees  had  learnt  and  adopted  what« 


NESTORIAN   EXCAVATORS. 


281 


A     FAMILY  OJ  THB   MODEEN   "KALDANI,"   OE  NSSTOKIAKS,    EMPLOYED   BY  MB.   LAYAED 
IK  THB   EXCAVATIONS   AT   NINEVEH. 


they  had  of  Syriac  when  they  became  followers  of 
Christ,  just  as  the  Chaldeans  of  the  plain  who  are 
Koman  Catholics  now  speak  Arabic."  It  is  usual  with 
almost  all  writers  to  call  these  Chaldeans  "  Nestorians ;" 
but  this  is  a  name  which  they  themselves  repudiate, 
and  which  is,  indeed,  but  fixed  on  them  afresh  as  a 
stigma,  by  those  portions  of  their  tribes  which  have 
adopted  the  Roman  Catholic  faith.  The  Pope,  in  1681, 
speciously  consecrated  the  title  of  Patriarch  of  the  Chal- 
deans, and  called  those  ' '  Nestorians  "  who  refused  his 
sway.  But  the  more  ancient  and  apostolic  origin  of  the 
Chaldean  Church  is  too  well  known.  "  The  Apostles," 
say  they,  "taught  among  us.  If  Nestorius  believed 
as  we  do,  he  followed  us,  not  we  him."  (See  "  Nineveh 
and  Persepolis,"  by  W.  S.  Vaux,  chap.  iii.  p.  57.) 

The  people  of  these  districts  at  present  name  them- 
selves by  their  primitive  title   of   "Kaldani."      Their 


282  THE   CHRISTIAN   ISBAEL. 

language  is  a  mixed  Chaldean  and  Syriac  dialect,  known 
historically  to  have  altered  subsequently  to  their  assump- 
tion of  Christianity,  and.  is  manifestly  a  corruption  of  the 
original  mother  tongue^  Since  their  conversion  they 
have  uniformly  adopted  the  Syriac  letters-  which  were 
used  by  the  apostles  and  the  first  fathers  of  the  Church, 
and  regard  the  Targum  Chaldee,  or  "  Pagan  writing  " 
as  they  call  it,  with  abomination.  Mr.  Bassam,  a,  native 
of  Mosul,  and  well  acquainted  with  both  Syriac  and 
Chaldee,  speaks  of  the  present  language  of  these  tribes 
as  rightly  called  SYRO-CHAEDAIC. 


SPECIMEN  OP  SYEO-CHAIDMO. 


2oo? 

£  / 


0070 

»» 


"  In  the  beginning  was  the  Word,  and  the  Word  was  with  God,  and 
the  Word  was  God."—  JOHN  i.  1. 

And  a  most  remarkable  link  of  their  past  history  with 
that  of  Israel  of  old  may  be  observed  in  the  first  and 
second  chapters  of  Acts,  in  the  records  of  the  day  of 
Pentecost; 

When  the  Saviour  rose  into  the  clouds  away  from  His 
disciples,  He  gave  them  their  final  commission,  to  witness 
of  Him.  first  to  His  ancient  chosen  people,  who  had  re- 
fused and  crucified  Him.  "  Ye  shall  be  witnesses  unto 
Me  both  in  Jerusalem,  and  in  all  Judea  and  in 
Samaria  (the  Lord  did  not  hate  the  Samaritans  as 
Judah  did),  and  unto  the  uttermost  part  of  the  earth" 
(Acts  i.  8). 


TEE  DAY  OF  PENTECOST. 

And  when  the  day  of  Pentecost  "was  fully  come,  and 
the  Holy  Spirit  spake  by  the  disciples  in  the  "  own 
language"  of  "every  nation  under  heaven"  to  the 
foreign  dwellers  at  Jerusalem,  who — besides  the  devout 
Jews — -first  understood  the  utterance  of  "  the  wonder- 
ful works  of  God"?  Wlio  but  the  Parthians  (the 
Modern  Kurds  or  Chaldeans],  Medes  and  Elamites 
(Assyrians  and  Persians),  and  the  dwellers  in  Mesopo- 
tamia ?  The  blood  of  Israel  in  their  long  captivities 
was  mingled  with  those  old  nationalities,  and  only  the 
two  tribes  had  returned  to  Jerusalem  under  Ezra.  The 
inspired  men  of  Palestine  now  took  their  ancient 
brethren  captive  with  the  truth — the  truth  that  "all  the 
house  of  Israel  might  know  assuredly  that  God  had 
made  that  same  Jesus  whom  Judah  had  crucified,  both 
Lord  and  Christ"  (Acts  ii.  36). 

The  message  from  God  was  heard  that  day  not  only 
by  Israel  and  the  Chaldeans,  but  by  Egyptians,  Greeks, 
and  Eomans,  and  3000  souls  from  all  those  mingled 
nations  were  "  saved  from  that  untoward  generation," 
and  "  continued  steadfastly  in  the  Apostles'  doctrine." 
Neither  was  Arabia,  let  it  be  observed,  forgotten. 
Joel's  prophecy,  according  to  the  Apostle  Peter,  had 
now  a  beginning  of  its  accomplishment,  and  a  Mission- 
ary Church  for  the  world,  ' '  a  fountain  from  the  house 
of  the  Lord,"  began  to  flow  in  the  valley  of  Jehoshaphat. 
(See  Joel  iii.  2  and  18.) 

THE    KISE   OP   THU  TEUE    CHALDEAN   CHTJECH. 

Is  there  any  reason  to  doubt  that  at  this  era,  the 
era  of  their  baptism  and  receiving  of  the  gift  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  (see  Acts  ii.  38,  39),  that  that  Chaldean 
Church  of  Christ  took  rise,  which  has  ever  since  called 


284  NOTIONS  OP  THE  ARABS. 

itself  the  "  Beni  Israel,"  and  whose  scattered  members 
became,  under  the  falsely-attached  name  of  "Nesto- 
rians,"  the  chief  evangelists  and  missionaries  of  the 
East  ?  Nay,  at  this  hour  is  not  their  forlorn  remnant 
completing  its  almost  4000  years'  history  in  suffering 
and  persecution,  still  on  the  plains  of  Chaldea,  on  the 
mountains  of  Kurdistan,  and  by  the  lakes  of  Persia  ? 
They  are  the  children  of  Abraham  by  divine  choice,  and 
God  himself  called  Abram  out  of  Ur  of  the  Chaldees. 

THE    MAN-LIONS   AND   BULLS. 

And  now  having  marked  the  localities  of  these  dis- 
coveries, and  observed  who  were  their  excavators,  we 
will  go  back  to  Mr.  Layard's  first  impressions  of  the 
sculptures  as  they  gradually  broke  upon  his  sight.  In 
the  midst  of  many  a  hindrance,  which  must  have  been 
unspeakably  vexatious,  and  which  often  threatened  to 
close  his  explorations,  a  colossal  human  body,  winged, 
and  clad  in  rich  fringed  robes,  was  discovered,  which 
seemed  surmounted  by  the  head  of  an  eagle ;  on  the 
shoulders  fell,  however,  curled  and  bushy  human  hair. 
Then  arose  from  their  sepulchre  still  grander  forms. 

"  Oh,  Bey,"  said  the  Arabs  one  morning,  "  hasten 
to  the  diggers,  for  they  have  found  Kimrod  him- 
self— we  have  seen  him  with  our  eyes."  "And," 
adds  Mr.  Layard,  "the  gigantic  head  of  one  of 
the  man-lions,  blanched  with  age,  thus  rising  from 
the  bowels  of  the  earth,  might  well  have  belonged 
to  one  of  those  fearful  beings  who  are  pictured  in  the 
traditions  of  the  people  as  slowly  ascending  from  the 
regions  below.  The  Arabs  around  next  declared, 
'  This  is  one  of  the  idols  which  Noah — peace  be  with 
him! — cursed  before  the  flood/  and  presently,  as  the 


CHEEUBIM  OP  THE  HEATHEN.  285 

news  reached  Mosul,  Ismail  Pasha,  the  cadi,  who  did 
not  very  clearly  remember  whether  Nimrod  was  a  true 
believer  or  an  infidel,  and  hardly  knew  whether  his 
bones  had  been  uncovered  or  his  image,  yet  sent  a 
message  that  his  remains  must  be  treated  with  respect, 
and  that  he  wished  the  excavations  to  be  discontinued ; 
and  for  a  time  the  command  had  to  be  obeyed." 

"  I  used  to  contemplate  for  hours/'  says  Mr.  Layard, 
"  these  mysterious  sculptures,  and  muse  over  their 
intent  and  history.  They  ushered  the  Assyrians  of  old 
into  the  temples  of  their  gods.  They  embodied  their 
conception  of  the  wisdom,  and  power,  and  omnipresence 
of  a  supreme  Being.  No  better  type  of  intellect  could 
be  found  than  the  head  of  the  man,  of  strength  than  the 
body  of  the  lion  or  the  bull,  of  ubiquity  than  the  wings 
of  a  bird.  These  winged  and  man-headed  lions  had 
awed  the  races  of  3000  years  ago ;  through  the  portals 
which  they  guarded,  kings,  and  priests,  and  warriors 
had  come  up  to  sacrifice,  long  before  the  foundation  of 
Rome,  the  seven-hilled  city.  For  five-and-twenty  cen- 
turies they  had  been  hidden  from  mortal  eye,  and  now 
they  stood  forth  again  majestic  as  of  old,  but  not  amid  the 
luxury  and  civilization  of  a  mighty  nation,  only  before  a 
few  wretched,  ignorant,  half-barbarous  tribes,  for  the 
rich  temples  which  they  graced  of  old  times,  have 
become  'ruins  and  heaps/  " 

But  these  magnificent  remains  were  soon  to  find 
their  way  to  Europe. 

And  now  in  London,  by  the  will  of  God,  in  the  halls 
of  the  British  Museum,  stand  these  cherubim  of  the 
heathen,  on  which  the  eyes  of  the  Jewish  prophets, 
Jonah,  Ezekiel,  and  Jeremiah,  must  often  have  rested. 
The  inspired  allusions  to  the  cherubim,  in  the  Bible 
alone  remain  to  explain  their  symbolic  forms. 


WINGED   LION   OF   NIMROUD. 


DEPASTURE    OP   THE   WINGED   LIONS.  287 

Mr.  Layard  gives  a  beautiful  description  of  the  last 
evening  these  noble  sculptures  were  permitted  to  repose 
in  their  own  land.  "  We  rode,"  he  says,  ' '  one  calm, 
cloudless  night  to  look  at  them  for  the  last  time 
before  they  forsook  their  ancient  resting  places.  The 
moon  was  at  her  full,  and  as  we  drew  nigh  to  the 
edge  of  the  deep  wall  of  earth  rising  round  them,  her 
soft  light  was  creeping  over  the  stern  features  of  their 
human  heads,  while  the  dark  shadows  still  clothed  the 
lion-forms.  One  by  one  the  gigantic  limbs  emerged  from 
the  gloom  till  the  venerable  figures  stood  all  unveiled. 
A  few  hours  more  and  they  were  to  stand  no  longer 
where  they  had  stood  unscathed  for  ages  amid  the 
wreck  of  all  man's  other  works.  It  seemed  almost 
sacrilege  to  tear  them  from  their  old  haunts — to  make 
them  a  mere  wonder-stock  to  the  busy  crowds  of  a  new 
world.  They  were  better  suited  to  the  desolation  around 
them.  They  had  guarded  the  palace  in  its  glory,  and 
they  had  watched  in  its  tomb  over  its  ruin."* 

But  on  the  day  after  this  they  floated  down  the 
Tigris,  and  after  many  scapes,  breakages,  and  vexatious 
delays,  they  at  last  found  their  way  over  the  ocean  to 
the  museums  of  the  Western  World.  Various  pairs  of 
these  heathen  cherubim  are  come  into  the  possession  of 
England  and  France,  and  they  are  come  with  deeper  reason, 
and  with  a  more  definite  message  than  many  a  former 
beauteous  relic  of  Greek  or  Roman  art.  They  are  come 
to  witness  to  the  truth  of  God's  Book,  and  God's  Book 
alone  can  unravel  the  depth  of  their  meaning. 

Yet  the  Western  World  at  present  only  half  under- 
stands their  message.  "  Poor  and  rude  relics  of  the 
Tigris  and  Euphrates,"  the  "  Saturday  Eeview"  declares 
*  "Nineveh  and  Babylon,"  p.  201. 


288  THE   "SATDBDAY  EEVIEW." 

them.  "  Poor  and  rude  compared  with  the  antiquities 
of  China  and  of  India.  Eecent  discoveries/'  says  the 
"Review,"  "have  only  tantalized  us  with  fragments 
and  glimpses  which  we  can  hardly  hope  to  see  com- 
pleted and  made  plain.  The  evidence  of  the  inscrip- 
tions seems  still  precarious  and  inconclusive.  We  now 
know  something  of  the  mythology  and  the  arts  of  the 
Assyrians,  perhaps  something  of  their  genealogies  and 
dynasties,  and  their  architecture,  and  their  brick-making, 
and  their  agriculture.  We  know  they  worked  in  iron 
and  bronze,  that  they  used  more  gold  than  silver,  that 
they  made  observations  on  the  stars ;  we  are  told  that 
Assyria,  Media,  Babylonia,  Persia,  all  derived  from 
Chaldea  their  alphabetic  writing,  and  Rawlinson  adds 
their  civilization,  though  we  doubt  it,  when  remember- 
ing India  and  China  in  comparison. 

"  Many  find  it  hard  to  believe,"  continues  the  critic, 
' '  that  the  true  clue  to  the  reading  of  cuneiform  letters  has 
been  discovered.  The  Assyrian  writing  is  often  so 
minute — five  lines  to  an  inch — that  a  magnifying  glass 
must  have  been  used  to  write,  as  it  is  to  read,  and  in- 
deed a  lens  has  been  found  in  the  ruins  of  Nimroud. 
Those  who  are  occupied  in  the  work  of  decipherment 
seem  to  think  that  large  and  solid  acquisitions  have  been 
already  made,  but  the  knowledge  developed  does  not 
seem  to  us  of  much  interest.  It  consists  in  a  repetition 
of  facts  of  conquest  and  hunting,  dry  as  an  American 
telegram — the  documents  are  so  skeleton-like,  the  re- 
cords neither  mark  actions  or  character.  They  bring 
forth  no  distinct  individuals  like  Moses  or  Joshua,  and 
all  we  know  of  their  monarchs  is  that  they  have  a  czar- 
like  complacent  conviction  of  their  own  power  and  of 
the  divine  favour. 

"  A  Tiglath-Pileser  can  boast,  if  we  read  his  arrow- 


A   LIST   OF  NEGATIONS.  289 

heads  aright,  that  he  had  slain  four  wild  bulls,  ten  large 
buffaloes,  and  920  lions  by  special  favour  of  the  gods ; 
but  what  would  we  give  for  a  law,  a  psalm,  a  proverb, 
a  parable,  a  story,  from  the  clay  cylinders  !  The  most 
distinct  thing  they  afford  us,  is  a  curse,  if  the  cylinders 
are  injured  or  exposed." 

Yet  in  answer  to  this  clever  list  of  negations,  let  us 
bring  to  this  subject "  a  law,  a  psalm,  a  proverb,  a  parable, 
a  story,"  from  the  inspired  Book,  to  illustrate  these  stones. 
It  is  very  true  that  the  stones  cannot  "  cry  out"  without 
them,  and  we  could  not  have  fully  understood  the  histories 
of  the  Old  Testament  till  these  identical  remains,  long 
lost  and  buried,  had  come  up  out  of  their  grave. 

They  do  not  indeed  strike  the  eye  with  the  elegance 
of  Greek,  or  the  massiveness  of  Egyptian,  remains ;  but 
let  us  stand  before  those  majestic  man-lions,  close  our  eyes 
on  London  and  the  nineteenth  century,  and  realize  them 
as  they  rose  in  pairs  at  every  entrance  to  those  palace 
temples.  They  were  the  cherubim  which  shadowed 
with  their  stony  wings  the  Presence  of  Asshur, 
and  at  the  same  time  represented  Nergal  or  Nim- 
rod,  Assyria  having  deified  both  uncle  and  nephew 
for  the  lion-like  qualities  which  she  most  respected 
in  human  beings.  The  man-lions  originally  graced 
a  broad  and  grand  foundation  pile  rising  forty  or 
fifty  feet  above  the  bed  of  the  Tigris,  composed  of 
the  thick  square  bricks  still  common  in  the  country, 
cemented  by  means  of  its  bitumen,  whose  springs  are 
exhaustless  to  this  day.  Assyria  had  no  enduring 
granite  like  Egypt,  and  no  marbles  like  India.  She 
could  not  build  on  the  rock  or  the  mountain  side,  so  she 
made  broad  and  high  her  foundations  on  her  own 
alluvial  plains,  ascended  doubtless  by  magnificent  in- 
clined ways  or  flights  of  stairs. 

u 


290  INTRODUCTORY   CHAMBER. 

The  outline  picture  of  an  Assyrian  palace,  on  the- 
opposite  page,  restored  after  Layard's  descriptions,  and 
from  the  actual  forms  he  has  excavated,  will  give  to  those 
who  reside  at  a  distance  from  London  an  idea  of  the 
ancient  buildings  now  to  be  treated  of.  To  those  who 
can  visit  the  original  relics,  the  succeeding  chapters  are 
offered  as  a  kind  of  useful  and  chronological  guide — 
pointing  out  the  relative  value  of  the  remains  in  corro- 
boration  of  sacred  history. 

The  estimate  of  this  may  become  much  more  specific 
if,  after  walking  from  end  to  end  of  the  long  narrow 
Nineveh  galleries  of  the  British  Museum,  and  obtaining 
a  general  view  of  the  subjects  of  the  bas-reliefs,  and  of 
the  aspect  of  the  figures,  human  and  supernatural,  the 
visitor  classes  them  in  his  memory  mainly  under  two 
periods — the  age  of  Solomon,  1000  years  B.C.,  and  the 
few  previous  centuries — and  the  age  of  the  divided 
kingdoms  of  Israel  and  Judah. 

THE   INTRODUCTORY   CHAMBER. 

In  the  lobby  chamber  at  the  head  of  the  stairway 
which  leads  to  the  subterranean  hall  of  Sennacherib,  are 
the  relics  of  the  earlier  Chaldean  period,  already  figured 
in  this  volume  (p.  39) ;  the  bricks  of  Urukh,  which  may 
lead  us  back  to  the  days  of  Terah,  Abraham's  father 
(already  those  of  idolatry),  and  which  point  us  to  Urukh 
as  the  builder  of  great  temples,  whose  basements  of 
millions  of  bricks  have  endured  at  Warka  to  this  day. 
Urukh/s  date  is  given  by  Rawlinson  at  2093  B.C.  Ho 
calls  himself  King  of  Accad,  and  we  find  "Accad"  as 
one  of  Nimrod's  four  cities  in  the  tenth  of  Genesis,  and 
just  such  rough  square  bricks  do  the  people  of  those 
regions  make  use  of  oven  now,  only,  of  course,  without 
the  old  Hamitic  inscriptions. 


THE   NIMKOUD   LENS. 

On  tlie  shelf  above  these  bricks  are  found  the  in- 
scribed cylinders,  two  or  three  of  which  are  figured  in 
our  closing  chapter.  One  of  these  came  from  Kalah 
Sherghat,  the  primeval  Assyrian  capital,  first  called 
Asshur,  or  Ellasar.  It  was  inscribed  in  the  reign  of 
Tiglath-pileser  I.,  1120  B.C.,  and  the  writing  upon  it 
is  extremely  small,  requiring  to  be  read  by  a  lens.  A 
rock-crystal  lens,  from  the  North-west  Palace  of  Nim- 
roud,  is  likewise  deposited  in  this  case,  and  Mr.  Layard 
thinks  that  its  properties  could  not  certainly  have  been 
unknown  to  the  Assyrians  ;  he  presents  it  as  the  earliest 
specimen  of  a  magnifying  and  burning  glass.  Sir 
David  Brewster  says  it  must  have  been  fashioned  on  a 
lapidary's  wheel.  This  lens  gives  a  tolerably  distinct 
focus  at  the  distance  of  four  and  a  half  inches  from  the 
plane  side.  It  was  found  buried  beneath  a  heap  of 
fragments  of  beautiful  blue  opaque  glass  (probably 
enamel),  in  the  same  chamber  as  the  royal  throne. 

But  to  return  to  Kalah  Sherghat,  or  Ellasar;  the 
name  is  mentioned  Gen.  xiv.  1,  and  that  Arioch  (per- 
haps Urukh)  was  its  king. 

On  the  cylinder  above-mentioned,  Sir  Henry  Raw- 
linson  reads  that  King  Tiglath-pileser  I.*  rebuilt  a  temple 
in  the  City  of  Asshur,  and  one  which  had  been  taken  down 
sixty  years  previously,  after  lasting  for  641  years  from 
the  date  of  its  first  erection  by  Shamas  Vul,  son  of 
Ismi  Dagon.  The  date  of  Ismi  Dagon's  accession  is 
reckoned  from  other  sources  as  1861  B.C. 

King  Tiglath-pileser  appears  to  have  reigned   to- 
wards the  close  of  the  twelfth  century  E.G.,  and  was  thus 
not  far  from  cotemporary  with  the  prophet  Samuel.    He 
tells  ns  that  in  the  first  five  years  of  his  reign  he  con- 
*  Not  the  king  of  that  name  mentioned  in  Scripture. 


292 


A  BABYLONIAN   KING. 


quered  forty-two  countries.  At  a  later  date  lie  suffered 
defeat  from  the  king  of  Babylon,  who  carried  away 
his  gods. 

A   BABYLONIAN   KING. 

The  figure  of   a  cotemporary  Babylonian  king  of 

about  this  date, 
1120  B.C.,  is 
found  in  the 
lobby  chamber 
on  a  boundary 
stone,  which  re- 
cords the  sale  of 
a  field,  probably 
in  the  reign  of 
Merodach  Adan- 
akhi,  King  of 
Babylon.  It  is 
remarkable  from 
the  embroidery 
on  the  royal  robo 
and  helmet  com- 
prising no  less 
than  ten  of  the 
figures  of  the 
sacred  tree,  which 
is  a  distinguish- 
ing feature  of 
the  sculptures  iii 
the  North-west 
Palace  of  Nine- 
veh, and  might 
indicate  an  early 
eraasthatof  their 
execution  also. 


EESEN.  293 

EESEN   OE  NIMEOUD. 

Ere  we  leave  this  introductory  chamber,  it  will  be 
well  to  study  the  plan  upon  the  wall  of  the  nine  palaces 
and  temples  of  the  Nimroud  Mound,  explored  more  or 
less  by  Mr.  Layard.  He  depicts  the  situation  of  Nim- 
roud (Larissa  or  Eesen  as  he  believes  it)  as  relatively 
central  in  the  district  of  Assyria,  between  Kalah  Sher- 
ghat  (Calah)  and  Kouyunjik  (Nineveh) ;  and  Moses 
speaks  of  Eesen  in  his  own  times,  some  800  years  after 
the  Flood,  as  a  great  city  built  between  Nineveh  and 
Calah.*  Great  cities  are  not  in  any  age  the  creation  of 
a  day ;  and  the  Assyrian  history  seems  to  reach  back 
into  the  era  when  the  uncle  Asshur  built  a  city  in 
honour  of  his  giant  nephew  Nimrod,  for  if  Eesen  be 
Nimroud,  this  surely  is  the  derivation  of  its  name. 

The  short  but  priceless  archives  of  the  Toldoth  Beni 
Noah  are  continually  proved  to  be  "  never  wrong," 
and,  moreover,  to  comprise  the  kernel  of  many  of  our 
boasted  modern  discoveries.  Elam,  and  Asshur,  and 
Arphaxad,  and  Aram  were  all  uncles  to  Nimrod,  and  so 
was  Misraiin,  or  Menes,  Egypt's  first  historic  king.  It 
is  in  that  very  early  generation  that  we  find  the  builder 
of  Nineveh,  Calah,  and  Eesen,  and  these  cities  of  Asshur, 
the  uncle  of  "  the  mighty  hunter,"  were  probably,  as  they 
appear  in  the  text,  of  an  equal  antiquity  with  the  vast 
early  cities  of  Egypt. 

The  will  of  God,  thrice  signified  as  to  the  rapid  in- 

*  Sir  Henry  Rawlinson  maintains  that  Nimroud  is  Calah,  for  that  is 
the  name  found  on  many  of  its  bricks.  It  is  possible,  however,  that 
when  the  seat  of  empire  was  transferred  from  Asshur  (Kalah  Sherghat) 
to  Eesen,  or  Nimroud,  the  name  of  Calah  was  transferred  to  the  new 
capital ;  such  transfers  are  not  infrequent. — "  Smith's  Bible  Diet.,"  Art. 
Hesen. 


294  IDOLATRY,  HOW  ANCIENT. 

crease  of  the  human  family,  was  doubtless  fulfilling  on 
all  hands  in  the  first  hundred  years  after  the  Flood  on 
the  depopulated  earth,  as  much  in  the  tents  of  Shem 
and  Japheth  as  in  the  Egyptian  "  tabernacles  of  Ham" 
(see  Ps.  Ixxviii.  51).  The  dominant  and  colonizing 
power,  both  in  Chaldea  and  Canaan,  was  at  first  Hamitic, 
though  Nimrod  only  enters  upon  the  scene  as  "  a  mighty 
hunter  before  the  Lord,"  and  is  not  necessarily  an  in- 
vader. There  may  have  been  an  Assur  of  the  Hamitic 
stock  (see  p.  160),  but  the  race  of  Asshur,  i.e.,  the 
Assyrians,  are  always  allowed  to  have  been  Semitic; 
not  the  chosen  seed,  but  still  Shem's  seed;  not  the 
Isaac,  but  the  Ishmael  of  early  nations.  The  men  of 
Asshur  grew  into  great  warriors.  "  Asshur  shall  carry 
thee  away  captive,"  says  Balaam  to  the  Kenites,  the 
children  of  the  rock,  at  a  very  early  day,  even  ere  Israel 
had  emerged  from  the  wilderness.  These  old  stones 
from  Assyria  now  bring  us  proof  that  Shem's  grandson 
had  confided  to  his  children  the  relics  of  patriarchal 
truth,  which  we  perceive  in  their  newly-risen  monu- 
ments, just  as  they  have  first  mingled  with  the  grosser 
elements  of  idolatry. 

And  the  descendants  of  Arphaxad,  the  chosen  line., 
also  remained  for  generations  following,  in  this  same 
"between  river  country"  of  Mesopotamia,  till  Abram  is 
called  of  God  out  of  Ur  of  the  Chaldees.  "  Your 
fathers,"  says  Joshua  to  the  Hebrews  (ch.  xxiv.  2), 
"  dwelt  on  the  other  side  of  the  flood  in  old  time,  even 
Terah,  the  father  of  Abraham,  and  the  father  of  Nachor : 
and  they  served  other  gods."  Idolatry,  therefore,  com- 
menced very  early  after  the  Flood,  twenty  centuries 
B.C.  at  least,  in  Mesopotamia. 

On  the  ruins  of  these  earliest  cities  others  named 
after  them,  doubtless  rose  and  fell  :  and  now  that  wo 


AREA   OP   GEEAT   CITIES.  295 

have  penetrated  the  shapeless  mounds  that  have  for 
ages  covered  these  final  remains,  it  is  very  interesting 
to  identify  their  conquering  kings  with  various  phases 
of  Israel's  history. 

Mr.  Layard's  splendid  frontispiece  of  his  second  folio 
series  of  the  "  Monuments  of  Nineveh,"  published  in 
1853,  ought,  we  think,  to  be  placed  for  public  inspection 
by  the  side  of  his  plan  of  the  Nimroud  Mound.-  It  is 
to  be  found  in  the  Museum  library,  and  should  be  studied 
by  all  who  would  restore  in  their  minds  the  glories  of 
Nimroud  seated  on  the  Tigris,  for  if  not  tho  city  to 
which  God  sent  his  prophet  Jonah,  it  is  surely  a  por- 
tion of  it.  It  has  been  conjectured,  with  great  pro- 
bability, that  these  groups  of  mounds  in  Mesopotamia, 
are  not  ruins  of  separate  cities,  but  of  fortified  royal 
residences,  each  containing  palaces,  temples,  gardens 
and  parks,  and  that  all  formed  parts  of  a  great  city  scat- 
tered over  a  large  area.  The  size  of  this  city  Mr. 
Bonomi  shows,  by  a  diagram  of  the  relative  proportions 
of  Nineveh,  Babylon,  and  London ;  the  area  of  Babylon 
having  been  225  square  miles,  of  Nineveh,  216  square 
miles,  while  that  of  London  is  but  114  square  miles; 
yet  as  our  present  population  is  nearly  four  times 
greater  than  that  of  Nineveh,  we  cannot  look  upon  our 
crowded  streets  as  any  type  of  Assyrian  arrangements 
3000  years  ago. 

Approaching  the  mound  of  Nimroud  from  the  south, 
a  long  line  of  pillared  buildings  lines  the  western  and 
Tigris  side;  a  South-west  palace,  a  Central  palace,  a 
North-west  palace,  two  small  Temples  or  houses  of  gods, 
and  finally  a  North-western  Cone  of  sand  and  debris, 
covers  what  has  been  supposed  to  be  the  tomb  of  the 
founder  king  of  the  north-west  palace,  who  is  depicted 
at  page  297.  There  is  also  a  palace  at  the  South- 


296  THE  NORTH-WEST  PALACE. 

eastern  corner  of  the  mound,  and,  as  Mr.  Layard,  be- 
lieves, traces  of  two  others,  still  undisturbed  on  the 
eastern  side,  making,  in  all,  nine  distinct  buildings 
on  this  great  quadrangular  brick-built  elevation, 
each  side  of  which  is  a  mile  in  length ;  and  he  speaks 
of  a  terrace  between  each  of  the  buildings  paved  with 
stone. 

The  great  pyramidal  cone  has  been  an  enormous 
square  tower,  probably  built  in  gradines,  of  which  the 
upper  part  has  fallen  in.  By  tunnelling  through  it,  a 
long,  narrow  chamber  was  exposed,  which  may  have 
originally  contained  the  royal  remains,  but  to  this 
chamber  no  way  of  access  has  been  traced.  It  ap- 
peared to  have  been  completely  walled  up,  and  yet  to 
have  been  broken  into  from  the  west  side,  at  some  re- 
mote period,  and  its  contents  carried  away. 

THE   NOETH-WEST   PALACE. 

We  are  now  prepared  to  retrace  our  steps  through 
the  first  gallery  to  the  area  between  the  great  winged 
bulls,  which  is  on  the  one  hand  the  entrance  to  the 
Egyptian  Hall,  and  on  the  other  to  the  remains  of  the 
North-west  Palace  of  Nimroud.  Passing  the  somewhat 
modern  sarcophagus  from  Sidon,  we  stand  before  the 
noble  figure,  in  bas-relief,  of  the  founder  of  this  palace, 
in  the  year  930  B.C.,  according  to  Rawlinson — its  founder, 
probably,  only  on  the  ruins  of  a  former  one,  and  repro- 
ducing the  symbols  of  former  centuries,  as  is  suggested 
by  the  dress  of  the  Babylonian  king,  in  p.  292. 

Passing  between  the  lions,  whose  large  eyeballs 
were  once  coloured  black  amid  the  striking  whites  of 
their  eyes,  we  come  upon  the  figure  of  this  king,  Sar- 
danapalus,  or  Assur-izzi-pal,  as  Rawlinson  reads ; 
Assur-akh-baal,  according  to  Dr.  Hincks  and  Mr. 


THE  FOUNDER-KINQ  OF  TUB    NORTH-WEST  PALACE,  ASSDR-IZZI-PAL,   OE, 
ASSUtt-AKH-BAAL. 


293  DIFFERING    AUTHORITIES. 

Layard ;  and  these  Assyrian  scholars  differ  as  much 
about  his  date  as  his  name.  Mr.  Layard  and  Mr.  Fer- 
guson were  at  first  certainly  inclined  to  place  him 
among  the  early  successors  of  Nimrod ;  the  reading  of 
his  inscriptions  would  not  tend  to  this  conclusion,  but 
all  would  depend  on  the  right  or  wrong  decipherment 
of  names  in  the  inscriptions,  and  Mr.  Norris,  of  tho 
Asiatic  Society,  a  high  authority,  says  that  the 
cuneiform  names  of  Assyrian  kings  must  be  uncertain, 
because  so  often  translated  into  emblems  (of  which  wo 
have  a  specimen  in  our  own  Kichard  "  Cceur  de  Lion") . 
They  forbade  their  people  to  write  their  proper  names, 
as  if  they  would  not  have  them  "  taken  in  vain" — and  hid 
themselves  under  their  emblem-name,  which  varied. 
The  moderns,  Mr.  Norris  adds,  can  seldom  fathom  tho 
local  associations  of  these  Assyrian  monarchs,  but  foreign 
names  in  the  Inscriptions  (including  Scripture  names),  he 
thinks,  can  be  read,  and  often  from  mere  knowledge  of 
Hebrew,  or  Chaldee,  which  is  little  different  from  Hebrew. 
It  was  not  far  from  the  entrance  to  the  North-west 
Palace,  but  outside  it,  that  this,  our  earliest  represen- 
tation of  a  Nimroud  king,  within  an  arched  frame, 
was  discovered.  (He  is  now  placed  near  to  the  great 
lions  in  the  ASSYRIAN  TRANSEPT  of  the  British  Museum.) 
The  figure  is  sculptured  in  mezzo-relievo,  on  an  insu- 
lated slab  of  limestone.  He  stands  apparently  wor- 
shipping, with  his  hand  upraised,  wearing  the  sacrificial 
robe,  and  carrying  the  sacred  mace  in  his  left  hand. 
Around  his  neck  are  hung  the  fora-  sacred  signs — 
the  crescent,  the  star,  the  trident,  and  the  cross,  and 
above  his  head  are  the  same  emblems  with  the  addition 
of  Asshur,  or  "the  Presence."  The  whole  slab  is 
covered  with  an  inscription  in  small  but  fine  cuneiform 


EEAS   OP   THE   PALACES.  299 

characters,  and  before  the  king  is  placed  a  kind  of  altar 
supported  on  three  lions'  feet. 

.  Do  not  let  us  pass  by  this  stony  portrait  in  haste. 
It  is  the  earliest  known  representation  of  the  Eoyal  Priest 
of  Assyria.  He  must  be  our  guide  through  the  pale  old 
relics  of  his  once  gorgeous  temple. 

Both  Mr.  Layard  and  Mr.  Ferguson,  show  that 
the  older  palace  of  Niinroud  has  been  preserved  in 
a  very  remarkable  manner,  and  has  not  been  burnt 
before  it  was  buried  like  most  of  the  others,  and 
it  is  buried  twenty  or  thirty  feet  lower  in  the  mound. 

Mr.  Ferguson,*  when  his  book  was  written,  supposed 
an  interval  of  800  years  between  Mr.  Layard' s  valuable 
Assyrian  remains,  which  are  the  property  of  our  Museum, 
viz.,  those  of  the  North- West  Palace  of  Nimroud,  and 
those  of  Khorsabad,  which  fell  to  the  share  of  French 
enterprise;  and  he  says  that  in  architectural  details, 
the  more  we  become  acquainted  with  these  different 
remains,  the  more  important  do  their  differences  appear. 
Sir  Henry  thinks  the  interval  not  so  great  by  four  or  five 
centuries.  Kouyunjik  and  Nebbi  Yunus  are  supposed 
to  be  contemporary,  or  nearly  so,  with,  Khorsabad, 
Kouyunjik  being  mucli  the  larger  palace  of  the  two. 
These  two  cities  represent  the  era  of  Sargon  and 
Sennacherib,  about  seven  centuries  B.C. 

There  are  remarkable  distinctions  between  the  styles 
of  their  different  bas-reliefs.  Mr.  Layard  (in  vol.  ii.  p. 
201)  remarks  that  the  costumes  change,  also  the  forms  of 
the  chariots,  and  trappings  of  the  horses;  the  helmets  and 
armour  of  the  warriors,  are  no  longer  the  same ;  the 
mode  of  treatment  of  the  subjects,  the  nature  of  the 
sculptures,  and  the  forms  of  the  characters  used  in  the 

*  Author  of  "  The  Palaces  of  Nineveh  and  Peraepolis."    Murray,  185L 


300  THE   NINEVEH   BAS-EEL1EP8. 

inscriptions  very  essentially  differ."  The  great  human- 
headed  bulls  at  Nimroud  are  distinct  from  those  found 
elsewhere,  and  the  winged  lion  is  peculiar  to  the  earliest 
age.  The  king's  dress  differs  immensely,  so  does  his 
throne  and  all  the  furniture  of  his  palace ;  but,  more 
than  this,  the  people  around  him,  the  soldiers  who  fight 
for  him,  and  the  enemies  he  wars  against,  all  seem  of 
differents  races,  differently  clad  and  armed,  from  those 
we  may  observe  in  our  museum,  in  the  Kouyunjik  side- 
gallery.  All  this  is  strongly  insisted  on  by  Mr.  Layard, 
who  is  best  qualified  to  express  an  opinion  on  the  sub- 
ject. His  earliest  impressions  were  that  the  remains  of 
the  North-west  Palace  might  be  fairly-  supposed  to  re- 
produce for  us  the  times  and  tastes  of  the  mighty 
hunters  and  early  conquerors, — the  races  and  dynasties 
first  succeeding  to  those  of  Asshur  and  Nimrod. 

We  pass  then  between  the  winged  lions,  and  must 
fancy  the  narrow  inner  entrance  that  they  once  guarded ; 
we  will  presently  consider  the  symbolical  meaning  of 
these  figures,  but  shall  first  endeavour  merely  to  realize 
the  appearance  of  the  palace-temple,  and  to  follow  the 
picture  history  of  the  human  beings  outlined  on  its 
walls. 

The  present  visitor  to  the  British  Museum  scarcely 
receives  any  idea  of  the  impression  which  the  Nineveh 
bas-reliefs  made  on  their  beholders  in  Ezekiel's  day. 
Israel  or  Samaria  is  said  (Ezek.  xxiii.)  to  have 


"Doted  on  the  Assyrians  her  neighbours,  which  were  clothed  with 
blue,  captains  and  rulers,  all  of  them  desirable  young  men,  horsemen 
riding  upon  horses  .  .  .  the  chosen  men  of  Assyria  .  .  .  clothed 
most  gorgeously. 

"...  She  saw  men  pourtrayed  upon  the  wall,  the  images  of 
the  Chaldeans  pourtrayed  with  vermilion. 

"  Girded  with  girdles  upon  their  loins,  exceeding  in  dyed  attire  upon 


BLOOD   ON   THE    LINTEL.  301 

their  heads,  all  of  them  princes  to  look   to,  after  the  manner  of  the 
Babylonians  of  Chaldea."— EZEK.  xxiii.  5—7,  13,  14,  15. 

And  it  is  also  written — 

"  With  all  their  idols  she  defiled  herself. 

"Wherefore  I  have  delivered  her  into  the  hands  ...  of  the 
Assyrians,  upon  whom  she  doted." — EZEK.  xxiii.  7,  9. 

There  is  no  one  but  Mr.  Layard  and  those  present 
with  him  at  the  first  disinterment  of  the  sculptures — 
many  of  which  crumbled  to  the  touch  and  vanished 
from  the  eye  at  the  moment  of  their  discovery — who 
can  realize  what  they  were  in  their  pristine  glory.  He 
makes  a  very  remarkable  statement,  that  "  on  all  the 
slabs  forming  entrances  to  this  oldest  palace  were  marks 
of  a  black  fluid  resembling  blood,  which  appeared  to 
have  been  daubed  on  the  stone,"  and  called  to  his 
mind  at  once  the  Hebrew  rite  of  sprinkling  the  blood 
of  the  Passover  Lamb  on  the  lintel  of  the  doorway  in 
Egypt. 

Aaron,  the  high  priest  of  the  Hebrews,  always,  as 
we  know,  carried  blood  into  "  the  presence,"  which  he 
offered  for  himself  and  for  the  errors  of  the  people  (Heb. 
ix.  7) ;  which,  as  Paul  says,  was  "  a  figure  for  the  time 
then  present "  (ver.  9) .  During  the  stay  of  Israel  in 
the  Wilderness,  they  had  been  forbidden  to  offer  human 
sacrifices  to  Moloch,  the  God  of  the  Ammonites,  which 
marks  that  the  heathen  were  accustomed  also  to  offer 
sacrifices,  and  of  blood. 

The  intimate  connection  between  the  public  and 
private  life  of  the  Assyrians,  and  their  religion,  is  abun- 
dantly proved  by  these  sculptures.  "  This,"  says  Mr. 
Layard,  ''  was  common  amongst  ancient  Eastern  nations, 
whose  ordinary  forms  and  customs  had  often  a  typical 
and  religious  meaning." 

The  first  bas-relief  on  the  left  hand  of  the  entrance 


302 


TIIE   KING   OP  ASSYRIA. 


depicts  the  king  of  Assyria,  and  of  tlio  Tablet,  in  the 
act  of  worship. 


THE  KING  OS  ASSYRIA  WOEBniPPIITO  IK  BIS  PALACK-TBMPtB. 

The  residence  of  the  king  was  evidently  always 
adorned  by  the  presence  of  his  god,  and  he  himself 
must  have  been  looked  upon  as  a  type  of  the  Supreme 


THB  KIXO  nuxinro  ins  LION. 


Deity.  The  winged  figures,  even  the  eagle-headed, 
minister  to  him,  and  he  lives  and  breathes  under  the 
special  protection  of  the  supreme  Asshur,  of  whom 
a  winged  symbol,  when  ho  fights,  hovers  above  his 


COMFAKAT1VE  AET. 


803 


head.  Even  his  contests  with  the  lion,  the  king  of 
beasts,  may  be  depicted  in  order  to  typify  his  superior 
strength  and  wisdom.  He  rules  over  the  lion  (see  Gen. 
i.  28). 

Are  not  these  sculptures  plainly  memorials  of  the 
dynasties  who  were  "  mighty  hunters  before  the  Lord  "? 

When  the  king  has  overcome  his  enemies  in  battle, 
he  drives  home  in  triumphal  procession,  attended  by 
"The  Presence;"  his  enemies  lie  dead  upon  the  plain, 
but  it  is  considered  a  sign  of  very  early  art  in  Assyria 
that  with  a  total  ignorance  of  perspective,  their  corpses 


THE    PEBSEKCB    OS    ASSHVB    IS    IBB    TJUUJIPRAI.    PEOCESSIOS. 

seem  to  float  in  the  air,  just  above  or  below  the  principal 
figures.  The/uZZ  eye  too  is  given,  in  profile  drawings  of 
the  face,  but  yet  Mr.  Layard  remarks  that,  "  on  the 
whole  these  primitive  sculptures  are  finer  than  those  of 
the  later  palaces  in  vigour  of  treatment  and  elegance  of 
form.  Those  of  Khorsabad  and  Kouyunjik  are  often 
superior  in  delicacy  of  execution,  and  in  boldness  of  the 
bas-reliefs,  but  their  later  artists  did  not  so  well  as  their 
ancestors  understand  making  a  picture  of  a  subject." 
We  here  present  another  figure  of  the  king — the 


304 


THE  KINO  UPON  HIS  TEBOKE. 


same  king  of  the  north-west  palace,  seated  on  his 
throne.  A  warlike  eunuch  stands  behind  him,  with  bow 
and  quiver,  and  in  one  hand  holds  a  fly  flapper  over  the 
royal  head.  The  king  is  seated,  and  has  a  cup  in  his 
hand,  from  which  he  is  either  drinking  or  divining,  and 
the  throne  on  which  he  sits  is  ornamented  with  bulls' 


KINO  CF   THB   HOBTII-WEST    1'ALACli. 


heads.  In  the  glass  case  opposite  this  sculpture,  in  the 
Nimroud  side  gallery,  may  still  be  observed,  as  found 
by  Mr.  Layard  among  the  earth  and  rubbish  in  this 
palace, 

"The  fragments  of  earth's  oldest  throne," 

or  one  of  its  oldest,  for  the  sculptures  on  these  slabs 


THE  ASSYRIAN   CHARIOTS.  305 

portray,  as  must  bo  allowed,  an  age  or  ages  previous 
to  their  own.  These  were  evidently  not  the  first  sculp- 
tures, though  the  first  in  our  possession.  All  this 
magnificence  in  dress,  the  fringes  and  the  tassels,  the 
"bracelets,  and  the  plaiting  of  the  hair  and  beard,  and 
the  royal  state,  and  the  trapping  of  the  horses,  imply 
great  luxury  and  civilization,  as  regards  the  ornamental 
arts.  The  barbaric  Mesopotamians,  bent  on  carrying 
away  captive  other  nations,  had  paid  much  and  long 
attention  to  their  own  adornment.  They  were  no  rude 
savages,  though  tbey  were  cruel  conquerors  in  the  times 
of  Israel's  Judges.  They  had  spent  their  minds  upon 
the  flesh,  and  all  its  luxuries. 

The  early  Assyrians  clothed  their  horses  in  embroi- 
dered housings,  and  decorated  them  with  plumes,  tassels, 
and  chains.  Ezekiel  says  (ch.  xxvii.  20)  that  "  Dedan 
was  the  merchant  of  Tyre  in  precious  clothes  for 
chariots  '"  and  in  the  twelfth  century  B.C.  the  kings  of 
Midian  slain  by  Gideon  are  spoken  of  as  having  purple 
raiment,  besides  collars,  or  sweet  jewels  (see  margin 
Judges  viii.  21  and  26),  and  chains  and  ornaments  like 
the  moon  on  their  camels'  necks. 

THE   ASSYRIAN   CHARIOTS. 

Much  is  said  about  chariots  in  the  Bible,  and  these 
in  the  sculptures  are  evidently  the  chariots  intended. 
The  Canaanites  of  Palestine  were  able  to  resist  the 
Israelites  so  successfully  (unless  Divine  power  drove 
them  out)  because  of  their  chariots  of  iron.  Jabin, 
King  of  Canaan,  had  900  chariots  (Judges  iv.  3). 

The  prophets  frequently  allude  to  chariots  as  typical 
of  power.  King  David  says  (Ps.  xx.  7)  : — 

"Some  trust  in  chariots,  and  some  in  hcrses,  but  we  will  remember 
the  name  of  the  Lord  our  God." 


306  THE  ASSYBIAN   CHARIOTS. 

In  the  4Gth  Psalm  lie  says  : — 

"  The  Lord  maketh  wars  to  cease  unto  the  end  of  the  earth.  He 
breaketh  the  bow,  and  cutteth  the  spear  in  sunder.  He  burneth  the 
chariot  in  the  fire." 

Pa.  lxivi.6— "  At  thy  rebuke,  O  God  of  Jacob,  both  the  chariot  and 
horse  are  cast  into  a  dead  sleep." 

The  chariot  was  a  great  element  in  ancient  warfare. 
In  the  Assyrian  sculptures  only  war  chariots  have 
hitherto  been  discovered,  and  there  is  good  authority 
for  reading  on  the  statistical  tablet  of  Karnak  that  an 
officer  of  Thothmes  I.  "  captured  for  him  in  the  land 
of  Naharina  (Mesopotamia)  twenty-one  hands,  a  horse, 
and  a  chariot."  There  are  also  mentioned  in  this  Egyp- 
tian record,  as  brought  from  the  same  country,  1500  B.C., 
thirty  chariots  worked  with  gold  and  silver,  with 
painted  poles.  (See  "  Nineveh  and  its  Kemains,"  vol.  n.f 
p.  352.) 

The  above  date  carries  ns  back  even  to  earlier  cen- 
turies than  the  date  of  the  North-west  Palace,  and  here 
are  the  war-chariots  carrying  archers,  just  as  spoken  of 
in  our  Scriptures  (Isa.  v.  28),  "  raging  in  battle."  "  Eage 
ye  chariots  \"  (Jer.  xlvi.  9.)  The  prophet  Nahum  speaks 
of  Nineveh  in  Sennacherib's  later  day  as — 

"A  city  of  blood,  all  full  of  lies  and  robbery ;  .  .  .  and  of  the  noise 
of  the  rattling  of  wheels  and  of  the  pransiug  horses,  and  of  the  jumping 
chariots." — ]STAnuM  iiu  1,  2. 

And  God  says  (Nah.  ii.  13),  that  He 

"  Will  burn  her  chariots  in  the  smoke." 

As  He  most  assuredly  did  by  thousands,  while  He  left 
to  us  these  few  stone  likenesses  of  them.  In  such 
chariots  the  warriors  stood  upright,  for  there  seem  to 
have  been  no  seats,  and  they  stood  on  a  flexible  floor 
of  interlaced  leather,  or  netting,  which  was  intended  to 


INTERIOR  OF  AN  ASSYRIAN   PALACE.  307 

compensate  for  the  absence  of  springs.  The  Greek  and 
Trojan  war-cars  were  "  bright  with  glittering  brass," 
and  their  furniture  is  described  in  the  Iliad  as  of  silver 
and  gold ;  and  the  Persians  were  no  less  luxurious,  for 
Xenophon  speaks  of  golden  bridles  to  the  horses  of 
Astyages  and  Cyrus. 

These  sculptures  of  the  chariots  show  that  in  the 
earliest  times  they  had  only  six  spokes  to  their  wheels. 
In  Sennacherib's  day  they  had  eight.  This  is  one  dis- 
tinguishing mark  of  the  difference  of  era  between  the 
sculptures  of  Nimroud  and  Kouyunjik. 

No  traces  of  smoke  or  fire  were  found  on  the  sculp- 
tures or  walls  of  the  North-west  Palace,  and  Mr.  Layard 
remarks,  in  the  life-like  sketches  of  his  first  work,  that 
it  is  to  the  falling  in  of  the  upper  walls  that  the  complete 
covering  up  of  the  bas-reliefs  is  owing,  the  upper  walls 
above  them  being  composed  either  of  baked  bricks  richly 
coloured  before  baking,  or  sun-dried  bricks  with  a  coat 
of  plaster  over  them,  afterwards  painted.  The  difference 
could  in  general  be  distinguished  in  the  ruins.  The 
paintings  on  such  walls  repeated  the  subjects  of  tho 
slabs,  and  were  enclosed  in  ornamental  borders,  which 
continued  on  the  ceiling,  and  framed,  as  it  were,  the 
square  openings  which  admitted  the  daylight  from  the 
bright-blue  eastern  sky  above. 

Through  the  kindness  of  Professor  Rawlinson  and  his 
publisher,  Mr.  Murray,  the  interior  of  an  Assyrian  palace 
is  here  presented  as  supposed  to  be  restored,  the  upper 
lines  of  figures  were  painted  on  the  plaster,  the  lower 
sculptured  as  seen  in  the  Museum.  It  seems  that  rain 
must  sometimes  have  found  its  way  through  the  open 
skylights,  as  drains  were  observed  in  all  the  chambers, 
but  it  is  likewise  supposed  that  curtains,  rich  hangings 
like  those  of  the  palace  of  Shushan,  white,  green,  and 


308  THE   PALACE    GARDENS. 

blue,  perhaps  fastened  with  cords  of  fine  linen  and  purple 
to  silver  rings  and  pillars  of  marble,  may  have  sheltered 
the  apertures  on  needful  occasions. 

THE   PALACE   GARDENS. 

A  palace  garden  is  mentioned  in  the  Book  of  Esther. 
There  were,  in  all  probability,  gardens,  "  window  gar- 
dens," in  the  inner  courts  of  the  Assyrian  royal 
dwellings.  In  Babylon  were  hanging  gardens  on  ter- 
races or  balconies  as  lofty  as  the  city  walls.  Kings' 
gardens  are  mentioned  (2  Kings  xxi.  18;  Neh.  iii.  15; 
Jer.  xxxix.  4).  Manasseh  was  buried  in  the  garden 
of  his  house.  Of  such  a  garden  in  the  book  of  Esther,  it 
is  said  that  it  was  paved  with  gay  mosaic  marbles. 
The  small  dimensions  of  these  enclosed  gardens  were  of 
no  consequence  to  the  Orientals,  whose  habit  it  is  not  to 
walk  in  a  garden,  but  to  sit  and  look  at  it ;  refreshed  by 
the  sparkling  of  water,  by  the  shadow  of  green 
foliage,  and  by  the  colours  and  perfumes  of  flowers  grow- 
ing close  to  the  hand ;  a  small  fountain  or  spring  of  water 
in  the  centre  is  indispensable.  In  Egypt  this  garden 
taste  became  a  passion,  and  there  is  no  doubt  Assyria 
shared  in  similar  luxuries. 


COLOUR   ON   SCULPTURES. 

There  were  fewer  remains  of  colour  at  Nimroud  than 
at  Khorsabad,  especially  in  the  older  palaces  of  the 
mound.  ' '  I  could  distinguish  them,"  says  Mr.  Layard, 
"on  the  hair,  beard,  eyes,  and  sandals,  on  the  bows 
and  arrows,  on  the  tongue  of  Nisroch,  and  on  the  gar- 
lands round  the  heads  of  the  priests.  Perhaps,"  he 
adds,  "the  earliest  sculptures  of  Assyria  were  only 
partially  coloured;  however,  on  the  painted  plaster 


COLOUR   ON   SCULPTURES.  309 

which  had  fallen  from  the  wall  above  the  slabs  in  the 
North- West  Palace,  the  blues,  and  especially  the  reds, 
were  as  brilliant  and  vivid  when  the  earth  was  first 
removed  from  them,  as  they  could  have  been  when 
just  applied.  On  exposure  to  the  air  they  faded 
rapidly." 

The  colours  chiefly  used  appear  to  have  been  red, 
blue,  black,  and  white,  and  the  outline  of  the  figures 
seems  to  have  been  black  on  a  blue  ground.  On  some 
enamelled  bricks  of  the  early  age  have  been  found, 
however,  the  mixed  colours,  purples,  violets,  and  rich 
browns.  Green  and  yellow  were  found  at  Khorsabad. 
The  colours  obtained  from  minerals  have  alone  proved 
permanent,  and  it  may  account  much  for  the  present 
absence  of  colour  on  the  sculptures  to  suppose  that 
the  Assyrians  probably  used  those  vegetable  dyes  of 
finest  quality,  of  which  ancient  authors  speak,  and 
which  are  still  obtained  in  Kurdistan  from  flowers  and 
herbs  growing  in  the  mountains.  The  brilliancy  of 
their  dyes  is  sometimes  attributed  to  the  peculiar 
quality  of  the  water  with  which  they  are  prepared. 
The  carpets  woven  in  such  districts  are  still  un- 
rivalled, and  these  colours  were  doubtless  used  in  the 
preparation  of  the  goodly  Babylonish  garments. 

Probably,  besides  the  colours  on  the  sculptures,  there 
was  gilding,  and  to  the  gilding  we  may  add  ivory  and 
cedar  work. 

He  who  made  Nineveh  a  desolation,  declared — 
"  I  will  uncover  the  cedar  work." 

PERISHING   IVORIES. 

"  I  spent  hours,"  says  Mr.  Layard,  "  in  the  North- 
West  Palace,  lying  on  the  ground,  and  separating  the 
fallen  ivory  ornaments  with  a  pen-knife,  embedded  as 
they  were  in  a  hardened  mass  from  which  they  often 


310 


PERISHING  IVORIES. 


only  parted  in  flakes,  and  when  detached  fell  into 
powder.  Thousands  of  fragments  were  of  course  lost 
in  the  immense  heap  of  rubbish,  but  all  I  could  send  to 
England  were,  by  an  ingenious  discovery,  boiled  in 
isinglass,  and  the  gelatinous  matter  which  held  them 
together  being  thus  restored,  they  have  borne  to  be  han- 
dled once  more,  and  may  be  observed  in  the  glass-cases 
of  the  Nimroud  gallery.  The  ancient  Throne 'of  the 
king  has  just  been  reconstructed  in  the  Museum  by 
careful  adjustment  of  its  hollow  bronze  portions;  the 
lions*  paws,  which  form  the  feet,  have  been  wondrously 
preserved,  and  even  some  ivory  ornaments  which  embel- 
lished this  royal  seat  of  honour." 

When  we  think  how  many  vessels  of  copper  of  a  simi- 
lar date  fell  to  pieces  as  they  were  touched  from  very  age, 
and  that  beams  of  wood  found  under  fallen  slabs  often 
seemed  to  be  entire,  but,  when  lifted,  crumbled  into 
dust,  the  preservation  of  the  relics  of  the  actual  throne 
is  the  more  remarkable.  The  palm  and  the  poplar  wero 
the  native  trees  of  the  district,  and  the  wood  of  these 
would,  of  course,  not  be  durable,  but  Mr.  Layard  found 
one  mulberry  beam  entire  amid  the  ruins  of  the  South- 
West  Palace  of  the  Nimroud  mound,  and  there  were 
many  cedar  beams  in  the  small  Temples  adjacent  to  the 
northern  Cone.  The  cedar  wood,  after  a  lapse  of  three 
thousand  years,  retained  its  early  fragrance,  as  he 
happened  to  find  when  his  Arab  excavators  had  set 
one  burning  to  warm  them  at  their  work.  The  greater 
part  of  the  rubbish  in  which  these  small  temples  were 
buried  consisted,  he  says,  of  charcoal  of  that  precious 
wood. 


SUPEENATUEAL   FOEMS.  311 


CHAPTER   XII. 

THE    GODS    OF  OTNEVEH. 

SUPERNATURAL  FORMS  ON  MONUMENTS  —  IDOLATRT  OF  TWO  KINDS 
— ASSHUR  AND  HIS  PRESENCE — ASSYRIAN  FEROIIER — THE  EDEN 
CHERUBIM — EGYPTIAN  CHERUBIM — THE  WORLD-POWER — THE  WINGS 

OF     GOD THE       IMPORTANCE     OF     THESE       HEATHEN       SYMBOLS — THE 

CHERUBIM     OF   THE     TABERNACLE     AND     THE      TEMPLE — THE     DIVINE 
PRESENCE    OVER  THE  MERCY-SEAT,  AND  IN  THE  PILLAR  OF  CLOUD  —  THE 

CHEBAR     CHERUBIM THE      SACRED     TREE      OF     THE     ASSYRIANS,      ITS 

ATTENDANTS — THE    ONE  OBJECT  OF  WORSHIP    IN  THE  ASSYRIAN  NORTH- 

TVEST  PALACE LORD  ABERDEEN'S  STONE — THE  OFFERING  OF  THE  CEDAR 

CONE THE  ASSHAYRAH  OR    "  GROVES  "    OF    THE    TIME  OF    THE  JUDGES 

OF   ISRAEL THE  "  ACCURSED  THING,"    ITS  VOICE  TO  ISRAEL — INSPIRED 

EMBLEMS  FOR  ASSYRIA  AND    ISRAEL — NISROCH — DAGON — BEL  AND  THE 
DRAGON — THE   MIGHTY    GRAVE. 

|AYINGr  followed  the  King  of  Assyria  into  his 
palace,  and  observed  his  mode  of  life,  the  most 
striking  and  instructive  feature  of  these  monu- 
ments seems  to  be  that  he  is  always  in  the  pre- 
sence of  his  Lord  Asshur.  Returning  to  the 
lion  portals  of  the  gallery,  we  must  now  notice  the 
unearthly  and  supernatural  beings  figured  on  the  monu- 
ments, and  mark  their  derivation. 

IDOLATRY   EST   TWO    KINDS. 

Like  the  Chaldeans  and  Sabeans,  these  people  had 
become  Sun,  Moon,  and  Star  worshippers,  as  is  witnessed 
by  the  ornaments  on  the  dress  of  their  kings  ;  and,  in 
addition  to  this  earliest  idolatry,  they  had  also  deified 


312  ASSHUE  AND  HIS  PRESENCE. 

their  ancestors,  Asshur  and  Nimrod.  "The  men  of 
Cuth  made  Nergal,"  carried  his  worship  with  them  to 
their  new  country,  in  the  times  of  Shalmaneser ;  for  the 
symbol  of  Nergal,  or  the  man-lion  (see  p.  286)  belongs, 
as  we  see,  to  Nimroud,  and  equally  to  Kouyunjik  and 
Khorsabad.  Rawlinson  speaks  of  Nergal  as  the  god  of 
war  and  hunting. 

