208 



BABYLOX IX THE DAYS OF NEBUCHADREZZAR. 



APPENDIX. 



The inscriptions mentioning Nebuchadrezzar's sons (see p. 199) : 



1. Strassmaier, No. 372, ^ith restorations. 

 (1) [Ist-en immem es]-m-u (2) [sa '^■^■] Marduk-sum-u-sur 

 (y -Hf- C^^f >^ ^ CZ) (3) [mar sarr]i - Zu-bu-du-m (4) 

 mar si-par-ri sa (5) Maniduk-sum-u-sur (6) mar sarri 

 a-na E-babba-ra (7) it-ta-din. Immem (8) ina bit u-ri-i ina pan 

 (9) Samas-eres Warah Adari (10) [umu sibja-esnl sattu irbaya 

 (11) [Nabu-kiid]urru-U5ur (12) [sar Babili]^\ 



Traxslatiox. 



[One sheep, the ti]the of Mamduk-sum-usur, the son of the king, 

 Zubuduru, the secretary of Maniduk-snm-usur, the son of the king, 

 has given to E-babbara. The sheep is in the cattle-house with 

 Samas-eres. Month Adar, day 17th, 40th year of Nebuchadrezzar, 

 king of Babylon. 



The text is somewhat roughly written. Strassmaier has " 1 

 sheep " in line 7. His restoration of ina hit url in line 8 is correct, 

 but in line 9 I saw Samas-eres, not Samas-iddina, as Strassmaier 

 read it. Traces of a centred wedge in line 10 have caused me to read 

 " day 17th," and not " day 7th." 



The tablet referring to another son, J >->4- ^^"^T 

 Maruduk-nadin-ahi, is too long to give in full, but it is, as may be 

 gathered by the summary of its contents on p. 199, an interesting 

 document. 



It is noteworthy that, as the three inscriptions testify, Nebuchad- 

 rezzar gave each of his three sons names compounded with that of 

 Merodach, the patron-god of Babylon, and, in a sense, the equivalent 

 of the Heb. Yahwah. The question of the great king's rehgious 

 views, however, needs more evidence than is now available — ^all 

 that can be said is, that in common with every other Babylonian, 

 he regarded Nebo as a manifestation of Merodach, in the same 

 way as were also aU the other gods of the Babylonian pantheon. 



