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and all that remained of that once great empire became a 

 Median province. The references I have given to the Hebrew 

 prophets indicating their knowledge o£ the Scythian invasion 

 receive a remarkable confirmation from a passage in one ol 

 the cylinder inscriptions of Nabonidus, found by Mr. Rassam 

 at Aboo Hubba^ the ancient Sippara or Sepharvaim. In one 

 of these inscriptions the king states that the temple at 

 Harran, dedicated to the Moon-god^ had been destroyed by 

 the wicked Sahmandai, or barbarians. It is evident that the 

 Gimireans, or Scythians^ are meant, as we have seen the 

 Teuspa^ or Teispes, the opponent of Esarhaddqn, was called 

 Sahmanda, or barbarian. In the Behistun inscriptions, the 

 tall cap wearing JsA;«a7i;« is called by the Persian 8ahka, '^ the 

 Scythian/' but in the Babylonian version " Gimirrai/' the 

 Gimii"ean. The alliance formed between the rebels against 

 Assyria did not last long, and the aggressive policy of Necho 

 soon brought down upon him the armies of the Chaldean. 

 Four years after the battle of Mageddo, Nebuchadnezzar, 

 acting as general of his father, defeated Necho at Carchemish, 

 and but for the death of his father he would have besieged 

 Jerusalem (2 Kings xxiv. 1, and Jer. xlvi. 1). In the third 

 year, — that is, B.C. 603, — he revolted, and was punished by 

 the invasion of southern Palestine by the trans-Jordanic 

 tribes of Syrians, Moabites, and Ammonites (2 Kings xxiv. 2), 

 and his son Jehoiachin, who succeeded him, was deposed in 

 B.C. 598, and carried captive to Babylon (2 Kings xxiv. 12), 

 and set up Zedekiah in his stead. By these campaigns 

 Nebuchadnezzar had gained complete possession of Syria, " so 

 that the King of Egypt came not any more out of his land, 

 for the King of Babylon had taken from the river of Egypt 

 [Wady el Arish] unto the river Euphrates all that pertained 

 to the King of Egypt'' (2 Kings xxiv. 7). The old 

 strife between the two great empires was renewed in the 

 reign of the successor of Necho, Uahhara, the Hophra of the 

 Bible. He invaded Phoenicia apparently with success, as 

 portions of a temple erected by him are found at Gebal 

 (modern Jebeil), and captured Gaza, a strong Philistine 

 fortress, inducing Zedekiah to break his allegiance with 

 Babylon, and make a treaty with him (Ezekiel xvii. 15). The 

 result of this rise of Egyptian power in Syria was a Babylonian 

 invasion, ending in the defeat of Hophra (Jer. xxxv. 5-8), 

 and the final overthrow of the Jewish power (2 Kings xxv.). 

 The fall of Jerusalem was synchronous with the nineteenth 

 year of Nebuchadnezzar (2 Kings xxv. 8 ; Jer. xxxix. 1-2), 

 that is, B.C. 587-6. The Babylonian king at the time of the 

 fall of Jerusalem was encamped at Riblali. This city, which 