ASSHUE  AND   HIS    "  PEESENCE/' 

It  is  a  curious  fact  that  Asshur,  the  supreme  god  of 
Assyria,  had  no  shrine  or  temple  of  his  own.  He  was 
the  tutelar  deity  of  the  country,  and  this  seems  a  sigu 
that  his  worship  was  universal,  rather  than  local,  and  that 
all  shrines  and  temples  were  open  to  his  worship.  The 
Assyrian  religion  is  the  worship  of  Asshur,  the  people 
are  "  the  servants  of  Asshur,"  and  their  enemies,  "  the 
enemies  of  Asshur."  When  they  had  deified  their 
great  ancestor,  they  identified  him  with  the  symbol  of 
"  The  Presence,"  their  most  sacred  emblem,  which 
further  becomes  sacred  to  their  kings  in  general. 
Asshur  is  the  protecting  genius  and  companion  of 
royalty;  when  the  king  is  fighting,  Asshur,  over  his 
head,  has  his  arrow  on  the  string ;  when  he  returns 
from  victory,  with  the  disused  bow  in  his  left  hand,  and 
his  right  hand  elevated,  Asshur  takes  the  same  attitude. 
In  peaceful  scenes  the  bow  disappears  altogether.  If 
the  king  worships,  the  god  holds  out  his  hand  to  aid  ; 
if  he  only  engages  in  secular  acts,  the  divine  presence 
is  thought  to  be  sufficiently  marked  by  the  circle  and  the 
wings  without  the  human  figure. 

We  cannot  doubt  that  there  was  a  wide  spread  of 
symbolism  in  the  primeval  times,  which  very  soon  lapsed 
into  idolatry.  The  orb  between  the  wings,  which  has 
come  down  to  us  on  the  portal  of  every  Egyptian  temple 


ASSYRIAN  *FEROHEB.  313 

(see  Dendera,  p.  109),  seems  to  present  a  parallel  idea 
to  the  "Feroher,"  or  "Presence"  of  Asshur,  the 
supreme  god  of  Assyria. 


Perhaps  the  Egyptians  chose  the  beams  of  the 
rising  sun  as  their  first  emblem  of  the  presence  of  God, 
and  the  Assyrians  expressed  the  same  idea  by  a  winged 
human  figure  rising  out  of  a  circle.  It  is  conjectured 
that  in  the  human  head  we  have  the  symbol  of  intelli- 
gence, that  the  wings  signify  omnipresence,  and  the 
circle  eternity.  Both  symbols,  however,  convey  the 
idea  of  THE  PRESENCE  of  the  Supreme  Divinity  of  Egypt 
and  Assyria,  and  are  probably  derived  from  a  memory 
of  the  Presence  of  the  Lord  God  between  the  cherubim 
at  the  gates  of  a  lost  Paradise — a  presence  from  which 
Cain  fled. 

With  regard  to  this  emblem  of  "  the  Presence,"  Mr. 
Layard  makes  a  very  important  remark,  that  he  has 
not  found  this  symbol  in  connection  with  the  Sacred 
Tree,  on  any  sculptured  stones  except  in  the  NORTH- 
WEST PALACE  OP  NIMRODD,  and  when  found  at  Khorsabad 
or  in  the  later  palaces,  on  gems  or  cylinders,  it  seems 
to  have  been  brought  thither. 

Our  Jewish  friend,  Dr.  Margoliouth,  in  some  notes  to 


314 


EGYPTIAN  CHERUBIM. 


four  sermons  on  "  The  Spirit  of  Prophecy,"  points  atten- 
tion to  the  definite  article  used  in  Gen.  iii.  24  (Ha  Kerub- 
him),  and  adds,  "We  know  that  the  Almighty,  when  He 
afterwards  held  converse  with  His  servant  Moses,  com- 
muned with  him  from  between  cherubim.  Adam's  expe- 
rience must  have  been  the  same  before  his  fall ;  .but  when 
God's  holiness  and  justice  drove  man  as  disobedient 
from  His  presence,  the  mysterious  cherubim,  God's 
throne  on  earth,  were  also  removed  from  the  midst  of 
Eden,  where  the  symbol  had  been  hitherto  placed,  to 
the  eastern  side  of  Paradise — the  flaming  sword,  the 
symbol  of  vengeance,  became  the  concomitant  of  the 
forsaken  cherubim.  No  information  is  given  of  the 
form  of  the  emblem,  but  no  doubt  vague  traditions 
lingered  through  generation  after  generation  after  the 


MRMUJI   CHEBVBIJT. 


fall,  concerning  the  shape  and  significance  of  the  Eden 
cherubim,  by  which  the  god  of  this    world  reaped  a 


THE   WORLD-POWEE.  315 

harvest  in  a  variety  of  idols  and  false  doctrines,  as 
ancient  heathen  mythology  abundantly  proves." 

Here,  then,  arisen  from  Assyria's  mounds,  is  Tier 
rendering  of  the  patriarchal  tradition.  Paganism  is 
only  a  corruption,  of  patriarchal  worship,  each  nation 
having  added  details  according  to  its  own  taste  and 
fancy,  and  thus  the  form  of  the  primitive  cherubim, 
according  to  Clarke  and  Calmet,  has  been  traditionally 
preserved  and  extended  over  the  larger  portion  of  the 
world,  and  was,  in  all  probability,  carried  away  in  every 
direction  from  the  plains  of  Shinar. 

In  the  guardian  sphinxes  of  Luxor,  and  in  the 
forms  on  the  preceding  page,  the  idea  of  the  cherubim 
is  found  on  the  Egyptian  monuments. 

THE   WOELD-POWEE. 

Ah !  evil  day,  when  Cain  the  man  of  violence  and 
blood  in  earth's  first  family,  went  out  from  "the 
( Presence'  of  the  Lord"  (Gen.  iv.  16),  in  punishment 
"greater  than  he  could  bear,"  because  he  had  first 
wilfully  left  "  that  Presence/'  marked  by  the  wings  of 
overshadowing  cherubim  at  Eden's  door.  He  left  it  by 
murder  of  righteous  Abel,  and  in  Cain's  history  began 
that  of  the  world-power  :  and  henceforward,  all  but  the 
Enoch  line  sought  for  themselves  a  "Presence'*  of 
deified  and  conquering  humanity.  Job  tells  us  (xxii.  1 7) 
of  the  wicked  whose  foundation  was.  overflown  with 
a  flood,  which  said  unto  God,  "  Depart  from  us,  and  what 
can  the  Almighty  do  for  us  ?"  and  in  the  previous 
chapter,  "  Depart  from  us,  for  we  desire  not  the  know- 
ledge of  thy  ways." 

And  it  is  certain  that  Ham,  the  first  rebel  wanderer 
of  the  ark  family,  bore  with  him  the  symbol  of  the 
wings,  the  orb  and  wings ;  and  his  posterity,  wander- 


316  THE   WINGS   OP   GOD. 

ing  from  God,  and  yearning  for  a  visible  personal  deity, 
erred  into  a  mingled  worship  of  the  Sun  and  of  Am-oun, 
or  Ham,  the  hero  god  of  Egypt,  and  the  contemporary 
of  Asshur  and  Assyria. 

In  Assyria  the  winged  priests  or  Genii,  the  winged 
Nisroch,  the  winged  cherubic  beasts  are  all  the  varied 
multiplication  of  the  same  idea.  They  had  all  to  do 
with  "  the  presence,"  which  could  not  be  entered  with- 
out the  offering  of  blood.  (See  p.  301.) 

THE   WINGS    OP   GOD. 

"  Keep  me,  oh,  keep  me,  King  of  kings, 
Beneath  thine  own  Almighty  wings." 

But  although  before  and  after  the  Flood,  men  have 
wilfully  gone  out  from  "  the  presence  "  of  God,  and  have 
made  an  idolatrous  use  of  the  symbol  of  the  wings,  still, 
this  image  is  often  used  in  Scripture.  "  The  Lord  recom- 
pense thee,"  it  was  said  to  Ruth,  "  under  whose  wings 
thou  art  come  to  trust"  (Ruth  ii.  12).  "Hide  me,"  says 
David,  "under  the  shadow  of  thy  wings"  (Ps.  xvii.  8). 
"  In  the  shadow  of  thy  wings  will  I  make  my  refuge" 
(Ps.  Ivii.  1).  "He  shall  cover  thee  with  his  feathers, 
and  under  his  wings  shalt  thou  trust"  (Ps.  xci.  4). 
"  In  the  shadow  of  thy  wings  will  I  rejoice."  In  Ps. 
cxxxix.  this  presence  is  described  as  wo  rid -surrounding 
— "  Whither  shall  I  flee  from  thy  presence  ?"  etc.,  the 
wings  are  over  all  the  earth;  and  this  implied  protec- 
tion. What  does  Cu,in  say?  "Behold,  thou  hast 
driven  me  out  this  day  from  thy  face,  I  shall  be  hid,  and 
every  one  that  findeth  me  shall  slay  me." 

What  said  the  living  Saviour  to  Jerusalem  ? 

"  How  often  would  I  have  gathered  thy  children  together,  as  a  hen 
doth  gather  her  brood  under  her  wing?,  and  ye  would  not.  Behold, 
your  house  is  left  unto  you  desolate." — MATT,  xxiii.  38. 


THE  WINGS    OP   GOD.  317 

•  This  longing  of  Jehovah  to  save  and  bless  one  chosen 
nation  has  ever  since  the  death  of  Christ  upon  the  cross 
been  extended  to  all  nations.  He  said  to  His  disciples, 
"  Go  ye,  therefore,  and  teach  all  nations/'  and  it  may 
aid  us  afresh  to  comprehend  that  Divine  and  over- 
shadowing love  to  realize  it  in  the  figure  of  "  coming 
under  the  wings/'  What  is  it  that  constitutes  a  Chris- 
tian ?  Is  it  not  dwelling  in  the  Presence,  coming  tinder 
the  wings  ?  Once  drawn  by  the  Holy  Spirit  into  that 
blessed  shelter,  once  in  the  Presence,  through  the 
shedding  of  the  blood,  the  blood  of  the  Lamb — who  is 
he  that  condemneth  ?  "  It  is  Christ  that  died,"  is  the 
reply,  and  who  shall  separate  us  from  the  love  of  Christ  ? 
(see  Rom.  viii.  35),  or  from  those  whom  we  love  who 
are  in  the  same  Presence  ?  It  may  be  said  of  those  who 
dwell  in  the  Presence  that  they  never  die ;  they  only 
draw  nearer  and  nestle  closer  under  the  Almighty  wings 
when  they  leave  the  earth.  Have  we  beloved  ones  at 
the  world's  end — on  the  other  side  of  the  globe  ?  If  they 
are  in  the  Presence,  they  are  not  beyond  the  wings. 
The  Egyptian  and  Assyrian  idea  of  the  wings  which 
by  men  of  old  time  was  perverted  to  idolatry,  is  for  those 
"  in  Christ,"  a  priceless  treasure,  and  worth  gathering 
up  from  these  old  stones,  for  it  includes  St.  Paul's  des- 
cription of  our  inheritance  in  Eph.  i.  3,  the  blessing 
"  with  all  spiritual  blessings  in  heavenly  places  in  Christ" 
(ver.  10),  "  that  in  the  dispensation  of  the  fulness  of 
times,  He  might  gather  together  in  one  all  things  in 
Christ,  both  which  are  in  heaven  and  which  are  on  earth, 
even  in  Him." 

The  King  of  Assyria  and  his  priests  have  marked 
the  Presence  of  their  God  as  peculiarly  their  own,  but 
if  the  eyes  of  our  understanding  are  enlightened  as 
Christians,  we  shall  see  that  all  who  dwell  under  the 


318          "LET  HIM  THAT  HEARETH  SAY  COME." 

shadow  of  the  divine  wings  will  endeavour  to  bring 
others  to  dwell  tliere  too.  If  we  could  suppose  that 
there  were  only  one  million  of  true  Christians  in  the 
world  at  this  moment,  and  that  each  one  of  those  could 
in  one  year  only  lead  one  other  soul  into  the  Holy  "  Pre- 
sence," at  the  close  of  one  year  there  would  be  two 
millions,  at  the  end  of  a  second  year  four  millions,  at 
the  end  of  a  third  eight  millions ;  and  by  a  process 
which  anyone  can  follow — ere  ten  years  had  passed — it 
would  not  be  needful  for  any  one  to  say  to  his  neighbour, 
"  Know  the  Lord,"  for  all  the  thousand  millions  of  the 
earth's  present  population  would  "  know  Him,  from  the 
least  unto  the  greatest."  Almost  the  last  verse  of  the 
New  Testament  in  the  Book  of  Revelation,  enjoins  this 
invitation,  "Let  him  that  heareth  say,  Come"  (Rev. 
xxii.  17). 

In  the  presence  of  these  heathen  symbols  of  a  most 
ancient  idolatry,  it  is  impossible  for  a  thoughtful  observer 
to  avoid  asking  the  question,  Why  have  these  been 
buried  out  of  sight  in  the  Providence  of  God  for  twico 
twelve  hundred  years,  and  why  are  they  restored  at  tho 
end  of  such  a  period  ? 

Is  it  not  obvious  that  their  importance  consists  in 
their  being  caricatures  of  the  cherubic  forms  which  God 
had  chosen  as  the  attendants  on  His  own  appearances  to 
man,  and  which  He  would  cast  into  oblivion.  And  arc 
they  not  in  their  re-appearance  His  reminder  to  Israel, 
his  "  sign  from  heaven "  of  tho  sin  of  Maaasseh  for 
which  they  Avcre  rejected  at  the  end  of  their  trial  era, 
even  the  bringing  altars  for  all  the  hosts  of  heaven  into 
the  courts  of  the  house  cf  the  Lord  ?  (See  2  Chron. 
xxxiii.  5—7.)  While  Egypt  and  Assyria  had  made 
sacred  images  from  the  memories  of  a  lost  Eden,  and  of 
the  cherubim  "  placed "  on  the  east  of  the  garden,  on 


THE   CHEEUBIM.  319 

tlie   expulsion  of  our  first  parents,  the  Lord  gave  to 
Israel  his  commandment, — 

"Thou  slialt  not  mate  unto  thee  any  graven  image,  or  any  likeness  of 
anything  that  is  in  heaven  above,  or  that  is  in  the  earth  beneath,  or  that 
is  in  the  water  under  the  earth : 

"Thou  shalt  not  bow  down  thyself  to  them,  nor  serve  them :  for 
I  the  Lord  thy  God  am  a  jealous  God." 

THE    CHEEUBIM   OF    SCEIPTUEE. 

Dr.  Kitto  says  that  the  word  rendered  ef  placed" 
signifies  properly  to  place  in  a  tabernacle,  and  the 
"  presence  of  the  Lord"  from  which  the  exile  Cain  went 
forth  in  Gen.  iv..  14,  is  thought  to  imply  some  local 
manifestation  of  the  Divinity,  which  there  is  reason  to 
believe  may  have  guarded  the  way  to  the  tree  of  life,  till 
the  time  of  the  Deluge.  The  knowledge  of  the  form 
of  the  cherubim  must  have  been  transmitted  through 
Adam,  Methuselah,  Noah,  and  Shern,  of  the  old  world, 
down  to  the  patriarchal  families  beyond  Abraham ;  and 
Faber,  in  his  origin  of  Pagan  idolatry,  traces  to  their 
memory  the  seraphim  or  teraphim,  which  were  some 
kind  of  model  of  the  cherubim  for  domestic  use,  and 
which,  alas  !  co- existed  with  the  worship  of  Jehovah, 
even  in  the  families  of  the  chosen  race. 

Such  were  the  images  (teraphim)  that  Rachel  stole 
from  Laban,  her  father.  It  was  these  teraphim  that 
Jacob  desired  his  household  to  put  away,  and  that  he 
hid  under  the  oak  at  Shechem,  and  against  this  idolatry 
was  levelled  the  second  commandment. 

By  the  subsequent  allusions  of  the  Jewish  prophets  to 
the  cherubim  we  gather  that  they  were  symbolic  com- 
posite forms  of  living  creatures  with  man  as  their  head, 
which  were  then  left  on  earth  as  tokens  that  the  visible 
presence  of  the  Lord  had  not  forsaken  it ;  even  when 


320  TEE   CHERUBIM. 

He  had  ceased  to  walk  with  Adam,  and  talk  with  him 
among  the  trees  of  the  garden,  the  cherubim  remained 
as  guardians  of  the  covenant,  and  avengers  of  its  breach. 
They  present  from  beginning  to  end  of  the  Book  of 
Inspiration,  a  likeness,  as  it  were,  of  supporters  to  a 
shield  (indeed  may  be  the  source  of  that  human  idea 
also),  representing  the  distinctive  bearings  of  a  Divino 
Heraldry. 

And  now  at  the  commencement  of  a  written  Revel- 
ation, we  trace  once  again  these  beings  in  Scripture,  and 
find  their  images  of  pure  gold  spreading  their  wings 
over  the  mercy-seat  in  the  tabernacle  in  the  wilderness, 
and  wrought  in  "  cunning  work "  also  upon  the  inner 
veil  that  parted  off  the  Holy  of  Holies  ;  and  likewise  on 
the  innermost  of  the  four  coverings  that  spread  over  the 
whole  Tabernacle. 

The  cherubims  are  the  attendants  of  the  Divine 
Presence.  In  Solomon's  temple  they  were  carve^  or 
wrought,  with  figures  of  palm  trees  and  open  flowers 
(see  1  Kings  vi.  29 — 32)  on  the  walls  and  on  the  doors, 
everywhere  upon  the  house  and  its  furniture;  but  in  the 
Tabernacle  we  may  notice  that  there  was  a  withdrawal 
of  these  sacred  symbols  from  the  eyes  of  the  people  who 
might  have  bowed  before  their  idolatrous  similitude  in 
Egypt;  for  now  the  likeness  of  the  cherubim,  afresh 
ordained  of  God,  abode  in  utter  darkness  and  the  pro- 
foundest  solitude — circling  THE  PRESENCE  of  Jehovah,  and 
unseen  save  by  the  high  priest,  and  by  him  but  once  a 
year,  as  he  crept  under  the  double  vail,  with  bare  feet 
and  in  his  simple  blue  ephod,  not  in  his  high  priest's 
robe,  to  offer  the  blood  of  sacrifice  for  his  own  sins  and 
the  sins  of  the  people.  This  ephod  had  a  girdle  of  its 
own  of  "fine  twined  linen  with  cunning  work"  (the 
description  is  exactly  the  same  as  of  the  inner  vails  of 


THE  PEESENCE.  321 

the  Holy  Place),  and  the  edge  of  the  skirt  worn  with 
it  was  ornamented  with  pomegranates  and  bells  of 
gold  (see  Exod.  xxviii.  35),  whose  sound  was  to  be 
heard  when  Aaron  stood  before  the  ark,  to  tell  that 
he  remained  in  the  awful  PEESENCE,  and  was  yet 
alive. 

It  is  said,  that  curtains  of  golden  tissue  were  hung 
before  the  adytum  of  an  Egyptian  temple,  a  strong 
contrast  to  the  often  brute  form  behind  them  ("  Diet, 
of  the  Bible,"  vol.  iii.,  art.  Tabernacle).  On  the  shrine 
of  Isis,  at  Sais,  were  to  be  read  words  wonderful  in  their 
loftiness,  "  I  am  all  that  has  been,  and  is,  and  shall  be, 
and  my  veil  no  mortal  has  withdrawn."  When  on 
Egypt's  despair  of  any  revelation — on  her  hollow  pomps 
and  ritual,  the  Lord  broke  in  with  His  ordinances  for 
His  chosen  people,  and  sanctified  once  more  the  mys- 
tery of  the  cherubim  by  faith  in  the  true  "  I  A:M,"— all 
idolatry  was  excluded. 

THE   PEESENCE. 

The  next  manifestation  of  the  Divine  Presence  of 
which  we  hear  in  Scripture,  is  in  the  pillar  of  fire  and 
cloud,  which  led  the  way  of  the  people  in  the  desert. 
This  is  a  phenomenon,  to  which  the  children  of  Israel 
were  introduced,  immediately  after  their  first  passover, 
and  with  which,  for  forty  years,  they  were  perfectly 
familiar.  "  He  spread  a  cloud  for  a  covering"  (Ps.  cv.  39) 
over  that  vast  host  of  pilgrims,  ' '  and  fire  to  give  light 
in  the  night ;" — a  cloud  that  could  be  "  darkness"  to  the 
whole  camp  of  the  Egyptians,  while  to  Israel  it  ' '  gave 
light."  And  the  Lord  came  down  in  the  pillar  of  the 
cloud,  and  stood  in  the  door  of  the  tabernacle  (Num. 
xii.  5).  The  cloudy  pillar  descended,  and  the  Lord 

Y 


322  THE   PRESENCE. 

talked  with    Moses    at    the    door  of  the    tabernacle 
(Exod.  xxxiii.  9). 

This  presence  was  perpetual,  during  their  sojourn  in 
the  wilderness. 

The  Lord  "  took  not  away  the  pillar  of  the  cloud  by  day,  nor  the 
pillar  of  fire  by  night,  from  before  the  people." — EXOD.  xiii.  22. 

But  "  when  the  cloud  covered  the  tent  of  the  con- 
gregation, and  the  glory  of  the  Lord  filled  the 
tabernacle,"  then, — 

"  Moses  was  not  able  to  enter  into  the  tent  of  the  congregation, 
because  the  cloud  abode  thereon,  and  the  glory  of  the  Lord  filled  the 
Tabernacle."— EXOD.  xl.  35. 

That  same  glory  of  which  Moses  reminds  them  in 
Deut.  iv.  11,  when  they  came  near,  and  stood  under  the 
mountain  in  Horeb — 

"  And  the  mountain  burned  with  fire  unto  the  midst  of  heaven.  .  . 

"  And  the  Lord  spake  unto  you  out  of  the  midst  of  the  fire  :  ye 
heard  the  voice  of  the  words,  but  saw  no  similitude.  .  .  .  And  he 
declared  unto  you  his  covenant,  which  he  commanded  you  to  perform, 
even  ten  commandments ;  and  he  wrote  them  upon  two  tables  of  stone." 
— DKUT.  iv.  11—13. 

This  Divine  autograph* — and  if  so,  the  brolcen  tables 

*  The  first  tables  which  Moses  brake  were  "  tables  of  testimony, 
tables  of  stone,  written  with  the  finger  of  God"  (Exod.  xxxi.  18).  "  They 
were  written  on  both  their  sides,"  and  they  "  were  the  work  of  God,  and 
the  writing  was  the  writing  of  God,  graven  upon  the  tables  "  (Exod. 
xxxii.  15,  16).  These  tables  Moses  "  cast  out  of  his  hands,  and  brake 
them  beneath  the  Mount"  (ver.  19).  It  is  surely  open  to  query,  at  least, 
whether  these  -were  not  the  very  tables  covered  by  the  Mercy-seat.  For 
the  Lord  had  said  (Exod.  xxv.  16)  ;  "  and  thou  shalt  put  into  the  ark  the 
testimony  which  I  shall  give  thee."  "  The  words  that  were  in  the  first 
tables,"  were  to  be  written  on  the  two  tables  which  Moses  was  to  have 
(Exod.  xxxiv.  1)  ;  and  (ver.  27)  "  the  Lord  said  unto  Moses,  Write 
thou  these  words."  "  And  he  wrote  upon  the  tables  the  words  of  the  cove- 
nant, the  ten  commandments"  (ver.  20). 


AR-£  OP   THE   COVENANT.  323 

of  the  Law,  and  of  the  Covenant — was  the  treasure 
preserved  in  the  ark,  whose  lid  of  pure  gold,  was  beaten 
out  at  either  end  into  the  form  of  the  cherubim; 
Imt  what  that  form  was,  we  have  no  hint,  except  that  it 
was  "  winged."  "  The  Tabernacle  cherubim,"  says  Dr. 
Margoliouth,  "  were  of  the  same  nature  as  the  Mercy- 
seat,  and  knowing  what  the  Mercy- seat  was — between 
God  and  the  broken  law, — we  know  what  the  cherubim 
were.  The  Mercy-seat  was  the  blood-besprinkled  lid 
that  covered  the  (broken)  law,  foreshadowing  Him  who 
was  '  the  end  of  the  law  for  righteousness  to  every  one 
that  believeth/  The  cherubim,  therefore,  were  sym- 
bolically one  with  Jesus,  in  that  nature  in  which  He 
was  to  be  crucified.  They  symbolized  human  nature 
in  perfect  oneness  with  Jesus  in  His  glory,  for  they 
were  elevated  on  the  platform  of  the  sprinkled  Mercy- 
seat,  one  with  Jesus  in  His  death,  and  one  with 
Him  in  His  glory.  These  two  cherubim  symbolized, 
therefore,  '  the  spirits  of  the  just  made  perfect,* 
the  triumphant  church  elected  from  two  dispen- 
sations, that  before  the  law,  and  the  one  under  the 
law." 

And  it  is  from  above  the  Mercy-seat,  and  be- 
tween the  two  cherubim,  that  the  Lord  declares  to 
Moses — 

"There  I  will  meet  with  thee,  and  I  will  commune  with  thee." — 
EXOD.  xxv.  22. 

The  vision  of  the  Chebar  cherubim  is  considered  by 
the  above  writer,  to  represent  "  the  Church  at  the  close 
of  her  militant  career,  and  on  the  eve  of  entering  on 
her  triumphant  existence." 

The  Almighty,  is  said,  figuratively,  to  dwell  between 
the  cherubim,  to  ride  upon  them,  to  sit  between  them. 


324  POEM  OP  THE   CHERUBIM. 

Ezekiel,  in  vision,  saw  His  GLORY  depart  from  off  the 
threshold  of  the  temple  and  stand  over  the  cherubim, 
and  the  cherubim  lifted  up  their  wings  and  mounted  up 
from  the  earth  in  the  prophet's  sight,  at  the  closo  of 
Israel's  "  trial  era,"  to  return  no  more  visibly  to  Israel, 
though  when  the  holy  Babe  of  Nazareth  lay  in  the  arms 
of  the  aged  Simeon  in  tho  temple  of  Herod,  the  man 
of  God  knew  HIM  to  be  the  "Light"  that  would 
lighten  the  Gentiles,  and  "  the  glory"  of  His  people 
Israel. 

When  He,  the  beloved  Son  of  God,  gave  up  the  ghost 
upon  the  accursed  tree,  the  vail  of  the  temple  with  its 
"  cunning  work"  of  cherubim,  was  rent  in  twain.  The 
visible  PRESENCE  had  no  more  symbol  upon  earth,  and 
henceforward  abode  only  in  the  hearts  of  his  spiritual 
Israel — the  Light  to  lighten  the  Gentiles.  His  people 
Israel,  according  to  the  flesh,  have  since  abode  many 
days  without  a  king,  and  without  a  sacrifice,  and  with- 
out an  image  (margin,  "  a  standing"  before  the  Lord), 
and  without  an  ephod,  and  without  teraphim  (or  cheru- 
bim), Hosea  iii.  4 ;  without  all  tho  signs  of  the  PRE- 
SENCE to  which  they  had  been  accustomed ;  their  Bang 
and  their  Sacrifice  they  had  blindly  rejected,  and  the 
symbols  that,  had  surrounded  and  prefigured  Him  have 
ever  since  vanished  away. 

Josephus  declares  that  no  man  knew  the  form  of  the 
cherubim  in  his  day,  "  their  form  is  not  like  to  that  of 
any  of  the  creatures  which  men  have  seen,  though 
Moses  said  he  had  seen  such  beings  near  the  throne  of 
God"  (Antiq.  iii.  6) ;  but  if  the  later  Jews  hajl  lost  the 
knowledge  of  the  form  of  these  mystic  symbols,  the 
allusions  to  them  remain  in  God's  Word,  and  they  must 
always  be  invested  with  an  awful  interest  and  im- 
portance in  the  eye  of  the  Biblical  student. 


THE    SACEED   TEEE.  325 

Nothing  of  so  grand  a  typo  had  presented  the 
heathen  imitations  of  the  cherubim,  in  unmistakable 
form  to  modern  eyes,  before  these  great  symbolic 
beasts  of  Assyria,  were  brought  to  this  country  by 
Layard.  And  as  we  sit  and  muse  beneath  their  shadow 
in  our  so-called  Christian  city,  the  light  just  presented 
to  the  reader  radiates  also  from  those  vast  stony  wings 
on  the  mysterious  emblem  of  the  Sacred  Tree — that 
other  memory  of  a  lost  Eden  and  of  the  Tree  of  Life. 

THE    SACEED   TEEE. 

In  Assyria,  cherubic  figures  guard  and  worship 
before  a  kind  of  tree. 

There  is  always  a  tradition  of  a  Sacred  Tree  in  all 
Eastern  systems  of  mythology,  and  this  tree  of  the 
Assyrian  monuments  and  the  token  of  the  Presence, 
was  preserved  by  the  Persians  until  the  Arab  invasion, 
even  while  their  knowledge  at  their  later  period  rejected 
visible  idolatrous  personalities.  Sir  H.  Rawlinson,  in 
his  "Notes  to  Herodotus,"  (vol.  i.,  p.  216),  says  that  with 
three  exceptions,  that  of  the  Feroher,  the  fouivwinged 
genius,  and  the  colossal  winged  bulls  (all  diverse  che- 
rubic forms),  the  Assyrian  deities  do  not  reappear  in  the 
early  Persian  sculptures. 

The  PEESENCE  of  Asshur  over  tlie  tree,  with  the  king 
worshipping  it,  and  the  winged  cherubim  guarding  it, 
which  will  be  seen  in  p.  302  (tho  tree  being  evidently 
the  palm,  and  the  open  flowers  reminding  us  of  Solo- 
mon's device — 

"  The  two  doors  of  the  oracle  [of  the  temple]  were  of  olive  tree ; 
and  he  carved  upon  them  carvings  of  cherubim,  and  palm  trees,  and 
open  flowers,  and  overlaid  them  with  gold,  1  Kings  vi.  32 — ) 

irresistibly   carries  back   our  thoughts   to   the  cheru- 
bim   of    Eden  keeping  the    way,    and    perhaps    the 


826 


THE   TREE   AND   ITS   WORSHIPPERS. 


gate  of  the  tree  of  life ;  indeed  the  figure  to  many  eyes 
would  present  the  form  of  a  tree  seen  through  a  gate. 


BiCEBD   TBEB   AXT>    HISROCH. 


There  are  other  slabs  in  the  Nineveh  gallery  depict- 
ing the  Sacred  Tree,  as  above,  but  without  the  Presence. 
One  is  between  kneeling  winged  figures  with  bare  feet 
— probably  priests.  A  second  is  attended  by  two  winged 
Nisrochs ;  and  a  third,  in  the  gallery,  has  winged  female 
attendants. 


THE   TKIAD   PRESENCE. 


327 


The  idea  of  THE  PRESENCE  over  the  tree  is  evident, 
as  will  be  observed  in  the  following  remarkable  cylinder, 
found  in  the  rubbish  at  the  foot  of  the  great  bulls  at 
Kouyunjik,  with  three  others,  some  beads,  and  a  scorpion 
in  lapis  lazuli — all  once  apparently  strung  together.  Mr. 
Layard  believes  it  to  be  the  signet  of  Sennacherib  him- 


A  BOTAIi   CYLINDER   OB  SIGNET. 


self.  It  is  of  translucent  green  felspar.  The  king  is 
standing  in  an  arched  frame,  as  on  the  rock  tablets  at 
Bavian  and  at  the  Nahr-el-.Kelb,  near  Beyrout,  and,  we 
may  add,  on  that  at  Nimroud.  He  holds  in  one  hand  the 
sacrificial  mace,  and  raises  the  other  in  the  act  of  adora- 
tion before  ee  the  Presence,"  here  represented  as  a  Triad 
with  three  heads.  This  mode  of  portraying  such  an  em- 
blem is  very  rare  on  Assyrian  relics,  and  confirms  the 
conjecture  that  this  was  the  symbol  of  the  Triune  God, 
the  truth  of  the  Trinity  having  been  originally  deposited 
with  these  heathens  and  usually  forgotten,  but  the 
knowledge  of  it  sometimes  returning  in  a  faint  memory, 
as  here  recorded.  The  fruit  of  the  tree,  it  will  be 
observed,  are  acorns.  An  eunuch  stands  in  front  of 
the  king,  and  a  mountain  goat  rises  upon  a  double 
flower  resembling  the  lotus,  which  occupies  the  rest  of 
the  cylinder,  and  perhaps  may  refer  to  the  king's  lord- 
ship over  Egypt.  The  cutting  of  this  gem  is  not  deep, 
but  sharp  and  distinct,  and  the  minute  details  require  a 
magnifying  glass. 


328  LORD  ABERDEEN'S  BLACK  STOKE. 

THE  ONE  OBJECT    OF   WORSHIP  IN  THE  EARLIEST 
ASSYRIAN  PALACE. 

It  is  evident  from  the  series  of  bas-reliefs  in  the 
North-west  Palace,  that  the  one  object  of  worship  within 
its  precincts  is  the  "  Presence/'  over  the  Sacred  Tree. 
We  have  marked  the  King  of  the  Tablet  at  the  entrance 
of  the  gallery,  worshipping  the  "Presence"  of  his 
Lord  Asshur ;  another  profile  of  him  worships  on  the 
other  side,  and  behind  each  is  an  attendant  winged, 
therefore  from  the  upper  world.  The  attendant  holds 
in  one  hand  the  cedar  cone,  and  in  the  other  the  basket, 
marking  its  priestly  office,  and  as  if  presenting  the 
the  king  with  the  offerings  of  fragrant  fuel  for  the  celes- 
tial fire.  The  priest  on  the  monuments  is  never  without 
his  satchel,  and  the  Assyrian  early  learned  to  approach 
his  Lord  Asshur,  through  his  priest. 

LORD  ABERDEEN'S  BLACK  STONE. 

In  Lord  Aberdeen's  Black  Stone* — of  which  an 
entire  drawing  may  be  seen  in  "Ferguson's  Palaces" — 
the  bas-relief,  an  undoubted  Assyrian  monument,  is 
carved  on  the  end  of  a  block  of  marble,  of  which  the 
woodcut  there  is  a  facsimile  in  size. 

OFFERING   OF   THE     CEDAE   CONE. 

At  its  upper  left-hand  corner  is  a  temple  certainly 
Assyrian,  because  in  its  cell  is  placed  the  emblem  of  the 
sacred  tree,  which  in  all  the  sculptures  hitherto  dis- 

*  It  ia  unfortunately  not  known  how  this  stone,  lately  in  the  posses- 
sion of  that  nobleman,  was  sent  home,  nor  in  what  place  it  was  found. 
It  ia  now  in  the  same  lobby  of  the  Museum  as  the  coffins  from  Warka. 


THE   ABERDEEN    STONE. 


329 


covered  is  the  only  object  of  direct  worship.  To  this 
also  a  priest  is  offering  the  cedar  cone,  and  the  tree  be- 
hind the  priest  (represented  on  a  larger  scale  than  in 
the  temple  cell)  appears  itself  to  bear  cedar  cones.* 
Behind  the  tree  again  is  the  sacred  bull,  executed  with 
much  spirit  and  power. 

The  Egyptian  idolater  on  the  walls  of  Thebes  offers 
to  his  God  the  Lotus  of  the  Nile.  (See  CasselFs ' '  Bible 
Dictionary,"  art.  Adoration.)  It  was  the  symbol  of  his 


UPPER  SECTION  OP   tOKD  ABERDEEN  S  STOJTB. 

river  which  he  worshipped,  and  was  the  emblem  flower 
of  Egypt,  after  whose  graceful  form  he  framed  the  capi- 
tals of  his  temple  pillars.t 

The  lotus  was  offered  by  the  worshipper  in  Egypt 

*  Such  another  tree  is  represented  in  vol.  1  of  Kawlinson's  "Mon- 
areLies,"  p.  493. 

f  The  lotus  was  to  Egypt  as  the  rose  to  Arabia  and  Persia.  The 
ancient  monuments  show  usher  Nile  bordered  with  flags,  and  reeds,  and 
the  fragrant  flowers  of  the  many-coloured  lotus.  The  water-plants  of 
Egypt  were  a  famous  source  of  revenue  in  the  time  of  the  prophet 
Isaiah,  but  he  prophesied  (xix.  6,  7),  that  the  paper  reeds  by  the  edge  of 
the  brooks  should  wither,  and  that  everything  sown  by  the  river  should  be 
dried  up  and  driven  away.  This  has  been  exactly  fulfilled  ;  the  famous 
papyrus  is  now  nearly  extinct,  and  the  lotus  almost  unknown  in  Egypt 
except  in  the  marshes  near  the  Mediterranean. 


330 


THE    LOTUS. 


as  the  emblem  of  Light,  and  there  is  every  reason  to  sup- 
pose that  the  fir  or  cedar  cone  in  the  hand  of  an  Assyrian 
priest  is  the  emblem  of  Fire.  As  every  worshipper  enters 
the  temple  the  priest  appears  to  offer  him  the  frag- 
rant cone,  wherewith  to  feed  the  sacred  fire  between 
the  cherubim,  or,  vice  versa,  the  worshipper  may  pre- 


THK   BGYPTU.IT  OFFEBINQ  THE   LOTUS. 


sent  it  to  the  priest ;  the  sacerdotal  bag,  too,  may  be  the 
receptacle  for  incense,  or  other  offerings  to  Assheerah,  or 
Astarte,  the  Queen  of  the  "Groves,"  the  Queen  of 
Heaven.  The  prophet  Jeremiah  says  of  idolatrous 
Judah  (chap.  vii.  18)  : — 

"The  children  gather  wood,  and  the  fathers  kindle  the  fire,  and  the 
women  knead  their  dough,  to  make  cakes  to  the  Queen  of  heaven,  and  to 
pour  out  drink  offerings  unto  other  gods,  that  they  may  provoke  me  to 
anger." 

As  for  the  cedar  cones,  the  use  of  cedar  wood  for  puri- 
fication is  mentioned  in  Scripture  (Lev.  xiv.  4 ;  Num. 
xix.  6) ;  the  term  cedar  is  applied  by  Pliny  to  the  lesser 
cedar,  Oxycedrus,  a  Phoenician  juniper  still  common  on 
the  Lebanon,  and  whose  wood  and  cones  are  aromatic. 
The  wood  or  fruit  of  this  tree  was  anciently  burnt  by 


THE   ASSHAYKAH.  331 

way  of  perfume,  especially  at  funerals.  (See  not  only 
Pliny,  but  Ovid  and  Homer.)  This  kind  of  cedar  is  also 
common  in  Arabia;  Elijah  sat  down  under  it  in  the 
wilderness,  and  ate  of  a  cake  baked  probably  on  its 
coals  (1  Kings  xix.  6).  Job  speaks  of  jumper  roots  as 
used  for  food  by  the  starving  (Job  xxx.  4)  ;  and  David 
of  coals  of  juniper  as  material  for  fuel,  which  he  figura- 
tively compared  to  burning  words  and  piercing  arrows 
from  lying  lips  (Ps.  cxx.  4).  The  fir  cone  is  found  in  a 
much  later  age  on  the  fire  altars  of  the  Persians,  and  is 
there  evidently  the  emblem  of  fire. 

Whether  the  fruit  of  the  symbol  named  the  "  sacred 
tree"  be  fir  cones,  or  acorns,  or  the  "  honeysuckle  orna- 
ment," as  it  is  called,  with  a  centre  of  the  palm,  these 
variations  do  not  seem  to  interfere  with  the  nature  of 
the  emblem.  It  is  with  numerous  observers  a  confirmed 
opinion  that  this  is  the  object  which  the  Israelites  are  so 
frequently  accused  of  worshipping  under  the  name  of 
" grove"  or  " groves." 

Dr.  Margoliouth,  the  learned  Jew  before  mentioned, 
long  ago  stated,  "  that  it  was  well-known  to  the  Jews 
that  the  word  in  the  Hebrew  Bible  ought  never  to  have 
been  translated  '  grove/  "  and  so  said  Gesenius.  "  It 
should  have  remained  as  a  proper  name,  Asshayrah,  or 
Assheerim."  Dr.  Margoliouth,  when  he  thus  wrote, 
was  not  aware  of  the  existence  of  this  Assyrian  emblem  ; 
but,  nevertheless)  pointed  out  that  the  Asshayrah  was  a 
symbolical  tree  representing  the  host  of  heaven.  "  No 
one,"  says  Mr.  Ferguson,  "  can  now  read  the  passages 
in  the  Bible  referring  to  the  worship  of  the  groves  with- 
out seeing  that  they  do  not  mean  a  group  of  trees,  but 
must  refer  to  just  such  a  symbol  or  idol  as  this."  In 
Judges  iii.  7  it  is  said,  "  the  children  of  Israel  forgat 
the  Lord  their  God,  and  served  Baalim  and  the  groves." 


832  TUE  ASSHAYEAH. 

Mr.  Bonomi  actually  calls  the  winged  figure  in  the  air 
Baalim,  and  considers  it  an  authentic  document  of 
the  worship  of  Baal.*  How  marvellous  is  it  to  suppose 
that  we  have  hero  before  our  eyes  (pp.  302  and  326), 
"the  groves"  so  often  mentioned  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment. Closely  connected  with  the  worship  of  Baal  were 
the  Chammdnim,  rendered  in  the  margin  of  most  passages 
"  Sun  Images"  (see  2  Chron.  xxxiv.  4).  During  King 
Josiah's  reformation  he  brake  down  the  altars  of  Baalim, 
in  his  twelfth  year,  and  the  Sun  Images  that  were  on  high 
above  them  he  cut  down,  and  the  groves  (or  Asshayrah), 
etc.  In  Elijah's  time  the  prophets  of  Baal  were  four 
hundred  and  fifty,  and  the  prophets  of  the  groves 
four  hundred,  which  ate  at  Jezebel's  table  (1  Kings 
xviii.  19). 

Mr.  Layard  discovered  that  a  slab,  as  for  an  altar  or 
throne,  with  steps  up  to  it,  had  been  let  into  the  wall 
beneath  the  sun  image  and  the  grove,  or  the  Asshur  and 
the  Asshayrah  in  p.  302  of  this  volume. 

"Ye  shall  make  you  no  idols  nor  graven  image,  neither  rear  you  up  a 
standing  image,  neither  shall  ye  set  up  any  image  of  stone  [margin, 
"  any  stone  of  picture"]  in  your  land,  to  bo\v  dovra  unto  it :  for  I  am 
the  Lord  your  God" — 

is  the  opening  injunction  of  the  twenty-sixth  chapter  of 
Leviticus. 

Now  let  us  open  our  Bibles  at  Judges  chaps,  ii.  and  iii. 
and  mark  the  chosen  people  come  up  out  of  the  "Wilder- 
ness, 1451  B.C.  The  spotless  JOSHUA  has  been  their 
guide  and  teacher  for  five-and-twenty  years,  but  he  is 
in  his  grave,  and  all  his  "  generation  are  gathered  to 
their  fathers."  The  days  of  tho  elders  that  outlived 
Joshua  are  over ;  and — 

*  See  Eonomi's  "  Nineveh  and  its  Palaces,"  p.  292. 


"THE  ACCURSED  THING."  333 

*  There  arose  another  generation  after  them,  xvhich  knew  not  the 
Lord,  nor  yet  the  works  which  He  had  done  for  Israel.  .  . 

"And  they  forsook  the  Lord,  .  .  .  and  followed  other  gods,  of  tha 
gods  of  the  people  that  were  round  about  them,  and  bowed  themselves 
unto  them,  .  .  .  and  served  Baalim  and  Ashtaroth." — JUD.  ii.  10,12,  13. 

The  third  chapter  of  Judges  speaks  of  intermarriages 
with  their  heathen  neighbours,  and  repeats  (ver.  7)  that 
the  children  of  "  Israel  forgat  the  Lord  their  God  and 
served  Baalim  and  the  groves/'  and  it  then  follows  that 
1 '  God  sold  them  into  the  hand  of  Chushan-rishathaim," 
whose  name  seems  to  indicate  that  dominion  had  not 
yet  departed  from  the  Cushite  race  in  Mesopotamia. 
Usher  gives  the  date  of  this  primitive  servitude  as  1413 
B.c.,which  brings  the  worship  of  these  idolatrous  emblems 
by  the  chosen  people  down  300  years  earlier  than  the 
date  of  the  Babylonian  king's  garment,  1120  B.C.  (see 
p.  292) ;  and  this  was  not  the  first  time  Israel  had 
bowed  down  to  Baal.  He  was  Balak's  God  in  Moab. 
In  the  time  of  Moses  Moab's  fair  daughters  had  seduced 
Israel  to  offer  sacrifices  to  Baalpeor,  and  in  the  Lord's 
fierce  anger  the  heads  of  all  who  had  thus  sinned  were 
"  hung  up  before  the  sun."  Moses  reminds  the  people 
of  this,  Deut.  iv.  3.  We  had  not  known  hitherto 
whether  a  symbol  or  an  image  expressed  the  idea  of  the 
Baal  of  the  Moabites  and  Phoenicians. 

"ASSHAYEAH,"  OR  THE  "GROVES/'  "THE  ACCURSED 

THING.-" 

The  decisive  stamp  of  the  earlier  era  of  the  North- 
west Palace  sculptures  is,  after  all,  ' e  the  accursed 
thing;"  and  for  light  on  this  we  must  go  back 
to  our  Scriptures.  It  is  not  from  the  inscrip- 
tions that  we  learn  anything  about  "Baalim  and  the 
groves/'  but  Israel's  sin  in  the  times  of  the  Judges  is 


3G4  "THE  ACCURSED  THING." 

inseparably  connected  with  them,  and  we  may  refer  to 
Achan's  covetousness  of  a  goodly  Babylonish  garment 
that  had  been  found  in  the  city  of  Ai,  even  to  1450  B.C., 
the  date  of  Israel's  entrance  on  the  land,  and  to  the  pre- 
vious knowledge  of  Moses,  evidenced  in  Deut.  xii.,  con- 
cerning the  "  carved  and  graven  images  "  and  "  groves  n 
of  the  Canaanitish  nations,  again  to  prove  that  much 
contained  in  this  North-west  Palace  of  Nineveh,  now  so 
illustrative  even  of  the  Pentateuch,  existed  for  centuries 
before  the  time  of  Solomon.  The  "holy  and  special 
people"  were  to  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  "  gods  of 
the  foreigner."  They  were  not  to  desire  the  silver  or  the 
gold  that  was  on  the  graven  images,  probably  the  ' '  sun 
images"  before  mentioned,  "  The  Presence." 

"  The  graven  images  of  their  gods  shall  ye  burn  with  fire :  thou  shalfc 
not  desire  the  silver  or  gold  that  is  on  them,  nor  take  it  unto  thee,  lest 
thou  be  snared  therein: for  it  is  an  abomination  to  the  Lord  thy  God. 
Neither  shalt  thou  bring  an  abomination  into  thine  house,  lest  thou  be  a 
cursed  thing  like  it: but  thou  shalt  utterly  detest  it,  and  thou  shalt  utterly 
abhor  it;  for  it  is  a  cursed  thing." — DEFT.  vii.  25,  26. 

Now  Achan's  sin  was  the  first  open  transgression  of 
this  command.  The  Lord  tells  Joshua  (ch.  vii.  11)  that 
Israel  have  taken  of  the  accursed  thing,  and  have  stolen, 
and  dissembled  also,  and  have  put  it  among  their  own 
stuff;  and  Achan's  confession  was  not  of  the  secreting 
of  any  visible  idol,  but  only  of  "  the  goodly  garment," 
and  of  "  200  shekels  of  silver  "  and  a  "  tongue  of  gold  " 
(see  margin),  of  fifty  shekels  weight,  which  was  possibly 
some  ornament  of  "Baalim"  and  the  "  groves." 

The  specimen  of  the  ' '  goodly  Babylonish  garment," 
which  we  have  given  at  p.  292,  with  no  less  than  ^en- 
sacred  trees  embroidered  on  it,  may  direct  us  to  the 
same  emblem  of  tree  and  griffin,  which  may  be  found, 
if  carefully  looked  for,  on  the  dress  of  the  colossal 


THE  "GOODLY  BABYLONISH  GARMENT."  335 

kings  of  Nineveh,  as  well  as  on  the  winged  figures 
which  attend  them — placed  opposite  the  Lobby  Chamber. 
This  symbol  embroiders  their  dresses  in  all  directions, 
but  is  not  at  first  obvious  to  the  eye ;  if  the  date  of  the 
Babylonian  king  be  1120  B.C.,  and  of  these  930  B.C., 
according  to  Sir  H.  Rawlinson,  the  similarity  of  orna- 
ment appears  to  have  extended  forward  over  200  years, 
and  distinctively  to  comprise  not  only  the  age  of  the 
Judges  of  Israel,  but  also  of  Solomon  and  Eehoboam. 


SACKED   TBEE  AND   GRIFFINS  ON  DBESS  OP    KINGS  OP  NINEVEH. 

THE  ASSHAYRAH'S  VOICE  TO  ISRAEL. 

And,  alas,  through  the  reigns  of  all  the  kings,  Israel 
built  them  images  and  groves  "  on  every  high  hill  and 
under  every  green  tree"  (1  Kings  xiv.  23) .  When  it  came 
to  Manasseh's  building  altars  for  all  the  host  of  heaven 
in  the  two  courts  of  the  house  of  the  Lord,  and  setting 
up  a  graven  image  of  the  groves  that  he  had  made,  in  the 
very  temple  of  Solomon,*  the  trial  era  of  the  chosen  nation 
was  declared  to  be  at  an  end  :  "  Cast  them  out,  ...  let 
them  go  forth/'  saith  the  Lord.  "  I  will  cause  them  to 
be  removed  into  all  kingdoms  of  the  earth,  ...  for  that 
which  Manasseh  did  in  Jerusalem  "  (Jer.  xv.  1,  4),  "  to 
be  chastised  seven  times  for  their  sins"  (Lev.  xxvi.  18,  24, 
28),  "to  receive  at  the  Lord's  hand  double  for  all  her  sins" 

*  2  Kings  xxi.  7. 


336  CLOSE   OP  THE    "  SEVEN  TIMES." 

(Isa.  xl.  2).  We  cannot  tell  to  a  year  or  a  day  the  limit 
of  this  judgment,  though  God  can ;  but  those  seven  times 
of  chastisement  have  surely  ever  since  been  fulfilling  to 
Israel.  If,  after  Jehovah  had  tried  them  to  see  if 
they  would  obey  His  voice  for  "  time,  times,  and  a  half," 
or  1260  years  from  the  call  of  Abraham — if  He  cast 
them  off,  as  He  says,  in  the  time  of  Manasseh,  for  this 
determined  worship  of  "  Baalim  and  the  groves,"  how 
wonderful  that  He  brings  up  this  emblem  from  its 
prison  in  the  earth  to  the  sight  of  their  eyes  in  London 
at — according  to  our  human  reckoning,  about  the  close 
of  those  seven  times  !  Taking  Manasseh's  captivity  at 
666  B.C.,  it  was  in  1854  A.D.,  that  these  Nineveh  relics 
were  deposited  in  our  Museum,  or  after  2520  years.  Have 
the  Jews  examined  these  relics  ?  Do  they  know  what 
they  mean,  and  what  message  they  bring  to  them  ? 

The  greater  number  of  God's  children  who  study  their 
Bibles  believe  that  only  in  their  own  land  will  this  People 
"  look  upon  Him  whom  they  have  pierced,  and  mourn" 
(Zech.  xii.  10),  and  that  not  until  then  can  commence 
their  thousand  years  of  Millennial  blessedness.  In  that 
Land  they  will  become,  what  they  always  should  have 
been,  the  priests  to  a  world  from  which  Satan  shall  be 
exiled.  (See  Isa.  Ixi.  6;  Ixvi.  21.) 

After  the  era  of  Manasseh  they  were  gradually  scat- 
tered, according  to  the  prophecy ;  the  two  tribes  followed 
the  ten,  not  to  Assyria,  but  to  Babylon,  its  successor,  yet 
though  their  kingdom  was  departed,  a  partial  return,  as 
we  are  aware,  after  seventy  years'  captivity,  still  gave 
the  nation  a  Temple,  and  assured  to  them  the  possession 
of  Jerusalem, — the  Jerusalem  to  which  there  came  their 
unknown  King, — the  Jerusalem  over  which  He  wept, 
saying,  "  Oh,  if  thou  hadst  known,  even  thou  in  this  thy 
day ;"  but  alas  she  knew  not — and  seventy  years  after 


THE    LAND   POSSESSED    1520   YEARS.  337 

that  miraculous  and  divine  Birth,  which  was  the  crowning 
miracle  of  all  miracles  wrought  for  that  nation,  the  visit- 
ation of  her  sins  came  upon  her,  her  children  were  dashed 
against  her  walls,  and  of  her  temple  not  one  stone  was 
left  upon  another.  A  final  scattering  as  regards  this 
dispensation. 

Has  it  struck  the  Jew  that  He  possessed  his  Land 
from  the  time  of  his  entrance  under  Joshua,  from  1450 
B.C.  till  70  A.D.,  a  space  of  1520  years.  There  is  no 
doubt  of  this  among  those  who  believe  in  the  short  and 
Hebrew  chronology, — and  will  not  the  Millennial  thou- 
sand in  the  Jew's  wondrous  history  also  complete  exactly 
the  seven  times,  the  2520  years  which  seem  to  show  the 
scale  on  which  Grod  perpetually  works  in  man's  history 
ere  He  absorbs  it  into  His  own  eternal  years  ? 

For  "  seven  times  "  have  the  Jews  now  been  esiled. 
For  seven  times  have  the  relics  of  Nineveh  slept  their 
long  sleep,  and  they  are  "  risen  in  the  Judgment." 

Shall  they  not  condemn  this  generation,  Jews  and 
Gentiles,  because  the  "  men  of  Nineveh  repented  at  the 
preaching  of  Jonas,  and,  behold,  a  greater  than  Jonas 
is  here." 

THE    INSPIRED   EMBLEMS    FOR   ASSYRIA  AND    FOR   ISRAEL. 

The  prophet  Daniel  combines  the  lion  with  the  eagle 
in  reference  to  the  Babylonian  kingdom,  the  fierce  king 
of  beasts  with  the  savage  king  of  birds  (Dan.  vii.  4). 
The  first  beast  was  a  lion,  and  had  "  eagle's  wings." 
Nineveh  is  called  by  Nahum  "  the  dwelling  place  of  the 
lions,  .  .  .  where  they  filled  their  holes  with  prey  and 
their  dens  with  ravin." 

There  is  to  come  a  Lion  of  the  tribe  of  Judah  (Rev.  v. 
5),  and  the  symbol  of  Judah  in  Jacob's  roll  of  bles- 


388  THE  ASSYRIAN   CEDAR. 

sings  (Gen.  xlix.  9),  was  "  a  lion's  whelp,"  but  during 
all  the  interim,  the  lion's  crest  has  belonged  to  the 
world-power,  and  all  the  hunting  scenes  in  the  tem- 
ples evidence  that  it  early  belonged  to  Assyria. 

The  Scriptures  frequently  speak  of  men  and  of  na- 
tions as  of  trees — and  for  Assyria  the  prophet  Ezekiel 
designates  the  cedar  (ch.  xxxi.  3 — 9) — 

"  Behold,  the  Assyrian  -was  a  cedar  in  Lebanon  with  fair  branches, 
and  with  a  shadowing  shroud,  and  of  an  high  stature ;  and  his  top  was 
among  the  thick  boughs. 

"  The  waters  made  him  great,  the  deep  set  him  up  on  high  with 
her  rivers  running  round  about  his  plants,  and  sent  out  her  little  rivera 
unto  all  the  trees  of  the  field. 

"  Therefore  his  height  was  exalted  above  all  the  trees  of  the  field, 
and  his  boughs  were  multiplied,  and  his  branches  became  long  because  of 
the  multitude  of  waters,  when  he  shot  forth. 

"All  the  fowls  of  heaven  made  their  nests  in  his  boughs,  and 
under  his  branches  did  all  the  beasts  of  the  field  bring  forth  their  young, 
and  under  his  shadow  dwelt  all  great  nations. 

"  Thus  was  he  fair  in  his  greatness,  in  the  length  of  his  branches  ; 
for  his  root  was  by  great  waters. 

"The  cedars  in  the  garden  of  God  could  not  hide  him :  the  fir  trees 
were  not  like  his  boughs,  and  the  chestnut  trees  were  not  like  his 
branches ;  nor  any  tree  in  the  garden  of  God  was  like  unto  bun  in  his 
beauty. 

"  I  have  made  him  fair  by  the  multitude  of  his  branches ;  so  that  all 
the  trees  of  Eden,  that  were  in  the  garden  of  God,  envied  him." 

The  cedar  of  Lebanon  was  also  God's  emblem  for  his 
own  chosen  Israel,  but  we  hear  much  more  OP  THE 
VINE,  as  evidencing  what  should  have  been  their 
clinging  dependence  on  their  Heavenly  King  (Ps. 
Ixxx.  8—16)— 

"  Thou  hast  brought  a  vine  out  of  Egypt :  thou  hast  cast  out  the 
heathen,  and  planted  it. 

"  Thou  preparedst  room  before  it,  and  didst  cause  it  to  take  deep 
root,  and  it  filled  the  land. 

"The  hills  were  covered  with  the  shadow  of  it,  and  the  boughs 
thereof  were  like  the  goodly  cedars. 


NISEOCH.  339 

"  She  sent  out  her  boughs  unto  the  sea,  and  her  branches  unto  the 
river. 

"Why  hast  thou  then  broken  down  her  hedges,  so  that  all  they 
which  pass  by  the  way  do  pluck  her  ? 

"  The  boar  out  of  Hie  wood  doth  waste  it,  and  the  wild  beast  of  the 
field  doth  devour  it. 

"  Beturn,  we  beseech  thee,  O  God  of  hosts :  look  down  from  heaven, 
and  behold,  and  visit  this  vine : 

"  And  the  vineyard  which  thy  right  hand  hath  planted,  and  the 
branch  .that  thou  madest  strong  for  thyself. 

"  It  is  burned  with  fire,  it  is  cut  down :  they  perish  at  the  rebuke  of 
thy  countenance," 

NISEOCH. 

The  eagle-headed  figure,  called  Nisroch,  is  not 
named  as  found  in  the  small  house  of  gods,  though  he 
is  found  repeatedly  in  the  north-west  palace  itself. 
He  may  have  come  to  be  looked  upon  as  a  god,  in  the 
after  days  of  Sennacherib,  who  is  said  to  have  been 
"  worshipping  in  the  house  of  Nisroch  his  god,"  when 
his  sons  slew  him  with  the  sword  in  the  times  of  Judah's 
king,  Hezekiah ;  but  we  are  ready  to  believe,  with  Sir 
Henry  Rawlinson,  that  at  first  the  eagle-headed  figure 
might  only  be  a  symbolic  representation  of  the  power 
of  Asshur  ?  The  eagle  could  look  at  the  sun,  and  he 
worships  the  Asshayrah  by  the  king's  side ;  he  is  pro- 
bably the  symbol  of  the  Assyrian  empire,  and  can  we 
approach  this  figure  now  and  not  think  of  Ezekiel's 
parable  and  riddle  ? 

"  And  the  word  of  the  Lord  came  unto  me,  saying, 

"  Son  of  man,  put  forth  a  riddle,  and  speak  a  parable  unto  the  house 
of  Israel ; 

"  And  say,  Thus  saith  the  Lord  God  :  A  great  eagle  with  great  wings, 
long-winged,  full  of  feathers,  which  had  divers  colours,  came  unto 
Lebanon,  and  took  the  highest  branch  of  the  cedar : 

"  He  cropped  off  the  top  of  his  young  twigs,  and  carried  it  into  a 
land  of  traffic ;  he  set  it  in  a  city  of  merchants. 


310 


NISKOCH. 


"  He  toot  also  of  the  seed  of  the  land,  and  planted  it  in  a  fruitful 
field  ;  he  placed  it  by  great  waters,  and  set  it  as  a  willow  tree. 

