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THE ETHNOLOGY OF THE BIBLE.

Palestine continued as they had been since the Israelitish conquest; Tyre and Sidon remained independent, and tribute was paid by the "people that were left of the Amorites. Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites": (1 Kings ix. 20, 21).

(a) The Medes.-The Aryan MEDES, as distinguished from the old Turanian inhabitants of the country (Magi, &c.), first became known to the Assyrians in Si B.C when they were moving westward, but were still east of the Par'suas or Parthians. Before B.C. 790, however, they had settled in Media Rhagiana (8. shores of the Caspian). One of these Aryan Medic tribes had taken a

Egypt was considered to belong to Asia rather than to Africa. From its division into Upper and Lower came the name MIZRAIM, "the two Matsors", Matsor being properly "the fortification" which defended the country on the Asiatic side. Linguistically, and to a certain extent physiologically, the Egyptians are allied to the Berbers, Moors, and other races of Northern Africa, but the re- III. THE PERIOD OF THE BABYLONISH CAPTIVITY. lation of the latter to the Semitic race is still a vexed-As it was towards the west that the geographical question. Many leading philologists regard the Egyp-knowledge of the Israelites became extended in the age | tian and Libyan languages as distant cousins of the of David, so it was towards the north and east that it was Semitic idioms. The Delta was occupied from an early extended in the age of the exile. The Aryan peoples of period by Semitic tribes, who gradually spread south- Greece, Asia Minor, and Persia now came within their ward. The Egyptian was tall, spare, and broad-shouldered, geographical horizon. with long hands and feet, thick lips, copper skin, and little beard-a type still represented by the fellaheen of to-day. Among the inhabitants of Egypt (Gen. x. 13, 14) are reckoned the LUDIM or Rudu, the Egyptians proper; the Anamim, perhaps the prehistoric founders of On of the North (Heliopolis) and On of the South (Hermonthis): the Lehabim or Libyans settled in Egypt; the Naptuhim of No-Phthah, north of Memphis; the Path-southward direction, and under the name of PERSIANS rusim of Peto-res (Pathros), "the southern land" of Sais, or Upper Egypt (Isa. xi. 11); the Casluhim, or coastmen, and the Phenician Caphtorim of the Delta. South of Egypt came Ethiopia or CUSH with its semi-negroid population, which, after being several times overrun by the Egyptian princes, was finally made an Egyptian province in the time of the eighteenth dynasty. SEBA or Meroe was its chief town; but in Gen. x. 7 there are further counted among the descendants of Cush Havilah, perhaps Aualeites, opposite the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb, SHEBA or Saba in Arabia Felix (placed among the descendants of Keturah, Gen. xxv. 3), and other Arabian districts.

II. THE PERIOD OF THE DAVIDIC EMPIRE. - The empire of David extended from Egypt to the Euphrates. It included all Aram or Syria properly so called (on the west of the Euphrates); Aram-Naharaim or Mesopotamia tending to become Naharaim simply. Syria was called 'Subarti or Khubur, both meaning "Highlands", by the primitive Babylonians. The Egyptian name seems to have been Rutenu. ARAM, "the Highlands", was divided into a number of small principalities --Aram of Damascus (1 Sam. viii. 5, 6), Aram of Maachah and Geshur (1 Chron. xix. 6; 2 Sam. xv. 8), Aram of Beth-Rehob (2 Sam. x. 6), and Aram of Zobah (2 Sam. x. 6, 8). The latter bordered on the Euphrates, but the conquests of its king Hadadezer had extended its boundaries as far 8. as Damascus. Hamath formed a separate kingdom, and the Hittites had been pushed towards the north-east and their capital Carchemish.

Tarshish, Ophir, and the "isles of the Gentiles". Intercourse with TYRE had acquainted the Israelites with the white-skinned full-bearded Aryan race of Europe and the dark-skinned Dravidian race of Western India TARSHISH, to which Solomon's ships traded, is probably the Spanish Tartessus, though it has also been identified with Carthage, the Tyrrhenians of S. Italy, and even with Tarsus. We hear of Jews sold to Javan, or the Greeks (Joel iii. 6), and the Greek seas had long been traversed by Phoenician ships. Cyprus, called CHITTIM from the city of Kitium, was a Phoenician colony, like Rhodes, which is perhaps meant by the Dodanim or Rodanim of Gen. x. 4. Knobel, however, identifies the latter with the Dardani of the Troad or plain of Troy. The first Greek tribes known to the Semitic nations were the Ionians or JAVAN, by which name the Greeks generally were known throughout the East; and Cyprus itself was called Yavnan, the island of "the Ionians" by the Assyrians. The names of the objects brought from OPHIR (1 Kings x. 11, 22) not only show that it was Abhira at the mouth of the Indus, but that it was inhabited by a people speaking a Dravidian language allied to the modern Tamil. Thuciyyim, "peacocks", is not the Sanskrit 'sikhin, but the Tamil tokei (see Vinson, Revue de Linguistique, vi., p. 120, 1873). The relative positions of the tribes settled in and about

