The Almond Tree
Jer. 1:11, 1211Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Jeremiah, what seest thou? And I said, I see a rod of an almond tree. 12Then said the Lord unto me, Thou hast well seen: for I will hasten my word to perform it. (Jeremiah 1:11‑12).—Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me saying, Jeremiah, what seest thou? And I said, I see a rod of an almond tree. Then said the Lord unto me, Thou hast well seen: for I will hasten my word to perform it.
PROF. H. B. TRISTRAM, LL. D., F. R. S.—The Almond is the earliest of all the trees in Palestine to put forth its blossoms, which we gathered at Bethany in January; hence its Hebrew name, snaked, i. e., hasten. This explains the passage in Jer. 1 it, 12: "Jeremiah, what seest thou? And I said, I see a rod of an almond tree (snaked). Then said the Lord unto me, Thou hast well seen: for I will hasten (snaked) my word to perform it; “where there is a play on the word.—Nat. Hist. of Bible, p. 332.
Corruption
ANTHOL. GRÆC.—
Enter the pure gods' temple sanctified
In soul, with virgin water purified:
One drop will cleanse the good; the ocean wave
Suffices not the guilty soul to lave.
Dromedary
PROF. H. B. TRISTRAM, LL. D., F. R. S.—The Dromedary is a choicer breed of camel, differing from the common camel as the race-horse does from the carthorse. The dromedary is much taller and longer in the leg, is altogether of a more slender shape, and is frequently of a very light color. Eighty miles a day is its speed when pressed, though fabulous stories are told of its accomplishing 250 miles without a halt.—Nat. Hist. of Bible, p. 65.
PROF. J. G. WOOD, M. A., F. L. S.—The Wild Ass is an astonishingly swift animal, so that on the level ground even the best horse has scarcely a chance of overtaking it. It is exceedingly wary; its sight, baring and sense of scent being equally keen, so that to approach it by craft is a most difficult task. And its disposition is intractable.—Bible Animals, p. 280.
Personal Adornments
Jer. 4:3030And when thou art spoiled, what wilt thou do? Though thou clothest thyself with crimson, though thou deckest thee with ornaments of gold, though thou rentest thy face with painting, in vain shalt thou make thyself fair; thy lovers will despise thee, they will seek thy life. (Jeremiah 4:30).—And when thou art spoiled, what wilt thou do? Though thou clothest thyself with crimson, though thou deckest thee with ornaments of gold, though thou rentest thy face with painting, in vain shalt thou make thyself fair; thy lovers will despise thee, they will seek thy life.
XENOPHON. —Cyrus allowed his associates to color their eyes, that they might seem to have finer eyes than they really had, and to paint themselves that they might appear to have better complexions.—Cyrop., VIII., I.
IDEM. —The most considerable Persians wore purple robes and costly vests, with chains about their necks, and bracelets round their wrists.—Anab., I., 5.
The Wolf and Leopard
PROF. H. B. TRISTRAM, LL. D., F. R. S.—The Wolf is now, as of old, the dread of the shepherds of Palestine. Not so numerous, but much more formidable than the jackal, he lurks about the folds, hunting, not in noisy packs, but secreting himself till dark among the rocks; without arousing the vigilance of the sheep-dogs, he leaps into the, fold, and seizes his victim by stealth. In the hill country of Benjamin, about Bethel and Gibeah, the wolves still ravin. We found them alike in the forests of Bashan and Gilead, in the ravines of Galilee and Lebanon, and in the maritime plains.—Nat. Hist. of Bible, p. 153, 154.
REV. GEORGE E. POST, M. D., Tripoli, Syria.—The Leopard is still found in Syria. I have seen a fine specimen from near Jezzin. One was killed near Abeih in the winter of 1866-67, after it had killed about sixty goats. A young one was taken near Bano in Akkar the same winter. They are not rare in the neighborhood of the castle of esh-Shukeef, opposite Deir Mimas. They work much mischief by their sanguinary attacks on the herds of goats and sheep which pasture in that vicinity.—Smith's Did, of Bible, p. 1630.
Decoys
ARISTOTLE.—Both partridges and quails are so eagerly attracted to their mates, that they will fly to the decoy-bird in the hands of the fowler, and even settle upon his head.—Hist. Anim., IX., 8.
ARISTOPHANES.—He seizes the pigeons and keeps them shut up, and compels them to decoy others.—Aves, v. 1083.
Signals
LIVY.—Philip of Macedon anticipating an attack from the Romans under Publius Sulpicius and king Attalus, sent people to Phocis, and Eubæa, and Peparethus, to choose out elevated situations where fires, being lighted, might \‘, be seen from afar. He fixed a beacon on Tisæum, a mountain whose summit is of immense height, that by means of lights on these eminences, whenever the enemy made any attempt, he might, though at a distance, receive instant intelligence of it. —Liv, XXVIII., 5.
The Old Paths
Jer. 6:1616Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein. (Jeremiah 6:16).—Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein.
SENECA. —What then? Must I not follow the steps of those who have gone before me? Yes, I will walk in the old path; but if I chance to find one nearer and plainer, I shall be inclined to take it, and direct others thereto.—Epist., 33.
The Bellows
HOMER.—Soon as he bade them blow, the bellows turned Their iron mouths; and where the furnace burned, Resounding, breathed.—Iliad, XVIII., 468.
SIR J. G. WILKINSON.—Bellows were known and used in Egypt in the time of Moses, and perhaps still earlier. Of these the pictures still remain. They consisted of a leather, secured and fitted into a frame, from which a long pipe extended for carrying the wind to the fire. They were worked by the feet, the opErator standing upon them, with one under each foot, and pressing them alternately, while he pulled up each exhausted skin with a string he held in his hand. In one instance we observe from the painting, that when the man left the bellows, they were raised as if inflated with air; and this could imply a knowledge of the valve. The pipes even in the time of Thothmes III., supposed Ito be the contemporary of Moses, appear to have been simply of reed, tipped with a metal point to resist the action of the fire. — Anct. Egypt, III., 338.
Cake Offering
HERODOTUS. —Those who are poor make the figures of swine with meal, which having first baked, they offer on the altar to Luna.—Herod., lib. ii., c. 47.
HORACE.—
A graceful cake, when on the hallow'd shrine
Offer'd by hands that know no guilty stain,
Shall reconcile the offended powers divine,
When bleeds the pompous hecatomb in vain.
—Lib. iii., C. 23.
Cutting off the Hair
HOMER.—Tears flowed from every eye, and o'er the dead Each clipped the curling honors of his head.—Odyss., XIV., 46.
EURIPIDES.—Let the Cyclopean land howl, applying the steel to their head, cropped of hair, over the calamities of our house.—Orest., v. 965.
IDEM.—During this night having gone to the tomb of my Sire, I both shed tears and made offerings of my hair.—Electr., v. 90.
Migration of Birds
PROF. H. B. TRISTRAM, LL. D., F. R. S.—The periodical return of the stork is noticed by Jeremiah. There is peculiar force in the words, “the stork in the heaven," for unlike most other emigrants, the stork voyages by day at a treat height in the air, and the vast flocks cannot but attract the notice of the least observant. The multitudes which arrive, and the suddenness with which these huge birds distribute themselves over the whole face of the land, is in Palestine truly startling. In winter not one is to be seen.—Nat. Hist. of Bible, p. 246.
IDEM.—Search the glades and valleys even by sultry Jordan, at the end of March, and not a turtle-dove is to be seen. Return in the second week in April, and clouds of doves are feeding on the clovers of the plain. They stock every tree and thicket. At every step they flutter up from the herbage in front -they perch on every tree and bush-they overspread the whole face of the land. So universal, so simultaneous, so conspicuous their migration, that the prophet might well place the turtle-dove at the head of those birds which “observe the time of their coming."—Ibid., p. 219.
IDEM.—The crane is well known in the Holy Land, and is, next to the ostrich, the largest bird in the country. It only visits the cultivated region at the time of its spring migration, when a few pairs remain in the marshy plains, as by the waters of Merom, but the greater number pass onwards to the north.— Ibid., p. 240.
Balm of Gilead
PROF. H. B. TRISTRAM, LL. D., F. R. S.—The most precious balm, that of Gilead, was the produce of the Opobalsamum, which is now cultivated about Mecca. Formerly it was cultivated with great care in the plains of Jericho. Its value was very great. It was and still is used as an internal medicine for stomachic complaints, and also externally for wounds. To this precious unguent the prophet probably refers, when he exclaims, “Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? “Many Gentile writers, as Tacitus, Strabo and Pliny, speak of the balm of Gilead as a precious commodity peculiar to Palestine.—Nat. Hist. of Bible, p. 337.
Hired Mourners
LUCIAN.—The foolish people howl and lament, and even send for a howler by trade, who has a great store of dismal stories always ready to keep their unmeaning grief in breath. When they are going to leave off the fellow begins, and the whole family presently sets up a howl to the same tune after him.— De Luau, c. 20.
LUCILIUS.—Those hired female mourners who weep at a stranger's funeral and bawl louder.—Sat. XXII., v. I.
DR. JOHN KITTO, F. S. A.—The Jewish Doctors acknowledge the custom of hiring professed mourners to lament over the dead, and inform us that it was so common that the poorest man in Israel, when his wife died, never had less than two pipes and one mourning woman.—Note, In loco.
Glory in God Alone
Jer. 9:23, 2423Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: 24But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord. (Jeremiah 9:23‑24).—Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches; but let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth.
PHOCYLIDES.—
If wisdom, strength, or riches, be thy lot,
Boast not; but rather think thou hast them not.
One God alone, from whom those gifts proceed,
Is wise, is mighty, and is rich indeed.
—Phocy., v. 48.