"  And  it  grew,  and  became  a  spreading  vine  of  low  stature,  whoso 
branches  turned  toward  him,  and  the  rooN  thereof  were  under  him;  so 
it  became  a  vine,  and  brought  forth  branches,  and  shot  forth  sprigs." — 
EZEK.  xvii.  1 — 6. 

"  Know  ye  not  what  these  things  mean  ?"  saith  the 
Lord  by  Ezekiel  (ver.  12), 
who  wrote  about  600  B.C., 
after  the  king  of  Babylon, 
whose  gods  were  the  same 
as  those  of  Assyria,  had  come 
up  to  Jerusalem  and  led 
captive  her  last  king,  Zede- 
kiah. 

And  in  the  nineteenth 
century  the  Almighty  surely 
repeats  the  question,  for  as 
we  pass  by  this  figure  of 
Nisroch  in  the  Assyrian  gal- 
lery, what  is  here  but  a 
"great  eagle,  long-winged, 
full  of  feathers,  which  had 
divers  colours,"  and  in  his 
hand  the  cedar  cone.  The 
heathen  caricature  of  Israel's 
Lord,  who  "  made  JACOB  the 
lot  of  his  inheritance;"  who 

"As  an  Eagle  stirreth  up  her 
nest,  fluttereth  over  her  young, 
spreadeth  abroad  her  wings,  taketh 
them,  beareth  them  on  her  wings : 

"  So  the  Lord  alone  did  lead  him, 
and  there  was  no  strange  god  with 
him."— DECT.  xiiii.  11, 12. 


THE  HEAVENLY  SYMBOLS.  341 

This  imagery  Moses  chose  in  Ms  dying  song  of 
mingled  history  and  prophecy,  at  the  end  of  the  forty 
years  in  the  wilderness ;  but  thirty-eight  years  before, 
when  Israel  encamped  before  Sinai,  God  had  sent  them 
the  message,  also  by  Moses,  "  Ye  have  seen  what  I  did 
unto  the  Egyptians,  and  how  I  bore  you  on  eagles' 
wings  and  brought  you  to  myself." 

With  these  exceptions  the  imagery  of  Scripture 
gives  up  the  king  of  birds  to  be  the  expressive  symbol 
of  the  swift,  prey-seeking,  persecuting  Chaldeans  :  and 
in  Nisroch  we  probably  behold  their  NATIONAL  CEEST. 

The  prophet  Habakkuk,  twenty  years  before  the 
fall  of  Jerusalem,  thus  declares  as  the  word  of  the 
Lord : — 

"For,  lo,  I  raise  up  the  Chaldeans,  that  bitter  md  hasty  nation. 

" They  are  terrible  and  dreadful;  their  judgment  and  their  dignity 
shall  proceed  of  themselves. 

"  Their  horses  also  are  swifter  than  the  leopards,  and  are  more  fierce 
than  the  evening  wolves  :  they  shall  fly  as  the  eagle  that  hasteth  to  eat. 

"  They  shall  come  all  for  violence  ;  their  faces  shall  sup  up  as  the 
east  wind,  and  they  shall  gather  the  captivity  as  the  sand. 

"...  OLord,  Thou  hast  ordained  them  for  judgment:  and  O 
mighty  God,  Thou  hast  established  them  for  correction." — HAB.  i. 
6-9,  12. 

"  Knoiv  ye  not  what  these  things  mean  ?"  saith  the 
Lord,  to  us  who  pass  by  such  stones  "  crying  out,"  after 
nearly  nineteen  hundred  years  of  privilege  in  the 
Gospel  dispensation.  To  us  they  ask  a  solemn  ques- 
tion. While  they  point  the  Jews  to  their  ancient  sin  of 
the  worship  of  Baalim  and  the  Groves,  a  sin  which  has 
rung  the  funeral  knell  of  their  empire,  and  laid  it  low 
for  the  "  seven  times"  of  God's  prophetic  wrath — they 
point  both  Jew  and  Gentile  to  nothing  less  than  "  the 
True  Presence"  which  these  idolatries  caricatured. 


342  DAQON. 

What  said  the  living  Saviour  to  Jerusalem  ? 

"How  often  would  I  have  gathered  thy  children  together,  as  a  hen 
doth  gather  her  brood  under  her  wings,  and  ye  -would  not.  Behold, 
your  house  is  left  unto  you  desolate." — MATT,  xxiii.  38. 

The  Holy  Spirit  of  God  has  chosen  for  the  emblem 
of  its  Presence,  not  the  eagle,  but  the  dove.  It  has 
even  taken  the  visible  form  and  bodily  shape  of  that 
bird,  as  recorded  by  all  the  evangelists,  and  by  John 
especially  as  seen  of  himself  at  the  baptism  of  the 
Redeemer. 

"  I  saw  the  Spirit  descending  from  heaven  like  a  dove,  and  it  anode 
upon  Him  ....  and  I  bare  record  that  this  is  the  Son  of  God." — 
JOHN  i.  32,  34. 

The  symbol  of  a  dove  is  frequently  applied  to  the 
Jewish  Church  in  the  Psalms  and  Prophets,  and  Hosea 
speaks  of  Ephraim  as  "  a  silly  dove  calling  to  Egypt  and 
going  up  to  Assyria."  The  disinterred  sculptures  show 
her  forth  as  the  prey  of  the  eagle  in  most  manifold 
forms. 

DAGON. 

After  passing  the  various  figures  of  Nisroch  on  the 
right  side  of  the  gallery,  we  come  to  a  figure  with  a  re- 
markable fish-cloak. 

During  the  times  of  Israel  under  the  Judges,  we 
hear  but  of  Baal  and  Dagon,  and  Baal  and  Dagon  only 
were  found  in  the  small  temple  between  the  north- 
west palace  and  the  sepulchral  tower. 

It  is  impossible  not  to  identify  the  accompany- 
ing figure  of  which  Mr  Laj-ard  found  several 
representations  both  here  and  at  Kouyunjik, — 


A   DAGON   SIGNET. 


343 


with,  the  Dagon  of  Ashdod,  and  the  description  1  Sam. 

v.   4.      He  who  fell  before  the 

ark    of  the   Lord,   when  it  was 

brought  into  his  great  temple  at 

A  shdod,  "  and  the  head  of  Dagon 

and  both  the  palms  of  his  hands 

were  cut  off  upon  the  threshold, 

only  the  fishy  part  of  Dagon  was 

left  unto  him."     Here  it  is  for  our 

inspection.     "  The  head  of  the  fish 

forms  a  mitre/'  says  Mr.   Layard, 

"above  that  of   the  man,  whilst 

its    scaly  back   and   fan-like    tail 

fell  as  a  cloak  behind,  leaving  the 

human    feet  and   hands    exposed. 

We    can  scarcely  hesitate  to   trace    this  mythic  form 

to  the  Cannes  (Noah)  or  sacred  manfish,"  who  brought 

to  the    Chaldeans  civilization  and  arts  out  of  the  sea, 

who,  according  to  Berosus,  issued  from  the  Brythean 

Sea  and  instructed  the  Chaldeans  in  all  wisdom  (see 

p.    57).     His  worship   seems   to  have    extended  over 


AQA1E  SICNKT  OF  DAGOJT. 


Syria  as  well  as  Mesopotamia  and  Chaldea.     Mr.  Layard 
found  two  colossal  bas-reliefs  of  DAGON  on  two  doorways 


344  TH3  ASSYRIAN   BAAL. 

in  a  chamber  at  Kouyunjik.  Though,  unfortunately, 
the  upper  part  of  the  figures  had  been  destroyed,  they 
could  be  restored  from  similar  figures  found  on  agate 
signets.  And  there  is  a  colossal  Dagon  in  the 
Museum  -which,  though  worn  from  extreme  age,  is  per- 
fect ;  and  a  figure  painted  in  shadow  colour  beside  it, 
restores  its  details.  With  what  fresh  realizations  the 
descriptions  of  Samson's  death  sport  between  the  pillars 
of  the  House  at  Gaza  will  be  read  after  gazing  on  this 
idol? 

In  one  of  the  two  small  temples  adjoining  the  square 
northern  tower  of  Nimrud,  were  found  two  colossal 
human-headed  lions  ;  and  thirty  feet  from  the  lion  en- 
trance was  a  second,  on  either  side  of  which  were  two 
slabs  presenting  perhaps  the  most  remarkable  subject 
that  has  yet  been  found  among  the  ruins  of  ancient 
Assyria.  Since  its  arrival  in  the  British  Museum  it  has 
been  labelled  "  Expulsion  of  Evil  by  a  Good  Spirit." 

There  is  here  exhibited  a  monstrous  form,  whose 
fanciful  and  hideous  head  has  long  pointed  ears,  and 
extended  jaws,  armed  with  huge  teeth.  Its  body  is 
covered  with  feathers,  its  fore  feet  are  those  of  a  lion, 
its  hind  legs  end  in  the  talons  of  an  eagle,  and  it  has  the 
spreading  wings  and  tail  of  a  bird.  Arrayed  against 
this  monster  is  a  god-like  figure,  whose  dress  consists 
of  a  plain  bodice  with  a  skirt  of  skin  or  far,  an  under 
robe  fringed  with  tassels,  and  the  sacred  three-horned 
cap,  which  marks  the  supreme  Deity  j  sandals,  armlets, 
and  bracelets  complete  his  attire.  A  long  sword  is 
suspended  from  his  shoulders  by  an  embossed  belt,  and 
he  grasps  in  each  hand  a  double  and  winged  trident, 
which  would  seem  to  have  been  the  original  of  the 
thunder-bolt  so  often  represented  on  Greek  monuments 
as  the  peculiar  emblem  of  Jupiter. 


346  BEL  AND  THE  DRAGON. 

This  mighty  being  is  in  the  act  of  hurling  the 
tridents  against  the  monster,  who  turns  upon  him. 

Mr.  Layard  appears  to  have  been  greatly  struck  with 
this  bas-relief.  It  renders  the  small  temple  or  house  of 
gods  as  famous  as  any  of  the  larger  edifices  on  the 
mound,  and  it  evidently  marks  the  belief  of  the  Meso- 
potarnian  peoples  in  the  co- existence  of  a  principle  of 
Evil  with  the  principle  of  Good,  and  chronicles  their 
contests  for  supremacy.  It  is  singular  how  in  the 
common  impersonification  of  the  Evil  One,  which  has 
passed  into  Christendom,  may  be  recognized  the  traits 
of  this  Assyrian  demon,  which  may  have  been  the  pro- 
totype of  John  Bunyan's  Apollyon.  It  is  now  happily 
so  uncommon  to  find  an  English  Bible  comprising  the 
Apocryphal  Books,  that  comparatively  few  persons  will 
be  able  readily  to  turn  to  one  of  these  by  name ;  we 
refer  to 

BEL  AND   THE   DRAGON, 

to  which  the  Assyrian  illustration  might  well  serve  for  a 
frontispiece.  This  book  of  one  chapter  (as  well  as  the 
previous  history  of  Susanna)  is  said  in  the  title  to  be 
"  cut  off  from  the  Book  of  Daniel  because  it  is  not  in 
the  Hebrew."  It  must  therefore  have  been  in  Chaldee. 
The  royal  decrees  and  letters  in  the  canonical  Book  of 
Ezra  itself,  are  given  us  in  Chaldee,  while  the  rest  of 
the  text  is  in  Hebrew ;  and  this  shows  that  the  Persians 
spoke  Chaldee  in  the  time  of  the  Achaemenidse.* 

As  Bel  and  the  Dragon  is  interpolated  by  the  Grecian 
Jews  in  the  Septuagint,  it  marks  the  feeling  of  scorn 
with  which  the  Jews  at  that  era  (300  B.C.)  looked  upon 
idolaters.  The  book  acquires  a  new  interest  in  relation 
to  this  sculpture.  It  speaks  of  the  idol  Bel  of  Babylon, 

*  Achfiemenes  founded  this  dynasty  in  Persia  about  B.C.  700,  a  cen- 
tury and  a  half  before  CvruB  the  Great  ascended  the  throne. 


THE   GRAVES   OP  FAMOUS  NATIONS.  347 

for  whom  his  priests  claimed  "  forty  sheep  a  day  and 
twelve  great  measures  of  fine  flour,,  and  six  vessels  of 
wine,  and  the  king  went  daily  to  adore  it,  while  Daniel 
worshipped  his  own  God."  The  proof  given  by  the 
prophet  to  the  king  of  the  hypocrisy  of  the  seventy 
priests  who,  with  their  wives  and  children,  always  con- 
sumed these  provisions,  and  his  authorized  destruction 
of  Bel  and  his  temple,  and  also  of  the  "  dragon  in  that 
same  place,  which  they  of  Babylon  worshipped," — all 
these  things  point  curiously  back  to  that  which  now 
appears  before  our  eyes.  We  have  here  the  Chaldean 
Bel,  or  Baal,  destroying  the  dragon,  and  in  the  Apocry- 
phal but  ancient  book  we  have  Daniel  destroying  both. 

If  the  Asshur  symbol,  therefore,  be  otherwise  named 
Baal  (and  one  of  the  Assyrian  Ferohers  holds  in  its 
hand  a  trident  like  this  idol),  here  is  the  impersonation 
of  the  same  god  in  his  earliest  Assyrian  shrine. 

THE   MIGHTY   GRAVE. 

There  came  a  day  when  all  these  heathen  gods  and 
kings  went  down  into  one  common  grave.  Between 
the  Lions  at  the  entrance  of  the  Nineveh  galleries  is 
now  deposited  a  stone  sarcophagus  from  Sidon. 
Mesopotamia  had  actually  besides  her  palace  mounds, 
as  we  have  seen,  one  vast  burial  mound  at  Warka 
(p.  52),  which  surely  tho  prophet  Ezekiel  must  have 
had  in  mind  when  he  spoke  of  "  the  daughters  of  the 
famous  nations  gone  down  to  the  nether  parts  of  the 
earth,  to  the.  sides  of  the  pit." 

Assyria,  Persia,  the  Arabs,  and  the  Tyrians,  and 
strange  to  say  Meshech  and  Tubal,  the  Scythic  element 
on  which  Eawlinson  insists  so  much  in  the  cuneiform 
language,  are  all  indicated  and  their  dust  depicted 


31-8        THE  GRAVES  OP  FAMOUS  NATIONS. 

as     mingling    in    one    mighty    grave.       See     Ezek. 
ii.  22—30. 


"  Asshur  is  there  and  all  her  company  :  his  graves  are  about  him  : 
all  of  them  slain,  fallen  by  the  sword  ; 

"  Whose  graves  are  set  in  the  sides  of  the  pit,  and  her  company  is 
rcund  about  her  grave  :  all  of  them  slain,  fallen  by  the  sword,  which 
caused  terror  in  the  land  of  the  living. 

"  There  is  Elam  and  all  her  multitude  round  about  her  grave,  all  of 
them  slain,  fallen  by  the  sword,  which  are  gone  down  uncircumcised  into 
the  nether  parts  of  the  earth,  which  caused  their  terror  in  the  land  of 
the  living  ;  yet  have  they  borne  their  shame  with  them  that  go  down  to 
the  pit.  .  .  . 

"There  is  Meshech,  Tubal,  and  all  her  multitude:  her  graves  are 
round  about  him  :  all  of  them  uncircumcised,  slain  by  the  sword,  though 
they  caused  their  terror  in  the  hind  of  the  living.  .  .  . 

"  There  is  Edom,  her  kings,  and  all  her  princes,  which  with  their 
might  are  laid  by  them  that  were  slain  by  the  sword  ;  they  shall  lie  with 
the  uncircumcised,  and  with  them  that  go  down  to  the  pit. 

"  There  be  the  princes  of  the  north,  all  of  them,  and  all  the  Zidonians, 
which  are  gone  down  with  the  slain  ;  with  their  terror  they  are  ashamed 
of  their  might  ;  and  they  lie  uncircumcised  with  them  that  be  slain 
by  the  sword,  and  bear  their  shame  with  them  that  go  down  to 
the  pit." 


BRONZE   BOWLS.  349 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

THE    HEBEEW    KINO-DOM. 

BRONZE  BOWLS — HEBREWS  IX  THE   NORTH-WEST    PALACE — A   HALTING- 
PLACE  BESIDE  THE  WINGED  BULL  AND  LION — RISE    OF  THE  JEWISH 

KINGDOM — SAUL— DAVID SOLOMON — THE  URIM  AND  THE  THUMMIM 

SOLOMON'S  GLORY — TYRE — THE  PROPHET  JONAH. 

BRONZE   BOWLS. 

/N  the  same  North-west  Palace  were  found  bronze 
cups  and  bowls,  eaten  away  by  rust,  or  just  crumb- 
ling into  green  powder ;  but  nearer  the  pavement 
of  the  chamber  more  perfect  specimens  were  taken 
out,  some,  indeed,  almost  entire.  Since  their 
arrival  in  England  they  have  been  carefully  and 
skilfully  cleaned,  and  very  beautiful  and  elaborate  de- 
signs upon  them  have  been  brought  to  light. 

A  stranger  observing  these  finished  works  of  art 
in  the  Museum  cases,  opposite  the  grotesque  sculptures 
of  the  Eagle -headed  Nisroch,  will  often  ask,  Are  these 
and  those  of  the  same  age  ? 

They  are  not  necessarily  so.  The  bijouterie  of  our 
present  day  might  well  be  strewn  in  palaces  whose 
walls  are  hundreds  of  years  old,  and  so  might  gems  of 
Assyrian  art  of  different  ages.  King  after  king  pro- 
bably inhabited  the  same  early  palace,  and  this  again 
was  perhaps  built  on  the  ruins  of  its  predecessor. 

The  character  of  the  designs  on  these  bronze  bowls 
seems  often  Egyptian.  Mr.  Layard,  however,  considers 
that  they  were  of  Assyrian  workmanship,  or  perhaps 


850  PHOENICIAN  ART. 

Phoenician  or  Canaanitish.  The  men  of  Tyre  and  Sidon, 
before  the  time  of  Solomon,  were  the  most  renowned 
workers  in  metal  in  the  world,  and  their  country  lay 
between  Assyria  and  Egypt.  Tubal  Cain,  in  antedi- 
luvian times,  had  been  "  an  instructor  of  every  artificer 
in  brass  and  iron,"  and  we  have  constant  proof  that  the 
arts  of  the  world's  fathers  were  not  lost  after  the  Flood. 
The  memories  of  tho  ark-family  caused  a  resurrec- 
tion of  those  arts  from  the  drowned  world,  and  the  very 
building  of  the  ark  itself  perpetuated  them.  We  know 
that  Solomon  sought  cunning  men  from  Tyre  to  make 
the  gold  and  brazen  utensils  for  his  temple  and  palaces, 
and  the  bronze  vessels  discovered  at  Nimroud,  the  weights 
in  the  form  of  lions  especially,  having  the  name  of  Senna- 
cherib upon  them,  and  Phoenician  characters  side  by  side 
with  cuneiform  ones,  probably  show  that  Phoenician 
artists  had  either  been  brought  expressly  from  Tyre,  or 
made  captives  when  their  cities  were  taken  by  tho 
Assyrians,  and  required  to  exercise  their  genius  on  be- 
half of  their  conquerors.  It  is  well  known  that  they 
were  voyagers  as  well  as  artists,  and  consequently  the 
tin  used  in  the  Assyrian  bronzes  may  actually  have  been 
exported  3000  years  ago  from  these  our  isles  of  Britain. 

THE   HEBREWS    IN   THE   NORTH-WEST   PALACE. 

There  is  only  one  point  more  we  wish  to  note  among 
tho  relics  of  the  North- West  Palace,  and  that  concerns 
a  sculpture  or  two  found  in  the  furthest  corner  of  the 
first  gallery. 

These  men  bringing  apes,  apparently  as  tribute,  are 
our  introduction  to  a  race  whom  we  must  now  seek  for, 
on  the  monuments  separatelyjfrom  the  Assyrian  warriors. 
The  high-peaked  helmet  worn  by  those,  ago  after  age, 


JEWS   BEINGING  TRIBUTE, 


351 


distinguishes  them  from  any  people  with  whom  they  are 
at  war ;  and  the  original  of  that  helmet  may  be  seen  in 
rusted  metal  in  the  glass  case  of  the  Lobby  Chamber. 
The  cap  of  the  tribute-bearer  seems,  however,  not  of 
metal,  but  of  felt,  or  folds  of  linen.  He  and  his  com- 
panion with  a  fillet  round  his  head  have  both  the  same 


curious  boots,  turned  up  at  the  toes ;  on  a  slab  opposite 
to  the  tribute-bearers,  the  same  race,  recognized  by 
caps  and  boots,  are  fleeing  on  horse-back,  and  yet  turn- 
ing round  to  fight  the  Assyrians  who  are  in  chariots. 

Both  these  slabs,  it  must  be  observed,  come  from 
the  North-West  Palace,  but  the  colossal  one  was  found 


352  THE  JUDGES  OP  ISRAEL. 

with  many  others,  representing  the  same  nation  carrying 
armlets,  bracelets,  and  earrings  on  trays,  and  elevating 
their  hands  in  token  of  submission  (see  ' '  Nineveh  and  its 
Remains,"  vol.  i.  p.  126).  As  the  bronze  lion-weights 
of  Sennacherib  were  found  in  this  old  palace,  these 
particular  slabs  may  also  have  been  the  additional 
decorations  and  records  of  the  conquest  of  Israel  by 
his  predecessors  —  Tiglath-Pileser,  or  Shalmaneser. 
The  Jews  of  Sennacherib's  time  are  differently  repre- 
sented on  the  monuments,  but  there  is  a  close  similarity 
between  the  men  on  this  slab  and  those  on  the  black 
obelisk.  (See  p.  377.) 

A  HALTING-PLACE   BESIDE   THE  WINGED   BULL. 

And  now  ere  we  enter  the  door  of  the  central 
gallery,  and  search  for  the  few  remains  brought  from 
the  Central  Palace  of  the  Nimroud  Mound,  it  is  im- 
portant that  there  should  pass  in  rapid  review  be- 
fore our  minds  the  kingdoms  of  Saul,  David,  and 
Solomon ;  the  rise  of  the  Hebrews  into  a  great  nation. 
Ere  they  lost  their  grand  leader,  Moses,  who  was 
prophet,  priest,  and  even  "king  in  Jeshurun,"  he 
appointed  for  them  judges,  by  Jethro's  counsel,  "  ablo 
men,  such  as  fear  God ;  men  of  truth,  hating  covetous- 
ness,  to  preside  over  sections  of  the  people  in  graduated 
numbers"  (Ex.  xviii.  21).  They  were  chosen  evidently 
for  moral  fitness,  and  while  the  Levites  instructed  the 
people  in  the  Law,  the  judges  enforced  its  fulfilment. 
The  judges  mentioned  as  standing  before  Joshua  (chap, 
xxiv.  1),  had  doubtless  been  elected  from  the  same 
class  of  patriarchal  senators. 

The  Levites  were  also  the  custodians  in  the  sanc- 
tuary of  the  standard  weights  and  measures,  to  which, 
in  case  of  dispute,  reference  was  to  be  made.  The  high 


SAUL.  353 

priest,  in  tlie  ante-regal  period,  was  the  chief  jurist  in 
the  nation,  and  probably  in  case  of  need  would  be 
supernaturally  directed  in  his  decisions,  i.  e.}  he  would 
"  inquire  of  the  Lord"  by  the  appointed  means.  Yet 
we  hear  of  no  high  priest  acting  as  judge  but  Eli,  and  it 
has  been  remarked  as  a  fact  of  some  weight  (see  article 
Judges,  in  Smith's  "Dictionary  of  the  Bible"),  that  none 
of  the  special  deliverers  of  Israel  called  judges  except 
Samuel,  were  of  priestly  lineage,  and  that  few  of  them 
became  as  much  noted  as  Deborah,  a  wise  woman  of 
their  time,  who  also  judged  Israel  in  the  days  of  Barak. 
They  were  fifteen  in  number — Othniel,  Ehud,  Shamgar, 
Barak,  Gideon,  Abimelech,  Tola,  Jair,  Jephthah,  Ibzan, 
Elon,  Abdon,  Samson,  Eli,  and  Samuel,  the  last  being 
cotemporary  with  Saul,  the  first  king. 

When  the  Israelites  had  a  king,  of  him  judg- 
ment was  expected;  but  the  kingdom  of  Saul  suffered 
too  much  from  external  foes  to  allow  civil  matters  much 
prominence  in  his  reign.  The  king  was  expected  ' '  to 
write  him  a,  copy  of  tlie  Law,  and  to  read  therein  all  the 
days  of  his  life"  (Deut.  xvii.  18,  19),  which  many  proofs 
in  the  Psalms  assure  us  that  David  certainly  did. 

As  a  judge  in  his  reign  of  peace,  Solomon  shines  in 
all  his  glory.  No  criminal  was  too  powerful  for  his 
justice,  as  some  had  been  for  his  father's.  The  writings 
of  Solomon  prove  in  like  manner  much  acquaintance 
with  the  holy  books  that  had  before  been  written ;  but, 
ere  the  close  of  his  reign,  he  had  forgotten  the  rules 
that  had  been  given  to  Israel  at  the  setting  up  of  a 
king.  He  was  not  to  multiply  horses,  lest  it  should 
cause  the  people  to  go  down  into  Egypt  after  them.  He 
was  not  to  multiply  wives,  lest  they  should  turn  away 
his  heart ;  and  he  was  not  greatly  to  multiply  silver  and 
gold  (Deut.  xvii.  16,  17).  It  was  by  the  transgression 

A  A 


354  DAVID. 

of  these  very  rules  that  Solomon  fell.  Saul  had  fallen 
away  from  being  God's  king  as  early  as  the  second  year 
of  his  reign,  and  the  gift  of  the  Spirit  to  him  for  that 
office  was  taken  away  and  bestowed  upon  David. 
Saul  had  trifled  with  God's  "Word,  and  followed  the  law 
of  his  own  will,  and  more  of  his  life  passed  in  pursuing 
after  David,  the  Lord's  servant,  than  in  driving  out  the 
enemies  of  Israel.  Yet  at  his  death  on  Mount  Gilboa, 
David  thus  generously  laments  over  his  enemy,  and  his 
far  dearer  son  Jonathan  :— 

"  The  beauty  of  Israel  is  slain  upon  thy  high  places. 
How  are  the  mighty  fallen  I 
They  were  swifter  than  eagles ; 
They  were  stronger  than  lions. 
Ye  daughters  of  Israel,  weep  over  Saul, 
Who  clothed  you  in  scarlet  with  other  delights  ; 
Who  put  ornaments  of  gold  on  your  appareL" 

DAVID. 

David  reigned  in  Hebron  seven  and  a  half  years. 
King,  but  at  first,  only  over  Judah,  his  power  gra- 
dually increased,  and  at  last  the  voice  of  the  whole 
people  called  him  to  occupy  the  throne.  His  twenty- 
seventh  Psalm,  "  The  Lord  is  my  light  and  my  salva- 
tion," the  Psalm  "  before  the  anointing/'  shows  on 
whose  arm  he  leaned  in  his  rise  from  the  sheepfold  to 
the  crown  of  Israel,  which  he  held  for  thirty- three  years. 
It  must  have  been  with  no  ordinary  interest,  says 
Stanley,  that  the  surrounding  nations  watched  for  the 
prey  on  which  the  "  lion  of  Judah  " — now  about  to  issue 
from  his  native  lair  and  establish  himself  in  a  new  home 
—would  make  his  first  spring. 

One  fastness  in  the  centre  of  the  land  had  hitherto 
defied  the  armies  of  Israel,  and  on  this  one  David  had 
fixed  as  his  future  capital.  By  one  sudden  assault 


DAVID.  355 

JEBUS  was  taken,  and  became  henceforth  known  as 
JEEUSALEM  and  ZION.  The  reward  bestowed  on  the 
successful  sealer  of  the  precipice  was  the  highest  place 
in  the  army.  The  royal  residence  was  at  once  fixed 
then  on  this  THE  LOED'S  "  high  place,"  and  thither  was 
brought  the  ark  of  God  with  marked  solemnity  from 
Kirjath-jearim.  The  symbol  of  Jehovah's  "  presence/' 
and  the  golden  cherubim  that  overshadowed  it,  entered 
with  solemn  rites  into  the  ancient  heathen  fortress. 

On  this  occasion  David  appears  to  unite,  like  the 
Assyrian  kings,  the  priestly  and  the  royal  functions, 
though  Zadok  and  Abiathar  were  both  present.  (1 
Chron.  xv.)  He  appoints  all  the  service  of  the  Levites, 
and  stirs  them  up  to  their  duty.  '  He  has  pitched  a  tent 
for  the  ark  of  God,  and  they  are  to  bring  it  up  te  as 
Moses  commanded."  The  prophet  Nathan  now  appears 
for  the  first  time  as  the  controller  and  adviser  of  the 
future,  but  it  is  David  who  offers  the  sacrifices  and 
gives  the  benediction  to  the  people,  and  feasts  them  in 
his  new  home  and  future  city — "the  city  of  David." 
No  fewer  than  eleven  of  the  Psalms,*  either  in  their 
traditional  titles  or  internal  evidence,  bear  marks  of 
having  been  composed  for  this  high  festival,  in  the 
musical  glories  of  which  the  poet-king,  playing  on 
stringed  instruments,  also  personally  shared. 

JEEUSALEM. 

Jerusalem,  we  thus  observe,  becomes  the  capital  at  a 
late  era  in  the  career  of  the  nation  of  Israel.  Thebes, 
Rome,  Athens,  Shechem  even,  have  histories  which 

*  6th,  29th,  30th,  15th,  46th,  101st,  68th,  24th,  132nd,  while  parts 
of  the  105th  and  106th  Psalms  are  given  in  1  Chron.  rvi.,  in  the 
historical  account  of  the  heartfelt  ceremony. 


356  JEJRUSALEil. 

extend  back  to  the  earliest  respective  periods  of  each 
nation;  but  Jerusalem  lay  long  unknown  save  as  a 
heathen  fortress  in  the  midst  of  the  Promised  Land. 
It  is  strange  to  think  how  often  Joshua,  Deborah, 
Samuel,  Saul,  and  even  David,  must  have  passed  and 
repassed  those  grey  hills  and  spacious  caverns  in  which 
David  had  hidden  himself,  when  he  fled  to  the  moun- 
tains, unconscious  of  the  fame  reserved  for  Zion  in  every 
future  age.  (Ezek.  v.  5) 

The  erection  of  the  new  capital  at  Jerusalem  intro- 
duces us  to  a  new  era  in  David's  life.  He  now  became 
a  king,  on  the  scale  of  the  great  oriental  sovereigns  of 
Egypt  and  Assyria.  "  I  have  made  thee  a  great  name, 
like  unto  the  name  of  the  great  men  that  are  in  the 
world,"  says  the  Lord,  by  Nathan  the  prophet.  Within 
ten  years  from  the  capture  of  Jerusalem  he  had  reduced 
to  a  state  of  permanent  subjection  the  Philistines  on  the 
west,  the  Moabites  on  the  east,  the  Syrians  on  the 
north-east,  as  far  as  the  Euphrates,  the  Edomites  on 
the  south,  and  finally  the  Ammonites;  and  a  general 
peace  then  followed,  commemorated  in  the  name  of 
the  peaceful  Solomon,  the  son  born  to  him  at  this 
crisis. 

King  David  was  a  man  of  war;  the  Scripture  out- 
lines his  character;  he  represents  the  Jewish  people 
just  at  the  moment  of  their  transition  from  the  stern 
virtues  of  their  older  system  to  the  full  cultivation  and 
civilization  of  a  later  age.  "The  son  of  Jesse  the 
Bethlehemite,  cunning  in  playing,  a  mighty  valiant  man, 
a  man  of  war,  and  prudent  in  matters,  and  a  comely 
person,  and  the  Lord  is  with  him"  (1  Sam.  xvi.  18). 
This  portrait  formed  his  introduction  to  the  court  of 
Saul.  The  Lord  placed  him  at  that  point  in  the  Hebrew 
history  when  the  heathen  nations  were  yet  to  be  over- 


THE   MAN   OP   WAR.  357 

come,  and  many  of  David's  psalms  remain  to  sliow  the 
spirit  in  which  he  overcame  them.  Psalms  Ix.  6 — 12, 
cviii.  7 — 13,  describe  the  assault  on  Petra;  and  Psalms 
xx.  and  xxi._,  tell  of  a  general  union  of  religious  trust 
and  military  prowess. 

He  was  the  man  for  his  time.  So  far  from  faultless 
that  we  now  derive  our  chief  instruction  not  from  the 
history  of  his  conquests  and  his  splendour,  but  from  his 
humble  penitence  after  his  recorded  crimes.  His  pas- 
sion and  his  tenderness,  his  generosity  and  his  fierce- 
ness, stand  out  in  bold  light  and  shadow  in  the  history 
of  the  world.  Yet  the  Lord  chose  him  and  his.  The 
Christ  is  far  less  often  called  the  son  of  Abraham, 
than  the  "  Son  of  David."  Most  of  David's  sins, 
and  the  sorrows  that  grew  out  of  them,  sprang  from  the 
polygamy,  with  all  its  evil  consequences,  into  which  he 
had  plunged  on  coming  to  the  throne,  thus  forsaking 
the  law  for  the  king,  so  wisely  given  by  Moses.  But 
one  thing  he  had  always  on  his  heart,  to  entreat  the 
presence  of  the  Lord  in  his  city  and  his  kingdom.  In  a 
day  when  he  had  assembled  all  the  princes  and  captains 
of  Israel — 

"  Then  David  the  king  stood  up  upon  his  feet,  and  said,  Hear  me,  my 
brethren,  and  my  people  :  As  for  me,  I  had  in  mine  heart  to  bnild  an 
house  of  rest  for  the  ark  of  the  covenant  of  the  Lord,  and  for  the  foot- 
stool of  our  God,  and  had  made  ready  for  the  building. 

"  But  God  said  unto  me,  Thou  slialt  not  build  an  house  for  my  name, 
because  thou  hast  been  a  man  of  war,  and  hast  shed  blood. 

"  Howbeit  the  Lord  God  of  Israel  chose  me  before  all  the  house  of  my 
father  to  be  king  over  Israel  for  ever. 

"  And  of  all  my  sons,  (for  the  Lord  hath  given  me  many  sons),  be 
hath  chosen  Solomon  my  son  to  sit  upon  the  throne  of  the  kingdom  of 
the  Lord  over  Israel. 

"  And  He  said  unto  me,  Solomon  thy  son,he  shall  build  my  house  and 
my  courts ;  for  I  have  chosen  him  to  be  my  son,  and  I  will  be  his 
Father." 


358  SOLOMON. 

So  David  slept  with  his  fathers,  and  was  "buried  in 
the  city  of  David.  He  lives  in  his  undying  and  inspired 
songs,  most  precious  in  their  prophecies  of  the  kingdom 
of  Christ ;  and  to  this  day  he  makes  himself  a  place  in 
every  Christian  heart,  a  place  nearest  and  dearest  in 
our  darkest  hours  of  sorrow  and  tribulation. 

SOLOMON. 

The  materials  for  the  life  of  Solomon  are  scanty :  the 
life  of  David  occupies  sixteen  chapters  of  the  First  Book 
of  Samuel,  twenty-four  of  the  Second  Book,  two  chapters 
of  the  First  of  Kings,  and  nineteen  chapters  of  the  First 
of  Chronicles ;  but  that  of  Solomon  his  son  fills  only 
eleven  chapters  of  the  First  of  Kings,  i. — xi ;  and  nine 
chapters  of  Second  of  Chronicles,  i. — ix. 

"  The  compilers  of  the  sacred  books  felt  a  true  in- 
spiration that  the  wanderings,  wars,  and  sufferings  of 
David  were  better  fitted  for  the  instruction  of  after  ages 
than  the  magnificence  of  his  son.  There  seems  to  have 
been  another  book  evidently  consulted  by  them,  but 
not  inspired,  '  The  Book  of  the  Acts  of  Solomon* 
(see  1  Kings  xi.  41),  and  from  this  book  came  probably 
the  miscellaneous  facts  concerning  the  commerce  and 
splendour  of  his  reign. 

"  Under  the  influences  of  Bathsheba,  David,  and 
Nathan,  the  boy  grew  up.  At  the  age  of  ten  or  eleven 
he  must  have  passed  through  the  revolt  of  Absalom 
and  shared  his  father's  exile.  He  would  be  taught  all 
that  priests,  or  Levites,  or  prophets  had  to  teach; 
music  and  song,  and  the  'Book  of  the  Law  of  the 
Lord*  in  such  portions  as  were  then  written.  In  the 
course  of  years  he  emulated  his  father's  psalms;  the 
2nd,  45th,  72nd,  127th,  are  on  good  grounds  referred 
to  his  time." 


ACCESSION   TO   THE   THRONE.  359 

The  growing  intercourse  of  Israel  with  the  Phoe- 
nicians had  now  led  to  a  further  knowledge  of  the  out- 
lying world  than  had  fallen  to  David's  lot.  Science  and 
art,  music  and  poetry,  had  in  this  age  received  a  new 
impulse,  and  were  moving  on  with  'rapid  steps  towards 
such  perfection  as  the  Hebrews  were  capable  of  attaining. 
In  the  midst  of  these  expansions  the  young  sovereign, 
at  the  age  of  nineteen  or  twenty,  came  to  the  throne  ; 
born  to  the  purple,  his  soul  cradled  in  grand  liturgies, 
and  trained  to  think  unceasingly  of  the  surpassing 
palace  of  Jehovah,  of  which  he  was  to  be  the  builder. 
The  position  to  which  he  succeeded  was  unique ;  never 
before,  and  never  after,  did  the  kingdom  of  Israel  take 
such  a  place  among  the  great  monarchies  of  the  East ; 
able  to  ally  itself,  or  to  contend  on  equal  terms  with  Egypt 
and  Assyria,  and  stretching  from,  the  Eiver  Euphrates 
to  the  borders  of  Egypt,  from  the  Mediterranean  to  the 
Gulf  of  Akaba  itself; — receiving  annual  tribute  from 
many  subject  princes. 

The  home  policy  of  Solomon  appears  to  have  been 
to  remove  all  pretenders  to  the  throne  and  troublesome 
persons  at  once  out  of  his  way,  as  Adonijah,  and 
Abiathar,  the  high  priest  who  had  adhered  to  him ;  the 
latter  being  banished  to  his  native  village,  and  his  life 
spared  only  on  account  of  his  having  been  David's 
faithful  friend  (see  1  Kings  ii.  26,  27).  The  high 
priesthood  was  transferred  to  another  family  than  that 
of  Eli,  more  ready  than  Abiathar  had  been  to  pass 
from  the  old  order  to  the  new,  and  to  accept  the  voices 
of  the  prophets  as  greater  than  the  oracles  which  had 
belonged  exclusively  to  the  priesthood  through  the 
Urim  and  the  Thummim. 


360  UEIM   AND   THUilMIM. 


THE   URIM  AND    THUMMIM. 

These  untranslated  words  signify  "Lights"  and 
"  Perfections."  What  they  meant  the  Jews  must  have 
known  up  to  the  time  of  Solomon ;  but  now  on  every  side 
we  meet  but  with  confessions  of  ignorance  concerning 
them.  From  1  Sam.  xxviii.  6,  we  learn  that  they  were 
something  by  which  the  Lord  had  been  wont  to  answer 
inquiry  through  the  high  priest,  and  by  which  He  did 
not  answer  Saul  when  he  last  inquired.  By  Exod.  xxviii. 
15 — 30,  we  learn  that  they  were  placed  within  the 
breastplate  of  judgment  worn  by  the  high  priest,  which, 
with  wreathen  chains  of  gold,  was  attached  to  the 
shoulder-pieces  of  his  ephod. 

The  breastplate  was  of  cunning  work,  gold,  blue, 
purple,  and  scarlet,  mingled  with  fine  twined  linen  in  its 
"foursquare"  construction,  and  upon  this  groundwork 
of  gorgeous  colour  were  "  filled  in"  glittering  jewels,  in 
four  rows — ruby,  topaz,  and  carbuncle ;  emerald,  sap- 
phire, and  diamond;  opal,  agate,  and  amethyst;  beryl, 
onyx,  and  jasper;  each  gem  set  in  gold  and  graven 
with  the  name  of  one  of  the  twelve  tribes  of  Israel. 
There  is  especial  mention  made  of  the  inner  side  of  the 
breastplate,  and  on  this  inner  side  were  to  be  placed  the 
Urim  and  the  Thummim.  They  would  be  "  on  Aaron's 
heart  when  he  went  in  before  the  Lord,  and  he  was  to 
bear  the  judgment  of  the  children  of  Israel  upon  his 
heart  before  the  Lord  continually." 

Not  a  word  describes  this  Urim  and  Thummim. 
They  are  mentioned  as  familiar  to  Moses  and  the  people, 
they  pass  from  Aaron  to  Eleazar,  and  when  Joshua  is 
appointed  as  successor  to  Moses,  it  is  said  Eleazar  the 
priest  shall  ask  counsel  for  him  after  the  judgment  of 
Urim  (Num.  xxvii.  21). 


WHAT   WAS   IT?  361 

Moses  mentions  the  Urim  and  Thummim  as  the 
crowning  glory  of  the  tribe  of  Levi  (Deut.  xxxiii.  8,  9). 
Such  inquiries  as  the  following  seem  to  have  been  made 
of  the  Lord,  and  answered  doubtless  by  these  means, 
always  in  corjunction  with  a  priest  and  an  ephod : — 

"  Shall  the  children  cf  Israel  go  out,  or  shall  they  come  in  ?" — See 
NUM.  xxvii.  21. 

"  Who  shall  go  tip  for  us  against  the  Catmanites  first  ?" — JUDGES  i.  1. 

"  Which  of  us  shall  go  up  first  to  the  battle  against  the  children  of 
Benjamin  ?" — JUDGES  xx.  18. 

"Shall  I  go  and  smite  those  Philistines?" — I  SAM.  xxiii.  2. 

"Will  the  men  of  ILeilah  deliver  me  into  the  hand  of  Saul?"— 
1  SAM.  xxiii.  12. 

The  answer  is  in  all  cases  very  brief,  and  amounts  to 
little  more  than  an  affirmative,  or  a  negative,  and  one 
question  only  is  answered  at  a  time. 

A  favourite  view  of  Jewish  and  some  Christian* 
writers  has  been  that  the  answer  of  God  was  taken  from 
the  twelve  stones  of  the  breastplate,  and  that  upon 
these,  such  letters  were  illuminated  as  replied  to  the  in- 
quiry ;  but  this  does  not  recognize  the  distinction  which 
Scripture  clearly  makes  between  the  Urim  and  the 
Breastplate ;  neither  does  any  other  hypothesis  seem 
entirely  satisfactory. 

There  is  a  curious  fact  in  connection  with  the  ido- 
latrous symbolism  of  Egypt  that  may  throw  some  light 
upon  this  subject.  On  the  breast  of  well  nigh  every 
member  of  their  priestly  caste  there  hung  a  pectoral 
plate  corresponding  in  position  and  size  to  the  breast- 
plate of  the  high  priest  of  Israel,  and  in  many  of  them 
we  find  in  the  centre  of  such  plate,  right  over  the 
heart  of  the  priestly  mummy — as  the  Urim  was  to  bo 
on  the  heart  of  Aaron — the  mystic  Scarabceus  beetle, 
the  known  symbol  of  Light  and  Life  among  the  Sgyp- 


362  THE  HEATHEN  SCARAREI. 

tians,  another  rendering  of  the  "orb  and  wings/*  or 
another  SUN  in  miniature.  These  same  Scarabaei, 
engraved  with  Assyrian  emblems  and  characters,  Mr. 
Layard  notices  as  often  found  among  Assyrian  ruins. 
There  is  the  figure  of  one  with  spread  wings  on  a  small 
white  lozenge  stone,  in  the  glass  case  which  stands  first 
in  the  Kouyunjik  Gallery. 

The  heathen  rendering  in  a  former  case  led  us  up 
to  the  grand  Original.  May  not  the  Urim  and  the 
Thummim  in  all  probability  have  been  cherubic  forms 
on  the  inner  side  of  the  breastplate,  between  which 
the  "  Divine  Presence"  in  some  way  manifested  itself 
by  light  or  warmth  upon  the  priest's  hand  thrust  into 
the  ephod  ?  "  Withdraw  thine  hand,"  says  Saul  to 
the  priest  on  Shiloh,  wearing  an  ephod  (1  Sam.  xiv. 
3,  19),  and  he  then  dashes  into  the  battle  as  if  he 
had  received  the  sign  from  the  Urim.  The  Lord, 
when  convincing  Moses  of  his  miraculous  call  to  the 
leadership  of  the  people,  had  given  him  a  sign  by 
the  hand,  had  told  him  to  ''thrust  his  hand  into 
his  bosom,  and  he  drew  it  forth  leprous  and  white  as 
snow  j  and  he  put  his  hand  into  his  bosom  again,  and 
it  was  restored  whole  as  the  other."  The  manifesta- 
tion of  the  presence  of  God  to  human  sense  in  Old 
Testament  times  was  always  by  light  or  fire.  Alas, 
that  sinful  man  should  have  built  upon  this  fact,  fire 
worship ! 

Perhaps  the  following  texts  may  give  further  hints 
upon  this  subject : — 

"  Aaron  and  his  eons  did  all  things  which  the  Lord  commanded  by 
the  hand  of  Moses." 

"  The  statutes  which  the  Lord  hath  spoken  by  the  hand  of  Moses."— 
LET.  viii.,  ix. 

"  The  commandments  of  the  Lord  by  the  hand  of  Moses."— NUM. 
iv.  37. 


THE    HAND   OF   MOSES. 

"  By  lot  was  their  inheritance,  as  the  Lord  commanded  by  the  hand  of 
Moses." — JOSH.  xiv.  2. 

"  According  to  the  word  of  the  Lord  by  the  hand  of  Moses." — 
JOSH.  xxii.  9. 

"  Thou  leddest  thy  people  like  a  flock  by  the  hand  of  Moses  and 
Aaron." — Ps.  Ixxvii.  20. 

The  material  of  the  Egyptian  or  Assyrian  symbol 
varied  according  to  the  rank  of  the  wearer,  it  might 
be  of  blue  porcelain,  jasper,  cornelian,  or  lapis  lazuli. 
We  have  no  data  for  the  material  of  the  Jewish 
"  Urim."  If  it  was  to  represent  light  it  would  pro- 
bably be  colourless  and  clear.  "A  white  stone"  is 
promised  in  Rev.  ii.  17,  to  him  that  overcometh,  and 
in  the  stone  a  new  name  written,  which  no  man  knoweth 
save  him  that  receiveth  it.  On  the  Egyptian  Scarabsei 
were  sometimes  graven  the  symbolic  eye  of  Divine 
Providence,  or  the  sacred  name  of  their  greatest  god. 

The  further  facts  concerning  the  Urim  and  Thummim 
are  few  and  decisive.  Never,  after  the  days  of  David, 
is  the  ephod  with  its  appendages  connected  with  counsel 
from  Jehovah.  Abiathar  is  the  last  priest  who  uses  it  for 
that  purpose  (1  Sam.  xxiii.  6,  9).  The  utterances  of 
the  Prophets  speaking  by  the  word  of  the  Lord,  were 
to  supersede  the  oracles  of  the  Urim.  The  sense  of 
hearing  was  to  be  addressed,  and  no  longer  that  of 
sight.  The  nation  on  their  return  from  the  captivity 
desired  a  priest  with  the  Urim  and  the  Thummim,  but  he 
was  no  more  found.  No  relic  of  the  ark  or  its  golden 
cherubim  remain,  and  none  from  Solomon's  Temple 
were  preserved  to  tempt  Christ's  followers  to  idolatry.  If 
they  had  been,  in  these  days  of  fresh  reverence  for  the 
external  and  the  sensuous,  who  can  tell  but  they  might 
have  been  worshipped  like  the  crucifix  of  Borne  ? 

All  that  we  can  discern  of  the  Urim  and  the  Thummim 
may  yet  shadow  forth  to  us  what  is  intimately  known 


364  LIGHT   FKOM   THE    UiilM. 

to  every  real  follower  of  Christ.  It  speaks  in  symbol 
of  the  PRESENCE  of  the  Lord  within  us,  of  our  being 
when  washed  in  his  redeeming  blood,  the  "  Temples  of 
the  Holy  Ghost."  Did  He  not  pray  to  the  Father — 

"  I  in  them,  and  thou  in  me,  that  they  may  be  made  perfect  in  one  ; 
and  that  the  -world  may  know  that  thou  hast  sent  me,  and  hast  loved 
them,  as  thou  hast  loTed  me." — JOHN  xvii.23. 

Our  great  High  Priest  ever  bears  us  on  his  heart ; 
shall  He  not  ever  dwell  in  ours  ? 

It  is  quite  possible  that  the  light  from  the  Urim  and 
Thummim  within,  shone  through  the  precious  stones  of 
the  breastplate  (significant  of  the  tribes  of  Israel)  visibly 
to  those  without ;  as  the  light  and  love  of  Jesus  in  the 
heart,  will  be  evident,  especially  to  the  brethren  in 
Christ,  "  the  household  of  faith,"  who  know  for  them- 
selves the  Divine  source  of  that  fllumination. 

SOLOMON'S  GLOKY. 

The  reign  of  Solomon  is  twice  said  in  Scripture  to 
have  lasted  forty  years ;  but  if  so,  Rehoboam  his  son, 
who  ascended  the  throne  in  his  forty-first  year,  must 
have  been  born  a  year  before  his  father's  very  early 
accession,  and  as  his  mother  was  Naamah  the  Am- 
monitess,  Solomon  must  from  his  youth  have  fallen 
under  the  influence  of  a  strange  wife,  which  does  not 
seem  to  coincide  with  the  narrative  of  God's  especial 
blessing  to  him.  Still,  with  the  habits  of  the  time,  this 
is  not  impossible.  Josephus  gives  the  duration  of  his 
reign  as  eighty  years.  (See  Cassell's  "Bible  Diction- 
ary," article  Chronology.) 

The  very  first  act  of  the  foreign  policy  of  his  reign 
was  to  make  affinity  with  Egypt.  He  married  Pharaoh's 
daughter  (1  Kings  iii.  1).  Since  the  time  of  the' 


THE   WOBLDLY   ALLIANCE.  305 

Exodus  there  liad  been  no  intercourse  between  the  two 
countries,  and  Solomon's  marriage  is  thought  to  have 
been  a  political  movement.  The  immediate  results 
-were,  perhaps,  favourable  enough.  The  new  queen 
brought  with  her  as  a  dowry  the  frontier  city  of  Gezer. 
Gifts  from  the  nobles  of  Israel  and  of  Tyre  were  lavished 
at  her  feet,  and  a  separate  and  stately  palace  was  built 
for  her,  ere  long,  outside  of  the  city  of  David,  where  she 
dwelt  with  "  the  virgins  her  fellows/'  probably  con- 
forming partially  to  the  religion  of  her  adopted  country. 

The  ultimate  issue  of  this  alliance  showed  that  it 
was  really  hollow  and  impolitic.  The  court  of  Egypt 
welcomed  the  fugitive  Jeroboam  when  known  to  aspire 
to  the  kingly  power,  and  there  we  may  well  believe  was 
planned  the  scheme  that  led  to  the  rebellion  of  the  Ten 
Tribes,  and  then  to  the  attack  of  Shishak  on  the 
weakened  kingdom  of  Solomon's  son.  Against  this  we 
have  to  set  the  visible  advantages  of  the  trade  opened 
by  Solomon  in  the  fine  linen  of  Egypt,  and  the  supply  of 
chariot  horses.  Solomon  was  a  merchant  king,  his 
alliance  with  the  Phoenicians  was  only  the  continuance 
of  that  of  his  father  David,  and  Israel  was  to  be  supplied 
from  Tyre  with  the  materials  for  the  Temple.  The  open- 
ing  of  Joppa  as  a  port,  created  a  new  coasting  trade,  and 
the  materials  from  Tyre  were  conveyed  to  it  on  floats, 
and  thence  to  Jerusalem  (2  Chron.  ii.  16).  The  chief 
architect  of  the  Temple,  though,  an  Israelite  on  the 
mother's  side,  was  yet  by  birth  a  Tyrian,  whose  name 
was  Hiram,  like  the  King  of  Tyre. 

The  imports  of  Tyre  were  returned  in  exports  of 
Solomon's  oil  and  wine,  and  even  in  the  after  age  of 
Herod,  the  country  of  Tyre  and  Sidon  was  said  to  be 
nourished  by  Judea. 

Tl>e  Jews  now  joined  the  Phoenicians  in  their  voyages 


866  FOREIGN   COMMERCE. 

of  commerce,  and  Solomon's  wide  possessions  opened  a 
new  world  in  this  way  for  the  Tynans.  The  new  ships 
were  manned  by  Phoenicians,  bat  built  at  Solomon's 
expense ;  they  sailed  down  the  Eed  Sea  to  the  Indian 
Ocean,  to  the  Ophir  either  of  Arabia  or  India ;  and  to 
Sheba,  the  land  of  the  sons  of  Joktan,  and  after  three  years' 
absence  brought  back  gold  and  silver,  precious  stones  and 
woods,  spices  and  ivory,  and  new  forms  of  animal  life 
"  apes  and  peacocks."  We  are  told  that  Solomon  him- 
self travelled  to  Ezion-geber,  perhaps  to  see  this  fleet  set 
sail  (2  Chron.  viii.  17),  and  then  may  have  followed  the 
thoughts  which  appear  in  the  Psalms  on  the  wonders  of 
the  great  deep,  and  on  doing  business  in  great  waters 
(Ps.  cvii.  23—80).  This,  however,  was  but  one  branch 
of  the  traffic  organized  by  Solomon. 

To  him  was  owing  the  foundation  of  cities,  like  Tad- 
mor  in  the  wilderness,  and  others  on  the  route  to  the 
Euphrates,  which  had  each  its  own  special  market  for 
chariot  horses,  and  stores,  while  the  erection  of  towns 
on  the  Lebanon  points  to  a  still  more  distant  commerce, 
and  opened  out  the  resources  of  Central  Asia. 

And  so  the  fame  of  Solomon's  glory  and  his  wisdom 
were  ever  spreading,  and  the  Queen  of  Sheba,  before 
noticed,  heads  the  trains  of  other  strangers  from  far 
countries,  who  watched  doubtless  the  building  of  the 
Temple  of  the  Lord.  And  while  Solomon  felt  himself 
"as  a  little  child,"  in  comparison  with  the  vast  work 
to  which  he  was  called,  he  lived  in  the  light  of  God's 
favour.  Of  the  Lord  he  desired  wisdom  and  obtained 
it ;  the  highest  degree  of  wisdom  to  judge  the  people, 
and  to  organize  their  great  institutions.  It  does  not 
seem  to  be  said  that  he  desired  holiness  as  his  father 
David  had,  and  he  was,  though  he  knew  it  not,  in 
the  midst  of  the  fire  of  temptation,  from  abounding 


THE  LOED'S  BALANCE.  367 

riches  and  innumerable  wives.  The  precepts  of  Moses 
were  altogether  forgotten — all  the  drinking  vessels  of  his 
two  palaces  were  of  pure  gold.  Silver  was  in  Jerusalem 
plentiful  as  stones,  and  cedar  wood  as  sycamores. 

Wealth  seemed  boundless.  There  was  a  monopoly 
of  many  trades  for  the  king's  service.  Tribute  was 
ever  pouring  in.  Vineyards  appeared  ever  fruitful,  and 
all  the  provinces  of  the  kingdom  supplied  the  king's  pro- 
visions loyally  in  turn  (1  Kings  iv.  21 — 27).  The  total 
amount  brought  into  the  king's  treasury  in  gold,  exclusive 
of  tribute  in  kind,  amounted  to  six  hundred  and  sixty-six 
talents  in  the  year  (1  Kings  x.  14).  The  coincidence  of 
this  number  with  the  number  in  Eev.  xiii.  18,  it  has 
been  remarked,  can  scarcely  be  considered  casual.  The 
glory,  wisdom  and  wealth  of  Solomon  seem  held  up  as  the 
representatives  of  all  earthly  wisdom,  glory  and  wealth, 
and  Christ  lays  in  HIS  balance  with  them — only  a  lily — 
for  all  came  short  of  HIS  light  and  HIS  purity.  Seven  is 
the  number  of  perfection,  and  six  came  short  of  it ;  and 
it  was  short  even  of  the  possesser's  own  needs,  for  no 
finances  could  bear  the  strain  of  Solomon's  magnificence 
and  selfish  luxury.  His  treasury  became  empty  and  his 
monopolies  irksome,  and  his  own  people  came  to  com- 
plain of  "  his  grievous  yoke  "  (1  Kings  xii.  4);  he  copied 
the  Pharaohs  in  his  grandeur,  and  copied  them  also  in 
disregard  of  human  suffering. 

The  men  of  Judah  watched  for  seven  long  years  the 
rise  of  the  Cyclopean  foundations  of  vast  stones  which 
yet  remain  when  all  beside  has  perished ;  these  gradually 
rose  up  and  covered  the  area  of  the  threshing  floor  of 
Araunah,  till  at  last,  "  like  some  tall  palm,  the  massive 
fabric  grew"  to  its  perfection,  and  the  day  arrived  when 
the  ark  from  Zion  was  to  be  brought  to  its  new  home, 
and  as  it  was  solemnly  placed  in  its  golden  sanctuary, 


3G8  THE  BOOKS  OP   SOLOMON. 

the  clond,  "the  glory  of  the  Lord/'  "the  Presence/' 
filled  the  house  of  the  Lord.  The  two  tables  of  stone 
within  it,  the  manna,  and  Aaron's  rod  that  budded,  being 
the  links  that  connected  the  wilderness  life  of  the  people 
with  this  their  "  Solomon's  glory." 

Alas,  that  a  sovereign  so  honoured  and  even  taught 
of  God,  departed  afterwards  from  the  shadow  of  His 
wings,  did  not  dwell  in  "  THE  PEESENCE."  There  fell 
on  him,  as  on  other  crowned  voluptuaries,  the  weariness 
that  seemed  written  upon  all  tilings,  and  which  has 
impressed  on  the  world  for  ever— 

"  Vanity  of  vanities ;  all  is  vanity ." 

The  true  "  Prince  of  Peace"  was  yet  to  come,  and  the 
"  world,  the  flesh,  and  the  devil,"  prepared  deep  trouble 
for  Solomon.  If  we  have  any  hopes  that  he  returned  to 
the  Lord  in  his  last  days,  we  must  look  keenly  for  them, 
though  no  certainty  rewards  us,  in  Ecclesiastes,  the  last 
of  the  three  books  that  remain  to  tell  the  history  of 
his  mind ;  the  first,  his  "  Song,"  points  to  the  ardour 
of  his  youth ;  the  Proverbs  are  the  practical,  peniten- 
tial thoughts  of  his  riper  age ;  and  the  inspired  "  Con- 
fessions of  the  Preacher,"  are  often  used  of  the  Spirit 
to  draw  souls  from  things  earthly  to  things  heavenly ; 
as,  indeed,  in  a  mystical  sense,  the  "Song"  is  caused  to 
tell  of  the  love  of  the  soul  to  its  risen  Christ. 

It  is  said  that  both  Ecclesiastes  and  the  "  Song"  were 
slowly  and  hesitatingly  received  into  the  canon  of  inspi- 
ration by  the  Eabbis  of  the  great  synagogue.  Yet  that 
in  including  these  books,  as  well  as  the  Proverbs,  they 
acted  by  direction  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  there  is  no  doubt 
at  all. 

TTBE. 

There  are  some  who  take  a  sunnier  view  of  Solomon's 


TYEB.  369 

life  and  character — who  consider  that  his  deep  declension 
only  shaded  the  brightness  of  what  was  really  his  testi- 
mony for  God,  and  showed  the  weakness  of  all  flesh  when 
depending  on  its  own  strength.  They  refer  to  the  influ- 
ence of  both  David  and  Solomon  over  Tyre,  and  through 
the  Tyrians  over  the  whole  known  world ;  so  that  Tyre 
when  she  afterward  apostatized  is  reminded  by  Ezekiel 
of  religious  privileges  that  seem  to  have  rivalled  those 
of  Judah. 

