CHAPTER IV.

1 God's judgment on the wicked, 2 and his blessing on the good. 4 He exhorteth to the study of the law, 5 and telleth of Elijah's coming and office.

FOR, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.

2 But unto you that fear my name shall the 'Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.

3 And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the LORD of hosts.

4 Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments.

5 ¶ Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD:

6 And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.

3 Matth. 11. 44. Mark 9. 11. Luke 1. 17.

Verse 2. The Sun of righteousness (shall) arise with healing in his wings.'-We cannot withhold the following remarkable illustration of this passage, which we find in Burder's Oriental Customs (No. 367):-The late Mr. Robinson of Cambridge called upon a friend just as he had received a letter from his son, who was surgeon on board a vessel then lying off Smyrna. The son mentioned to his father that every morning about sun-rise a fresh gale of air blew from the sea across the land, and, from its wholesomeness and utility in clearing the infected air, this wind is always called the Doctor. "Now," says Mr. Robinson, "it strikes me that the prophet Malachi, who lived in that quarter of the world, might allude to this circumstance, when he says that the Sun of righteousness shall arise with healing in his wings. The Psalmist mentions the wings of the wind, and it appears to me that this salubrious breeze, which attends the rising of the sun, may

properly enough be considered as the wings of the sun, which contain such healing influences, rather than the beams of the sun, as the passage has been commonly understood.""

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3. Ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet.'-This seems to imply that ashes were trodden under the feet. We have already had occasion to explain that mortar is usually prepared in the East by treading with the feet; and as one kind of mortar is prepared with a mixture of ashes, it is not unlikely that, as Chardin suggests, this may explain the allusion. Indeed, our own plasterers and slaters, in preparing mortar for particular uses, sometimes mix ashes instead of sand with their lime: for this purpose they prefer the ashes of a furnace, and the Orientals the ashes of a bath.

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NOTE 61, p. 258.-The haughty questions put into the mouth of the Assyrian king,' Are not my princes altogether kings? Is not Calno as Carchemish? is not Hamath as Arpad? is not Samaria as Damascus?' are seen to be founded on literal truth, and to be no empty bravado, when the light of the monuments is brought to bear upon them. The conclusion to which the historical records of Assyria, as preserved in the inscriptions, lead in regard to the nature and constitution of the kingdom, is thus expressed by Mr Layard (Nineveh and Babylon, p. 634):-'The empire appears to have been at all times a kind of confederation formed by many tributary states, whose kings were so far independent, that they were only bound to furnish troops to the supreme lord in time of war, and to pay him yearly a certain tribute. Hence we find successive Assyrian kings fighting with exactly the same nations and tribes, some of which were scarcely more than four or five days' march from the gates of Nineveh. On the occasion of every change at the capital, these tributary states seem to have striven to throw off the Assyrian yoke, and to have begun by refusing to pay their customary tribute. A new campaign was consequently necessary to bring them to obedience. We learn from the inscriptions, that when a city or kingdom was thus subdued, however near it might have been to Nineveh, when not actually forming a part of the imperial district, a new ruler was appointed to it with the title of "king" written in the same cuneiform characters on the monuments, as when applied to the head of the empire' (the italics are ours). We may add, that the representation of these petty wars to which Mr Layard alludes, occupies a large portion of the bass-reliefs on the marble slabs of the chambers of the palaces at Nineveh; and the written record of them forms a prominent part of the cuneatic inscriptions. The obelisk found in the central palace at Nimroud by Mr Layard, which we have already had occasion to mention, is covered on every side with sculptures and inscriptions, intended to represent and narrate the victorious wars of the king Temen-bar (?) against hostile nations, which appear to have been in great part tributary states who had thrown off their allegiance; whilst those tribes which he had subdued for the first time, are soon found again resisting his authority (see Rawlinson's Outlines of Assyrian History, and his Commentary on the Cuneatic Inscriptions).

NOTE 62, p. 276.-We may avail ourselves of this opportunity of noticing the traces of intercourse between Assyria and Egypt, which have been discovered amid the ruins of Nineveh, without pretending that the intercourse thus shewn to exist between the two countries is that which is alluded to in this verse. Notice has already been taken of a double seal bearing the cartouch of Sabaco, one of the twenty-fifth dynasty of Egyptian kings, who reigned at the end of the seventh century before Christ, and of an Assyrian who is regarded with probability as

VOL. III.