Natural Omens
PLINY.—Our knowledge has been so far useful to us in the interpretation of thunder, that it enables us to predict what is to happen on a certain day, and we learn either that our fortune is to be entirely changed, or it discloses events which are concealed from us.—Hist. Nat., lib. ii., c. 54.
DR. JOHN KITTO.—Jeremiah refers to those unusual natural phenomena, such as eclipses, which in the ancient superstitions certainly did “dismay the heathen," being regarded by them as harbingers and tokens of great public calamities. Many instances of the dismay which eclipses inspired might be cited. We may quote two of them. Nicias, the Athenian general, had determined to quit Sicily with his army; but an eclipse of the moon happening at that juncture, filled him with such alarm that he lost the favorable moment. This was the occasion of his own death and the ruin of his army; and this was so unhappy a loss to the Athenians that the decline of their state may perhaps be dated from that event. Even the army of Alexander, before the battle of Arbela, was so frightened at an eclipse of the moon, that the soldiers, deeming it a sign that the gods were displeased at the enterprise of their leader, refused to proceed on their march from the Tigris till assured by the Egyptian soothsayers that an eclipse of the moon was an omen of peculiar evil to their enemies, the Persians. R. Jarchi expressly refers the above text to the terror which eclipses occasioned.—Pict. Bible, In loco.
REV. JOSEPH ROBERTS.—Should a supposed malignant planet begin to rule in any given month, multitudes are in a state of terrible agitation, and, with the priests at their head, are devising a thousand plans to avert its direful potency. Though their astronomers can calculate, with tolerable accuracy, the time when an eclipse will occur, yet this will not serve in the least to pacify the vast tribes of the East. During its continuance, they are all in a state of complete consternation; they abstain from their food and usual occupations, and yield themselves up to all the foolish impositions and absurd fantasies of their wily priest. —Orient. Illust., p. 468.
Idols
DR. JOHN KITTO.—Here is an allusion to the form which the ancient idols bore, before the art of statuary was carried to perfection, when images were little better than an erect block of equal thickness throughout, but being surmounted by some resemblance of a human head or bust. This form of representing the gods was preserved, with improvements suggested by advanced taste, in the terminal statues of Hermes and of Pan long after the art of sculpture had progressed far beyond the circumstances in which such forms originated. A step beyond this original contrivance is exhibited in the Egyptian statues which meet our eyes in every exhibition of Egyptian antiquities, or in books containing representations of them, in which the statues stand bolt upright, resting equally upon both legs, which are close to each other, with the arms straight down by the sides. To all such figures, which doubtless typify the forms of idols which prevailed in the time of the prophet, the comparison, " upright as the palm-tree," is singularly appropriate, and is no doubt intended to characterize the stiffness, lifelessness, and want of natural action which belonged to such representations.—Pict. Bible, In loco.
DR. JOHN KITTO.—This of course alludes to the idol-statues, and to the custom of clothing them with real dresses of rich stuffs. Pausanias mentions numerous statues thus attired in the various cities of Greece which he visited; and there is much other testimony to the same effect. Tertullian says that the gods and goddesses, like opulent females, had ministers particularly entrusted with the duty of arraying their images. It is related that the people, in their haste, to invest Saturninus with the ensigns of imperial rank, divested a statue of Venus of its purple robe, and covered with it the new emperor. Baruch mentions certain priests who took off the idols' garments to clothe their wives and children.—Pict. Bib. In loco.
Need of Divine Direction
HERODOTUS.—Remember the ancient proverb, When we commence a thing we cannot always tell where it will end.—Polym., c. 51.
EURIPIDES —I say that no man is happy or miserable but through the gods.—Heracl., v, 608.
Cities of the South
PROF. E. H. PALMER, M. A.—Strange and solemn are the thoughts inspired by such a journey as that which we had just taken. Long ages ago, the Word of God had declared that the land of the Canaanites, and the Amalekites, and the Amorites should become a desolate waste; that “The cities of the South Country, or the Negeb, shall be shut up, and none shall open them "—and here around us we saw the literal fulfillment of the dreadful curse. Wells of solid masonry, fields and gardens compassed round about with goodly walls, every sign of human industry, was there; but only the empty names and stony skeleton of civilization remained to tell of what the country once had been. There stood the ancient towns, still called by their ancient names, but not a living thing was to be seen, save when a lizard glided over the crumbling walls, or screech-owls flitted through the lonely streets.—Desert of the Exodus, p. 332.
Force of Habit
ARISTOTLE.—It is not possible, certainly not easy, to change that which has been for a long time impressed upon the character.—Eth., lib. x., c. 9.
LUCIAN. —Why do you fruitlessly wash the body of an Indian? Forbear your art; you cannot bring the sun upon a dark night. —Epigr.
Northern Iron
WILLIAM ALDIS WRIGHT, M. A.—The Chalybes of the Pontus were celebrated as workers in iron in very ancient times. They were identified by Strabo with the Chaldæi of his day, and the mines which they worked were in the mountains skirting the seacoast. The produce of their labor is supposed to be alluded to in Jer. 15:1212Shall iron break the northern iron and the steel? (Jeremiah 15:12), as being of superior quality. Iron mines are still in existence on the same coast, and ore is found in small nodular masses in a dark yellow clay which overlies a limestone rock.—Smith's Dict. of the Bible, p. 1143.
The Heart Deceitful
Jer. 17:99The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? (Jeremiah 17:9).—The heart is deceitful above all things; and desperately wicked: who can know it? ARISTOPHANES.—Man is naturally deceitful ever, in every way.—Aves, v. 450.
Manufacture of Pottery
REV. W. M. THOMSON, D. D.—I have been out on the shore again, examining a native manufactory of pottery, and was delighted to find the whole Biblical apparatus complete, and in full operation. There was the potter sitting at his “frame," and turning the “wheel " with his foot. He had a heap of the prepared clay near him, and a pan of water by his side. Taking a lump in his hand, he placed it on the top of the wheel (which revolves horizontally), and smoothed it into a low cone, like the upper end of a sugar-loaf; then thrusting his thumb into the top of it, he opened a hole down through the center, and this he constantly widened by pressing the edges of the revolving cone between his hands. As it enlarged and became thinner, he gave it whatever shape he pleased with the utmost ease and expedition. This, I suppose, is the exact point of those Biblical comparisons between the human and the Divine Potter: "O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the Lord. Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in my hand, saith the Lord." When Jeremiah was watching the potter, the vessel was marred in his hand, and so he made it again another vessel as seemed good to the potter to make it. I had to wait a long time for that, but it happened at last. From some defect in the clay, or because he had taken too little, the potter suddenly changed his mind, crushed his growing jar instantly into a shapeless mass of mud, and beginning anew, fashioned it into a totally different vessel.—The Land and the Book, Vol. II., p. 281-283.
Snow of Lebanon
PROF. J. LESLIE PORTER, M. A.—When the plains of Palestine are burned up with the scorching sun, and when the air in them is like the breath of a furnace, the snowy tops and ice-cold streams of Lebanon temper the breezes, and make the mountain range a pleasant and luxurious retreat:—" Shall a man leave the snow of Lebanon? or shall its cold flowing waters be forsaken? "—Smith's Dict. of Bible, p. 1622.
Burial of an Ass
Jer. 22:18, 1918Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah; They shall not lament for him, saying, Ah my brother! or, Ah sister! they shall not lament for him, saying, Ah lord! or, Ah his glory! 19He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem. (Jeremiah 22:18‑19).—Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah: They shall not lament for him, saying, Ah my brother or, Ah sister! they shall not lament for him, saying, Ah lord! or, Ah his glory! He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem.
REV. THOMAS S. MILLINGTON.—To be deprived of the rites of sepulture was to the ancients the greatest of all calamities, worse even than death itself.—Test. of Heath., p. 410.
PLUTARCH.—After Demosthenes and Nicias had been stoned to death by the Syracusans, their bodies were thrown without the gates, and lay there exposed to the view of all who wished to enjoy the spectacle.—Nic., c. 28.
GHOST OF ELPENOR, to Ulysses—
In pity on my cold remains attend,
And call to mind thy dear departed friend.
The tribute of a tear is all I crave,
And the possession of a peaceful grave.
—Hom. Odyss., XI., 51.
Messiah
Omnipresence
PINDAR.—Hope not, mortal, e'er to shun The penetrating eye of Heaven.—Olymp., I., 102.
ARATUS.—Jove fills the heaven—the earth—the sea—the air: We feel his spirit moving here, and everywhere.—Phen., v. 3.
Naughty Figs
PROF. H. B. TRISTRAM, LL. D., F. R. S.—Tasteless and woody, these sycamore figs must surely have been those in the prophet's vision, when he pronounced the figs in the second basket to be " very naughty figs, which could not be eaten, they were so bad," and which were an apt emblem of the rejected Zedekiah and his people. Figs, however, they are, and the tree is a congener of the celebrated banyan-tree of India.—Land of Israel, p. 35.
Dispersion of the Jews
DR. ALEXANDER KEITH.—There is not a country on the face of the earth where the Jews are unknown. They are found alike in Europe, Asia, America, and Africa. They are citizens of the world, without a country. Neither mountains nor rivers, nor deserts, nor oceans,—which are the boundaries of other nations,—have terminated their wanderings.—Evid. from Proph., p. 69.
BISHOP PATRICK.—The name of Jew has long been a proverbial mark of detestation and contempt, among all the nations whither they have been driven, and is so to this day; so that Christians, Mohammedans and Pagans join in it. —Note, on Deut. 28:3737And thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword, among all nations whither the Lord shall lead thee. (Deuteronomy 28:37).
