100 



rebellious people, lying children^ cliildreu tliat will not liear 

 the law of Jeliovali " (Isiah xxx. 9) . This same people returned 

 from a captivity, nominally of seventy years' duration, but in 

 reality about fifty/* zealous of Jebovah, banded together in 

 one homogeneous whole against the encroachments of all 

 rulers who would paganise the nation, and enforcing the 

 formerly neglected Law with a fanatical sternness. The 

 Captivity was the birthday of all the vital elements in Jewish 

 nationality ; the revival of national and religious enthusiasm, 

 the codification of laws and literature, all owe their origin to 

 this important epoch. Twenty years have elapsed since the 

 lines with which my paper commenced were written, and great 

 and important discoveries have, during that time, been made 

 in the grave-mounds of the land of the Captivity, which 

 throw a flood of light upon this dark epoch, revealing some, at 

 least, of the potent forces which wrought this wondrous change 

 in the chosen people. It will be my endeavour in this paper 

 to place before you this " light from the monuments,^^ which 

 has been re-kindled by the magic touch of the spade-wands of 

 Sir Henry Layard, Mr. Hormuzd Rassam, Sir Henry Rawlin- 

 son, and other explorers, and to show you how valuable it is 

 in ehicidating, elaborating, and confirming the Biblical 

 nai-rative. In dealing with this subject, wc have now to start 

 and to work upon entirely new ground to that formerly the 

 basis of treatment. Hitherto all we knew of the wonders of 

 Babylon, and the glory, and wisdom, and learning of the 

 Chaldeans, was derived from the second-hand, hearsay evidence 

 of the Greek writers, Herodotus, Ctesias, Xenophon, and 

 others, together with a few incidental notices in the later 

 books of the Old Testament. Now we have before us a series 

 of strictly contemporaneous documents, which reveal to us, not 

 only the life and acts of the kings of Babylon, but numberless 

 details of the social and religious life of the nation. We have 

 now open to us an overwhelming mass of literature, which, in 

 thought, language, and expression is a sister of the Hebrew 

 tongue. It is, therefore, .apparent to all how important it is 

 that this evidence should be sifted to its utmost limit in 

 the cause of truth. In dealing with this evidence, I purpose 

 to treat of it under three headings : — historical, religious, 

 and social. 



It is clear that to prove the importance of such an epoch as 

 that of the Captivity in the history of the Jewish nation in 

 particular and the world in general, it will be necessary, first 



* Dunker'rf Jfutorij of Anliquitij, vol. vi., p. 80. 