"  Son  of  man,  say  unto  the  prince  of  Tyrus,  Thus  saith  the  Lord 
God :  Because  thine  heart  is  lifted  up,  and  thou  hast  said,  I  am  a  God,  I 
sit  in  the  seat  of  God,  in  the  midst  of  the  seas ;  yet  thou  art  a  man,  and 
not  God,  though  thou  set  thine  heart  as  the  heart  of  God. 

"  Behold,  thou  art  wiser  than  Daniel ;  there  is  no  secret  that  they 
can  hide  from  thee: 

"With  thy  wisdom  and  with  thine  understanding  thou  hast  gotten 
thee  riches,  and  hast  gotten  gold  and  silver  into  thy  treasures  : 

"  By  thy  great  [wisdom  and  by  thy  traffick  hast  thou  increased  thy 
riches,  and  thine  heart  is  lifted  up  because  of  thy  riches : 

"  Therefore  thus  saith  the  Lord  God ;  behold  I  will  bring  strangers 
upon  thee,  the  terrible  of  the  nations  :  and  they  shall  draw  their  swords 
against  the  beauty  of  thy  wisdom,  and  they  shall  defile  thy  brightness." 

The  26th,  27th,  and  28th  of  Ezekiel  show  how  much 
the  Tyrians  must  have  derived  from  companionship  with 
Israel.  The  words  of  the  preacher,  the  King  of  Jeru- 
salem, seem  to  have  circulated  through  all  lands,  and 
yet  the  Queen  of  Sheba  owns  that  she  had  heard  nothing 
that  came  into  comparison  with  the  impression  of  her 
personal  interviews.  The  commercial  influence  of  the 
Great  King  doubtless  did  more  than  secure  ivory,  apes, 
and  peacocks.  In  his  age,  about  a  thousand  years  be- 
fore the  Christian  era,  when  the  Greeks  had  not  learned 
their  letters  and  the  Romans  had  no  existence,  the 
Jews  and  Tyrians  were  probably  in  many  silent  ways 
the  world's  missionaries  and  instructors,  although  they 
had  not  learned  of  Christ  to  go  and  teach  all  nations, 

B  B 


370  THE   PEOPHET   JONAH. 

and  would  possibly  have   deemed  it  waste   of  their 
exclusive  rights  to  do  so. 

THE   PEOPHET   JONAH. 

During  all  the  reign  of  Solomon  we  hear  nothing 
in  the  Bible  of  Assyria  or  Babylon ;  and  the  fact  that 
the  Euphrates  was  recognized  as  the  boundary  of  Solo- 
mon's kingdom  (2  Chron.  ix.  26),  suggests  the  inference 
that  the  Mesopotamia^  monarchies  were  then  compara- 
tively feeble. 

We  heard  of  Assyria  at  its  rise — in  the  days  of 
Assur  and  Nimrod.  Balaam  mentioned  Assur  in  his 
desert  prophecy.  Mesopotamia  led  ISRAEL  captive  after 
her  grand  conquests  under  Joshua;  therefore  the  new 
conquerors  could  have  possessed  no  insignificant  military 
power  some  centuries  before  the  building  of  the  Temple 
on  Zion.  And"  now  Assyria  looms  again  before  our 
eyes,  as  "  the  word  of  the  Lord  came  to  Jonah,  the  son 
of  Amittai,  saying,  Arise  !  go  to  Nineveh,  that  great 
city,  and  cry  against  it ;  for  their  wickedness  is  come 
up  before  Me." 

A  most  unusual  commission  for  a  Jewish  prophet ; 
and  it  was  not  the  first  that  had  been  given  to  him,  for 
this  Jonah,  the  son  of  Amittai,  a  prophet  of  Gath- 
hepher,  of  Zebulon,  had  predicted  the  restoration  of 
the  ancient  boundaries  of  the  kingdom  of  the  ten  tribes 
(2  Kings  xiv.  25),  and  that  prediction  received  its 
accomplishment  in  the  reign  of  Jeroboam  II.,  earlier 
than  whose  reign,  it  would  seem,  Jonah  must  have  lived. 
Jeroboam  was  thirteenth  King  of  Israel,  son  of  Joash, 
whom  he  succeeded  on  the  throne  824  B.C.  Jonah's 
date  is  supposed  about  862,  and  as  we  must  again 
remember  that  great  cities  are  not  built  in  a  day,  it  is  to 
the  Nineveh  of  which  these  very  palaces  at  Nimroud 


WHEN   DID    HE   LIVE  ?  371 

formed  a  part  that  Jonah  comes — perhaps,  a  century  and 
a  half  after  the  time  of  Solomon — to  a  "  Nineveh  "  con- 
taining a  vast  population,  more  than  60,000  persons  of 
the  ignorant  or  infant  class,  and  those  and  their  elders 
not  packed  together  as  in  our  western  cities,  but 
scattered  over  the  plains  of  the  Tigris  as  the  different 
mounds  are  now — the  city  made  up  of  several  distinct 
walled  quarters,  distinct  from  one  another,  divided  by 
cultivated  lands.  (Isfahan  and  Damascus  to  this  day 
occupy  as  much  space  as  London  or  Paris,  and  do  not 
contain  a  tithe  of  the  population).  We  are  told  that 
the  so-called  Nineveh  was  three  days'  journey  in  extent ; 
and  a  day's  journey  being  twenty  miles,  this  makes  its 
circumference  sixty  miles,  which  Mr.  Layard  tells  us 
would  enclose  the  various  mounds  as  in  a  circle,  thereby 
verifying  the  description  of  the  Bible. 

It  was  the  God  of  Israel  who  sent  this  prophet,  pro- 
bably clothed  in  the  prophetic  dress,  a  rough  garment 
of  skin,  to  cry  upon  those  high  places,  and  along  those 
sculptured  corridors,  in  square  and  caravanserai,  bazaar 
and  lane — 

"Yet  forty  days,  and  Nineveh  shall  be  overthrown." 

The  Lord  also  prepared  the  heart  of  the  King  of 
Nineveh  to  listen,  seated  on  his  royal  throne  in  his  great 
audience-chamber,  surrounded  by  the  nobles  of  his 
court. 

"  He  arose  from  his  throne  and  laid  aside  his  robe  from   him,  and 
covered  himself  with  sackcloth  and  sat  in  ashes." 

He  decreed  sackcloth  and  a  fast  also,  for  man  and 
beast  around  him,  and  set  up  a  mighty  cry  to  God,  with  a 
command  that  his  people  should  turn  from  their  be- 
setting sin-— the  violence  that  was  in  their  hands.  In  a 
Persian  mourning  mentioned  by  Herodotus,  the  troops 
"  shaved  off,  not  only  their  own  hair,  but  similarly  dis- 


372  THE   KING   OP  NINEVEH. 

figured  their  horses  and  beasts  of  burthen."  "  A  reli- 
gious sentiment/'  says  Professor  Kawlinson,  "  seems  to 
have  been  strong  and  deep-seated  among  the  early 
Assyrians."  And  the  Lord  saw  this  repentance  for  the 
time  to  be  real  and  true.  Our  Saviour  corroborates  it — 
"  they  repented  at  the  preaching  of  Jonas."  Alas  !  that 
Jonah  seemed  to  hope  that  the  doom  he  had  announced 
would  come,  in  spite  of  that  repentance. 

There  is  a  great  group  of  ruins  opposite  Mosul  called 
Nebbi  Yunus ;  and  on  one  of  its.mounds  stands  a  mosque, 
containing  the  so-called  tomb  of  the  prophet  Jonah. 
The  sanctity  of  the  place  in  Mussulman  eyes  prevented 
Mr.  Layard  from  openly  excavating  here,  as  it  is  their 
general  burying-ground.  Colossal  bulls  and  figures 
were,  however,  discovered  in  that  mound  after  he 
returned  to  England,  and  he  supposes  the  remains  will 
prove  to  be  of  the  time  of  Esarhaddon.  He  mentions 
two  cylinders  discovered  there,  with  sixty  lines  of  writing 
on  each  side,  and  says  that  one  which  came  into  his  own 
possession,  being  hollow,  had  been  used  as  a  candlestick 
by  a  respectable  Turcoman  family.  To  such  base  recent 
uses  have  been  turned  the  records  of  the  Assyrian 
kings. 


ARABIA   AND   MESOPOTAMIA. 


THE   FALL  OP  JUDAE. 


373 


CHAPTER  XIY. 

THE    FALL    OF   JUDAH. 


THE  CENTRAL  PALACE— ITS  DISPLACED  SLABS — THE  OBELISK— THE  JEWISH 
COSTUME — THE  TABLE  OS  KINGS — SYRIA —  NEBO — AGES  REPRESENTED 
ON  THE  NIMROUD  MOUND— THE  SOUTH-WEST  PALACE— THE  PROPHETS 
—ISAIAH  —  KOUYUNJIK.  GALLERY  —  MERODACH-BALADAN  —  GALLERY 
SLABS — SUSIAN  SLABS — ELA1I — OUTCASTS  OF  ELAM — DANIEL  IN  SHU- 
SHAN — SENNACHERIB — HIS  SIEGES — SUBTERRANEAN  HALL — LACHISH 
— BABYLONIAN  BOWLS. 


UT  we  have  now  made  long  meditation  under  the 
shadow  of  the  bull  at  the  entrance  of  the  central 
saloon  of  Assyrian  relics  in  the  Museum,  and 


must  direct  our  attention  to  new  treasures  of  antiquity, 
and  ask  where  they  were  found  ?  Not  in  the  North-west 
Palace,  but  in  the  Palace  called  Central,,  the  next  one 


374  THE   DISPLACED   SLABS. 

to  it  in  the  Nimroud  Mound.  Comparatively  few  relics 
of  this  palace  are  in  England,  or  were  discovered  by  Mr. 
Layard ;  he  excavated  to  the  south  of  one  of  the  bulls  and 
came  upon  tombs  :  one,  covered  with  an  alabaster  slab, 
contained  parts  of  a  skeleton,  the  skull  entire,  but  all 
crumbled  to  dust  at  the  entrance  of  the  air ;  among  the 
dust  he  found  beads,  two  bracelets  of  silver,  and  a  pin 
for  the  hair.  In  tombs  beyond  these  were  elegant  vases 
of  highly  glazed  green  pottery,  copper  mirrors,  and 
spoons. 

The  explorer  was  surprised  to  trace,  five  feet  beneath 
these  tombs,  the  remains  of  a  building;  walls  of  unbaked 
brick  could  yet  be  seen,  from  which  slabs  seemed  to 
have  been  removed.  After  clearing  away  twenty  tombs, 
a  space  of  fifty  feet  square  presented  a  singular  appear- 
ance. Above,  a  hundred  sculptured  slabs  were  un- 
covered, placed  in  rows  one  against  another,  like  the 
leaves  of  a  gigantic  book,  and  evidently  ready  for  re- 
moval to  another  palace. 

"  Who  had  here  buried  their  dead,"  he  asks,  "  with 
funeral  vases,  resembling  those  of  the  catacombs 
in  Egypt  after  the  destruction  of  this  Assyrian 
palace  ?" 

The  bas-reliefs  differed  considerably  from  those  of 
the  North-west  Palace  in  the  caparisons  of  the  horses 
and  in  the  forms  of  the  chariots,  for  there  are  here  eight 
spokes  to  the  wheel  instead  of  six.  The  bulls  at  the 
entrance  are  said  to  be  inscribed  with  the  name  of  the 
son  of  the  founder  of  the  North-west  building,  but  Mr. 
Layard  thinks  they  may  not  be  of  the  age  of  the  palace 
itself ;  the  distinction  between  the  sculptures  of  this  and 
the  North-west  Palace  was  so  marked,  he  says,  that  the 
short  period  elapsing  between  the  reigns  of  a  father  and 
a  son  would  by  no  means  account  for  it.  Warriors  were 


THE    HEBREW   CAPTIVES. 


175 


mounted  on  camels.  Cities  were  represented  on  moun- 
tains, and  in  the  midst  of  date  groves ;  there  were  battle 
scenes  and  battering  -rams.  The  conquered  men  were 
generally  without  helmets  or  armour,  their  hair  falling 
loosely  on  their  shoulders. 

Three  or  four  of  these  slabs,  removed  by  the  labourers 
of  two  thousand  five  hundred  years  ago,  were  to  find 
their  place,  not  in  any  fresh  Assyrian  palace,  but  in 
the  British  Museum.  They  represent  the  taking  of 
a  city,  within  the  walls  of  which  grew  Judah's  palm. 
The  place  has  been  sacked,  and  the  conquerors  are 
carrying  off  the  spoil.  Two  eunuchs,  standing  near 
the  gates,  count  as  they  pass,  the  sheep  and  cattle 
driven  away,  and  write  the  numbers  with  a  pen  on 
rolls  of  paper  or  leather.  In  the  lower  part  of  the 
bas-relief  are  two  carts  drawn  by  oxen,  two  women  and 
a  child  are  in  each. 


JEWISH  CAPTIVES. 


The  women  seem  dressed  in  sackcloth,  and  they 
appear  to  be  carrying  away  bags  containing  provisions 
or  property  they  have  saved  from  the  spoil.  When  we 
come  to  the  tablets  of  Sennacherib's  Sack  of  Lachish  in 
the  Subterranean  chamber^  figures  of  women  and  children 


376  ISRAEL'S  PAST  LUXURY. 

just  such  a&  tliese,  are  unmistakably  Jewish,  and  in 
both  it  is  believed  that  we  possess  the  stone  monu- 
ments illustrative  of  the  fulfilment  of  Isaiah's  prophecy 
(Isaiah  iii.  16).  To  feel  all  the  bareness  of  the  costume 
of  these  female  prisoners,  we  must  read  the  description 
of  their  previous  luxuries,  which  Solomon's  reign  has 
prepared  us  to  imagine.  Isaiah  thus  draws  the  picture : — 

"Moreover  the  Lord  saith,  Because  the  daughters  of  Zion  are 
haughty,  walking  and  mincing  as  they  go,  and  making  a  tinkling  with 
their  feet : 

"  Therefore  in  that  day  the  Lord  will  take  away  the  bravery  of  their 
tinkling  ornaments,  and  their  cauls,  and  their  round  tires  like  the  moon, 

"  The  chains,  and  the  bracelets,  and  the  mufflers, 

"  The  bonnets,  and  the  ornaments  of  the  legs,  and  the  headbands,  and 
the  tablets,  and  the  earrings. 

"  The  rings,  and  nose  jewels, 

"  The  changeable  suits  of  apparel,  and  the  mantles,  and  the  wimples, 
and  the  crisping  pins, 

"  The  glasses,  and  the  fine  linen,  and  the  hoods,  and  the  vails. 

"  And  it  shall  come  to  pass,  that  instead  of  a  girdle  a  rent ;  and 
instead  of  well  set  hair  baldness  ;  and  instead  of  a  stomacher  a  girding  of 
sacJccloth ;  and  burning  instead  of  beauty. 

"  Thy  men  shall  fall  by  the  sword,  and  thy  mighty  in  the  war. 

"And  her  gates  shall  lament  and  mourn ;  and  she  being  desolate  shall 
sit  upon  the  ground." 

In  this  saloon,  one  of  Judah's  daughters,  in  the  same 
sackcloth,  and  with  her  elegantly  formed  pitcher,  tends 
her  camels — and  issuing  from  the  city  gates,  with  fettered 
hands,  and  driven  by  a  proud  Assyrian,  the  sons  of 
Judah,  with  the  caps  and  turned  up  boots  already  intro- 
duced to  the  notice  of  our  readers,  lament  and  mourn. 

THE   BLACK   OBELISK. 

But  what  of  the  black  obelisk  ? 

Another  deep  trench  Mr.  Layard  directed  to  be 
dug  at  right  angles  behind  the  northern  bull;  this 
trench  was  carried  fifty  feet  into  the  Mound,  and  appeared 


THE    BLACK   OBELISK. 


377 


to  yield  but  little  worth  notice.  Mr.  Layard  did  not 
intend  to  pursue  it  further,  when  just  as  he  left  the 
spot  a  corner  of  black  marble  was  uncovered,  lying 
on  the  very  edge  of  the  trench.  This  corner  was 
part  of  an  obelisk  lying  on  its  side,  ten  feet  below  the 
surface,  sculptured  on  the  four  sides,  having  on  each 


five  small  bas-reliefs ;  and  above,  below,  and  between 
them  were  arrow-headed  inscriptions,  210  lines  in 
length ;  all  the  figures  sharp,  and  well  defined. 

The  habits  and  dress  of  the  Assyrian  king  seem  not 
greatly  to  have  varied  from  those  which  distinguished  him 
in  a  former  age ;  he  is  here  twice  represented,  followed  by 
attendants  bearing  his  arms.  He  has  precisely  the  same 
simple  helmet,  and  "  the  Presence  "  accompanies  him  as 
before.  In  the  first  compartment,  a  prisoner,  or  one 


378  KING  OF  THE  OBELISK. 

whom  he  nas  conquered,  is  at  his  feet,  and  before  him 
his  vizier  with  folded  hands  appears  submissively  to  wait 
the  royal  decree  concerning  him.  In  the  second  bas- 
relief  below,  the  same  figures  are  repeated,  but  the  king 
has  the  royal  umbrella  held  over  him,  and  has  again  the 
divining  cup  in  his  hand,  while  some  suppose  that  the 
executioner  before  him  is  about  to  administer  a  sentence 
probably  of  bastinado,  and  has  both  hands  filled  with 
the  instruments  for  inflicting  it,  viz.,  thongs  of  leather ; 
or  a  somewhat  different  view  may  be  taken  of  the  very 
rough  pictures  which  we  wish  primarily  to  contemplate 
without  seeking  any  light  from  the  inscriptions. 

In  the  first  compartment  the  king  had  in  hand  his 
bow  and  arrows — he  had  just  won  his  victory.  In  the 
second  he  appears  in  peaceful  state — he  offers  a  libation 
before  the  Presence.  Perhaps,  like  the  King  of  Babylon, 
described  by  Ezekiel  in  after  years  (ch.  xxi.  21),  "  He 
stands  at  the  parting  of  the  way,  at  the  head  of  the  two 
ways,"  to  use  divination,  he  has  "  made  his  arrows  'bright, 
and  consulted  with  images."  This  may  explain  the 
double  representation  of  the  king.  It  will  also  be  re- 
marked that  the  person  bowing  down  at  his  feet,  whether 
for  punishment  or  only  in  submission,  has  on  the  peculiar 
cap  and  long  robe — the  cap  like  a  bag,  the  end  of  which 
falls  back,  instead  of  towards  the  front  like  the  Phrygian 
cap,  and  this  costume,  wherever  found,  seems  by  all 
writers  on  the  subject,  to  be  considered  to  belong  to 
the  Hebrews.  The  third  bas-relief  presents  two  so- 
called  Bactrian  camels  with  the  double  hump — one  led 
peacefully  by  its  driver,  the  other  followed  by  an  attend- 
ant with  a  lifted  stick ;  both  these  personages  wear  a 
short  round  tunic  with  a  girdle,  and  a  fillet  round  the 
head,  and  have  a  much  shorter  beard  than  the  Assyrians, 
•though  their  long  hair  falls  behind  in  stiff  curls. 


THE   HEBKEW   DEESS. 


379 


The  fourth,  bas-relief,  like  the  third,  may  probably 
be  symbolical — the  Lion,  the  King  of  Assyria,  is  flesh- 
ing his  teeth  in  a  defenceless  stag  or  hind  (in  Gen. 
xlix.  21,  Naphtali  is  said  to  be  as  "a  hind  let  loose") 
among  groves  of  palms.  Here  are  Judah's  palms,  and 
in  a  mountainous  country  signified  by  the  small  emi- 
nences under  the  feet  of  the  animals;  a  second  lion 
seems  quietly  to  possess  the  land.  The  lion  devouring 
his  prey,  the  camel  driver  chastising  his  slow  beast  (slow 
to  pay  tribute),  may  both  be  emblematic  of  conquering 
power,  the  new  power  of  Assyria  over  Judah. 

The  fifth  compartment  in  the  tablet  presents  men 
following  each  other  into  some  kingly  presence,  either 
with  tribute  or  spoil.  They  have  the  cap  with  the  peak 
backwards,  long  fringed  robes,  and  curious  boots,  with 
the  toes  turned  up,  like  those  of  the  men  who  are  leading 
monkeys  on  the  large  tablet  from  the  North-west 
Palace.  We  cannot  give  in  detail  the  subjects  of  the  re- 
maining fifteen  compartments;  small  representations 
of  them  will  be  found  in  the  volume  of  "  Nineveh  and 
its  Palaces,"  Bonn's  Illustrated  Library,  pp.  339 — 345. 

THE  JEWISH   COSTUME. 

The  peculiar  costume  just  noticed  is 
so  definitely  presented  to  the  eye,  in 
every  age  of  these  sculptures,  that  we 
must  search  the  Scriptures  to  see  if  any 
laws  had  been  given  for  the  general  dress 
of  the  Chosen  Nation ;  for  that  may  impress 
a  meaning  on  these  peculiarities  so  con- 
stantly noticeable  in  the  people  whom  the 
Assyrians  have  humbled  and  vanquished. 

(t  The  people  shall  dwell  alone,"  said 
God,  by  the  mouth  of  Balaam  (Num. 


380  COMMANDS   CONCERNING    COSTUME. 

xxiii.  9) .  "  Shall  dwell  in  safety  alone,"  says  Moses 
(Deut.  xxxiii.  28),  and  all  the  institutes  of  the  great 
lawgiver  tended  to  make  them  do  so.  Men  are  known 
by  their  externals;  and  their  dress  was  so  arranged 
as  to  distinguish  them  from  other  people. 

Fifteen  hundred  years  after  the  Exodus,  the  historian 
Tacitus  says  of  the  Jews,  "that  they  kept  to  their 
antiquated  modes."  If  we  inquire  what  these  were,  we 
shall  find  laws  given  to  them  about  the  robe,  and  the 
beard,  and  in  the  narrative  of  Daniel  we  have  some- 
thing relating  to  the  boots  and  the  caps.  The  prophet 
speaks  of  Shadrach,  Meshach,  and  Abednego,  as  cast 
into  the  burning  fiery  furnace  ' '  bound  in  their  coats, 
their  hosen,  and  their  hats,  and  their  other  gar- 
ments/' We  see  the  Assyrian  king  and  his  warriors 
in  helmets,  but  never  in  hats  or  caps,  or  in  boots, 
or  "  hosen." 

The  beards  differ  also.  The  Israelite  was  com- 
manded "  not  to  mar  the  corners  of  his  beard ;"  the 
peak-pointed  beard  (not  squared  as  the  Assyrian's) 
distinguishes  the  conquered  people,  very  often ;  and  in 
other  cases  close  black  curls,  without  a  vestige  of 
plaiting,  equally  mark  the  Jew.  He  was  not  to  wear  a 
garment  of  woollen  and  linen  together  (Deut.  xxii.  11), 
and  was  to  make  fringes  upon  the  •  four  quarters  of  his 
vesture,  and  to  put  upon  the  fringe  a  riband  of  blue. 
The  Lord  in  ordering  this  costume  throughout  their 
generations,  said,  "It  shall  be  unto. you  for  a  fringe, 
that  ye  may  look  upon  it,  and  remember  all  the  com- 
mandments of  the  Lord,  and  do  them;"*  and  the 
settlement  of  this  mode  of  apparel  it  appears  was  in- 

*  M.  Botta  repeatedly  notices  at  Khoreabad  the  inscriptions  on  the 
bottom  of  the  dresses  of  the  Hebrew  prisoners  in  the  cuneiform  cha- 
racter. 


THE   OBELISK.  381 

tended  to  hinder  them  from  seeking  perpetual  variety, 
and  going  "  after  their  own  heart  and  their  own  eyes/' 
Num.  xv.  39. 

The  Hebrews  did  not  at  all  abhor  the  society  of 
idolaters,  they  liked  it,  and  practised  their  ways. 

"I  know  that  after  my  death  ye  will  utterly  corrupt  yourselves,"  says 
Moses,  "aud  turn  aside  from  the  way,  and  evil  will  befall  you  in  the 
latter  days."— DETJT.  xxxi.  29. 

The  obelisk  pictorially  tells  of  such  evil ;  there  need 
be  no  laborious  sifting  of  evidence,  no  waiting  even  for 
the  reading  of  inscriptions.  Along  all  the  walls, 
whether  of  Kouyunjik  or  Khorsabad,  from  this  period 
forward,  there  is  a  nation/aZZen.  from  all  the  pride  of  its 
glory,  in  the  days  of  David  and  Solomon — bowed  and 
bent  under  the  yoke  of  the  oppressor — made  to  render 
up  its  riches  and  most  sacred  treasures.  The  form  of 
the  cups  and  vases  is  often  classic,  so  that  we  ask  in- 
stinctively if  they  are  not  the  vessels  of  the  temple. 
At  Khorsabad  heavy  fetters  are  clasped  round  those 
same  pointed  boots,  the  hook  is  represented  in  the 
noses  or  lips  of  two  sufferers,  which  is  forcibly 
pulled  by  the  king,  and  we  see  for  ourselves  how  these 
conquerors  were  repaid,  in  their  own  way,  when  the 
Lord  said  to  Sennacherib  : — 

"  Because  thy  rage  against  Me,  and  thy  tumult  is  come  up  into  mine 
ears,  therefore  will  I  put  My  hook  in  thy  nose,  aud  My  bridle  in  thy  lip, 
and  I  will  turn  thee  back  by  the  way  by  which  thou  earnest." — ISA. 
xxxvii.  29. 

But  ere  we  arrive  at  Sennacherib  in  the  "  Kouyunjik 
side  gallery,"  ere  we  leave  the  Central  saloon  and  the  old 
Central  palace  of  the  Nimroud  Mouad,  it  will  be  desirable 
to  get  a  distinct  view  of  the  few  dates  which  Scripture 


382 


TABLE  OP  KINGS  AND  PROPHETS. 


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THE   OBELISK.  383 

history  fixes  by  the  conjunction  of  Syrian  and  Assyrian 
kings  with  those  of  Israel  or  Judah. 

Our  table  goes  as  far  back  in  Israel's  list  as  Jehu, 
because  from  the  reading  of  the  Obelisk  inscription, 
Sir  H.  Bawlinson  fixes  the  scenes  represented  upon  it, 
to  the  date  of  that  bold  usurper.  The  summary  of  this 
record  of  Shalmaneser  II.  is  that  he  led  twenty-three 
expeditions  into  the  kingdoms  of  his  neighbours,  and 
among  these,  he  names  the  Israelites.  From  all  the 
conquered  peoples  he  took  tribute ;  and  the  inscription 
mentions  the  name  of  Hazael  King  of  Syria.  ' '  I  went 
to  the  towns  of  Hazael  of  Damascus,  and  took  part  of 
his  provisions."  "I  received  the  tributes  of  Tyre, 
Sidon  and  Byblus." 

Consequently  on  the  submission  of  the  above, 
according  to  Professor  Rawlinson,  follows  that  of  Jehu, 
"  Son  of  Omri "  who  sends  as  tribute  to  Shalmaneser 
a  quantity  of  gold  and  silver  in  bullion,  together  with 
manufactured  articles  in  the  more  precious  of  the  two 
metals.  In  the  second  line  of  bas-reliefs,  "  the  chief 
ambassador  of  the  Israelites  is  represented  as  prostrating 
himself  before  the  great  Assyrian  king." 

This  submission  of  Jehu,  is  not  recorded  in  the 
Bible,  but  a  similar  submission  is,  of  Ahaz  to  Tiglath- 
pileser. 

"  So  Ahaz  sent  messengers  to  Tiglath-pileser,  King  of  Assyria,  saying, 
I  am  thy  servant  and  thy  son.  Come  up  and  save  me  out  of  the  hand  of 
the  King  of  Syria,  and  out  of  the  hand  of  the  King  of  Israel,  which  rise 
up  against  me. 

"And  Ahaz  took  the  silver  and  gold  that  was  found  in  the  house  of 
the  Lord,  and  in  the  treasures  of  the  King's  house,  and  sent  it  for  a 
present  to  the  king  of  Assyria." — 2  KllfGS  xvi.  7,  8. 

The  tribute  or  spoil,  whichever  it  may  be,  seems  ren- 
dered in  the  form  of  elephants'  tusks  (Mr.  Forster  reads 
over  themin  old  Arabic,  dardar,  shed  tusks), gold  dust,rich 


384  HOW    SHOULD   IT  BE    BEAD? 

vestures  and  vases,  precious  woods,  wine-skins  ane? 
fruits,  copper  caldrons  or  kettledrums,  all  borne  by  the 
wearers  of  the  long  robes,  some  of  them  with  fillets 
round  their  heads  and  bare  feet.  Besides  the  probably 
symbolical  animals  on  the  first  side  (see  p.  379,  and  it 
is  observable  that  Tiglath-Pileser  is  said  to  have  carried 
captive  "Naphtali,"  2  Kings  xv.  29),  other  animals 
appear  in  the  procession ;  the  elephant  and  rhinoceros, 
camels  and  apes ;  some  are  dressed  for  the  sacrifice, 
according  to  heathen  custom,  so  that  man  and  beast 
are  declared  subjugated  to  the  Assyrian  king  of  kings. 

There  might  be,  of  course,  two  ways  of  reading  the 
pictures  of  this  obelisk,  to  begin  from  the  top  and  read 
down  each  side,  or  to  begin  with  the  king  at  the  top 
and  read  on  to  the  right  or  left.  If  read  round,*  the 
turned  up  toes  and  twisted  caps  are  found  on  three 
levels,  out  of  five.  The  certain  decipherment  of  the 
inscription  must,  after  all,  perhaps  determine  which  is  tue 
right  way. 

Sir  Henry  says  this  is  Shalmaneser's  obelisk,  but  an 
earlier  Shalmaneser  than  the  one  said  in  the  Bible  to  have 
"come  up  against"  Samaria.  It  seems  to  have  been  ready 
to  be  carried  away  with  the  sculpturesf  by  Esarhaddon, 
for  HIS  palace  at  the  south-west  corner  of  the  Nimroud 
Mound,  for  it  was  lying  on  its  side,  and  had  been 
buried  ten  feet  deep,  for  five-and-twenty  centuries, 
when  the  finger  of  Divine  Providence  so  remarkably 
guided  towards  it,  the  apparently  unprofitable  trench. 

*  Sir  H.  Kawlinson  reads  round  the  monument  beginning  at  the  top. 
His  whole  translation  is  given  in  "  Nineveh  and  Persepolis,"  by  Mr. 
Vaux,  pp.  263—271.  He  admits  that  he  does  not  find  the  epigraphs  or 
superscriptions  over  the  pictures  "  follow  the  offerings." 

f  See  p.  3G8. 


TIIE   LAND   OP   ARAM.  385 

STRIA. 

Before  the  Kings  of  ASSYRIA  come  into  collision 
with  the  Hebrews,  in  the  Scripture  records,  there  are 
Kings  of  SYRIA  who  must  be  distinguished  from  them 
as  in  our  recent  table.  We  must  get  a  clear  idea  of 
Syria,  the  Hebrew  ARAM.  We  find  from  Genesis  that 
Aram  was  the  youngest  of  the  unchosen  sons  of  Shem  ; 
the  most  ancient  Syria  was  probably  Tsyria,  the  country 
about  Tyre.  The  land  of  Aram  commences  on  the  north- 
ern frontier  of  Palestine,  and  stretches  northward  to  the 
Taurus,  westward  to  the  Mediterranean,  eastward  to  the 
Khabour.  It  may  be  divided  into  the  Syria  of  Damas- 
cus, Aram-Naharaim,  or  Mesopotamia,  and  Padan- 
Aram,  or  Syria  of  the  Plains. 

Modern  research  says  that  its  first  occupants  were 
Hamitic.  The  Hittites,  Jebusites,  and  Amorites,  are 
connected  in  Scripture  with  Egypt  and  Ethiopia,  Cush 
and  Misraim.  These  nomad  races  then  become  leavened 
with  Semitic  influence,  and  Abraham  is  a  fair  specimen 
of  a  Semitic  emigrant  come  to  dwell  in  their  territory. 
Probably  others  had  gone  before  him,  which  accounts 
for  his  finding  such  names  as  Abimelech  and  Eliezer  of 
Damascus.  The  most  ancient  Syria  must  have  been 
broken  up  into  petty  kingdoms,  and  it  is  even  said 
by  tradition,  that  Abraham  was  King  of  Damascus. 

Damascus  is  the  oldest  city  in  the  world  yet  inha- 
bited ;  she  sits  as  when  her  rivers  Abana  and  Pharpar 
were  known  to  Naaman ;  as  when  she  burst  on  the  view  of 
Saul  of  Tarsus,  throned  amid  her  gardens  on  the  edge  of 
the  desert.  The  spot  has  never  been  desolate  since  the 
first  shepherd  arrived  with  his  flocks  from  the  Euphrates, 
and  pitched  his  tents  beside  its  crystal  waters. 

Joshua  must  have  had  many  contests  with  Syria,  but 

c  c 


38G 


NEBC. 


tlie  Jews  and  Syrians,  under  that  name,  first  fought  in  tho 
time  of  David,  and  the  Syrians  were  conquered.  They 
threw  off  the  yoke,  however,  at  the  division  of  the  Jew- 
ish kingdom,  and  attached  themselves  to  the  great  rising 
Assyrian  empire.  The  Syrians  come  into  our  Scripture 
chart  under  their  Benhadads,  a  general  kingly  name  like 
Pharaoh. 

NEEO. 

We  cannot  notice  all  the  treasures  of  the  Central 
Saloon,  but  over  against  the  obelisk  stand  two  figures  of 
the  Babylonian  god  Nebo,  forwarded  to  this  country  by 
Sir  H.  Rawlinson  from  the  South-east 
Palace  of  Nimroud.  Professor  Rawlin- 
son  says  there  is  little  to  prove  the  early 
worship  of  NEBO,  and  no  Scripture  re- 
ference to  him  in  primeval  times.  An 
Assyrian  king  was,  however,  named 
after  him  in  the  twelfth  century,  B.C.  ; 
and  in  later  ages,  the  chief  seat  of  his 
worship  was  Borsippa,  the  great  and 
famous  Birs-Nimroud  being  dedicated 
to  his  honour. 

The  kings  of  Babylon  take  their 
names  from  him — Nabo-Nidus,  Nebu- 
zaredan,  Nebu-chadnezzar ;  and  he  is 
named  in  Scripture  in  association  with 
Bel.  The  ponderous  and  erect  ap- 
pearance of  this  idol  would  seem  al- 


GOJ>   -VKI11. 


luded  to  in  the  words — 

"Bel  boweth  down,  Nebo  stoopeth.  Their  idols  were  upon  the 
beasts,  and  upon  the  cattle.  Your  carriages  were  heavy  laden  ;  they  are 
a  burden  to  the  weary  beast.  They  stoop,  they  bow  down  together. 
They  could  not  deliver  the  burden,  but  themselves  are  gone  into  cap- 
tivity."— ISA.  xlvi.  1,  2. 


THE   NIMROUD   MOUND.  387 

The  great  importance  of  the  resurrection  of  these 
heathen  deities,  as  witnesses  of  the  truth  of  God's  Word, 
may  be  deduced  from  the  remarkable  fact,  that  Jehovah 
has  permitted  their  graven  images  to  be  presented  afresh 
to  the  eyes  of  men  when  history  had  forgotten  their 
similitude.  "  The  Greeks  did  not  begin  to  write  history 
till  Nineveh  was  in  her  grave." 

Sir  II.  Bawlinson  is  said  to  read  the  cuneiform  cha- 
racters on  Nebo's  robe  as  follows  : — "  That  this  statue  was 
dedicated  by  the  sculptor  to  Phulukh  (Pul),  the  King 
of  Assyria,  and  to  his  lady,  Sammuramit,  or  Semiramis, 
Queen  of  the  Palace"  (the  date  being  seen  in  our  table,  772 
B.C.)  Not  all  the  epithets  that  follow  can  be  understood, 
but  it  is  declared  that  Nebo  is  "  the  God  who  teaches 
or  instructs;"  "he  who  hears  from  afar,"  "he  who 
possesses  intelligence."  Nebo  is  elsewhere  called  "  in- 
ventor of  the  writing  of  the  royal  tablets."  He  is  like 
the  Mercury  of  the  Greeks,  though  his  image  is  of  so 
much  heavier  build.  In  an  inner  chamber  of  his  temple, 
the  Birs  Nimroud,  all  the  bricks  were  found  stamped 
with  an  arrow-head.  Sir  Henry  infers  that  the  arrow- 
head was  his  symbol,  as  the  essential  element  of  cunei- 
form writing.  (See  also  p.  57.) 

THE   AGES  EEPEESENTED   ON   THE  NIMEOUD   MOUND. 

The  great  importance  of  Mr.  Layard's  discoveries 
in  this  Mound  of  Nimroud  or  Eesen  will  be  evident,  be- 
cause upon  this  spot  are  represented  all  the  ages  of  the 
Nineveh  kings.  Here  is  the  North-west  Palace,  possibly 
and  probably  of  an  age  before  the  first  Hebrew  kings  ; 
the  Central  Palace  of  Tiglath-Pileser,  and  Shalmaneser ; 
the  South-west  Palace,  of  Esarhaddon,  who  led  captive 
Manasseh ;  and  the  still  later  South-eastern  edifice,  which 
was  the  most  recently  opened  of  all — its  level  on  the 
mound  is  shown  to  be  much  nearer  the  surface  than  that 


388  THE    SOUTH-WEST   PALACE. 

of  even  the  South-west  Palace,  even  as  that  king  had  laid 
his  foundation  some  feet  higher  than  that  of  the  Central 
or  North-west  Palaces.  Four  palaces,  two  temples,  and 
a  royal  tomb,  will  therefore  carry  us  through  Assyria's  his- 
tory as  noticed  in  the  Bible.  Sennacherib  may  have  taken 
up  his  residence  in  the  two  first  palaces  by  turns ;  but  the 
great  relics  of  his  conquests  are  at  Kouyunjik  and 
Khorsabad.  Mr.  Layard  also  excavated  Kouyunjik, 
while  M.  Botta  devoted  himself  to  Khorsabad,  of  which 
the  grand  remains  are  now  in  the  Louvre ;  but  five  folio 
volumes  of  their  representations  are  open  to  the  student 
in  our  British  Museum,  and  two  great  winged  bulls 
from  Khorsabad,  at  the  entrance  of  the  Egyptian  Gallery, 
face  the  Nimroud  lions,  and  welcome  the  spectator  to  the 
antiquities  of  Nineveh. 

THE    SOUTH-WEST   PALACE. 

Esarhaddon's  Palace  was  also  entirely  destroyed  by 
fire.  It  must  have  been  in  existence  at  about  667  B.C.,  the 
date  to  which  we  have  traced  the  Divine  resolve  that  Judah 
should  be  cast  off  for  her  idolatry,  and  begin  to  suffer 
"  double  for  all  her  sins  "  (see  Isa.  xl.  2).-  Many  of  Esar- 
haddon's slabs  were,  however,  removed  by  his  grandson 
to  the  South-east  Palace.  The  breadth  of  Esarhaddon's 
hall  appears  to  have  been  much  greater  than  that  in  the 
former  buildings.  It  was  220  feet  long  and  100  broad, 
.opening  into  the  interior  of  the  mound  by  a  gateway  of 
winged  bulls ;  while  to  the  south  it  had  triple  portals, 
guarded  by  three  pairs  of  colossal  sphinxes,  which  com- 
mandedthe  open  country,  and  the  Tigris  winding  through 
the  plain.  Mr.Layard  considers  that  this  palace  gives  the 
best  representation,  in  its  general  plan,  of  thepalaceof  Solo- 
mon, according  to  the  descriptions  of  the  Bible,  though  in 
existence  300  years  after  his  era.  But  all  the  magnifi- 
cence both  of  Jewish  and  Assyrian  kings — "  all  the 


AS3YEIAN   HELMET.  389 

store  and  glory  of  the  pleasant  furniture  " — has  perished, 
and  in  the  tomb  all  their  colours  have  faded  away. 
With  wondrous  modern  skill,  a  specimen  has  been  re- 
stored of  the  Assyrian  shield  and  helmet,  which,  spotted 
with  the  green  rust  of  ages  in  one  of  the  glass-cases  of 
the  Lobby  Chamber,  marvellously  corroborates  the  tale  of 
the  sculptures.  The  stone  portraits  of  Assyrian  monarchs 
are  before  us,  though  crumbling  in  decay,  with  their 
hunting  scenes,  their  reverence  for  their  hero- gods,  their 
idols,  and  their  victories  over  the  people  of  Jehovah — 
the  cruel  proofs  how  all  the  words  of  the  Lord  were 
fulfilled. 

"  I  will  set  My  face  against  you,  and  ye  shall  be  slain  before  your  ene- 
mies. They  that  hate  you  shall  reign  over  you,  and  ye  shall  flee  when 
none  pursueth  you.  .  .  .  And  ye  shall  perish  among  the  heathen, 
and  the  land  of  your  enemies  shall  eat  you  up.  .  .  .  And  them  that 
are  left  alive  of  you  .  .  .  the  sound  of  a  shaken  leaf  shall  chase 
them."— LEY.  xxvi.  17,  38,  36. 

So  said  Moses,  in  prophetic  vision,  in  the  same  chap- 
ter in  which  he  predicts  that  they  shall  suffer  seven  times 
for  all  their  sins.  Do  the  JEWS  of  this  day  know  their 
own  history  ?  and  do  they  see  it  written  on  these  "  stones 
crying  out "  ? 

Tie  two  tablet  figures  near  the  obelisk  are  identified 
by  Sir  Henry  Rawlinson  with  the  earlier  Shalmaneser,  to 
whom  he  attributes  the  obelisk,  and  with  the  founder  of 
the  North-west  Palace.  King  succeeded  king  in 
Assyria,  and  changed  his  sculptures  to  what  walls  he 
pleased,  and  of  course  preserved  the  portraits  of  his  an- 
cestors ;  and  meantime  prophet  succeeded  prophet 
among  the  Hebrews. 

THE   PROPHETS. 

A  prophet  was  one  who  announced  or  poured  forth 


390  THE    PKOPHETS. 

the  declarations  of  God.  He  was  a  seer — one  who  saw 
behind  the  veil  of  futurity  as  God  permitted.  But 
how  much  must  have  been  uttered  at  the  dictates 
of  the  Spirit,  which  the  utterer  could  not  have  com- 
prehended !  One  constant  burden  of  the  prophets, 
however,  was  to  denounce  fearlessly  the  corruption  of 
the  rulers  of  their  day.  This  prophetic  order  grew  up 
in  the  time  of  the  kings.  Samuel  founded  a  school  of 
the  prophets.  During  the  time  of  the  Judges,  feast  and 
fast  had  taught  the  people,  by  type  and  symbol.  The 
priests  were  to  teach  by  act,  and  teach  by  word,  as  they 
faithfully  did  for  200  years  after  the  time  when  Moses 
gave  them  the  Law  on  Serbal ;  but  the  priesthood  then 
gradually  became  aperfunctory  office,  and  bad  individuals, 
as  to  the  present  hour,  discredited  even  a  heaven-taught 
system.  Prophets  were  therefore  ordained  of  God,  to  cor- 
rect that  which  had  gone  wrong.  The  Lord  raised  up 
prophets  for  His  own  people.  He  gave  but  one  to  the 
Assyrians,  in  the  person  of  Jonah,  and  for  a  special 
errand ;  but  He  gave  sixteen  to  Judah  and  to  Israel. 
Samuel  is  classed  with  Moses  (Jer.  xv,  1),  "Though 
Moses  and  Samuel  stood  before  Me ;"  but  "  Moses  and 
the  prophets  "  are  spoken  of  distinctively  by  our  Lord 
Himself ;  and  in  Revelation,  do  we  not  also  hear  of  the 
song  of  "  Moses  and  the  LAMB  "  ? 

The  prophets  were  the  national  poets — the  annalists 
and  historians,  in  a  measure,  for  they  wrote  much  inci- 
dental history.  They  preached  morals  and  religion,  ex- 
pounded the  law,  and  had  a  power  half  pastoral  and 
half  political.  Their  personal  appearance  may,  perhaps, 
be  still  represented  by  that  of  the  Eastern  dervish ;  but 
their  grand  and  crowning  peculiarity  was,  that  God  made 
them  the  instruments  of  .His  revelation.  They  Lave 
taken  their  place  in  the  canon  of  Scripture,  because 


ISAIAH.  391 

Jehovah  has  confirmed  their  word  by  its  fulfilment. 
Some  of  them  predicted  the  birth  and  acts  of  Christ, 
though  bom  700  years  before  His  era. 

ISAIAH. 

ISAIAH  prophesies  in  the  days  of  four  sovereigns — Uz- 
ziah,  Jotham,  Ahaz,  and  Hezekiah,  kings  of  Judah.  He 
sees,  therefore,  Tiglath-Pileser,  Shalmaneser,  Sargon,  and 
Sennacherib.  His  first  general  message  is  to  Uzziah 
and  Jotham,  when  to  the  outward  eye  their  kingdom  is 
flourishing  in  its  worldly  condition,  but  to  the  prophetic 
eye  all  is  soon  to  be  laid  waste.  Isaiah  sees  the  chosen 
nation  in  the  light  of  a  man  wounded  unto  death,  and 
soon  to  be  left  desolate.  The  seeming  religion  of  Judah 
is  now  all  hypocrisy;  the  "  silver  is  become  dross,"  and 
"  Zion  must  be  redeemed  with  judgment."  Oh  !  what 
a  guide  are  the  first  chapters  of  this  prophet  down  the 
Kouyunjik  side  gallery  of  the  British  Museum. 

KOUYUNJIK   GALLERY. 

On  the  left  hand  as  we  enter  is  a  cast  from  a  bas- 
relief,  cut  in  the  rock  at  the  mouth  of  the  Nahr-el-Kelb 
River,  near  Beirut,  in  Syria.  "It  is  now  known,"  says 
Mr.  Vaux,  "  to  represent  Sennacherib,  and  is  therefore 
fitly  placed  at  the  head  of  a  series  of  his  monuments;  " 
but  the  spectator  should  be  enabled  to  realize  where  the 
original  of  this  cast  is  found.  It  was  made  with  con- 
siderable .  difficulty  from  the  rock  of  the  Nahr-el-Kelb, 
which  overhangs  the  immemorial  highway  that  leads 
along  the  seacoast  from  Egypt  into  Asia  Minor.  Here 
the  portrait  of  Sennacherib  is  placed  beside  six  other 
Assyrian  kings,  and  accompanied  by  three  Egyptian 
bas-reliefs  bearing  the  name  of  Barneses.  The  cunei- 
form inscription  which  might  .explain  the  Assyrian 


392  PALACE   OP   KOTJYUNJIK. 

portraits  is  so  much  injured  as  to  defy  all  efforts  at  trans- 
cription. But  though  this  portrait  bas-relief  conies  from 
Syria,  we  are  now  in  the  presence  of  the  relics  from 
Kouyunjik.  Our  country  again  owes  to  Mr.  Layard 
the  valuable  excavations  of  the  years  1849  and  1850  in 
the  mound  of  Kotiyuujik,  opposite  the  town  of  Mosul. 
These  are  considered  to  belong  almost  certainly  to  the 
times  of  Sennacherib  and  his  grandson,  Sardanapalus 
the  Younger.  Most  of  the  Kouyunjik  sculptures  were 
split  and  shattered  by  the  action  of  fire  in  the  final 
conflagration  of  Nineveh.  Of  this  the  blackened  surface 
of  some  of  the  slabs  still  tells.  "We  see  them,  on  the 
left  hand  side  in  passing  up  the  Museum  Gallery. 

The  palace  of  Kouyunjik  exceeded  in  size  and  mag- 
nificence all  others  hitherto  explored.  It  occupied  100 
acres;  had  halls  150  feet  square,  out  of  which  opened 
grand  portals,  three  on  a  side,  into  other  halls,  and 
these  again  into  chambers  flanked  by  the  same  colossal 
figures  and  winged  bulls,  so  that  Mr.  Layard,  who 
uncovered  sixty  different  chambers,  says  it  would  bo 
difficult  to  conceive  anything  more  imposing  than  these 
triple  colossal  groups,  either  harmoniously  coloured  or 
overlaid  with  gold,  and  as  seen  in  perspective  by  those 
who  stood  in  the  centre  of  the  dimly-lighted  hall,  ever 
guarding  the  entrance  of  each  sacred  chamber,  like  the 
cherubim  ^jn  the  temple  of  Solomon. 

We  must  therefore  lift  our  ideas  from  the  narrow 
galleries  (which  are  yet  of  characteristic  architecture) 
in  which  these  solemn  old  Assyrian  bas-reliefs  are  now 
preserved,  to  imagine  hall,  opening  out  of  hall,  with 
shadow  cool  and  welcome,  under  an  eastern  sky,  and 
the  sculptured  wainscoting  in  every  chamber  telling  of 
the  conquests  of  these  kings  of  kings.  All  we  have 
yet  to  see  in  the  Museum  (not  brought  from  Nimroud) 


MERODACH-BALADAN.  893 

was  found  in  the  buried  halls  of  Kouyunjik.  Yet  we 
possess,  of  course,  but  the  fragments  of  works  once 
much  more  extensive. 

CONQUEST   OF    MERODACE-BALADAN. 

The  slabs  marked  4 — 8  in  all  probability  commemo- 
rate the  expedition  of  Sennacherib  into  South  Babylonia 
against  Merodach-Baladan,  King  of  Babylon,  the  same 
who  sent  letters  and  a  present  to  King  Hezekiah  (2 
Kings  xx.  12),  to  whose  ambassadors  he  displayed  all 
his  precious  things ;  on  which  occasion  Isaiah  prophesied 
that  as  a  reward  for  his  vain-glory  his  own  sons  would 
be  taken  as  eunuchs  into  the  palace  of  the  King  of 
Babylon.  (See  fulfilment  in  Dan.  i.  3.) 

On  these  slabs  is  noticed  a  piece  of  water,  thought 
to  be  part  of  the  river  Euphrates  in  its  flooded  state, 
and  a  combat  in  boats  is  going  on.  Tho  vanquished  are 
raising  their  hands  in  supplication,  headless  bodies  arc 
seen  in  the  water,  and  men  are  escaping  up  a  reed- 
covered  bank,  while  Assyrians  in  triumph  hold  up  the 
heads  of  the  slain.  According  to  the  cylinder  record 
of  Sennacherib  this  conquest  was  previous  to  the  taking 
tribute  of  Hezekiah,  likewise  commemorated  in  its 
columns. 

SLABS    FROM   A   GALLERY    LEADING   TO    THE    RIVEE. 

The  slabs  34 — 43  are  part  of  a  series  of  sculptures 
which  originally  lined  the  two  walls  of  a  long  narrow 
gallery  leading  by  an  inclined  plane  from  Kouyunjik 
towards  the  Tigris.  On  one  side,  descending  the  slope, 
were  fourteen  horses,  led  by  grooms ;  on  the  other, 
ascending  into  the  palace,  were  slaves  bearing  food  for 
a  banquet ;  rows  of  dried  locusts  and  trays  laden  with 
pomegranates,  grapes,  and  apples  may  be  remarked  as 
furnishing  a  part  of  the  fare. 


394  THE  OUTCASTS  OP  ELAJI. 


THE    SUSIAN    SLABS. 

But  if  we  now  pass  to  tlie  other  side  of  the  gallery, 
slabs  45  and  47  represent  a  battle — which  it  appears 
from  the  inscriptions  took  place  in  Elam,  or  Sujsiana, 
situated  north  of  Chaldea — between  the  countries  of 
Babylon  and  Persia.  The  Assyrians  are  here  again  in 
peaked  helmets,  with  coats  of  mail  iind  large  shields, 
and  sometimes  with  the  battle-axe  and  mace.  The 
enemies  use  merely  the  bow  and  have  no  helmet,  but 
their  long  hair  is  bound  with  fillets. 

ELA3I,   OB   SUSIANA. 

The  Book  of  Daniel  leads  us  to  connect  "  Shushan 
the  palace  "  with  the  province  of  Elam  (Dan.  viii.  2) ; 
and  for  the  name  of  Elam  we  must  recur  to  the 
Patriarchal  times,  and  the  tenth  of  Genesis.  Elam  was 
the  eldest  son  of  Shem,  and  Asshur  his  second  son  ; 
Arphaxad,  the  chosen  father  of  the  chosen  line,  being 
only  the  third  son.  Elam  appears  to  have  founded  a 
kingdom  which,  for  a  time,  became  pre-eminent  in 
power.  See  the  nations  who  served  Chedorlaomer,  Gen. 
xiv.  4  (also  p.  312).  Elam  is  noticed  by  Jeremiah  as 
receiving  the  "  cup  of  God's  fury,"  among  the  other 
nations  (Jer.  xxv.  15,  25,)  and  the  word  there  spoken 
is  ratified  in  chap.  xlix.  34 — 49  : — 

"  The  word  of  the  Lord  that  came  to  Jeremiah  the  prophet  against 
Elam  in  the  beginning  of  the  reign  of  Zedekiah  king  of  Judah,  saying, 

"  Thus  saith  the  Lord  of  hosts  ;  Behold,  I  will  break  the  bow  of 
Elam,  the  chief  of  their  might. 

"  And  upon  Elam  will  I  bring  the  four  winds  from  the  four  quarters 
of  heaven,  and  will  scatter  them  toward  all  those  winds  ;  and  there  shall 
be  no  nation  whither  the  outcasts  of  Elam  shall  not  come.  .  .  . 


A  VAST   NECROPOLIS.  395 

"  And  I  will  set  My  throne  in  Elam,  and  will  destroy  from  thence  the 
king  and  the  princes,  saith  the  Lord. 

"But  it  shall  come  to  pass  in  the  latter  days,  that  I  will  bring  again 
the  captivity  of  Elam,  saith  the  Lord." 

The  name  of  Elam  is  in  the  grand  funeral  inscription 
of  Ezekiel. 

At  Erech  (or  Warka)  in  Chaldea,  the  second  city  of 
Nimrod,  the  daughters  of  the  famous  ancient  nations 
took  their  places  alike  literally  and  symbolically  ( '  in  the 
sides  of  the  pit,"  during  the  rise  and  fall  of  their  king- 
doms. Here  they  buried  their  dead  for  more  than  2000 
years  (see  p.  51).  Warka  was  a  vast  necropolis;  and 
Lower  Chaldea  abounded  in  sepulchral  cities  of  immense 
extent ;  but  Warka  seems  to  have  been  the  most  sacred. 
Sir  Henry  Eawlinson  considers  it  to  have  been  Ur  of 
the  Chaldees.  EzekieFs  description  is  magnificent,  and 
surely  applies  to  it.  It  comprises  all  the  sons  of  Noah ; 
Shem's  race  are  there  in  his  posterity  of  Elam  and 
Assur;  nor  is  Edom  missing,  nor  the  Zidonians,  or 
Phoenicians ;  and  the  children  of  Ham  are  there,  at  least 
as  conquering  or  colonizing  "  the  multitude  of  Egypt."* 
Nor  is  the  line  of  Japhet  wanting,  for  there  are  Meshecli 
and  Tubal  with  all  their  multitudes.  (See  p.  347.) 

"Asshuris  there  and  all  her  company:  his  graves  are  about  him : 
all  of  them  slain,  fallen  by  the  sword  ; 

"  There  is  Elam  and  all  her  multitude  round  about  her  grave.     , 

"  There  is  Meshech,  Tubal,  and  all  her  multitude.     .     .     . 

"  There  is  Edom,  her  kings,  and  all  her  princes.     .     .     . 

"  There  be  the  princes  of  the  north,  all  of  them,  and  all  the  Zidonians." 
— EZEK.  sxxii.  22—29. 

But  the  line  of  Arphaxad  were  not  laid  in  that  grave. 
In  their  great  "valley  of  dry  bones"  the  same  prophet 
(Ezek.  xxxvii.  2)  sees  them  lie  alone: — 

"  Very  many  in  the  open  valley ;  and,  lo,  they  were  very  dry. 

*  Mr.  Layard  found  some  Egyptian  remains  in  the  Around  of  Kim- 
roud  which  he  could  not  account  for.  (Sec  p.  374). 


300  THE   GRAVE  OP  JUDAII. 

"  And  God  said  unto  me,  Son  of  man,  can  these  bones  live  ?  And 
I  answered,  O  Lord  God,  thou  knowest. 

"  Then  IIo  said  unto  me,  Son  of  man,  these  bones  are  the  whole  house 
of  Israel ;  behold,  they  say,  Our  bones  are  dried,  and  cur  hope  is  lost ; 
we  are  cut  off  for  our  parts. 

"  Therefore  prophesy,  and  say  unto  them  ....  Ye  shall  know  that  I 
am  the  Lord,  when  I  have  opened  your  graves,  O  my  people,  and  brought 
you  up  out  of  your  graves, 

"  And  shall  put  my  spirit  in  you,  and  ye  shall  live,  and  I  shall  place 
you  in  your  own  land  :  then  shall  ye  know  that  I  the  Lord  have  spoken 
it,  and  performed  it,  saiththe  Lord." 

During  the  period  of  the  greatness  of  Babylon  and 
Assyria,  Elain  can  only  be  regarded  as  the  foremost  of 
their  feudatories.  Like  the  other  subject  nations  she 
retained  her  own  monarchs,  and  seems  to  have  been 
perpetually  revolting,  and  engaged  in  battle  with  her 
conquerors.  The  Elamites  appear  to  have  very  tena- 
ciously retained  their  nationality,  and  to  have  preserved 
their  peculiar  language  up  to  the  day  of  Pentecost.  One 
thousand  two  hundred  and  fifty-four  of  the  children  of 
Elam  returned  with  Zerubbabel  from  Babylon  (Ezra  ii. 
7),  and  the  name  of  Elam  occurs  among  the  chief  of  the 
people  who  signed  the  covenant  with  Nehemiah  (Neh.  x. 
14).  There  must,  therefore,  have  been  an  intimate  con- 
nection with  Judah,  or  Israel,  and  this  is  evident  in  these 
restored  sculptures.  (See  illustration  p.  406,  and  de- 
scription of  captives  p.  399).  And  where  are  now  thoso 
"  outcasts,"  who  like  the  Jews  were  to  be  scattered  into 
every  nation  under  heaven?  Their  race  cannot  have 
died  out,  for  in  the  latter  days  their  captivity  is  to  bo 
turned  again ;  and  in  that  day  when  the  "  Root  of  Jesse 
shall  stand  for  an  ensign  of  the  people,  and  His  glory 
shall  be  glorious."  (See  Isa.  xi.  10, 14.) 

11  It  shall  come  to  pass  in  that  day,  that  the  Lord  shall  set  His  hand 
again  the  second  tune  to  recover  the  remnant  of  His  people,  which  shall 
be  left,  from  Assyria,  and  from  Egypt,  and  from  Pathros  (Lower  Egypt  ?), 
and  from  Cush  (Ethiopia  ?),  and  from  Elam,  and  from  Shinar,  and  from 
Hamath  (Upper  Syria  ?),  and  from  the  islands  of  (he  sea  (Great Britain?)." 


THE   GIPSIES. 


397 


Therefore,  if  the  outcasts  of  Elam  are  to  Toe  restored 
in  that  day,  they  are  existing  still,  though  scattered. 
What  wandering  tribes  still  speaJc  a  language  of  Elamitic 
or  Persian  origin  ?  It  is  said  by  those  who  are  compe- 
tent to  judge,  the  Gipsies.  Max  Miiller  traces  the 
Sanscrit  language  in  India  up  to  the  time  of  Moses,  and 
marks  as  descending  from  its  Aryan  source  the  now 
spoken  dialects  of  Hindustani,  Mahratti,  and  Bengali. 
He  considers  that  Sanscrit  was  the  spoken  language 
of  India  for  at  least  some  hundred  years  before  Solo- 
mon, and  Bourn ouf  has  since  proved  the  ancient  Per- 
sian language  of  the  Zend,  and  Sanscrit  to  be  very 
nearly  allied. 