Babylonian Captivity
MAJOR SKINNER.—While resting at night in the Arab encampment, the women in the neighboring tents were grinding corn, and the dull sound of the stones was neither disagreeable nor unsuited to the scene. They accompanied the labor with the most plaintive song I ever heard it was almost a moan; and it seemed as if they sang in concert, they kept so admirably together.—Journey Overland, Vol. II., p. 153.
Jer. 25:1212And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, saith the Lord, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations. (Jeremiah 25:12).—And it shall come to pass when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, saith the Lord, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations.
DR. JOHN KITTO.—This is a very remarkable prophecy, fixing, as it does, a date for the restoration of the Hebrews to their own land, and for the overthrow of the Babylonian monarchy.... The subjection of the Jews to the Babylonians occurred in the same year with the delivery of the present prophecy, when Jerusalem surrendered to Nebuchadnezzar after a short siege, and when that monarch took away part of the ornaments of the temple, and also the sons of some of the principal nobles to answer as hostages, and to be employed in the service of his court; among these were Daniel and his three friends. Now this took place in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, or B. C. 605. And Cyrus issued his decree for the restoration of the Jews in the first year of his reign, or B. C. 536; which was, as the prophet had foretold, in the seventieth year from their subjugation by Nebuchadnezzar.—Note In loco.
Jer. 25:53.—And I will bring upon that land all my words which I have pronounced against it, even all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah hath prophesied against all the nations.
MAJOR KEPPEL.—It was impossible to behold this scene, and not to be reminded of how exactly the predictions of Isaiah and Jeremiah have been fulfilled, even in the appearance Babylon was doomed to present; that she should never be inhabited; that the Arabian should not pitch his tent there; that she should become heaps; that her cities should be desolation, a dry land, and a wilderness.—Narrative, p. 197.
Shout of the Wine-Press
PROF. H. B. TRISTRAM.—The wine was expressed, as it still is, by the simple inartificial process of treading. This was effected by several men, according to the size of the vat, who encouraged each other after the invariable Oriental fashion of “shouting."—Nat. Hist. of Bible, p. 409.
MR. J. G. FRANCIS, B. A.—The fumes which rose from the trodden grapes were so strong that all the treaders soon became inebriated. From a modest silence they passed to singing, and from singing to vociferous shouting. The scene brought forcibly to my mind divers passages of Holy Writ. Notes from a Journal, 1844-46.
Zion Ploughed
GIBBON.—After the final destruction of the temple, by the arms of Titus and Hadrian, a ploughshare was drawn over the consecrated ground, as a sign of perpetual interdiction. Sion was deserted. The holy places were polluted with monuments of idolatry. —Decline and Fall of R. E., chap. xxiii.
RICHARDSON.—At the time when I visited this sacred spot (Mount Zion) one part of it supported a crop of barley, another was 'undergoing the labor of the plow,—Travels.
Return From Babylon
Jer. 29.10.—Thus saith the Lord, That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place.
BISHOP NEWTON.—This prophecy was first delivered (25:11) in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, which was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. And this same year it began to be put in execution. Seventy years from this time will bring us down to the first year of Cyrus, when he made his proclamation for the restoration of the Jews, and for the rebuilding of the temple at Jerusalem.— Dissertations on the Prophecies, No. VIII.
EZRA.—Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying, Thus saith Cyrus, king of Persia, The Lord God of heaven, etc.—Chapter I., v. 1-4.
Preservation of the Jews
Jer. 30:10, 1110Therefore fear thou not, O my servant Jacob, saith the Lord; neither be dismayed, O Israel: for, lo, I will save thee from afar, and thy seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return, and shall be in rest, and be quiet, and none shall make him afraid. 11For I am with thee, saith the Lord, to save thee: though I make a full end of all nations whither I have scattered thee, yet will I not make a full end of thee: but I will correct thee in measure, and will not leave thee altogether unpunished. (Jeremiah 30:10‑11)—Therefore fear thou not, O my servant Jacob, saith the Lord; neither be dismayed, O Israel: for, lo, I will save thee from afar, and thy seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return, and be in rest, and be quiet, and none shall make him afraid. For I am with thee, saith the Lord, to save thee: though I make a full end of all nations whither I have scattered thee, yet will I not make a full end of thee; but I will correct thee in measure, and will not leave thee altogether unpunished.
DR. THOMAS SCOTT.—God has made a "full end" of the Egyptians, Syrians, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Medes, and Persians, and Macedonians, and of the pagan Roman Empire, which successively scattered or oppressed Israel; so that each of them has been inseparably united with the conquering nations: yet the Jews, by an unprecedented interposition of Providence, after all their oppressions and dispersions, are preserved a distinct people to this present day. How wonderfully do undeniable facts demonstrate the Divine Inspiration of the Scriptures! —Note, In loco.
Smiting the Thigh
PLUTARCH.—Pompey, on hearing of his promotion over Lucullus, knit his brows, smote his thigh, and expressed himself as already overburdened with the weight of power.—Pomp., c. 30.
QUINTILIAN.—An orator who wants to express indignation, or to rouse hit audience, may with a very becoming grace, strike his thigh.—Quintil., lib. xi., c. 3.
Purchase' of Real Estate
Jer. 32:9-129And I bought the field of Hanameel my uncle's son, that was in Anathoth, and weighed him the money, even seventeen shekels of silver. 10And I subscribed the evidence, and sealed it, and took witnesses, and weighed him the money in the balances. 11So I took the evidence of the purchase, both that which was sealed according to the law and custom, and that which was open: 12And I gave the evidence of the purchase unto Baruch the son of Neriah, the son of Maaseiah, in the sight of Hanameel mine uncle's son, and in the presence of the witnesses that subscribed the book of the purchase, before all the Jews that sat in the court of the prison. (Jeremiah 32:9‑12).—And I bought the field of Hanameel, my uncle's son, that was in Anathoth, and weighed him the money, even seventeen shekels of silver. And I subscribed the evidence, and sealed it, and took witnesses, and weighed him the money in the balances. So I took the evidence of the purchase, both that which was sealed according to the law and cus tom, and that which was open. And I gave the evidence of the purchase unto Baruch the son of Neriah, the son of Maaseiah, in the sight of Hanameel mine uncle's son, and in the presence of the witnesses that subscribed the book of the purchase, before all the Jews that sat in the court of the prison.
EGYPTIAN PAPYRI.—The Egyptian Papyri can be rolled and unrolled, after the lapse of so many centuries, without any detriment. But this complete preservation of so many specimens is he doubt to be attributed to their being kept from the air, under mummy-coverings, or in earthen vessels. Sometimes the two ends of a roll have been found sealed with cloth and resin. The ink, Pliny says, was made of soot, in various ways, by mixing it with burnt pitch and reisins. Lees of wine, boiled and strained, also made a kind of ink. On some the ink has a yellowish, tint, such as soot ink would change to; on others it is still very black. The strokes are like those made with a goose quill, and such were used: but Jomard thinks with a fine reed, very obliquely cut, such as now in the East is called qualam, whence the Greek and Latin calamus, possibly derived from Egypt.
A papyrus, in Egyptian, in the Vatican, Champollion dates at 640 B. C.; he dates many others centuries earlier. One, in Greek, from Thebes, Dr. Young dates at 106 B. C. This relates to the sale of some land, near Thebes, by two brothers and two sisters. It commences with reciting that the sale took place in the reign of Cleopatra, and Ptolemy her son, surnamed Alexander. It then goes on thus:—
"Pamonthes, about forty-five years of age, of middle stature, dark complexion, handsome person, bald, round-faced, and straight-nosed; and Snachomneus, about twenty years of age, and middle size, also round-faced and straight-nosed; and Semonthis Persinei, about twenty-two years of age, and middle size, yellow complexion, round-faced, flat-nosed, and of quiet demeanor; and Tathlut Persinei, about thirty, of middle size, yellow complexion, round-faced, straight-nosed; together with their principal, or master, Pamonthes, who joined in the conveyance,—all four being the children of Petepsais, one of the leather-cutters of the Memnoneia,—sold out of the piece of ground belonging to them on the southern side of the Memnoneia, this being vacant ground, eight thousand cubits, one-fourth of the whole. The land is bounded on the south by the royal street; on the north and east, by the possessions of Pamonthes and Bokonsiemis his brother, and the public wall of the city; on the west, by the house of Tages, the son of Chalome. A canal leading from the river runs through the middle of the property: such are the boundaries on all sides. The purchaser was Nechutes, the less, the son of Asos, about forty years of age, of a yellow complexion, happy countenance, long face, straight nose, with a scar in the middle of his forehead, who gave six hundred pieces of copper coin. The salesman and warranties for the legality of the sale were the sellers. Nechutes the purchaser received. (Signed) APOLLONIUS."
'This sale and purchase were registered, the registration being subjoined to the deed of sale; and a government duty of five percent was paid on the proceeds of the sAle.
Another similar deed of conveyance, of the date of 130 B. C., has been discovered and translated; the original, now in Paris, according to custom being written in the Egyptian language, and the enchorial characters. In this, after the date, parties, and descriptions, these phrases occur: “The Tombs (sold) are thine, and I have the price of them from thee; and I make no demand on thee concerning them from this day. And if any person come upon thee (disturb thee) in this property, I will remove him, and if I do not remove him, I will remove him by force. Written by Orus, the son of Phabis, who belongs to the sacred rites of Amonrasonther and the Syennæan deities, as sole writer.
"Witnesses, Erieus, son of Phanrees, Panas, the son of Petosiris, etc.,—in all sixteen witnesses.
