EXTRACTS FROM THE INSCRIPTION OF SENNACHERIB, REFERRING ESPECIALLY TO HIS WARS WITH MERODACH-BALADAN AND HEZEKIAH.

TRANSLATED BY H. F. TALBOT, ESQ.

SENNACHERIB, the great king, the powerful king, the king of nations, the king of Assyria, the king of the four countries, the pious ruler, the worshipper of the great gods, the embellisher of public buildings, the noble hero, the strong warrior, the first of kings, the great punisher of unbelievers who are breakers of the holy decrees.

Ashur, the great lord, has given unto me the throne of the world. Over all dwellers in every place I have exalted my warlike arms.

From the Upper Sea of the setting sun (the Mediterranean) unto the Lower Sea of the rising sun (the Persian Gulf) all the chief men I forced to bow down as my slaves.

And the kings who were Heretics fled from my attack. They flew from their towns like frightened birds. They were scattered singly (or alone) to places of safety.

At the beginning of my reign I destroyed the forces of Merodach-Baladan, King of Kar-Duniya. In the midst of that battle he quitted his army. He fled alone from the field and saved his life.

His chariots, and his horses, his waggons, and his mares, which in the conflict of battle he had abandoned, I captured.

His palace in the city of Babylon I plundered completely. I broke open his treasury. The gold and silver, and the vessels of gold and silver, with precious stones called agarta, and other goods and treasures beyond number plentiful. And the of his palaces, his noblemen and

his

slaves, male and female, all his friends and guards, and all of rank and distinction in his palace, all those I carried away and distributed them as a spoil.

In the name of Ashur, my Lord, seventy-six large cities and royal residences of the land of Chaldea, and four hundred and twenty smaller towns belonging to them, I took and destroyed, and carried away their spoil. The artificers, both Aramæans and

Chaldeans, who were in the district of the Euphrates, and the common people of the land who were able-bodied (doubtful) I carried away and distributed as a spoil.

The inhabitants of the more distant Media, who in the days of the kings my fathers no one had even heard of the name of their country, brought me their rich presents, which I received, and I caused them to bow down to the yoke of my majesty.

EVENTS OF THE THIRD YEAR.

The third year of Sennacherib was the most important period of his reign, since it was then he undertook his celebrated war against Hezekiah, King of Judah. The account we find of it on this cylinder is not exempt from difficulties and obscurities.

In my third year I advanced in hostile array against the land of Khatti.* Luliah, King of Sidon (for the great terror of my majesty had quite overwhelmed him) had fled to a distant island in the sea. I subjugated his land.

Then Menahem, King of Samaria, Tubal, King of Sidon, Abdilut, King of Arvad.

The kings of the land of Martu, all of them brought their splendid gifts and wealth unto my majesty. And they kissed my yoke.

And after this, Zedekiah, King of Ascalon, who had not bowed down to my yoke; the gods of his father's house, himself, his wife, his sons, his daughters, his brothers, the seed of his father's house, I carried them all away, and brought them to Assyria.

The priests, princes, and people of Amgarrun had seized Padiah, their king, the friend and ally of Assyria, and had loaded him with chains of iron, and had delivered him up to Hezekiah, King of Judah, and had behaved in a hostile manner against the Deity himself in the folly of their hearts.

Then I brought back Padiah, their king, from the midst of

* Syria.

Jerusalem, and placed him once more upon the throne. I imposed upon him a tribute payable to my majesty. Then Hezekiah, King of Judah, who had not bowed down to my yoke, fortysix of his large cities, and smaller towns belonging to them without number, in the fury of my vengeance I utterly destroyed.

Two hundred thousand one hundred and fifty persons, small and great, male and female, horses, mares, mules, camels, oxen, and sheep, without number, from the midst of them I carried away and distributed them as spoil. He himself, like a fugitive bird, shut himself up in his royal city, Jerusalem.

He built towers of defence (or battlements) over it, and he strengthened and rebuilt the bulwarks of his great gate.

In the meanwhile, the cities which I had sacked, I finally cut off from his dominions, and I gave them to Mitinti, King of Ashdod, Padiah, King of Amgarrun, and Ismi Bel, King of Gaza.

Thus I diminished his country. And in addition to the former tribute, and the land-gift (or land-tax), I augmented the tribute of and imposed this burden upon them. As to Hezekiah himself, the dreadful terror of my power had overwhelmed him.

Then I seized and carried off all his artificers, and all the other whom he had collected in order to fortify Jerusalem (2 Kings xviii. 14) with thirty talents of gold, eight hundred talents of silver, scarlet robes, precious stones (?), royal thrones (?) made of ivory, palanquins of ivory for travelling, skins and teeth of elephants, beautiful precious woods of two kinds, altogether a vast treasure. And also his daughters, and the female inhabitants (P) of his palace, and their men slaves and women slaves.