had occupied a district on the south-east of Elam in the 8th century B.C. Under Cyaxares a Median empire was formed which pushed its conquests far to the west, and overthrew the Assyrian empire. Cyrus united the! Medes and Persians, conquered Babylon and Asia Minor, and made the Aryan race dominant throughout Western Asia.

(b) The Persians first appear in Isa. xxi. 2; xxii 6; comp. Jer. xlix 35. Susiania or ELAM, which had been almost depopulated by Sardanapalus (8.C. 640), was thoroughly Aryanised, and Shushan (Susa) made the Persian capital (Esther i. 2).

(c) The Nations of the Caucasus, Asia Minor, and Greece. Meanwhile, Assyrian conquest had brought the nations of the Caucasus within the geographical horizon of the civilized world. Already, about & C 1120, Tiglath-Pileser had overrun the Tublai (Tabaren:) and Muscai (Moschi), the TUBAL and MESHECH of the Bible, whose territories extended from the Black Sea to the Taurus, as well as Kummukh or Comagene, and part of Khilak or Cilicia. The ethnic affinities of these populations are doubtful; they may have belonged to the Alarodian stock, or to some other family now extinct. At all events, they were neither Semitic nor Aryan. The leading nation of Armenia were the Mizni or Mannai of Van, who have left us undeciphered inscriptions, and were probably Alarodian. The present Aryan population of Armenia did not enter the country before the 7th century B.C., when they followed in the track of the Medes. Before their arrival Armenia was divided into the two kingdoms of Minni and Ararat, the latter lying to the north-west (Jer. li. 27), both of which are often mentioned on the Assyrian monuments. Jeremiah associates the kingdom of ASHKENAZ, perhaps the Axeinos, or Black Sea, with Ararat and Minni; in Gen x. 3, Ashkenaz is enumerated among the sons of GOMER. Now Gomer is the Gimirrai of the Assyrian inscriptions, the Kimmerii of the Greeks, who represent the Sakai or Scyths of the Persian texts, and were almost certainly Aryans. They had been driven from their seats on the Tyras or Dniester by the nomad Scyths shortly before the first unsuccessful siege of Nineveh by Cyaxares, and while Psammetichus was king of Egypt (Hdt. i. 103–106: iv. 11, 12). In 677 B.C. they were already in Khupuska (north of Armenia) under a chief Teuspa or Teispes when defeated by Esar-haddon and driven westward After sacking Sinopê, they overran Lydia, and in 665 B.C. Gugu or Gyges, king of Lydia, the GOG of the O. T., sent two of their chiefs as a present to Nineveh. Gyges was afterwards slain in battle with them, but his name became in the East a representative of the nations of Assa Minor, just as in the West the name of Sardanapalus represented Assyria. MAGOG, over which Gogor Gyges ruled (Ezek. xxxviii. 2), is probably Mat-Gugu, "land of Gyges," a synonyme of LUD (Luddi) or Lydia The

THE ETHNOLOGY OF THE BIBLE.

Lydians were Aryan, and their language, like the other Western Asia. It included also such non-Aryan popuAryan languages of Asia Minor, belonged to the Euro-lations as the Ligurians of Northern Italy and the pean and not to the Asiatic branch of the Aryan family. Sardanapalus states that the very name of Lydia was unknown at Nineveh before the embassy of Gyges in 665 B.C.; and we must therefore identify the LUD of Gen. x. 22, who is made a son of Shem, with the Rutenu or Syrians of the Egyptian monuments. Perhaps both Lot and Lotan (Gen. xxxvi. 20) are to be compared, while Knobel refers to the Arab Laud, the ancestor of the Amalekites and other prehistoric tribes. On the other hand, LUD would be Lydia in Isa. Ixvi. 19, and perhaps Ezek. xxvii. 10; xxx. 5. The "ISLES" of the Greek Sea are represented as the allies of the Lydian Croesus in Isa. xli. 5, 6; they are sometimes termed "the isles of the Gentiles" (as in Gen. x. 5), and in Ezek. xxvii. 7, "the isles of Elishah". Elishah is pretty certainly Hellas, the Greek mainland, visited from an early period by Phonicían merchants. According to Gen. x. 4, Elishah was a son of Javan, along with Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim. It is doubtful whether the three "sons" of Gomer, Ashkenaz, Riphath and Togarmah (Gen. x. 3), are to be regarded as Aryan or Alarodian, since the expression merely denotes their geographical position in regard to the Kimmerii. At all events, TOGARMAH would probably be Alarodian if Dr. Fr. Delitzsch is right in identifying it with the Tul-Garmi of the Assyrian inscriptions, which was situated in Melitene, i.e. the extreme east of Cappadocia. Neighbours of the Ashkenaz on the Black Sea were the Sapardai (Sepharad in Ob. 20), who are described in a late Assyrian inscription as combining with the Medes and Kimmerians in the invasion which ended in the destruction of Nineveh.