"Registry.—In the year 36, Choiach 9th, at the table in Diospolis, at which Lysimachus presides, the loth part, the usual tax... according to the... of Aschpiades and Zminis, farmers of the revenue, at which table Ptolemæus signed the copy. Orus, the son of Orus, libation-power, who belongs to the collections, on account of the dead bodies in Thybanum in the Memnoneia of Lybia, of the part about Thebes, the tombs, for which they perform services, which he bought of Onnrophris, the son of Orus, for... pieces of brass.
—LYSIMACHUS." (Subscribed.)
(The above transaction of Jeremiah receives much light and corroboration from these curious discoveries, for which see)—Library of Entertaining Knowledge, Vol. XXX.
ASSYRIAN CONTRACT.—The nail-mark of Sarru-ludari, the nail-mark of Atar-'suru, and the nail-mark of the woman, Amat-'Suhala, the wife of Bel-duru, the..., the owner of the house which is given up. (Here follow four nail-marks, in lieu of seal-impressions.) The whole house with its woodwork, and its doors, situated in the city of Nineveh, adjoining the houses of Mannuci-akhi and Ilu-ciya, and the property of 'Sukaki he has sold, and Tsillu-Assur the astronomer, an Egyptian, for one maneh of silver, according to the royal' Standard, in the presence of Sarru-ludari, Atar-'suru; and Amat-'Suhala, the wife of its owner, has received it. The full sum thou hast given. This house has been taken possession of. The exchange and the contract are concluded. There is no withdrawal. Whosoever shall act feloniously among any of these men who have sworn to the contract and the agreement, which is before our prince Assur, ten manehs of silver shall he pay. The witnesses are: Su'san-kukhadnanis, Murmaza, the ... . Ra'sua, the pilot, Nebo-dur-sanin, the partitioner of the enemy, Murmaza, the pilot, Sinnis-nacarat and Zedekiah. The 16th day of the month Sivan, the eponymy of Zaza of the city of Arpad (B. c. 692), before Samas-itsbat-nacara, Latturn and Nebo-sum-yutsur.—Records of the Past, Vol. I.. Tablet V., p. 139.
Nothing Too Hard for God
OVID.—Heaven's power is infinite: earth, air, and sea, The manufactured mass, the Making Power obey.—Meta., VIII., 618.
CALLIMACHUS.—If God thou knowest, know also that to the Deity all things are possible.—Ap. Plut. De Placit. Philos., lib. i., c. 7.
Putting Out the Eyes
PROF. GEORGE RAWLINSON, M. A.—Putting out the eyes has been in all ages a common Oriental punishment. The earliest instance on record is that of Zedekiah, whose eyes were put out by Nebuchadnezzar. The frequency of the punishment in the time of the younger Cyrus is indicated by a passage in Xenophon, where it is said that men deprived of sight for their crimes were a common spectacle along the highways within his government. Its continuance in later times is marked by such writers as Ammianus Marcellinus and Procopius. Rawlinson's Herod., IV., p. 16.
BEROSUS.—Nebuchadnezzar, having conquered the Jews, burnt the temple at Jerusalem, and removing the entire people from their homes, transported them to Babylon.—In Josephus c. Ap. I: 19.
Hidden Treasures
Jer.41:8.—But ten men were found among them that said unto Ishmael, Slay us not, for we have treasures in the field, of wheat, and of barley, and of oil, and of honey. So he forbare, and slew them not among their brethren.
PROF. H. B. TRISTRAM, LL. D., F. R. S.—A few yards below this was a circular opening in the ground, about a yard in diameter, like the mouth of a well, but really the mouth of an ancient granary or " silo," for keeping and concealing corn. It swelled into a round chamber below, about eight feet deep and more than nine in diameter, carefully plastered wherever it was not hewn out of the native rock, and having very much the shape of a large flask or demijohn. Such “silos" are universally used by the nomad Bedouin for storing their grain, and exist in great numbers in and around their favorite camping grounds. More than once I have had a fall, through my horse, when galloping over a plain, setting his foot on the treacherous roof of one of these empty granaries. It was to such hidden stores as these that the ten men referred, who appealed to the treacherous Ishmael, “Slay us not, for we have treasures in the field, of wheat, and of barley, and of oil, and of honey."—Land of Israel, p. 108.
Queen of Heaven
Jer. 44:1717But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth, to burn incense unto the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her, as we have done, we, and our fathers, our kings, and our princes, in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem: for then had we plenty of victuals, and were well, and saw no evil. (Jeremiah 44:17).—But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth, to burn incense unto the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink-offerings unto her.
STRABO.—The gods worshipped by the Albanians are the sun, Jupiter, and the noon; but the moon above the rest. She has a temple near Iberia, and human victims are offered to her in sacrifice.—Strab., lib. xi., c. 4.
ASSYRIAN RELICS.—Mr. Layard discovered a bas-relief at Nimroud, which represented four idols, one of which he identifies with the " queen of heaven," who appears on the rock-tablets Pterium, standing erect on a lion, and crowned with a tower, or mural coronet, as in the Syrian temple of Hierapolis.— Nineveh, II., 451, 456.
SIR JOHN CHARDIN.—Still in Georgia and other parts of the East, before feasting, it is customary to go out and raise the eyes to the naked heaven, and pour out a cup of wine on the ground.—In Comp. Com., In loco.
DR. MORRISON.—In China, from the 1St to the 15th of the month, persons make cakes like the moon, of various sizes, and paint figures upon them; these are called “Moon cakes." At full moon they spread out oblations, and make prostrations to the moon.—Ibid.
Pharaoh-Hophra
PROF. GEORGE RAWLINSON, M. A.—The Pharaoh-hophra of Jeremiah is the Pharaoh-Apries of Herodotus. His name occurs on a few of the monuments.—Rawlinson's Herod., Vol. II., p. 209, note.
HERODOTUS.—Of the permanence of his authority Apries is said to have entertained so high an opinion that he conceived it not to be in the power even of a deity to overthrow him. He was however conquered and taken prisoner: after his captivity he was conducted to Sais, to what was formerly his own, but was then the palace of Amasis. He was here confined for some time, and afterward delivered up to the Egyptians, who strangled him.—Euterp., c. 169.
DIODORUS SICULUS.—Apries reigned 22 years. After many great victories, he was routed in a battle near to a town called Marinus, and being taken prisoner there by Amasis, was afterward strangled.
—Diod. Sic., lib. i., c. 5.
Pharaoh-Necho
REGINALD STUART POOLE, Brit. Mus.—Herodotus calls this monarch Nekos, 'and assigns to him a reign of sixteen years, which is confirmed by the monuments.... At the commencement of his reign, B. C. 610, he made war against the king of Assyria, and, being encountered on his way by Josiah, defeated and slew the king of Judah at Megiddo.... He was marching against Charchemish on the Euphrates, a place already of importance in the annals of the Egyptian wars of the XIXth dynasty.... Necho seems to have soon returned to Egypt, leaving the army posted probably at Charchemish, where it was defeated by Nebuchadnezzar in the fourth year of Necho, or B. C. 607. This battle led to the loss of all the Asiatic dominions of Egypt, and " the king of Egypt came not again any more out of his land."—Smith's Dict., of Bible, p. 2467.
The Shield
HERODOTUS.—From the Lybians the Greeks borrowed the vest, and the ægis or shield, with which they decorate the shrine of Minerva.—Melpomene, c. 189.
Healing Balm
PROF. H. B. TRISTRAM, LL. D., F. R. S.—The balm of Gilead is an exudation of a yellow color, very tenacious, and has a fragrant resinous scent. It is used as an internal medicine for stomachic complaints, and also externally for wounds.—Nat. Hist. of Bible, p. 338.
HERODOTUS.—Medicine is practiced among the Egyptians on a plan of separation: each physician treats a single disorder, and no more; thus the country swarms with medical practitioners, some undertaking to cure diseases of the eye, others of the head, others again of the teeth, others of the intestines, and some those which are not local.—Euterpe, c. 84.
Noph
REGINALD STUART POOLE, Brit. Mus.—We recognize in the singular disappearance of the city of Memphis and its temples in a country where several primeval towns yet stand, and scarce any ancient site is unmarked by temples, the fulfillment of the words of Jeremiah: " Noph shall be waste and desolate without an inhabitant; " And those of Ezekiel, " I will also destroy the idols, and I will cause their images to cease out of Noph."—Smith's Dict. of Bible, p. 686.
No-Amon
Jer. 46:2525The Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, saith; Behold, I will punish the multitude of No, and Pharaoh, and Egypt, with their gods, and their kings; even Pharaoh, and all them that trust in him: (Jeremiah 46:25).—The Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, saith, I will punish the multitude of No, and Pharaoh, and Egypt, with their gods and their kings.
REGINALD STUART POOLE, Brit. Mus.—No—No-Amon—Populous No—a chief city of ancient Egypt, long the capital of the upper country, and the seat of the Diospolitan dynasties, that ruled over all Egypt at the era of its highest splendor.... Its fame as a great capital had crossed the sea when Greece was yet in its infancy as a nation.... Ezekiel proclaims its destruction by the arms of Babylon, and Jeremiah predicting the same overthrow, says, "The Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, saith, Behold I will punish the multitude of No, and Pharaoh, and Egypt, with their gods and their kings." The Persian invader completed the destruction that the Babylonian had begun; the hammer of Cambyses leveled the proud statue of Rameses, and his torch consumed the temples and palaces of the city of the hundred gates. No-Amon, the shrine of the Egyptian Jupiter, "that was situate among the rivers, and whose rampart was the sea," sank from its metropolitan splendor to the position of a mere provincial town; and, notwithstanding the spasmodic efforts of the Ptolemies to revive its ancient glory, became at last only the desolate and ruined sepulcher of the empire it had once embodied. It lies today a nest of Arab hovels amid crumbling columns and drifting sands.—Smith's Dict. of Bible, p. 3216-20.
