All this happened in B.C. 711. The following year the whole power of a.s.syria was hurled against Merodach-baladan. The Elamites were defeated and their border-towns sacked, and the Babylonian king was compelled to retreat southwards, leaving Babylon in the hands of the a.s.syrians. A year later he was pursued by Sargon into his last refuge; Bit-Yagina, his ancestral capital, was taken by storm, and he himself forced to surrender.

His good fortune never returned. On Sargon's death he once more entered Babylon, but his second reign only lasted six months. After a battle which ended in the complete victory of Sennacherib, he fled again to the marshes, but was driven out of them four years later, and sailed across the Persian Gulf to find a new home on the western coast of Elam. But even here his implacable enemies followed him. In B.C. 697, Sennacherib manned a fleet with Phnician sailors and destroyed the town the old Chaldean prince had built. After this we hear of him no more.

The tenth chapter of Isaiah teaches us to look for references to the capture of Jerusalem by Sargon in other parts of the book. It is impossible not to recognise one of these in the twenty-second chapter.

Here the prophet presents us with the picture of a siege which has already lasted some time, and when the inhabitants of Jerusalem are no longer slain by the sword, but by famine, while the city is on the point of being starved out. Here also the message which Isaiah is bidden to deliver is not a promise of deliverance from the enemy, but the reverse: "It was revealed in my ears by the Lord of Hosts, surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till ye die, saith the Lord G.o.d of Hosts." It is only the campaign of Sargon that can explain these words.

Ten years later Judah was again invaded by an a.s.syrian king, and Jerusalem again threatened by an a.s.syrian army. Sargon had been murdered by his soldiers, and succeeded by his son, Sennacherib, who mounted the throne on the 12th of the month of Ab, or July, B.C. 705. He was a very different man from his father, weak and vain-glorious, fonder of boasting than of deeds. Trusting to the support of Tirhakah, the Ethiopian king of Egypt, Hezekiah threw off his allegiance to a.s.syria, and refused to send the yearly tribute to Nineveh. The Phnicians did the same, while the Jewish king rea.s.serted his former supremacy over the cities of the Philistines.

Padi, the king of Ekron, who remained faithful to a.s.syria, was carried in chains to Jerusalem, and Zedekiah, who is named in the a.s.syrian records as the king of Ashkelon, was probably of Jewish origin. It was not until three years after his accession that Sennacherib found himself able to march against the rebels. In B.C. 701 he crossed the Euphrates, and made his way to the sh.o.r.es of the Mediterranean. Great and Little Sidon, Sarepta, Acre, and other Phnician towns, surrendered to the invader, the Sidonian monarch fled to Cyprus, and the kings of Arvad and Gebal hastened to pay their court to the conquerer. Metinti of Ashdod, Pedael of Ammon, Chemosh-nadad of Moab, and Melech-ram of Edom, who were also suspected of having taken part in the rebellion, came at the same time. Judah and the dependent Philistine states alone still held out.

The rest of the history had best be told in Sennacherib's own words.

"Zedekiah, king of Ashkelon," he says, "who had not submitted to my yoke, himself, the G.o.ds of the house of his fathers, his wife, his sons, his daughters and his brothers, the seed of the house of his fathers, I removed, and I sent him to a.s.syria. I set over the men of Ashkelon, Sarludari, the son of Rukipti, their former king, and I imposed upon him the payment of tribute, and the homage due to my majesty, and he became a va.s.sal. In the course of my campaign I approached and captured Beth-Dagon, Joppa, Bene-berak and Azur, the cities of Zedekiah, which did not submit at once to my yoke, and I carried away their spoil. The priests, the chief men, and the common people of Ekron, who had thrown into chains their king Padi because he was faithful to his oaths to a.s.syria, and had given him up to Hezekiah, the Jew, who imprisoned him like an enemy in a dark dungeon, feared in their hearts. The king of Egypt, the bowmen, the chariots and the horses of the king of Ethiopia, had gathered together innumerable forces and gone to their a.s.sistance. In sight of the town of Eltekeh was their order of battle drawn up; they called their troops (to the battle).

Trusting in a.s.sur, my lord, I fought with them and overthrew them. My hands took the captains of the chariots and the sons of the king of Egypt, as well as the captains of the chariots of the king of Ethiopia, alive in the midst of the battle. I approached and captured the towns of Eltekeh and Timnath, and I carried away their spoil. I marched against the city of Ekron, and put to death the priests and the chief men who had committed the sin (of rebellion), and I hung up their bodies on stakes all round the city. The citizens who had done wrong and wickedness I counted as a spoil; as for the rest of them who had done no sin or crime, in whom no fault was found, I proclaimed their freedom (from punishment). I had Padi, their king, brought out from the midst of Jerusalem, and I seated him on the throne of royalty over them, and I laid upon him the tribute due to my majesty. But as for Hezekiah of Judah, who had not submitted to my yoke, forty-six of his strong cities, together with innumerable fortresses and small towns which depended on them, by overthrowing the walls and open attack, by battle, engines and battering-rams I besieged, I captured. I brought out from the midst of them and counted as a spoil 200,150 persons, great and small, male and female, horses, mules, a.s.ses, camels, oxen and sheep without number. Hezekiah himself I shut up like a bird in a cage in Jerusalem, his royal city. I built a line of forts against him, and I kept back his heel from going forth out of the great gate of his city. I cut off his cities which I had spoiled from the midst of his land, and gave them to Metinti, king of Ashdod, Padi, king of Ekron, and Zil-baal, king of Gaza, and I made his country small. In addition to their former tribute and yearly gifts I added other tribute, and the homage due to my majesty, and I laid it upon them. The fear of the greatness of my majesty overwhelmed him, even Hezekiah, and he sent after me to Nineveh, my royal city, by way of gift and tribute, the Arabs and his body-guard whom he had brought for the defence of Jerusalem, his royal city, and had furnished with pay, along with thirty talents of gold, 800 talents of pure silver, carbuncles and other precious stones, a couch of ivory, thrones of ivory, an elephant's hide, an elephant's tusk, rare woods, whatever their names, a vast treasure, as well as the eunuchs of his palace, dancing men and dancing women; and he sent his amba.s.sador to offer homage."

