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 iV5 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. 661667, 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 ObeliskThe 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. dm. 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. 1012. 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 OI 1 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, 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 "TiMS 1 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 their 5 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 t to 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," r o. 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) : 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. 2325. 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. 194237, 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 a XZ SO Q nr HHJHHH G 6 JwTtfl */ UJ B IB * r^ P VVY t ctisjmcilon 1 = in w J I t 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 . .a "8 l-g 2 O ^ S B H |S B efe a ] n 5 < Noah . Shem . 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 H $> between the fortieth and fiftieth *3 ^rf *^* "*** &4 * ** 7 ears of th 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^ 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 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*17HAoo|11HWHl>^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>ujft*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 w jll 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 young 1 , 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.i 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. JB. 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. 810. 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 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 Jj>> 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 k THE 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, D s mrO2 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 twentieth f 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. 57, 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." ]S T AnuM 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. 57.) 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. 1113. 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. 816) " 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. 2230. " 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. 2380). 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. t * 1 1 M 1 M * 15 s- a ^ (S * -9 J 11 1 Jl <1 3 2 _ a> a "9 '3-2 1 o "S /? -P W o ft O t ? 'S S>*> Si .o 1 1 M W ^ G CO g W 1 .sbd "" bd "5 3 .2 W J- C J $gj W^^"?'^ 1" So: w :a 'I 2 *~ x w ^ "2 * ^ ^St^dM^SMSH ^* >H H ^) w to H OQ O2DQ H f* 1 a : -a OQ 'S :1 O Is-sH C H g'a W PQ w n : : : W : g : TS } S^s : a ' "2 S >> S-a a = A 'So -9 N H' rJ .S^3 tD S H*- 3-s t? *$i-a t3 1 ^ II 43II-S i . mencem >f Reign O5 OO li^ Ol t^ J> B 0030 00 00 i> I> C^OrH ^H \OCOOOOO t* ^* ^> t* t* ^O CD CO W5 o [. : : 3 ! \l\ S "o o Js|J g *5 a 3 S 0-X3 3 i * s s w s| i s a a a i a a J3 H H lii -< Mmfin 02 Pn o & H 9 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. 263271. 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. 2229. 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