126 EEV. HENEY LANSDELL, D.D., ETC., ON 



Long ago, Josephus told us that Nebuchadnezzar -'witli 

 the spoils he had taken in war, adorned tlie temple of Belus 

 and the rest of the temples in a magnificent manner."* 



But to us, of the nineteenth century, new sources ot 

 information have been unveiled, such as Josephus could 

 not read; and we owe not a little to Assyriologists who 

 have deciphered for us the cuneiform inscriptions on whole 

 libraries of tablets found throughout a large part of Western 

 Asia, many of Avhich tablets have made tlieir way to the 

 museums of Berlin, Paris, and London. These tablets were 

 anciently preserved as records connected with temples ; as 

 hymns to the gods ; calendars, works of history, and chron- 

 ology ; and also as merchants' accounts and contracts. 



Upon my asking Dr. Budge for " chapter and verse." that 

 is, translations from a few original tablets in the British 

 Museum, and their bearing upon tithe-giving, he has been 

 good enough to inform me concerning the meaning of the 

 word eslini, or tenth, that : 



On one tablet [82, 11, 18, 74''] Nabonidns [5o5-5;38 B.C.] 

 paid to the temple of the sun god on the xxvi*'' day of the 

 month Sivan, in his accession year, six mana of gold eshvu 

 [as tithe] the gold being paid in the great gate of the 

 temple. 



Another tablet records that Belshazzar (son of Nabonidus) 

 paid 27 shekels of silver as the eshru, or tithe, for a daughter 

 of the king, on the fifth day of Ab, year 17 of Nabonidus. 



A third tablet states that Nergahiatsir gave an ox to the 

 temple for his tithe. 



A fourth tablet says that a governor and another official 

 paid a tithe ; besides which other examples of combined tithe- 

 paying occur. 



A fifth tablet states that two-thirds of a mana, and five 

 shekels of silver Avere given to the gods Bel, Nebo, Nergal, 

 and Ishtar as tithe. 



I ought to say that Dr. Budge adds a doubt whether eshrii, 

 though meaning literally a tenth, Avas an actual tenth of the 

 person's income or property; and there is no evidence, he 

 says, knoAvn to him, Avhich shoAA^s that the tithe Avas obli- 

 gatory. But there is cAndence, he says, that the tithe could 

 be annual; that it could be, and Avas, commonly paid in 

 kind : that two or more individuals could unite in paying a 

 tithe ; and that a tithe could be offered to a number of gods 



Antiquities, Book x, chap. 11. 



