Nimrtid
proposes to
build a city
and a tower.
The tower
intended to
serve as a
tomb.
A temple
with an
observatory.
With a view to the establishment of his religion, as well as
the consolidation of his power, Nimrud is supposed to have
said, “ We will build for us a city and tower, with its head like
heaven; which we will make as a monument to render our
name (D$ Shaim,) famous; lest we should be scattered on the
face of the whole earth. ’1 A building was therefore meditated
which should be superior to all other structures; its dimensions
were to be stupendous, that it might be visible throughout
a large portion of Babylonia, and become a grand landmark,
as well as the centre of Nimrud’s priestly and secular
power. According to Eupolemus,2 the city existed previously,
and the tower was erected not within its circumference, but in
its vicinity ;3 Birs, or Baris, the name of the tower, signifies
high; and the dome or top is supposed to have represented
the heavens, and to have been ornamented with the zodiacal
constellations,4 on which the Sabaism of the Chaldeans was
afterwards partly based.5 Like the later structures of the same
description in Egypt, it was intended to serve as the tomb
of the founder,. Nimrud or Belus ;6 and in the temple there
was to have been an image holding a sword as a protection
against men and demons.7 When Babylon was visited by
Herodotus, the court, as well as the temple on the summit,
were dedicated to Jupiter Belus ;8 the ruins of which, as well
as those of the observatory on the summit, still remained in
the time of Diodorus Siculus.9 But whatever may have been
the symbol of worship originally represented on Nimriid’s
temple, afterwards that of Bel,10 the chief object of its construe-
Gen., chap. X I., v. 4, Bellamy’s translation.
^ Euseb., Prsep., lib. IX ., cap. xiv., p. 416, and cap. xvii., p. 418.
i ? en‘! ^ aP- X I -> v- 4 . note by Bellamy; and Bryant’s Mythology,
vol. I ., p. 4 7 7 ; Euseb., Prsep. Evan., lib. I., pp. 41, 42.
1 f 0r “ o f the chaldeans> see m latter Par‘ of the next chapter.
Strabo, lib, X V I., p. 730, and Arrian, Exped. Alex., lib. V II. cap
17, compared with Pliny, lib. V I., cap. 26, and Diod. Siculus, lib I I
cap. 9. ’ ’
7 See the Jerusalem Targum.
8 Herod., lib. I ., cap. clxxxi., clxxxii.
8 Diod. Sic., lib. I I ., cap. ix.
10 Prideaux’s Connexion of the Old and New Testament, vol. I ., p. 96.
tion, namely to prevent the dispersion of the people over the
face of the earth, was frustrated; and the ruins are, to this day,
a monument of the failure of their presumptuous undertaking.
The Shemites, as has been said, occupied Upper Meso- JohoQs^ “aes
potamia, with a part of Syria, and they continued to dwell Babel,
in those regions up to the period in question; the seat of their
government being Salem, and their ruler the mysterious high-
priest Melchizedek,1 who was of the line of Shem, if not the
patriarch himself.2 In a late edition of the Bible it is stated,
with reference to the passage relating to the destruction of
Babel, that Melchizedek received a command from between
the Cherubim to go down to Babel and confound the vain
words of the people. Jehovah said, “ Behold another people,3
all of them with vain lip : even at this time, they profane with
their offerings; and now shall nothing be restrained from them
of all that they have imagined; 4 come, we will descend,5 and
then confound their doctrines, so that a man shall not hearken
to the speech of his neighbour.”
This was done, that the true religion might not be destroyed Nimrid’s
by the new settlers from the East; and God having commu- ^Sted.
nicated his will respecting the idolaters of Babel, the people of
Shem went thither to confound their purpose. Being a powerful
people, they readily impeded the progress not only of the idolatry,
but they also prevented the consolidation of a government
which would soon have extended to Canaan, and thus caused
what is called the Dispersion of Mankind : but this dispersion
may, perhaps with some propriety, be considered as a reoccupation
of the regions inhabited before the Flood. The persons who
quitted the land of Shinar, had, in all probability, some knowledge
of the regions to which they proceeded; and it may be
presumed that they were not by any means in a savage state,
but that they carried with them a certain degree of civilization
1 Gen., chap. X IV ., v. 18.
8 Calmet’s Dictionary of the Bible, Melchizedec.
3 Ham’s descendants, as worshippers of idols, were called another people.—
Note by Bellamy on Gen., chap. X I ., v. 5.
* Gen., chap. X I ., v. 6, Bellamy’s translation.
s Meaning the people of Salem were to descend, not the Almighty.—Note
by Bellamy, Gen., chap. X I., v. 7.