Preservation of the Jews and Destruction of Their Enemies
BISHOP NEWTON.—The preservation of the Jews through so many ages, and the total destruction of their enemies, are wonderful events; and are made still more wonderful by being signified beforehand by the spirit of prophecy, as we find particularly in the prophet Jeremiah: "I will make a full end of the nations whither I have driven thee, but I will not make a full end of thee."
The preservation of the Jews is really one of the most signal and illustrious acts of Divine Providence. They are dispersed among all nations, and yet they are not confounded with any. The drops of rain which fall, nay, the great rivers which flow into the ocean, are soon mingled and lost in that immense body of waters; and the same in all human probability would have been the fate of the Jews, they would have been mingled and lost in the common mass of mankind; but on the contrary they flow into all parts of the world, mix with all nations, and yet keep separate from all. They still live as a distinct people, and yet they nowhere live according to their own laws, nowhere elect their own magistrates, nowhere enjoy the full exercise of their religion. Their solemn feasts and sacrifices are limited to one certain place, and that hath been now for many ages in the hands of strangers and aliens, who will not suffer them to come thither. No people have continued unmixed so long as they have done, not only of those who have sent forth colonies into foreign countries, but even of those who have abided in their own country. The northern nations have come in swarms into the more southern parts of Europe; but where are they now to be discerned and distinguished? The Gauls went forth in great bodies to seek their fortune in foreign parts; but what traces or footsteps of them are now remaining anywhere? In France who can separate the race of the ancient Gauls from the various other people, who from time to time have settled there? In Spain who can distinguish exactly between the first possessors, the Spaniards, and the Goths, and the Moors, who conquered and kept possession of the country for some ages? In England who can pretend to say with certainty which families are derived from the ancient Britons, and which from the Romans, or Saxons, or Danes, or Normans? The most ancient and honorable pedigrees can be traced up only a certain period, and beyond that there is nothing but conjecture and uncertainty, obscurity and ignorance: but the Jews can go up higher than any nation, they can even deduce their pedigree from the beginning of the world. They may not know from what particular tribe or family they are descended, but they know certainly that they all sprang from the stock of Abraham. And yet the contempt with which they have been treated, and the hardships they have undergone in almost all countries, should, one would think, have made them desirous to forget or renounce their original; but they profess it, they glory in it: and after so many wars, massacres, and persecutions, they still subsist, they are still very numerous: and what but a supernatural' power could have preserved them in such a manner as none other nation upon earth hath been preserved?
Nor is the providence of God less remarkable in the destruction of their enemies, than in their preservation. For from the beginning who have been the great enemies and oppressors of the Jewish nation, removed them from their own land, and compelled them into captivity and slavery? The Egyptians afflicted them much, and detained them in bondage several years. The Assyrians carried away captive the ten tribes of Israel, and the Babylonians afterward the two remaining tribes of Judah and Benjamin. The Syro-Macedonians, especially Antiochus Epiphanes, cruelly persecuted them: and the Romans utterly dissolved the Jewish state, and dispersed the people so that they have never been able to recover their city and country again. But where are now these great and famous monarchies, which in their turn subdued and oppressed the people of God? Are they not vanished as a dream, and not only their power, but their very names lost in the earth? The Egyptians, Assyrians, and Babylonians were overthrown, and entirely subjugated by the Persians: and the Persians (it is remarkable) were the restorers of the Jews, as well as the destroyers of their enemies. The Syro-Macedonians were swallowed up by the Romans: and the Roman Empire, great and powerful as it was, was broken into pieces by the incursions of the northern nations; while the Jews are subsisting as a distinct people at this day. And what a wonder of providence is it, that the vanquished should so many ages survive the victors, and the former be spread all over the world, while the latter are no more? (And have we not herein a demonstration of the Divine Inspiration of the prophets?)—Dissert., VIII., sec. 2.
Moab
PROF. J. L. PORTER, A. M.—The best, the fullest, the most instructive commentary on the 48th chapter of Jeremiah, I ever saw, was that inscribed by the finger of God on the Panorama spread out around me as I stood on the battlements of the castle of Salcah.... The harmony between the predictions of the Bible and the state of the country is complete. No traveler can possibly fail o see it; and no conscientious man can fail to acknowledge it.—Giant Cities of Bashan, ft. 81.
CAPTAINS IRBY AND MANGLES.—The whole of the plains (of Moab) are covered with the sites of towns, on every eminence or spot convenient for the construction of one. And as the land is capable of rich cultivation, there can be no doubt that the country, now so deserted, once presented a continued picture of plenty and fertility.—Travels, p. 370.
BURCKHARDT.—The ruins of Eleale, Heshbon, Meon, Medaba, Dibon, Aroer, still subsist to illustrate the history of the Beni Israel.—Travels in Nubia, Introd., p. 38.
PROF. J. LESLIE PORTER, M. A.—The view from the top of Salcah is wide and wonderfully interesting.... For more than an hour I sat gazing on that vast panorama. Wherever I turned my eyes towns and villages were seen. Bozrah was there on its plain, twelve miles distant. The towers of Beth-Gamul were faintly visible far away on the horizon. In the vale immediately to the south of Salcah are several deserted towns, whose names I could not ascertain. Three miles off, in the same direction, is a hill called Abd el-Maaz, with a large deserted town on its eastern side. To the southeast an ancient road runs straight across the plain as far as the eye can see. About six miles along it, on the top of a hill, is the deserted town of Maleh. On the section of the plain between south and east I counted fourteen towns, all of them, so far as I could see with my telescope, habitable like Salcah, but entirely deserted! From this one spot I saw upwards of thirty deserted towns! Well might I exclaim with the prophet, as I looked over that mournful scene of utter desolation: “Moab is spoiled, and judgment is come upon the plain country... and upon all the cities of the land of Moab, far and near!"—Giant Cities of Bashan, p. 77.
PROF. J. LESLIE PORTER, M. A.—The people of Bozrah had told us, and we had known ourselves, that though the country on our proposed route is thickly studded with towns and villages, yet not a single human being dwells in them.... After leaving Burd, we did not see a living creature, except a flock of partridges and a herd of gazelles. The desert of Arabia is not more desolate than this rich and once populous plain of Moab.... On approaching Salcah, we rode through an old cemetery, and then, passing the ruins of an ancient gate, entered the streets of the deserted city. The open doors, the empty houses, the rank grass and weeds, the long straggling brambles in the door-ways and windows, 'formed a strange, impressive picture, which can never leave my memory. Street after street we traversed, the tread of our horses awakening mournful echoes, and starting the foxes from their dens in the palaces of Salcah.— Giant Cities of Bashan, p. 74, 75, 76.
MR. CYRIL GRAHAM.—On reaching Beth-Gamul, I left my Arabs at one particular spot, and wandered about quite alone in the old streets of the town, entered one by one the old houses, went up-stairs, visited the rooms, and, in short, made a careful examination of the whole place; but so perfect was every street, every house, every room, that I almost fancied I was in a dream, wandering alone in this city of the dead, seeing all perfect, yet not hearing a sound. I don't wish to moralize too much, but one cannot help reflecting on a people once so great and so powerful, who, living in these houses of stone within their walled cities, must have thought themselves invincible; who had their palaces and their sculptures, and who, no doubt, claimed to be the great nation, as all eastern nations have done; and that this people should have so passed away, that for so many centuries the country they inhabited has been reckoned as a desert, until some traveler from a distant land, curious to explore these regions, finds these old towns standing alone, and telling of a race gone by, whose history is unknown, and whose very name is matter of dispute. Yet this very state of things is predicted by Jeremiah. Concerning this very country he says these very words: For the cities thereof shall be desolate, without any to dwell therein; and Moab shall be destroyed from being a people. Here I think there can be no ambiguity. Visit these ancient cities, and turn to that ancient Book, no further comment is necessary.—In Giant Cities of Bashan, p. 80.
Jer. 48:1212Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will send unto him wanderers, that shall cause him to wander, and shall empty his vessels, and break their bottles. (Jeremiah 48:12).—Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will send unto him wanderers, that shall cause him to wander.
BURCKHARDT.—The oppressions of the government on the one side, and those of the Bedouins on the other, have reduced the Fellah of the Hauran to a state little better than that of the wandering Arab. Few individuals, either among the Druses or Christians, die in the same village where they were born. Families are continually moving from one place to another.—Travels in Syria, p. 299.
PROF. J. LESLIE PORTER, M. A.—will send unto him wanderers, that shall cause him to wander. What could be more graphic than this? The wandering Bedawin are now the scourge of Moab; they cause the few inhabitants that remain in it to settle down amid the fastnesses of the rocks and mountains, and often to wander from city to city, in the vain hope of finding rest and security. Giant Cities of Bashan, p. 86.
THE MOABITE STONE.—(That Chemosh was the national deity of the Moabites, to whom they ascribed their blessings in time of peace and their successes in time of war, and to whom they looked for deliverance in the day of peril, is sufficiently evident from the inscription on this stone, in which the following expressions occur:) I erected this stone to Chemosh at Karcha, a stone of salvation, for he saved me from all despoilers, and let me see my desire upon all my enemies... Chemosh had mercy on the land in my days... Chemosh said to me, Go take Nebo against Israel... And I took from it the vessels of Jehovah, and offered them before Chemosh... And Chemosh drove him out before me, etc.—See Ginsburg' s Translation.