The a.s.syrian and the Biblical accounts complete and supplement one another. Sennacherib naturally glosses over the disaster that befel him in Palestine, and transfers the payment of the tribute from the time when Hezekiah vainly hoped to buy off the siege of Jerusalem to the end of the campaign. But he cannot conceal the fact that he never succeeded in taking the revolted city or in punishing Hezekiah, as he had punished other rebel kings, nor did he again undertake a campaign in the west. We find him the next year in Babylonia; then he attacked the tribes of Cilicia; but he never again ventured into Palestine. During the rest of his lifetime Judah had nothing more to fear from the a.s.syrian king.

At first sight there seems to be a discrepancy between the number of silver talents stated in the Bible to have been paid by Hezekiah, and the number which Sennacherib claims to have received. But the discrepancy is only an apparent one. It has been shown that there were two standards of value, according to one of which 500 talents of silver would be equivalent to 800 talents, if reckoned by the other. A more real discrepancy is to be found in the statement of Sennacherib that he had built a line of forts round about Jerusalem, and prevented Hezekiah from getting out of it. This is in flagrant contradiction to the words of Isaiah, that the a.s.syrian king should not shoot an arrow into Jerusalem, nor a.s.sault it under the cover of shields, nor cast a bank against it. Sennacherib claims to have performed more than he actually did.

Another discrepancy has been found in the date a.s.signed by the Biblical narrative to the a.s.syrian invasion. The year B.C. 701 was the twenty-fourth year of Hezekiah, not the fourteenth, which fell in B.C.

711, the year of Sargon's campaign. But this very fact supplies an explanation of the difficulty. In the retrospective record of the prophetical annalist, the two campaigns of Sargon and Sennacherib have been brought into a.s.sociation, though the history dwells only upon that one which ill.u.s.trated G.o.d's way of dealing with His faithful servants.

Hence it is that reminiscences of the earlier invasion are allowed to enter here and there into the narrative. It was Sargon, and not Sennacherib, who was the conqueror of Hamath and Arpad, of Sepharvaim and Samaria (2 Kings xviii. 34-36). It was Sargon, and not Sennacherib, who invaded Judah in the fourteenth year of Hezekiah's reign.

There is a bas-relief in the British Museum which represents Sennacherib seated on his throne in front of Lachish, and receiving the spoil of the city as it pa.s.sed before him. It was while he was encamped before this city that Hezekiah despatched the emba.s.sy with gifts and tribute and prayers for pardon. Sennacherib accepted the gifts, but refused the pardon; nothing would content him but the absolute surrender of Jerusalem and its king. Hezekiah then prepared for his defence. We gather from Isaiah's writings that there were at that period three parties in the State, each of which at different times gained an influence over the king and his councillors. There was first the party headed by Shebna-whose name proves him to have been of Syrian parentage-which advocated alliance with Egypt and hostility to a.s.syria. This was the party with which Isaiah had mainly to contend, but its power was not finally extinguished until after the retreat of Tirhakah from the battle of Eltekeh, and this visible proof that Egypt was but a bruised reed to lean upon. The second party inherited the policy of Ahaz, and urged that Judah's only chance of safety lay in submission to the mighty Empire of a.s.syria. Isaiah was the representative of the third party. He announced G.o.d's own declaration, that He would defend His city and temple if only its inhabitants would trust and fear Him, and reject all alliances with the heathen nations that surrounded them. "In quietness and in confidence" should be their strength. It was not until events had demonstrated the truth of Isaiah's message that the rulers of Jerusalem reluctantly accepted it, and recognised at last that the true policy of Judah was to abstain from mixing in the wars and intrigues of the foreign idolater.

When the Jewish emba.s.sy arrived at Lachish, the Egyptian party seems still to have been in the ascendant. In spite of the prophet's warning, envoys had been sent to Egypt (Isa. x.x.x. x.x.xi.), and had returned full of confidence in an alliance, which yet was to be to them not "an help nor profit, but a shame and also a reproach." The battle of Eltekeh dissipated their hopes. This was fought after the capture of Lachish, when Sennacherib was endeavouring to take the neighbouring fortress of Libnah (2 Kings xix. 8, 9). The Rab-shakeh or Prime Minister had been sent against Jerusalem along with the Tartan or Commander-in-chief and the Rab-saris or Chamberlain, and after delivering his message to its defenders had returned to Sennacherib, leaving a considerable force under the Tartan encamped outside its walls. The message had been delivered in Hebrew, not in a.s.syrian or in Aramaic (Syrian), which at that time was the general language of trade and diplomacy in Western Asia, like French in modern Europe. Every politician was expected to speak it, and Hezekiah's ministers take it for granted that the Rab-shakeh would be able to do so.

