In exchange for the slave Dâan-bêl-uṣur, the slave's wife, their six children, and a cornfield upon the canal called Ṭupašu, which Marduk-naṣir-âbli gave to his wife Âmat-Bau, he received from her two sums of silver and one of gold, a ring, and two slaves, who had been part of her dowry. The slaves he gave her, though now her property, were in all probability still at his disposition, but Dâan-bêl-uṣur seems to have served him so well when in charge of his affairs, that after having parted with him, though only to his wife, he must have found, to his regret, that he and his [pg 469] family were naturally not so much at his disposition as when he could call them his own.
Under the name of Marduk-naṣir-âbli, he appears before us principally in the character of an agriculturalist and dealer in produce, combining with this money-lending on occasion. As Širku, he dealt largely in ships, and apparently also in boats for pontoon bridges. In the fifth year of Darius he was in Elam, and there is a reference to the sending to him of a messenger, “with the charioteers of Bêl-âbla-iddina, captain of Babylon.” Many years afterwards Širku is said to have received the rent of a house situated “upon the giššu of Borsippa,” and the question naturally arises, whether giššu may not be for gišru, “bridge,” though a house upon a bridge crossing a comparatively narrow canal near Babylon is certainly not what one would expect.
On the 16th of Sivan in the twenty-sixth year of Darius, Širku was the scribe who drew up a contract referring to two ships, one apparently for service on the Euphrates, the other for the bridge. Later on, he borrowed some money upon the security of two of his female slaves, Mušêzibtum and Narû, the wrist of the former being inscribed with the name of one of his relations, the other with his own name, Širku (it is given as Šišku on the tablet). This loan is distinctly stated to be for the purpose of acquiring “a ship for the bridge” (êlippu ša giširi), and this he seems to have bought two months later, unless there was another contract for a vessel which has not come down to us. In the Peek collection is a large tablet referring to the completed bridge, the traffic upon it, and the ships moored to it, suggesting that a portion of it at least was used as a quay or landing-stage. More research is needed, however, ere its precise nature will be clear—perhaps the etymology is misleading, and gišru or giširu means, in Babylonian, “pier” or “landing-stage” simply.
The following is one of the inscriptions which refer to his hiring a ship—
“(Concerning) the ship of Iddina-Bêl which is with Šamaš-iddina, son of Bêl-iddina, for navigation. He has given the ship for hire as far as bištum ša ṣêrûa (= birtum ša ṣêrûa, ‘the fortress of ṣêrûa’) for 1/3 of a mana of white silver, coined, to Širik (Širku), son of Iddinā, descendant of Êgibi. The silver, 1/3 of a mana, the hire of the ship, and its provisions, he has received. The ship shall not cross the great (water), if it pass, he shall pay 5 mana of silver. Each has taken (a copy of this contract).”
The names of three witnesses and the scribe follow this, after which is the date—
“Babylon, month Adar, day 6th, year 26th, Darius, king of Babylon and countries.”
The tablets in which Marduk-naṣir-âbli, alias Širku, are mentioned, prove that Babylonia maintained its character as a maritime nation to a very late date. As, however, voyages on the ocean are not provable, it is doubtful whether their ships sailed to any great distance—in all probability they confined themselves to making coast-voyages only. Judging from the penalty attached to taking the ship across the great (water), the question naturally arises, whether the sea (the Persian Gulf) may not have been intended. The word used in the original is rabbu, which would then correspond with the last word of the poetic expression, “the rolling main.”
Such, as far as space allows, was life at Babylon and the chief cities of Babylonia, where the Israelites dwelt for so many years, and colonies of them existed until a very late date, as the drinking bowls inscribed with charms against sickness and evil spirits in Hebrew and Aramaic show. Some of the Hebrew names contained in the tablets from Babylonia have already been referred to (p. [458]), and to these several others may be added, such as Banāwa or Beniah; [pg 471] Gamariāwa or Gemariah; Malakiāwa or Malchiah, who had a son bearing the heathen name of Nergal-êṭir; together with several similarly-formed but otherwise unknown names (as was to be expected). Examples of these are, Azziāwa, Ḫuliāwa, Nirîāwa and Agirîāwa. The Gemariah mentioned above was witness, with his compatriot Barikîa (Berechiah) and others, on the occasion when Ša-Nabû-duppu sold Nanaa-silim, his Bactrian slave-girl. The scribe's name on this occasion was Marduka (Mordecai), son of Épeš-îli. Mordecai means “the Merodachite,” and is interesting as showing how Babylonian monotheism, such as it was, reconciled the Jews to accept what they would otherwise have regarded as a heathen name.
Interesting in the extreme would it be, if we could know what the Jews thought of the country and the city of their captivity. In that enormous walled tract known as the city of Babylon were large open spaces covered with gardens, and cornfields, and orchards, mostly, perhaps almost exclusively, of date-palms, the fruit of which formed such an important part of the food of the people. These were the trees, in all probability, on which the Jewish captives hung their harps when, in their captivity, they mourned for the city of Sion, from which they were so far away. The rivers of Babylon, of which the well-known psalm speaks, were the Tigris and the Euphrates, with the innumerable canals and watering-channels which the nature of the country rendered so necessary to the fertility and productiveness of the land, and without which it would have been a desert.