P. [127], l. 21 ff. But perhaps it was the city of Aššur which came forth from Babylonia (i.e. was a Babylonian colony), and its ever-increasing inhabitants who founded the other cities mentioned.
P. [130] (the derivation of Nimrod). Another suggestion is, that Nimrod may be the name of Merodach, as “Lord of Marad” (Nin-Marad). As far as I have been able to see, however, this name of Merodach does not occur, and moreover, it was Nergal, and not Merodach, who was lord of Marad—Merodach's city was Babylon. Prof. Hommel's acute suggestion, that Namra-ṣit may be a Babylonian form of Nimrod, would seem to be doubtful.
P. [131] (Merodach's net). The bow of Merodach, after his fight with Tiamtu, was placed in the heavens, and seemingly became one of the constellations, but we do not hear of any similar honour having been conferred on his net, notwithstanding the great service which it had rendered him. In Habakkuk i. 15-17 there is a curious passage in which “the Chaldean” is described as catching men with his angle and his net, as fishes are caught, and making sacrifice to his net and his drag on account of his success with them. Heuzey, the well-known French Assyriologist and antiquarian, makes a comparison between this passage and the Vulture-stele, on which an ancient Babylonian prince is represented as having placed his conquered foes in a great net. This, however, does not explain the statement that the Chaldean sacrificed and offered incense to his net and his drag, and it is doubtful whether the Prophet had either that or any similar sculpture or picture in his mind. There is, nevertheless, just the possibility that the Babylonians were accustomed to pay divine honours to the net of Merodach, and this may have given rise to the statement in the passage quoted. Whether the relief on the Vulture-stele be derived from the legend of Merodach or not, is doubtful—in all probability it [pg 551] merely expresses a simile derived from catching wild animals with a net, as exhibited by the sculptures of Aššur-banî-âpli in the Assyrian Saloon of the British Museum.
Pp. [132-133]. With regard to the statements on these pages, the Rev. John Tuckwell writes: “Gen. xi. 1 must in all fairness be regarded as going back prior to ch. x, in order to tell the history of Babylon from its foundation. Again:—Why contradict Genesis? We do not know who ‘began’ to build Babylon—Sayce suggests ‘Etana.’ It is quite possible that ‘they left off to build the city,’ and resumed the work under Nimrod. There is no need to regard any of the statements as ‘interpolations’ if thus read. If all mankind perished by the Flood, as both stories appear to teach, there must surely have been a time when ‘the whole earth was of one language.’ ”
P. [134]. For the derivation of Shinar, see the note to p. [119].
P. [136]. The Mohammedan legend of the Tower of Babel, as told in the Persian work, Rauzat-us-Safa,[336] may be interesting. It is as follows:—
“When Nimrud had witnessed the extinction of the pile of fire, and had beheld the roses produced therein by the benign Creator, he aspired to ascend to heaven.... Nimrud ... spent many years in erecting a tower, which was so high that the bird of imagination could not reach its summit. When it was completed, he ascended to the pinnacle of the spire, but the aspect of the heavens remained precisely the same as from the surface of the earth. This astonished and perplexed him. The next day the tower fell, and such a fearful noise struck the ears of the inhabitants of Babel that most of them fainted from the effects thereof; and when they had recovered their senses they forgot their own language, so that every tribe spoke a different idiom, and seventy-two tongues became current among them.”
P. [136], l. 3 from below. Nannara was the moon-god, the same as Sin. L. 6 from below, read Ê-bar-igi-ê-di.
P. [144], l. 9 from below. The Rev. C. H. W. Johns, in his Assyrian deeds and documents, has pointed out the likeness of the names Naḫiri and Naḫarau (or Naḫarâu) to Nahor, referred to by Kittel in his little book upon Delitzsch's Babel und Bibel.[337] Naḫiru, however, is the common Assyro-Babylonian word for “nostril,” and is also the name of a creature of the sea supposed to be the dolphin. Naḫarâu it may be noted, notwithstanding [pg 552] the absence of the prefix of divinity, bears every appearance of being a name like Bêl-Yau on p. [59], the initial y or i being omitted as in the case of Au-Aa seven lines lower down. Judging from analogy, Naharâu should mean “Naḫar is Jah,” but whether this has anything to do with the name Nahor or not is doubtful—as Assyrian equivalent we should rather expect Naḫuru.
P. [145], l. 11 from below. The name of a Babylonian district called Pulug occurs in a Babylonian geographical list, and may be the same as Peleg. Though the ideogram is different, this is possibly the same as the Pulukku of the Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia, vol. II., pl. 52, l. 53, where it is explained as Bît ḫarê, “the house of the cutting,” or “excavation.” The Babylonians would therefore seem to have regarded Pulug or Pulukku as referring to the division of the land of Babylon by the cutting of the irrigation-channels which gave it its fertility.