The early history of the Hebrews

528. The papyrus in which the history of the expedition is recorded is preserved in the Hermitage at St. Petersburg, and has not yet been published. Mr. Golénischeff, its discoverer, however, has given me a verbal account of it.

529. There is no gold in Southern Arabia, and consequently Ophir must have been an emporium to which the gold was brought for transhipment from elsewhere. The mines were probably at Zimbabwe and the neighbourhood, where Mr. Theodore Bent made important excavations. For the site of Ophir, which may have been near Gerrha in the Persian Gulf, see Sayce in the Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archæology, June 1896, p. 174.

530. 1 Kings v. 16. These taskmasters must be distinguished from the 550 (or 250 according to 2 Chron. viii. 10) who superintended the work in Jerusalem itself (ix. 23), on which no Israelites were employed, but only native Canaanites (ix. 21, 22). The Chronicler makes the overseers of the preparatory work 3600 in number (2 Chron. ii. 18), the corvée itself consisting of 150,000 men.

531. See my article in the Quarterly Statement of the Palestine Exploration Fund, 1883, pp. 215-223, where I have staked the justification of my views on the discovery of the ‘stairs’ near the spot where the rock-cut steps have been found by Dr. Bliss (Ibid. 1896-97). Dr. Guthe first noticed that a shallow valley once existed between the Temple-hill and the so-called ‘Ophel.’

532. The columns were 18 cubits high (1 Kings vii. 15), though the Chronicler (2 Chron. iii. 15) makes them 35 cubits or 52-1/2 feet. The khammânîm or ‘Sun-pillars,’ dedicated to the Sun and associated with the worship of Asherah and Baal, are often referred to in the Old Testament (2 Chron. xxxiv. 4; Is. xvii. 8, etc.), and are mentioned in a Palmyrene inscription.

533. A translation of the hymn is given in my Hibbert Lectures on the Religion of the Ancient Babylonians, pp. 495, 496; see also p. 63.

534. Layard, Monuments of Nineveh, i. plate 7A.

535. See above, p. 196.

537. See Ball, The India House Inscription of Nebuchadrezzar in the Records of the Past, new ser., iii. pp. 104-123.

538. 1 Kings viii. 2. In vi. 38, however, it is said that the work was not completed until the eighth month of the year, the Phœnician Bul.

539. To these the Chronicler adds ‘Beth-horon the Upper’ (2 Chron. viii. 5). Possibly the two Beth-horons were fortified in connection with the reservoirs which Solomon is supposed to have constructed in order to supply Jerusalem with water. Baalath was, strictly speaking, in Dan (Josh. xix. 44). The Latin form Palmyra comes from Tadmor by assimilation to palma, ‘a palm.’ The change of d to l in Latin words is familiar to etymologists, and the initial p for t is paralleled by pavo, ‘a peacock,’ from the Greek ταὧς (Persian tâwûs). One of the Septuagint MSS. has Thermath for Tadmor, but in the ordinary text the whole passage is omitted.

540. Thus ‘Beth-horon the Upper’ is omitted in the verse, and the words ‘in the land’ (of Judah) have been transposed to the end of it, instead of coming as they should after ‘Baalath.’

541. Records of the Past, new ser., i. p. 115.

542. 1 Kings iv. 33. That books are meant, and not lectures such as were given to his subjects by the Egyptian king Khu-n-Aten, seems evident from verse 32, compared with Prov. xxv. 1.

543. ‘The enemies of Assur,’ says Assur-natsir-pal, he ‘has combated to their furthest bounds above and below’ (Records of the Past, new ser., ii. p. 136); ‘Countries, mountains, fortresses, and kinglets, the enemies of Assur, I have conquered,’ says Tiglath-pileser I. (Records of the Past, new ser., i. p. 94).