(d) Egypt.-In Egypt the population had undergone several changes. An Ethiopian dynasty had ruled over the country, the Semites of the Delta had intermingled with the natives, and the land had been overrun and conquered by the Assyrians. The African Cush became well known to the Jews, and the black skin of the ETHIOPIAN was recognised as marking him off from the fairer races of the North (Jer. xiii. 23).

(e) India and China.-Tiglath-Pileser II. (B. C. 745727) had carried his arms across Sagartia (Zikruti) and Arachosia (Arakuttu) to the frontiers of India, which was thus opened up to the Semites of the West. Indeed, Von Bohlen has suggested that " the land of Ha-nod" (Gen. iv. 16) should really be Hind or India. It is even possible that the Chinese are mentioned under the name of SINIM in Isa. xlix. 12, since Thsin was the name of the great feudal empire in the west of China, established after the breaking up of the empire about 1100 B.C.

IV. THE TIME OF CHRIST AND HIS APOSTLES. The New Testament introduces us to the Roman world, comprising the Aryan races of Europe and Asia Minor, the Berber tribes of Northern Africa, the mixed population of Egypt, and the Semites of Carthage and

Basques of Spain, the latter of whom constitute a race
sui generis, generally termed Iberian. On the East it
touched upon the empire of the PARTHIANS, apparently
a Turanian or Finno-Tatar people. Among the Aryan
populations of Europe were included, besides Greeks and
Italians, Kelts, Teutons, and Thraco-Illyrians; while in
Asia the Aryan Armenians, who belonged rather to the
Asiatic than to the European section of the family.
formed part of the empire. The JEWS were scattered
over the whole world, which was divided, from the reli-
gious point of view, into Jew and GENTILE. Socially the
Greek division into Greek and barbarian was adopted,
though the Romans were also necessarily classed with
the Greeks (see Acts xxviii. 2). St. Paul, however, lays
down that God "hath made of one blood all nations of
men for to dwell on all the face of the earth" (Acts xvii.
26; comp. Deut. xxxii. 8), refuses to admit the distinction
between Jew and Gentile (Rom. x. 12), and derives all
mankind from the same forefather Adam (1 Cor. xv. 22),
though these statements must be taken rather in a reli-
gious than an ethnographical sense. The ethnology of
Palestine itself had undergone considerable change.
Judea, indeed, was inhabited by pure-blooded Jews,
though the Roman supremacy had introduced a small
number of Italians, and the rule of Herod may have
brought with it Idumean settlers. The population of
SAMARIA, however, consisted mainly of foreign ele-
ments, imported from Hamath, Babylonia, and Elam by
the Assyrian kings (2 Kings xvii. 24; Ezra iv. 9, 10), inter-
mingled with the survivors of the Israelites and Canaan-
ites, and further enlarged by Greek and Latin colonists.
"GALILEE of the Gentiles" in the north was thickly peo-
pled with Greeks, Phoenicians, and Syrians, and the
Jewish portion of the community does not seem to have
been very large. On the eastern side of the Jordan
Jewish or Israelitish blood was still more rare.
great conquering civilizations of Babylonia, Persia,
Greece, and Rome, had, however, tended to destroy
local dialects and languages, and to spread three lan-
guages-Aramaic, Greek, and Latin-throughout the
known world. Here and there, no doubt, the old dia-
lects still struggled on, as in GALATIA or Lycaonia (see
Acts xiv. 11), and beyond the Roman dominion Persian
and other tongues were widely spoken. But the intro-
duction of universal languages, together with the belief
of the Greek that every other tongue but his own was
"barbarous", had brought linguistic differences into pro-
minence, and occasioned that confusion between philo-
logy and ethnology which is even now not extinct. Race
and language were made convertible terms, and to speak a
"barbarous" tongue was to be a "BARBARIAN". Hence
dialectical differences were exaggerated, as in Acts ii.
9--11; and the Gospel was commanded to be preached
to "every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people"
(Rev. xiv. 6; op. Dan. iii. 4, &c.).

