[390] Sayce, _Records of the Past_, ix. 140.
[391] The number seven is not, however, found in all texts.
[392] The Jewish tradition admits that the names of the angels came from Persia (_Rosh Hashanah_, f. 56, 1; _Bereshîth Rabba_, c. 48; Riehm, _R. W. B._, i. 381).
[393] Descent of Ishtar, _Records of the Past_, i. 141. Botta found seven rude figures buried under the thresholds of doors.
[394] The Targum understands it "for a moment."
[395] The wish was quite natural. It is needless to follow Rashi, etc., in making this an address to God, as though it were a prayer to Him that ruin might fall on His enemy Nebuchadrezzar. Comp. Ov., _Fast._, iii. 494: "Eveniat nostris hostibus ille color."
[399] In the _Mishnah_ often _Shamayîm_; N. T., ἡ βασίλεια τῶν οὐρανῶν.
[400] Or, as in A.V. and Hitzig, "if it may be a lengthening of thy tranquillity"; but Ewald reads _arukah_, "healing" (Isa. lviii. 8), for _ar'kah_.
[403] Theodot., τὰς ἁμαρτίας σου ἐν ἐλεημοσύναις λύτρωσαι; Vulg., _peccata tua eleemosynis redime_. Comp. Psalm cxii. 9. This exaltation of almsgiving is a characteristic of later Judaism (Ecclus. iv. 5-10; Tobit iv. 11).
[404] Comp. Prov. x. 2, xvi. 6; _Sukka_, f. 49, 2. The theological and ethical question involved is discussed by Calvin, _Instt._, iii. 4; Bellarmine, _De Pœnitent_., ii. 6 (Behrmann).
[405] It is now called Kasr, but the Arabs call it _Mujelibé_, "The Ruined."
[406] Birs-Nimrod (Grote, _Hist. of Greece_, III., chap. xix.; Layard, _Nin. and Bab._, chap. ii.).
[407] Arist., _Polit._, III. i. 12. He says that three days after its capture some of its inhabitants were still unaware of the fact.
[408] Acts xii. 20-23; Jos., _Antt._, XIV. viii. 2.
[409] For further information on this subject I may refer to my paper on "Rabbinic Exegesis," _Expositor_, v. 362-378. The fact that there are slight variations in spelling Nebuchad_n_ezzar and Antiochus Epiphanes is of no importance.
[410] Psalm cxxiii. 1. See Eurypides, _Bacchæ_, 699.
[413] Isa. xxiv. 21, xl. 15, 17. For the "host of heaven" (στρατία οὐράνιος, Luke ii. 13) see Isa. xl. 26; Job. xxxviii. 7; 1 Kings xxii. 19; Enoch xviii. 14-16; Matt. xi. 25.
[414] Isa. xliii. 13, xlv. 9; Psalm cxxxv. 6; Job ix. 12; Eccles. viii. 4. The phrase for "to reprove" is literally "to strike on the hand," and is common in later Jewish writers.