PROF. J. L. PORTER, M. A.—Another feature of the landscape impressed me still more deeply. Not only is the country, plain and hill-side alike, checkered with fenced fields, but groves of fig-trees are here and there seen, and terraced vineyards still clothe the sides of some of the hills. These are neglected and wild, but not fruitless. Mahmood told us that they produce great quantities of figs and grapes, which are rifled year after year by the Bedawin in their periodical raids. How literal and how true have the words of Jeremiah become! "O, vine of Sibmah, I will weep for thee: the spoiler is fallen upon thy summer fruits, and upon thy vintage." —Giant Cities of Bashan, p. 78.
PROF. J. L. PORTER, M. A.—Nowhere on earth is there such a melancholy example of tyranny, rapacity and misrule, as here. Fields, pastures, vineyards, houses, villages, cities-all alike deserted and waste. Even the few inhabitants that have hid themselves among the rocky fastnesses and mountain defiles, drag out a miserable existence, oppressed by robbers of the desert on the one hand, and robbers of the government on the other. “Joy and gladness is taken from the plentiful field, and from the land of Moab."—Giant Cities of Bashan, p. 78.
PROF. J. L. PORTER, M. A.—Among the cities in the plain of Moab upon which judgment is pronounced by Jeremiah, Kerioth occurs in connection with Beth-Gamul and Bozrah; and here, on the side of the plain, only five miles distant from Bozrah, stands " Kureiyeh," manifestly an Arabic form of the He brew Kerioth. Kerioth was reckoned one of the strongholds of the plain of Moab. Standing in the midst of widespread rock-fields, the passes through which could easily be defended; and encircled by massive ramparts, the remains of which are still there, I saw, and every traveler can see, how applicable is Jeremiah's reference, and how strong this city must once have been.—Giant Cities of Bashan, p. 83.
Ammon
MR. GEORGE GROVE, Cryst. Pal., Lond.—Rabbah was the thief city of the Ammonites, a very ancient place, being mentioned even by Joshua. In the period between the Old and New Testament, it appears to have been a city of much importance, and the scene of many contests. The denunciations of the prophets may have been fulfilled, either at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem, or five years afterward, when the Assyrian armies overran the country 'east of Jordan on their road to Egypt.—Smith's Dict. of the, Bible, p. 2655.
PROF. H. B. TRISTRAM, LL. D., F. R. S.—Before noon we had lunched and set out to examine the ruins of Rabbah'. In number, in beauty of situation, and in isolation, they were by far the most striking and interesting I had yet seen in Syria. Yet it was not old Rabbah, but Philadelphia, the Roman city, among whose prostrate marbles we groped our way. All is Greco-Roman, and all probably, except the citadel, subsequent to the Christian era.... Nowhere else had we seen the vestiges of public magnificence and wealth in such marked contrast with the relapse into savage desolation: "Rabbah shall be a desolate heap."—Land of Israel, p. 550.
Edom
DR. ALEXANDER KEITH.—Fallen and despised as now it is, Edom, did not the prescription of many ages abrogate its right, might lay claim to the title of having been the first seat of learning, as well as the center of commerce. Sir Isaac Newton considers Edom to have been the nursery of the arts and sciences, and adduces evidence to that effect from profane as well as from sacred history. “The Egyptians," he remarks, " having learned the skill of the Edomites, began now to observe the position of the stars, and the length of the solar year, for enabling them to know the position of the stars at any time, and to sail by them at all times without sight of the shore, and this gave a beginning to astronomy and navigation. It seems that letters, and astronomy, and the trade of carpenters were invented by the merchants of the Red Sea, and that they were propagated from Arabia Petra into Egypt, Chaldea, Syria, Asia Minor and Europe." While the philosopher may thus think of Edom with respect, neither the admirer of genius, the man of feeling, nor the child of devotion will, even to this day, seek from any land a richer treasure of plaintive poetry, of impassioned eloquence, and of fervid piety, than Edom has bequeathed to the world in the Book of Job. It exhibits to us, in language the most pathetic and sublime, all that a man could feel, in the outward pangs of his body and the inner writhings of his mind, of the frailties of his frame, and of the dissolution of his earthly comforts and endearments; all that mortal can discern, by 'meditating on the ways and contemplating the works of God, of the inscrutable dispensations of his providence; all that knowledge which could first tell, in written word, of Arcturus, and Orion, and the Pleiades; and all that devotedness of soul, and immortality of hope, which, with patience that faltered not even when the heart was bruised and almost broken, and the body covered over with distress, could say, Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.
But if the question now be asked, Is understanding perished out of Edom? the answer, like every response of the prophetic word, may be briefly given: It is. The minds of the Bedouins Ore as uncultivated as the deserts they traverse. Practical wisdom is, in general, the first that man learns, and the last that he retains. And the simple but significant fact, already alluded to, that the clearing away of a little rubbish, merely “to allow the water to flow "into an ancient cistern in order to render it useful to themselves, " is an undertaking far beyond the views of the wandering Arabs," shows that understanding is, indeed, perished from among them! They view the indestructible works of former ages, not only with wonder but with superstitious regard, and consider them as the work of genii. They look upon a European traveler as a magician, and believe that, having seen any spot where they imagine that treasures are deposited, “he can afterward command the guardian of the treasure to set the whole before him." In Teman, which yet maintains a precarious existence, the inhabitants possess the desire without the means of knowledge. 'The Koran is their only study, and contains the sum of their wisdom. And, although he was but a “miserable comforter," and was overmastered in argument by a kinsman stricken with affliction, yet no Temanite can now discourse with either the wisdom or the pathos of Eliphaz of old. Wisdom is no more in Teman, and understanding has perished out of the Mount of Esau.—Evi a'. from Proph., p. 157.
Jer. 49:1616Thy terribleness hath deceived thee, and the pride of thine heart, O thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, that holdest the height of the hill: though thou shouldest make thy nest as high as the eagle, I will bring thee down from thence, saith the Lord. (Jeremiah 49:16).—Thy terribleness hath deceived thee, and the pride of thine heart, O thou that dwellest in the clefts of the ROCK, that holdest the height of the hill: though thou shouldest make thy nest as high as the eagle, I will bring thee down from thence, saith the Lord.
DR. VINCENT.—The name of the capital of Edom, in all the various languages in which it occurs, as Sela, Petra, etc., implies a rock, and as such it is described in the Scriptures, in Strabo, and Al Edrissi. —Cominerce of the Ancients, Vol. II., p. 264.
PLINY.—The Nabatæi (Edomites) have a city called Petra, which lies in a deep valley, somewhat less than two miles in length, and surrounded by inaccessible mountains, between which a river flows.—Hist. Nat., lib. vi., c. 32.
IRBY AND MANGLES.—The ruins of the city (of Petra, or the Rock, the capital of Edom) burst on the view in their full grandeur, shut in on the opposite side by barren craggy precipices, from which numerous ravines and valleys branch out in all directions; the sides of the mountains covered with an endless variety of excavated tombs and private dwellings presented altogether the most singular scene we ever beheld.... The high land (in the near neighborhood of Petra) was covered upon both its sides, and on its summits, with lines and solid masses of dry wall. The former appeared to be traces of ancient cultivation, the solid ruins seemed to be only the remains of towers for watching in harvest and vintage times. The whole neighborhood of the spot bears similar traces of former industry, all which seem to indicate the vicinity of a great metropolis. —Travels, p. 422, 402.
BURCKHARDT.—Some of them (the excavated chambers and dwellings) are so high, and the side of the mountain is so perpendicular, that it seems impossible to approach the uppermost. ( Though thou shouldest make thy nest as high as the eagle, I will bring thee down from thence, saith the Lord).... The ground is covered with heaps of hewn stones, foundations of buildings, fragments of columns, and vestiges of paved streets, all clearly indicating that a large city once existed here. On the left bank of the river is a rising ground; extending westward for nearly three-quarters of a mile, entirely covered with similar remains.
On the right bank, where the ground is more elevated, ruins of the same description are to be seen. There are also the remains of a palace and of several temples. In the eastern cliff there are upwards of fifty separate sepulchers close to each other. (Eden shall be a desolation.)—Travels in Syria, p. 422-432.
LABORDE.—What a people must they have not been who first opened the mountain to stamp upon it the seal of their energy and genius What a climate, too, which gilds with its light and graceful forms of a great variety Of sculptures, without suffering its winters to crumble their sharp edges, or to reduce in the least their high reliefs! Silence reigns all around, save where the solitary owl now and then utters its plaintive cry. The Arab passes through the scene with perfect indifference, scarcely deigning to look at works executed with so much ability, or to meditate, except with contempt, on an object which he in vain seeks to comprehend.—In Pict. Bib., in loco,
Jer. 49:17, 1817Also Edom shall be a desolation: every one that goeth by it shall be astonished, and shall hiss at all the plagues thereof. 18As in the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighbor cities thereof, saith the Lord, no man shall abide there, neither shall a son of man dwell in it. (Jeremiah 49:17‑18).—Also Edom shalt be a desolation: every one that goeth by it shall be astonished.., As in the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the neighbor cities thereof, saith the Lord, no man shall abide there, neither shall a son of man dwell in it.
BURCKHARDT.—The whole plain presented to the view an expanse of shifting sands, whose surface was broken by innumerable undulations and low hills.... And the Arabs told me that the valleys continue to present the same appearance beyond the latitude of Wady Musa (Petra). In some parts of the valley the sand is very deep, and there is not the slightest appearance of a road, or of any work of human art. A few trees grow among the sand-hills, but the depth of sand precludes all vegetation of herbage. The sand which thus covers the ancient cultivated soil appears to have been brought from the shores of the Red Sea by the south winds.—Travels in Syria, p. 442.