The

THE BIBLE AND THE MONUMENTS;

OR THE

HEBREWS IN THEIR RELATIONS WITH THE ORIENTAL MONARCHIES.

BY THE REV. A. H. SAYCE, M.A,

Queen's College, Oxford

N.B.-The dates below are those necessitated by the Assyrian Canon. See also the "Chronological Summary".

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cessive dynasties of kings and not by years. Of these 1. THE GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION OF PALESTINE must be carefully borne in mind, since it was this dynasties, Manetho, the Egyptian historian wo which brought the Israelites into contact with their flourished in the third century B.C., numbers thirty heathen neighbours, and in spite of the commands of dynasties from Menes to the second Persian conquest the Law and the protests of the Prophets, made them (B.c. 340), occupying 5528 years. But Egyptian scholars are not yet agreed as to whether or not some of these fall so readily under the influence of foreign customs and beliefs. Palestine stands midway between the dynasties are to be regarded as contemporaneous. Egyptian history is usually divided into the three two great powers of the ancient world, the empires of ASSYRIA and BABYLONIA on the east, and the periods of the Old Empire, the Middle Empire, and the New Empire. (1) Under the Old Empire, ie, dynasties empire of EGYPT on the south-west. Whenever these powers came into collision with each other, i.-vi., MEMPHIS (Hos. ix. 6, elsewhere NOPH; was the Palestine was the chosen battle-field, while ARAM capital. To this period belong the pyramids, and a After the fall of the Old Empire came a was the inevitable scene of the wars and conquests higher perfection of art than was ever subsequently through which the two great empires of the East attained. The northern period of confusion, and probably foreign invadUO, oscillated towards each other. and then (2) under the xi and xii. dynasties Egypt was occupied by the part of Palestine itself Another period of No, i.e. Thebes in the south. PHOENICIANS, of the same race and language as the revived in the Middle Empire, with its capital st weakness followed, and after a time Egypt was inIsraelites, and therefore all the more likely to influence The Phoenicians were them for good or for evil. vaded by swarms of wandering strangers from Asia, the most important relics left of the old Canaanite inknown as the Hyksos or shepherds, who established habitants of the country, and they were pre-eminently a commercial people, with their cities, Tyre, Sidon, themselves in northern Egypt at Zoan, or Tanis, and Avaris, while the native princes still continued to rais in the south. It would seem that the visits of AzRAGebal or Byblos, &c., on the sea-coast, and their merchantmen trading to the furthest limits of the known HAM, JOSEPH, and JACOB to Egypt must be placed world. Eastward of the Israelites came the kindred tribes of Moab, Ammon and Edom, as well as the during the occupation of the country by the Hyksos Midianites, the Ishmaelites, the Kedarites, and other kings. The latter would have been of the same Semitic race as themselves, and therefore predisposed wandering and lawless Bedouins who occupied the to give them a favourable reception. But at last "there desert of northern and central Arabia. Next to the arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Phoenicians, however, the Egyptians with their The Hyksos were driven out, and a native Joseph". most influence exercised venerable civilisation over the Israelites. This was owing partly to their prince ruled from one end of Egypt to the other. The New Empire was constituted by the xviii. and close proximity, partly to the fact that Palestine had xix. dynasties, who restored Egypt to its early power once formed a portion of the Egyptian empire and and splendour, conquered Palestine, and overran been garrisoned by Egyptian soldiers, partly to the superior culture of the ancient monarchy of the Nile. Mesopotamia. The Israelites were associated with the Hyksos, whom the Egyptians naturally regarded It was only in the later period of Hebrew history that with the most bitter hatred, and that series of oppres- ! first Assyria and afterwards Babylonia and Persia took sions was accordingly begun which ended with the the place of Egypt. The Assyrians extended their EXODUS. Probably this took place in the time of conquests to the shores of the Mediterranean, and carried the Ten Tribes into captivity (B.C. 721); the Baby- the xix. dynasty, two of whose kings bore the name of Rameses, like one of the treasure cities built by the Islonians overthrew the Jewish kingdom and led the Jews raelites (RAAMSES, Er. i. 11). A short time before, the into exile, and the Persians not only included Palestine PHILISTINES, Phoenician tribes settled in CAPETOR in their dominions, but conquered Egypt as well. or the Delta, had been established as a sort of Egyptian outpost in the five cities of southern Pa lestine; but Palestine itself had become independent of Egypt. The conquest of the Canaanites by the Israelites under JOSHUA was probably facilitated by the losses they had suffered in their struggles with Egypt After the close of the xix. dynasty, Egypt once more fell into decay, and the high-priests of Amun at The bes usurped the regal power.-The Egyptian princess married by SOLOMON was apparently the daughter of a subordinate king who reigned at Tanis towards the But SHISHAK or Sheshonk L, ! end of this period. founder of the xxii. dynasty, restored Egypt's power. Early in his reign he received JEROBOAM, Solomon's 'adversary' (1 K. xi. 40), and later conquered REBORDAM and captured Jerusalem (1 K. xiv. 25, 26). An account of his conquests, with a list of the towns he had taken in both Judah and Israel,is inscribed on the outside of the S. wall of a temple at Karnak. Perhaps his successor, Osorkon I.,is the Biblical ZERAH : 2 Chr. xiv. 9. The xxv. dynasty was a foreign one, consisting of ETHIOPIANS