This mighty spoil, unto Nineveh, my royal city, after me I brought away. And he swore a solemn oath to pay tribute to me, and to do homage to me in future.

EVENTS OF THE FOURTH YEAR.

I then turned round the front of my chariot, and I marched straight against the land of Beth Yakina. Then Merodach-Baladan himself, whose army I had conquered in my first campaign, now fled before the warlike show of my powerful army, and the shock of my fierce attack.

His gods and his women he collected, and transported them in ships, and crossed over with the greatest speed to the country of Nigiti-rakkin, which is in the sea.

DR. OPPERT'S READING OF THE FAMOUS INSCRIPTION OF NEBUCHADNEZZAR AT BORSIPPA.

"The mound long known as the Birs Nimroud, now identified with the Temple of the Seven Planets, is supposed to have been the locality of the Confusion of Tongues. The BABYLONIAN name Borsip, or Barzipa, is said to mean the TOWER OF THE TONGUES; and if Dr. Oppert's reading of this Inscription be correct, Nebuchadnezzar's allusion to this event is most striking. The following is Oppert's description of the Temple, with his translation of the Inscription.

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The Temple consisted of a large substructure, a stade (600 Babylonian feet) in breadth, and 75 feet in height, over which were built seven other stages of 25 feet each. Nebuchadnezzar gives notice of this building in the Borsippa Inscription. He named it The Temple of the Seven Lights of the Earth (i. e., the Planets). The top was the temple of Nebo, and in the substructure (igar) was a temple consecrated to the god Sin, god of the month. This building, mentioned in the East India House Inscription (col. iv. 1. 61), is also spoken of by Herodotus (i. 181, etc.).

Here follows the Borsippa Inscription :

"Nebuchodonesor, king of Babylon, shepherd of peoples, who attests the immutable affection of Merodach, the mighty ruler-exalting Nebo; the saviour, the wise man who lends his ears to the orders of the highest God; the lieutenant without reproach-the repairer of the Pyramid and the Tower, eldest son of Nabopollassar, king of Babylon.

“We say, Merodach the great master, has created me; he has imposed on me to reconstruct his building. Nebo, the guardian over the legions of the heaven and the earth, has charged my hands with the sceptre of justice.

"The Pyramid is the temple of the heaven and the earth, the seat of Merodach, the chief of the gods; the place of the oracles, the spot of his I have adorned in the form of a cupola, with shining gold.

rest,

"The Tower, the eternal house, which I founded and built, I have completed its magnificence with silver, gold, other metals, stone, enamelled bricks, fir and pine.

"The first which is the house of the earth's base, the most eminent monument of Babylon, I built and finished it; I have highly exalted its head with bricks covered with copper.

"We say for the other, that is, this edifice, the house of the seven lights of the earth, the most ancient monument of Borsippa: A former king built it (they reckon 42 ages), but he did not complete its head. SINCE A REMOTE TIME PEOPLE HAD ABANDONED IT, WITHOUT ORDER

EXPRESSING THEIR WORDS. Since that time, the earthquake and the thunder had dispersed its sun-dried clay; the bricks of the casing had been split and the earth of the interior had been scattered in heaps. Merodach, the great lord, excited my mind to repair this building. I did not change the site, nor did I take away the foundation-stone. In a fortunate month, an auspicious day, I undertook to build porticoes around the crude brick masses, and the casing of burnt bricks. I adapted the circuits. I put the inscription of my name in the Kitir of the porticoes. I set my hand to finish it, and to exalt its head. As it had been in former times, so I founded, I made it; as it had been in ancient days, so I exalted its summit.

"Nebo, son of himself, ruler who exaltest Merodach, be propitious to my works to maintain my authority. Grant me a life until the remotest time, a sevenfold progeny, the stability of my throne, the victory of my sword, the pacification of foes, the triumph over the lands! In the column of thy eternal tables, that fix the destinies of the heaven and of the earth, bless the course of my days, inscribe the fecundity of my race.

"Imitate, O Merodach, king of heaven and earth, the father who begat thee; bless thy buildings, strengthen my authority. May Nebuchadnezzar, the king-the repairer-remain before thy face!".

This allusion to the Tower of the Tongues is the only one that has as yet been discovered in the cuneiform inscriptions. The story is a Shemitic, and not a Hebrew one; and we have no reason whatever to doubt the existence of the same story at Babylon.

The ruins of the building elevated on the spot where the story placed the tower of the dispersion of tongues, have therefore a more modern origin, but interest nevertheless by their stupendous appearance.-Quarterly Review of Smith's Biblical Dictionary, Oct. 1864.

TRANSLATION BY H. F. TALBOT, ESQ.

Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, the pious and wonderful