Max  Miiller  traces  up  to  this  source  the  language  of 
the  Gipsies,  belonging  equally  to  Asia  and  Europe,  "  a 
language  which,  although  most  degraded  in  its  gram- 
mar, and  with  a  dictionary  stolen  from  all  the  countries 
through  which  the  Zingaris  have  passed,  is  yet  clearly 
an  exile  from  Hindustan."  *  The  affinity  allowed  by 
this  great  authority  between  Zend  and  Sanscrit  is  a 
very  important  point;  the  latter  being  the  source  of 
Hindustani,  will  account  for  the  gipsies,  if  they  are  the 
outcasts  of  Elam  (as  thought  by  Dr.  Marsh,  and  the  Rev. 
K.  Walker,  of  Purleigh),  speaking  a  language  so  akin 
to  Hindustani  as  they  do,  in  all  countries  whither  they 
wander.  Did  the  "  outcasts  of  Elam  "  migrate  first  to 
Hindustan,  and,  being  there  confounded  with  the  Sudras, 
wander  on  till  we  find  them,  more  than  half  a  million  in 
number,  on  the  continent  of  Europe.  18,000  of  them 
are  in  England,  still  roving  from  lane  to  lane,  and 
from  common  to  common,  living  under  a  few  bent 
sticks  and  an  old  smoked  blanket;  while  the  eye, 
mouth,  ankle,  hand,  and  quick  manner,  especially  of 
*  See  Max  Muller's  Lectures  on  the  "Science  of  Language,"  p.  198. 


398  EATTLES   WITH  THE   ELAMITES. 

the  female   gipsy,  are  said  to  be  of  perfectly  Eastern 
character. 


BATTLES   WITH   THE    ELAMITES. 

Although  slabs  45  to  47  in  the  Kouyunjik  gallery 
•were  found  in  Sennacherib's  palace,  they  appear  to  have 
been  not  his  sculptures,  but  his  grandson's,  who  is  called 
by  Sir  H.  Kawlinson,  Assur-bannipal  III.,  or  Sarda- 
napalus  III.  On  the  Susian  slabs  are  seen  the  Susians, 
in  great  disorder,  descending  an  artificial  mound,  and 
hotly  pursued  into  the  plain,  where  their  king's  chariot 
is  overturned,  and  the  monarch  slain,  while  he  is  praying 
for  his  life. 

The  Susian  army  being  routed,  the  dead  horses  and 
men  float  down  the  river,  and  the  Assyrian  soldiers 
bring  from  the  battle-field  a  number  of  heads,  which 
are  heaped  up  in  the  corner  of  a  tent,  in  which  one 
bearded  and  two  beardless  Susians  are  standing,  to 
whom  it  appears  the  heads  are  shown. 

In  the  upper  part  of  the  adjoining  slab,  we  observe 
a  scene  of  terrible  cruelty.  Two  men  are  being  flayed 
alive,  and  to  one  of  these  an  Assyrian,  with  violent 
gesture,  appears  to  be  addressing  a  few  words,  written 
in  cuneiform  characters  above  his  head.  They  signify 
that,  having  spoken  blasphemy  against  Assur,  his  tongue 
has  been  rooted  out.  Another  poor  wretch  is  having 
his  ears  pulled  off,  and  some  of  the  captives  have  their 
hands  manacled  in  iron  fetters,  and  kneel  over  an  object 
which  may  be  a  chafing  dish  with  hot  coals.  All  which 
takes  place  in  the  presence  of  the  king  in  his  chariot, 
under  his  royal  umbrella.  Before  him  stand  two  rows 
of  hakim,  or  wise  men  (see  Esther  vi.  13),  and  ten  of  his 
eunuchs  assisting  at  the  judgment  scene. 


SPITTING   IN   THE   PACE. 

Among  the  crowd  of  captives  are  some  men  of 
short  stature  and  remarkable  costume  (perhaps  made 
so  dwarfish  to  render  them  ridiculous).  They  wear 
long  fringed  robes,  boots  that  turn  up  at  the  toes, 
and  a  very  peculiar  cap.  They  are  fettered  and  mana- 
cled, and  are  each  made  to  carry,  slung  from  the  neck, 
the  head  of  a  slain  countryman  (perhaps  a  most  dear 
relation).  One  of  them  awaits  the  trial  in  view  of  the 
barbarities  recently  mentioned.  Another  stands  before 
the  king  accused  by  a  man  who  buffets  him  and  spits 
in  his  face.  By  a  refinement  of  cruelty,  the  man  who 
treats  him  with  such  great  indignity  is  made  to  appear 
a  fellow-countryman. 

Although  the  head-dress  of  both  differs  somewhat 
from  the  short  personages  above  described,  they  ap- 
pear to  belong  to  the  same  race.  The  act  of  spitting 
in  the  face  of  a  person  was  considered  the  greatest 
insult  that  could  be  offered.  See  Deut.  xxv.  9. 

"  They  abhor  me,  they  flee  from  me,  and  spare  not  to  spit  in  my 
face."— JOB  xxx.  10. 

And  to  this  day  an  Oriental  in  relating  any  circum- 
stance of  which  he  desires  to  express  the  utmost  con- 
tempt, will  make  this  gesture  with  his  mouth. 

We  have  here  a  perfect  picture  of  the  affront  offered 
by  Judah  to  her  unknown  King  before  the  judge  and 
assembled  court,  six  centuries  afterwards. 

"  Then  did  they  spit  in  His  face,  and  buffeted  him ;  and  others  smote 
him  with  the  palms  of  their  hands." — MATT.  xxvi.  67. 

The  above  five  captives  in  the  peculiar  dress  on  these 
Susian  slabs,  are  thought  by  Mr.  Vaux  to  have  a 
marked  Hebrew  physiognomy,  and  he  notices  that  they 
are  dressed  in  "the  national  costume."  The  presence  of 
Jews  in  Shushan,  we  learn  from  the  Book  of  Esther ; 


400  DANIEL  IN   SHUSHAN   THE   PALACE. 

they  were  carried  there  in  the  captivity,  and,  as  these 
slabs  would  show,  were  no  strangers  there  before  that 
time.  The  total  submission  of  the  Susians  to  Assyria 
is  depicted  by  prostrate  and  kneeling  figures,  followed 
by  musicians,  among  whom  are  women  and  children. 
Along  the  bottom  of  the  three  slabs  flows  a  stream 
apparently  choked  up  with  dead  men,  horses,  and 
bows  and  quivers.  A  confluence  of  two  streams  is 
represented,  large  and  small,  and  two  castles  are  built 
on  the  smaller  one,  whose  stream  is  shown  to  be  very 
rapid.  If  the  city  be  Shushan,  as  the  readers  of  the 
inscriptions  assume,  the  river  would  be  the  Ulai,  which 
derives  its  name  from  Ul,  to  be  strong ;  and  it  would  be 
that  rapid  river  on  whose  bank  the  prophet  Daniel  stood 
when  he  was  at  Shushan,  while  there  passed  before  him 
the  vision  of  the  ram — 

"  And  I  beard  a  man's  voice  between  the  banks  of  Ulai,  which  called, 
and  said,  Gabriel,  make  this  man  to  understand  the  vision." — DAN. 
viii.  16. 

Daniel,  as  we  are  aware,  lived  from  the  time  of  Nebu- 
chadnezzar to  that  of  Cyrus,  and  knew  of  God's  personal 
dealings  with  both  kings,  being  employed  to  interpret 
His  will  to  the  former ;  yet  but  for  the  sake  of  identifying 
Shushan  the  palace  with  the  Susa  of  these  slabs,  we 
ought  not  in  this  volume  to  overstep  THE  TIMES  OP  THE 
JEWISH  kingdom,  and  must  now  pass  rapidly  to  the 
next  sculptures,  Nos.  51  and  52,  and  observe  Senna- 
cherib in  his  chariot,  directing  the  work  of  his  slaves. 

SENNACHERIB. 

Isaiah  the  prophet  shall  be  our  guide,  as  girded  in  the 
worn  black  haircloth  of  mourning,  he  utters  his  third 
and  fourth  chapters.  As  we  pass  from  the  Central 


SENNACHERIB    IN    HIS    CHARIOT. 


401 


Saloon,  we  have  seen  his  former  descriptions  beginning 
to  be  verified,  in  the  sackcloth  of  the  women  and  the 
fetters  of  the  men ;  and  now  the  "  mighty  man  and  the 
man  of  war,  the  prudent  and  the  ancient  and  the  cap- 
tain of  fifty,  the  cunning  artificer  and  the  eloquent 
orator  "  must  "go  into  captivity/ 'for  "Jerusalem  isruined 
and  Judah  is  fallen."  They  must  go  and  pile  mounds  for 
Sennacherib's  palaces,  and  must  transport  his  great  bulls. 


SBNKACHEBIB   IN  HIS  CHABIOT. 


Behold  them  at  Kouyunjik:  the  king  stands  in  his 
chariot,  beneath  the  royal  parasol,  to 'receive  the  cap- 
tives and  the  spoil  taken  from  the  conquered  people. 

Oh!  if  that  same  great  prophet  could  arise  and  walk 
with  us  through  this  Kouyunjik  gallery,  and  could  see 
how  Sennacherib  has  delineated  his  conquests  and  his 
achievements  !  We  perceive  how  the  "  high  places  were 
builded,"  and  upon  the  builders,  the  prophet  would 
say,  as  in  his  forty-seventh  chapter — 


D   D 


4-02  PATRICIAN    SLAVES. 

"  Thou  didst  show  no  mercy ;  upon  the  ancient  hast  thou  very 
heavily  laid  thy  yoke." 

The  Assyrian  artist  has  most  successfully  conveyed 
n  remarkable  expression  of  fatigue  into  the  attitudes,  and 
of  age  into  the  countenances  and  limbs  of  the  king's 
captives.  Many  of  them  are  surely  Jewish  :  here  is  the 
cap-point  turning  back,  and  lappets  now  cover  the  ears ; 
bare-footed,  and  bowing  beneath  their  heavy  baskets  of 
stones,  the  "  honourable  man  "  and  the  "  miglity  "  and 
the  prudent  and  the  counsellor,  painfully  ascend  the 
mound.  These  are  no  labourers  born — they  are  patri- 
cian slaves  ',  there  are  younger  men  among  them,  whom 
the  task-masters  seek  to  afflict  more  heavily,  and  some 
of  these  wear  fetters,  others  are  chained  two  and  two. 
(In  the  glass  cases  before  these  slabs,  He  tJie  very  fetters, 
massive  and  sprinkled  with  the  verdigris  of  age,  which 
galled  those  limbs  of  old) .  Has  the  Lord  returned  evil 
for  evil  ?  Isaiah  says — 

"The  Lord  will  enter  into  judgment  with  the  ancients  of  his  people* 
and  the  princes  thereof :  for  ye  have  eaten  up  the  vineyard ;  the  spoil  of 
the  poor  is  in  your  houses.  What  mean  ye  that  ye  beat  my  people  to 
pieces,  and  grind  the  faces  of  the  poor  ?  saith  the  Lord  Q-od  of  hosts." — 
ISA.  iii.  14,  15. 

"  O  Assyrian,  the  rod  of  mine  anger,  and  the  staff  in  their  hand  is 
mine  indignation. 

"  I  will  send  him  against  an  hypocritical  nation,  and  against  the 
people  of  my  wrath  will  I  give  him  a  charge,  to  take  the  spoil,  and  to  take 
the  prey,  and  to  tread  them  down  like  the  mire  of  the  streets." — ISA.  x.  5, 6. 

ANOTHER   SIEGE    OP    SENNACHERIB. 

The  prophet  Isaiah  sings  the  Psalm  of  the  vineyard. 
(See  Isaiah  v.). 

"  My  well-beloved  hath  a  vineyard  in  a  very  fruitful  hill.  .  .  .  What 
could  have  been  done  more  to  my  vineyard,  that  I  have  not  done  in  it  ? 
wherefore,  when  I  looked  that  it  should  bring  forth  grapes,  brought  it 
forth  wild  grapes?" 


THE    SUBTERRANEAN   HALL.  403 

Judea  was  the  land  of  the  vine  and  the  olive.  In 
the  delineation  of  the  country  conquered  by  these 
Assyrian  lords,  and  in  defiance  of  all  perspective,  vines 
with  great  bunches  of  grapes,  causing  us  to  think  of 
the  vines  of  Judea,  overhang  the  scenes  of  blood  and 
murder. 

The  remaining  bas-reliefs  in  the  gallery  all  belong 
to  the  time  of  Sennacherib,  and  depict  further  details 
of  Assyrian  cruelties.  On  the  Mound  men  are  doing 
the  work  of  horses ;  either  pulling  the  king  in  his  chariot, 
a  sort  of  moveable  throne,  or  dragging  carts,  or,  along  the 
river-sides,  boats,  containing  weighty  obelisks ;  and  they 
are  all  men  with  the  peak  and  lappet  caps,  driven  by 
tyrant  overseers  with  sticks.  "  In  this  living  and  uni- 
versal language  of  art,  we  may  well  believe  that  we  see  a 
picture  of  the  sufferings  to  which  the  children  of  Israel 
were  exposed  when  their  cities  fell  before  the  conquering 
Assyrians,  and  their  inhabitants  were  sent  to  colonize 
distant  provinces  of  the  empire ;  and,  thus,  doubtless 
were  driven  the  inhabitants  of  Samaria  through  the 
desert  to  Halah  and  Habor,  by  the  river  of  Gozan  and 
the  cities  of  the  Medes/" 

THE    SUBTERRANEAN    HALL. 

We  now  re-pass  the  Central  Saloon,  and  by  way  of  the 
Lobby  Chamber,  descend  to  inspect  the  records  of 
further  deeds  of  cruelty  by  Sennacherib  before  Lachish. 

The  sculptures  in  this  chamber,  discovered  during  Mr. 
Layard's  stay  at  Mosul,  were  in  better  preservation  than 
any  found  before  at  Kouyunjik,  and  they  evidently  repre- 
sent the  siege  and  capture  of  a  city  of  great  extent  and 
importance,  which  appears  to  have  been  defended  by 
double  walls  and  fortified  outworks.  The  country 
around  it  is  hilly  and  wooded,  abounding  with  the  fig 


404 


THE   KING  AT   LACHISH. 


and  the  vine.  The  locality  of  Lachish  is  not  very 
certain.  Dr.  Stewart  thinks  it  an  hour's  ride  from 
Beer-sheba.  Mr.  Layard  says  that  in  none  of  the  other 
sculptures  were  so  many  warriors  represented  drawn 
up  in  battle  array,  as  in  this  siege,  and  in  such  a  com- 
pact and  organized  phalanx.  Ten  banks  or  mounds  are 
thrown  up  against  the  city,  and  seven  battering  rams 
have  been  rolled  up  to  the  walls. 

The  besieged  have  defended  themselves  with  great 
determination :  archers  and  slingers  are  showering 
arrows,  javelins,  stones,  and  blazing  torches  on  the 
enemy.  Part  of  the  city  has,  however,  been  taken. 
Beneath  the  walls  the  Assyrians  are  commencing  their 
tortures.  A  procession  of  cap- 
tives is  driven  into  the  pre- 
sence of  the  king,  who,  gor- 
geously-arrayed, receives  them 
seated  on  his  throne. 

Again,  we  see  the  unmistake- 
able  Jewish  physiognomy  of  the 
defeated  race,  and  the  women 
clothed  in  sackcloth  are  in  the 
same  carts  as  in  the  central 
palace  slabs.  The  captives  are 
brought  into  the  royal  presence 
by  the  Tartan  of  the  Assyrian 
forces,  possibly  the  Eabshakeh 
himself  (followed  by  his  princi- 
pal officers),  who  were  speedily 
afterwards  despatched  to  Jerusalem. 

"  And  the  king  of  Assyria  sent  Tartan  and  Kabsaris  and  Rabshakeh 
from  Lachish  to  king  Hezekiah  with  a  great  host  against  Jerusalem." — 
2  KINGS  lyiii.  17. 

Mr.  Layard  and  Dr.  Hincks  name  this  besieged  city 


ssirif.1  ensure. 


LACHISH   PERHAPS   NOT   TAKEN.  405 

"LACHISH,"  from  their  reading  of  the  inscription  near 
the  throne  of  Sennacherib,  and  Mr.  Layard  says  in  a 
note,  "  We  may  infer  that  the  city  soon  yielded."  There 
is,  however,  no  statement  either  in  the  Bible  or  Jose- 
phus  that  it  was  taken.  It  is  only  said  of  Sennacherib 
(2  Chron.  xxxii.  1)  that  he  "  thought  to  win"  the  fenced 
cities  of  Judah  for  himself.  When  Eabshakeh  returned 
from  Jerusalem 

"  He  found  the  King  of  Assyria  warring  against  Lihnah,  for  he  had 
heard  that  he  was  departed  from  Lachish." — 2  KINGS  xix.  8. 

While  in  Jer.  xxxiv.  Nebuchadnezzar  is  mentioned  as 
fighting  against  Lachish  and  Azekah. 

"  For  these  defenced  cities  remained  of  the  cities  of  Judah." 

It  may  be  possible,  therefore,  that  Sennacherib  did 
not  complete  his  conquest,  although  he  may  have  ordered 
to  be  sculptured  the  circumstances  attending  the  begin- 
ning of  his  siege. 

There  are  many  other  objects  of  interest  in  the  Sub- 
terranean Hall.  Some  of  the  slabs  (excavated  by  Messrs. 
Loftus,  Taylor,  and  Eassam  at  the  expense  of  the  Bri- 
tish Government)  represent  a  lion-hunt,  and,  dating  from 
the  latest  period  of  Assyrian  art,  exhibit  far  greater  free- 
dom of  design  and  more  delicacy  of  execution — parti- 
cularly in  the  animal  forms — lions,  wild  horses,  asses, 
dogs,  deer,  and  goats — than  the  bas-reliefs  from  Nim- 
roud  or  the  earlier  monuments  from  Kouyunjik. 

One  small  slab  presents  King  Assur-bannipal  with 
the  queen  at  a  banquet,  under  a  bower  of  vines.  An- 
other of  deeper  interest,  near  it,  gives  the  figures  of 
Jewish  priests,  with  the  "  linen  bonnet "  which  Mr. 
Holman  Hunt,  the  eminent  painter  of  OUR  SAVIOUR  IN 
THE  TEMPLE,  has  often  noticed,  and  remarked  that  he 


406 


A  "DUMB  STONE  CEYING  OUT." 


studied  his  picture  from  similar  living  models  in  Jeru- 
salem. It  is  said  in  Exod.  xxviii.  40,  concerning  the 
sons  of  Aaron — 

"And  bonnets  shalt  thou  mate  for  them, for  glory  and  for  beauty." 

The  edge  of  this  "  consecrated "  bonnet  appears  to 
be  jewelled;  it  is  a  "  goodly  bonnet  of  fine  linen " 
(Exod.  xxxix.  28) ;  but  the  wearer  in  his  long  robe  is  so 


CilTIVBS  TAKE1T  I!T   SU31ANA. 


emaciated  that  he  seems  nearly  starved  to  death.  The 
contrast  between  the  stout  arm  of  the  captors  and  the 
thin,  shrivelled  limbs  of  the  sufferers  praying  for  quar- 
ter is  indeed  a  "  dumb  stone  crying  out." 

Sir  Henry  Rawlinson  reads  this  inscription-  as  con- 
cerning the  kings  of  Susiana,  compelled  to  pay  tribute  to 
Assur-bannipal  III.,  sitting  on  the  throne  of  his  glory. 


FURTHER   CONQUESTS. 

The  sculptures  which  line  the  lower  end  of  the 
subterranean  hall  are  said  to  record  the  conquests  of 
Assur-bannipal  III. — again,  probably,  over  the  Elainites, 
or  exiled  Israel  in  Susiana.  Once  more  the  king  in 
his  chariot  receives  prisoners,  people  in  long  dresses 
and  with  fillets  on  their  head.  Some  are  fighting  from 
battlements,  some  are  getting  away  among  the  reeds  by 
a  river  side.  Some  are  in  fetters,  and  are  bearino- 

*  o 

bows  very  different  to  those  of  their  conquerors.  Women 
with  the  peculiar  leathern  bottles  again  lead  away  little 
children;  priests  with  the  round  bonnets  (but  not  like 
the  chief  priests')  appear  among  the  conquered  people. 
Some  of  the  captives  carry  bags  of  gold  dust,  or  water 
skins  and  copper  caldrons  like  those  on  the  obelisk ; 
some  have  their  hands  tied  behind  them ;  some  are  under 
the  rule  of  rude  soldiers  about  to  beat  and  even  stab 
them ;  women  with  their  hair  in  nets,  as  described  by 
Isaiah,  are  begging  quarter.  There  is  great  spirit  in  the 
oppressed  race,  for  one  king  chops  his  enemy's  bow  in 
two  as  his  own  head  is  being  cut  off.  The  captives 
have  all  long  dresses,  and  over  some  of  them,  in 
fetters  and  handcuffs,  their  oppressors  shake  the  gory 
heads  which  they  have-  already  decapitated. 

But  our  tale  is  told,  our  picture  tale.  We  have 
hitherto  laid  chief  stress  on  the  universal  language  of 
art. 

In  the  next  and  last  chapter  we  must  further 
call  Sir  Henry  and  his  friends  ,to  our  assistance,  with 
the  added  light  of  the  Inscriptions.  In  the  glass 
cases  found  in  the  inner  subterranean  chamber,  Chal- 
dea's  graves  have  rendered  up  their  spoils — often  of 
iridescent  tear-bottles,  of  exquisite  rainbow  hues.  Part  of 
an  iron  bridle,  and  crumbling  fragments  of  chain  armour, 


408 


BOWLS   PKOM   BABYLON. 


invite  the  eye,  with  some  bowls  brought  by  Mr.  Layard 
from  Babylon,  where  else  he 
found  so  little.  "  Some  bowls,  or 
.'%  )  cups,  of  terra  cotta,  round  the 
inner  surface  of  which  were  in- 
scriptions in  the  ancient  Chaldean 
language,  whose  letters  appear  to 
be  an  admixture  of  the  Syriac  and  Palmyrene.  The 
writings  are  in  general,"  he  says,  "  charms  against 
evil  spirits,  and  they  must  have  been  written  long  prior 
to  any  existing  Hebrew  manuscripts.  Sometimes  pure 
Hebrew  sentences  are  found  mixed  with  the  Chaldee, 
and  the  words  Hallelujah  and  Selah  occur  in  almost 
every  one  of  them.  In  the  East,  a  charm  written  in 
this  way  on  a  bowl,  is  still  often  washed  off  with  water 
by  a  sick  person,  and  drank  as  a  means  to  his  cure." 

In  another  compartment  is  the  ancient  earthen  Lamp 
of  the  tombs,  which  we  have  chosen  as  a  symbol  of  the 
help  we  look  for  from  the  decipherers  of  the  Inscriptions. 
We  cannot  but  gaze  on  it  with  reverence — the  soot  that 
has  blackened  its  rim,  is  from  smoke  3000  years  old. 


THE   EOCK   OP   BEHISTUN.  409 


CHAPTER  XV. 

THE  STONES  OP  PEESIA. 

THE  EOCK  OV  BEHISTUN — SPECIMEN  OF  ITS  LANGUAGES  — PEHBEPOLIS — IN- 
SCRIPTION ON  THE  HALL  OF  XERXES — THE  TOMB  OF  CYRUS  AT  MURGHAB 
— THE  PORTRAIT  PILLAR — THE  ARYAN  RULE — THE  BEHISTUN  INSCRIP- 
TION— ASSYRIAN  TABLETS SCRIPTURE  NAMES THE  MEDES AHASU- 

ERUS,   XERXES MEDES     AND      PERSIANS ZEND     AND     SANSCRIT — THE 

MAGI — THE  MODERN  PARSEES — THE  ASSYRIAN  TABLETS — KINGS,  GODS, 
PLACES — COMPARISON  OF  RESULTS  BY  CUNEIFORM  READERS — A  NEW 

DECIPHERER — THE  BLACK  STONE  OF  SHUSH LETTERS  WITHOUT  ARROW 

HEADS — A    CLAY   LIBRARY — SYLLABARIES PHO3NICIAN  CHARACTERS — 

COUNT  GOBINEAU — MR.  FORSTER— THE  INSCRIPTION  READERS — THE 
FRENCH  INSTITUTE  — BABYLON — THE  BIRS-NIMROUD — THE  SAEGONIDJE 
— THE  TOMB  OF  DANIEL — THE  END. 

N  the  western  frontiers  of  Media,  and  on  the 
high  road  from  Babylonia  to  the  eastward,  a 
rocky  hill  rises  abruptly  from  the  plain  to  the 
height  of  1 700  feet ;  it  is  not  an  isolated  hill,  but 
the  face  of  the  end  of  a  range  of  hills.  This 
hill  has  always  been  considered  sacred.  The 
Greeks  say  that  a  temple  of  Jupiter  once  stood  upon  it. 
The  name  Behistun  is  derived  from  Bagistane,  or  "  the 
place  of  Baga" — i.e.,  God. 

In  the  year  1837,  Colonel  Rawlinson,  then  a  young 
man,  happened,  with  his  troop,  to  be  in  the  neighbour- 
hood of  this  Rocz  OF  BBHISTDN,  and  his  attention  was 
drawn,  not  for  the  first  time,  to  the  remarkable  figures 
and  inscriptions  upon  it,  carved  at  an  elevation  of  500 
feet  from  its  base.  Now  he  knew  that  the  neighbouring 
Arabs  spoke  of  these  as  the  sculptures  of  DARIUS,  and 


410  WRITING  ON  THE   BOCK. 

he  remembered  to  have  heard,  when  a  boy  at  school, 
that  some  scholar,  in  Germany,  had  made  out  a  name  in 
some  similar  inscription  ;  and  this  vague  remembrance 
allured  him  onwards,  especially  as  the  French,  who  had 
become  aware  of  the  importance  to  history  of  what  was 
written  on  this  rock,  had  sent  out  an  expedition  of  their 
learned  men,  who,  after  spending  a  fprtnight  at  its  foot, 
departed,  saying,  that  "  The  work  of  copying  those  in- 
scriptions could  never  be  accomplished." 

But  Colonel  Bawlinson  was  not  so  ready  to  give  up 
the  task  in  despair.  He  soon  observed  enough  to  make 
out  that  they  were  in  three  languages,  though  in  a 
similar  character;  a  clue  to  the  reason  of  which  was 
afforded  by  the  fact,  that  if  a  governor  of  Bagdad,  at 
the  present  day,  wished  to  publish  an  edict  for  general 
information,  he  would  be  obliged  still  to  employ  three 
languages:  the  Persian,  Turkish,  and  Arabic.  In  the  age 
when  these  inscriptions  were  engraved,  the  languages 
were  supposed  the  Persian,  Median,  and  Babylonian, 
and  the  labour  bestowed  upon  the  undertaking  must 
have  been  enormous.  When  the  face  of  the  rock  could 
not  be  polished,  to  prepare  it  for  the  writing,  from  the 
unsoundness  of  the  stone,  other  fragments  had  been 
inlaid,  embedded  in  molten  lead,  and  so  nicely  fitted, 
that  careful  scrutiny  is  at  this  distance  of  ages  required 
to  detect  the  artifice.  Holes  or  fissures  were  thus  filled 
up,  and  then  polish  bestowed  upon  all  preparatory  to 
the  writing. 

But  the  real  wonder  of  the  work  consists  in  the 
inscriptions.  It  might  be  said  of  them  as  of  Hisn 
Ghorab,  "  Graven  with  an  iron  pen  and  lead  in  the  rock 
for  ever  I"  The  Median  is  the  most  beautiful.  It  is 
evident  that  after  the  preparation  and  engraving  of  the 
various  characters,  another  coating  of  siliceous  varnish 


DARIUS   CARVED    IT.  411 

lias  given  a  clearness  of  outline  to  each  individual  letter, 
and  this  varnish  is  now  far  harder  than  the  limestone 
rock  beneath  it.  It  has  been  washed  down  in  several 
places  by  the  trickling  of  water  for  three-and-twenty 
centuries,  and  lies  in  flakes  on  a  foot-ledge  like  thin 
layers  of  lava ;  but  it  is  only  in  the  great  fissures,  caused 
by  the  outbursting  of  natural  springs,  and  in  the  lower 
part  where  violence  may  have  been  used,  that  the  var- 
nish has  entirely  disappeared. 

Framed  in,  as  it  were,  by  the  inscriptions,  the  eye 
traced  on  this  rock  a  pictorial  representation  of  a  king, 
in  colossal  size,  as  kings  were  always  depicted  by  the 
Egyptians  and  Assyrians,  resting  his  foot  on  the  body 
of  Gomates,  the  Magian,  who  lies  prostrate,  with  up- 
lifted hand,  the  king's  huge  bow  resting  on  his  chest. 
Other  prisoners,  nine  in  number,  are  fastened  together 
in  a  file,  by  a  cord  passing  round  the  neck  of  each,  and 
their  hands  are  tied  behind  them.  The  last  wears  a 
Scythic  cap.  The  accompanying  accurate  delineation 
has  been  reduced,  by  an  accomplished  friend,  from  the 
lithograph  in  the  "Journal"  of  the  ROYAL  ASIATIC 
SOCIETY. 

In  this  singular  sculpture  Sir  E.  Ker  Porter  had 
once  imagined  Tiglath-Pileser  and  the  ten  captive  tribes ! 
and  he  assigned  to  the  tribe  of  Levi  the  sacerdotal  mitre 
of  the  last  in  the  train.  Another  and  later  traveller, 
Keppel,  even  supposed  he  saw  in  the  far-off  figures 
Queen  Esther  and  her  attendants ;  but  the  wild  Arabs 
continued  to  declare  that  DARIUS  CARVED  THE  ROCK,  and 
Colonel  Rawlinson  determined  to  satisfy  himself  of  the 
truth,  by  securing  at  least  veritable  copies  of  the  inscrip- 
tions which  attended  the  figures.  He  made  many 
personal  ventures,  being  himself  very  agile ;  "  but  the 
Babylonian  inscription/'  says  he,  "  stood  out  on  a  ledge 


412  STUDY   OP  ANCIENT  PERSIAN. 

overhanging  the  Persian,  and  that  I  was  tempted  to  give 
up,  for  I  could  not  scale  the  precipice  ;  and  the  boldest 
cragsman  said  it  was  unapproachable.  A  wild  Koordish 
boy,  however,  was  found,  who,  hanging  on  with  his  toes 
and  his  fingers,  swung  himself  to  a  point  where,  under 
my  directions,  he  pressed  soft  sheets  of  paper  into  the 
well-graven  forms,  and  brought  down,  with  the  raised 
appearance  of  letters  for  the  blind,  these  Babylonian 
characters — precious  as  the  Rosetta  stone,  and  now 
nearly  doomed  to  destruction,  for,  owing  to  the  trickling 
of  water  from  within  the  surface,  much  of  the  inscrip- 
tion has  since  actually  fallen/* 

The  same  persevering  British  officer  having  succeeded 
in  copying  from  time  to  time  portions  of  the  PERSIAN 
inscription  of  this  tablet,  began  to  study  the  characters 
at  Bagdad ;  and  copies  being  conveyed  to  Europe,  the 
subject  again  excited  attention  among  the  learned  in 
England  and  Germany,  the  patient  labour  of  all  parties 
resulting  in  similar  conclusions.  They  reasoned  from 
the  known  to  the  unknown — they  observed  that  certain 
groups  of  the  letters  were  exactly  similar,  and  concluded 
that  they  must  be  titles  ;  and  those  which  followed  or 
preceded  them  being  different,  were  supposed  to  be, 
probably,  the  proper  name  of  the  king  who  made  the 
record.  Hence,  an  alphabet  was  after  a  time  obtained 
— which  served  for  the  explanation  of  other  groups — 
similarities  of  grammatical  construction,  in  the  Median 
column,  being  discovered  with  the  Chaldee  and  Hebrew 
languages ;  but  it  was  not  until  after  twenty  years  of 
persevering  toil,  both  in  obtaining  and  deciphering  in- 
scriptions, that  Sir  H.  Rawlinson,  in  1857,  afforded  us 
the  following  information : — 

He  says,  "A  sufficient  number  of  records  are  now 
brought  to  England  to  task  the  patience  of  twenty  stu- 


VASE  01*  HALICARNASSUS. 


413 


dents  for  half  a  century,  and  the  alphabets  of  each  of  tho 
three  languages  are  more  or  less  ascertained." 

The  first  thing  that  an  unlearned  person  asks  con- 
sequently on  this  declaration,  is,  to  be  introduced  to 
these  alphabets,  or  at  least  to  be  shown  specimens  of 
these  three  different  languages.  The  initiated  will 


VASE  OF  HALICABNASSCS. 


point  to  a  precious  broken  vase  in  the  glass  case  of  the 
Lobby  Chamber  at  the  Museum,  and  say,  "  Here  is  a 
vase  found  at  Halicarnassus,  and  here  is  the  name  of 
Xerxes  upon  it,  three  times  repeated,  in  Persian,  Median, 


414 


PERSEPOLIS, 


£•  fin'  V 


v 


THX  NAMg  OF  IBEIBS   IN   CUJTEIFOBK.      1.  PBBSIiN.      2.  MEDIAN.     3.   ASSYRIAN. 


and  Babylonian  cuneiform  characters;  and  again,  the  vase 
has  the  same  name  in  Egyptian  hieroglyphics, 
as  read  by  Champollion  and  Birch. 

Mr.  Loftus  discovered  among  the  ruins 
of  Susa,  or  Shushan,  the  palace,  fragments 
of  alabaster  vases,  on  which  are  characters 
precisely  similar  to  these.  These  frag- 
ments also  are  in  the  British  Museum. 

PEKSEPOLIS. 

In  the  twenty  years  to  which  reference 
has  been  made,  the  world  had  owed  much 
to  Col.  Rawlinson,  and  also  to  other  stu- 
dents. It  had  been  aware  of  the  existence 
of  these  arrow-headed  characters  long  be- 
fore the  disinterment  of  Assyria's  capital  by 
M.  Botta  and  Mr.  Layard.  Pilgrims  and  missionaries 
had  first  told  of  such  signs  as  existent  at  Persepolis ; 
from  Pietro  della  Valle,  in  1621,  to  the  commencement 
of  this  century.  Niebuhr,  Ker  Porter,  Morier,  and  Rich 
can  never  be  forgotten  as  travellers  in  that  direction; 
but  no  one  had  set  much  store  by  information  concern- 
ing this  strange  language. 

Persepolis  lay  as  described  by  numerous  writers, 
with  its  tall  white,  ruined  columns  rising  in  naked 
majesty  at  the  foot  of  the  dreary  ridge  of  mountains 


THE     NAME     Of 

IBRXES   IW 
EGYPTIAN    JH»- 

Eooi.ypnics. 


PEESEPOLIS.  415 

which  joined  the  wide  and  verdant  plains  of  Merdusht. 
This  skeleton  of  glory  and  beauty  stands  on  the  Bend- 
amir  (the  old  Araxes),  and  was  once,  says  Diodorus, 
"the  richest  of  cities  under  the  sun/'  It  was  the 
link  between  an  Assyrian  past  and  a  then  Greek 
future. 

Some  few  remains  of  Persepolitan  sculptures  may 
be  seen  on  the  wall  at  the  left  hand  of  the  Tablet-king 
of  the  North-west  Palace,  in  the  British  Museum. 

At  the  foot  of  one  of  the  mountains  in  the  back- 
ground of  Persepolis,  which  projects  a  little  from  the 
main  range,  a  terrace  of  grand  masonry,  approached  by 
a  noble  stairway,  had  been  constructed  by  the  ancients, 
and  on  this  platform  still  remain  the  ruins  of  the  monu- 
'rnents  of  Darius  and  of  Xerxes.  Colossal  winged  bulls 
with  human  heads,  and  kings  seated  on  their  thrones 
under  the  royal  parasol,  are  surrounded  by  their  officers 
and  followed  by  their  slaves ;  and  above  all  hovers  the 
figure  of  the  supreme  god  of  the  Persians,  Ormuzd,  like 
another  symbol  of  Assur,  but  with  a  change  of  name. 
This  is  called  the  Persian  Feroher. 

On  sculptures,  and  tablets,  staircase,  bulls,  and  kings, 
around  the  window  frames,  and  on  doors  and  columns 
everywhere  are  spread  the  arrow-headed  characters. 
Sir  Henry,  arrived  at  his  present  date  of  decipherment, 
can  at  once  translate  these  ancient  PERSIAN  records, 
and  Mr.  Vaux,  with  a  drawing  of  one  of  the  winged 
bulls  after  Sir  E.  K.  Porter,  gives  the  inscription  as  now 
read  upon  the  entrance  gateway  of  the  Hall  of  Xerxes.* 

iNSCBinioir  ON  THE  HALL  OF  XEEXES. 

"  The  great  god  Auruzmada  (Ormuzd)  he  it  is  who  has  made  this 

world,  and  who  has  given  life  to  mankind.     Who  has  made  Xerxes  king 

.    .     .    both  king  and  lawgiver.    I  am  Xerxes  the  great  king,  tho 

*  See  "  Nineveh  and  Persepolis,"  366. 


416  THE    TOMB   OP   CYRUS. 

king  of  kings     ....     the  supporter  also  of  the  great  world,  the  son 
of  king  Darius  the  Achsemenian. 

"Says  Xerxes  the  king,  by  the  grace  of  Ormuzd,  I  have  made  this 
gate  of  entrance,  there  are  many  other  nobler  works  besides,  in  this  Per- 
sepolis  which  I  and  my  father  have  executed  .  ...  Says  Xerxes 
the  king,  may  Orrnuzd  protect  me  and  my  empire,  and  that  which  has 
been  executed  by  me  and  my  father. — May  Ormuzd  protect  it." 

THE    TOMB    OP   CYRUS   AT   MUEGHAB. 

The  sculptures  of  Persepolis  are  a  living  witness  to 
the  faithful  accounts  which  Herodotus  has  transmitted 
to  us  of  the  Persian  dress  and  arms — the  long  robe,  the 
bow,  and  the  short  spear,  with  the  hair  flowing  behind. 
Neither  Herodotus  nor  Xenophou  mention  Persepolis 
as  among  the  palaces  of  Cyrus. 

For  any  relics  of  the  Great  Monarch,  whom  God  names 
by  name  among  the  Persian  kings  as  his  "  Shepherd " 
and  his  anointed  (Isa.  xliv.  28;  xlv.  1),  and  who  is 
indeed  referred  to  ten  times  in  our  sacred  Scriptures, 
we  must  visit  MURGHAB.  It  is  about  fifty  miles  from  Persc- 
polis,  on  the  road  to  Ispahan,  where  a  building  of  an 
extraordinary  form  still  remains  resting  on  a  square 
base  of  blocks  of  once  beautiful  white  marble,  which 
rise  in  seven  layers  pyramidally.  The  small  edifice  that 
crowns  the  summit  is  also  of  marble  with  a  shelving 
roof,  the  base  and  sides  being  all  fixed  together  with 
clamps  of  iron.  The  extent  of  the  chamber,  which  was 
entered  by  Sir  R.  K.  Porter,  is  7  feet  wide,  10  feet  long, 
and  8  feet  high ;  the  marble  floor  within  was  perfectly 
white,  otherwise  the  monument  is  black  with  age, 
and  has  suffered  cruelly  from  the  fierce  blows  of  barba- 
rian hammers. 

The  evidence  of  this  curious  monument  being  really 
the  tomb  of  Cyrus  seems  very  complete.  It  was  once 
shrined,  according  to  the  testimony  of  Aristobulus, 
in  the  royal  garden  or  paradise  of  the  Pasargada;, 


THK   PORTRAIT   PILLAE.  417 

amid  which  a  grove  of  trees  was  planted,  and  within 
the  tomb  was  the  golden  coffin  of  Cyrus,  hung  round 
with  coverings  of  purple,  and  the  carpets  of  Babylon. 

The  historian  remarks  the  extreme  narrowness  of 
the  entrance  door,*  and  his  mention  of  a  house  of  stone 
with  a  roof  shows  that  this  construction  struck  him  as 
peculiar.  The  tearing  away  of  the  golden  coffin  is 
marked  by  the  holes  in  the  floor ;  for  it  was  doubtless  a 
speedy  lure  to  cupidity.  And  Plutarch  states  that 
the  officers  of  Alexander  plundered  it.  No  inscription 
can  be  detected  upon  this  royal  sepulchre. 

THE    PORTRAIT   PILLAR. 

M.  Grotefend,  a  German  scholar,  found  in  M.  Morier's 
works,  the  copy  of  a  cuneiform  inscription,  which  that 
traveller  had  discovered  on  a  pillar  at  this  same  vil- 
lage of  Murghab,  and  Professor  Lassen  agreed  in 
Grotefend' s  decipherment.  A  perfectly  identical  inscrip- 
tion was  also  found  by  Sir  K.  K.  Porter  over  a  very 
singular  figure  at  Murghab,  which  it  seems  natural  to 
suppose  may  be  a  portrait  of  the  great  Cyrus  himself 
with  mythological  additions.  It  was  carved  on  an 
immense  single  square  column,  formed  of  a  single 
block  of  marble.  It  has  formed  the  centre  of  other 
columns,  and  is  itself  15  feet  high.  The  chiselling  of 
the  face  is  exquisite,  and  the  rose  fringe  of  the  dress 
most  delicate ;  the  statue  is  four- winged,  and  from  its 
head  project  two  large  horns  which  support  as  it  were 
three  columns  of  a  miniature  balustrade  with  globes 
above  and  below.  Over  all  is  the  inscription  exactly 
similar  to  the  one  deciphered  by  the  German  scholars 

*  This  corresponds  with  Sir  K.  K.  Porter's  account  of  the  present 
appearance  of  this  building. 

E  E 


418 


KING   CYKUS. 


on  their  pillar,  and  this  reading  is  also  confirmed  by 
Sir  H.  Rawlinson. 


Bl'PrOSBD  JIQCEB  OF  KING  CTRUS. 


By  the  testimony,  then,  of  Murghab,  in  the  days 
of  Cyrus ;  of  Behistun,  in  the  time  of  Darius ;  and  of 
Persepolis,  in  the  ago  of  Xerxes  (we  place  them  now  in 


HIS   INSCRIPTION.  419 

chronological  order),  the  arrow-headed  characters  were 
used  to  express  the  ancient  Persian  language,  and  Sir 
Henry,  after  his  valorous  conquest  of  such  rich  abun- 
dance of  fresh  material  for  study,  in  the  copies  of  the 
tri-lingual  tablets  of  the  Rock  of  Behistun,  could  yet 
little  have  foreseen  how  immense  was  the  importance 
of  the  direction  which  this  gave  for  the  minds  of  men 
skilled  in  the  science  of  language,  to  examine  this  old 
Persian  source.  He  could  not  have  then  foretold  the 


W  *  -M  A  <T  <fr  -«  <fr  «  \  «TT  «  fir 
KT  ft  <T-   \  <K  «TT  rff  -M  «=<  ft  r<  ft 


ffi  -&-  -T 


p.!  T^l  E!  H  ^  H?  KK  tT  <«T  -V  - 

IHSCEIPIIOlfS  OB  CYBU8  AT  MUBGHAB. 

KI  am  Cyrus  the  king— the  Achsemenian." 

resurrection  of  Nineveh  with  her  vast  stores  of  Median 
and  Assyrian  records,  to  which  the  Persian  tablets 
would  in  future  serve  as,  at  least,  a  partial  key. 


420  THE  ARYAN  RULE. 


THE  ARYAN  RULE. 

It  now  remains  to  trace  the  power  of  Persia  to  its 
earliest  rise.  If  we  take  the  Bible  statements  as  our 
guide  we  shall  carefully  observe  the  destiny  of  the  un- 
chosen  posterity  of  Shem  and  Abraham.  Each  had  one 
chosen  son.  In  Shem's  case,  ARPHAXAD  alone  was 
chosen ;  while  Elam,Asshur,  Lud,  and  Aram  yet  remained 
as  the  fathers  of  the  future  races  who  appeared  by  turns 
as  the  powerful  rulers  of  Asia  Minor ;  of  Persia,  Assyria, 
Lydia  and  Syria.  From  Elam,  the  elder,  springs  one 
of  the  earliest  kings  (see  Chedorlaomer),  and  this  stock 
is  still  the  source  of  what  our  linguists  call  the  ARYAN, 
or  Noble  Nations,  in  whose  tents,  Japheth  dwelling,  is 
"  enlarged" — 

"  God  shall  enlarge  Japheth  (said  Noah),  and  he  shall  dwell  in  the 
tents  of  Shem."— GEN.  ix.  27. 

And  "by  these  were  the  isles  of  the  Gentiles  divided. 
There  seems  no  clearer  origin  for  the  Modes,  so  closely 
linked  with  the  Persians,  than  MADAI,  the  third  Son 
of  Japheth  (Gen.  x.  2) ;  and  Ahasuerus  the  king  of  the 
Medes  and  Persians,  is  found  in  the  days  of  Esther, 
reigning  on  his  throne  at  Shushan,  the  palace  in  the 
province  of  ELAM  (the  chief  province  of  Persia),  over 
127  provinces,  from  India  to  Ethiopia." 

The  Ancient  Rock  of  Behistun — if  that  Persian  record 
is  read  aright — tells  us  the  same  thing.  The  Ahasuerus 
of  Esther  is  now  considered  to  be  the  XERXES  of  Perse- 
polis,  the  son  of  Darius,  and  we  know  from  history  that 
no  Persian  or  Median  king  before  Darius  was  possessed 
of  so  enormous  an  extent  of  territory  as  that  given  in 
the  Bible  to  Ahasuerus,  and  on  the  rock,  to  Darius  his 
(supposed)  father. 


THE   ROCK   SPEECH.  421 

What,  therefore,  says  this  ancient  rock,  with  its 
solemn  voice  of  more  than  2000  years  old  ?  It  speaks 
as  follows : — 

PAET  OF  THE  HTSCBIPTION  ON  THE  BOCK  OF  BEHISTinf. 

"  I  am  Darius,  the  great  king,  the  king  of  kings,  the  king  of  Persia, 
the  king  of  the  dependent  provinces,  the  son  of  Hystaspes,  the  grandson 
of  Arsames,  the  Achsemenian. 

"  Says  Darius  the  king  :  My  father  was  Hystaspes.  Of  Hystaspes, 
the  father  was  Arsames.  Of  Arsames,  the  father  was  Ariyamanes.  Of 
Ariyamanes,  the  father  was  Teispes.  Of  Teispes,  the  father  was  Achse- 
menes. 

"  Says  Darius  the  king  :  On  that  account  we  have  been  called  Achse- 
menians.  From  antiquity  we  have  been  unsubdued.  From  antiquity 
our  race  have  been  kings. 

"  Says  Darius  the  king :  I  am  the  ninth  of  my  race.  By  the  grace  of 
Ormuzd  I  have  become  king.  Ormuzd  has  granted  me  the  empire. 

"  Says  Darius  the  king :  These  are  the  countries  which  have  fallen 
into  my  hands  by  the  grace  of  Ormuzd, — Persia,  Susiana,  Babylon, 
Assyria,  Arabia,  Egypt,  Sparta,  Ionia,  Armenia,  Cappadocia,  Parthia, 
Zarangia,  Aria,  Chorasmis,  Bactria,  Sogdiana,  the  Sacoe  (Scythians),  the 
Sattagydes,  Arachteans,  the  Mcecians — being  twenty-one  countries. 

"Says  Darius  the  king :  These  countries  have  brought  tribute  to  mo ; 
that  which  I  have  said  to  them  by  night  and  by  day  they  have  performed. 

"  Says  Darius  the  king  ••  Within  these  countries,  whoever  was  of  the 
true  faith,  I  have  cherished  and  protected  ;  whoever  was  a  heretic,  him  I 
have  rooted  out  entirely." 

"  The  rites  which  G-omates,  the  Magian,  had  introduced,  I  prohibited. 
I  restored  to  the  state  the  chants,  and  the  worship  ;  and  to  those  families 
which  Gomates  the  Magian  had  deprived  of  them." 


Then  follows  a  history  of  further  conquests  or  usur- 
pations. The  inscriptions  are  illustrated  by  a  rude 
picture  of  the  king,  with  his  foot  upon  the  prostrate 
magician ;  and  a  picture  of  the  minor  chiefs  he  had 
successively  overthrown.  This  tablet  he  intended  to 
mark  the  permanent  establishment  of  his  power,  and 
he  adds  a  supplementary  figure,  and  even  includes  that 
of  a  rebel  with  the  well-known  Assyrian  helmet,  among 
the  effigies.  It  is  Elam  ruling  over  Assur,  who  once 
ruled  over  her. 


422  THE  MEDES  AEYANS. 


THE  MEDES. 

There  was  an  universal  tradition  of  a  very  early 
occupation  of  Western  Asia  by  the  Scyths — i.  e.,  by  a 
Turanian  race ;  and  the  second  column  of  the  Behistun 
inscriptions  was  found,  contrary  to  all  expectation,  to 
contain  very  many  Turanian  elements  of  speech.  This 
column  had  been  called  Median,  in  full  anticipation  that 
the  structure  of  its  grammar  would  prove  to  be  Aryan ; 
and  it  is  a  difficulty  by  no  means  yet  fully  solved  to 
discover  the  history  of  the  Turanian  people,  by  whom 
this  language  was  used,  and  who  must  have  formed,  at 
that  time,  no  unimportant  portion  of  the  Persian  Empire. 

Herodotus  expressly  informs  us  that  the  Medes  were 
Aryans,  and  that  the  Magi  were  one  of  their  six  tribes ; 
and  Berosus  assigns  224  years  to  Median  kings  in  the 
earliest  times  of  Chaldea.  It  was  Cyaxares,  a  king  of 
the  Medes,  who  aided  Nebuchadnezzar  in  the  final 
destruction  of  Nineveh.  He  is  the  first  Ahasuerus 
named  in  Scripture,  the  father  of  Darius  the  Mede 
(Dan.  ix.  1),  otherwise  called  Astyages,  and  whose 
daughter  Mandana,  married  to  Cambyses,  a  noble  Per- 
sian, was  the  mother  of  CYEUS. 

Cyrus  is  the  link  between  the  Medes  and  Persians, 
and  was  called  of  God  by  name  a  century  and  a  half 
before  his  birth.  The  name  was  truly  royal,  and  sig- 
nified, like  Pharaoh  in  the  language  of  Egypt,  the  Sun. 
In  Greek  Cyrus  is  written  Kuros ;  in  Hebrew,  Krsh. 
on  Behistun,  Kurush;  the  Persians  corrupted  it  into 
Chosroes.  The  Medes  and  Persians  had  long  been 
marked  by  the  Hebrew  prophets  as  those  who  would  be 
the  executioners  of  the  Divine  judgments  upon  Babylon. 

When  Cyrus  died,  he  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Cam- 
byses,  the  second  Ahasuerus  of  Scripture  (Ezra  iv.  6), 


AHASUERUS,   XEEXES.  423 

during  whose  reign,  and  that  of  Smerdis,  the  succeeding 
Magian  impostor,  the  opposition  of  the  enemies  of  the 
Jews,  to  the  rebuilding  of  their  temple,  continued  until 
the  time  of  Darius,  whose  graving  of  the  Eock  of 
Behistun  is  co-incident  with  the  completion  of  that 
grander  event  at  Jerusalem  (see  Ezra  vi.  15).* 

AHASUERUS,   XERXES. 

To  Darius  succeeds  Xerxes ;  strongly  conjectured,  as 
we  previously  intimated,  to  be  the  third  Ahasuerus  of 
the  Bible,  and  whose  name,  in  its  Greek  form,  is  on  the 
vase,  p.  405.  It  is  surmised  that  Ahasuerus,  which 
reads  Achshurush,  is  merely  the  Hebrew  corruption  of 
Xerxes.  If  A,  which  is  only  an  affix,  be  taken  away 
from  this,  it  leaves  Chshurush  or  Chsheresh.  On  the 
vase,  the  Assyrian  name  reads  Khisiharsaha ;  in  the 
Persian  Klishayarsha,  and  in  the  Egyptian,  KJishyarsha. 
The  Sanscrit  root  from  which  Xerxes  is  derived  is  Kshi 
— to  rule.  If  this  deduction  be  correct  (and  it  is  con- 
firmed in  the  latest  Biblical  Dictionaries),  the  Xerxes  of 
the  Greeks,  who  succeeded  his  father,  Darius,  B.C.  485, 
and  with  an  army,  as  it  is  said,  of  two  or  three  millions 
of  men,  was  defeated  at  the  battle  of  Salamis  (then 
hastily  retreating  to  Persia,  and  giving  himself  up  to 
luxury  and  pleasure),  was  no  other  than  the  Ahasuerus 
of  the  Book  of  Esther.  Herodotus  tells  us  he  was  the 
tallest  and  handsomest  man  in  Persia.  The  banquet 
described  in  the  first  chapter  of  Esther  takes  place  in  the 
third  year  of  his  reign,  which  agrees  with  what  we  know 
of  the  history  of  Xerxes,  who,  after  his  return  from 
Egypt,  would  be  likely  to  summon  a  council  of  his 
princes  when  attempting  the  invasion  of  Greece.  The 

*  Sir  Henry  supposes  the  sculptures  of  Behistun  to  have  been  exe- 
cuted in  the  fifth  year  of  Darius. 


424  MEDES   AND   TEKSJAN3. 

disgrace  of  Vashti  then  takes  place,  and  it  is  not  till 
four  years  afterwards,  in  the  seventh  year  of  the  king's 
reign,  that  Esther  is  raised  to  the  throne. 

MEDES  AND   PERSIANS. 

When  the  Median  power  merged  in  the  Persian, 
the  Persians  called  themselves  Aryans,  and  their 
language  belongs  to  the  Aryan  group ;  and  now  Max 
Muller,  the  present  Oxford  Professor  of  the  Science  of 
Language,  claims  this  speech  for  an  elder  branch  of  the 
Indo-European  family.  He  places  just  after  the  dialects 
of  India  the  speech  of  the  gipsies  (the  outcasts  of 
Elam)  and  the  dialects  of  Persia  (seo  p.  397) ;  then 
follow  the  languages  of  Afghanistan,  Kurdistan,  Armenia, 
all  our  British  varieties  of  speech,  and  those  of  Por- 
tugal, Spain,  France,  Italy,  Wallachia,  Greece,  Bulgaria, 
Russia,  Poland,  Bohemia,  Germany,  Holland,  Denmark, 
Sweden,  Norway,  Iceland ;  while  to  tho  whole  varied 
number  *  Sanscrit  is  said  to  stand  in  the  relation,  not 
of  parent,  but  of  elder  sister. 

In  this  agreeable  book  we  are  not  able  to  trace  the 
foundation  for  the  poetical  statement  which  we  find, 
"that  the  earliest  clan  of  Aryans  were  first  settled 
together,  probably  on  the  highest  elevation  of  Central 
Asia,  speaking  a  language  not  yet  Sanscrit  or  Greek, 
or  German,  but  containing  the  dialectic  germs  of 
all — and  that  after  this  clan  broke  up,  the  ancestors 
of  the  Indians  and  Zoroastrians  must  have  remained 
together  for  some  time  in  their  migrations  or  new  set- 
tlements/*' Perhaps,  rather,  in  earliest  times,  as  in  later 
ones,  Elam  was  driven  out  of  her  plains  by  invading 
forces,  and  took  refuge  in  India,  as  the  Parsees  or 
comparatively  ancient  Persians  say  they  did  from  the 

*  See  "  Science  of  Language,"  p.  173. 


ZEND  AND    SANSCRIT.  425 

Arabs  under  Mohammed;  and  they  have  ever  sinco 
dwelt  in  India,  undistinguished,  until  lately,  from  the 
Hindus. 

ZEND  AND   SANSCRIT. 

It  is  not  certain  but  that  the  Parsees  may  also  bo 
a  branch  of  the  ce  outcasts  of  Elam." 

By  the  recent  discoveries  of  Eugene  Bournouf,  a 
French  scholar,  the  language  of  their  sacred  books,  the 
Zend  Avesta,  has  wonderful  relationswith  the  ancient  San- 
scrit. An  eminent  Dane,  Erasmus  Eask,  in  1816,  started 
for  Persia  and  India,  and  was  the  first  to  acquire  a  know- 
ledge of  Zend.  He  proved  that  the  sacred  language 
of  the  Parsees  was  closely  connected  with  the  ancient 
language  of  the  Brahmins,  and  that  like  Sanscrit  it 
had  preserved  some  of  the  earliest  formations  of  Indo- 
European  speech.  His  researches  were  followed  out 
by  Bournouf,  and  it  was  he,  says  Max  Muller,  who 
first  applied  with  real  success,  this  ancient  Persian  key 
to  the  cuneiform  inscriptions  of  Darius  and  Xerxes. 

Now  we  have  recovered  the  relics  of  Assyria,  and 
compare  them  with  Persepolis,  we  can  perceive  what 
was  the  ancient  Median  faith,  and,  probably,  the  patri- 
archal faith  of  Elam.  As  Shem's  unchosen  descendants 
the  Elamites  may  not  have  had  made  known  to  them  the 
revelation  given  to  the  Hebrews,  but  had  possessed  the 
memories  of  Shinar,  they  preserved  the  legends  of 
Cherubic  forms,  and,  like  Assur,  they  had  the  symbol  of 
the  Presence  and  the  wings,  in  the  reforming  times  of 
Zoroaster  under  Darius — as  is  evidenced  by  the  Eock 
of  Behistun.  That  king  is  said  to  have  rejected  idols, 
and  to  have  overcome  the  superstitions  by  which  the 
ancient  Magi  had  been  corrupted  through  their  inter- 
course with  Babylon. 


426  THE   MAGI   AND  PAESEES. 


THE   MAGI. 

The  Magi  are  twice  mentioned  in  the  Old  Testament. 
One  of  them  was  among  the  Chaldean  officers  sent  by 
Nebuchadnezzar  to  Jerusalem,  under  the  title  of  Rab 
Mag  (Jer  xxxix.  13) — supposed  chief  of  the  Magi. 

Herodotus  speaks  of  them  in  the  time  of  Asty- 
ages,  as  professing  to  be  interpreters  of  dreams ;  and  it 
is  in  this  particular  faculty  that  Daniel  supersedes  them. 
The  prophets  of  Israel  viewed  them  as  the  priests  of  the 
old  Babel  religion — "astrologers  and  star-gazers,  and 
monthly  prognosticators "  (Isa.  xlvii.  13).  And  when 
Daniel,  taught  of  God,  proved  himself  ten  times  wiser 
than  all  the  magicians,  he  accepted  an  offer  from  the 
king  that  constituted  him  chief  governor  over  them  all, 
and  most  probably  "  Rab  Mag." 

The  oldest  inscription  of  Tiglath-Pileser  speaks  of 
the  Magians  (see  Appendix),  and  a  curious  point  of 
affinity  with  the  children  of  Israel  is  shown  in  a  plate  of 
Hyde's  "  History  of  the  Old  Religion  of  Persia,"  wherein 
the  costume  of  the  Magi,  the  reversed  cap  and  turned- 
up  toes  of  the  boots  are  a  prominent  feature. 

THE   MODERN   PAESEES. 

The  modern  Parsees  now  resident  at  Bombay  speak 
of  their  religion  as  founded  in  the  reign  of  Darius 
Hystaspes,  and  again  reformed,  after  a  lapse  from  its 
primitive  purity,  in  A.D.  226.  Their  sacred  books,  many 
of  which,  however,  Alexander  had  destroyed,  were 
then  collected,  and  translated  from  Zend  into  Pehlvii, 
the  current  language  of  Persia  at  that  time.  Fire 
temples  were  rebuilt  for  the  worship  of  God,  and  this 
reformation  lasted  until  the  Arab  invaders  overthrew 
all  again,  in  the  year  641. 


THE   PAESEE  EXODUS.  427 

The  Parsees  then  made  a  great  exodus  from  Persia, 
and  arrived  on  the  shores  of  India.  Those  who  re- 
mained in  Persia  are  still  deeply  oppressed  and 
wretched;  but  a  hundred  thousand  of  the  descendants 
of  those  who  emigrated  are  still  residing  in  the  British 
possessions  in  India.  The  Government  of  England  has 
been  highly  favourable  to  the  development  of  their 
commercial  and  enterprising  spirit.  They  are  a  people 
evidently  and  completely  distinct  from  the  races  whcv 
surround  them,  and  are  remarkable  for  their  industry 
and  love  for  the  extension  of  agriculture.  They  are 
become  large  and  successful  railway  contractors,  are 
extremely  charitable  and  hospitable,  have  an  increasing 
desire  for  education;  and  the  sons  of  their  rich  men 
perpetually  devote  themselves  to  study,  and  come  over 
to  England  for  intellectual  advantages. 