The fact that he preferred to speak in Hebrew gives us a high idea of the education of the age. Every cultivated a.s.syrian was acquainted with Accadian, the old dead language of Babylonia, which was to an a.s.syrian what Latin is to us; and in addition to this diplomatists and men of business were required to know Aramaic, while we here find the highest of a.s.syrian officials further able to converse in Hebrew.

A reminiscence of the disaster which befel the a.s.syrian army was preserved in an Egyptian legend, which ascribed it to the piety of an Egyptian king.

Influenced by this legend, some scholars have supposed that it took place at Pelusium, on the Egyptian frontier; but the language of Scripture seems hardly to leave a doubt that it really happened before Jerusalem. The result was the abrupt breaking up of the a.s.syrian camp and the termination of the siege of Jerusalem. Sennacherib hastened back to Nineveh, and the court annalists were bidden to draw a veil of silence over the conclusion of the campaign.

Hezekiah did not long survive his wonderful deliverance. Next to Solomon he seems to have been the most cultivated of the Jewish kings. His public works rendered Jerusalem one of the most formidable fortresses of the ancient world; and if the tunnel of Siloam belongs to his reign, it is clear that he had at his disposal engineering skill of a high order. He was not only himself a poet, but a restorer of the old psalmody and a patron of literature. In imitation, probably, of the libraries of a.s.syria and Babylonia, he established a library in Jerusalem, where scribes were employed, as they were at Nineveh, in making new editions of ancient works (see Prov. xxv. 1.). Ahaz had introduced into Judah the study of astronomy, for which the Babylonians were renowned, and had set up a gnomon or sun-dial in the palace-court (2 Kings xx. 11). It is possible that some of the astronomical literature of Babylonia, which has been recovered from the cuneiform tablets now in the British Museum, was introduced at the same time, with its mult.i.tudinous observations and prediction of eclipses, its notices of the appearance of comets, of the movements of the planets and fixed stars, of the phases of Venus, and even of spots on the sun. It is also possible that the a.s.syrian calendar and the a.s.syrian names of the months now first became familiar to the Jews. At any rate, it would seem, from Jer. xxiii. 10, 11, that clay came to be used in Judah as a writing material, just as it was at Babylon or Nineveh, the inner clay record of a contract being covered with an outer coating, on which was inscribed an abstract of its contents, together with the names of the witnesses. Jeremiah's deed of purchase, moreover, was preserved in a jar, like the numerous clay deeds of the Egibi banking-firm, which existed at Babylon from the age of Nebuchadrezzar to that of Xerxes. These jars served the purpose of our modern safes.

Sennacherib lived for twenty years after his withdrawal from Palestine. In B.C. 681 he was murdered by his two elder sons, Adar-melech and Nergal-sharezer, who were jealous of the favour shown by him towards their younger brother Esar-haddon. A curious evidence of this favour exists among the tablets in the British Museum. This is nothing less than the will of Sennacherib, made apparently some years before his death, in which he bequeaths to Esar-haddon certain private property. The doc.u.ment reads as follows:-"I, Sennacherib, king of mult.i.tudes, king of a.s.syria, bequeath armlets of gold, quant.i.ties of ivory, a platter of gold, ornaments, and chains for the neck, all these beautiful things of which there are heaps, and three sorts of precious stones, one and a half manehs and two and a half shekels in weight, to Esar-haddon my son, whose name was afterwards changed to a.s.sur-sar-illik-pal by my wish. The treasure is deposited in the house of Amuk." The king was excused the necessity of having his will attested by witnesses, as was obligatory in the case of other persons; and it is plain that at the time when it was made Esar-haddon was not the recognised heir to the throne.

The murder of the old king took place, according to the Bible, "as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his G.o.d." The reading of the G.o.d's name, however, is corrupt, since no such deity was known to the a.s.syrians, and it is possible that Nusku, the companion of Nebo, the patron of literature, is intended. A war was going on at the time between a.s.syria and Armenia, and the murderers finding, apparently, no adherents in Nineveh, fled to Erimenas, the Armenian king. Esar-haddon, at the head of the a.s.syrian veterans, met them and the Armenian forces, a few weeks afterwards, at a place not far from Melitene, the modern Malatiyeh, in Kappadokia. The battle ended in the complete victory of the a.s.syrians, and Esar-haddon was saluted "king" on the spot by his soldiers. He then returned to Nineveh, and there formally ascended the throne.

Esar-haddon resembled his father but little. He was one of the ablest generals a.s.syria ever produced, and was distinguished from his predecessors by his mild and conciliatory policy. Under him the a.s.syrian empire reached its furthest limits, Egypt being conquered, and placed under twenty a.s.syrian satraps, while an a.s.syrian army penetrated into the very heart of the Arabian desert. But the conquests which had been won in war were cemented by a policy of justice and moderation. Thus Babylon, which had been razed to the ground by Sennacherib in B.C. 691, and the adjoining river choked with its ruins, was rebuilt, and Esar-haddon endeavoured to win over the Babylonians by residing in it during half the year. This affords an explanation of a fact mentioned in the Second Book of Chronicles (x.x.xiii. 11), which has long been a stumbling-block in the way of critics. It is there said that the king of a.s.syria, after crushing the revolt of Mana.s.seh, carried him away captive to Babylon. The cause of this is now clear. As Esar-haddon spent part of his time at Babylon it merely depended on the season of the year to which of his two capitals, Nineveh or Babylon, a political prisoner should be brought. The treatment of Mana.s.seh was in full accordance with the treatment of other rebel princes in the time of Esar-haddon's son, a.s.sur-bani-pal. Like them, he was at first loaded with chains, but was afterwards allowed to return to his kingdom and reinstated in the government of it.