II. THE HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL RELATIONS OF EGYPT, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA, PERSIA, ARAM, AND THE PHOENICIANS, WITH THE ISRAELITES.

(a) EGYPT, the Biblical MIZRAIM, Mizraim being a dual form, meaning "the two Mazors" or "fortifications". These represented Lower and Upper Egypt, the latter being properly called PATHROS (Isa. xi. 11; land of the south"). Lower Egyptian, Pe-to-res, Egypt was Mazor, as in Isa. xix. 6, xxxvii. 25, where it is mistranslated "defence" and "besieged places", and was so called from the line of fortification which defended the country from the attack of its Asiatic neighbours on the east. Egypt is the oldest kingdom of which we know, though scholars have not yet settled the date to be assigned to Menes the founder of it. Mariette Bey makes it B.C. 5004; Brugsch Bey, B.C. 4400; Lepsius, B.C. 3892; Bunsen, B.C. 3648; Pessl, B.C. 3917; Poole and Renwick, B.C. 2700. These various views show how uncertain is the whole subject of Egyptian chronology, and oblige us to reckon by suc

THE BIBLE AND THE MONUMENTS.

The title of PHARAOH, given to the Egyptian sovereigns in the Bible, is the Egyptian per-aa, or "Great House"; a title which may be compared with that of the "Sublime Porte" or Gate.