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Sennacherib (see Note 47, Appendix to vol. ii.) Evidence of intercourse with Egypt is also furnished by the ivories which Mr Layard discovered at Nimroud during his first visit to Nineveh. The subject and form of these ivories are unmistakably Egyptian. They were not pure Egyptian, however, but very close imitations. The following descriptions, taken from Mr Birch's observations on these ornaments, will illustrate the above statement:

1. 'Head of a man, full face, and a left cheek of style peculiarly Egyptian; the eyes sunk for the purpose of inlaying; the brows incuse, and prolonged towards the ears, and filled with blue colour,' &c.

23, 24, 25. Three panels, which represent each the same subject-a monarch unbearded, wearing on his head the Egyptian Kheprr, or helmet, which is ornamented with a series of annulations or rings .... and has in front the uraeus serpent, emblem of royalty, with an Assyrian garment round the loins, like the Egyptian shenti.....; the whole with a border of oval drops; the legs bare and unshod, advancing to the right; holding in his left hand a tall flower of the lotus, which rises out of a clod of the earth; the whole representing the Egyptian symbol for the upper country.'

36. Four heads of most exquisite style, and in good preservation. . . . The ears in these panels follow the Egyptian canon, being placed above the eyes.'

37. An imperfect panel, of large size: two winged sphinxes, placed back to back, facing outwards; their hair in pendent Egyptian locks, and in front of them palmettes.'

38. 'Part of another sphinx and emblem set from a similar panel.'-Layard's Nineveh and its Remains. Appendix ii.

The probable period of all the ivories lies between the 18th and 22d dynasties. To the latter dynasty belonged Shishak, who besieged Jerusalem in the days of Rehoboam; while the Pharaoh with whom Solomon made an affinity, probably belonged to the dynasty preceding. Thus have we strong evidence of intimate relations subsisting betwixt Egypt and Palestine on the one hand, and between the former country and Assyria on the other, during the period within which Solomon's reign falls; and it is not improbable that political relations also subsisted betwixt Palestine and Assyria during the same period.

Some eminent writers, indeed, as Layard and Ferguson (Palaces of Nineveh and Persepolis Restored), endeavour to prove such a connection, by pointing out a close resemblance in the materials of building, style of architecture, and ornamental work, between the palaces of Nineveh and the great buildings of Solomon; particularly the house of the forest of Lebanon, and the 'house where he dwelt' (as described in 1 Kings, vii. 1-12, and Josephus). One part of the description of these buildings given by Josephus is particularly insisted on, where he states that Solomon built some of these with stones of ten cubits, and wainscotted the 721

walls with other stones that were sawed. The latter clause immediately reminds us of the marble slabs of the palaces of Nineveh. The use of cedar-wood was also common to both buildings, as Mr Layard's discoveries at Nimroud shew. In a small temple discovered under the high mound, Nimroud, were found many beams of cedar, while the greater part of the rubbish in which the ruin was buried consisted of charcoal of the same wood. This temple, like the temple and palace of Solomon, would seem, therefore, to have been built entirely of cedar. It is interesting to learn, as we do from the inscriptions of Sennacherib, that the cedar used at Nineveh was sometimes brought from Lebanon. This fact, however, proves nothing regarding the existence of intercourse between Assyria and Judæa, as Lebanon was a locality whence wood was supplied to all neighbouring countries.

Still another trace of Egyptian influence in Assyria, is furnished by the tombs that have been discovered amongst the ruins of Assyria. These tombs consisted of sarcophagi either of brick or earth, and sometimes covered with an Assyrian slab. When opened, most of them contained human bones, with vases and bottles of pottery, alabaster, glass, necklaces of gems, plates, mirrors, &c. The contents of these coffins are entirely Egyptian in character, and it has been found very difficult hitherto to account for their existence. They are found in all the most ancient ruins of Assyria, over the north-west, centre, and south-east edifices at Nimroud, at Kalah, Sherghat, and Baasheika, and not at the more recent ruins of Khorsabad and Kouyunjik, or the south-west palace of Nimroud. They are situated above the ruins, so that they must have been deposited after the ancient palaces were destroyed. Mr Layard at first conjectured that the tombs belonged to an intermediate people or race, who occupied Assyria after the building of the most ancient palaces, and before the foundation of the most recent. But in his more recent work he states, that he is inclined to believe that they belong to the time of the Seleucidæ, and of the Greek occupation of Assyria and Babylonia (p. 592).