The name of "Mana.s.seth, king of Judah," twice occurs on the a.s.syrian monuments. Once he is mentioned among the tributaries of Esar-haddon, once among those of a.s.sur-bani-pal. It is clear, therefore, that at some period shortly after Hezekiah's death, Judah was again forced to pay tribute and do homage to the a.s.syrian king. When Esar-haddon pa.s.sed through Palestine on his way to Egypt, he found there only submission and respect. Sidon alone withstood him, and Sidon was accordingly destroyed.

The "burden" p.r.o.nounced upon Egypt by Isaiah (ch. xix.) must belong to the age of Esar-haddon. The condition of Egypt at the time was exactly that described by the prophet. The country was divided into hostile kingdoms, which fought "every one against his brother, and every one against his neighbour; city against city, and kingdom against kingdom." Tirhakah the Ethiopian, whom the a.s.syrians had driven out, invaded it from the south, and Esar-haddon came down upon it from the north. He it is who is "the fierce king" who, the Lord declared, should rule over the Egyptians. For about twenty years the unhappy country was wasted with fire and sword. The twenty governors appointed by the a.s.syrians were constantly intriguing against one another and their suzerain; and again and again the a.s.syrian armies were called upon to return to Egypt to suppress a revolt. It was during one of these campaigns-that which happened about B.C. 665, in the reign of a.s.sur-bani-pal-that Thebes, the ancient capital of Upper Egypt, was destroyed. It is termed Ni in the a.s.syrian texts, a name which corresponds to the Hebrew No-Amon, or No of Amun, the supreme G.o.d of the city. Its temples and palaces were overthrown, their treasures were carried away, and two obelisks, which together weighed over seventy tons, were sent as trophies to Nineveh. Nahum (iii. 8) alludes to this destruction of Thebes as a recent event, and thus fixes the approximate age of his life and ministry.

The reign of Esar-haddon was a short one. In B.C. 670, on the 12th day of Iyyar, or April, he convened by edict a great a.s.sembly in Nineveh, and there a.s.sociated his son a.s.sur-bani-pal, whom the Greeks called Sardanapalus, in the government. Two years later he died, and a.s.sur-bani-pal was proclaimed sole king on the 27th of Ab, or July.

a.s.sur-bani-pal, the _grand monarque_ of a.s.syria, whose long reign was a continuous series of wars, and building, and magnificent patronage of art and literature, has little direct contact with Biblical history. The conquest of Elam by his generals removed the last civilized power which could struggle with a.s.syria; but it was not fully accomplished when the mighty empire began to totter to its fall. A general rebellion broke out, at the heart of which was a.s.sur-bani-pal's own brother, the viceroy of Babylonia. All the strength of a.s.syria was spent in crushing it; and Egypt, which had revolted through the help of Gyges of Lydia, was never reconquered. Palestine, strangely enough, seems to have been but little affected by the almost universal outbreak; indeed, Chemosh-khalta of Moab materially a.s.sisted a.s.sur-bani-pal, by defeating the Kedarites and sending their sheikh in chains to Nineveh. One or two Phnician cities alone took occasion to refuse their tribute. We do not know the year of a.s.sur-bani-pal's death, but it was probably about B.C. 630. He left a troubled heritage to his successors. The viceroy of Babylonia was becoming more and more independent; Elam, the latest a.s.syrian conquest, was threatened by the Persians, and a new and ferocious enemy had appeared in the north. These were the Scythians, who had descended upon the civilised world from the steppes of Southern Russia. They extended their ravages as far as Palestine, and their occupation of Beth-Shan caused it to be known in later days as Scythopolis, "the city of the Scythians." The earlier prophecies of Jeremiah refer to the miseries inflicted on the country by these barbarians, who must have entered it towards the middle of Josiah's reign. By this time the authority of a.s.syria in the west could have been but nominal. Nineveh itself had undergone a siege at the hands of the Medes, and was only saved from utter destruction by the Scythian irruption. Hence we can understand how it was that Josiah was able to re-unite the monarchy of David, and extend his sway over what had once been the kingdom of Samaria. There was no longer an a.s.syrian governor to forbid his overthrowing the altar at Bethel or the "houses of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria."

The date of the final fall and destruction of Nineveh is not certain, and much depends on the interpretation given to the words "the king of a.s.syria" in 2 Kings xxiii. 29. If, as is usually supposed, these really signify the king of Babylon, who had succeeded to the power of a.s.syria, we may place the fall of the a.s.syrian capital in B.C. 610; otherwise the date must be as late as B.C. 606. It cannot be later, since, when Jeremiah reviews in this year the existing nations of the east (xxv. 19-26), he says not a word about either Nineveh or a.s.syria. The vengeance the prophets had predicted for the a.s.syrians had already fallen upon them.

What it was to be like we may gather from the language of Nahum.

The last king of a.s.syria was Esar-haddon II, called Sarakos by the Greek writers. He has left us a few records, which were written when his enemies were gathering about him, and when his people were vainly calling upon their G.o.ds for help. The Medes, the Minni, the Kimmerians or Gomer, had all banded themselves together, and were steadily approaching Nineveh. The frontier cities had been stormed, and the enemy was spreading like an inundation over the whole country. In their despair the a.s.syrian rulers ordained a solemn fast of 100 days and 100 nights, and besought the Sun-G.o.d to pardon their sin. But all was in vain. The measure of the iniquities of a.s.syria was filled up; the time had come when the desolater should himself be desolate, and Nineveh, as G.o.d's prophets had threatened, was laid utterly waste.(11)

CHAPTER VII. NEBUCHADREZZAR AND CYRUS.