who had conquered Egypt. One of these, Sabaco or decessors to be translated and edited. The kingdom So, made an alliance with Hoshea king of Israel; and of ASSYRIA, so called from its capital Assur (now another, TIRHAKAH, came ineffectually to the help of Kalah-Sherghat), was founded in the 17th century B.C., HEZEKIAH. In fact, it was under these Ethiopian rulers and soon became powerful enough to contend successthat Egypt first came into collision with ASSYRIA. fully against BABYLONIA, where BABYLON had now The Jewish kings turned to Egypt for alliance become the capital in the place of Ur. In 876 B.C., an and aid against the common foe, but, as the prophets Assyrian king named Assur-natsir-pal laid PHŒNICIA declared, Egypt was a "broken reed". Sabaco's sucunder tribute, and his son and successor, Shalmanecessor, Sabatok, was defeated at Raphia by SARGON in ser II, defeated BENHADAD of Damascus, and AHAB 720 B.C., Tirhakah was defeated at Eltakeh by SENNA- of Israel, with their allies, in a battle at Aroer. BenCHERIB in 701, and Egypt was finally conquered and hadad and his successor, HAZAEL, were weakened in a turned into an Assyrian province by ESAR-HADDON. series of campaigns, which accordingly allowed the It successfully revolted, however, under Psammeti- Israelites to gain advantages over the Syrians ( 1 Kin. chus I. of Sais, B.C. 660, and the wars of his suc-xx.). In 842 B.C. Shalmaneser states that he received cessors, NECHO and HOPHRA, or Apries, against tribute from "JEHU, son of Omri", and the Jewish BABYLONIA caused them to come into conflict with tribute-bearers are represented on a black marble Judæa, now a tributary state of the Babylonian obelisk, now in the British Museum. In 745 B.C., empire. JOSIAH was slain at Megiddo by Necho, when TIGLATH-PILESER II., an usurper, ascended the throne, the latter was on his march against Nebuchadnezzar the old line of Assyrian kings having ended with Assur(2 Kings xxiii. 29), and the Egyptian monarch nirari. In 742 B.C. we find Tiglath-pileser overthrowing subsequently deposed JEHOAHAZ, making JEHOIAKIM HAMATH, then allied with AZARIAH (Uzziah) king king in his stead, and laid the land under a tribute of of Judah, and in 738 receiving tribute from MENAHEM 100 talents of silver and one talent of gold. HOPHRA of Israel, and REZIN of Syria. Considerable difficulty sent an army to the assistance of ZEDEKIAH when is occasioned by the mention of "PUL, the king of Asattacked by NEBUCHADNEZZAR (Jer. xxxvii. 5, 7, 11), and syria" in 2 Kings xv. 19, as no such king is known to it was into Egypt that the Jews fled, carrying Jere- the Assyrian monuments, and the tribute said to have miah with them, after the murder of Gedaliah. been given to Pul is claimed by Tiglath-pileser to Hophra was deposed and put to death by his subjects, have been given to himself. Different explanations of and his successor, Amasis, had a long and prosperous the difficulty have been suggested; but perhaps it is reign. Hardly was he dead, however, before Egypt best to regard Pul as a corrupt reading for Tiglathwas invaded by Cambyses, king of Persia, and pil-eser. In 784 B.C. Tiglath-pileser states that he inreduced to the condition of a Persian province, vaded the PHILISTINES, and about the same time B.C. 525. received tribute from AHAZz, of Judah; conformably to what we read in 2 Kings xvi. 8. As he calls the king of Judah Jehoahaz, it would seem that the Biblical writer has dropped the sacred name which properly formed the first part of the name of Ahaz on account of the latter's wickedness. In return for the submission of Ahaz, Tiglath-pileser attacked Israel, and laid siege to Damascus, which he captured, B.C. 732. Rezin, its king, was put to death, and Syria became a province of the Assyrian empire. Three years afterwards Israel was overrun (2 Kings xv. 29), HоSHEA was appointed king of Samaria in the place of the murdered PEKAH, and a tribute of 10 talents of gold and 1000 talents of silver was exacted. B.C. 727 Tiglath-pileser was succeeded by SHALMANESER (IV.), who undertook the siege of Samaria in consequence of Hoshea's revolt. Before Samaria was taken, however, Shalmaneser died, and the throne was seized by Sargon (B.C. 721), who took the Israelitish capital, carrying 27,280 of the inhabitants into captivity. The rest were allowed to remain under the government of vassal kings appointed by the Assyrians. One of these kings, Menahem II., is mentioned by Sennacherib in 701 B.C.; another, Abi-baal, by Esar-haddon. About 665 B.C., the kings were replaced by a governor, which explains Isa. vii. 8. The change of government was probably in consequence of another revolt, which was suppressed by ESAR-HADDON, who carried away the remaining Israelites, and supplied their places with foreigners (see Ezra iv. 2). Perhaps the ASNAPPER of Ezra iv. 10 is Assur-bani-pal, or Sardanapalus, the son and successor of ESAR-HADDON. However this may be, Sargon (B.C. 721-704) laid all Palestine under tribute, and in 711 checked the formation of an alliance between MERODACH-BALADAN, k. of Babylon, on the one side, and HEZEKIAH with the Philistines, Edomites, Ammonites, Moabites, and Egyptians, on the other, by invading Palestine, taking Jerusalem as it would appear (see Isa. x. and xxii.), and utterly destroying Ashdod, the centre of the confederacy (Isa. xx. 1.), before the Babylonians were ready to move. MerodachBaladan, who is called the son of Yagina or Yugæus, was originally the chief of a tribe named Caldai or CHALDEANS, on the Persian Gulf. He had made himself master of Babylon, where he ruled from B.c. 721 to 709, when he was driven out by Sargon. His embassy to Hezekiah (2 Kings xx. 12—19) was sent with the purpose of forming the confederacy against the common enemy. In B.C. 704, Sargon was murdered, and SENNACHERIB his son mounted the throne on the

At

(b) ASSYRIA and BABYLONIA. The two great kingdoms of the Tigris and Euphrates come before us early in the Old Testament. NIMROD, we are told (Gen. x. 10), made BABEL or Babylon, Erech (now Warka), Accad, and Calneh, the beginning of his kingdom, and out of SHINAR or Sumir, that is, northwestern Chaldea, Asshur went forth and built NINEVEH, Ir-Rehoboth ("the city of streets"), Calah (now Nimrud), and Resen, called Ris-eni, "the head of the fountain", in the inscriptions. Babel," the Gate of God", which the Greeks changed into Babylon, the confusion of tongues took place; and in UR of the CHALDEES, now Mugheir, on the western bank of the Euphrates, the capital of the earliest Chaldean kings of whom we know, ABRAHAM was born. The first inhabitants of the country, who built the great cities there and invented a system of writing, spoke an agglutinative language like that of the Finns or Turks, which is usually termed Accadian; but the Semites had already settled among them, the chief seat of the latter at the time being in Shinar or Sumir rather than in Accad, the south-eastern division of the country. From time to time Babylonia was overrun by the mountaineers of ELAM, whence the Accadians had themselves originally come, and Elamite dynasties ruled in Chaldea. One of these Elamite princes was CHEDOR-LAOMER or Cudur-Lagamar, "the servant of the god Lagamar", who commanded the three vassal sovereigns, TIDAL or Turgal of Gutium (a wide tract of country, in part of which the kingdom of Assyria afterwards arose), ARIOCH or Eri-Acu, king of Ellasar, possibly the Babylonian town Larsa (now Senkereh), and AMRAPHEL, king of Sumir, in their campaign against the West (Gen. xiv.). At this period Babylonia was still governed by Accadian monarchs, as is shown by the proper names Turgal, Eri-Acu ("the servant of the Moon-god"), and Amraphel. Subsequently the Semites obtained the upper hand; the Accadian language became extinct, and even the names of many of the cities were changed. Thus the city which was called Ca-dimirra," Gate of God", was translated into its Semitic equivalent, Bab-el. One of the Semitic kings, Sargon I., was a great patron of literature, and caused the books of his Accadian pre