At all events, these various circumstances serve to render probable the existence, from an early period, of such mutual friendly relations between the three countries in question, as is described in vv. 23, 24; so that the political connection prophesied of by Isaiah would appear to have had a historical parallel.

NOTE 63, p. 277.-We have stated in a former note (52, Appendix to vol. ii.), that Sargon, so far from being identical with Esar-haddon, was the grandfather of the latter, and the father of Sennacherib. The relations subsisting between these kings have been satisfactorily made out from the inscriptions. Thus, behind the bulls and lions in the south-west palace at Nimroud, as well as on baked bricks from the same building, Mr Layard found an inscription containing the names of the father and the grandfather (with another name, that of the builder of the north-west palace at Nimroud) of the builder of the palace. But these names are identical with those of the founders of the Kouyunjik and Khorsabad palaces respectively; from which it follows, that the founder of the former palace was the father, and the founder of the latter, the grandfather of the builder of the south-west palace. These, the independent investigations of scholars versant in cuneiform literature, have determined to be Sennacherib and Sargon; and it is important to state, that the name of the Khorsabad king was generally admitted to be Sargon before his relationship to the Kouyunjik king was known. Of course, Dr Kitto's statement in his note, that the fulfilment of the prophecy in the text was realised during the reign and through the agency of Esar-haddon, can no longer be regarded as true. The following quotation from a letter addressed to the Athenæum, August 23, 1851, by Colonel Rawlinson, contains the substance of all the information as yet derived from the annals of Sargon, so far as these relate to matters mentioned in Scripture history. The reader is reminded that Colonel Rawlinson no longer identifies Sargon and Shalmaneser, and that the following

account applies solely to the builder of the Khorsabad palace, whom it was one of the objects of the communication to shew to be Sargon: 'The king who built the palace of Khorsabad, excavated by the French, is named Sargina (the 1 of Isaiah); but he also bears, in some of the inscriptions, the epithet of Shalmaneser, by which title he was better known to the Jews. In the first year of his reign, he came up against the city of Samaria (called Samarina, and answering to the Hebrew ) and the tribes of the country of Beth Homri ( or 'Omri, being

the name of the founder of Samaria, 1 Kings xviii. 16, sq. &c.) He carried off into captivity in Assyria 27,280 families, and settled in their places colonists brought from Babylonia: appointing prefects to administer the country, and imposing the same tribute which had been paid to former kings. The only tablet at Khorsabad which exhibits this conquest in any detail (Plate 70), is unfortunately much mutilated. Should Monsieur de Sauley, however, whom the French are now sending to Assyria, find a duplicate of Shalmaneser's annals in good preservation, I think it probable that the name of the king of Israel may yet be recovered.

'In the second year of Shalmaneser's reign, he subjugated the kings of Libnah (?) and Khazita (the Cadytis of Herodotus), who were dependent upon Egypt; and in the seventh year of his reign, he received tribute direct from the king of that country, who is named Pirhu, probably for y, "Pharaoh," the title by which the kings of Egypt were known to the Jews and other Semitic nations. This punishment of the Egyptians by Sargon or Shalmaneser is alluded to in the 20th chapter of Isaiah.

Among the other exploits of Shalmaneser found in his annals are the conquest of Ashdod, also alluded to in Isaiah xx. 1; and his reduction of the neighbouring city of Jamnai, called Jabneh or Jamneh in the Bible, Jamnaan in Judith, and 'Iáva by the Greeks.

'In conformity with Menander's statement, that Shalmaneser assisted the Cittæans against Sidon, we find a statue and inscription of this king, Sargina, in the island of Cyprus, recording the event; and to complete the chain of evidence, the city, built by him and named after him, the ruins of which are now called Khorsabad, retained among the Syrians the title of Sarghun as late as the Arab conquest.