Female  education  is  also  making  daily  progress 
among  them,  and  in  their  domestic  relations  they  are 
become  almost  European.  A  Parsee's  house  is  now 
called  "  his  home,"  his  wife  is  his  companion,  and  his 
children  are  his  friends.  At  this  day  they  thankfully 
acknowledge  her  Majesty  the  Queen  of  England  as  their 
lawful  sovereign,  and  they  displayed  unshaken  faith  to  the 
British  Government  during  the  disastrous  days  of  re- 
bellion in  India.  These  outcasts  of  Elam  have  already 
grown  into  an  important  people,  and  can  no  longer 
be  looked  upon  as  a  band  of  fugitives  on  a  foreign 
shore. 

They  disclaim  the  worship  of  fire,  but  pay  it  a  cer- 
tain observance  (in  their  own  words)  as  the  terrestrial 
image  of  the  Supreme  Being,  and,  therefore,  when 
engaged  in  prayer,  they  stand  before  the  fire,  or  direct 
their  face  towards  the  sun.  They  cannot  now  be  igno- 
rant of  the  written  Revelation  of  God.  May  their  inter- 


428  ASSYRIAN   TABLETS. 

course  with.  England  soon  issue  in  their  worshipping 
Him  who  is  a  Spirit  in  spirit  and  in  truth  ! 

It  is  interesting  to  trace  in  the  history  of  the 
ancient  Persians  that  ethnic  association  of  the  Ja- 
phetic and  Semitic  elements*  which  have  issued  in 
the  elimination  of  the  group  of  Indo-European  lan- 
guages. 

The  other  sons  of  Japheth,  of  course,  shared  in 
bestowing  upon  Europe  the  gift  of  tongues  which 
now  truly  rule  the  world  because  of  the  translation 
into  them  of  the  powerful  Word  of  Godj  and  be- 
cause one  nation  has  so  learned  to  value  this  WRITTEN 
WOED  as  to  send  it  back  to  all  the  ancient  peoples  of  which 
it  tells,  now  degraded  from  their  pristine  power.  There 
is  no  Assyria,  Media,  or  Chaldea  of  the  past,  and  what, 
alas  !  are  Arabia,  Persia,  Syria,  and  Palestine,  under 
the  influence  of  Mohammed  and  his  Koran  ?  But  the 
night  wanes  and  the  day  dawns. 

"  Thou  hast  magnified  thy  Word  above  all  thy  name." 

It  was  said  to  the  disciples  of  Christ — 

"  Te  shall  be  witnesses  unto  Me,  both  in  Jerusalem  and  in  all  Judea, 
and  in  Samaria,  and  unto  the  uttermost  part  of  the  earth." 

The  true  "seed"  is  now  ever  sowing  in  "the 
field  of  the  world,"  and  the  "  witness"  is  fast  accom- 
plishing. 

THE   ASSYRIAN   TABLETS   OP   BEHISTUN. 

The  recovery  of  the  Persian  columns  of  the  Eock  of 
Behistun  has  thrown  further  light  on  profane  history  ; 
they  have  made  Herodotus  the  historian  for  our  times  • 
they  have  fixed  the  thoughts  of  men  of  letters  afresh 

*  Elam  being,  as  we  cannot  forget,  the  eldest  son  of  Shem. 


KINGS,    GODS,    AND   PLACES.  429 

on  Cyrus,  Darius,  and  Xerxes.  Zoroaster,  as  we  have 
seen,  arises  from  the  shades  of  mythical  story ;  and 
before  Sir  Henry  published,  in  1851,  the  lithographs 
from  the  third  and  Assyrian  columns  of  the  inscriptions, 
some  few  more  names  in  Bible  history  had  been  found — 
Nebuchadnezzar,  Babel,  and  Sargon — and  the  probable 
power  of  their  characters  pointed  out;  but  unfortu- 
nately the  Assyrian  tables  were  so  mutilated,  that  only 
the  latter  half  of  their  lines  were  available.  Hincks 
and  Botta  now  agreed  with  Hawlinson  that  these 
characters  were  Semitic ;  and  it  gave  new  interest  to 
the  third  column,  when  it  was  shown  that  the  compli- 
cated and  uncouth  combinations  of  wedges  found  there 
were  reproduced,  with  only  slight  dissimilarities,  in  the 
multiform  records  of  Babylon  and  Nineveh. 

When  Mr.  Layard  published  his  two  volumes  of 
"Nineveh  and  Babylon,"  in  1853,  he  gave  the  following 
names  known  in  Scripture,  as  found  occurring  in  various 
Assyrian  inscriptions : — 

KINGS. — Jehu,  Omri,  Menahem,  Hezekiah,  Hazael, 
Merodach-Baladan,  Nebuchadnezzar,  Pharaoh,  Sargon, 
Tiglath-Pileser,  Sennacherib,  Esarhaddon,  Meshek, 
Tubal. 

GODS. — Assur,  Nergal,  Nebo,  Assarak,  Dagon,  Shal- 
maneser,  and  Bel. 

PLACES. — Judea,  Jerusalem,  Samaria,  Ashdod,  La- 
chish,  Damascus,  Hamath,  Tyre,  Sidon,  Gaza,  Ekron, 
Askelon,  Arvad,  Lebanon,  Egypt,  Harran,  Mesopotamia, 
Ur,  Nineveh,  Babylon,  Elam,  Shushan,  Media,  Persia, 
Ararat,  Assyria. 

EIVEES. — Euphrates,  Tigris,  Chebar. 


430  COMPARISON  OP  RESULTS. 


COMPARISON  OP  RESCJLTS,  BY  THE  READERS  OF  THE  CUNEIFORM 
CHARACTERS. 

In  winding  up  our  story  of  the  "  Stones/'  we  ap- 
proach its  most  difficult  portion.  The  unlearned  Bible 
reader  may  be  allowed  to  think  upon  these  remains,  and 
observe  their  pictures,  with  such  light  as  his  studies  in 
general  history  may  add  to  his  capacity.  He  can  also 
read  what  the  last  and  best  compendiums  and  Bible 
dictionaries  record  upon  the  subject,  and  comparing 
each  with  each  account,  he  will  perhaps  be  discouraged 
at  first  by  the  mountainous  differences  of  opinion — and 
the  small  aim  of  each  writer  to  make  use  of  the  valuable 
aid  of  his  co-students  and  predecessors.  There  was  a 
period  in  the  study  of  the  arrow-headed  characters 
when  those  learned  in  this  lore  were  willing  to  confer 
on  their  mutual  progress,  and  when  they  came  into 
friendly  comparison  of  the  results  of  their  studies. 

Mr.  Fox  Talbot  sent  to  the  Royal  Asiatic  Society  in 
the  year  1856,  a  translation  of  a  cuneiform  inscription 
on  a  cylinder  bearing  the  name  of  Tiglath-Pileser,  with 
a  note  stating  his  object  in  so  doing. 

He  remarked  that  many  persons  have  hitherto  re- 
fused to  believe  in  the  truth  of  the  system  by  which 
Dr.  Hincks  and  Sir  H.  Rawlinson  have  interpreted  the 
cuneiform  characters,  especially  the  Assyrian  ones,  be- 
cause they  are  led  to  understand  that  each  cuneiform 
group  represents  a  syllable,  and  not  always  the  same 
syllable ;  sometimes  one,  sometimes  another ;  having 
besides,  on  different  occasions,  equally  various  sounds. 
To  which  it  is  natural  to  reply,  "that  the  Assyrians 
themselves  could  never  have  read  such  writing  after  it 
was  written,  and  that  therefore  the  system  supposed  to 
be  discovered  must  be  fallacious." 


TEST   OP   TRUE    SYSTEM.  431 

Experience,  however,  shows  that  the  uncertainty 
arising  from  this  source  is  not  so  great  as  might  have 
been  imagined ;  considering  the  newness  of  the  study 
there  is  a  fair  amount  of  agreement  between  different 
interpreters  in  passages  of  average  difficulty.  The  letter 
continued :  — 

"  It  is  well  known  that  Sir  H.  Kawlinson  is  about  to 
publish  some  of  his  translations  of  this  cylinder  of 
Tiglath-Pileser,  transcribed  into  the  ordinary  European 
letters.  Let  Dr.  Hincks  and  M.  Oppert  add  their  versions 
of  the  same,  independently,  to  mine,  and  if  without  any 
communication  with  each  other,  any  special  agreement 
shall  appear  between  our  independent  versions,  it  must 
indicate  that  we  have  a  true  system  for  our  guide." 

There  followed  upon  this  request  a  resolution  that 
the  experiment  should  be  tried,  and  the  following  com- 
petent judges — the  very  Eev.  the  Dean  of  St.  Paul's, 
Dr.  Whewell,  Sir  Gardner  Wilkinson,  Mr.  Grote,  the 
Rev.  W.  Cureton,  and  Professor  H.  H.  Wilson — kindly 
consented  to  undertake  the  comparison. 

We  are  able  to  present  our  readers  with  a  drawing 
of  duplicate  cylinders  of  Tiglath-Pileser  in  the  Museum,* 
at  inscriptions  lithographed  from  which  all  parties  had 
worked.  One  of  these  was  found  at  Kalah  Sherghat, 
and  is  the  earliest  document  of  a  purely  historical  cha- 
racter which  has  as  yet  been  recovered  in  Mesopotamia  ;t 
its  date  is  fixed  by  Sir  H.  Eawlinson  at  1120  B.C.,  and 
it  contains  annals  extending  over  the  space  of  four  years. 
Tiglath-Pileser  rebuilds  a  temple  which  had  been  taken 
down  by  his  grandfather  sixty  years  previously.  He 
claims  to  have  extended  his  conquests  over  Cappadocia, 

f 

*  This   is  an  earlier  Tiglath-Pileser  than  the  one    mentioned   in 
Scripture. 

t  Kawlinson's  "  Herodotus,"  vol.  i.,  p.  374.    1862. 


4S2 


CYLINDERS  OP  TIGLATH-PILESER. 


Syria,  and  the  Median  and  Armenian  Mountains.  We  will 
attempt  in  pages  434, 435  to  give  a  comparison  in  columns 
of  the  various  translations,  and  further  details  from  Sir 
Henry  Rawlinson's  column  will  be  found  in  the  Appendix. 


CYLIlfDEBS  OT  IIGLiTH-riOSBB.    1120  B.C. 

We  think  it  best  to  give  fall  extracts  from  the 
translated  inscriptions  in  an  Appendix,  that  we  may  not 
break  the  general  thread  of  the  subject,  which  is  so 
many-sided  that  this  is  apt  to  be  the  case.  The  ' '  Ma- 
gians "  and  the  "  Copper  Tablets,"  if  rightly  read,  are 
very  curious  elements  in  so  early  an  inscription,  while  the 
"  sixty"  of  kings  is  a  mode  of  reckoning  like  that  of  the 
Chinese. .  Tiglath-Pileser's motto  seems  to  be — "There 
is  not  to  me  a  second  in  war,  nor  an  equal  in  battle." 


COMPARATIVE  READINGS.  433 

"  On  the  whole/'  says  tlie  late  Professor  Wilson,  one 
of  the  judges  in  this  trial,  "  the  result  of  the  experi- 
ment, than  which  a  fairer  test  could  scarcely  be  devised, 
may  be  considered  as  establishing  almost  definitely  the 
correctness  of  the  valuation  of  the  characters  of  these 
inscriptions.  .  .  .  It  is  somewhat  different  with 
respect  to  the  words  of  the  language.  The  almost  in- 
variable concurrence  of  the  translators  in  the  general 
sense  of  the  several  paragraphs,  shows  that  they  are 
agreed  in  giving  the  same  interpretation  to  a  very  con- 
siderable portion,  if  not  the  larger  portion,  of  the  voca- 
bulary; at  the  same  time,  the  differences  prove  that 
much  remains  to  be  effected  before  the  sense  of  every 
term  can  be  confidently  read." 

As  this  comparison  took  place  seven  years  ago,  there 
is  of  course  much  since  to  tell  of  further  progress. 
"  The  general  consistency  of  the  readings  with  admitted 
history,"  says  the  "  Journal  of  Sacred  Literature,"  for 
October  1864,  "  of  these  newly-discovered  documents, 
is  acknowledged  by  all,  and  is  daily  receiving  fresh 
illustration.  This  agreement  is  specially  remarkable  in 
the  field  of  JEWISH  history ;  and  if  there  are  any  to  whom 
the  cuneiform  records  and  the  Hebrew  Scriptures  are 
alike  doubtful,  they  will  find  rather  a  singular  coinci- 
dence of  statement — arfact  which  ought  to  arrest  their 
attention — which  cannot  lie  the  result  of  chance,  which 
certainly  has  not  been  the  result  of  design  on  the  part 
of  the  writers  or  decipherers  on  either  side,  and  which 
only  the  supposing  of  the  truth  of  statements  on  both 
sides,  can  .rationally  account  for." 

These  cylinders  do  not  bear  any  testimony  to  the 
Indian  Vedas.  They  were  written  long  before  the 
Persian  Zend  Avesta,  they  were  inscribed  by  enemies  of 
God's  people ;  but  they  are  come  up  after  nearly  five  and 

E   F 


434  COMPARATIVE   HEADINGS. 

SIB  H.  RAWIINSON.  H.  F.  TAIBOT. 

Bit-Khamri,  the  temple  of  my  lord       The  temple  of  Kamri,  of  YEM, 
Vul,  which  Shansi-Vul,  high-priest   my  lord,   which  Shemsi-Yem,   su- 
of  Ashur,  son  of  Ismi-Dagan,  high-   preme  lord  of  Assyria,  son  of  Ishmi- 
priest  of  Ashur,  had  founded,  be-    Dagon,    supreme    lord  of  Assyria 
came  ruined.    I  levelled  its  site,  and   likewise,  in  former  days  constructed, 
from  its  foundation  to  its  roofs  I    had    fallen    to    decay.      Newly    I 
built  it  up  of  brick,  I  enlarged  it   levelled  its  site/and  from  its  founda- 
beyond    its    former    state,    and    I   tions  to  its  roof  I  rebuilt  it  with 
adorned  it.    Inside  of  it  I  sacrificed   masonry  of  brick.    More  than  for- 
precious  victims  to  my  lord  Vul.        merly  I  enlarged  (?),  and  I  con- 
structed it ;  and  within  it  costly 
victims  unto  Yem  my  lord,  I  sacri- 
ficed. 

Since  a  holy  place,  a  noble  hall,  In  like  manner,  then,  as  I  have 

I  have  thus  consecrated  for  the  use  made  this  splendid   building  and 

of  the  great  Gods,  my  lords  Anu  lofty  Temple,  for  the  dwelling  of 

and  Vul,  and  have  laid  down  an  Anu  and  Yem,  the  great  gods,  my 

adytum  for  their  special  worship,  lords,  and  have  made  it  great,  and 

and  have  finished  it  successfully,  have  finished    it   completely,  and 

and  have  delighted  the  hearts  of  have    constructed    within    it    the 

their  noble  Godships,  may  Anu  and  thrones  of  their  great  divinities ;  so 

Vul  preserve  me  in  power.    May  may  Anu  and  Yem  be  constantly 

they  support  the  men  of  my  Go-  propitious  unto   me!      May  they 

Ternment.  exalt  the  works  of  my  hands ! 

twenty  centuries  of  imprisonment  in  the  heart  of  the 
earth  to  bear  witness  to  THE  BIBLE  ;  and  their  acknow- 
ledged Semitic  language,  the  language  of  Assur,  is  said 
to  be  very  near  akin  to,  and  yet  diverse  from,  "  the  Jews' 
language;"  the  Inscriptions  contain  so  many  names  fami- 
liar to  us  in  our  Scripture  history,  and  they  so  confirm 
our  Scripture  chronology,  that  the  Median  and  Assyrian 
tablets,  the  third  columns  of  the  Inscription  at  Behistun, 
have  a  far  deeper  interest  for  us  than  the  Persian 
records,  or  first  columns,  and  are  fully  worth  the  im- 
mense labour  and  pains  which  their  few  students  are 
bestowing  upon  them. 


COMPARATIVE   READINGS.  435 

DE.  HINCKS.  DB.  OPPEBT. 

The  banqueting-house  of  Ivt  my  The    Bit-hamr    of  Ao,    which 

lord,  which  Samsi-Zw,  champion  of  Shamshi  Ao,  sovereign  of  Assyria, 

Assur,  son[of  Ismi-dagan,  champion  son  of  Ismi-dagan,  sovereign  of  As- 

of  Assur,  and  so  forth,  had  built,    syria,  bad  built Its  place 

was    decayed    and    destroyed.      I  I  surveyed  (?).    From  its  founda- 

cleaned  out  its  site.    I  built  it  with  tions  until  its  covering  I  made  a 

burned  bricks  from  the  foundation   brickwork,   on  the  ditches 

to  the  coping.    I  put  it  in  its  former  In  the  middle  I  consecrated  high 

state,  and  began  to  use  it.    I  offered  altars  to  my  lord  Ao. 
within  it  excellent  sacrifices  to  Io, 
my  lord. 


As  I  have  laboured  on  this  ex-       As  I  have  consecrated  the  sublime 

cellent  house,  the  ancient  temple  for  house,  the  venerable  temple  for  the 

the  residence  of  Anu  and  Iv,  the  dwelling  of  Anu  and  Ao,  the  great 

great  gods,  my  lords,  and  have  not  gods,  my  lords,  and  have  not  pro- 

leen  idle,  and  have  left  nothing  for  faned  them ;  as  I  have  not  favoured 

another  work,  and  have  finished  it  the  committing  of  sin,   and  have 

in  good  time,  and  have  gladdened  terminated  it  to  their  honour ;  as  I 

the  hearts  of  then*  great  godships ;  have  obliged   the  heart    of  their 

BO  may  Anu  and  Iv  surely  compass  divinity,  may  Anu  and  Ao  for  ever 

me  about !  bless  me  ! 

M.   JOACHIM   MENANT,   A  NEW  DECIPHEEER. 

Oriental  learning  seerns  a  necessary  pre-qualification 
for  entering  on  this  field  of  study,  but  a  French  savant, 
M.  Joachim  Menant,  who,  authorized  by  the  French 
government,  came  over  to  study  the  rich  store  of  in- 
scriptions in  our  Museum,  has,  by  several  works,  thrown 
much  light  on  the  question,  and  especially  one  treating  on 
the  whole  history  of  Cuneiform  writing  and  its  decipher- 
ment. (See  "  Les  Ecritures  Cuneiformes.")  He  speaks 
of  the  first  Turanian  origin  of  the  character  being  hiero- 
glyphic, of  which  the  celebrated  Black  Stone  of  Shush, 
given  in  Mr.  Loftus's  volume,  from  a  sketch  by  Captain 
Monteith,  is  perhaps  a  specimen. 


436 


A  BLACK   STONB. 


This  stone  itself  is  at  Susa ;  it  is  supposed  to  be  a 
powerful  talisman  against  the  plague,  and  yet  it  had  been 


IflB  BLACK    SIONB    OF    SHUSH. 


blown  up  with  gunpowder  m  search  of  treasure  it  might 
contain,  but  the  fragments  were  collected  and  built  into 


LETTEES   WITHOUT   AEEOW-HEADS. 

a  pillar  in  the  verandah  of  tlie  tomb  of  Daniel.  Mr. 
Loftus  made  every  effort  to  see  and  re-copy  it,  but  in 
vain. 

LETTEES   WITHOUT  AEEOW-HEADS. 

To  hieroglyphics  succeeded  a  rude  sketchy  cha- 
racter which  might  be  termed  hieratic,  after  the  Egyp- 
tian, but  the  image  intended  was  soon  lost  in  the 
hieratic,  which  belonged  to  Urukh's  time,  and  is  seen 
upon  his  bricks.  Mr.  Layard1  found  on  a  slab  at 
Nimroud,  forming  part  of  a  wall  in  the  South-west 
Palace,  one  line  of  writing,  in  which  the  characters 
were  thus  formed  :  —  * 


It  occurred  beneath  the  usual  inscription  and  was  but 
slightly  cut  ;  Mr.  Layard  adds  :  "  It  is  not  improbable 
that  the  primitive  elements  of  the  Assyrian  letters  were 
merely  simple  lines,  the  arrow-head  being  a  subse- 
quent embellishment.  It  is  evident  that  by  substituting 
the  wedge  or  arrow-head  for  the  lines  in  the  above  in- 
scription, the  characters  would  resemble  such  as  are 
found  in  the  earliest  Assyrian  monuments.  The  simple 
letters  may  have  been  used  in  documents  which  were  to 
be  written  easily  and  quickly,  as  the  more  elaborate 
monumental  characters  required  time  and  care. 

"  Nor  is  the  element  of  the  most  ancient  form  of 
monumental  writing  always  the  arrow-head,  it  sometimes 

*  See  "  Nineveh  and  its  Remains,"  vol.  ii.  p.  179. 


438  A  CLAY  LIBRARY. 

assumes  the  shape  of  a  hammer  on  painted  bricks,  from 
the  Eastern  Palace  at  Nimroud." 


We  must  leave  it  to  the  readers  of  M.  Menant  and  J)r. 
Oppert  to  study  the  alphabet  of  Nineveh  in  European 
letters  ;  to  be  introduced  to  the  syllabic  sounds  and  the 
stubborn  mysteries  of  "  poly-phones/'  with  which  the 
invincible  patience  of  all  parties  continues  to  deal, 
somewhat  encouraged  and  aided  by  a  valuable  set  of 
tablets  and  cylinders  which  Mr.  Layard  brought  from 
Sennacherib's  palace  at  Kouyunjik,  and  which  prove 
to  be  not  the  least  important  of  his  spoils.  They 
measure  about  nine  inches  by  six,  and  "  strewed  the 
floor  of  two  small  chambers  to  the  height  of  a  foot  from 
the  floor."  They  were  the  debris  of  the  royal  library, 
and  Sir  Henry  calls  them  "a  real  treasure-house  of 
discovery." 

"A   CLAY   LIBRARY." 

"It  would  seem/'  says  Oppert,  "that  the  unusual 
difficulties  which  are  now  felt  in  the  reading  of  the  old 
Chaldee  monuments  had  been  felt  likewise  by  the  lite- 
rati of  Nineveh.  It  is  therefore  intelligible  that  Sar- 
danapalus  III.,  son  of  Esarhaddon,  resolved  to  institute 
a  clay  library,  which,  as  the  inscriptions  declare,  might 
facilitate  the  knowledge  of  religion."  Sardanapalus,  as 
rendered  by  M.  Oppert  ("  Exped.  Scientifique,"  vol.  ii. 
p.  362),  thus  avows  his  purpose  :-— 

*  Mr.  Forster  declares  that  this  latter  specimen  is  so  clearly  in 
HIMTAEITIC  writing,  that  he  could  not  resist  attempting  to  translate  it, 
and  he  finds  it  to  be  —  as  read  from  left  to  right  —  "  CEMENTED  TOGETHER 
—  PAINTED  BEICKS."  For  his  belief  that  the  language  of  Assyria  was 
old  Arabic,  see  his  "  One  Primeval  Language,"  vol.  iii. 


PHCENICIAN    CHARACTERS.  439 

"  Sardanapalus,  king  of  the  world,  king  of  Assyria,  to  whom  the  god 
Nebo  and  the  goddess  Tasmit  have  given  ears  to  hear  and  eyes  to  see, 
that  which  is  the  base  of  government.  They  have  revealed  to  the  Kings, 
my  predecessors,  the  rules  of  this  Cuneiform  writing.  In  piety  towards 
Nebo,  the  god  who  joins  letters  together  contrariwise  to  their  phonetic 
value,  I  have  written  these  tablets,  I  have  signed  them,  I  have  ranged 
them  in  the  midst  of  my  palace  for  the  instruction  of  my  subjects." 

How  little  that  king  foresaw  that  the  Almighty  Con- 
troller of  men  and  things  would  shut  up  his  tablets  in  that 
palace  for  use  ftve-and-twenty  centuries  after  his  time  ! 

SYLLABARIES. 

Sir  Henry  Rawlinson  now  calls  them  "  Syllabaries.5' 
Some  of  them  explain  short  syllables  by  signs,  others 
give  the  meaning  of  hitherto  unsuspected  monograms  ; 
others  explain  complex  groups  of  characters ;  others 
are  dictionaries  of  synonyms;  and  some  are  Scythic- 
Assyrian  dictionaries.  From  all,  however,  it  seems 
proved,  that  cuneiform  writing  came,  like  all  other 
writing,  out  of  hieroglyphics  or  pictures  at  first,  and 
these  being  used  by  different  people,  stood  for  different 
sounds,  as  the  figure  4,  for  instance,  is  in  French 
rendered  guatre,  in  German  vier,  in  English  four. 

PHCENICIAN   CHARACTERS. 

A  few  bi-lingual  tablets  were  found,  containing 
scraps  of  cuneiform  writing  with  its  equivalent  in  Phoe- 
nician characters,  and  "  these  so  far  as  they  go,  furnish 
satisfactory  confirmation."  Such  are  the  names  upon 
the  lion-weights  discovered  by  Layard,  and  which  Sir 
Henry  Rawlinson  in  his  most  recent  pamphlet,  read 
before  the  Eoyal  Asiatic  Society,  confirms,  as  "  Tiglath- 
Pileser,  Shalmaneser,  Sargon,  and  Sennacherib."  In 
the  same  paper  he  says,  "  That  it  is  not  improbable  that 
these  Phoenician  characters  may  have  been  known  and 


410  COUNT  GOBINEAU. 

employed  at  the  same  time  with  the  Assyrian  and 
Babylonian,  fay  Syrian  artificers  established  at  Nineveh 
in  the  prosecution  of  their  trades/'  In  the  same  recent 
document  he  makes  another  very  interesting  admission 
— that  he  sees  no  reason  against  at  least  a  similar  anti- 
quity to  these  Phoenician  signs,  being  claimed  for  the 
Himyaritic  characters  inscribed  on  a  cylinder  found  by 
Captain  Jones  at  Annan,  on  the  Euphrates,  and  read, 
"  The  cylinder  of  Barkat-bil,  the  eunuch." 

But  we  hasten  to  a  close.  The  Assyrian  tablets  of 
Behistun  having  been  proved  Semitic  in  the  construc- 
tion of  their  language,  must  of  course  have  great  affi- 
nities with  all  the  Semitic  family  of  languages.  It  is 
not  a  large  one. 

The  Hebrew,  the  Phoenician,  the  Syriac,  the  Chaldee, 
the  Himyaritic,  and  the  Arabic,  may  all  render  invaluable 
help  with  their  ancient  roots,  even  though  the  door  of 
Assures  dead  language  has  been  opened  by  Aryan  and 
Turanian  sisters,  who  stood,  and  had  stood  for  ages,  in 
the  order  of  Providence,  at  the  door  of  its  tomb. 

COUNT   GOBINEAU. 

Count  Gobineau,  the  French  Ambassador  to  Persia, 
has  lately  written  two  volumes  to  prove  the  truth  of  his 
assertion,  that  the  Assyrian  inscriptions  are  Arabic — 
the  ancient  Mesopotamian  Arabic;  which  he  calls  a  vast 
mosaic  of  words  that  were  never  all  spoken  at  one  time. 
As  if,  he  says,  one  of  our  modern  vocabularies  were  to 
unite  with  all  words  now  current  in  modern  society, 
all  the  variety  of  patois  that  had  ever  been  current,  in 
all  the  provinces,  between  the  tenth  and  the  nineteenth 
Centuries,  and  were  to  call  it  the  French  language. 

But,  certainly,  it  is  only  the  fact  of  walking  that 


ASSYKIAtf   TALISMANS.  441 

proves  walking  power.  Count  Gobineau  does  not  make 
sense  with  his  old  Arabic ;  he  declares  that  the  Assy- 
rians believed  so  strongly  in  evil  spirits  (which  is  not 
impossible)  that  the  sculptures  are  covered  with  talis- 
mans, these  being  considered  their  only  source  of  safety ; 
and  such  talismans  he  believes  to  have  been  an  invoca- 
tion of  some  Good,  or  a  depreciation  of  some  Evil  being. 
On  the  vase  of  Halicarnassus,  found  by  Mr.  Newton 
among  the  ruins  of  the  mausoleum,  he  finds  the 
syllables — 

"  Kady  kashy  dahy  ku  kashy  sha 
Kash.  kash  makh.1' 

Which  he  renders — 

"  Le  juge,  1'heureux,  le  sage  pareil  &  1'heureux,  le  pre-excellent,  le 
glorieux,  le  destructeur,  le  terrifie,  le  fourbe  pareil  au  terrific,  la  raatiere, 
le  denue." 

He  considers  the  subject  of  theso  talismans  to  be 
always  the  same,  and  that  they  were  written  across  the 
figures  to  preserve  them;  and  he  quotes,  in  favour  of  his 
opinion,  the  known  habits  of  the  modern  Persians,  who 
still  employ  talismans,  written  under  a  certain  star,  and 
at  a  certain  hour.  If  they  erect  an  edifice  they  always 
bury  a  talismanic  brick  in  its  foundations,  which  defends 
it  from  the  incursions  of  scorpions  and  of  demons.  All 
Persia,  he  says,  respects  amulets,  and  the  earthen  tablets 
of  Kerbela  with  the  name  of  Allah,  Mohammed,  or  Ali 
upon  them  ;  while  in  the  houses  of  the  poor,  who  cannot 
afford  graven  bricks,  or  stones,  a  piece  of  written  paper 
is  attached  to  the  cornice.  Tha  Parsees,  he  adds,  carried 
this  ancient  habit  to  India,  and  in  the  valleys  of  Gujerat, 
even  suspended  to  trees  and  rocks,  such  magical  afficlies. 


442      ME.  FOESTEB  AND  THE  ASSYRIAN  INSCRIPTIONS. 


ME.   FORSTEE  AND  ME.    LATAED. 

Dr.  Oppert's  tract  on  the  above  frightful  attempt  at 
the  demolition  of  his  Assyrian  lore  embodies  the  essence 
of  indignation.  Opinions  on  this  subject,  it  appears,  can 
scarcely  be  dispassionately  and  calmly  considered,  and 
therefore "  neither  party  are  likely  to  learn  from  their 
opponents.  Mr.  Forster  cannot  be  listened  to  on  his  own 
supreme  Sinaitic  subject,  because  he  too  has  entered  the 
lists  against  the  great  discoverers  and  readers  of  Nineveh 
and  Khorsabad.  He  has  a  new  reading  for  the  Obelisk, 
which  he  supposes  to  be  the  coming  in  of  a  large  pedes- 
trian caravan  to  the  "  Agora,"  or  market-place  of  Nine- 
veh. His  readings  of  the  language  of  Assyria  are  by  his 
old  Arabic,  and  he  quotes  Mr.  Layard's  own  words  from 
"Nineveh  and  its  Remains,"  vol.  ii.  p.  164.  " Two  cha- 
racters appear  to  have  been  in  use  at  one  time  among  the 
Assyrians.  One,  the  cuneiform  or  arrow-headed,  as  in 
Egypt,  was  probably  the  hieroglyphic,  and  principally 
employed  for  monumental  records ;  the  other,  the  cur- 
sive, or  hieratic,  may  have  been  used  in  documents  of  a 
private  nature,  or  for  records  of  public  events  of  minor 
mportance.  The  cursive  resembles  the  writing  of  the 
Phoenicians,  Palmyrencs,  Babylonians,  and  Jews  ;  in  fact . 
the  character,  which,  under  a  few  unessential  modifica- 
tions, was  COMMON  to  the  nations  speaking  cognate  dialects 
of  one  language,  variously  termed  the  Semitic,  Aramean, 
or,  more  appropriately,  SYEO-AEABIAN." 

The  most  interesting  part  of  Count  Gobineau's  book 
is  that  in  which  he  declares  that  his  old  Mesopotamian 
Arabic  was  the  "Aramyet"  of  the  Bible,  the  "  Arabyet" 
of  the  old  oriental  writers.  He  points  to  the  decrees  in 
this  language,  which  are  interpolated  in  the  otherwise 


HEBEEW   AND   AEABIC    IN   EOHAN   LETTEES.  443 

Hebrew  Book  of  Ezra,  and  which  the  margin  of  our 
Bibles  tells  us  are  in  Chaldee. 

These  portions  extend  from  chap.  iv.  verse  8  to  chap, 
vi.  verse  18,  and  chap.  vii.  verses  12  to  26;  and  it  must 
be  observed  that  not  only  the  Persian  decrees  but  the 
narrative  itself  in  the  first  portions,  is  also  Chaldee. 
The  likeness  which  M.  Gobineau  wishes  to  prove  to 
common  readers  between  Chaldee  and  Hebrew,  will  be 
apparent  in  his  quotation  of  an  isolated  verse  in  Chaldee, 
found  in  Jer.  x.  11. 

It  appears  to  be  spoken  to  the  heathen — 

"  Thus  shall  ye  say  unto  them,  the  gods  that  have  not  made  the 
heavens  and  the  earth,  even  they  shall  perish  from  the  oarth,  and  from 
under  these  heavens." 

THE   SAME   FEOM  A  HEBEEW  BIBLE   IN  EOMAN  LETTEES. 

"Kidna(h)  temrun  Ighom  elahaiya  di-shemaiya  ve-arga  la  'abadu 
yebadii  me-ar'a  ii-min  tekhoth  shemaiya  elle(h)." 

THE   SAME  PE05I   THE  OLD   SYBIAC   OF  THE    PESHITO  VEESION. 

"  Kedu  temrun  lehum  alaha  zi  semya  ve  arak  la  sebdu  yabedu  maarak 
vemin  takhut  semya  aleh." 

The  latter  translation  M.  le  Comte  believes  to  be 
also  an  authentic  specimen  of  the  Chaldee,  or  old 
Arabic  of  700  years  before  our  era,  which  it  must  be, 
as  quoted  by  Jeremiah,  and  Ewald  declares  it  to  be 
much  older  (not  the  Arabic  of  the  old  Arabian  poets, 
but  the  old  Mesopotamian  Arabic),  and  Gobineau 
maintains  that  this  is  the  language  of  the  Assyrian 
inscriptions. 

He  then  dilates  on  the  primeval  antiquity  of  this  old 
Arabic.  ' '  It  is  impossible,"  he  says,  "  for  the  nature  of 
Arabic  roots  to  bend  to  growths  or  developments  which 
did  not  at  first  belong  to  them,  and  hence  the  secret  of 
so  much  stability.  They  have  never  submitted  to  deri- 


44i  TWO    SIDES    OP   THE   SHIELD. 

vations  like  those  of  the  Aryan  languages.  The  words 
employed  in  these  fragments  of  Ezra  and  Jeremiah  are 
to-day  what  they  were  2500  years  ago/' 

The  Arab  tongue  is  more  ancient  than  any  system  of 
writing  it ;  the  writing  was  imposed  upon  it.  Arabic 
roots  do  not  build  into  other  words,  but  they  change 

•/  O 

their  own  consonants  at  pleasure — V  into  B,  T  into  S. 
"  Before  Islam/'  says  an  old  Arabic  writer,  "  they  made 
use  of  a  mode  of  writing  of  which  each  letter  possessed 
two  or  three  values."* 

The  absence  of  expressed  vowels,  and  the  absence  of 
separation  in  words,  of  course  constitute  the  principal 
difficulties  in  the  decipherment  of  Semitic  monuments. 
It  requires  immense  sagacity  and  long  and  patient  study 
in  a  modern  reader,  to  be  at  all  able  to  meet  such 
almost  insuperable  difficulties. 


TWO    SIDES   OP   THE    SHIELD. 

This  sagacity,  however,  and  this  patience,  with  a 
personal  knowledge  of  the  Mesopotamian  field,  it  may 
be  most  truly  said,  have  been  brought  to  the  work  by 
the  Rawlinson  school. 

Sir  H.  Eawlinson,  in  his  Sixth  Essay,  in  his  first  vol. 
of  "  Herodotus,"  remarks,  "  There  was  not  perhaps  in 
the  very  earliest  ages,  that  essential  linguistic  difference 
between  Hamitic  and  Semitic  nations  which  would  enable 
an  inquirer  at  the  present  day  to  determine  positively 
from  mere  monumental  records  to  which  families  certain 
races  respectively  belonged.  Although  the  Hamitic  lan- 
guage of  Babylon  in  the  use  of  post-positions  and 
particles,  and  suffixes,  approaches  to  the  character  of  a 

•  Are  these  Sir  Henry's  "  polyphonei  "t 


LANGUAGE  OP  THE  ARYANS.  445 

Scythic  or  Turanian,  or  Japhetic,  rather  than  a  Semitic 
tongue,  yet  a  large  portion  of  its  vocabulary  is  absolutely 
identical  with  that  which  was  afterwards  continued  in 
Assyrian  Arabic,  and  the  cognate  dialects,  and  the 
verbal  formations  in  Hamitic,  Babylonian,  and  Semitic 
Assyrian,  I  find,"  says  Sir  Henry,  ' '  to  exhibit  in  many 
respects  the  closest  resemblance." 

Still  it  is  evident  that  there  arose  an  Aryan  race 
who  had  a  language,  which  afterwards  blended  with  the 
Persian,  and  further  with  the  Indo-European.  Darius, 
the  writer  of  the  rock,  lived  in  the  times  of  the  reform- 
ing Zoroaster,  and  Zoroaster  but  revived  the  faith  of 
the  Aryan  Medes  and  crystallized  their  language,  as 
it  were,  in  the  language  of  the  Zend  Avesta.  It  is 
not  likely,  therefore,  that  the  language  of  the  Aryan 
kingdom  was  Syriac  or  Chaldee,  although  letters  written 
to  the  king  in  Syriac  (by  the  exiled  residents  "  whom 
the  great  and  noble  Asnapper  had  brought  over  and  set 
in  the  cities  of  Samaria")  might  be  naturally  ansivered 
in  Syriac  also. 

M.  Gobineau  does  not  appear  to  deny  the  fact  that 
there  are  three  different  languages  on  the  tablets  of 
Behistun.  He  would  only  declare  that  the  third  or 
Assyrian  is  old  Arabic.  If  so,  let  him  read  it  and  make 
sense  of  it.  Otherwise  we  must  still  believe  in  the 
more  successful  efforts  of  his  opponents. 

"  The  old  stones  of  Nineveh,"  says  M.  Menant, 
"  came  not  to  light  till  the  science  of  comparative  philo- 
logy could  trace  the  most  delicate  relations  of  languages. 
The  nineteenth  century  considers  this  to  be  its  most 
powerful  means  of  investigation  and  discovery;  its 
domain  is  these  old  monuments,  such  relics  as  have 
outlived  the  jealousies  of  their  coevals,  and  stand 
before  men  who  can  respect  the  past." 


44G  THE    INSTITUTE   OF   FRANCE. 

THE    INSCRIPTION    READERS. 

We  can  now,  therefore,  take  a  last  walk  through 
the  Nineveh  galleries  with  a  fair  measure  of  surety 
that  we  may  gratefully  accept  the  guidance  of  those 
who  are  still  constantly  studying  the  Cuneiform  In- 
scriptions within  the  shelter  of  its  noble  walls.  They 
inay  differ  among  themselves  as  to  intricate  points  which 
the  public  cannot  follow,  and  even  vary  five-and-twenty 
years  in  their  chronology,  and  yet  be  safe  guides  while 
they  keep  to  the  facts  of  the  great  Book. 

"  On  principle,"  says  M.  Oppert,  "  we  regard  as  our 
starting  point  tJie  chronology  of  the  Books  of  Kings.  Up 
to  this  time,  1863,  no  Assyrian  discovery  has  been  made 
which  has  not  confirmed  the  narratives  of  these  historical 
records.  The  only  document  on  the  Assyrian  chronology, 
transmitted  to  us  by  the  Greeks — the  CANON  OF  PTOLEMY 
— accords  within  about  a  year  with  the  dates  of  the 
Bible." 

M.   OPPERT   AND   THE    INSTITUTE  OF   FRANCE. 

At  Paris,  on  the  14th  of  August,  1863,  the  five 
academies  who  compose  the  Institute  of  France  held 
their  annual  meeting,  at  which  the  President,  M.  Paulin 
Paris,  paid  a  solemn  homage  to  the  Bible,  in  presence 
of  some  of  the  most  learned  men  in  Europe.  He  in- 
vited the  attention  of  his  hearers  to  the  especial  value 
of  the  late  enterprising  researches  in  the  territories  of 
ancient  Babylon,  Nineveh,  and  Persepolis,  and  likewise 
gave  an  historical  account  of  the  works  undertaken  by 
Messrs.  Layard  and  Botta,  which  had  greatly  astonished 
the  Bedouin  Arabs  of  those  countries.  "  Our  fathers, 
and  we  after  them/'  said  they,  "  have  for  hundreds  of 
years  pitched  our  tents  in  these  places,  but  without 
knowing  that  there  was  anything  remarkable  buried 


THE  BOOKS  AND  THE  SECEETS.          447 

there ;  and  now  you  Franks  have  no  sooner  arrived  with 
your  measuring  sticks,  than  you  have  traced  the  plan  of 
the  country,  and  brought  to  light  magnificent  temples 
and  numerous  treasures.  Is  it  your  books  or  your 
prophets  that  have  revealed  these  secrets  to  you  ?" 

"Yes,"  added  the  President;  "these  Europeans 
might  have  replied,  "it  is  true  that  our  Books  a/nd  our 
Prophets  have  made  us  acquainted  with  these  cities,  so 
long  buried  under  your  villages,  but  which,  now  re- 
discovered, bear  testimony  to  the  truth  of  their  accounts, 
and  their  predictions." 

The  biennial  prize  of  20,000  francs  was  then  adjudged 
by  the  Institute,  at  the  order  of  the  Emperor,  to  the 
laborious  and  persevering  efforts  of  M.  Jules  Oppert;  in 
the  interpretation  of  the  Cuneiform  inscriptions;  and  the 
applause  of  the  audience  showed  with  what  favour  the 
communication  was  received. 

These  particulars  were  given  us  by  the  Kev.  E. 
Petavel,  author  of  "  The  Bible  in  France,"  who  bears  a 
name  long  identified  with  care  for  the  welfare  of  the 
Jews.  He  remarked  "  that  there  was  a  fact  on  which 
M.  Paulin  Paris  did  not  comment  to  his  hearers,  and 
this  fact  was,  that  M.  Oppert  is  a  Jew.  Is  it  not 
worthy  of  notice,  that  it  is  an  Israelite  interpreter 
who  reads  the  monuments  of  that  Assyria  which  re- 
tained his  fathers  captive,  and  explains  the  language  of 
these  Stones,  which  seem  brought  forth  from  their  grave 
expressly  to  confound  the  incredulity  of  modern  adver- 
saries of  our  Holy  Scriptures  ?  If  disciples  '  should 
hold  their  peace,  the  stones  would  immediately  cry 
out.'  (Luke  xix.  40.)" 

Sir  Henry  Rawlinson,  in  a  letter  to  the  "  AthenEeum'* 
of  August,  1863,  congratulated  "those  who  are  inte- 
rested in  Cuneiform  research  on  two  recent  circumstances; 


448  BABYLON. 

the  one  was,  that  the  Institute  of  France,  the  first  critical 
body  in  the  world,  had  just  conferred  its  biennial  prize 
of  20,000  francs  on  M.  Oppert  for  his  Assyrian  decipher- 
ments, thereby  guaranteeing  in  the  face  of  Europe  the 
authenticity  and  value  of  such  labours ;  and  the  other  was 
that  the  Queen's  Government,  on  the'  renewed  recom- 
mendation of  the  Trustees  of  the  British  Museum,  had 
authorized  a  further  small  outlay  on  excavations  in 
South  Babylonia,  to  be  undertaken  during  the  ensuing 
cold  season  by  Colonel  Kemball,  Consul- General  in 
Turkish  Arabia,  in  connection  with  the  work  of  extending 
the  Electric  telegraph  from  Bagdad  to  the  Persian  Gulf. 
I  have  every  hope,"  said  Sir  Heniy,  "  that  before  the 
end  of  the  year  we  shall  receive  considerable  additions 
to  our  knowledge  of  the  early  Babylonian  Empire/' 

BABYLON. 

In  treating  of  Assyrian  remains  and  inscriptions  it 
may  be  well  to  observe,  that  no  Babylonian  Galleries 
invite  our  research.  Babylon  is  so  utterly  desolate  and 
fallen  that  nothing  of  it  is  left.  Once  the  noblest 
city  on  which  the  sun  ever  shone ;  situated  in  a  vast 
and  fertile  plain;  watered  by  the  Euphrates  and  the 
Tigris ;  the  soil  never  brought  forth  less,  according  to 
Sfcrabo,  than  three  hundred  fold;  whilst  the  grain  was 
also  of  prodigious  size.  Such  was  the  "  Chaldees'  excel- 
lency,'' says  Dr.  Keith,  "  that  it  departed  not  on  the 
first  conquest,  nor  on  the  final  loss  of  either  Nineveh  or 
Babylon  as  its  capital,  but  one  metropolis  of  Assyria 
rose  after  another  in  the  land  of  Chaldea,  when  these 
had  ceased  to  be  the  '  glory  of  kingdoms.' " 

The  Boil  and  climate  of  the  region  were  the  last  that 
man  could  have  supposed  could  have  become  "  desolate;" 
and  even  in  the  seventh  century  after  Christ,  Chaldea 


BABYLON.  449 

was  the  scene  of  vast  magnificence  in  the  reign  of 
Cliosroes ;  after  that  time  came  many  ages  of  mutilated 
remains  and  mouldering  decay. 

Subsequently  to  Mr.  Layard's  astonishing  discoveries 
in  the  mounds  of  Nineveh,  he  thus  speaks  of  explorations 
among  the  ruins  of  Babylon  : — "  They  were  far  less  nu- 
merous and  important  than  I  could  have  anticipated, 
and  did  not  tend  to  prove  that  there  were  remains 
beneath  the  heaps  of  earth  and  rubbish  which  would  re- 
ward the  trouble  of  excavation.  Only  shapeless  piles  of 
masonry,  and  isolated  walls  and  piers  were  brought  to 
light,  giving  no  clue  whatever  to  the  forms  of  buildings 
to  which  they  had  belonged." 

<s  Sit  in  the  dust,  O  daughter  of  the  Chaldeans — sit  on  the  ground, 
there  is  no  throne,"  says  the  Prophet  Isaiah. 

The  surface  of  the  mounds  consists  of  decomposed 
buildings  reduced  to  dust. 

For  the  ( '  Lady  of  kingdoms,  who  said  she  should  be 
a  lady  for  ever,"  it  is  decreed  that  she  shall  no  more  be 
called  tender  and  delicate. 

"  Sit  thou  silent,  and  get  thee  into  darkness." 

"There  reigns  throughout  the  ruins,"  says  Mr. 
Porter,  "  a  silence  profound  as  the  grave.  The  shepherd 
makes  no  fold  for  his  flock  amidst  the  heaps  of  Babylon ; 
and  even  the  Arabs,  who  fearlessly  traverse  the  mounds  by 
day,  will  never  remain  a  single  night  beneath  their 
shadow."  The  dread  of  evil  spirits  effectually  prevents 
thieves ;  indeed,  they  will  not  approach  the  mounds  after 
nightfall,  for  so  it  was  written. 

"  Neither  shall  the  Arabian  pitch  tent  there  ;  neither  shajl  the  shep- 
herds make  their  fold  there ;  hut  -wild  beasts  of  the  desert  shall  lie  there  ; 
and  their  houses  shall  he  full  of  doleful  creatures ;  and  owls  shall  dwell 
there,  and  satyrs  (goats)  shall  dance  there." — ISA.  xiii.  20,  21. 

G  G 


4oO  BABYLON. 

"  We  found  many  dens  of  wild  beasts,"  say  Eich  and 
Buckingham,  "  and  abundance  of  porcupine  quills,  and  in 
most  of  the  cavities  bats  and  owls ;  the  caverns,  once  the 
chambers  of  majesty,  are  now  the  refuge  of  jackals ; 
the  mouths  of  their  entrances  are  strewed  with  the  bones 
of  sheep  and  goats,  and  a  loathsome  smell  issues  from 
the  dens.  Two  or  three  majestic  lions  were  seen  on  the 
heights  of  the  Temple  of  Belus,  as  Sir  Robert  Ker  Porter 
approached  it." 

All  this  has  been  fully  described  to  the  world  only  in  the 
nineteenth  century  of  the  Christian  era.  The  doom  uttered 
five-and-twenty  centuries  since,  is  seen  to  be  fulfilled 
— Babylon  is  made  a  "burnt  mountain"  (Jer.  li.  25). 
On  the  summit  of  the  mound  called  the  Temple  of  Belus 
are  immense  fragments  of  brickwork,  tumbled  together, 
and  converted  into  solid  vitrified  masses.  "  They  must 
either  have  been  exposed  to  the  fiercest  fire,"  says  Eich, 
"  or  else  have  been  scathed  by  lightning." 

These  vitrified  masses,  which  fell  when  "  Bel  bowed 
down,"  rest  on  the  top  of  the  ruins.  There  are  enough 
of  them  to  build  a  fortress — but  &s  it  was  written,  men 
do  not  take  of  them  a  stone  for  foundations,  nor  a  stone 
for  a  corner,  they  cannot  be  hewn  or  shaped — they  are 
an  indestructible  monument  of  human  pride  and  folly. 

The  mount  of  Babel  is  called  by  the  Arabs  c '  Maklou 
be,"  or  "  Topsy  turvey." 

"  Her  idols  are  confounded ;  her  images  are  broken  in  pieces."  "  All 
the  graven  images  of  her  gods  He  hath  broken  to  the  ground." 

Small  idols  of  clay,  brass  or  copper,  the  figures  of 
men  or  animals,  are  sometimes  found  under  the  ruins ; 
but  no  sculptured  slabs,  the  ornamental  panels  of  palaces, 
have  been  discovered  as  at  Nineveh. 


THE   TEMPLE  OP  BELUS.  451 


THE   BIRS   NIMEOUD. 

The  French  expedition  to  Mesopotamia  found  at  the 
Birs  Nimroud  a  clay  calce,  dated  from  Borsip,  the  30th 
day  of  the  sixth  month  of  the  sixteenth  year  of  Nabo- 
nid  (see  p.  50),  and  the  discovery  confirmed  the  hypo- 
thesis that  this  mound  contained  the  remains  of  Bor- 
sippa.  The  building  is  the  same  as  the  tower  of  Jupiter 
Belus,  described  by  Herodotus,  and  it  is  (see  Inscription 
in  Appendix)  elevated  on  the  very  basement  of  the  old 
Tower  of  Babel. 

Sir  Henry  Eawlinson  has  also  related  in  a  popular 
lecture  the  way  in  which  he  became  possessed  of  two 
cylinders,  which  he  took  with  his  own  hands  from  two 
corners  of  this  Birs  Nimroud ;  they  had  in  all  probability 
never  been  touched  since  the  finger  of  Nebuchadnezzar  had 
placed  them  in  their  hidden  niches.  " The  Arabs 
thought,"  he  says,  "my  measuring  line  was  surely  a 
magical  wand."  These  precious  relics  are  now  in  the 
Museum,  and  give  an  account  of  the  king's  intent  in 
building  that  temple,  and  of  the  general  design  of  his 
works  in  Babylon.  According  to  the  inscription,  he 
says  that,  "  another  king  before  him  had  completed 
forty-two  ammas  of  its  height,  but  he  did  not  finish  its 
head,  and  from  the  lapse  of  time  it  had  become  ruined. 
That  he  (Nebuchadnezzar)  did  not  change  its  site,  nor 
did  he  destroy  its  foundation  platform,  but  that  he  re- 
built it,  and  placed  a  titular  record  in  the  part  he  had  re- 
built," which  accordingly  Sir  Henry  has  found. 

The  seven  stages  of  this  building  were  ornamented 
almost  solely  by  colour,  the  basement  stage  being  black, 
the  second  orange,  the  third  bright  red,  the  fourth  golden, 
the  fifth  pale  yellow,  the  sixth  dark  blue,  and  the  seventh 


452  THE    EUPHRATES. 

silver.  Nebuchadnezzar  in  describing  his  temples  and 
palaces,  often  speaks  of  them  as  "  clothed  with  gold." 
When  the  setting  sun  lit  up  this  tower  in  its  glory  with 
the  gorgeous  light  of  an  Eastern  sky,  what  a  vision  it 
must  have  been  !  That  the  ruin  has  endured  when  all 
else  upon  the  spot  has  crumbled,  is  thought  to  be  owing 
to  the  vitrified  clay  of  the  sixth  layer — converted  by 
intense  heat  into  an  imperishable  mass  of  blue  slag, 
which  has  crowned  and  kept  the  rest  together. 

"  Still,"  says  Dr.  Keith,  "  the  majestic  stream  of 
the  Euphrates  wanders  like  a  pilgrim  monarch  through 
these  silent  ruins ;  its  banks  are  hoary  with  reeds,  and 
there  are  yet  seen  the  grey  osier  willows,  like  those  on 
which  the  captives  of  Israel  hung  their  harps,  and  re- 
fused to  be  comforted — that  Israel  on  whom  the  Lord 
will  yet  have  mercy  and  choose  them,  and  set  them  in 
their  own  land ;  and  for  them  it  is  written  that  they  shall 
take  up  this  proverb  against  the  King  of  Babylon,  and 
say — 
'  How  hath  the  oppressor  ceased ;  the-golden  city  ceased.' — ISA.  xrv.  4." 

The  prophet  Isaiah  says  of  none  other  than  Babylon, 
"  Thy  wisdom  and  thy  knowledge  it  hath  perverted  thee ;" 

Or,  as  it  is  written  in  the  margin,  "  Caused  thee  to 
turn  away."  We  may  fairly,  therefore,  assume  that 
Babylon,  like  her  great  king,  had  had  opportunities  of 
knowing  the  truth  revealed  of  God,  but  we  only  hear 
of  her  final  seeking  to  the  evil  one — 

"By  a  multitude  of  sorceries  and  abundance  of  enchantments." 

Nineveh,  too,  is  called  "  the  mistress  of  witchcrafts," 
and  not  a  few  mythological  forms  of  evil  spirits  are 
come  up  again  to  daylight,  and  appear  on  her  walls  with 
her  priests  and  kings. 


THE  SARGONIDES.  453 


SARGON. 

We  have  no  space  to  enter  on  M.  Oppert's  records 
of  the  Sargonides.  The  French  excavated  Khorsabad, 
and  that  appears  to  have  been  Sargon's  capital.  He 
has  left  numbers  'of  inscriptions  on  pavements,  bulls, 
and  cylinders  at  Khorsabad,  and  one  at  Nimroud,  which 
mentions  the  country  of  Judea  (Yahouda),  and  also  the 
King  of  Elam. 

SENNACHERIB   HIS    SON. 

Ere  we  leave  the  Subterranean  chamber,  on  the  slab 
of  the  siege  of  Lachish  we  may  notice  an  inscription 
above  the  head  of  Sennacherib,  which  maybe  translated, 
says  Sir  Henry,  "  Sennacherib,  the  mighty  king,  king 
of  the  country  of  Assyria,  sitting  on  the  throne  of  his 
glory,  causes  to  pass  before  him  the  spoils  of  Lak- 
hisha." 

SENNACHERIB'S  CYLINDER. 

The  name  of  this  king  in  the  Assyrian  is  read  Tsin- 
akki-irib ;  and  the  cylinder  from  which  the  extracts  of 
Inscription  in  the  Appendix  are  taken  will  be  recog- 
nized in  the  Museum  by  the  frame-work  in  which  it 
stands.  The  paragraphs  extracted,  as  will  be  seen, 
relate  chiefly  to  Merodach-Baladan,  and  King  Heze- 
kiah. 

"Owing  to  the  fact,"  says  Professor  Eawliuson,  "that 
our  great  excavator  devoted  his  main  efforts  to  the  dis- 
interment  of  the  chief  palace  of  this  king  at  Kouyunjik, 
it  has  supplied  to  our  national  collection  almost  half  its 
treasures.  The  result  also  is,  that  while  other  Assyrian 
sovereigns  float  before  the  mind's  eye  as  dim  and 
shadowy  beings,  Sennacherib  stands  out  as  a  living  and 


454  SENNACHERIB'S  CYLINDER. 

breathing  man — the  living   embodiment    of   Assyrian 
haughtiness,  violence,  and  power." 

Sir  Henry  considers  that  Sennacherib's  reign  lasted 


CTLIIfDBB    OF  SENXACHEEIB. 


twenty-four  years,  and  that  he  made  his  records  on  this 
cylinder  in  his  sixteenth  year. 

Parts  of  two  of  the  first  lines  of  the  actual  inscrip- 


INSCRIPTIONS    CNDEE   THE   BULLS.  455 

tion  on  this  cylinder  are  here  given,  in  the  arrow- 
headed  or  cuneiform  characters,  which  expressed  the 
thoughts  of  the  old  Chaldeans,  Assyrians,  and  Persians, 
ore  the  commencement  of  profane  history,  and  which 
only  fell  into  gradual  disuse  after  the  time  of  Alexander's 
conquests,  about  330  B.C. 


TSOT   -    AKKI   -   IRIB. 


KING   OF   THE   FOUR   REGIONS. 


This  document  is  known  as  the  Taylor  Cylinder; 
there  is  a  second,  called  the  Bellino  Cylinder ;  and  the 
king's  annals  have  been  compiled  not  only  from  these, 
which  agree  very  closely,  but  from  large  inscriptions 
between  the  limbs  of  some  Colossal  Bulls  at  Kouyunjik, 
the  upper  part  of  whose  figures  had  been  destroyed. 

"  These  bulls,"  says  Mr.  Layard,  "  were  all  more  or 
less  injured.  The  same  convulsion  of  nature,  for  I  can 
scarcely  attribute  it  to  any  human  violence,  that  over- 
threw these  great  masses,  had  shattered  some  of  them 
into  pieces,  and  scattered  the  fragments  amongst  the 
ruins.  Fortunately,  however,  the  lower  parts  of  all,  and 
consequently  the  inscriptions,  had  been  more  or  less  pre- 
served, and  to  this  fact  we  owe  the  recovery  of  some  of 
the  most  precious  records  with  which  the  monuments  of 
the  ancient  world  have  rewarded  the  labours  of  the 
antiquary." 

These  inscriptions  may  now  be  seen  in  the  Museum, 
on  the  wall,  behind  the  great  bulls  from  Khorsa- 
bad,  at  the  entrance  of  the  Egyptian  Hall.  The  name 


456  THE  TOMB  OP  THE  PROPHET. 

of  Hezekiah  upon  them  is  spelt  Hiskiah ;  and  the  thirty 
talents  of  gold  appointed  as  his  tribute  (see  Appendix), 
both  in  the  Scriptures  and  in  the  inscriptions,  is  truly  a 
wondrous  coincidence.  (See  2  Kings  xviii.  14.) 

SHUSHAN   THE   PALACE. 

As  we  repass  through  the  Kouyunjik  gallery,  by 
the  light  of  the  inscriptions,  the  slabs  of  Merodach- 
Baladan,  and  the  Susian  slabs  are  clothed  with  a  fresh 
attraction. 