THE BIBLE AND THE MONUMENTS.

12th day of Ab, or July. Three years after (B.c. 701)
occurred his well-known campaign against Hezekiah,
which ended with the destruction of his army and
the overthrow of his schemes of conquest in the
West. After defeating Hezekiah's ally, TIRHAKAH of
Egypt, at Eltakeh, and severely punishing the leading
men of Ekron, who had revolted against Assyria and
delivered their king Padi, who was faithful to Senna-
cherib, into Hezekiah's hands, the Assyrian monarch
overran Judah and shut up Hezekiah in Jerusalem
"like a bird in a cage". Sennacherib claims to have
received at the same time a tribute of 30 talents of
gold and 300 talents of silver (comp. 2 Kin. xviii. 14),
besides Hezekiah's daughters, wives, and eunuchs,
and an immense quantity of precious stones and other
objects. This was sent to Lachish (a representation of
which, in a bas-relief, is now in the British Museum)
in the vain hope of inducing Sennacherib to spare
Jerusalem (2 Kin. xviii. 14). But Sennacherib, after
sending into captivity 200,150 Jews with their cattle
and camels, and capturing 46 fortified cities and
numberless villages, despatched the three officials,
the Tartan or "commander-in-chief", the Rab-shakeh
or prime minister", and the Rab-saris or "lord
chamberlain", to besiege Jerusalem. It has been
conjectured that the Rab-shakeh was a renegade Jew,
since he spoke Hebrew instead of the Aramaic or
Syrian (not Assyrian) language, which was now the
language of trade and diplomacy, like French in
modern times (2 Kin. xviii. 26). After the destruction
of his army Sennacherib returned home, and the next
year carried his arms into Babylonia, which had revolted
with the help of the ELAMITES. Twenty years later
(681 B.C.) his two elder sons, Adar-malik (Adrammelech)
and Nergal-Sharezer, jealous of the favour shown to
their younger brother Esar-haddon, murdered him (2 K.
xix. 36, 37). After the murder they fled to Armenia, a-
gainst which Esar-haddon was at the time conducting a
campaign, and along with the Armenians were defeat-
ed by their brother in a battle in eastern Cappadocia.
ESAR-HADDON conquered Egypt, which he divided into
20 satrapies, and is probably meant by the "cruel
lord" of Isa. xix. 4.

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Among his tributaries he names MANASSEH, the idolatrous king of Judah, who was afterwards carried captive to Babylon and temporarily confined there (2 Chron. xxxiii. 11). Babylon, which had been destroyed by Sennacherib, was rebuilt by Esar-haddon, who held his court there during half the year; this accounts for the fact that "the king of Assyria" brought Manasseh to Babylon, and not to Nineveh. In B.C. 670 Esar-haddon associated his son Assur-bani-pal with him on the throne (on the 12th day of Iyyar, or March), and two years afterwards, on Esar-haddon's death, Assur-bani-pal became sole king. The attempted revolt of Egypt under Tirhakah (who had taken refuge in Ethiopia) caused a terrible vengeance to be taken on Nia or Thebes, the Biblical NO-AMMON or "No of the god Amun" (not "popu lous No," as A. V.). It was sacked, its monuments destroyed, and its people carried into captivity. This destruction of Thebes establishes the date of the prophecy of NAHUM, who refers to it as a recent event (Nah. iii. 8). After the death of Assur-bani-pal the empire began to break up, and at length Nineveh was besieged and destroyed by Cyaxares, king of Media, and Nabopolassar, the rebel viceroy of Babylonia. NEBUCHADNEZZAR (B.C. 604-561), the son of Nabopolassar, founded the Babylonian empire, and adorned his capital, Babylon, with great buildings, such as fortifi. cations, palaces, temples, and hanging gardens, which are mentioned in his inscriptions. JEHOIACHIN and the Jewish nobles were carried into captivity in Babylon by him in 596 B.C., and in 585 came the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, the overthrow of the Jew ish monarchy, and the beginning of the Exile. The last king of Babylon was Nabu-nahid, or Nabonidus (B.C. 555-538), who refers in his inscriptions to his "eldest son Bel-sarra-yutsur ", the BELSHAZZAR of Daniel. In 538 B.C. Babylon was taken by the Persian king CYRUS, Belshazzar was slain, and his father Nabonidus surrendered to the conqueror, who made him governor of Carmania.