'I am not sure how long Shalmaneser reigned, or whether he made a second expedition into Palestine. His annals at Khorsabad extend only to the fifteenth year; and although the names are given of numerous cities which he captured in Cælo-Syria and on the Euphrates-such as Hamath, Beræa, Damascus, Bambyce, and Carchemish -I am unable to trace his steps into Judæa Proper.

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a tablet, however, which he set up towards the close of his reign in the palace of the first Sardanapalus at Nimroud, he styles himself "conqueror of the remote Judæa;" and I rather think, therefore, that the expedition in which, after a three years' siege of Samaria, he carried off the great body of the tribes of Israel, and which is commemorated in the Bible as having been concluded in the sixth year of Hezekiah, must have taken place subsequently to the building of the palace of Khorsabad.'

It will appear from this account, that Shalmaneser could not have completed the deportation of the inhabitants of Samaria. We must, in fact, reckon altogether four deportations of the inhabitants of the kingdom of Israel -the first under Pul, the second under Tiglath-pileser, the third under Shalmaneser, and the last under Sargon. The deportations by Pul and Tiglath-pileser are alluded to in 1 Chronicles v. 6, 26, where it is said (verse 6): Beerah his son, whom Tilgath-pilneser king of Assyria carried away captive: he was prince of the Reubenites;' and (verse 26) 'the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul, and Tilgath-pilneser king of Assyria, and he carried them away, even the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh [these formed the part of the Israelitish kingdom east of the Jordan], and brought them unto Halah, and Habor, and Hara, and to the river Gozan, unto this day.'

NOTE 64, p. 282.-Note 56, in Appendix to vol. ii., will shew the reader that Dr Kitto's interpretation of this verse can scarcely be correct. It was there shewn that there was a primitive Babylonian Empire, including Assyria as one of its provinces, which would appear to have continued from about 2000 B. C. till 1200 B. C. Towards the commencement of that early period, probably, were founded those ancient cities spoken of in Genesis x.-Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh. Colonel Rawlinson states, that in the list of the old Chaldæan dynasty of kings, he has found the names of Amraphel and Arioch (see Genesis xiv. 1). Subsequently, however, the Assyrian or Nineveh kings gained the ascendancy, when Babylon sunk to the level of a province, only to rise a second time to supreme power. It is this second rise of the Babylonian power to which the passage in question seems to refer.

NOTE 65, p. 318.-A bass-relief from the south-west palace at Nimroud, furnishes an exact illustration of the 2d and 7th verses of this chapter. It represents a procession of warriors, carrying on their shoulders four images. There are four to each image-two before and two behind it, at each end of the platform on which it rests. The first image was that of a female seated on a high-backed chair, holding in one hand a ring, and in the other a triangular object, which Mr Layard calls a fan. On her head was a horned cap, surmounted with a star. The second was also a seated female, wearing a similar cap, and having in one hand a ring. The third figure was nearly concealed by a screen attached to her chair; the fourth was a man in the attitude of walking, holding in an elevated position an axe in one hand, and what appear to be three sticks, slightly crossed, in the other; two horns branched out on each side of his head, which is otherwise bare. What gods these were, we cannot determine with absolute certainty. But two separate coincidences between the representations on the bass-relief and the statements of ancient history, almost certainly identify the man walking with Bel, mentioned in the first verse of the text. Diodorus Siculus states, that the three deities worshipped in the great temple of Babylon, were Belus, Hera, and Rhea; and that the statue of the first mentioned presents the attitude of walking. In the epistle of Jeremy, the following passage occurs: Now shall ye see in Babylon gods of silver and of gold, and of wood, borne upon shoulders. And he that cannot put to death him that offendeth him, holdeth a sceptre, as though he were a judge of the country. He hath also in his right hand a dagger and an axe.' These two statements from different sources, when put together, contain an almost exact description of the fourth or last image in the bass-relief. Bel was, however, a Babylonian god, while the gods represented on the bass-relief in question are to be presumed to be Assyrian. It would seem to follow, therefore, that the symbolism of the Babylonians in connection with their supreme god Bel, was very nearly identical with that of the Assyrians, in connection with some one of their gods; a fact for which we are prepared, when we reflect how intimately the two peoples were connected with each other. And this a priori inference is completely verified by the Assyrian inscriptions; for amongst the lists of the twelve great gods of Assyria, stands the name Bel, as the reader will perceive by consulting Note 77 of this Appendix,