_Rise of the Babylonian empire.-Media.-Pharaoh-Necho.-The battle of Carchemish.-Nebuchadrezzar ascends the throne.-The splendour of Babylon.-No monuments yet discovered recording Nebuchadrezzar's Jewish and Syrian campaigns.-Evil-Merodach.-Clay doc.u.ments recently discovered in Babylonia.-New light thrown on the empire of Cyrus.-The cylinder of Cyrus.-Cyrus not a monotheist.-The Babylonian King of Isaiah xiv.-Cyrus not a King of Persia at all.-Babylon not besieged by Cyrus.-How Cyrus came to let the Jews return.-Correspondence between the language of Cyrus and of Scripture.-__"__The G.o.d who raises the dead to life.__"__-Prayer after a bad dream.-Babylonian penitential psalms.-A translation of one of them.-Chronological table of the events of the chapter._

The empire of Babylonia arose out of the ashes of the empire of a.s.syria.

While the bands of the enemy were gathering round the doomed city of Nineveh, Nabopola.s.sar, the viceroy of Babylonia, seized the opportunity for revolt. There were no armies now, as in former days, that could pour out of the gates of the a.s.syrian capital to punish the rebel, and Nabopola.s.sar was allowed to establish his new monarchy undisturbed. But the fall of the imperial city left the other provinces of the a.s.syrian empire without a master or a defence. Its latest conquest, Elam, seems to have recovered its independence for a short time-at all events, Jeremiah (xxv. 25) in the year 606 B.C. speaks of "the kings of Elam"-but elsewhere its possessions became the battle-ground of the three rival powers of Babylon, of Media, and of Egypt.

Media was the name given by Persian and Greek writers to the kingdom of Ekbatana, a city now represented by Hamadan. Its native name, at all events in the time of Sargon, was Ellip, and the t.i.tle of Media applied to it in later history seems to have been due to a confusion between the a.s.syrian words _Mada_ "Medes," and _Manda_, "barbarian." As we shall see, Astyages, the king of Ekbatana, is called "the king of the people of _Manda_," or "barbarians," by the Babylonian king Nabonidos. The tablets which describe the approach of the last enemies of Nineveh draw a careful distinction between Kaztarit, or Kyaxares, "lord of the city of Car-Ca.s.si," and Mamiti-arsu, "lord of the city of the Medes." For the a.s.syrians, the Medes were only the small tribes which inhabited the regions eastward of Kurdistan. The error, however, which turned the kingdom of Ekbatana into a kingdom of Media has fixed itself in literature, and the Old Testament also has adopted in regard to it the current language of the day. It is now too late to disturb the time-honoured t.i.tle, and we shall therefore continue to speak of a Median empire and a Median kingdom, even though we now know that the terms rest on an ancient mistake.

As the power of a.s.syria had dwindled, the power of Egypt had increased.

The Egyptian kings began to dream again of an Asiatic empire, such as they had once held in days long gone by, and their first efforts were directed towards securing afresh the cities of the Philistines. Gaza and Ashdod were captured after a long siege;(12) Cyprus became an Egyptian province, and Pharaoh Necho, whose Phnician fleet had circ.u.mnavigated Africa, set about the task of conquering Asia. Josiah was now on the throne of Judah.

He still called himself a va.s.sal of a.s.syria, and could not but see with alarm the rise of a new enemy, just as the old one had ceased to be formidable. In the name of his suzerain, therefore, he attempted to bar the advance of Necho; the two armies of Egypt and Judah met on the plain of Megiddo, where the battle ended in the death of the Jewish king and the slaughter of the flower of the Jewish soldiery. The death of Josiah proved an irremediable disaster to the Jewish state. He left behind him a family torn by jealousies and supported by rival factions, a people hostile to the religious reforms he had carried through, and an army which had lost both its leader and its veterans. From henceforth Judah was no longer able to defend itself from an invader, whether Egyptian or Babylonian; and even the strong walls of Jerusalem no longer proved a defence in days when the method of warfare had changed, and a victorious army was content to sit down for years before a fortress until its defenders had been starved out.

Necho's triumph, however, was short-lived. Three years after the battle of Megiddo (B.C. 606), he had to meet the Babylonian army, under its young general Nebuchadrezzar, the son of Nabopola.s.sar, at the ford of the Euphrates, which was protected by the old Hitt.i.te city of Carchemish.

Nabopola.s.sar was now independent king of Babylonia, and his son had given evidence of great military capacities. He had disputed with the Median kingdom of Ekbatana the possession of Mesopotamia; and though the ruins of Nineveh and other a.s.syrian cities on the eastern bank of the Tigris continued to remain in the hands of the Median ruler, as well as the high road which led across Northern Mesopotamia into Asia Minor, and pa.s.sed through the patriarchal city of Haran, he had secured for his father the southern regions enclosed between the Tigris and the Euphrates. The battle of Carchemish finally decided who should be the master of Western Asia.

The Egyptian forces were completely shattered, and Necho retreated with the wreck of his army to his ancestral kingdom. Judah and the countries which adjoined it pa.s.sed under the yoke of Babylonia.

Two years later, in B.C. 604, Nabopola.s.sar died, and Nebuchadrezzar succeeded to the throne. His name is written Nabu-kudur-uzur, "O Nebo, defend the crown," in the cuneiform, so that the form Nebuchadrezzar, which is found in the Book of Jeremiah, is the only correct one, Nebuchadnezzar being a corruption of it, like Asnapper for a.s.sur-bani-pal.