(c) PERSIA. CYRUS founded the Persian empire by conquering those of Media, Lydia, and Babylonia, and thus making himself master of all Western Asia. The Persians belonged to the same Aryan race as the modern Persians and most of the European nations, and they inhabited the mountainous regions on the south-east of ELAM. The Aryan Medes, who had invaded and overcome the old Turanian inhabitants of Media in the 8th century B.C., were a branch of the same race; indeed, the Persians being originally but a Median tribe, the frequent association of MEDES and PERSIANS is not surprising (e.g. in Isa. xiii. Medies includes Persians). Moved by God, in fulfilment of Jeremiah's prophecies (Ezra i. 1), and perhaps also in return for the assistance the Jewish exiles seem to have rus allowed them to return home and rebuild the tem rendered the Persians on their invasion of Babylonia, Cyple. A large number of the priests took advantage of the permission, though comparatively few of the rest of the people. Under Sheshbazzar or Zerubbabel, Erra and Nehemiah, the temple was restored, the walls raised, and the injunctions of the Law carried out. Owing to the opposition of the SAMARITANS, however, the building of the temple was stopped for 16 years, that is to say, during the last seven years of the reign of Cyrus and the reigns of Cambyses and the Magian usurper Gomates, who professed to be Bardes the brother of Cambyses. But in the second year of DARIUS Hystaspis, B.C. 520 (or more probably B.C. 519, after the capture of Babylon and the death of the rebel king Nidintabel, who called himself Nebuchad nezzar, son of Nabonidus, in the June of that rear, the original decree of CYRUS was found at Echarana in Media, and a fresh and favourable decree issued by Darius. EZRA the priest was despatched by ARTAXERXES Longimanus, the grandson of Darius, in B.C. 558, to organise and reassure the Jews at Jerusalem who had fallen into a state of great weakness and confusion, and shortly afterwards NEHEMIAH, the cupbearer of the same king, was appointed Tirshathe or To Nehemiah was due the governor of Judæa. restoration of the walls and the settlement of internal affairs, which enabled the Jews once more to maintain themselves against their heathen neighbours, and to establish a compact state. Xerxes, the father of Artsxerxes, seems to have been the AHASUERUS of the book of Esther. The monotheism of the Persians, and their hatred of idolatry, naturally produced a certain sympathy between them and the Jews, who repaid the favours they had received at the hands of the Persian monarchs by acting as a military check upon Egypt. This monotheism probably led to Cyrus' opposition to idolatry and vocation as the "Anointed", Isa. xlv. 1. When Alexander of Macedon overthrew the Persian empire, and Persian monotheism replaced by Greek polytheism, the feelings of the Jews towards their imperial masters gradually changed, and finally resulted in the wars and victories of the MACCABEES.

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(d) PHŒNICIA. Though Phoenicia had been included in the Promised Land, its inhabitants successfully resisted the attempts of the tribe of ASHER to expel them (Judg. i. 31), and LAISH seems alone of the ZIDONIAN towns to have fallen into the hands of the Israelites (Judg. xviii. 27). Subsequently, the intercourse between the Phoenicians and the Israelites was of a peaceful character. HIRAM, son of Abihal king of TYRE, courted an alliance with the powerful The Phoenicians were at the time the chief traders of David, and continued the friend of his son Solomon. the world, and famous for their artistic skill; Hiram, accordingly, sent cedar wood, precious metals, and workmen for the temple and other buildings erected by Solomon in Jerusalem. Among the various works in brass executed by the workmen were palm trees, lilies, lions, oxen, and cherubim (1 Ain. vii. 13-45 the favourite subjects of such Phoenician works of art as have come down to us. Hiram also lent Solomon sailors for his trading expeditions to India, and received in return corn and oil (comp. Acts xii. 2. some cities of little value, and the use of the port of EZION-GEBER in the Red Sea (1 Kin. ix. 11-14, 26—28;

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