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403 THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

403

more than Assyria, represented the real genius of the Semitic people; and its conquest by the semi-barbaric races of the East seemed a sad ending to its brilliant roll of centuries.

Biblical Data In the Bible, Babylon and the country of Babylonia are not always clearly distinguished, in most cases the. same word (?33) being used for both. In some passages the land of Babylonia is called Shinar while in the post-exilic literature it is called the land of the Chaldeans (DHKO pN). In the Book of Genesis Babylonia is described as the land in which are located Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh (Gen. x. 10), which are declared to have formed the beginning of Nimrod's kingdom. In this land was located the Tower of Babel (Gen. xi. 1-9) and here also was the seat of Amraphel's dominion (Gen. xiv. 1, 9). In the historical books Babylonia is frequently referred to (there are no fewer than thirty-one allusions in the Books of Kings), though the lack of a clear distinction between the city and the country is sometimes puzzling. Allusions to it are confined to the points of contact between the Israelites and the various Babylonian kings, especially Merodacii-baladan (Berodaeh-baladan of II Kings xx. 12; compare Isa. xxxix. 1) and Nebuchadrezzar (see Nebuchadnezzar). In Chron. Ez. and Neh. the interest is transferred to Cyrus (see, for example, Ez. v. 13), though the retrospect still deals w';.: the conquests of Nebuchadrezzar, and Arta'i^xcs is mentioned once (Neh. xiii. 6). In the poetical literature of Israel Babylonia plays an insignificant part (see Ps. lxxxvii. 4, and especially Ps. cxxxvii.), but it fills a very large place in the Prophets. The Book of Isaiah resounds with the " burden of Babylon " (xiii. 1), though at that time it still seemed a " far country " (xxxix. 3). In the number and importance of its references to Babylo:



,

Babylonia nian

and Jeremiah.,

life

and

history, the

Book

of Jere-

miah stands preeminent in the Hebrew literature. So numerous and so im-

portant are the allusions to events in the reign of Nebuchadnezzar that within recent times Jeremiah has become a valuable source in reconstructing Babylonian history. The inscriptions of Nebuchadrezzar are almost exclusively devoted to build-

ing operations and but for the Book of Jeremiah, little would be known of his campaign against JeruSee Assyria, Assyriology and the Old salem.

Testament, and Babylon. P. Tiele, Bahylnnisch-Assyrische G-e.sehichte, Gotha, 1886 Robert W. Rogers. History nf 2 vols., New York, 1900; F. HorriAssyria, and Babylonia mel, Geschichte Babylonians unci, Assyrians, Berlin, 18a5; Morgenlandes, Stuttgart, 1895 (transl. Alten des Geschichte into English as Civilization of the East, London, 1900"); Hugo

Bibliography: Histories— C.



Winckler, GescMehte Babylonians mid Assyrians, Leipsic, Works referring to the relationship between O. T. 1892. history and Babylonia— E. Schrader, Die Keilinschriften und dm Alte Testament, Giessen, 1888 (English transl. by O C Whitehouse, The Cuneiform Inscriptions and. the Old Testament, London, 1885-1889); I. M. Price, The Monuments and the Old Testament Chicago, 1900 C. J. Ball, Light from, the East, London, 1899 D. G. Hogarth, Authority and Archaeology, Part I, Hebrew Authority, by S. R.



Driver, London, 1899. [See Bibliography to Assyria.] j.

jr.

R.

Post-Biblical Data"— Geography



W. R. The

Tal-

mud gives the boundaries of as much of Babylonia as contained Jewish residents, but in doing

Babylonia

so mentions geographical names which are not always clearly identifiable. The places mentioned in II Kings xvii. 6, as the localities where the Jewish exiles were settled, are not likely to have been the only ones inhabited by them after the lapse of a few centuries. Some of these places were identified as

being inhabited by Jews in the post-Biblical period. Thus R. Abba bar Kahana, commenting on the above-mentioned passage in II Kings, states that (a) "Halah " (rpn) is Halwan (according to the correct

reading) or Holwan, as it is still called by the Arabs the Syrians also considered to-day

Extent.

it

identical with "

Halah

" (R.

Payne

Smith, "Thesaurus Syriacus," col. 1277); it is, according to Abulfeda, five days' journey north from Bagdad. Both Jews and Syrians apply the name to the whole province of Calachene. a(3yab (b) "Habor" (II Kings I.e.) is the same as

H

Adiabene). (c) " Nehar Gozan " (i. e. river of Gozan) is identical with Ginzak or, as Strabo and Ptolemy call it, Gaza, Gazaka, or Ganzaka, a large city on the bank of the lake Urmia (Ritter, "Erdkunde," ix. 774). (d) "The cities of the Medes " (II Kings I.e.) (

intended to designate Hamadan, the ancient Ecbatana, and its sister cities. According to another opinion, Nehawend and its sister cities, south of Hamadan, are meant (Kid. 72a; Yeb. 16& et seg.). Ganzaka is also mentioned elsewhere as one of the remotest points in which Jews of genuine stock, descended from the actual exiles, resided. Such Jews are said to have dwelt as far as the "river [" nhr " = water, as in Aramaic and Arabic] Ginzak, according to the correct reading of the 'Aruk based upon Kid. 715; Yer. Kid. iv. 65d; Yer. Yeb. i. 3b. This statement was made by Rab but Samuel names

are



Nahrwan (see

(see Ritter,

I.e.

same passages, and

418) as the farthest limit also Gen. R. xvi. 3). ix.

the north ("above "), Rab gives as boundary a place on the Tigris which S. Cassel understands as the Bagravene mentioned by Ptolemy, a Kohut and district eastward of the Tigris sources.

Toward

Berliner refer the name to Okbara and Awana, two while Samuel cities on the east bank of the river here, too, assigns a smaller territory to Jewish residents by naming Moxcene as the farthest boundary. Southward ("below") along the Tigris, Jews are said to have been domiciled as far as Apamea in

Northward on the Euphrates, Rab menThulbakni (called also Akra Greek for "fort"— by the Jews) as the limit (Gen. R. I.e.), which place, according to most investigators, is the Thilbencane mentioned by Ptolemy. Samuel names Mesene.

—

tions the fortress

a point farther north, a

"

bridge

"

over the Euphrates,

well-known Zeugma on that river, as appears from R. Johanan's statement in the passage cited; this was a strategically important point on the boundary of Commagene, called " Bir " to-day. But the district Biram, mentioned in the Talmud (I.e.) as being upon "this side of the Euphrates," is not to be understood as identical with this Bir, as Neubauer and Berliner maintain; for then there would be nothing extraordinary in the accompanyidentical with the

ing statement that the leading (Jewish) families of Pumbedita contracted matrimonial alliances with the people of Biram. It is more probable that by the latter place the district of Bahrain was meant, a