Nebuchadrezzar was not only a great general, he was also a great builder and an able administrator. Under him, Babylon, which had been little more than a provincial town, became one of the most splendid cities in the ancient world. In the middle of it rose the gigantic temple of Bel or Baal, in eight stages, now represented by a mound of ruins, which goes under the name of Babil. A winding road led from the foot of it to the shrine on the summit, wherein was a golden image of the G.o.d, forty feet high, and a golden table in front of it for the s...o...b..ead.

Nebuchadrezzar's palace, now called the Kasr mound, was on a scale equally vast, though the wall that surrounded it, according to the king's own statement, had been built in fifteen days; within were the famous hanging gardens, raised on lofty arcades, and watered by means of a screw. In the suburb of Borsippa, on the western side of the Euphrates, stood another temple, the modern Birs-i-Nimrud. This was dedicated to Nebo, and had been begun by an earlier king. But it was completed by Nebuchadrezzar, who called it "the temple of the seven lights of the earth," and built it in seven stages, each coloured according to the supposed colours of the seven planets. The upper stages were artificially vitrified, wood having been piled up against the surfaces of the bricks of which they were composed, and then set on fire. Both Borsippa and Babylon were surrounded by a single line of fortification, consisting of a double wall. It was pierced by a hundred gates, all of bronze. So broad were the walls, that two chariots could pa.s.s one another upon them. Walls were also built on either side of the river, which flowed through the centre of the city, and was furnished with handsome quays. There were gates in these walls at the end of each of the wide and straight streets by which the city was intersected, and between every gate a ferry-boat plied. Besides the ferry-boats there was also a drawbridge, which was drawn up every night.

Such was "great Babylon," which Nebuchadrezzar boasted he had built "for the house of the kingdom, by the might of his power, and for the honour of his majesty."

Records of Nebuchadrezzar's building operations exist in plenty, but of his annals only a small fragment has as yet been discovered. This, however, contains an allusion to his campaign in Egypt, of which Jeremiah and Ezekiel prophesied, and which an over-hasty criticism has denied. The campaign, we learn, took place in the thirty-seventh year of his reign.

Other references to it have been detected on the Egyptian monuments, and we gather from these that the Babylonian army swept the whole of the northern part of Egypt, and penetrated as far south as a.s.souan, from whence they were forced to retreat by the Egyptian general Hor. Amasis was at this time king of Egypt, having dethroned and murdered Apries, the Pharaoh Hophra of the Bible, whose miserable end had been foretold by Jeremiah (xliv. 30).

No account has yet been discovered among the cuneiform doc.u.ments of the campaigns of Nebuchadrezzar against Tyre and Judah. But a curious memorial of them was found two years ago on the northern bank of the Nahr el-Kelb, or Dog River, about eight miles to the north of Beyrut. The ancient high road from Damascus to the sea-coast led along the gorge through which this river makes its way to the sea, and traces of it can still be seen cut here and there in the rock. The foreign conquerors of Asia, whether Egyptian or a.s.syrian have left monuments of themselves carved by the side of this old road, where it winds round a promontory that forms the southern bank of the river. Ramses II, Sennacherib, Esar-haddon, all have recorded their names and deeds upon the face of the cliff; and the obliterated monuments of other and perhaps older kings may still be seen near to them. The existence of these monuments has long been known. But it was never suspected that a long inscription of Nebuchadrezzar also existed on the loftier cliff on the northern side of the river, completely concealed from view under a ma.s.s of luxuriant shrubs and drooping maiden-hair fern. It was brought to light by an accident, and though much injured by time and weather is still partly decipherable. Unfortunately, the royal author gives no history in it of his Syrian and Jewish campaigns; the clearest part of the text is occupied only with a list of the wines of the Lebanon, among which the wine of Helbon, near Damascus, was the most highly prized.(13)

Nebuchadrezzar had a long reign of nearly forty-three years. His son and successor, Evil-Merodach ("the man of the G.o.d Merodach"), lived hardly three years after his accession, and then was murdered by his brother-in-law, Nergal-sharezer, who seized the crown. The latter calls himself the son of "Bel-suma-iskun, king of Babylon"-a t.i.tle to which his father could have had no right-and he seems to have been the Rab-Mag (a word of unknown signification) who is mentioned by Jeremiah (x.x.xix. 3) as among the princes of Babylon at the time of the capture of Jerusalem. The chief event of his short reign of four years and four months was the construction of a new palace. His son, who succeeded him, was but a mere boy, and was murdered after a brief reign of four months. The throne was then usurped by Nabu-nahid, the Nabonidos of the Greeks, who does not seem to have belonged to the royal family, and calls his father, "Nabu-balatsu-ikbi, the _Rubu-emga_," which may possibly be the Rab-Mag of the Old Testament. Nabonidos reigned for seventeen years, and witnessed the rise of a new power in the east. This was the empire of Cyrus, about whom the cuneiform records have recently given us information of a most startling kind.