NOTE 66, p. 448.-It will not be out of place to append here a short notice on the caldrons and culinary vessels of the Assyrians, with which the explorations at Nineveh have made us acquainted, especially as the monuments furnish illustrations of the carrying away as spoil of vessels such as those mentioned in these verses. In this department, Mr Layard has reaped the richest harvest. During his second expedition, he discovered a chamber in the north-west palace at Nimroud, which fully compensated for its want of sculptured slabs, by the many interesting relics of utensils, instruments, and arms of bronze, iron, glass, &c., found in it. Mr Layard first discovered two plain copper vessels, or caldrons, about

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feet in diameter, and 3 feet deep, which, when opened their mouths were closed by large tiles-were found to be filled with a variety of interesting objects, such as small bronze bells-eighty in all-with iron tongues, tapering bronze rods bent into hooks, bronze cups and dishes, and hundreds of studs and buttons in mother-ofpearl and ivory; all of which, excepting the cups and dishes, Mr Layard regarded as probably forming ornaments of horses and chariots. The bells, the largest of which was 3 inches high, and 24 inches in diameter, and the smallest 13 and 14, may have been worn by horses in the way described in Dr Kitto's note on Zechariah xiv. 20: 'In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses, Holiness unto the Lord,' &c. Besides the two spoken of, ten more caldrons and jars were found in the 'bronze chamber;' also two circular flat vessels, nearly 6 feet in diameter, which, though of much smaller dimensions, remind us of the brazen sea of Solomon's Temple. Indeed, in some of the bass-reliefs, large caldrons are represented as resting on the backs of oxen; a circumstance that constitutes a still more decided point of contact with the molten sea of Solomon.-(See Layard, Nineveh and Babylon, p. 588.)

Some of these caldrons, or even the whole of them, may have formed part of the spoil which the Assyrians took from time to time from their enemies, since caldrons are frequently represented on the monuments as part of the spoil or tribute brought from conquered countries. The frequency with which they occur, seems to prove the high value in which they were held by the Assyrians. This high estimate appears to have been general amongst the ancient nations; at all events, it prevailed amongst the Greeks of Homeric times, as is shewn by the catalogue in the Iliad of the gifts whereby Agamemnon sought to appease the wrath of Achilles :

Επτ ̓ ἀπύρους τρίποδας, δίκα δὲ χρυσοῖο τάλαντα,
Αἴθωνας δὲ λέβητας εείκοσι.

Iliad, ix. 122.

Besides caldrons, Mr Layard found many other vessels of bronze, which he classifies under four heads-dishes with handles, plates, deep bowls, and cups. Some were plain, others had a simple rosette, scarab, or star in the centre; while many were very elaborately ornamented on the inside -not on the outside-with figures of men and animals, &c. The style is frequently Egyptian in character, though the execution is peculiarly Assyrian. The chased surface has been produced by the punch; and the numerous instances in which this art appears to have been applied, prove it to have been common. There were also found beneath the caldrons, heaps of lions' and bulls' feet, of bronze, and the remains of iron rings and bars, which had probably formed parts of tripods or stands, for supporting vessels and bowls. With regard to the composition of the metal of which these various bronze vessels are made, it has been found that the metal of the dishes, bowls, and rings contains 1 part of tin to 10 of copper, the same proportion as in the best modern bronze; while that of the bells has 14 per cent. of tin. Besides vessels and instruments in bronze, there were others of iron overlaid with bronze, and also of iron alone. The iron was probably overlaid with bronze, because it was found difficult to produce good figures in the former metal. The arms which were found in the chamber were mostly of iron, and consequently nearly all fell to pieces when they were exposed to the air.

Although we have now described very cursorily all the contents of the above interesting chamber of the Nimroud palace which in any way bear on the illustration of the text, yet we shall take the present opportunity of mentioning briefly the other relics of the chamber, as they are connected with the former by the natural association of identity of place, and especially because no more suitable opportunity will present itself. These relics were, for the most part, vessels in glass. It is a singularly interesting circumstance, that we should now have such abundant evidence of the general acquaintance with the manufacture of glass, on the part of the ancient world, considering