Explorations in Bible lands during the 19th century - H. V. Hilprecht

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4 EXPLORATIONS IN BIBLE LANDS
downfall " Empty, and void, and waste " (Nah. i ! : 10)
when " flocks lie down in the midst of her " (Zeph. i :
14)
when " the gates of the rivers shall be opened, and the palace
shall be dissolved " (Nah. 2 : 6) — was the fate of the queen
in the North ; and " How art thou fallen from heaven, O
Lucifer, son of the morning ! how art thou cut down to the
ground, which didst weaken the nations " (Is. 14: 12) —
rings like a mourning wail through Babylon's crumbling
walls, and like the mocking echo of the prophetic curse from
the shattered temples in the South.
Ignorant peasants draw their primitive ploughs over the
ruined palaces of Qoyunjuk and Khorsabad ;
roaming Bedouins
pasture their herds on the grass-covered slopes of
Nimrud and Qal'at Shirgat ; Turkish garrisons and modern
villages crown the summits of Erbil and Nebi Yunus.
Nothing reminds the traveller of the old Assyrian civilization
but formless heaps and conical mounds. The solitude
and utter devastation which characterize Babylonia in her
present aspect are even more impressive and appalling.
The whole country from 'Aqarquf to Qorna looks " as when
God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah" (Is. 13: 19; Jer.
50 : 40). The innumerable canals which in bygone days,
like so many nourishing veins, crossed the rich alluvial plain,
bringing life and joy and wealth to every village and field,
are choked up with rubbish and earth. Unattended by
industrious hands and no longer fed
by the Euphrates and
Tigris, they are completely " dried up " — "a drought is
upon the waters of Babylon" (Jer. 50:38). But their
loftv embankments, like a perfect network, " stretching on
every side in long lines until they are lost in the hazy distance,
or magnified by the mirage into mountains, still dery
the hand of time," bearing witness to the great skill and
diligent labor which once turned these barren plains into
one luxuriant garden. The proverbial fertility and prosperity
of Babylonia, which excited the admiration of classical