Among the clay doc.u.ments lately discovered in Babylonia by Mr. Ra.s.sam are three inscriptions, which have been published and translated by Sir Henry Rawlinson and Mr. Pinches. The first of these is a cylinder, inscribed by order of Cyrus, the second a tablet which describes the conquest of Babylonia by Cyrus and the causes which led up to it, while the third is an account given by Nabonidos of his restoration of the temple of the Moon-G.o.d at Haran, and of the temples of the Sun-G.o.d and of Anunit at Sepharvaim. Haran, we are told in the last-mentioned record, had been taken and destroyed by the _Manda_, or "barbarians," of Ekbatana, and the temple of the Moon-G.o.d had shared in the general ruin of the city. "Then,"

says Nabonidos, "at the beginning of my long reign, Merodach, the great lord, and Sin (the Moon-G.o.d), the illuminator of heaven and earth, the strong one of the universe, revealed unto me a dream. Merodach spake with me (thus): 'O Nabonidos, king of Babylon, go up with the horse of thy chariot; make bricks for the Temple of Rejoicing, and let the seat of Sin, the great lord, enter within it.' Reverently I spake to Merodach, the lords of the G.o.ds: 'I will build this house whereof thou hast spoken. The barbarians went about it, and their forces were terrible.' Merodach answered me: 'The barbarians of whom thou hast spoken shall not exist, neither they nor their lands, nor the kings their allies.' In the third year when it came, when they (_i.e._, the barbarians) had caused Cyrus, the king of Elam, his young servant, to march amongst his army, they provoked him (to battle); the wide-spread barbarians he overthrew; he captured Astyages, king of the barbarians, and seized his treasures; to his own land he took (them)." After this Nabonidos carried out the will of the G.o.ds. His "vast army" was summoned from Gaza on the one side to the Persian Gulf on the other, and set to work to restore the temple of Haran, which had been built three centuries before by the a.s.syrian king, Shalmaneser II, and subsequently repaired by a.s.sur-bani-pal.

Two statements will be noticed in the inscription which will appear strange to students of ancient history. Cyrus is called "the young servant" of Merodach, the patron-deity of Babylon, and "king of Anzan," or Elam, not of Persia. But both statements will be found to be borne out by the two inscriptions of Cyrus himself, which we shall now quote. Both on his cylinder and in the annalistic tablet Cyrus, hitherto supposed to be a Persian and a Zoroastrian monotheist, appears as an Elamite and as a polytheist.

The annalistic tablet, which is unfortunately somewhat mutilated, begins with the first year of the reign of Nabonidos. The first three years after his accession seem to have been occupied with disturbances in Syria. Then, in the sixth year, we are informed, "Astyages gathered (his army) and marched against Cyrus, king of Elam. But the soldiers of Astyages revolted from him, and seized him and delivered him up to Cyrus. Cyrus (proceeded) to the land of Ekbatana, the royal city. The silver, the gold, the furniture, and the spoil of the land of Ekbatana he carried away, and brought the furniture and the spoil which he has taken to the land of Elam.-The seventh year the king (Nabonidos) was in the town of Tema (a suburb of Babylon). The king's son, the n.o.bles, and his soldiers were in Accad (or Northern Babylonia). The king did not go to Babylon, neither did Nebo nor Bel. But they kept a festival; they sacrificed peace-offerings in the temples of Saggil and Zida to the G.o.ds for (the preservation) of Babylon and Borsippa. The governor inspected the garden and the temple.-In the eighth year (no event took place).-The ninth year Nabonidos, the king, was in Tema, the king's son, the n.o.bles, and his soldiers were in Accad.

Until the month of Nisan (March) the king did not go to Babylon, neither did Nebo nor Bel. But they kept a festival; they sacrificed peace-offerings to the G.o.ds in the temples of Saggil and Zida for the preservation of Babylon and Borsippa. On the fifth day of Nisan, the king's mother, who was in the fortress of the camp on the river Euphrates, above Sippara, died. The king's son and his soldiers mourned for her three days running. In the month Sivan (May), there was a mourning for the king's mother throughout the land of Accad. In the month Nisan, Cyrus, king of Persia, collected his soldiers and crossed the Tigris below Arbela, and the following month (marched) against the land of.... Its king took (his) silver and himself; he made his own children mount (the pyre); afterwards both king and children were (burnt) in the midst (of it)-The tenth year the king was in Tema; the king's son, the officers, and his soldiers were in Accad. Until (Nisan) the king (did not go to Babylon), neither did Nebo nor Bel. But they kept the festival; they sacrificed peace-offerings to the G.o.ds in the temples (of Saggil and Zida) for the preservation of Babylon and Borsippa. On the 21st day of Sivan (the soldiers) of Elam marched into Accad. A prefect (was appointed?) in Erech.-The eleventh year the king was in Tema; the king's son, the n.o.bles, and his soldiers were in Accad. Until Elul (August), the king did not come forth (to worship) Bel, but they kept the festival; they sacrificed peace-offerings (to the G.o.ds in the temples of Saggil and Zida for the preservation of) Babylon and Borsippa."

Here a break occurs in the record. When the inscription becomes legible again we find ourselves transported to the seventeenth year of Nabonidos, when the tribes on "the lower sea" or Persian Gulf were in revolt. Cyrus, who had failed to break through the Babylonian army in Accad, had spent his time in intriguing with a disaffected party-probably the Jews-within Babylonia itself, and at last, when all was ripe, prepared to attack his enemy from the south-east. Nabonidos now turned to the G.o.ds for help, and had the images of them brought to Babylon from their various shrines, in the vain hope that their presence would save the city from capture. "The G.o.ds of Marad, Zamama and the G.o.ds of Kis, Beltis and the G.o.ds of Kharsak-kalama, were brought to Babylon; up to the end of Elul, the G.o.ds of Accad which are above and below the sky were brought to Babylon but the G.o.ds of Borsippa, of Cuthah, and of Sippara, were not brought. In the month Tammuz (June) Cyrus gave battle to the army of Accad in the town of Rutum, upon the river Nizallat. The men of Accad broke into revolt. On the 14th day (of the month) the garrison of Sippara was taken without fighting. Nabonidos flies. On the 16th day Gobryas, the governor of Gutium (Kurdistan) and the army of Cyrus entered Babylon without fighting.

