nsserted here thRt Jehoil\kim. Rlong with Iwa.cl.p. It is omitted by Paulus Tellonsis. the ~-es~els and unmentioned CA.ptives, were The lreaBure-ho11se of his god. The won\ earned to D:<b1'lon. Professor Bevan ad mite rendered " god " here ie the plural form that it is doubtful. Were we dependent ·whioh is ueunlly restricted to the truo God° merely on !!,'rRtnmar, cert.11.inly1.heprobl\bility, otherwise it is usually translated e.s "god a.': thoul!'h not. the ccrt,.inly, would be th11..t the To quote e. few from mnuy inatonCCII, plural suffix we., intended to cover Jehoi- Jephthe. uses the word in the plural form nkiru, but the <"On<"lusion forced on ns by of Chomosh (Judg. xi. 24), Elijah applies logic is different. He "carried ~em (D!!';i;) it to Beal (1 Kings xviii. 27), it is used to the house of his god." This BMlllB to of Nisrooh (2 Kings xix. 37). In Ezra imply thnt only the vessels are spoken ot i. 7 we have this same word tmuslo.ted So strongly is this felt by Hitzig (' Das Buch plural in regnrd to the place in which De.11il'l,' 5) tlmt he would regard the phrase, Neb11ahadnezzar had deposited the vessels "the house of his god," as in apposition of the hO\ISe of God. In translating tho to "the land of Shinar," and refers to two verso before us, tho Peshitto. renders path- passages in Hosea (viii. I; ix. 15) in which ooroh, " his idol." This suits the tro.nsle.tion "house" is, he alleges, used for"land." Irre- of the LXX. ,lg.,A,t.,,. Paulus Tellensis specti1'e of the fact that these two instances renders it in the plural, "idols." The god occur in highly wrought poetical passages, in whose tree.sure-house the vessels of the nnd \hat to argue from the sense of a word house of God in Jerusalem were placed in poetry to its sense in plnin prose ie would necessarily be Merodaoh, whom N ebu- unsafe, there is no great plausibility in his ohadnezze.r worshipped, almost to the ex- interpretation of these passages. He regards clusion of e.ny other. The treasure-home of the last clause as contrasted with the earlier: hiii god. Temples he.d not many precioW! while the captives were brought "into the gifts bestowed npon them by their worship- land of Shinar," the vessels were brought pers which were not ta.ken byneedymonarchs; into "the treasure-house of his god "-e.n nevertheless, the treesmes of kingdoms were argument in which there is plausibility often deposited in a temple, to be 11Dder the were there not the extreme o.wkwardnese protectio11 of its god. The temple of Bel- of using l"l':l, "house," first in the extended Merode.ch in Babylon was e. structure of great sense of "country," e.nd then in the re- magnificence. Herodotus (L 181) gives a de- stricted sense of "temple." The last clall8e scription, which is in the me.in confirmed by is rather to be looked upon as rhetorice.l Strabo (:xvi. 5) : " In the midst of the sacred climaL The land of Shinar is 11sed for area is a strong tower built a stadium in Babylonia fo11r times in the Book of length and breadth; upon this tower is Genesis, twice in the portion set apart e.s another raised, and another upon it, till there Jchovist Ly Canon Driver; the remaining are eight towers. There is a winding ascent instances e.re in eh. xiv., both as the king- ma.de e.bont all the towers. In the middle dom of Amraphel, which Co.non Driver of the ascent there is a resting-place, where relegates to e. specie.I so11rce. In the first are see.ta on which those ascending may sit instance (Gen. x. 10) it is the land in which e.nd rest, In the last tower is a spacious Babel, Ereoh, .A.ccad, e.nd Calneh were. In shrine, and in it e. huge conch beautifully the next instance ( eh. xi.) it is the place bespread, e.nd by its side ia placed a table of in which the Tower of Babel is bnilt. The gold. No statue he.a been set up here, nor no.me is applied to Babylonia in Isa. xi e.nd does any mortal pass the night here." There Zech. v. 11. One of the titles which the kings are still remains of e. strncture which suits of Babylon assumed regularly we.s "King of to some extent the description here given, Snmir and .A.ccad." From the connection of but investigators are divided whether to re- Shinar and .A.ccad in Gen. x. 20 we may gard Birs N imroud or Babil as most properly ded nee that" Shinar" is the Hebrew equiva- representing this famous temple of Bel- lent for "Snmir." It is not fllrther removed Merodacb. In the "Standard Inscription" from its original than is " Florence" from Nebuchadnezzar appears to refer to this "Firenze" or "Leghorn" from" Livorno" temple, whieh be calls E-temen-e.ne.-ki," the or, to take e. French instance," Londres'" house of heaven e.nd earth." He says, among from" London." The ingenious derivation other matters concerning H, that he "stored of" Shine.r" from 'll!:' "two " e.nd ,11 "e. river " 11p inside it silver e.nd gold and precious which, however, ~plies' the ide~tificati~n stones, e.nd placed there the treo.sure-bouse of of r e.nd 11, may have occasioned ihe modi- his kingdom." This amply explains why fication, the more so e.s it we.s descriptive the vessels of the house of God were taken of BsLylonio; hence the no.me ".A.ram- to the temple of Del-Merode.ch. The fa.et is N aliaroim," o.nd its tre.nsle.tion "Mesopo- mentioned that the vessels of the house of t.umia.," applied to the tract between the God were carried to Babylon, and, a.a e. Euphrates and the Tigris, north of Baby- climax, " e.nd he placed them in the treasure- lonia, In the Greek ·rersions it becomee house of his god." We know what befell en, t. 1-21.J 'rrm nooK OF DANrnL.
the st11tuo of Dagon whon tho ark of Gori Ion, their in/lnenco wonl<l he exP-1·ciee<l on wns pl11ood in its presenoo, nnd tho Jew, their relntivos to maintain them in fidelity. remembering this, rolntes nwestruok the The phrase, "epako unto," h11s, in btcr fo.ot that these so.cred vossels wero plnoed in Hebrew, the force of "command," eepeci- the templo of Bel. If no such disaster befell nlly when follower! by an infinitive, as Bcl-1\lerodnch ns befell D11gon, yet still the Estb. i. 17. As translated in the Autho- handwriting on the we.JI which nppearod rized Version, the impression conveyed is when these vessels were need to o.dd to tlte that of consultation. The name "Asb- splendour of the roynl b11nquet, e.nd which penaz" bas caused much di11Cnssion. As it told the doom of the Ohaldcnn monarchy, stands, it is not Assyrian or Baby Ionian. mny be looked upon o.s the seqnol to this net The form it bas suggests a Persian ety- of who.t would necesBBrily o.ppee.r to a Jew mology, and on this fact, along with other supreme sacrilege. similar alleged facts, an argument against Vere. 3, 4.-And the king spnke nnto Aeh- the authenticity of Daniel has been based. peno.z the master of hie eunuchs, that he One derivation woulrl make it ashpa, "a should bring certo.iu of the children of Iarael, horse ; " nasa, a nose," "horse nose,, -by 1 '