The  excavations  of  Mr.  Loftus  at  Susa  have  given  a 
wonderful  freshness  to  the  descriptions  of  the  Book  of 
Esther.  Here  Ahasuerus  (Xerxes)  held  his  court.  Here 
is  Daniel  "  on  the  king's  business,"  and  here  the  prophet 
sees  his  famous  vision  of  the  ram  and  he— goat. 
(Dan.  viii.)  Here  Mr.  Loftus  has  found  the  bases  of  the 
marble  columns  of  that  splendid  palace,  once  rich  with 
white  and  green  and  blue  hangings,  and  fine  linen  and 
purple  fastened  with  silver  rings,  sweeping  down  in 
lustrous  folds  on  their  pavements  of  coloured  marbles. 
In  those  mild  climes  the  monarchs  could  dispense  with 
massive  walls,  and  the  warm  fragrant  breeze  was  waffced 
in  from  the  verdant  plains  strewed  with  their  carpet  of 
flowers.  The  fair  city  reared  its  mighty  head  above 
groves  of  date  and  lemon  trees,  surrounded  by  rich 
pastures  and  seas  of  golden  corn,  and  backed  by  snow 
clad  mountains.  By  the  side  of  its  now  desolate 
mound,  by  general  consent  of  Jews,  Sabeans,  and 
Mohammedans,  repose  the  remains  of  the  prophet  Daniel, 
as  those  of 'Jonah  are  said  to  lie  at  Ncbbi  Yunus.  The 
accompanying  sketch  represents  the  mounds  by  the  side 
of  the  River  Ulai,  on  the  slabs  from  Susa  (seep.  400). 
We  may  call  to  mind  the  last  words  of  Daniel  in  tho 
kst  chapter  of  his  prophecy. 


THE  END.  457 

It  is  a  voice  from  his  tomb — 

"  But  thou,  O  Daniel,  shut  up  the  words,  and  seal  the  book,  even  to 
the  time  of  the  end :  many  shall  run  to  and  fro,  and  knowledge  shall  he 
increased. 

"And  he  said,  Go  thy  way,  Daniel:  for  the  words  are  closed  up  and 
sealed  till  the  time  of  the  end. 

"  Many  shall  he  purified,  and  made  white,  and  tried  j  but  the  wicked 
shall  do  wickedly ;  and  none  of  the  wicked  shall  understand :  bet  the 
wise  shall  understand." 

Alas  !  though  we  have  long  possessed  our  Bibles, 
most  of  us  are  only  at  the  threshold  of  the  study  of  the 
narratives  and  prophecies  which  concern  the  history  of 
the  Jews.  Is  it  too  much  to  hope  that  this  volume 
may  bo  read  side  by  side  with  the  Bible,  and  its  state- 
ments tested  by  actual  reference  ?  We  have  often 
sought  to  spare  the  reader  this  trouble,  but  by  no  means 
always.  A  list  of  the  passages  of  Scripture  quoted,  is 
appended  to  the  Second  Edition,  which  did  not  appear  in 
the  First. 

We  are,  probably,  after  all,  only  at  the  commence- 
ment of  greater  discoveries  than  those  made  in  the 
mounds  of  Nineveh.  A  Society  is  recently  formed  for 
exploring  the  Holy  Land,  with  a  view  to  Biblical  illus- 
tration, which  proposes  to  render  services  that  are  very 
much  required.  The  same  intelligence,  zeal,  science, 
and  outlay  have  never  hitherto  been  applied  to  the 
attainment  of  accurate  knowledge  concerning  the  past 
of  Syria  and  Palestine,  as  to  the  past  of  Egypt,  Assyria, 
Greece,  Carthage,  and  Rome. 

Below  the  surface,  even  of  Jerusalem  itself,  hardly 
anything  has  yet  been  discovered ;  but  how  much  must 
be  awaiting  excavation !  Every  foot  in  depth  of  the 
"  sixty  feet  of  rubbish"  on  which  the  present  city  is 
built  will  possibly  yield  important  relics  of  the  past, 
and  every  site  in  that  country  will  repay  examination. 


458  THE    END. 

Meantime  the  UNIVERSAL  ISRAELITE  ALLIANCE,  which, 
has  just  assembled  for  its  fifth  annual  meeting  in  Paris, 
is  especially  exerting  itself  in  the  institution  of  schools 
for  the  children  of  its  co-religionists  of  both  sexes  in 
the  East.  With  education,  will  speedily  come  research 
into  their  own  Scriptures,  in  the  places  where  they 
were  written.  "  The  times  are  come,"  says  their  report, 
"  for  the  regeneration  of  our  brethren  in  ASIA  and 
AFRICA,  and  the  digging  'into  that  mine  of  intellectual 
riches  hitherto  unworked,  may  be  also  for  the  profit  of 
the  many  Nations  among  whom  they  dwell." 

At  the  important  recent  meeting  of  May  25th,  one 
of  the  members  of  that  Alliance  directed  attention  to 
the  DIVINE  PROMISES  TO  ISRAEL  in  the  forty-ninth 
chapter  of  the  Prophet  Isaiah,  and  received  cordial  per- 
mission for  their  circulation  on  a  prepared  fly-sheet  as 
the  audience  separated.  The  presentation  of  a  copy  of 
the  First  Edition  of  "  STONES  CRYING  OUT,"  was  like- 
wise announced  with  favour. 

It  is  marvellous  that  the  excavators  of  old  Nineveh 
without  choice  of  their  own,  should  have  been  guided 
to  the  discovery  of  all  the  Gods  and  all  the  Kings  of 
that  region  who  are  mentioned  in  the  Bible  ?  That 
such  particular  inscriptions,  also,  have  been  recovered 
and  read,  as  seem  to  give  the  succession  and  relation  of 
these  kings  to  one  another,  whether  biblical  or  non- 
biblieal,  is  as  remarkable  likewise.  May  the  fact  point 
many  a  fresh  reader  to  THE  BOOK  in  which  he  shall  find 
far  more  than  the  history  of  Asshur  and  his  people — the 
history  of  the  living  Redeemer  of  a  lost  and  ruined 
world  1 


APPENDIX. 


No.  I. 
INSCRIPTIONS  OF  TIGLATH-PILESER  I.   (1120  B.C.) 

TRANSLATED   BY  SIR  H.   RAWLINSON. 

TiGLATH-PiLESEB,  the  powerful  king ;  king  of  the  four  regions ; 
king  of  all  kings ;  lord  of  lords ;  the  supreme  (?) ;  monarch  of 
monarchs ;  the  illustrious  chief,  who,  under  the  auspices  of  the 
Sun- God,  being  armed  with  the  sceptre,  and  girt  with  the 
girdle  of  power  over  mankind,  rules  over  all  the  people  of  Bel ; 
the  conqueror  of  many  plains  and  mountains  of  the  upper  and 
the  lower  country ;  the  conquering  hero,  the  terror  of  whose 
name  has  overwhelmed  all  regions;  the  bright  constellation, 
who,  according  to  his  power  (or  "as  he  wished"),  has  warred 
against  foreign  countries,  (and)  under  the  auspices  of  Bel — there 
being  no  equal  to  him — has  subdued  the  enemies  of  Ashur  (or 
has  made  them  obedient  to  Ashur). 

*  *  *  a  S  e 

iv.  (i.  46.) 

Ashur  (and)  the  great  gods,  the  guardians  of  my  kingdom, 
who  gave  government  and  laws  to  my  dominions,  and  ordered  an 
enlarged  frontier  to  their  territory,  having  committed  to  (my) 
hand  their  valiant  and  warlike  servants,  I  have  subdued  the 
lands,  and  the  peoples,  and  the  strong  places,  and  the  kings  who 
were  hostile  to  Ashur ;  and  I  have  reduced  all  that  was  contained 
in  them.  With  a  host  (literally  a  "sixty")  of  kings  I  have 
fought  ....  and  have  imposed  on  them  the  bond  of  servi- 
tude (?).  There  is  not  to  me  a  second  in  war,  nor  an  equal  in 
battle.  I  have  added  territory  to  Assyria,  and  peoples  to  her 


430  APPENDIX. 

people.    I  have  enlarged  the  frontier  of  my  territories,  and 
subdued  all  the  lands  contained  in  them. 

*  »  *  *  9  * 

vni.  (ii.  63.) 

From  amongst  my  valiant  servants,  to  whom  Ashur,  the  lord, 
gave  strength  and  power,  in  thirty  of  my  chariots,  select  com- 
panies of  my  troops,  and  bands  of  my  warriors  who  were  expert 
in  battle,  (?)  I  gathered  together.  I  proceeded  to  the  extensive 
country  of  Miltis,  which  did  not  obey  me :  it  consisted  of  strong 
mountains  and  a  difficult  land.  Where  it  was  easy  I  traversed  it 
in  my  chariots,  where  it  was  difficult  I  went  on  foot.  Like  .  .  . 
on  the  peaks  of  the  rugged  mountains,  I  marched  victoriously. 
The  country  of  Miltis,  like  heaps  of  stubble,  I  swept.  Their 
fighting  men,  in  the  course  of  the  battle,  like  chaff  I  scattered. 
Their  moveables,  their  wealth,  and  their  valuables,  I  plundered. 
Many  of  their  cities  I  burned  with  fire.  I  imposed  on  their 
religious  service,  and  offerings,  and  tribute. 

*  «  *  *  *  * 

K.  (ii.  85.) 

Tiglath-Pileser,  the  illustrious  warrior;  the  opener  of  the 
roads  of  the  countries ;  the  subjugator  of  the  rebellious;  .... 
he  who  has  overrun  the  whole  Magian  world.  (?) 


xii.  (iii.  36.) 

Tiglath-Pileser,  the  powerful  king;   the  vanquisher  of  the 
disobedient ;  he  who  has  swept  the  face  of  the  earth.  (?) 
*  *  ».  •  *,  * 

xxix.  (v.  99.) 

The  City  of  Khunutsa,  the  stronghold  of  the  country  of 

Comani,  I  overthrew  like  a  heap  of  stubble I  cut  off 

their  heads  as  if  they  were  carrion  (?) ;  their  carcases  filled  the 
valleys,  and  (covered)  the  heights  of  the  mountains.  I  captured 
this  city ;  their  gods,  their  wealth,  and  their  valuables  I  carried 
off,  and  burned  with  fire.  Three  of  then*  great  castles,  which 
were  built  of  brick,  and  the  entire  city  I  destroyed  and  over- 


APPENDIX.  461 

threw,,  and  converted  into  heaps  and  mounds,  and  upon  the  site 
I  laid  down  large  stones ;  and  I  made  tablets  of  copper,  and  I 
wrote  on  them  an  account  of  the  countries  which  I  had  taken  by 
the  help  of  my  Lord  Ashur,  and  about  the  taking  of  this  city, 
and  the  building  of  its  castle ;  and  upon  it  (i.e.,  the  stone 
foundation)  I  built  a  house  of  brick,  and  I  set  up  within  it 
copper  tablets. 


XXXT.  (vi.  39.) 

There  fell  into  my  hands  altogether,  between  the  commence- 
ment of  my  reign  and  my  fifth  year,  forty-two  countries,  with 
their  kings  from  beyond  the  river  Zab,  plain,  forest,  and  moun- 
tain, to  beyond  the  river  Euphrates,  the  country  of  the  Khatti, 
(Hittites,)  and  the  upper  ocean  of  the  setting  sun.  I  brought 
them  under  one  government,  I  placed  them  under  the  Magian 
religion,  and  I  imposed  on  them  tribute  and  offerings. 

*  »  *  *  *  * 

xxxii.  (vi.  49.) 

I  have  omitted  many  hunting  expeditions  which  were  not 
connected  with  my  warlike  achievements  (?).  In  pursuing  after 
the  game,  I  traversed  the  easy  tracts  in  my  chariots,  and  the 
difficult  tracts  on  foot.  I  demolished  the  wild  animals  through- 
out my  territories. 

*  *  0  5  *  # 

xxxm.  (vi.  55.) 

Tiglath-Pileser,  the  illustrious  warrior;  he  who  holds  the 
sceptre  of  Lashanan  ;  he  who  has  extirpated  all  wild  animals. 

'' 


xxxvi.  (vi.  76.) 

Under  the  auspices  of  my  guardian  deity  Hercules,  two  soss 
of  lions  fell  before  me.  In  the  course  of  my  progress  on  foot  I 
slew  them,  and  eight  hundred  lions  in  my  chariots  in  my  explo- 
ratory journeys  I  laid  low.  All  the  beasts  of  the  field  (?)  and  the 
flying  birds  of  heaven  I  made  the  victims  of  my  shafts  (?). 
#**#** 


462  '          APPENDIX. 

III.  (viii.  63.) 

Whoever  shall  abrade,  or  injure  my  tablets  and  cylinders,  or 
shall  moisten  them  with  water,  or  scorch  them  with  fire,  or 
expose  them  to  the  air,  or  in  the  holy  place  of  God  shall  assign 
them  a  position  where  they  cannot  be  seen  or  understood,  or  who 
shall  erase  the  writings  and  inscribe  his  own  name,  or  who  shall 
divide  the  sculptures  (?),  and  break  them  off  from  my  tablets. 
****** 

LIII.  (viii.  74.) 

Ami  and  Vul,  the  great  gods  my  lords,  let  them  consign  his 
name  to  perdition ;  let  them  curse  him  with  an  irrevocable  curse ; 
let  them  cause  his  sovereignty  to  perish ;  let  them  pluck  out  the 
stability  of  the  throne  of  his  empire ;  let  not  offspring  survive 
him  in  the  kingdom  (doubtful  and  faulty  in  text) ;  let  his  servants 
be  broken ;  let  his  troops  be  defeated ;  let  him  fly,  vanquished, 
before  his  enemies.  May  Vul  in  his  fury  tear  up  the  produce  of 
his  land.  May  a  scarcity  of  food,  and  of  the  necessaries  of  life, 
afflict  his  country.  For  one  day  may  he  not  be  called  happy  (?). 
May  his  name  and  his  race  perish  in  the  land. 


NO.  II. 

INSCRIPTION  OF  ASHURAKHBAL;  OR,  SIR  H. 
RAWLINSON'S  ASSUR-IZZI-PAL. 

DECIPHEEED  BY  H.  F.  TALBOT,  ESQ. 

The  former  city,  which  Divanurish,  king  of  Assyria, 
my  ancestor,  had  built ;  that  city  had  fallen  to  decay,  and  its 
buildings  had  sunk  into  ruins  and  rubbish.  That  city  I  built 
again.  And  I  dug  a  canal  from  the  Upper  Zab  river,  and  I  gave 
it  the  name  of  (Babilat  kanik]  the  Babilat  canal.  And  I  planted 
beautiful  trees  along  its  banks,  and  trees  of  utility  for  every  kind 
of  work. 

The  best  of  them  I  kept  for  Ashur  my  Lord  and  the  god- 
desses of  my  country.  I  erected  palaces  with  them,  and  from 
the  foundation  to  the  roof  I  built  and  I  finished  them.  A  palaco 
for  my  royal  residence  and  for  an  eternal  remembrance  of  my 


APPENDIX.  463 

reign,  I  founded  within  the  city.  I  adorned  it :  I  enlarged  it : 
and  with  images  of  bright  copper  I  embellished  it.  I  then  made 
columns,  adorned  with  noble  carvings. 

With  nails  of  bronze  I  fastened  them  together,  and  I  placed 
them  at  the  gates. 

Thrones  of  cedar  and  various  other  precious  woods;  orna- 
mental ivories,  skilfully  carved ;  heaps  of  silver,  gold,  lead, 
copper,  and  iron,  the  spoils  gained  by  my  valour,  which  I  had 
brought  away  from  the  nations  I  had  conquered :  all  these  trea- 
sures I  deposited  within  it. 

The  king  of  future  days  who  shall  restore  its  ornaments,  and 
shall  replace  the  written  tablets  in  their  places,  Ashur  will  hear 
his  prayers ! 

That  good  king  shall  never  fly  before  his  enemies,  nor  abandon 
this  palace,  my  royal  dwelling. 

Its  columns,  its  roofs,  its  splendid  images,  which  are  now 
fixed  up  within  it,  shall  not  be  destroyed.  They  shall  not  be 
removed  to  the  city  of  his  enemies,  nor  to  the  palace  of  his  foes. 
Its  roofs  shall  not  be  broken  down,  its  images  shall  not  be  torn 
off,  the  sources  of  the  springs  which  supply  it  with  water  shall 
not  be  cut  off,  and  its  gate  shall  not  be  (thrown  down  ?).  Its 
chambers  of  treasure  shall  not  be  plundered.  Its  closed  apart- 
ments (or  harem)  shall  not  be  burst  open  with  violence.  The 
women,  residing  in  it,  of  the  double  service,*  shall  not  be 
insulted,  nor  with  unseemly,  shameful,  and  immodest  treat- 
ment be  dragged  away  to  the  enemy's  palace,  during  the  destruc- 
tion and  downfall  of  their  own  city. 

The  king  who  shall  not  injure  my  palace  ....  who 
shall  not  suffer  the  front  of  my  throne  and  my  royal  dwelling- 
place  to  be  broken,  who  shall  spare  (i.e.,  protect)  the  face  of  these 
my  written  tablets,  and  shall  not  hurt  the  clay  records  of  my 
reign :  May  Ashur,  chief  of  the  great  gods,  who  is  the  supporter 
of  my  kingdom,  uphold  his  power  over  all  the  nations,  and  cause 
them  to  bow  down  before  the  steps  of  his  throne,  and  the  seat  of 
his  royalty  !  May  he  subject  the  country  of  the  four  nations  to 
his  arms  !  and  pour  abundant  glory  over  his  land  during  long- 
cycles  of  years ! 

But  he  who  shall  not  spare  the  face  of  these  my  tablets,  who 

*  I.e.,  those  serving  the  gods  and  those  serving  the  king,  as  appears  from  other 
inscriptions.    Here  briefly  called  bit  tsibitti,  "  the  double  household." 


46-1  APPENDIX. 

shall  injure  the  clay  records  of  my  reign,  who  shall  destroy  these 
sculptures  and  their  descriptions,  or  tear  them  off,  or  break  them 
in  pieces,  or  bury  them  in  the  ashes,  or  burn  with  fire,  or  drown 
them  in  the  waters,  or  who  shall  remove  them  from  their  place, 
and  shall  throw  them  down  where  they  'will  be  trampled  on  by 
animals,  and  shall  place  them  in  the  pathway  of  the  young  cattle  : 
or  who  shall  falsify  my  clay  tablets,  which  are  now  sculptured 
with  all  manner  of  good  and  pious  words,  and  shall  write  on  the 
face  of  my  records  anything  that  is  bad  and  impious :  or  in  the 
place  of  these  clay  tablets  shall  make  other  new  ones  hostile  to 
me,  or  heretical :  or  shall  hide  mine  away  either  in  a  locked-up 
apartment,  or  in  some  dark  place  ....  or  shall  damage 
the  ivory  ornaments  with  fire :  or,  for  the  sake  of  injuring  these 
my  tablets  and  writings,  shall  change  their  divisions  for  new 
ones,  or  shall  make  alterations  in  them,  so  as  to  confound  their 
meaning :  whether  he  be  a  nobleman,  or  a  military  man,  or  any 
one  else  of  my  subjects 

He  who  shall  not  spare  them,  but  shall  trample  on  them,  or 
who  shall  deface  and  destroy  them,  or  who  shall  scratch  any 
words  of  derision  upon  my  works,  or  shall  change  my  name  on 
the  sculptures  for  his  own  : 

May  Ashur,  the  great  Lord,  the  god  of  Assyria,  the  lord  of 
all  royal  crowns,  curse  his  reign  and  destroy  his  works  !  May 
he  shake  the  foundations  of  his  kingdom  !  May  his  own  blood- 
relations  and  his  dearest  friends  be  those  who  shall  admit  his 
foes  into  his  kingdom  !* 


No.  HI. 

INSCRIPTION  OF  PUL. 

Found  on  a  pavement  slab  in  an  wpper  chamber  of  the  NortJt, 
West  Nimroud  Palace. 

TRANSLATED  BY  H.  F.  TA&BOT,  ESQ. 

THE  monarch  whose  actions  it  commemorates  was  the  grandson 
of  Divanubar,  the  Obelisk  King.    Eawlinson  considers  him  to  be 
the  biblical  Pul,  and  Vullush  the  Second  of  the  inscriptions. 
A  much  more  ancient  monarch  has  the  same  name  of  Pul,  of 

•  This  inscription  contains  a  few  more  lines  bat  they  are  much  defaced. 


APPENDIX.  ,  465 

whom  Ashurakhbal  speaks  frequently.  Consequently,  the  pre- 
sent monarch  will  be  Pul  the  Second.  His  wife,  Semiramis  the 
Second,  is  commemorated  with  him  on  a  statue  of  Nebo  in  the 
British  Museum. 

TRANSLATION. 

THE  palace  of  Pul,  the  great  king,  the  powerful  king,  the  king  of 
the  nations,  the  Bang  of  Assyria ;  the  king  who,  by  the  help  of 

-dshur,  ( )  his  protecting  deity,  acquired  a  vast  and 

boundless  empire,  and  planted  his  royal  power  firmly  over  the 
people  of  Assyria,  and  raised  his  throne  upon  golden  feet. 
Restorer  of  noble  buildings  which  had  gone  to  decay.  .... 
Who  went  forth  in  the  strength  of  Ashur  his  lord,  and  caused 
the  kings  of  the  four  regions  to  bow  down  to  his  yoke.  Con- 
queror of  all  lands  as  far  as  the  day-spring  of  the  rising  sun,  I 
subdued  to  my  yoke  the  land  of  the  sun,  and  the  countries  of 
Illipi,  Karkar,  Araziash,  Mitzu,  Media,  etc.,  Nahiri,  Andiu, 
whose  situation  is  remote,  and  the  Balkhu  mountain,  as  far  as 
the  great  sea  of  the  rising  sun. 

From  the  Eiver  Euphrates,  in  the  land  of  Syria,  I  subdued 
to  my  yoke  all  the  provinces  of  the  land  of  Akkarri,  the  lands  of 
Tyre  and,  Sidon,  Omri,  Edom,  and  Palestine,  as  far  as  the  great 
sea  of  the  setting  sun,  and  I  imposed  upon  them  a  fixed  tribute. 

Against  the  land  of  Tusu  I  advanced  in  hostile  array. 
Mariah,  King  of  Tusu,  I  besieged  in  Damascus,  his  royal  city. 
Immense  fear  of  Ashur  his  lord  overwhelmed  him ;  he  took  upon 
him  my  yoke,  and  performed  homage  and  prostration.  2300 
talents  of  silver,  20  talents  of  gold,  3000  talents  of  copper,  5000 
talents  of  iron,  fine  clothes  of  various  colours,  scarlet  and  yellow, 
his  ivory  throne,  his  ivory  palanquin,  carved  with  ornaments, 
and  his  other  goods  and  treasure  in  abundance,  in  the  city  of 
Damascus,  his  royal  city,  in  the  middle  of  his  palace  I  received. 

The  Kings  of  Chaldea,  all  of  them  performed  homage  and 
prostration,  and  I  imposed  a  fixed  tribute  upon  them  with  an 
equal  hand.  The  cities  of  Babylon,  Borsippa,  and  Tizza  brought 
out  to  me  the  images  of  Bel,  Nebo,  and  Acherib,  then  precious 
victims  (/  sacrificed  to  the  gods  of  those  cities}. 


n  IT 


466  APPENDIX. 


No.  IV. 

EXTRACTS  FROM  THE  INSCRIPTION  OF  SENNA- 
CHERIB,  REFERRING  ESPECIALLY  TO  HIS  WARS 
WITH  MERODACH-BALADAN  AND  HEZEKIAH. 

TRANSLATED  BY  H.  V.  TALBOT,  ESQ. 

SENNACHERIB,  tlie  great  king,  the  powerful  king,  the  king  of 
nations,  the  king  of  Assyria,  the  king  of  the  four  countries,  the 

pious  ruler,  the  worshipper  of  the  great  gods, the 

embellisher  of  public  buildings,  the  noble  hero,  the  strong  warrior, 
the  first  of  kings,  the  great  punisher  of  unbelievers  who  are 
breakers  of  the  holy  decrees. 

Ashur,  the  great  lord,  has  given  unto  me  the  throne  of  tho 
world.  Over  all  dwellers  in  every  place  I  have  exalted  my  war- 
like arms. 

From  the  Upper  Sea  of  the  setting  sun  (the  Mediterranean) 
unto  the  Lower  Sea  of  the  rising  sun  (the  Persian  Gulf)  all  tho 
chief  men  I  forced  to  bow  down  as  my  slaves. 

And  the  kings  who  were  Heretics  fled  from  my  attack.  They 
flew  from  their  towns  like  frightened  birds.  They  •were  scat- 
tered singly  (or  alone)  to  places  of  safety. 

At  the  beginning  of  my  reign  I  destroyed  the  forces  of  Mero- 
dach-Baladan,  King  of  Kar-Duniya.  In  the  midst  of  that  battle 
he  quitted  his  army.  He  fled  alone  from  the  field  and  saved  his 
life. 

His  chariots,  and  his  horses,  his  waggons,  and  his  mares, 
which  in  the  conflict  of  battle  he  had  abandoned,  I  captured. 

His  palace  in  the  city  of  Babylon  I  plundered  completely.  I 
broke  open  his  treasury.  The  gold  and  silver,  and  the  vessels 
of  gold  and  silver,  with  precious  stones  called  agarta,  and 
other  goods  and  treasures  beyond  number  plentiful.  And  the 
.  .  .  .  of  his  palaces,  his  noblemen  and  ....  his 
slaves,  male  and  female,  all  his  friends  and  guards,  and  all  of 
rank  and  distinction  in  his  palace,  all  those  I  carried  away  and 
distributed  them  as  a  spoil. 

In  the  name  of  Ashur,  my  Lord,  seventy-six  large  cities  and 
royal  residences  of  the  land  of  Chaldea,  and  four  hundred  and 
twenty  smaller  towns  belonging  to  them,  I  took  and  destroyed, 
and  carried  away  their  spoil.  The  artificers,  both  Aramaeans  and 


APPENDIX.  467 

Chaldeans,  who  were  in  the  district  of  the  Euphrates,  and  the 
common  people  of  the  land  who  were  able-bodied  (doubtful)  I 
carried  away  and  distributed  as  a  spoil. 

**###* 

EVENTS   OF  HIS   SECOND   YEAR. 

The  inhabitants  of  the  more  distant  Media,  who  in  the  days 
of  the  kings  my  fathers  no  one  had  even  heard  of  the  name  of 
their  country,  brought  me  their  rich  presents,  which  I  received, 
and  I  caused  them  to  bow  down  to  the  yoke  of  my  majesty. 

EVENTS  OF  THE   THIRD  TEAR. 

The  third  year  of  Sennacherib  was  the  most  important  period 
of  his  reign,  since  it  was  then  he  undertook  his  celebrated  war 
against  Hezekiah,  King  of  Judah.  The  account  we  find  of  it 
on  this  cylinder  is  not  exempt  from  difficulties  and  obscurities. 

In  my  third  year  I  advanced  in  hostile  array  against  the  lane" 
of  Khatti.*  Luliah,  King  of  Sidon  (for  the  great  terror  of  my 
majesty  had  quite  overwhelmed  him)  had  fled  to  a  distant  island 
in  the  sea.  I  subjugated  his  land. 

Then  Menahem,  King  of  Samaria,  Tubal,  King  of  Sidon, 
Abdilut,  King  of  Arvad. 

****** 

The  kings  of  the  land  of  Martu,  all  of  them  .... 
brought  their  splendid  gifts  and  wealth  unto  my  majesty.  And 
they  kissed  my  yoke. 

And  after  this,  Zedekiah,  King  of  Ascalon,  who  had  not 
bowed  down  to  my  yoke ;  the  gods  of  his  father's  house;  himself, 
his  wife,  his  sons,  his  daughters,  his  brothers,  the  seed  of  his 
father's  house,  I  carried  them  all  away,  and  brought  them  to 
Assyria. 

The  priests,  princes,  and  people  of  Amgarrun  had  seized 
Padiah,  their  king,  the  friend  and  ally  of  Assyria,  and  had  loaded 
him  with  chains  of  iron,  and  had  delivered  him  up  to  Hezekiah, 
King  of  Judah,  and  had  behaved  in  a  hostile  manner  against  the 
Deity  himself  in  the  folly  of  their  hearts. 

****** 

Then  I  brought  back  Padiah,  their  king,  from  the  midst  of 
*  Syria. 


468  APPENDIX. 

Jerusalem,  and  placed  him  once  more  upon  the  throne.  I  im- 
posed upon  him  a  tribute  payable  to  my  majesty.  Then  Heze- 
kiah,  King  of Judah,  who  had  not  bowed  down  to  my  yoke,  forty- 
six  of  his  large  cities,  and  smaller  towns  belonging  to  them  with- 
out number,  in  the  fury  of  my  vengeance  I  utterly  destroyed. 

Two  hundred  thousand  one  hundred  and  fifty  persons,  small 
and  great,  male  and  female,  horses,  mares,  mules,  camels,  oxen, 
and  sheep,  without  number,  from  the  midst  of  them  I  carried 
away  and  distributed  them  as  spoil.  He  himself,  like  a  fugitive 
bird,  shut  himself  up  in  his  royal  city,  Jerusalem. 

He  built  towers  of  defence  (or  battlements)  over  it,  and  he 
strengthened  and  rebuilt  the  bulwarks  of  his  great  gate. 

In  the  meanwhile,  the  cities  which  I  had  sacked,  I  finally  cut 
off  from  his  dominions,  and  I  gave  them  to  Mitinti,  King  of  Ash- 
dod,  Padiah,  King  of  Amgarrun,  and  Ismi  Bel,  King  of  Gaza. 

Thus  I  diminished  his  country.  And  in  addition  to  the 
former  tribute,  and  the  land-gift  (or  land-tax),  I  augmented  the 
tribute  of  ....  and  imposed  this  burden  upon  them.  As 
to  Hezekiah  himself,  the  dreadful  terror  of  my  power  had  over- 
whelmed him. 

Then  I  seized  and  carried  off  all  his  artificers,  and  all  the  other 
.  .  .  .  whom  he  had  collected  in  order  to  fortify  Jerusalem 
(2  Kings  xviii.l4)with  thirty  talents  of  gold,  eight  hundred  talents 
of  silver,  scarlet  robes,  precious  stones  (?),  royal  thrones  (?)  made  of 
ivory,  palanquins  of  ivory  for  travelling,  skins  and  teeth  of  ele- 
phants, beautiful  precious  woods  of  two  kinds,  altogether  a  vast 
treasure.  And  also  his  daughters,  and  the  female  inhabitants 
(?)  of  his  palace,  and  their  men  slaves  and  women  slaves. 

This  mighty  spoil,  unto  Nineveh,  my  royal  city,  after  me  I 
brought  away.  And  he  swore  a  solemn  oath  to  pay  tribute  to 
me,  and  to  do  homage  to  me  in  future. 

EVENTS  OF  THE  FOURTH  YEAK. 

I  then  turned  round  the  front  of  my  chariot,  and  I  marched 
straight  against  the  land  of  Beth  Yakina.  Then  Merodach-Bala- 
dan  himself,  whose  army  I  had  conquered  in  my  first  campaign,- 
now  fled  before  the  warlike  show  of  my  powerful  army,  and  the 
shock  of  my  fierce  attack. 

His  gods  and  his  women  he  collected,  and  transported  them 
in  ships,  and  crossed  over  with  the  greatest  speed  to  the  coun- 
try of  Nigiti-rakkin,  which  is  in  the  sea. 


APPENDIX.  469 

No.  V. 

DR.  OPPERT'S  READING  OF  THE  FAMOUS  INaCEIP. 
TION  OF  NEBUCHADNEZZAR  AT  BORSIPPA. 

"  The  mound  long  known  as  the  Sirs  Nimroud,  now  identified 
•with  the  Temple  of  the  Seven  Planets,  is  supposed  to  have  been 
the  locality  of  the  Confusion  of  Tongues.  The  BABYLONIAN  name 
Borsip,  or  Barzipa,  is  said  to  mean  the  TOWER  OP  THE  TONGUES  ; 
and  if  Dr.  Oppert's  reading  of  this  Inscription  be  correct,  Ne- 
buchadnezzar's allusion  to  this  event  is  most  striking.  The 
following  is  Oppert's  description  of  the  Temple,  with  his  trans- 
lation of  the  Inscription. 

"  The  Temple  consisted  of  a  large  substructure,  a  stade  (600 
Babylonian  feet)  in  breadth,  and  75  feet  in  height,  over  which 
were  built  seven  other  stages  of  25  feet  each.  Nebuchadnezzar 
gives  notice  of  this  building  in  the  Borsippa  Inscription.  He 
named  it  The  Temple  of  the  Seven  Lights  of  the  Earth  (i.  e.,  the 
Planets).  The  top  was  the  temple  of  Nebo,  and  in  the  sub- 
structure (igar)  was  a  temple  consecrated  to  the  god  Sin,  god  of 
the  month.  This  building,  mentioned  in  the  East  India  House 
Inscription  (col.  iv.  1.  61),  is  also  spoken  of  by  Herodotus 
(i.  181,  etc.). 

Here  follows  the  Borsippa  Inscription  :— 

"Nebuchodonesor,  king  of  Babylon,  shepherd  of  peoples,  who  attests 
the  immutable  affection  of  Merodach,  the  mighty  ruler-exalting  Nebo ; 
the  saviour,  the  wise  man  who  lends  his  ears  to  the  orders  of  the  highest 
God  ;  the  lieutenant  without  reproach — the  repairer  of  the  Pyramid  and 
the  Tower,  eldest  son  of  Nabopollassar,  king  of  Babylon. 

"  We  say,  Merodach  the  great  master,  has  created  me  ;  he  has  im- 
posed on  me  to  reconstruct  his  building.  Nebo,  the  guardian  over  the 
legions  of  the  heaven  and  the  earth,  has  charged  my  hands  with  the 
sceptre  of  justice- 

"The  Pyramid  is  the  temple  of  the  heaven  and  the  earth,  the  seat  of 
Merodach,  the  chief  of  the  gods  ;  the  place  of  the  oracles,  the  spot  of  his 
rest,  I  have  adorned  in  the  form,  of  a  cupola,  with  shining  gold. 

"The  Tower,  the  eternal  house,  which  I  founded  and  built,  I  have 
completed  its  magnificence  with  silver,  gold,  other  metals,  stone,  ena- 
melled bricks,  fir  and  pine. 

"  The  first  which  is  the  house  of  the  earth's  base,  the  most  eminent 
monument  of  Babylon,  I  built  and  finished  it ;  I  have  highly  exalted 
its  head  with  bricks  covered  with  copper. 

"We  say  for  the  other,  that  is,  this  edifice,  the  house  of  the  seven 
lights  of  the  earth,  the  most  ancient  monument  of  Borsippa :  A  former 
king  built  it  (they  reckon  42  ages),  but  he  did  not  complete  its  head. 

SlNCE  A  SEMOTE   TIME  PEOPLE    HAD    ABANDONED   IT,    WITHOUT   OBDEB 


470  APPENDIX. 

KXPBESSiNa  THEIB  WOBDS.  Since  that  time,  the  earthquake  and  the 
thunder  had  dispersed  its  sun-dried  clay ;  the  bricks  of  the  casing  had 
been  split  and  the  earth  of  the  interior  had  been  scattered  in  heaps. 
Merodach,  the  great  lord,  excited  my  mind  to  repair  this  building.  I 
did  not  change  the  site,  nor  did  I  take  away  the  foundation-stone.  In  a 
fortunate  month,  an  auspicious  day,  I  undertook  to  build  porticoes 
around  the  crude  brick  masses,  and  the  casing  of  burnt  bricks.  I  adapted 
the  circuits.  I  put  the  inscription  of  my  name  in  the  K itir  of  the  por- 
ticoes. I  set  my  hand  to  finish  it,  and  to  exalt  its  head.  As  it  had  been 
in  former  times,  so  I  founded,  I  made  it ;  as  it  had  been  in  ancient  days, 
so  I  exalted  its  summit. 

"  Nebo,  son  of  himself,  ruler  who  exaltest  Merodach,  be  propitious  to 
my  works  to  maintain  my  authority.  Grant  me  a  life  until  the  remotest 
time,  a  sevenfold  progeny,  the  stability  of  my  throne,  the  victory  of  my 
sword,  the  pacification  of  foes,  the  triumph  over  the  lands  !  In  the  column 
of  thy  eternal  tables,  that  fix  the  destinies  of  the  heaven  and  of  the 
earth,  bless  the  course  of  my  days,  inscribe  the  fecundity  of  my  race. 

"  Imitate,  O  Merodach,  king  of  heaven  and  earth,  the  father  who  be- 
gat thee ;  bless  thy  buildings,  strengthen  my  authority.  May  Nebu- 
chadnezzar, the  king — the  repairer — remain  before  thy  face !" 

This  allusion  to  the  Tower  of  the  Tongues  is  the  only  oue 
that  has  as  yet  been  discovered  in  the  cuneiform  inscriptions. 
The  story  is  a  Shemitic,  and  not  a  Hebrew  one ;  and  we  have  no 
reason  whatever  to  doubt  the  existence  of  the  same  story  at 
Babylon. 

The  ruins  of  the  building  elevated  on  the  spot  where  the 
story  placed  the  tower  of  the  dispersion  of  tongues,  have  there- 
fore a  more  modern  origin,  but  interest  nevertheless  by  their 
stupendous  appearance. —  Quarterly  Review  of  Smith's  Biblical 
Dictionary,  Oct.  1864. 


No.  VI. 


CYLINDER  OP  NEBUCHADNEZZAR  AT  SENKEREH. 

TRANSLATION  BY  H.   F.  TALBOT,  ESQ. 

Nebuchadnezzar,  king  of  Babylon,  the  pious  and  wonderful 


APPENDIX.  471 

king,  the  worshipper  of  the  Lord  of  lords,  the  restorer  of  the 
houses  of  prayer  and  of  the  sacred  treasuries,  the  eldest  son  of 
Nebopalassar,  king  of  Babylon,  I  am  he.  The  favour  of  Mar- 
duk,  the  great  Lord,  the  chief  of  the  Gods,  the  celestial  ruler  (?) 
hath  given  me  this  land  and  people  to  rule. 

Moreover,  the  temple  of  Tara,  which  is  the  temple  of  the 
Sun,  in  the  city  of  Senkereh,  which  from  extreme  old  age  had 
crumbled  into  ruin,  and  the  interior  of  the  edifice  had  fallen  in 
heaps,  and  the  ussurati  were  not 

In  my  first  year  the  great  Lord  Marduk  commanded  me  to 
restore  this  temple.  It  had  been  scattered  to  the  four  winds  of 
heaven,  and  the  very  foundations  of  its  interior  had  been  dug 
up  and  thrown  about,  in  the  search  of  its  ussurati. 

Then  I,  Nebuchadnezzar,  king  of  Babylon,  his  chief  wor- 
shipper, nobly  determined  to  complete  this  temple.  Upon  its 
old  fcamdation  platform  I  made  a  burnt-offering  (?)  Beyond  the 
size  of  the  old  platform  I  measured  out  much  wider  foundations, 
and  I  firmly  built  up  the  brickwork.  There  I  built  the  temple 
of  Tara,  that  noble  temple,  the  dwelling-place  of  the  Sun,  my 
Lord,  dedicated  to  the  Sun  dwelling  in  Beth  Tara,  in  the  city  of 
Senkereh,  the  great  lord,  my  Lord. 

Oh  Sun!  great  Lord!  in  Beth  Tara,  the  dwelling-place  of 
thy  greatness,  look  with  pleasure  and  benevolence,  and  in  thy 
merciful  kindness,  upon  these  works  of  my  hands !  Abundance 
of  long  days,  a  firm  throne,  prolonged  years  to  my  reign,  may 
thy  sceptre  confirm  to  me !  And  these  thrones  and  towers,  and 
tnidili  and  columns  of  the  temple  of  Tara,  which  I  have  built  at 
no  mean  cost,  may  thy  divine  power  protect  them ! 


LIST  OF  SCRIPTURES  QUOTED  IN  THIS 
VOLUME. 


GENESIS. 

GENESIS. 

CHAP. 

VKE. 

PAGE 

CHAP. 

VBB. 

PAGE 

i.  . 

.      28 

.    303 

XXV. 

3 

.     160 

ii. 

11,  12 

.       32 



.      17       . 

.     152 

— 

.       14 

.       30 

xxvi. 

.      25 

.     258 

iii. 

.       24 

.     314 

— 

23—33 

.     259 

iv. 

.       16 

.    315 

xxix. 

2 

.       58 

vi. 

5 

26 

xxxvi. 

117 

7 

.       35 

.  31,  32,  33 

.     115 

viii. 

4 

.       30 

xxxvii. 

.      28 

.     156 

__ 

21 

31 

xxxix. 

96 

ix. 

2 

.      34 

xli. 

.      46 

.     173 

— 

27 

.    420 

— 

.      67 

.     175 

X. 

.     159 

xlii. 

.      23 

.     253 

— 

2 

.     420 

xlv. 

...       11 

.     173 

— 

7 

.     266 

xlvi. 

.       13 

.     131 

— 

8—10 

.      37 

xlvii. 

9—28 

.    173 

— 

11—22 

.     160 

xlix. 

9 

.     338 

—          . 

12 

.    293 

— 

.       24 

.     128 

— 

.       26 

.     114 

1. 

.       25 

.      70 

— 

26,  30 

.     112 

— 

.       2,  3,  26 

.     251 

xi. 

9 

.       44 

Ivi. 

.      27 

.      93 

xii. 

6 

.      60 

__ 

7 

.       63 

xiv. 

1 

40,  57 

EXODUS. 

—           . 

4 

.     394 

i. 

.      96 

.       99 

BM- 

5 

.     148 

18 

__ 

7 

.     229 

iii. 

1 

.     185 

— 

.       18 

.       64 

— 

5,  6,  7 

.     186 

XV. 

6 

.       59 

— 

.       12 

.     187 

_ 

.       16 

.       68 

iv. 

.      27 

.     188 

xvii.      . 

16 

.       66 

xii. 

.    8,  9 

91 

—          . 

.       20 

.     115 

— 

2 

.     196 

xxi. 

19,  30 

.     258 

— 

11 

.       92 

xxii.       . 

.       21 

.     131 

— 

10,  46 

.       92 

xxiii. 

54 



38 

,     251 

471 


LIST   OF    SCRIPTURES. 


EXODUS. 

NUMBERS. 

CHAP. 

VBB. 

PAGE 

CHAP. 

VBR. 

xii. 

.      40 

.          94 

xiv. 

.      45 

— 

.      42 

.     204 

XV. 

.      37 

xiii. 

.        .      21 

.     231 

xvi. 

.      45 

— 

.    22     : 

.     322 

xvii. 

.      10 

XV. 

8—10 

.     204 

xix. 

6 

— 

.      22 

.     207 

XX. 

16 

xvi. 

1 

.     103 

xxi. 

1C,  18 

xvii. 

1 

22-5,  233 

— 

.       16 

— 

8 

.     228 

xxiii. 

9 

— 

8—13 

.     230 

xxvii. 

3 

rviii. 

7 

.     124 

— 

.       21 

— 

.      21 

.     352 

xxvii. 

nud  xxxvi.     . 

xix. 

4 

.     195 

xxxiii 

.      36 



.      18 

.     223 

xxiii. 
xxiv. 

.      25 
1 

.     196 
.     352 

DEUTERONOMY. 

XXV. 

.      22 

.     323 

i. 

.    2,  19 

xxviii. 

.       35 

.     321 

— 

.      39 

15—30 

.     360 

iv. 

3 

xxxi. 

.       18 

.     322 

— 

.       20 

xxxii. 

6 

.     237 

— 

11—13 

xxxiii. 

9 

.     322 

V. 

.       15 

xxxiv. 

.     1,26,27        . 

.     322 

vii. 

25,  26 

zL 

322 

ix. 

.      21 

xii. 

.        «         •        • 

LEVITICUS. 

xvi. 

4,7        . 
6 

viii. 

.  9,  36        . 

.     362 

xvii. 

.       16—19 

xiv. 

4 

.     330 

xxi. 

18—21 

xxiv. 

.       10 

.     251 

xxii. 

11,  12 

xx  vi. 

1 

.     322 

xxiii. 

.       28 

— 

.  17,  36,  38 

.     389 

XXV. 

9 

— 

.  18,  24,  28 

18,  335 

.      18 

xxviii 

.42 

NUMBERS. 

xxxi. 

.      29 

i. 

.      33 

.    230 

xxxii. 
xxxiii 

11,  12 
8,  9 

iv. 

37 

.     362 

X. 

.       29 
.       33 

.     124 
.    235 

JOSHUA. 



.       34 

.     231 

i. 

5 

xi. 

4 

.    251 

iv. 

.      23 

_ 

25—30 

.     244 

vii. 

.       11 

__ 

.      31 

.     235 

viii. 

.      33 



.      34 

.     240 

xii. 

.       14 

— 

33,  34 

.     238 

xiv. 

2 

xii. 

1 

.     124 

xxii. 

9 

__ 

3 

.     185 

xxiv. 

2 



.         .         5         . 

.     321 

— 

.      32 

xiv. 

22 

.     247 

— 

15—26 

PAGB 

230 
80 
255 
256 
330 
247 
257 
258 
379 
255 
361 
255 
247 


246 
263 
333 
185 
322 
67 
334 
226 
334 
92 
91 
353 
238 
340 
380 
399 
229 
123 
381 
380 
361 


26 
263 
334 

70 
148 
363 
363 
294 

70 

72 


LIST   OP   SCEIPTUKES. 


475 


JUDGES, 

II.   KINGS. 

CHAP. 

VEH. 

PAGE 

CHIP. 

VBE. 

PAGE 

i. 

1 

.     361 

xviii. 

.      17 

.     404 

ii.  . 

10,  12,  13 

.     333 

XX. 

.      12 

.     393 

iii. 

7 

.     333 

xxi. 

.      13 

.       19 

iv. 

.      11 

.     124 

— 

.  *     .      18 

.     308 

vii. 

5 

.     234 

xxiii. 

.      17 

.       19 

viii. 

21,  26 

.     305 

— 

.      16 

.     240 

ix. 

.      57 

.      72 

XX. 

.       18 

.     361 

I.    CHRONICLES. 

xxi. 

.      19 

.      75 

vi. 

.           .         71           . 

.     148 

XV. 

.27 

.     355 

11UTH. 

ii. 

.       12 

.     316 

II.    CHRONICLES. 

ii. 

.    '     .       16 

.     365 

I.   SAMUEL. 

viii. 

.      17 

.     366 

V. 

xiv. 
xvi. 
xvii. 

xxiii. 

4 
3  —  19 
.       18 
.         8         . 
2,  12 

.     343 
.     362 
.     356 
.     229 
.     361 

ix. 
xiv. 

XX. 

xxi. 
xxviii. 
xxxii. 

.      26 
V        .         9 
7 
.       16 
.      23 
1 

.     370 
.     124 
.       59 
.     124 
.     269 
.     405 

xxviii. 

.    6,9        . 

6 

.     363 
.     360 

xxxiii. 
xxxiv. 

.        .5,7        . 
4 

.     318 
.     332 

— 

9 

.       87 

II.   SAMUEL. 

xxxvi. 

17,  18 

.       19 

xxiv.    . 

.       16 

.       68 

EZRA. 

I.   KINGS. 

iv. 

C,  15 

.     423 

ii. 
iii. 

26,  27 
1 

.     359 
.     364 

vi. 

8 
.       13 

.     443 
.     398 

iv. 

.      26        . 

.     267 

— 

.      18 

.     443 

21—27 

.     367 

vii. 

12—26 

.     443 

viii. 

.      41 

.     265 

X.J 

2 

.     265 

NEHEMIAH. 

.14 

.     367 

iii. 

.      15 

.     308 

xii. 

.4 

.    367 

ix. 

11 

.     203 

xiv. 

.23 

.     335 

xiii. 

.       28 

.      87 

— 

.      25 

.     107 

xviii. 

.       19 

.     332 

xix. 

6 

.     331 

ESTHER.. 

i. 

.       13 

.     131 

n.  KINGS. 

xiv. 

.      25 

.    370 

JOB. 

XV. 

.      29 

.     384 

i. 

.      21 

.     119 

xvi. 

.     7,8        . 

.     383 

ii. 

.       10 

.     119 

xvii. 

.       87 

iii. 

14 

.     104 

xviii. 

.    .    2        ! 

.     456 

iv. 

12—18 

.     122 

—      •    . 

4 

.     468 

V. 

20—22 

.     176 

476 


LIST   OP    SCRIPTURES. 


JOB. 

VSALMS. 

CHAP. 

T»B. 

PAOB 

CFtA*. 

VBB. 

PAGB 

vi.          . 

14—20 

.     113 

25 

196 

.       15 

.     126 

.       27 

.     236 

xiv. 

.       13 

.     128 

—           . 

.       31 

.     232 

XV. 

.       10 

.     116 

— 

.       51 

.     294 

xviii. 

.       12 

.     176 

Ixxxi. 

5 

.    253 

xix. 

14,  15 

.     126 

Ixxxiii    . 

6,  13 

.     230 

— 

16,  18 

.     126 

xci. 

4 

.     316 

—          . 

23—25 

.     133 

cv. 

.       30 

.     321 

XX. 

.       11 

.     127 

— 

.       41 

.     225 

xxii. 

5,6,7 

.     127 

cvii. 

35—37 

.     225 

. 

.      17 

.      126,  315 

— 

23—30 

.     366 

xxiv. 

2—11 

.     127 

cviii.      . 

7—13 

.     357 

—         . 

.       14 

.     126 

cxiv. 

1 

.     253 

— 

.       21 

.     127 

— 

.3,5 

.     262 

xxvi. 

6 

.     127 

cxxxlx. 

7 

.     316 

xxvii.    . 

3 

.     172 

cxx. 

4 

.     331 

—          . 

.       19 

.     127 

xxviii.    . 

13,  19 

.     176 

ISAIAH. 

19 

.     123 

xxix.       . 

XXX. 

7-14 
3 
4 

.     116 
.     176 
.     331 

ii.           . 
iii. 

.       21 
14,  15 
16,  26 

.    207 
.     402 
.    376 

xx  xi. 

.       10 

.  1—8 
13 

.     399 
.     126 
.     126 

v.           . 

vi. 

1 
.      28 
11,  13 

.    402 
.    306 

.      76 

— 

16,17 
26—28 

.     127 
.     122 

X. 

xi. 

5 
10,  14 

.    271 
.     396 

— 

.       29 

38—40 

.     127 
.     127 

Xlll. 

21 
20,  21 

46 
.     449 

xxxvi.    . 

.       18 
20 

.     127 
.     127 

xiv. 

4 
.       18 

.     452 
.      97 

xxxviii. 

4 

.      26 

xix. 

.6,7        . 

.     329 

.       15 

.     102 

xxiv. 

11 

19 

xxxix.    . 

19—21 
25 

.     172 
120 

XXV. 

xxvi. 

7 
13,  14 

.     113 
.      99 

xlii. 

3,  6,  10 

.     119 

xxxvii.  . 
xl. 

.      29 
2 

.     381 

.     388 

xli. 

8 

.       59 

PSALMS. 

xliv. 

.      28 

.     416 

xvii.       . 

8 

.     316 

xiv.        . 

.       14 

.     123 

xx.  and  xxi. 

.         . 

.    357 

xlvi.       . 

.1,2         . 

.     386 

XX. 

7 

.     305 

Ixi. 

6 

.     336 

xlvi.        . 

9 

.     306 

Ixvi. 

.      21 

.     336 

Ivii. 

1 

.     316 

Ix. 

Ixxvi.     . 

6—12 
6 

.     357 
.     306 

JEREMIAH. 

Ixxvii.     . 

.      18 

.     223 

ii.           . 

6 

.     208 

.      20 

.     363 

vii.         . 

.       18 

.     330 

Ix  xviii.    . 

15,  16 

.     225 

x.           . 

.       11 

.     443 

— 

.9,  10 

.     239 

XV.             . 

1 

18,  390 

LIST   OF    SCRIPTURES. 


477 


JEREMIAH. 

AMOS. 

CHIP. 

VBE. 

PAGE 

CHAF. 

VBB. 

PAGE 

XV. 

.  1—4 

.     335 

vii.         . 

9 

.       68 

XXV. 

15,  25      114, 

132,  394 

xxix. 

4 

.     308 

JONAH. 

xxxi. 
xxxiv. 

.      21 

7 

.     207 
.     405 

iii. 

.4,6         . 

.     371 

— 

18,  19 

.       66 

xxxix. 

.      13 

.     426 

NAHUM. 

xlvi. 

9 

.     306 

i. 

6 

.     224 

xlix. 

34—49 

.     394 

ii. 

.         13 

.     272 

— 

,         .         7 

.     132 

iii.         . 

8 

.      56 

L 

.      38 

.       46 

li. 

.      25 

.     450 

HABAKKTTK. 

i. 

8 

.     120 

LAMENTATIONS. 

— 

6—12 

.     341 

iv. 

.      21 

.     132 

ZECHABIAH. 

xii 

.         10 

.     336 

EZEKTEL. 

V. 

5       . 

.     356 

MATTHEW. 

xiv. 
xvii. 

.       14 
.  1—6 
.       20 

.     117 
.     339 
.     336 

xxiii. 
xxvi. 

37,  38 
.      67 

316,  342 
.     399 

XX. 

8,  10 

.     252 

xxi. 

.       21 

.     378 

LUKE. 

xxii. 

22-30 

.     396 

xxiv. 

.      27 

26 

xxiii. 

7—15 

.     300 



2—7 

.     369 

JOHN. 

xxvii. 

.       20 

.     305 

i.           . 

.       29 

.     199 

XXX. 

21,  23,  26 

.     102 

iv. 

.       25 

.      89 

__ 

.    1,  2 

.     100 

V. 

45,  47 

.     264 



.    3,  9 

.     338 

viii. 

.      48 

.      89 

xxxi. 

.      8,  9,  12 

.     271 

xvii. 

.      23 

.     364 

ACTS. 

DANIEL. 

i. 

8 

.     282 

i. 

3 

.     393 

ii. 

.         11 

.     198 

viii. 

2 

58.  394 

— 

36—39 

.    283 

X. 

4 

.  '     30 

vii. 

2 

.      58 

-s.il. 

.       4,  9,  10 

.     457 

. 

.       14 

.      93 

— 

.       30 

.     104 

viii.        . 

1 

.       90 

HOSEA. 

— 

6—17 

.       90 

i.   . 

.      10 

.      77 

ix.          . 

.      31 

.       90 

ii?. 

4 

.     324 

EOMANS. 

iv.          . 

.         11 

.       59 

JOEL. 

viii. 

.       35 

.     317 

iii. 

.  2,  18 

.     283 

xi.          . 

.       12 

.      21 

478 


LIST   OP    SCEIPTURES. 


I.   COEINTHIANS. 

HEBREWS. 

CHAP. 

VBS. 

PAGE 

CHAP. 

VBB. 

PAGE 

X. 

7 

.     237 

ix. 

.       .7,9        . 

.     301 



.     11 

.     198 

xi.  . 

.        .3,4        . 

27,  25G 

— 

.      24 

.     105 

GALATIANS. 

— 

.       28 

.     198 

i.  . 

.      17 

.    198 

xii. 

.      26 

.     224 

iii. 

16,  17 

.      95 

— 

.      17 

.      66 

JAKES. 

EPIIESIANS. 

ii. 

.        23 

.      59 

i. 

.  3,  10 

.     317 

V. 

.        11 

.     117 

H.   TIMOTHY. 

BEYELATIOJf. 

iii. 

8 

.      26 

ii. 

.         17 

.    363 

V. 

5 

.     337 

HEBEEWS. 

xiii. 

8 

.     199 

vii. 

7 

.    124 

xxi, 

8 

.        18,  19        . 

.    257 

xxii. 

.       .      17       . 

.    318 

INDEX. 


tf,  256,  301. 

Abderrahman,  165. 

Abiathar,  359,  363. 

Abimelech  at  Sliechem,  son  of 
.  Gideon,  72;  King  of  Gerar, 
247;  with  Isaac  at  Wells  of 
Beersheba,  259. 

Abishua,  83. 

Abraham,  58—69,  122. 

Absalom,  358. 

Abydos,  First  and  Second  Tablets 
of,  94. 

Accad,  37,  55,  290. 

Accursed  thing,  333,  334. 

Achan,  334. 

Ad,  the  tribe  of,  149, 167. 

Adam,  27,  29,  319. 

Adites,  142. 

Africa,  9,  44, 110. 

Ahasuerus,  420,  422,  423. 

Ahaz,  2G9,  382, 383. 

Aholiab,  249. 

Ai,  city  of,  334. 

Ain-el-Weibah,  247. 

Ain  Kades,  247. 

Akaba,  Gulf  of,  237,  359. 

Albert,  Prince,  2,  10. 

Alexander  the  Great,  46,  115,  174, 
426. 

Aleyat,  Valley  of,  222—234. 

AlKaswini,  163, 165, 169, 172,  216. 

Almakah,  149. 

Alphabet,  Ethiopia,  177;  Fresuel's 
Himyaritic,  145 ;  Forster's  Sinai, 
217;  Forster's  Himyaritic,  170; 
Old  Sanscrit,  157;  Professor 
Beer's  Sinai,  212 ;  Phoenician, 
84;  Sinaitic,  164;  Samaritan, 
written  and  printed,  84. 

Altai',  Himyaritic,  137  ;  the  first  after 
the  flood,  63. 

Amalek,  220,  228,  230. 


Amaleldtes,  142. 

Amenophis  III.,  the  statues  of,  106. 

America,  5. 

Amorites,  385. 

Amos,  prophecy  of,  68,  69. 

Amram,  29. 

Amraphel,  King  of  Shinar,  40. 

Ancestors,  deification  of,  56. 

Angel  of  the  Way,  196. 

Antediluvians,  the,  27,  126. 

Aperi-u,  Egyptian  name  for  Hebrews, 

96. 

Apes,  351. 

Apis,  the  bull,  105,  251,  263. 
Arabia,  111,  113, 114, 164, 180. 
Arabians,  the  early,  112. 
Arabic,  the  primeval,  150,  440,  445. 
Arabic,  in  Mr.  Moon's  characters  for 

the  blind,  181. 
Arabs,  14,  112,   156,  347;   Bedouin 

Arabs,  115,  446. 
Aram,  Nimrod's  uncle,  293. 
Aram,  the  land  of,  385 ;  inundation 

of,  147. 
Aramean,  primitive   Syrian  dialect, 

253. 

Ararat,  32,  34. 
Araunah,  68. 
Araxes,  plain  of,  31. 
Arioch,  40,  291. 
Ark,  33,  71;  treasures  in  the,  256, 

322,    323;  _the    primitive   Ark 

language,  159. 
Armenia,  31. 
Armenian  Churches,  17. 
Armenians,  14. 

Armies  and  New  Testament,  16. 
Arnaud,  researches  of,  143,  173. 
Arphaxad,  58,  293,  395,  420. 
Art,  comparative,  in  Assyria,  303. 
Arvad,  8. 
Aryan,  397. 


480 


INDEX. 


Ashtaroth,  Athtor,  Athor,  Astartc, 

148, 249,  252.  333. 
Asia,  Central,  248. 
A  snapper,  445. 

Assha>Tah,  329,  331,  332—336. 
Asshur,  293,  302,  339 ;  city  of,  270, 

291 ;  presence  of,  289,  312 ;  no 

shrine  of  his  own,  312. 
Assur,  Elam  ruling  over,  421. 
Assur-izzi-pal,  296 ;    inscription    of, 

by  H.    P.  Talbot,  Esq.,  462. 
Assyria,  20;  national  crest  of,  341; 

king  of,  302. 
Assyrian  demon,  346 ;  feroher,  313, 

347;  transept,  298 ;  deities,  325; 

worship  of  one  object,  328. 
Astyages,  307,  422, 426. 
Athens,  355. 
Aws,  or  Uz,  264. 
Ayun  Mousa  (the  Wells  of  Moses), 

205. 

Baal,  240, 313, 332,  333,  342. 

Baalim  and  the  Groves,  333,  341. 

Baalbec,  76. 

BaaJpeor,  333. 

Babel,  37, 44,  53,  55. 

Babylon,  20,  46,  448. 

Babylonish  Garment,  292,  334. 

Balak,  333. 

BalHs,  149. 

Bashemath,  115, 117. 

Bas-reliefs,  Nineveh,  mentioned  by 
Ezekiel,  300. 

Bartlett's  "Forty  Days  in  the  De- 
sert," 227. 

Bavian,  327. 

Beard,  Israelite,  380. 

Beer,  Professor,  210,  211 ;  his  alpha- 
bet, 212. 

Beer-lahai-roi,  153. 

Beersheba,  69,  404;  Wells  of,  257. 

Beetle,  mystic  scarabaeus,  361. 

Behemoth,  the,  121. 