DR. OLIN.—Such was the language uttered, by the Jewish prophets while this doomed region was yet prosperous and powerful. It portrays a state of desolation and ruin the most absolute and irretrievable, such as probably no portion of the globe once fertile and populous now exhibits. These fearful denunciations and their fulfillment furnish an invulnerable argument in favor of the inspiration of the Holy Scriptures; and the present state of this once rich and beautiful region is a terrible monument of the divine displeasure against wickedness and idolatry,—Travels in the East, Vol. II., p. 15, etc.
Overthrow of Babylon
DR. JOHN KITTO.—This and the following chapter contain most important and instructive predictions concerning Babylon, awry one of which has been fulfilled, as historians and travelers have concurred to demonstrate. The prophecies relate by anticipation the circumstances which should attend, and which did attend, the conquest of Babylon by the Medes and Persians; and they also describe that condition of the city and country which should be the immediate or final effect of that great overthrow, and which has been and is its condition. —,Pict. Bib.
Jer. 1:11The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests that were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin: (Jeremiah 1:1)—Babylon is taken, Biel is, confounded, Merodach is broken in pieces; her idols are confounded, her images are broken in pieces.
SIR HENRY RAWLINSON.—The great temple of Babylon is consecrated' to Merodach, and that god is the tutelar divinity of the city. In the Assyrian Inscriptions, however, Bel is associated with Babylon. Pul and Tiglath-Pileser both sacrificed to him in that city as the supreme local deity, and 'Sargon expressly calls Babylon "the dwelling-place of Bel."—Rawlinson's Herodotus, Vol. I., p. 247, note.
HON, AUSTEN H. LAYARD, M. P.—The names of the Thirteen Great Gods of Assyria occur on the upright tablet of the king, which was discovered at Nimroud-among these names are Asshur, Merodach, Nebo, Dagon, Bel.—Nineveh and Babylon, p. 537.
IBID.—The "images" of Dagon, Nebo, Nisroch, etc., in a more or less “broken" condition, have been discovered amid the ruins of Babylon.—Nin and Bab., 294, 301, etc.
Jer. 1: 9.—For lo, I will raise and cause to come up against Babylon an assembly of great nations from the north country: and they shall set themselves in array against her, from thence she shall be taken.
XENOPHON. —The great army which Cyrus led against Babylon was composed of the united forces of the Medes, Persians, Armenians, Hyrcaneans, Lydians, Phrygians and Cappadocians—" an assembly of great nations."—See Cyrop., II., 408; III., 156; IV., 215, 427.
XENOPHON.—On taking Babylon Cyrus became at once the possessor of its immense wealth.... Having assembled his principal officers, he publicly applauded their courage and prudence, their zeal and attachment to his person, and distributed rewards to his whole army.... He ordered the superior officers of the Persians and allies to attend him in a procession, and gave each of them a dress after the Median fashion; that is to say, long robes, which hung down to the feet. These were of various colors, all of the finest and brightest dye, and richly embroidered with gold and silver. Besides those that were for themselves, he gave them others, very splendid also, but less costly, to present to the subaltern officers..., Some days after, at the conclusion of a feast, he made every one a noble present; so that they all went home with hearts overflowing with joy, admiration, and gratitude.—See Cyrop., lib. vii., 197, 200; viii., 206; 220-224.
QUINTUS CURTIUS.—When Alexander entered Babylon after it had been surrendered to him by Mazæus, Bagophanes, the keeper of the royal purse, strewed the whole of the way which he had to traverse with flowers and crowns: on either side silver altars were erected, which smoked, not with incense alone, but with all kinds of precious spices. Gifts were carried after him, flocks of sheep and of horses, lions also and panthers in cages. On the following day he took an account of the possessions and money of Darius.... And when the treasures of Babylon became his spoil, he gave six minx (about $75) to each Macedonian horseman, to each Macedonian soldier and foreign horseman two minx, and to every other man in his army a donation equal to two months' pay.—Q. Curt., lib. v., c. 1, etc.
PLUTARCH.—Demetrius ordered his soldiers to plunder the land of Babylon for their own use.—Vit. Demet.
GIBBON.—Under Severus, Ctesiphon was taken by assault, and an hundred thousand captives, and a rich booty, rewarded the fatigues of the Roman soldiers.—Decline and Fall of R. E., chap. viii.
IDEM.—The Emperor Julian, having taken Perisabor, reduced it to ashes. The remnant of a flourishing people were permitted to retire: the plentiful magazines of corn, of arms, and of splendid furniture, were partly distributed among the troops, and partly reserved for the public service: the useless stores were destroyed by fire, or thrown into the stream of the Euphrates.—Ibid., c. xxiv.
IDEM.—(Julian to his army). Riches are the objects of your desires; those riches are in the hands of the Persians; and the spoils of this fruitful country are proposed as the prize of your valor and discipline.—Decline and Fall. of R.E., chap. xxiv.
MIGNAN.—Babylon, the tenantless and desolate metropolis.—Travels, p. 234.
KEPPEL.—The eye wandered over a barren desert, in which the ruins were nearly the only indication that it had been inhabited.—Narrative, p. 196.
IDEM.—A more complete picture of desolation could not well be imagined.— Narrative, p. 196.
MIGNAN. —I cannot portray the overpowering sensation of reverential awe, that possessed my mind while contemplating the extent and magnitude of ruin, and devastation on every side.—Travels, p. 557.
BEROSUS.—Hereupon Cyrus took Babylon, and gave order that the outer walls of the city should be demolished, because the city had proved very troublesome to him.—In Josephus, c. Ap. I., 20.
HERODOTUS.—Darius having become master of the place (Babylon,) destroyed the wall, and tore down all the gates; for Cyrus had done neither the one nor the other when he took Babylon. —Herodt., lib. iii., c. 159.
MIGNAN.—Those splendid accounts of the Babylonian lands yielding crops of grain two or three hundred-fold, compared with the modern face of the country, afford a remarkable proof of the singular desolation to which it has been subjected. The Canals at present can only be traced by their decayed banks.—Travels, p. 2.
SIR R. K. PORTER.—The abundance of the country has vanished as clean away as if the " besom of desolation " had swept it from north to south; the whole land from the outskirts of Babylon to the farthest stretch of sight lying a melancholy waste. Not a habitable spot appears for countless miles.—Travels in Babylonia, Vol. II., p. 285.
Jer. 1:24.—I have laid a snare for thee, and thou art also taken, O Babylon, and thou wast not aware: thou art found and also caught, because thou hast striven against the Lord.
HERODOTUS.—Cyrus was now reduced to great perplexity, as time went on, and he made no progress against the place. In this distress either someone made the suggestion to him, or he bethought himself of a plan, which he proceeded to put in execution. He placed a portion of his army at the point where the river enters the city, and another body at the back of the place where it issues forth, with orders to march into the town by the bed of the stream, as soon as the water became shallow enough: he then himself drew off with the unwarlike portion of his host, and made for the place where Nitocris dug the basin for the river, where he did exactly what she had done formerly: he turned the Euphrates by a canal into the basin, which was then a marsh; on which, the river sank to such an extent that the natural bed of the stream became fordable. Hereupon the Persians who had been left for the purpose at Babylon by the riverside, entered the stream, which had now sunk so as to reach about midway up a man's thigh, and thus got into the town. (This occurred in the dead of night.) Had the Babylonians been apprised of what Cyrus was about, or had they noticed their danger, they would not have allowed the entrance of the Persians within the city, which was what ruined them utterly, but would have made fast all the street-gates which gave upon the river, and mounting upon the walls along both sides of the stream, would so have caught the enemy as it were in a trap. But, as it was, the Persians came upon them by surprise, and so took the city. Owing to the vast size of the place, the inhabitants of the central parts (as the residents of Babylon declare), long after the outer portions of the town were taken, knew nothing of what had chanced, but as they were engaged in a festival, continued dancing and reveling until they learned the capture but too certainly. Such were the circumstances of the first taking of Babylon.—Herodt., lib. i., c. 191.
Jer. 1: 26.—Cast her up as heaps, and destroy her utterly: let nothing of her be left.
KEPPEL.—Vast heaps constitute all that now remains of ancient Babylon. Narrative, Vol. I., p. 196.
SIR ROBERT K. PORTER.—From the excavations in every possible shape and direction, the regular lines of the original ruins have been so broken that nothing but confusion is seen to exist.—Travels, II., 338.
HON. AUSTEN H. LAYARD, M. P.—Rising in the distance, high above all surrounding objects, is the one square mound, in form and size more like a natural hill than the work of men's hands—this the Arabs name “Babel." The traveler, before reaching this ruin, still four miles distant, follows a beaten track winding amidst low mounds, and crossing the embankments of canals long since dry, or avoiding the heaps of drifted earth which cover the walls and foundations of buildings.... As yet no traces whatever have been discovered of that great wall described by Herodotus, nor of the ditch that encompassed it. The mounds seem to be scattered without order, and to be gradually lost in the vas t plains to the eastward. But southward of Babel, for the distance of nearly three miles, there is almost an uninterrupted line of mounds, the ruins of vast edifices, collected together as in the heart of a great city.... Between its most southern point and Hillah, as between Mohawill and Babel, there can be traced of the ancient city only low heaps and embankments scattered irregularly over the plain.—Nineveh and Babylon, Chapter 22
Jer. 1:30.—Therefore shall her young men fall in the streets, and all her men of war shall be cut off in that day, saith the Lord.
XENOPHON.—Cyrus sent a body of horse up and down through the streets, bidding them kill those that they found abroad, and ordering some who understood the Syrian language to proclaim to those who were in the houses to remain within, and that if they were found abroad they should be killed.—Cyrop., VII., 5.
Jer. 1: 38.—A drought is upon her waters; and they shall be dried up.
