And the startling decree of Nebuchadrezzar finds its analogy in the decree published by Antiochus the Great to all his subjects in honour of the Temple at Jerusalem, in which he threatened the infliction of heavy fines on any foreigner who trespassed within the limits of the Holy Court.[370]
[327] The false prophets Ahab and Zedekiah were "roasted in the fire" (Jer. xxix. 22), which may have suggested the idea of this punishment to the writer; but it was for committing "lewdness"--"folly," Judg. xx. 6--in Israel, and for adultery and lies, which were regarded as treasonable. In some traditions they are identified with the two elders of the Story of Susanna. Assur-bani-pal burnt Samas-sum-ucin, his brother, who was Viceroy of Babylon (about B.C. 648), and Te-Umman, who cursed his gods (Smith, _Assur-bani-pal_, p. 138). Comp. Ewald, _Prophets_, iii. 240. See _supra_, p. 44.
[328] Malcolm, _Persia_, i. 29, 30.
[329] Both in Theodotion and the LXX. we have ἔτους ὀκτωκαιδεκάτου. The siege of Jerusalem was not, however, finished till the nineteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar (2 Kings xxv. 8). Others conjecture that the scene occurred in his thirty-first year, when he was "at rest in his house, and flourishing in his palace" (Dan. iv. 4).
[330] _Records of the Past_, v. 113. The inscriptions of Nebuchadrezzar are full of glorification of Marduk (Merodach), _id._, v. 115, 135, vii. 75.
[331] Comp. Isa. xliv. 9-20. Mr. Hormuzd Rassan discovered a colossal statue of Nebo at Nimroud in 1853. Shalmanezer III. says on his obelisk, "I made an image of my royalty; upon it I inscribed the praise of Asshur my master, and a true account of my exploits." Herodotus (i. 183) mentions a statue of Zeus in Babylon, on which was spent eight hundred talents of gold, and of another made of "solid gold" twelve ells high.
[332] By the apologists the "image" or "statue" is easily toned down into a bust on a hollow pedestal (Archdeacon Rose, _Speaker's Commentary_, p. 270). The colossus of Nero is said to have been a hundred and ten feet high, but was of marble. Nestle (_Marginalia_, 35) quotes a passage from Ammianus Marcellinus, which mentions a colossal statue of Apollo reared by Antiochus Epiphanes, to which there may be a side-allusion here.
[333] Schrader, p. 430: Dur-Yagina, Dur-Sargina, etc. LXX., ἐν πεδίῳ τοῦ περιβόλου χώρας Βαβυλωνίας.
[334] LXX. and Vulg., _satrapæ_. Comp. Ezra viii. 36; Esther iii. 12. Supposed to be the Persian _Khshatra-pāwan_ (Bevan, p. 79).
[335] _Signî_, Babylonian word (Schrader, p. 411).
[336] LXX., τοπάρχαι. Comp. _Pechah_, Ezra v. 14. An Assyrian word (Schrader, p. 577).
[337] LXX., ἡγούμενοι. Perhaps the Persian _endarzgar_, or "counsellor."
[338] LXX., διοικηταί. Comp. Ezra vii. 21; but Grätz thinks there is a mere scribe's mistake for the _gadbarî_ of vv. 24 and 27.
[339] This word is perhaps the old Persian _dàtabard_.
[340] The word is found here alone. Perhaps "advisers." On these words see Bevan, p. 79; _Speaker's Commentary_, pp. 278, 279; Sayce, _Assyr. Gr._, p. 110.
[341] Ewald, _Prophets_, v. 209; _Hist._, v. 294.
[342] The word has often been compared with the Greek κήρυξ, but the root is freely found in Assyrian inscriptions (_Karaz_, "an edict").
[343] Comp. Rev. xviii. 2, ἔκραξεν ἐν ἰσχύϊ.
[344] See _supra_, p. 22. The _qar'na_ (horn, κέρας) and _sab'ka_ (σαμβύκη) are in root both Greek and Aramean. The "pipe" (_mash'rôkîtha_) is Semitic. Brandig tries to prove that even in Nebuchadrezzar's time these three Greek names (even the _symphonia_) had been borrowed by the Babylonians from the Greeks; but the combined weight of philological authority is against him.
[345] See _Hibbert Lectures_, chap. lxxxix., etc.
[346] Comp. vi. 13, 14.
[347] _Akaloo Qar'tsîhîn._
[348] It is "found in the Targum rendering of Lev. xix. 16 for a talebearer, and is frequent as a Syriac and Arabic idiom" (Fuller).
[349] Jerome emphasises the element of jealousy, "Quos prætulisti nobis et _captivos ac servos principes fecisti_, ii _elati in superbiam_ tua præcepta contemnunt."