How far the descendants of Noah had proceeded with the city and tower of Babel when God suddenly stopped their progress, does not appear. But it is generally supposed that the immense tower in the temple of Belus in Babylon was the original tower of Babel. This tower, according to Herodotus,* is a square of a furlong on each side, i. e. half a mile in the whole compass, and according to Strabo,† it is a furlong in height. It consisted of eight towers, built one above the other: and because it decreased gradually to the top, Strabo calls the whole a pyramid. It is not only asserted, but proved, that this tower much exceeded the greatest of the pyramids in height. Therefore, we have good reason to believe, as Bochart asserts, that this is the very same tower as was built there at the confusion of tongues: and the rather, because it is attested by several profane authors that this tower was built of bricks and bitumen, as the Scriptures tell us the tower of Babel was. The ascent to the top was by stairs on the outside round it; i. e. perhaps there was an easy sloping ascent in the side of the outer wall, which, turning by slow degrees in a spiral line, eight times round the tower from the bottom to the top, had the same appearance as if there had been eight towers placed one upon another. In these different stories were many large rooms, and arched roofs supported by pillars. Over the whole, on the top of the tower, was an observatory, by the benefit of which the Babylonians became more expert in astronomy than all other nations, and made in a short time the great progress in it ascribed to them in history.

We cannot conclude this lecture without recognising in the conduct of God towards the vain and impious builders of Babel some admirable and very salutary moral lessons. If the design of these persons in rearing this Vide Rollin.

*Lib. i. cap. 181. † Lib. xvi.

P.

783.

-edifice were idolatrous, God, by suddenly confounding them, and thus preventing their proceeding with the erection, testified to them that he is a jealous God, and will not give his glory to another; if it were to prevent their dispersion, an event which they must have seen to be inevitable, and thus designed by Providence, he proved to them, not only the vanity of all human attempts to frustrate his designs, but the ease with which he can make actions, which are performed with an opposite design, to subserve his purposes; if it were only to acquire celebrity; he discovered to them, that, as such an object, when pursued exclusively on its own account, is unworthy of a rational being, those who so pursue it, deserve to be made notorious for their folly. Thus he takes the wise in their own craftiness, and makes, not only the wrath, but the folly and wickedness of man to praise him, and proceeds, unimpeded, to accomplish his own purposes, and to display his glory to an intelligent universe.

LECTURE V.

COUNTRIES POSSESSED BY NOAH AND HIS
IMMEDIATE DESCENDANTS.

THE COUNTRIES OF THE DISPERSION.

THE descendants of Noah, we have seen, were suddenly arrested in their vain and impious work of erecting the city and tower of Babel, by the miraculous confounding of their language. We have also seen that, being by this means incapacitated for dwelling together, they separated, and thus planted the colonies, which were to people the whole earth.

THE SETTLEMENTS OF JAPHET.

We now proceed to describe the countries possessed by the dispersion; and in our description we shall observe the order pursued by Moses. He begins with the family of Japhet; and, after enumerating them, he says," By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands; every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations," Gen. x. 5.

Before we attempt to show where these "isles of the Gentiles," possessed by the family of Japhet, are situated, it will be necessary to ascertain what are really meant by them. A reference to the passages of Scripture, then, in which the term occurs, will readily prove that by the term "isles of the Gentiles," or "isles of the sea," are meant, not islands in the common acceptation of that term, that is, portions of land surrounded by water; but countries, which, in

reference to the places whence they are described, were over the seas, whether surrounded by water, or not. Isaiah, speaking of the captivity of Egypt and Ethiopia, says (xx. 6)] "And the inhabitants of these isles shall say in that day, behold, such is our expectation, whither we flee for help, to be delivered from the king of Assyria." Jeremiah, among the nations to whom he had been commissioned to administer reproof from the Lord, mentions (xxv. 22)“ All the kings of Tyrus, and all the kings of Zidon, and the kings of the isles which are beyond the sea." Now that the countries here designated isles were nothing more than countries on the sea-coast, or countries which could be entered from Canaan, only by sea, a glance at any map of the parts where they are situated will prove. The passage of Isaiah (xi. 11) in which the prophet predicts the conversion of the Gentiles, and the restoration of the Jews, is equally conclusive. Hence," the isles of the

Gentiles," peopled by the family of Japhet, are not merely, nor principally, islands, in the common acceptation of the term; but countries which, in relation to Canaan, or to Arabia, where Moses wrote his history, are over the sea. We look, therefore, for their settlements chiefly in Europe and the lesser Asia.

The family of Gomer, the eldest son of Japhet, took possession of the north-eastern part of Asia Minor, comprehending the countries of Phrygia, Pontus, Bithynia, and part of Galatia. Thus, in ancient au

thors, we have applied to the inhabitants of these parts the names-Gomerites, Cimmerii, and Comari; and to a town in this region, the name of Comara :-names easily reduced to Gomer.

We have evidence of the residence in these regions also of the three sons of Gomer. The names of the river Ascanius, the province Ascania, and the Ascanian isles for example, are evident derivations of Askenaz, the name of the eldest son of Gomer. The prophet

Jeremiah, predicting the fall of Babylon by the arms of Cyrus, issues from Jehovah the following command: "Call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, and Minni, and Askenaz;" and Xenophon, relating the event of the siege of Babylon, informs us that Cyrus sent Hystaspes with an army into the Phrygia that lies on the Hellespont, who brought with him thence a great number of Phrygian cavalry, and other soldiers, whom Cyrus united to his army, and conducted against Babylon. Whence it appears, that the kingdom of Askenaz lay in that part of Phrygia which is washed by the waters of the Hellespont and Euxine seas.

Paphlagonia, a province on the Euxine sea, and adjoining those already named, Josephus informs us, was originally called Riphatea-evidently from Raphet, the second son of Gomer. There is also mention made by the Greek and Roman writers of a river rising in this region, and emptying itself into the Euxine sea, under the name of Rhebæus, or Rhebas.

In the regions of Pontus and Cappadocia, Strabo and Ptolemy place a people whom they call Trocmi, but whom Cicero calls Trogmi, and Stephanus, Trocmeni; all which names are traces of Togarmah, the third son of Gomer, who thus appears to have occupied the most easterly part of the kingdom of Gomer. Togarmah would thus be situated on the north of the land of Judea; which is precisely the situation assigned to him by the prophet Ezekiel, when he says :- "Gomer and all his bands; the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands," xxxviii. 6.

The descendants of Gomer being dissatisfied with their present residence, or actuated by a spirit of enterprise, large bodies of them emigrated, and formed new settlements. Their first settlement was on the borders of the Palus Mæotis, a lake united to the Euxine sea, on the north, by a narrow strait, and which from them bore the name of Cimmerian Bosphorus. This colony