Afterwards he takes Nabonidos, and puts him into fetters in Babylon. Up to the end of the month Tammuz, some rebels from Kurdistan kept the gates of the temple of Saggil closed, but there was nothing in the way of weapons in the temple of Saggil, nor was there an opportunity (for fighting). On the 3rd day of Marchesvan (October), Cyrus entered Babylon. The roads(?) before him were covered. He grants peace to the city, to the whole of Babylon Cyrus proclaims peace. Gobryas, his governor, was appointed over the (other) governors in Babylon, and from the month Chisleu (November) to the month Adar (February) the G.o.ds of Accad, whom Nabonidos had brought to Babylon, were restored to their shrines. On the 11th day of the previous Marchesvan, Gobryas (was appointed) over (Babylon), and the king (Nabonidos) died. From the 27th of Adar to the 3rd of Nisan, (there was) a mourning in Accad; all the people smote their heads. On the 4th day, Kambyses, the son of Cyrus, arranged the burial in the temple of the Sceptre of the World. The priests of the temple of the Sceptre of Nebo went (to it)." The rest of the text, which is very imperfect from this point, describes the honours paid by Cyrus and his son to the Babylonian G.o.ds, their sacrifices of victims to Bel, and their restoration of Nebo to his old shrine.

It is at this place that the cylinder of Cyrus comes in to complete the story. Cyrus here says that Nabonidos had neglected the worship of the G.o.ds, who accordingly were angry with him: "The G.o.ds dwelling within them left their shrines in anger when (Nabonidos) brought them into Babylon.

Merodach went about to all men, wherever were their seats; and the men of Sumer and Accad, whom he had sworn should attend him (besought him to return). The favour he granted, he came back; all lands, even the whole of them, rejoiced and ate. And he appointed a king to guide aright in the heart what his hand upholds; Cyrus, king of Elam, he proclaimed by name for the sovereignty: all men everywhere commemorate his name. The men of Kurdistan and all the barbarians (of Ekbatana) he made bow down to his feet, the men of the black-headed race (the Accadians), whom he had conquered with his hand, he governed in justice and righteousness.

Merodach, the great lord, the restorer of his people, beheld with joy the deeds of his vicegerent, who was righteous in hand and heart. To his city of Babylon he summoned his march, and he bade him take the road to Babylon; like a friend and a comrade he went at his side. The weapons of his vast army, whose number, like the waters of a river, could not be known, he marshalled at his side. Without fighting or battle he caused him to enter into Babylon; his city of Babylon feared; in a place difficult of access Nabonidos, the king, who worshipped him not, he gave into his hand.

The men of Babylon, all of them, (and) the whole of Sumer and Accad, the n.o.bles and priests who had revolted, kissed his feet, they rejoiced in his sovereignty, their faces shone. The G.o.d who in his ministry raises the dead to life, who benefits all men in difficulty and prayer, has in goodness drawn nigh to him, has made strong his name. I am Cyrus, the king of legions, the great king, the powerful king, the king of Babylon, the king of Sumer and Accad, the king of the four zones, the son of Kambyses the great king, the king of Elam; the grandson of Cyrus the great king, the king of Elam; the great-grandson of Teispes, the great king, the king of Elam; of the ancient seed-royal, whose rule has been beloved by Bel and Nebo, whose sovereignty they cherished according to the goodness of their hearts. At that time I entered Babylon in peace. With joy and gladness in the palace of the kings I enlarged the seat of my dominion. Merodach, the great lord, (cheered) the heart of his servant, whom the sons of Babylon (obeyed each) year and day.... My vast armies he marshalled peacefully in the midst of Babylon; throughout Sumer and Accad I had no revilers. The sanctuaries of Babylon and all its fortresses I established in peace. As for the sons of Babylon ... their ruins I repaired, and I delivered their prisoners. For the work (of restoring the shrine) of Merodach, the great lord, I prepared, and he graciously drew nigh unto me, Cyrus, the king, his worshipper, and to Kambyses, my son, the offspring of my heart, and to all my army, and in peace we duly restored its front (in) glory. All the kings who dwell in the high-places of all regions from the Upper Sea to the Lower Sea, who dwell in (the high-places) of the kings of Phnicia and Sutar, all of them brought their rich tribute, and in the midst of Babylon kissed my feet. From (the city of) ... to the cities of a.s.sur and Istar ... Accad, Marad, Zamban, Me-Turnat, and Duran as far as the border of Kurdistan, the fortresses (which lie) upon the Tigris, wherein from of old were their seats, I restored the G.o.ds who dwelt within them to their places, and I enlarged (for them) seats that should be long-enduring; all their peoples I a.s.sembled, and I restored their lands. And the G.o.ds of Sumer and Accad, whom Nabonidos, to the anger of the lord of G.o.ds (Merodach), had brought into Babylon, I settled in peace in their sanctuaries by the command of Merodach, the great lord. In the goodness of their hearts may all the G.o.ds whom I have brought into their strong places daily intercede before Bel and Nebo that they should grant me length of days; may they bless my projects with prosperity, and may they say to Merodach my lord that Cyrus the king, thy worshipper, and Kambyses his son (deserve his favour)."