XENOPHON.—When they were encamped before Babylon, Cyrus summoned the leaders of the army to him. Then Chrysantas said, “Does not this river, which is above two stadia over, run through the midst of the city?” “Yes, by Jove," said Gobryas,” and it is of so great a depth that two men, one standing on the other, would not reach above the water; so that the city is yet stronger by the river than by its walls." Then Cyrus said, " Chrysantas, let us lay aside these things that are above our force; we must dig, as soon as possible, a broad and deep ditch, each party of us measuring out his proportion, that by this means we may want the fewer men to keep watch." When this was done, and the ditches opened, into the river, the water ran off in the night by the ditches, and the passage of the river through the city became passable.— Cyrop., lib. vii., C. 5.
Jer. 1:39.—Therefore the wild beasts of the desert with the wild beasts of the islands shall dwell there, and the owls shall dwell therein: and it shall be no more inhabited forever; neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation.
SIR R. K. PORTER.—There are dens of wild beasts in various parts of the ruins. Travels, Vol. II., p. 342.
MIGNAN.—Thousands of bats and owls have filled many of these cavities.—Travels, p. 167.
HON. AUSTEN H. LAYARD.—Besides the great mound, other shapeless heaps of rubbish cover for many an acre the face of the land. The lofty banks of ancient canals fret the country like natural ridges of hills. Some have been long choked with sand; others still carry the waters of the river to distant villages and palm-groves. On all sides, fragments of glass, marble, pottery and inscribed brick, are mingled with that peculiar nitrous and blanched soil, which, bred from the remains of ancient habitations, checks or destroys vegetation, and renders the site of Babylon a naked and hideous waste. Owls, which are of a large gray kind, and often found in flocks of nearly a hundred, start from the scanty thickets, and the foul jackal skulks through the furrows.—Nineveh and Babylon, Chapter 21
Jer. 1: 41, 42.—Behold a people shall come from the north, and a great nation, and many kings shall he raised up from the coasts of the earth. They shall hold the bow and the lance: they are cruel, and will not show mercy: their voice shall roar like the sea, and they shall ride upon horses, every one put in array, like a man to the battle, against thee, O daughter of Babylon.
XENOPHON.—In his march to Babylon Cyrus overthrew the Phrygians of the Greater Phrygia. He overthrew the Cappadocians; and he subjected the Arabians; and out of all these he armed no less than forty thousand Persian horsemen. Abundance of the horses, that belonged to prisoners taken, he distributed amongst all his allies. He came at last to Babylon, bringing with him a mighty multitude of horse, a mighty multitude of archers and javelin men; but gingers innumerable.— Cyrop., VII., 4.
XENOPHON.—(The host which filled Babylon after it was taken was enormous. The first time Cyrus marched in procession out of his palace he made a display of his cavalry in the sight of the Babylonians.) There stood first before the gates 4,000 of the guards drawn up, four in front, 2,000 on each side of the gates; when the chariot of Cyrus advanced 4,000 of the guards led the way before it, and 2,000 attended on each side of it. The staff officers about his person, to the number of about 300, followed. Then were led the horses maintained for Cyrus himself, with their bridles of gold; these were about 200, After these marched 2,000 spearmen: after these the first formed body of horse, 10,000 in number: after these another body of 10,000 Persian horse, led by Hystaspes: after these another body of 10,000, led by Datamas: after these another, led by Gadatas. After these marched the Median horse; then the Armenian; then the Hyrcanian; then the Caducian, then the Sacian. And after the horse went the chariots, ranged four abreast, led by the Persian Arta-bates. A brief period after this, Cyrus reviewed at Babylon the whole of his army, consisting of 120,000 horse, 2,000 chariots armed with scythes, and 600,000 foot.—Cyrop., lib. viii., C. 3 and 233.
HERODOTUS.—As Cyrus advanced, the Babylonians met him; but were defeated, and chased into the town.—Clio, c. 190.
XENOPHON.—As the Assyrians refused to come out from Babylon, Cyrus commanded Gobrias to ride on before, and to declare that if the king were willing to come out and fight for his territory he would fight him. The answer he brought back was—We are not at leisure to fight now, being still employed in our preparations.—Cyrop., lib. v., c. 3.
IDEM.—There are great numbers of men in the city, said Cyrus, but they will not come out to fight.—Cyrop., llb. vii., c. 5.
HERODOTUS.—Such is the extent of the city, that, as the inhabitants themselves affirm, they who lived in the extremities were made prisoners before any alarm was communicated to the center of the place.—Clio, c. 191.
Jer. 51:39, 5739In their heat I will make their feasts, and I will make them drunken, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the Lord. (Jeremiah 51:39)
57And I will make drunk her princes, and her wise men, her captains, and her rulers, and her mighty men: and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the King, whose name is the Lord of hosts. (Jeremiah 51:57).—In their heat I will make their feasts, and I will make them drunken, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the Lord.... And I will make drunk her princes, and her wise men, her captains, and her rulers, and her mighty men: and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake saith the King, whose name is the Lord of hosts.
HERODOTUS.—It was a day of festivity in Babylon; and while the citizens were engaged in dance and merriment, Babylon was for the first time taken.—Clio, c. 191. See also Xen. Cyrop., VII., 5, § 15.
PROF. GEORGE RAWLINSON, M. A.—When all was prepared, Cyrus determined to wait for the arrival of a certain festival, during which the whole population were wont to engage in drinking and reveling, and then silently in the dead of night to turn the water of the river and make his attack. All fell out as he hoped and wished. The festival was even held with greater pomp and splendor than usual; for Belshazzar, with the natural insolence of youth, to mark his contempt for the besieging army, abandoned himself wholly to the delights of the season, and himself entertained a thousand lords in his palace. Elsewhere the rest of the population was occupied in feasting and dancing. Drunken riot and mad excitement held possession of the town: the siege was forgotten: ordinary precautions were neglected. Following the example of their king, the Babylonians gave themselves up for the night to orgies in which religious frenzy and drunken excitement formed a strange and revolting medley.
Meanwhile, outside the city, in silence and darkness, the Persians watched at the two points where the Euphrates entered and left the walls. Anxiously they noted the gradual sinking of the water in the riverbed; still more anxiously they watched to see if those within the walls would observe the suspicious circumstances and sound an alarm through the town. Should such an alarm be given, all their labors would be lost. But as they watched no sounds of alarm reached them—only a confused noise of revel and riot, which showed that the unhappy townsmen were quite unconscious of the approach of danger.
At last shadowy forms began to emerge from the obscurity of the deep riverbed, and in the landing places opposite the river-gates scattered clusters of men grew into solid columns, the undefended gate-ways were seized, a war shout was, raised, the alarm was taken and spread, and swift runners started off to show the king of Babylon that his city was taken at one end. In the darkness and confusion of the night a terrible massacre ensued. The drunken revelers could make no resistance. The king, paralyzed with fear at the awful hand-writing on the wall, which too late had warned him of his peril, could do nothing even to check the progress of the assailants, who carried all before them everywhere. Bursting into the palace, a band of Persians made their way to the presence of the monarch, and slew him on the scene of his impious revelry. Other bands carried fire and sword through the town. When morning came, Cyrus found himself undisputed master of the city.—Monarchies of the Ancient Eastern World, Vol. III., p. 516-518.
HERODOTUS.—As soon as Darius became master of the place, he leveled the walls and took away the gates.—Thalia, c. 159.
MAJOR KEPPEL.—In common with other travelers we totally failed in discovering any trace of the city walls. —Narr., I., 175
HON. AUSTEN H. LAYARD, M. P.—As yet no traces whatever have been discovered of that great wall of earth rising, according to Herodotus, to the height of 200 cubits, and no less than 50 cubits broad, nor of the ditch that encompassed it.—Nin. and Bab., Chapter 22
RECAPITULATION.—According to the most correct chronology we have, the foregoing words of the Lord against Babylon came to Jeremiah sixty years before its capture by Cyrus, and while it was yet in all its strength and magnificence. Babylon in Jeremiah's day was a very great city, a very strong city, and the metropolis of a vast empire. Its defenses, both in magnitude and strength, were unrivaled. Its walls, with its hundred brazen gates, were among the wonders of the world. Its palaces and temples within, and its artificial lakes and canals without, were among the mightiest works mortals had ever accomplished.
She sat as Queen, and as Lady of Kingdoms." In short, it was the most famous city in all the world.
Yet while thus in the plenitude of its power, and at the meridian of its glory, Jeremiah pronounced its doom—that it should be captured, destroyed and wiped out of existence. He plainly predicted that an assembly of great nations from the north should come against it—that it should be encompassed by a great army, embracing a prodigious host of horsemen—that its own forces would be dispirited, become as women, and refuse to fight—that it should be taken by a snare—that its river should be dried up—that it should be captured during the drunkenness and revelry of a feast—that its spacious avenues and arenas should swarm with the forces of the enemy as with caterpillars—that its young men should be cut down and slain in the streets—that its wealth and its hidden treasures should become the spoil of the conquerors—that its temples and 'palaces should become heaps-that its broad and high walls should be broken and utterly demolished—that it should become desolate and without an inhabitant—that it should become the abode of wild beasts and owls and satyrs—that sower and reaper should be cut off from her fertile and extended plains—and that the whole site and its surroundings should become a scene of desolation forever. All this, I say, was clearly and minutely foretold, while Babylon was in the plenitude of its power and wealth and magnificence, and when no human reason or sagacity could have discerned the faintest indication of such a fate. And the reader has now seen that all this, step by step, was brought to pass to the very letter; he has had set before him the united testimony of ancient historians and modern travelers and explorers, that of all that this prophet foretold, not one jot or tittle has failed. Have we not here then a' clear demonstration that Jeremiah spoke by the inspiration of the Omniscient God, who alone sees the end from the beginning?—The Compiler.