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Borsippa. It had, according to Nebuchadnezzar, fallen into decay, and he 
thus speaks of it, “ Concerning this temple of the Seven Spheres of 
Heaven and Earth, which a former king had made, and forty-two cubits 
had erected but had not completed its summit.” From ancient days ( Yumi 
rekute) it had decayed, and there was no exit for the waters (with) which 
the rain and storms had filled its interior. The brickwork of its casing 
had cracked, and the interior of its mass had poured out in heaps.” * It 
is evident that this tower was regarded by Nebuchadnezzar as most ancient 
and long neglected, and fallen into decay. If we compare this state- 
ment with the fragmentary legend of the confusion of Babel, found on a 
tablet (K 3,657), we shall see that the identification of the Birs Nimroud 
with this tower is possible. From this tablet it appears that an 
ancient king, probably ETANNA — the Titan of the Greeks — caused 
the Babylonians to sin against “the father of the gods,” by leading 
them to build a great tower. Small and great he mingled ( uballu ) on the 
mound. As they built by day the offended god threw down the work at 
night. At last as they persisted in the evil work, we are told that the great 
god “ in his anger” poured out a secret decree ; “ to confuse their speech he 
set his face,” and “ to make hostility in their counsel.” This important 
phrase, “to confuse their speech,” ballu tamaslie , <1^2 is almost an 
exact counterpart of the Hebrew in Genesis xi. 7, “ Come, we will go down 
and there confound their speech” ; that is in Hebrew, 11^2 3}. In 
Assyrian maslu , Hebrew siptu, the Hebrew have both the mean- 
ing of “ speech,” “ sentence,” or “ repetition by lip.” The gods then destroy 
the “ tower by a whirlwind and storm,” and “ this sin of the Babylonians 
was to last like heaven and earth.” It is evident from the fact that 
Merodach is entrusted with the punishment of the Babylonians who do 
this, that the tower was built outside Babylon proper, and most probably 
in Babylon the Second or Borsippa. The God of Heaven, Anu, is here called 
“ the King of the Holy Mountain,” this is the mountain of the gods on 
which the ark rested, and whose summit was the Olympus of Chaldean 
mythology. Like the Indian mountain of Meru, all the Babylonian stage- 
towers were built in imitation of it. The name given to it was “ the Temple 
of the Seven Spheres of Heaven and Earth,” as the Babylonians taught 
that there were seven cycles of Heaven and seven of the under world, — as 
the Mexicans taught there were nine such cycles, and each built their stage- 
towers according to this symbolism. 
With regard to Ur of the Chaldees being identical with the ruins 
of Mughier, I think there can be very little doubt when we 
* This passage was translated by Dr. Oppert in Smith’s “Bible 
Dictionary ” (p. 1,554), as “ A former king built it, they reckon, 42 ages, but 
he did not complete its head. Since a remote time people abandoned it, 
without order expressing their words.” As this fanciful translation is so 
often quoted, it is as well to correct it, and thus avoid a second Babel 
confusion. 