Behistun,  Rock  of,  409 ;  Inscription 
on  rock  421;  date  of  sculp- 
tures, 423;  Assyrian  tablets  of, 
428 

Bel,  269. 

Bel  and  the  Dragon,  346. 

Belshazzar,  48. 

Belus,  46. 

Benhadad,  386. 

Beni  Ayoub,  116. 

Beni  Israel,  284. 

Berosus,  56,  343,  422. 

Bezaleel,  249. 


Bible  Stall,  14. 

Bible,   translations    of,    for    Africn,, 

110. 

Birch,  translations  of,  by  Dr.,  102. 
Birs  Nimroud,  45.  386,  451. 
Black  Stone.  Lord  Aberdeen's,  328. 
Blind,  Mr.  Moon's  Arabic  alphabet 

for,  181. 

Bonar,  Dr.,  98, 185, 198,  207,  214. 
Borsippa,  37,  386. 
Botta,  M.,  276,  277. 
Bournouf,  Eugene,  425. 
Bowls  from  Babylon,  408;    bronze, 

349. 

Brahma,  160. 

Breastplate  of  high  priest,  360. 
Brickmakingby  the  Israelites,  108. 
British  Museum  Library,  210. 
Bronze  lion  weights,  Assyrian,  350, 

352. 

Brook  Zered,  246,  247. 
Bulls,  284;  inscriptions  under   the, 

455. 

Bunsen,  De,  94. 
Burckhardt,  223. 
Burton,  Lieut.,  110. 
Burning-bush,  the,  186. 
Butler,  Mr.  Pierce,  221,  222,  254. 

Cain,  315. 

Cairo,  Coptic  youth  in,  183. 

Caleb,  227. 

Calf,  the  Golden,  226. 

Callisthenes,  46. 

Calmet,  315. 

Calmuck    nation,    transit  of,  across 

Central  Asia,  189. 
Calneh,  37,  55. 
Cambyses,  115,  422. 
Canaanites,  76,  229. 
Canada,  petroleum  of,  5. 
Canning,  Sir  Stratford,  277. 
Captives,  Hebrew,  375. 
Carey,  Rev.  C.  P.,  126. 
Cart,  Assyrian,  375. 
Cedar  Cones,  328,  330;  wood,  310, 

367. 

Cemetery,  the  Mountain,  238. 
Chabas,  "M.,  95,  96. 
Chaldean  Church,  rise  of,  283. 
Chaldeans,  14,  341. 
Chaldees,  36—55. 
Champollion,  107,  414. 
Charibael,  King  of  Ilomerites,  171. 
Chariots,  Assyrian,  305. 
Chedorlaomer,  King  of  Elam,    40, 

229. 


INDEX. 


481 


Cherubim,  285,  2S7,  314,  319,  320, 

323. 

China,  5.  14. 
Christian  Observer,  263. 
Chronology,     Hebrew,     Samaritan, 

and  Septuagint,  88. 
Chronology,  Table  of  Usher's,  161. 
Chushan-rishathaim,  270,  333. 
Circumcision,  67. 
Civilization,  early  Arabian,  119. 
Clarke,  Adam,  315. 
Claudius,  Emperor,  171. 
Clay  Eecords,  49. 
Cleopas,  26. 

Cobbold,  Archdeacon,  180. 
Codex  Alexandrinus,  95. 
Coffins  of  Jacob  and  Joseph,  51,  52. 
Coghlan,  Colonel,  137. 
Collodion,  5. 

Colours,  new  secrets  of,  5. 
Cone,   North-western    of    Nimroud, 

295. 

Constantinople  centre  of  Mohamme- 
danism, 17. 

Copper,  vessels  of,  310. 
Copts,  Bible  for  blind,  184. 
Correspondence,  advance  in,  3. 
Cosmas,  209,  243. 
Costume,    Jewish,    379;    commands 

concerning,  380. 

Covenants,  God's  with  Noah,  65 — 67. 
Cross  on  the    Sinaitic  inscriptions, 

218. 
Cross-stakes  in  the  Passover  sacrifice, 

91. 

Cruttenden,  Lieut,  137, 175. 
Crystal  Palace,  Statues  of  Nubia  in, 

101. 

Ctesias,  272. 
Cuneiform  characters,  20,  414,  419, 

437,  438,  455. 
Cureton,  Rev.  W.,  431. 
Cush,  35. 

Cyaxares,  272,  422. 
Cylinders   of  Kalah   Sherghat,  291 ; 

of  Sennacherib,  454 ;  of  Tiglath- 

Pileser,  432;  of  Nebuchadnezzar, 

470. 
Cyrus,  48, 115, 307,  418,  419,  422. 

Dagon,  342, 343. 

Damascus,  385. 

Daniel,  117,  153 ;  the  Tomb  of,  457. 

Darius  the  Mede,  422. 

Darius  Hy.-taspes,  426. 

David,  353—353. 

Dead  Sea,  262. 


Deborah,  353. 

Dedan,  114. 

Deluge,  319. 

Dendera,  Zodiac  of,  109 ;  portico  of 

temple  of,  109. 
De  Pressense,  the  Elder,  16. 
Descent  the,  34. 
Desert,  Moses  in  the,  104 ;  morning 

in,    110;     book     of    the,     102; 

forty  days  in  the,  227 ;  mines  in 

the,  249. 

Dhou  Nowas,  147. 
Dinhabah,  115. 
Divine  Autograph,  322. 
Djebel  Maghara,  219. 
Doan,  149. 
D  wight,  Dr.  31. 

Eagle,  339-342. 

Ebal,  Mount,  61,  71. 

Eber,  65,  159,  265. 

Eden,  sight  of,  32. 

Edfou  and  Dakhe,  temples  of,  108. 

Edom,  114,  115,  135,  149. 

Egypt,  5,  20, 114,  180 ;  down  into,  93  ; 

plagues   of,  187 ;    magicians   of, 

26 ;  palm  groves  of,  228. 
Egyptian  history,  95 ;  cemeterv,  233. 
Egyptians,  14,  232. 
Egyptology,  science  of,  94. 
Ekirili,  176. 
Elam,  57,  58,  114;  outcasts  of,  427; 

or  Susiana,  394. 

Elamites,  14 ;  battles  with  the,  398. 
Eldad  and  Medad,  244. 
El  Huderah,  231. 
El  Jabbar,  the  giant,  38. 
El  Musnad,  150. 
El  Kahah.  222. 
LI  Tih,  231. 
E.ijah,  331. 
Eli'phaz,  116, 122,  175. 
Ellasar,  291. 
Emblems,  inspired,  for  Assyria  and 

Israel,  339,  342. 
Enoch,  27,  28,  65. 
Entrance  and  exit    of   the   Desert, 

261. 

Ephod,  320. 

Ephraim,  72,  230,  239,  339. 
Erech,  37,  55. 
Esau,  113,  116. 
Esarhaddon,  18,  S32,  388. 
Esther,  Queen,  411. 
Ethiopia,  123. 

Euphrates,  30,  52,  370,  303,  4-52. 
Exhibition,  International,  1, 9. 
I   I 


482 


Exodus,  Pharaoh  of  the,  102 ;  chroni- 
cles of,  203;  blank  of  thirty-eight 
years  in,  247. 

Ezekiel,  7 ;  his  vision,  323 ;  his  para- 
ble and  riddle,  338, 340. 

Famine,  Joseph's,  174. 
Feiran,  valley  of,  224—228. 
Ferguson,  298,  299,  331. 
Feroher,  Assyrian,  313,  325. 
Fetters  and  Handcuffs,  ancient,  407. 
Fire,  pillar  of,  321,  &22. 
Flood,  the,  25-29. 
Forster,  Kev.  Charles,  his  researches, 

163,  268. 

Fresnel,  researches  of,  143. 
Freytag,  Lexicon  of,  168. 
Fuel,  fragrant,  328. 

Galla,  language,  43. 

Gardens,  Hanging,  Babylon,  308. 

Garibaldi,  15. 

Garments,  Babylonish,  292,  309,  334. 

Gaza,  69,  344. 

Gebel  Mousa,  222,  223. 

Geese,  red,  236. 

Genii,  316. 

Gerar,  247. 

Gerizim,  Mount,  61—68. 

Gideon,  72,  234. 

Gipsies,  the,  397. 

Gobineau,  Count,  440. 

God,  voice  of,  14. 

Gods,  Heathen,  names  of  such  as 
are  mentioned  in  Nineveh  In- 
scriptions, 429. 

Girnar,  rocks  of,  158. 

Gomates,  the  Magian,  411. 

Gozan,  403. 

Graham,  Mr.,  235. 

Granville,  Earl,  address  of,  10. 

Grave-stone  of  Warka,  134;  graves 
of  famous  nations,  347,  390. 

Gray,  Kev.  J.  F.,  210. 

Great  Cities,  area  of,  295. 

Grove,  George,  Esq.,  78—82. 

Groves,  Baalim  and  the,  or  the 
Asshayrah,  331,  338. 

Habor  and  Halah,  403. 
Hadramaut,  114,149, 264 ;  inscription 

in,  137. 

Hagar,  114,  258 ;  pass  of,  169. 
Halicarnassns,  413 ;  vase  of,  441. 
Hall,  Subterranean,  at  the  Museum, 

403. 

Ham,  35,  65,  229. 
Haniite,  123 ;  language,  42. 


Ilaran,  58. 

Harrowby,  Lord,  164,  216. 

Hatti  Hamayouii,  1C. 

Hauran,  encampment  in  the,  76, 233. 

Hawes,  Captain,  135,  1U7, 164. 

Hazael,  383. 

Hazeroth,  246. 

Heaven,  Queen  of,  330. 

Hebrews,  96,  351,  375, 379. 

Hebron,  354. 

Hermon,  62. 

Herodotus,  94,  271, 371, 423,  426,  423. 

Hezekiah,  250,  393,  453,  467. 

Hiddekel,  30. 

Hieroglyphs,  250,  251. 

Himyar,  135,  149. 

Himyaritic  alphabet,  by  Fresnel,  145. 

Himyer,  266. 

Hincks,  Dr.,  277,  404,  430. 

Hindustani,  397. 

Hiram,  267. 

Hisn  Ghorab,  the  rock  of,  135,  216, 

264,  265 ;  poem  on,  165. 
Hittites,385. 
Horeb,  185,  226,  322. 
Hor,  Mount,  240. 
Hosea,  the  Prophet,  77,  324. 
Hud,  Sepulchre  of,  168. 
Huldah,  Prophetess,  19. 
Husham,  116. 

Ibsambul,  100. 

Idolatry,  ancient,  55,  294. 

Idols,  small,  450. 

Images,  sun,  332. 

India,  3, 160. 

Inglis,  Sir  R.  11,164. 

Inscriptions,  Greek,  100,  213;  Him- 
yaritic a.nd  Sinaitic,  '259,  264; 
on  the  Dyke  of  Mareb,  144;  of 
Nineveh,  readers  of  the,  446. 

Introductory  chamber,  290. 

Isaac,  offering  of,  67 ;  high  places  of, 
68. 

Isaiah,  the  prophet,  99,  391, 400, 402. 

Isfahan  and  Damascus,  371. 

Ishmael,  114,  122. 

Isis,  Shrine  of,  321. 

Ismi  Dagon,  291. 

Ismail  Pasha,  285. 

Israel,  era  of  dispersion  of,  18,  73; 
songs  of,  257,  260 ;  population  of, 
75,  /  7 ;  mention  of,  274,  282,  359. 

Israelites,  exode  of  thp,  99,  195,  238. 

Jssachar,  children  of,  131. 

Italians,  14. 

Italy,  14  ;  Bible  for,  15. 


INDEX. 


483 


Ja.cob,  70,  73 ;  and  Job,  the  grandson 

of,   131 ;  and  Joseph,  the  bodies 

of,  251. 

Jannes  and  Jambres,  26. 
Japanese  ambassadors,  9. 
Japheth,  65,  428. 
Javan,  8. 

Jebel-el-Mokatteb,  238. 
Jebusites,  385. 
Jehu,  the  song  of  Omri,  383. 
Jemima,  116. 
Jeroboam  II.,  74,  370. 
Jerusalem,  355,  457. 
Jethro,  185. 
Jews,  14,64,76,369. 
Jewish  kingdom,  times  of  the,  400  ; 

physiognomy,  404. 
Jewellery,  exhibition  of,  8. 
Jezebel's  table,  332. 
Job,  117,  119,  125,  127, 129,  264,331. 
Jobab,  King,  116. 
Jochebed,  29. 
Joktan,112,  114,  142,.2G6._ 
Jonah,  the  prophet,  337,  370. 
Jones,  Sir  William,  168. 
Jordan,  62,  262. 
Joseph,  70, 117. 
Josephus,  records  of,  19,  68,  94,  324, 

364. 

Joshua,  71,72,  227,332,  333. 
Jotham,  72. 

"Journal  Asiatiqiie,"  143,  173. 
Judah  captive,  20,  21 ;  kingdom,  75 ; 

Melek,  107,  rebellious,  274. 
Jude,  27. 

Judges,  Book  of,  332. 
Juniper,  331  •. 
Justinian,  the  Roman  Emperor,  209. 

Kabr  Saleh,  149. 

Kadesh,  246. 

Kalah  Shergat,  270,  271,  274,  291, 

293,  431. 

Karnak,  pillars  of, 
Keith,  Dr.,  448. 
Kenites,  230. 

Kerbela,  earthen  tablets  of,  441. 
Khorsabad,  271,299. 
Kibroth-hattaavah,    220,    235,    237, 

238,  252. 

King  Assur-bannipal,  405. 
King,  Egyptian,  97. 
Kings,  names  of,  knovra  in  Scripture, 

429. 

Kings  and  Prophets,  table  of,  382. 
Kings,  tombs  of,  Egypt,  97. 
Kitto,  Dr.,  253. 


Koords,  14. 

Korah,  rebellion  of,  220. 

Koran,  151. 

Kouyuniik,   293,   299,  401;    Gallery, 

276,  391,  392. 
Kudur-lagamer  and  Kudur-mabuk, 

49, 

Kurdistan,  284,  309. 
Kurrachee,  3. 

Laban,  319. 

Lachish,  260,  404. 

Lamb,  Passover,  the,  197. 

Lamp,  earthen,  408. 

Languages,  dead,  25 ;  primeval,  159. 

Larissa  or  Besen,  275. 

Laval,  M.  Lottin  de,  213,  216,  234, 

238,  248,  253. 
Law,  recitation  of,  79. 
Law,  giving  of  the,  223. 
Layard,  Austen,  274,  298,  303,  307, 

309,  349,  404. 
Leader,  the  Divine,  196. 
Lebanon,  71,  76,  330 ;  cedars  of,  271, 

338. 

Lepsius,  Dr.,  213,  221,  225,  226. 
Letters  for  blind,  Mr.  Moon's,  184. 
Letters  without  arrow-heads,  437. 
Levisohn,  Dr.,  85. 
Levy,  Professor,  213,  243. 
Lewis,  Sir  George  Cornewall,  150. 
Leyden,  Museum  of,  96. 
Library,  a  clay,  438. 
Light,  magnesian,  4. 
Lintel,  blood  on  the,  301. 
Lion,  king  hunting  the,   302,   337, 

405. 

Locomotion,  5. 
Loftus,  38,  405,  435,  456. 
London,  population  of,  2. 
Lord,  angel  of  the,  186. 
Lotus  of  the  Nile,  329. 
Louvre,  218. 
Luxor,  315. 
Lyndhurst,  Lord,  164,  216. 

Machpelah,  4. 

Machinery,  improvements  in,  6. 

Magi,  425,  426. 

'•  Mahometanism  Unveiled,"  164. 

Makloube,  450. 

Malthus,  95. 

Manasseh,  19,  255,  336. 

Mandana,  422. 

Manetho,  history,  99. 

Man  Lions,  284. 

Mareb,  Dyke  of,  142,  174. 


484 


INDEX. 


Margoliouth,  Dr.  M.,  131,  132,  245, 
331. 

Martyn,  Henry,  153. 

Mecca,  114,  lol. 

Medes,  14,  114,422. 

Media,  409. 

Medina,  114. 

Mediterranean.  267. 

Melchisedek,  '257. 

Memphis,  its  pyramid?,  104. 

Menant,  M.  Joachim,  435,  438, 445. 

Menes,  94. 

Mercj'-seat,  323. 

Meribab,  'J4S. 

Merodach  Adanakhi,  King  of  Baby- 
lon, 292. 

Merodach  Baladan,  393,  453. 

Meschech,  8,  347. 

Mesopotamia,  51, 113,  294. 

Messages,  electric,  2. 

Methuselah,  28,  319. 

Midian,  105,  118,124,185. 

Mikal  Joseph,  137, 138. 

Mills,  Rev.  J.,  62,  64,  70. 

Miriam,  246. 

Moab,  114, 230, 333. 

Mohammed,  151. 

Moloch,  301. 

Mont  B.anc,  5. 

Montfancon,  209. 

Moon,  Mr ,  alphabet  for  Arabia,  181. 

Moresby,  Captain,  204. 

Moriah,  Mount,  6-i,  68, 260. 

Moses,  107,117,322. 

Moslim  Eat'onl,  180. 

Mosul,  271, 274. 

Mount  Hor,  250. 

Mount  Seir,  229. 

Mugeyer  cylinders,  the,  48. 

Mugheir,  38,  47. 

Miiller,  Max,  158,  397,  424,  425. 

Musnad,  the,  141, 168. 

Nabathoans,  210,  243. 

Nablus,  the  vale  of,  61,  82. 

Nabonidus,  48,  386. 

Naphtali,  384. 

Nathan,  356. 

Nations,  a  link  for  all,  178. 

Nakhchevan,  32. 

Nazareth,  babo  of,  324. 

Nahr-el-Kelb,  327,  391. 

Nakb-el-Hajar,  169, 171. 

Nahum.  236,  272,  306, 337. 

Nebbi  Yunus,  209,  372. 

Nebo,  Mount.  240,  386. 

Nebuchadnezzar,  7,  19,  48,  114,  386, 


400,    405;     at     Borsippa,     Dr. 

Oppert's    inscription     of,     469; 

cylinder  of,  470. 
Negations,  list  of,  289. 
Nergal,  289,  312. 
Nestorian  Churches,  17 ;  excavators. 

281. 

Newspapers,  increase  of,  4. 
Niebuhr.  238. 
Niffer,  37. 
Nile,  35,  237. 
Nimrod,  35,  271,  289.  293. 
Nimroud   Mound,   275 ;    lens,    291 ; 

North-west  Palace,  201 ;  Central 

Palace,  352  ;  ages  of,  387. 
Nineveh,  date  of  destruction  of,  272 ; 

galleries    in    British    Museum, 

290 

Nisroch',  308,  339,  340,  349. 
Noah,  56, 117,  319. 
Norris,  Mr.,  29S. 

North-west  Palace,  Hebrews  in,  350. 
Nowas  Dim,  171. 

Cannes,  56. 

Obadiah,  230. 

Obelisk  the  black,  376,  381. 

Ophir,  366. 

Oppert,  M.  Jules.  277,  438,  442,  446. 

Orissa,  tribe  of,  160. 

Ornaments,  ivory,  309. 

Ortelius.  2^8. 

Osiris,  Egyptian  sun-god,  56. 

Ostrich,  the  Sinai,  220. 

Padan  Aram.  260. 

Paganism,  315. 

Palestine,  63,  92,  354, 457. 

Palace,  Assyrian,    interior  of,   307; 

the  South-west.  295,   310,  388; 

North-west,    295,  310;    Central, 

295 ;  gardens,  308 ;  Crystal,  101. 
Palgrave,  Itfr.  Gifford,  154. 
Palms,  oasis  of,  228. 
Palmyra.  76. 
Papyrus.  Turin,  94.  329. 
Parsee  Exodus,  427- 
Paris,  2,  277,  446;  M.  Paulin  Paris, 

447. 

Parsees,  425. 
Parrot,  Professor,  33. 
Parthians,  14. 
Passover,  Samaritan.  90. 
Patriarch  Jethro,  124. 
Patriarchs,  seven  times  of,  23 ;  society 

of,  130. 
Patriarchal  truth,  relics  of,  294. 


INDEX. 


485 


Paul,  166, 198. 

Pedlar,  Vaudois,  16. 

Pehlvi,  426. 

Peleg,  38,  111,  150, 159,  268. 

Penny  postage,  3. 

Pentacost,  day  of,  283. 

Pentateuch,  Samaritan,  86. 

"People,  the,"  232 ;  the  mingled,  112. 

Perceval,  M.  Caussin  de,  171. 

Persepolis,  414. 

Persia,  180, 347,  426. 

Persian  Zend  A  vesta,  433. 

Petavel,  Rev.  E.,  447. 

Pharaoh's  daughter,  103. 

Pharaohs,  statues  of,  99. 

Pharpar  river,  385. 

Philistia,  73. 

Phoenicians,  229,  365: 

Phoenician  characters,  439. 

Photography,  4,5. 

Phut,  124. 

Phuvah,  131. 

Picardy,  236. 

Pillar  posts,  3. 

Pithom,  city  of,  97. 

Places,  names  of  known  in  Scrip- 
ture, found  at  Nineveh,  429. 

Pococke  and  Niebuhr,  210. 

Poet  Laureate,  ode  of,  11. 

Polyphones,  438. 

Pompey,  115. 

Porter,  Sir  R.  Ker,411. 

Portrait  pillar,  417. 

Postage,  3. 

Pottery,  ancient,  53. 

Power,  the  world,  315. 

Presence,  the,  303,  334;  the  triad, 
327. 

Prinsep,  Mr.,  157. 

Prophet,  false,  16. 

Prophets,  the,  389. 

Psalms,  evidence  from  Book  of,  225 ; 
occasion  of  their  composition, 
355. 

Pul,  inscription  of,  464. 

Pyramids,  4,  98,  118. 

Baamah,  266. 

Rab  Mag,  426. 

Eameses,  99, 102,391. 

Bask,  Erasmus,  425. 

Bawlinson,  Professor,    35,    41,  307, 

383. 
Bawlinson,  Sir  H.,  37,  38,  270,  277, 

296, 407,  430,  447. 
Beadings,  comparative,   of    Sir   H. 

Bawlinson  and  H.  F.  Talbot,  Dr. 


Hincks,  and  Dr.  Oppert,  434, 
435. 

Bebellion,  Korah's,  254. 

Records,  Clay,  49. 

Bed  Sea,  114, 124,  198,  203,  206,  233, 
263, 266. 

Behoboam,  73,  364. 

Bekshare,  tomb  of,  108. 

Beligion,  patriarchal,  in  the  times  o  f 
Job,  125,  128. 

Bephidim  or  Wady  Feiran,  ?24,  228. 

Besen,  or  Nimroud,  293. 

Beuel,  117. 

Bevolutions  and  revivals,  17. 

Bivers,  names  of,  known  in  Scrip- 
ture, 429. 

Bobinson,  Dr.,  258. 

Bock,  water  from  the,  233. 

Boll,  great  case  of,  81. 

Borne,  14,  355. 

Romans,  76. 

Rosetta  Stone,  the,  101. 

Bule,  the  Aryan,  420. 

Euppell,  221. 

Sabbath,  sign  of  God's  covenant,  67. 

Sabeans,  123,265. 

Sadducees,  199. 

Salt  Sea,  262. 

Samaria,  19,  73. 

Samaritans,  present,  89. 

Samaritan  alphabets,  84;   passover, 

90. 

Sammuramit,  387. 
Samuel,  72,  356. 
Sana,  stone  found  at,  173. 
Sanscrit,  397. 
Saul,  353. 
Saut   or  Shittah,  trees  of  Scripture, 

222. 

Saracens,  76. 
Sardanapalus,  438. 
Sarbut-el-Khadem,  210,  238,  242. 
Sargon,  453. 
Schubert,  237. 
Schultens,  265. 
Scriptures,  Septuagint  version  of,  88, 

129. 

Scyths,  422. 
Seals,  Assyrian,  50. 
Segnanfoo,  tablet  of,  280. 
Senkereh,  37,  470. 
Sennacherib,  339,  392,  400,  402,  453, 

455. 

Serbal,  Mount,  186, 218, 221, 231, 235. 
Sesostris,  115. 
Seven  Times,  18,  23,  336,  337. 


486 


INDEX. 


Shaimaneser,  382,  384,  389. 

Shamaa  Vul,  291. 

Sheba,  259 ;  Queen  of,  149,  265,  2G6, 
273,  366. 

Shechem,  or  Nablus,  60,  G3,  92; 
oak  of,  69,  319. 

Sheikh,  the  Arab,  152. 

Shorn,  29,  58,  64,  319. 

Shield,  two  sides  of  the,  444. 

Shield  and  helmet,  Assyrian,  389 

Shiloh,  centrfi  of,  72. 

Shinar,  Land  of,  36, 315. 

Shishak,  107. 

Shittim-wood,  186. 

Shur,  Wilderness  of,  207,  229. 

Shushan,  palace  of,  58,  307,  414,  420, 
456. 

Shush,  black  stone  of,  435. 

Sidon,  sarcophagus  from,  296,  347. 

Sinai  photographed,  169 ;  wilderness 
of,  231. 

Slabs  displaced,  374 ;  ready  for  remo- 
yal  from  Central  palace  of  Nine- 
veh, 374 ;  the  Susian,  394. 

Slaves,  patrician,  402. 

Solomon,  250,  335,  358;  _his  glory, 
364 ;  his  marriage,  365,  368. 

Sphinxes  of  Egypt,  101. 

Stanley,  Dean,  90,  97,  186,  236. 

St.  Catherine,  Convent  of,  209, 223. 

Stratford  de  Kedcliffe,  Lord,  16,  277. 

Strabo,  266,  448. 

Stewart,  Dr.,  221,  222,  231,  241,  242, 
248, 254,  404. 

Susiana,  58,  271,  394. 

Symbols,  heavenly,  341 ;  heathen, 
why  have  they  been  buried?  318. 

Syllabaries,  439. 

Syria,  5,  113,  385. 

Syro-Chaldaic,  specimen  of,  282. 

System,  Mr.  Moon's,  182. 

Tables,  broken,  322. 

Tablets,  copper,  432. 

Tabernacle,  the,  246. 

Tabor,  Mount,  62. 

Tacitus,  380. 

Tadmor,  366. 

Talbot,  Mr.  Fox,  277, 430. 

Tarshish,  267. 

Tartan,  404. 

Tartars,  Torgot,  Bxode  of,  188. 

Telegraph,    submarine,  2;    electric, 

448. 

Teman,  wisdom  of,  122. 
Temples,    two    small,    in  Nimroud 

Mound,  295. 


Terah,  58,  290,  294. 

Thebes,  56, 103, 103,  355. 

Thorold,  Kev.  A.  W.,  Sinaitic  In- 
scription, 258. 

Thothmes  II.,  102. 

Throne,  ancient,  of  Nineveh,  310. 

Tiglath-Pileser,  288, 352,  426, 431. 

Tiglath-Pileser  I.,  cylinder  of,  432 ; 
inscriptions  on,  459. 

Tigris,  30,  52,  289,  388. 

Tin,  limestone  ranges  of,  208. 

Tolah,  131. 

Tomb  of  Cyrns  at  Murghab,  416. 

Tongues,  confusion  of,  55. 

Tor,  249. 

Tree  and  Griffin,  334, 335. 

Tree,  the  sacred,  292,  325—329,  335. 

Tribute,  Jews  bringing,  351. 

Tubal  Cain,  8,  350. 

Tsaltsal,  123. 

Tyari,  280. 

Types,  Paul  teaching  in,  198. 

Tyre,  7, 114,369. 

Tyrians,  347,  366. 

Ulai  Eiver,  456. 

Urim  and  Thummirn,  360. 

Urukh,  his  bricks,  38,  49,  290 ;  his 

cy  Under,  51. 
Usher,  Archbishop,  86, 161,  254. 

Van  Dyck,  Dr.,  183. 

Vaux,  W.  S.,  281,  391. 

Vegetable  dyes,  309. 

Villages,  Arab,  273. 

Voice,  range  of  human,  at  Nablus,  71. 

WadyAleyat,  218,  222;  Borah,  231, 
242;  El  Shiek-h,  231;  Feirau, 
220,  224,  227,  234;  Hebron,  227  ; 
Kurdhiveh,  206 ;  Maghara,  249 ; 
Mokatteb,  210,  234,  237;  Mou.=n, 
204;  Rimm,  222;  Shudh,  207, 
234 ;  Tamner,  211 ;  Tarawik,  204. 

Wales,  76 ;  Prince  of,  4. 

War  cars,  Greek  and  Trojan,  307 ; 
engines  of,  13. 

Warka,  37,  51,  290;  antique  lamp 
from,  22 ;  buriai  mound  at,  347. 

Weights  and  measures,  standard  of 
Assyria,  352. 

Well  of  Jacob,  70. 

Wellstod,  Lieutenant,  travels  of,  13G, 
165. 

Whateley,  Miss,  197, 203. 

Whewell,  Dr ,  431. 

Wilderness,  332. 


INDEX. 


487 


Wings,  the  orb  between  the,  312;  of 

God,  the,  316. 
Written  Valley,  245. 

Xenophon,  275, 207. 

Xerxes,  420,  425 ;  inscription  on  the 

hall  of,  415;  name  in  cuneiform 

characters,  414. 

Yemen,  114,  147;  the  Princess  of, 
175. 

Zab  river,  275. 
Zafora,  176. 
Zalmonah,  250. 


Zedekiah,  captive  king,  340. 

Zelophehad,  2o5. 

Zend,  397,  426;    Avesta,  425,  445; 

and  Sanscrit,  425. 
Zephaniah,  271. 
Zerah,  115,  117, 124. 
Zered  Brook,  246,  247. 
Zhafar,  149. 
Zin,  Wilderness  of,  247. 
Zingaris,  gipsies,  397. 
Zion,  355. 
Zipporah,  124. 
Zodiac  of  Dendera  brought  to  France, 

109. 
Zoroaster,  425,  429,  415. 


THE  END. 


HAURILD,   PKI8TXU,    LONDON. 


The  following  Large  Coloured  Diagrams,  Published  by  the 
WOBKDra'  MEN'S  EDUCATIONAL  UNIOIT,  may  be  used 
by  Lecturers  to  illustrate  the  subject  of 

STONES  CEYING  OUT, 


These  Diagrams  are  executed,  in  a  bold  attractive  style,  and  are  in- 
tended for  the  use  of  Lecturers.  They  are  printed  upon  calico,  and  pro- 
vided with  frame  and  eyelets  for  convenient  suspension.  They  are  num- 
bered as  in  the  list  of  the  Union. 


DIAGRAMS  RELATING  TO  EGYPT. 

176  Writing  on  Stone:  tlieEosetta  Stone. 

177  Picture  Writing,  at  Karnak,  Thebes. 

252    Map  of  Ancient  Egypt  (marking  four  oases). 

222     Sitting  Statues  of  Thebes. 

254  Pyramids  and  Sphynx. 

(Sphynx  in  foreground,  Pyramids  to  the  right  and  left.) 

255  Temple  of  Abou  Simbel,  Exterior. 

(Three  Prominent  Colossal  Sitting  Statues,  with 
Faces  entire. — Figures  of  Men  in  Front,  showing 
Proportions.) 

256  Interior  of  the  same. 

(The  Entrance  guarded  by  Colossal  Statues.) 

DIAGRAMS.— NINEVEH  AND  ASSYEIA. 

156  Human-headed  Lion. 

(The  Statue  as  found  embedded.) 

157  Sennacherib  on  Throne  before  Lachish. 

158  Architectural  Ornaments,  etc. ;  also  Comparative  Sizes  of 

Nineveh,  Babylon,  and  London. 

159  Assyrian  Temple  of  Nimroud. 

(Figure  of  Dagon.) 

160  Pottery,  Helmet,  Bracelets,  etc. 

(Sargon  Vase,  Helmet,  Lion-weight,  and  Lamp.) 

K  K 


DIAGRAMS. 

161  Jewish  Captives  imploring  mercy  of  Sennacherib. 

162  Eagle-headed  Human  Figure  (Nisroch). 

163  Nimrod  (the  mighty  Hunter). 

161    King,  in  "War  Chariot  (showing  his  royal  umbrella). 
166    King  Hunting  Lions — Religious  Symbols. 

168  Mounds  of  Nimroud — Transport  of  Winged  Bull  by  the 

Assyrians. 

169  Banquet  of  Wine. 

170  Heads  of  Captives  Counted. 

(Two  Figures  presiding,  and  Two  bringing  Heads.) 

172  Cruelty  to  Captives — Tongues  torn  out,  etc. 

173  Restored  Exterior  of  Assyrian  Palace. 

(Human-headed  Winged  Bulls  against  Tower  Walls.) 

174  Archive,  or  Record-Chamber  at  Kouyunjik. 

175  Eyes  of  Captives  put  out  by  the  King. 

(The   Captives    suffering  Torture — one  kneeling,  two 
standing,  held  by  the  mouth.) 


OPINIONS  OP  THE  PEESS. 


"In  '  Stones  Crying  Out'  we  have  not  only  the  gypsum  and  granite 
of  the  British  Museum  transformed  into  a  living  world,  but  the 
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some  copies  of  THE  NINEVEH  POBTION  of  the  'Stones'  have  been 
bound  separately  for  the  convenience  of  visitors  to  the  Museum." — 
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and  most  of  the  engravings  are  admirably  executed." — The  Educational 
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advance  of  its  predecessor,  '  The  Book  and  its  Story,'  though  that  has 
passed  through  a  score  of  editions,  and  is  to  be  seen  in  every  library  in 
the  United  Kingdom.  The 'Stones  Crying  Out '  are  got  up  in  the 
most  costly  style,  and  are  published  at  a  price  that  will  enable  most 
readers  to  secure  a  copy.  L.  N.  R.  has  done  a  service  to  Biblical 
students  and  to  the  Church  at  large,  of  which  we  cannot  speak  too 
highly.  Our  prayers  arise  that  this  book  may  penetrate  the  heavy  ears 
of  scepticism,  and  cause  many  to  fall  down  upon  their  knees  before 
Gtod,  and  exclaim,  'Thy  Word  is  Truth.'  "—The  Church  Standard. 


OPINIONS   OP   THE    PRESS. 

"  The  author  has  furnished  us  with  hundreds  of  remote  and  un- 
designed coincidences  with  the  sacred  narrative,  from  many  sources — 
the  men  of  Nineveh  are  risen  in  judgment  to  condemn  incredulity. 
The  book  is  quite  a  treasury  of  illustrative  Old  Testament  com- 
mentary."— TJie  Patriot, 

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should  procure  at  once." — The  Sword  and  the  Trowel. 

"  We  cordially  thank  the  author  for  this  volume ;  a  Christian 
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monies ;  a  sceptic  reading  it  cannot  but  find  his  unbelief  shaken,  and  a 
prepossession,  to  say  no  more,  created  in  favour  of  the  historical 
accuracy  of  Scripture." — The  Quarterly  Journal  of  Prophecy. 

"The  work  appears  to  me  compiled  with  conscientious  care." — 
Letter  from  Austen  Henry  Layard. 

"  We  might,  as  Jews,  have  perceived  in  this  volume  sundry  faults, 
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the  sake  of  the  light  which  the  work  throws  on  many  obscure  passages 
of  the  Word  of  God.  We  are  pleased  to  hear  that  a  second  edition  of 
'Stones  Crying  Out '  is  about  to  appear,  for  it  is  an  able  presentation  of 
most  of  the  discoveries  made  within  the  last  few  years  by  the  explorers 
of  the  East  as  far  as  they  are  connected  with  the  Bible.  The  book  is 
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exclusion  of  extraneous  matter,  all  those  portions  of  the  volumes  to 
which  it  refers,  that  have  a  bearing  on  Scripture,  and  saving  the  Biblical 
student  the  trouble  of  picking  out  his  own  materials.  We  recommend 
the  publication  to  the  attention  of  our  readers,  hoping  they  will  derive 
from  its  perusal  as  much  satisfaction  and  information  as  we  did." — The 
Jewish  Chronicle. 


EDITED  BY  THE  SAME  AUTHOR. 
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BAXTER. — The   Dying  Thoughts   of  the   Eev.  Kichard 

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and  reasonableness  of  believing  that  pious  separate  spirits  are  with  Christ. — 
Why  it  is  far  better  to  be  with  Christ.  The  author  breathes  after  willingness  to 
depart.  Is. 

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By  ABRAHAM  BOOTH.  Is.  6d. 

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DYER. — Christ's  Famous  Titles,  and  a  Believer's  Golden 

Chain.    Also  a  Cabinet  of  Jewels ;  or,  a  Glimpse  of  Sion's  Glory.    Together 
.  with  Christ's  Voice  to  London ;  or,  a  Call  to  Sinners.   By  Rev.  W.  DXEB.   Is.  6d. 

FLAVEL. — The  Touchstone  of  Sincerity; 

or,  the  Signs  of  Grace  and  Symptoms  of  Hypocrisy.    By  Rev.  J.  FLAVEL.    8d. 

FULLER. — The  Gospel  its  own  Witness ; 

or,  the  Holy  Nature  and  the  Divine  Harmony  of  Christian  Religion  Contrasted 
with  the  immorality  and  Absurdity  of  Deism.  By  the  Rev.  A.  FULLEB.  ls.4d. 

FULLER. — An  Inquiry  into  the  Nature,  Symptoms,  and 

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GOUGE. — The  Faith  of  Dying  Jacob. 

By  the  Rev.  R.  GOUGB.    Is. 

GROSVENOR. — The  Mourner ; 

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HALL. — The  Balm  of  Gilead ; 

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WORKS  ON  DIVINITY — continued. 
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to  Doctrinal,  Experimental,  and  Practical  Religion.  By  ROBEBT  HALL.  Is.  6d. 

HENRY. — Directions  for  Daily  Communion  with  God: 

Showing  How  to  Begin,  How  to  Spend,  and  How  to  Close,  every  day  with  God. 
A  New  Edition.  By  the  Rev.  MATTHEW  HENBY.  Is. 

HENRY. — A  Discourse  Concerning  Meekness  and  Quiet- 
ness of  Spirit.    By  the  Rev.  MATTHEW  HBNBV.    Is. 

HEYWOOD. — Christ  Displayed  as  the  Best  Master. 

By  NATHANIEL  HEYWOOD.    IB. 

HEYWOOD. — Christ  Displayed  as  the  Choicest  Gift. 

By  NATHANIEL  HEYWOOD.    Is. 

HILL. — The  deep  things  of  God. 

A  New  Edition.    By  Sir  RICHABD  HILL,  Bart.    Is. 

HOGG. — Personal  Religion  Briefly  Explained  and  Ear- 
nestly Recommended.    By  KBYNOLD  HOGG.    Is. 

HOWE. — A  Treatise  on  Delighting  in  God. 

By  the  Rev.  JCHN  HOWE.    2s. 

HOWE. — The  Redeemer's  Tea»s  Wept  over  Lost  Souls. 

With  an  Appendix,  wherein  somewhat  is  occasionally  discoursed  concerning  the 
Blasphemy  against  the  Holy  Ghost ;  and  how  God  is  said  to  will  the  Salvation 
of  them  that  perish.  By  JOHN  HOWE.  With  Memoir.  Is. 

HOWE. — The  Living  Temple ; 

or,  a  Designed  Improvement  of  the  Idea  that  a  Good  Man  is  the  Temple  of  God. 
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JONES. — The  Catholic  Doctrine  of  a  Trinity 

Proved  by  a  hundred  short  and  clear  arguments,  expressed  in  the  terms  of  Holy 
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From  the  beginning  of  the  world  to  the  present  day,  in  an  apt  and  pleasant 
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MASON. — The  Believer's  Pocket  Companion. 

By  WILLIAU  MASON.    Is. 

PHILIPS. — Death  Destroyed ; 

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HOWE. — Devout  Exercises  of  the  Heart : 

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SCOTT. — Memoir  of  the  Rev.  Thos.  Scott. 

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Successor  to  "THE   BOOK  AND  ITS  MISSIONS." 


MONTHLY,    PRICE    THREEPENCE. 

THE  MISSING  LINK  MAGAZINE 

OB, 

BIBLE-WORK  AT  HOME  AND  ABROAD, 

EDITED    BY 

L.    K    R., 

Author  of  "  The  Book  and  its  Story,"  "  The  Missing  Link," 
and  "  Stones  Crying  Out." 


THIS  Magazine,  while  it  contains  monthly  many  FOREIGN  articles,  must  especially 
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The  Mission  commences  with  the  offer  of  the  Bible  for  purchase  by  small  instal- 
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something  more  like  homes. 

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The  number  of  Bible  Women  employed  at  this  time  in  London  is  200,  at  a  salary  of 
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and  £10,000  a  year  are  required  to  carry  on  the  work  in  its  present  efficiency,  while 
desirable  fields  for  extending  such  operations  in  the  Metropolis  still  lie  around  almost 
everywhere,  and  would  of  course  require  a  still  larger  capital. 

While  each  Mission  is  in  most  respects  self-governing,  and,  wherever  possible,  self- 
sustaining,  each  one  agrees  to  pay  in  its  funds,  and  give  account  of  its  expenditure 
to  a  Central  Organization,  which  administers  capital,  arranges  for  social  meetings, 
and  helps  each  district  in  time  of  need,  giving  an  annual  account  of  moneys  expended 
in  the  periodical  above  named,  "  The  Missing  Link  Magazine,"  on  the  cover  of  which 
will  also  be  found  the  monthly  record  of  voluntary  Subscriptions  and  Donations  to 
these  Missions. 

Donations  for  the  support  of  this  work  have  all  come  spontaneously,  and  to  the 
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Superintendents  of  the  Bible  Women  have  received  from  their  Mothers'  Classes,  of 
formerly  drunken  and  degraded  women,  the  sum  of  nearly  £30,000,  for  the  purchase 
of  decent  clothing  and  bedding,  besides  £5,000,  for  about  50,000  copies  of  Holy 
Scripture,  the  generous  grant  to  their  Mission  of  the  BRITISH  AND  FOREIGN  BIBLE 
SOCIETY. 


LONDON  :  THE  BOOK  SOCIETY,  19,  PATEBNOSTEK  KOW. 


Illustrated  Magazine  for  distribution  at 


PRICE    ONE    PENNY,    MONTHLY. 

THE  MOTHERS'  TREASURY 

CONTAINING 

Interesting  Articles— Truthful  and  Striking  Narratives— Incidents 
of  Home  Influence— Exhortations  to  Cleanliness  and  Order— Sug- 
gestions for  Promoting  Peace  and  Harmony— Counsels,  Maxims, 
and  other  Sound  Eeligious  Teaching  for  the  Homes  of  the 
People. 

Also  many  useful  hints  on  Household  Management— Advice  in  the 
choice  of  Food— Cheapest  and  best  modes  of  Cooking— Directions 
for  the  Preservation  of  Health— Rules  for  Seasons  of  Sickness- 
Prescriptions  for  times  of  Accident  and  Danger— and  other  valu- 
able information  in  Domestic  Economy. 


"  It  Is  indeed  worthy  of  Its  name.  Mothers  would  find  here  useful  hints  for 
the  management  of  their  children."— GospeZ  Magazine. 

"  The  Mothers'  Treasury  contains  many  interesting  articles  on  home  In- 
fluence, hints  on  household  management,  and  much  anecdotal  and  other 
valuable  information  in  domestic  economy.  This  amazingly  cheap  Magazine 
has  our  best  wishes  for  its  success." — City  Press. 

"  The  Mothers'  Treasury  is  a  most  excellent  magazine  to  be  given  to  young 
Mothers,  to  be  read  at  Mothers'  Meetings,  and  to  lie  near  the  hand  of  Mothers 
who  can  snatch  but  moments  for  reading  from  the  cares  of  a  family.  All  its 
papers  are  good,  some  highly  excellent,  and  it  is  well  got  up."— Nonconformist. 

"  Of  the  numbers  before  us  we  can  speak  In  terms  of  unqualified  praise.  Its 
essays,  sketches,  tales,  and  poetry  are  all  good.  It  cannot  fail  to  become  a 
welcome  visitor  in  thousands  of  homes."— Christian  World. 


LONDON  : 
THE    BOOK    SOCIETY,    19,    PATERNOSTER    ROW, 

AND   BAZAAR,    SOHO    SQUARE. 
SOLD      BY      ALL,      BOOKSELLERS. 


MONTHLY,    PRICE    THREEPENCE. 


THE 


/e&zi^'        -|  9/^mJ^ 

pdaySaclersfreasu 


A    MAGAZINE 
CONTAINING 

MATERIALS    READY    FOR    USE. 


The  "  TREASURY  "  is  the  only  Magazine  of  its  kind.  It  is  purely  Evangelical 
in  its  teaching,  and  has  had  a  large  circulation  for  several  years  among  Super- 
intendents and  Teachers  in  Schools  connected  with  all  Denominations. 


The  following  outline  of  Contents  will  show  that  the  Treasury  forms  an  invalu- 
able Book  of  Reference  for  all  persons  interested  in  Sabbath-School  work,  or  in 
any  way  engaged  in  the  religious  instruction  of  the  young.  It  contains  48  pages, 
divided  into  ten  sections,  as  under : — 


1.  Leading    Articles— on   various 

systems  of  teaching ;  plans  for  the 
management  of  Schools;  and  other 
important  subjects. 

2.  Readings    in    Biography— in 

which  the  Life  and  Character  of 
eminent  Men  and  distinguished 
Teachers  are  portrayed. 

3.  Scripture  Illustrations— being 

clear  and  simple  Expositions  and 
brief  Comments  on  Scripture  Types, 
Figures,  Emblems,  &c.  (exceed- 
ingly useful  to  a  Teacher). 

4.  Lessons  for   Infants.— In   this 

section  four  lessons,  prepared  ex- 
pressly for  the  very  little  ones,  are 
given  in  detail  each  month. 

5.  Lessons  for  Junior  Classes.— 

These  lessons  (four  in  number)  are 
adapted  for  scholars  from  eight  to 
twelve  years  of  age. 


6. 


Lessons  for  Senior  Classes.— 
In  this  section  four  lessons  are  in- 
serted, prepared  with  special  care, 
for  the  Bible  Classes. 


7.  Outlines   of  Addresses.— This 

section  is  intended  to  assist  Sun- 
day-School Visitors  and  others 
who  have  occasionally  to  give  an 
address  to  the  whole  school. 

8.  Teachers  in  Council.— This  is  a 

favourite  section  of  the  Magazine. 
It  contains  an  account  of  a  Monthly 
Meeting  of  Teachers  (the  Editor 
presiding),  where  all  questions 
suggested  by  the  readers  of  the 
"Treasury"  are  fully  discussed. 
Through  this  medium,  Teachers  in 
all  parts  of  the  country  correspond 
with  each  other,  and  communicate 
facts  and  ideas  on  any  subject  con- 
nected with  their  work. 

9.  Reviews  and  Critical  Notices. 

— Here  the  Editor  gives  an  impar- 
tial judgment  on  all  .works  of  an 
Educational  character. 

10.  Miscsllaneous    Gleanings.— 
Poetry,     Anecdotes,     Similitudes, 
&c.,  adapted  to  illustrate  Lessons 
and  Addresses. 


PUBLISHING  OFFICE  :— THE  BOOK  SOCIETY,  19,  PATERNOSTER  Row,  LONDON. 
Sold  "by  all  Booksellers. 


A    CHOICE    EDITION    OF 


BUNYAN'S  PILGRIM'S  PROGRESS, 


VERY  LARGE   TYPE, 

ILLUSTRATED  WITH 

OF  DFO:RTY 


Stroiigly  and  handsomely  bound,  price  Five  Shillings. 


SPECIMEN   OF  PRINT. 

they  also  here  did  eat  and  drink, 
and  make  merry,  for  that  they  had 
gotten  deliverance  from  this  so 
dangerous  an  enemy.  As  they  sat 
thus,  and  did  eat,  Christiana  asked 
the  guide  if  he  had  caught  no  hurt 


This  issue  of  Bunyan's  Work  is  known  as  "  THE  BOOK  SOCIETY'S 
EDITION,"  and  must  be  asked  for  under  that  title. 


"  The  special  excellencies  of  the  Book  Society's  edition  of  the  matchless 
allegory  of  Bunyan  consist  in  its  typography  and  pictorial  illustrations. 
It  is  printed  in  a  fine,  bold,  and  remarkably  clear  type — one  of  the  largest 
that  has  ever  issued  from  the  press,  In  these  days  at  least.  The  plates  are 
well  chosen,  and  possess  a  good  deal  of  character.  Altogether  this  is  one 
of  the  best  issues  of  Bunyan's  immortal  work  which  we  have  seen.  To 
weak  or  old  eyes  it  would  be  a  treasure  Indeed  :  nor  will  it  be  less  attrac- 
tive to  the  young."— Record. 


LONDON : 
THE    BOOK    SOCIETY,    19,    PATEENOSTEE    EOW, 


AND  BAZAAR,  SOHO  SQUARE. 


THE  BOOK  SOCIETY'S  PUBLICATIONS, 


Extra  Work  of  a  London  Pastor. 

A  collection  of  Lectures  and  Papers.  By  Eev.  SAMUEL  MABTIN, 
of  Westminster.  Crown  8vo,  cloth,  3s.  6d. 

The  same  Work,  on  superfine  paper,  in  superior  binding,  gilt  edges, 
with  illuminated  Frontispiece  and  Title,  5s. 

The  Sunday  Teachers'  Treasury. 

An  invaluable  Book  of  Reference  for  Teachers,  Tutors,  Gover- 
nesses, Parents,  and  Managers  of  Schools.  572  pages,  with 
copious  index.  Crown  8vo,  neatly  bound  in  cloth,  4s. 

This  work  contains  interesting  Articles,  Notes  of  Lessons,  Outlines  of 
Addresses,  Sketches  in  Biography,  Scripture  Illustrations,  Similitudes, 
Anecdotes,  Emblems,  Pacts,  Figures,  Poetry,  Reviews,  etc.,  etc. 

Cottage  Readings  in  Genesis. 

Crown  8vo,  cloth  boards,  4s. 

"This  volume  is  just  what  it  professes  to  be — Readings  adapted  for 
Cottage  Lectures,  Mothers'  Meetings,  etc.  It  makes  no  pretensions  to 
originality,  and  yet  it  is  marked  alike  by  variety  and  freshness.  The 
style  is  simple  and  homely,  the  doctrine  sound  and  Evangelical,  and  no 
opportunity  is  lost  of  explaining,  enforcing,  and  illustrating  the  great 
truths  of  the  gospel." — Record. 


Pretty  Picture  Book. 


Royal  quarto.     Full  of  Pictures  and  Attractive  Reading  for  very 
little  Children.     In  beautiful  illuminated  chromo-litho  cover,  3s. 

"  This  book  is  certainly  one  of  the  merriest,  liveliest,  prettiest,  and 
most  cheerful  companions  for  very  young  children.  It  contains  no  less 
than  182  engravings  of  good  size,  all  on  subjects  of  special  interest  to 
children,  and  all  made  increasingly  valuable  by  descriptive  letter-press 
articles,  neatly  printed  on  tinted  paper,  and  in  first-rate  style.  The 
illuminated  cover  ia  really  handsome." — Wesleyan  Times. 


Away  from  Home ; 


or,  Sights  and  Scenes  in  other  Lands.     By  the  Author  of  "  Buy 
an  Orange,  Sir  ?"     With  Illustrations.     In  Magenta  cloth,  2s. 

"  It  is  a  pleasant  story  of  travels  in  pleasant  lands,  specially  prepared 
for  the  young,  and  very  well  adapted  to  effect  the  purpose  mentioned  in 
the  preface  ;  namely,  '  to  combine  pleasure  and  profit  by  giving  the 
young,  in  a  homely,  chatty  style,  some  interesting  information  as  to 
their  position  on  the  globe,  the  different  characteristics  of  many  lands, 
and  the  habits  and  manners  of  their  inhabitants." " — Bradford  Observer. 


THE  BOOK  SOCIETY'S  PUBLICATIONS. 


Ralph  Saunders ; 


or,  the  School-boy  Friends.     An  interesting  Tale.     Fcap.  8vo. 
With  Engravings  on  toned  paper.     Extra  cloth,  2s. 


The  Two  Lights : 


Reason  and  Revelation.  A  Narrative.  By  Rev.  W.  LEASK,  D.D. 
Fcap.  8vo,  cloth  boards,  2s. 

"  This  Is  pre-eminently  a  book  for  young  men,  and  a  masterly  caveat 
against  the  dangers  of  infidelity." — Christian  Witness. 

The  Mothers'  Treasury. 

A  volume  containing  Interesting  Articles,  Striking  Narratives, 
etc.,  adapted  for  reading  at  MOTHERS'  MEETINGS.  Upwards  of 
200  pages,  large  8vo,  with  forty  Engravings,  neatly  bound  in 
cloth  boards,  Is.  8d. 

"  This  is  a  most  excellent  volume  to  be  given  to  young  mothers,  to  be 
read  at  Mothers'  Meetings,  and  to  lie  near  the  hand  of  mothers  who  can 
snatch  but  moments  for  reading  from  the  cares  of  a  family.  All  its 
papers  are  good,  some  highly  excellent,  and  it  is  well  got  up." — Noncon- 
formist. 

Life :  its  Duties  and  Discipline. 

By  HETTY  BOWMAN,  author  of  "  Christian  Daily  Life,"  "  Our 
Village  Girls,"  etc.  180  pages.  Sixth  Thousand.  18mo,  cloth 
boards,  Is.  6d. 

Heart  Work. — Wayside  Work. — Religious  and  Social  Dissipation. — 
Separation  from  the  World. — Friendship  and  its  Responsibilities. — Re- 
deeming the  Time.— Sensitiveness.— The  Hidden  Cross.  These  are  the. 
subjects  of  the  several  chapters  in  this  little  volume,  addressed,  chiefly," 
to  young  females. 


Jesus  all  and  in  All. 

By  C.  R.  HOWELL.    With  Preface  by  Rev.  SAMUEL  MARTIN. 
Cloth,  Is.  6d. 

"  Simple,  clear,  and  forcible  in  style, — Evangelical  and  Catholic  in 
spirit,— rich  in  Christian  truth, — and  true  in  its  aim  at  usefulness,— we 
trust  that  the  book  will  be  widely  circulated,  and  that  it  will  be  read 
with  much  profit."— Extract  from  Preface. 


THE  BOOK  SOCIETY'S  PUBLICATIONS. 


Prayers  on  Scripture  Subjects; 

being  a  selection  of  Scripture  Daily  Readings  for  a  Year ;  with 
Family  Prayers  for  a  Month.  By  a  Clergyman  of  the  Church  of 
England.  Is.  Qd. 

Great  Condescension ; 

or,  My  best  Master.  A  Book  for  Servants.  By  one  of  them- 
selves. Edited  by  the  Author  of  "  Haste  to  the  Rescue."  18mo. 
With  Frontispiece.  Neatly  bound  in  bright  cloth,  Is. 

"  It  is  with  much  pleasure  I  have  responded  to  the  call  of  an  unknown 
brother  in  a  position  less  favoured  than  my  own,  to  help  him  in  bringing 
these  pages  before  the  public.  They  contain  the  outline  of  a  great  sub- 
ject— Christ  our  example — in  one  particular  aspect,  His  condescension, 
'  He  took  upon  Him  the  form  of  a  servant.'  "—Extract  from  the  Preface. 

Ruth  Alan; 

or,  the  Two  Homes.  A  Book  for  Mothers.  By  the  Author  of 
"  Bob,  the  Crossing  Sweeper,"  and  "  Margy  and  her  Feather." 
Cloth,  Is. 

This  Tale  first  appeared  in  the  pages  of  "  The  Mothers'  Treasury," 
and  was  exceedingly  popular. 

Seventy  Short  Prayers, 

with  a  Text  of  Scripture  prefixed  to  each,  for  the  use  of  the 
Young.  By  a  Clergyman's  Wife.  Cloth,  Is. 

Father  Reeves, 

the  Methodist  Class  Leader.  A  brief  account  of  Mr.  William 
Reeves,  thirty-four  years  a  Class  Leader  in  the  Wesleyan  Me- 
thodist Society.  By  EDWARD  CORDEROY.  New  Edition.  18mo, 
limp  cloth,  8d. ;  cloth  boards,  circuit  edges,  Is. 

This  book  was  first  published  about  twelve  years  ago.  Several  thou- 
sand copies  were  sold  in  England, — a  very  much  larger  number  in 
America. 

The  book  has  been  "  out  of  print"  for  some  time,  and  repeated  appli- 
cations for  it  have  induced  the  compiler  to  offer  to  the  public  a  new  and 
revised  edition. 


THE  BOOK  SOCIETY'S  PUBLICATIONS. 


SERIES  OF  SHILLING  BOOKS  FOR  THE  YOUNG, 


Allen  White  -. 

the  Country  Lad  in  Town. 

A  Mother's  Lessons  to  her 

Little  Ones  about  Jesus. 

Bob,  the  Crossing  Sweeper. 

A  Book  for  Boys.    By  the  Author  of 
"  Margy  and  her  Feather." 

Buy  an  Orange,  Sir  ? 

or,  the  History  of  Jamie  Woodford. 

Don't  Say  So ! 

or,  You  may  be  Mistaken.    By  the 
Author  of  "  Buy  an  Orange,  Sir  ?" 


Margy  and  her  Feather. 

A  book  for  Girls.  By  the  Author  of 
"  Bob,  the  Crossing  Sweeper." 

Our  Village  Girls. 

By  HETTY  BOWMAN,  Author  of 
"Life:  its  Duties  and  Discipline," 
"  Christian  Daily  Life,"  &c. 

Sunny  Scenes ; 

or,  Continental  Rambles  among  Men 
and  Mountains.  By  Rev.  R.  ROBIN- 
SON. 

Tales  of  the  Martyrs. 

By  Rev.  B.  H.  COWPER. 


»»*  The  above  works  are  uniform  in  size  and  style,  illustrated  with  engravings  on 
toned  paper,  and  neatly  bound  in  bright-coloured  cloth. 


IBOOKIS. 


Daily  Gleam  from  the  Lamp  of  Life. 

A  neat  little  Text  Book  for  every  Day  in  the  Year.    64mo,  cloth,  gilt  edges,  4d. 

In  presenting  this  little  work  to  the  public,  the  author  is  well  aware  that 
she  is  increasing  an  already  numerous  supply  of  text  books  ;  yet  she  humbly 
hopes  this  added  one  may  also  be  acceptable,  by  furnishing,  in  so  small  a 
space,  a  powerful  Scripture  evidence  upon  twelve  of  the  most  important 
and  vitally  interesting  subject*  that  can  engage  the  Christian  mind.  May 
the  Lord,  whose  Word  it  is,  be  pleased  to  vouchsafe  a  blessing  with  it! 

Good  Night! 

A  Text  Book  for  every  Evening  in  the  Year.  Complied  by  Rev.  SAMUEL  MABTIN. 
G 11710.  cloth,  gilt  edges,  6d. 

"  Good-night,  dear  Papa,"  said  little  Howard  to  his  father, "  and  will  you 
give  me  a  text?"  Howard's  father  gave  him  a  text,  and  has  continued  to 
do  so  whenever  he  has  been  at  home,  and  able  to  say  "Good-night"  to  his 
little  boy. 

When  little  Howard  lay  sick  of  a  fever,  his  father  derived  unspeakable 
satisfaction  from  the  knowledge  that  God's  word  had,  by  this  and  by  other 
means,  been  hid  in  his  infant  heart. 

S.M. 

Pearls  from  the  Ocean. 

A  Text  Book  designed  to  assist  a  serious  and  devout  Christian  in  committing  to 
memory  one  short  Text  of  Holy  Writ  every  day,  so  that  in  twelve  months  he  may 
be  in  possession  of  365  precious  and  beautiful  Pearls.  128mo,  paper  covers,  M. ; 
roan  covers,  4d. 

Titles  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour. 

A  Sunday  Text  Book,  suggesting  a  profitable  subject  for  prayerful  meditation 
during  the  week.  rJ8mo,  paper  covers,  Id. ;  roan  covers,  4d. 


Butler  *  1  anner,  Printers,  Fromc,  and  42,  Patei  m  rter  Row,  London,  E.G.