Nitocris, and also by the account, which Herodotus gives, of certain Babylonian customs of a very unusual character. “Once a year," Herodotus tells us, "the marriageable maidens of every village in the country were required to assemble together into one place, while all the men stood round them in a circle. Then a herald (cf. Dan. iii. 4) called up the damsels one by one and offered them for sale . . All who liked might come even from distant villages and bid for the women." 1 Again he says, "The Babylonians have one most shameful custom. Every woman born in the country must, once in her life, go and sit down in the precinct of Venus and there consort with a stranger. Many of the wealthier sort, who are too proud to mix with the others, drive in covered carriages to the precinct, followed by a goodly train of attendants, and there take their station. Where they sit there is always a great crowd, some coming and others going. Lines of cord mark out paths in all directions; and the strangers pass along them to make their choice. . . . Some women have remained three or four years in the precinct." The statements of Herodotus on these points are confirmed by other writers, and there is ample reason to believe that the seclusion of the sex, so general in other parts of the East, was abhorrent to Babylonian ideas.3

2

The free use of wine in Babylonia, not only at royal banquets (Dan. v. 1-4), but in the ordinary diet of the 2 Ibid., i. 199.

1 Herod., i., 196.

See the author's "Ancient Monarchies," vol. iii., p. 22.

upper classes (ib. i. 5-16), is what we should scarcely have expected in so hot a region, and one wholly unsuited for the cultivation of the vine. Yet it is quite certain from profane sources that the fact was as represented in Scripture. Herodotus tells us of a regular trade between Armenia and Babylon down the course of the Euphrates, in which the boats used were sometimes of as much as five thousand talents burden.' He declares that the staple of the trade was wine, which, not being produced in the country, was regularly imported from abroad year after year. In the story of Parsondas we find Nannarus abundantly supplied with wine, and liberal in its use.2 The Chaldæan account of the Deluge represents Hasisadra as collecting it "in receptacles, like the waters of a river," for the benefit of those who were about to enter the ark, and as pouring "seven jugs" of it in libation, when, on the subsidence of the waters, he quitted his shelter. Quintus Curtius relates that the Babylonians of Alexander's time were fond of drinking wine to excess; their banquets were magnificent, and generally ended in drunkenness.5

The employment of war-chariots by the Babylonians, which is asserted by Jeremiah (Jer. iv. 13; 1. 37), in marked contrast with his descriptions of the MedoPersians, who are represented as "riders upon horses" (ib. ver. 42; compare ch. li. 27), receives confirmation

1 Herod., i. 194.

3" Records of the Past," vol. vii., p. 137.

* Ibid., p. 140.

2 See Nic. Dam., Fr. 11.

Q. Curt., v. I.

from the Assyrian inscriptions, which repeatedly mention the chariot force as an important part of the Babylonian army,' and is also noticed by Polyhistor. Their skill with the bow, also noted by the same prophet (ch. iv. 29; v. 16; vi. 23; li. 3), has the support of Aschylus, and is in accordance with the monuments, which show us the bow as the favourite weapon of the monarchs."

The pronounced idolatry prevalent in Babylon under the later kings, which Scripture sets forth in such strong terms (Jer. 1. 2, 38; li. 17, 47, 52; Dan. v. 4), scarcely requires the confirmation which is lent to it by the inscriptions and by profane writers. Idolatrous systems had possession of all Western Asia at the time, and the Babylonian idolatry was not of a much grosser type than the Assyrian, the Syrian, or the Phoenician. But it is perhaps worthy of remark that the particular phase of the religion, which the great Hebrew prophets set forth, is exactly that found by the remains to have characterized the later empire. In the works of these writers three Babylonian gods only are particularised by name-Bel, Nebo, Merodach

and in the monuments of the period these three deities are exactly those which obtain the most frequent mention and hold the most prominent place.

1 Records of the Past," vol. i., p. 22; vol. vii., p. 59; vol. xi., P. 55.

"See the "Fragm. Hist. Græc." of C. Müller, vol. ii.

"Aschyl., "Pers.," 1. 55.

See "Ancient Monarchies,” vol. ii., p. 560; vol. iii., p. 7.

The kings of the later empire, with a single exception, had names which placed them under the protection of one or other of these three; and their inscriptions show that to these three they paid, at any rate, especial honour. Merodach holds the first place in the memorials of their reigns left by Nebuchadnezzar and Neriglissar; Bel and Nebo bear off the palm in the inscriptions of Nabonidus. While "the great gods" obtain occasional but scanty notice, as "the holy gods" do in the Book of Daniel (Dan. iv. 8, 9), Bel, Nebo, and Merodach alone occur frequently, alone seem to be viewed, not as local, but as great national deities, alone engage the thoughts and receive the adoration of the nation.

CHAPTER XII.

FURTHER NOTICES OF BABYLON IN ISAIAH AND

JEREMIAH.

THE Complete destruction of Babylon, and her desolation through long ages, is prophesied in Scripture repeatedly, and with a distinctness and minuteness that are very remarkable. The most striking of the prophecies are the following:

"Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It shail never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation; neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there, neither shall the shepherds make their fold there. But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there. And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces; and her time is near to come; and her days shall not be prolonged."-ISA. xiii. 19–22.

“I will rise up against them, saith the Lord of hosts, and cut off from Babylon the name, and remnant, and son, and nephew, saith the Lord. I will also make it a possession for the bittern, and pools of water; and I will sweep it with the besom of destruction, saith the Lord of hosts."-ISA. xiv. 22, 23.

"Chaldea shall be a spoil; all that spoil her shall be satisfied, saith the Lord. Because ye were glad, because ye rejoiced, O ye destroyers of My heritage; because ye are grown fat, as the heifer at grass, and