The cuneiform inscriptions and the Old Testament - The Search For ...

BOOK OF JSAIAH XVIII. XIX. 81
m^t Aralu (see note on verse 13). Moreover, according
to Delitzsch Parad. p. 120, it is called gi(g)-unu "abode
of darkness", semitized into gigunii (IV Rawl. 27, 25/26a
and comp. ibid. 24 7/8 a).
XVIII, 1 foil. Respecting the time, when this oracle
was composed, see the notes on chap. XX. 1.
XIX. 1 foil. As I have already indicated, in my new
edition of De Wette's Introduction to the Old Testament,
§ 256 note d *, the composition of this oracle, which
critics on insufficient grounds have declared to be not
Isaiah's, falls in the early period of Sargon's reign, or, to
be more precise, in the time when the "sultan" (Siltannu)
Seveh was defeated by Sargon and compelled to flee (see 391
notes on XX. 1), and, in consequence of this disaster
anarchy threatened to break out or had already broken
out. This was in the year 720 B. C. The "hard master"
with which Isaiah threatens the Aegyptians is none other
than Sargon himself (verse 4). Another indication that
the passage was composed in the reign of Sargon is to be
found in the position of this chapter between chapters
XVIII and XX. See also the remarks on chap. XX. 1.
11. The princes of Zoan (^V^)- This city, lying on
the Eastern arm of the Nile, is likewise referred-to in
the Assyrian inscriptions. Thus Asurbanipal mentions a
certain Pu-tu-bi§-ti gar ir Sa-'-nu "Petubastes,
* "From the Khorsabad-inscription of Sargon (Botta and Flandin,
Monument de Ninive pi. 145 lines 13— 15; comp. also Journ. Asiat.
1863 I p. 9) we learn that besides the 'sultan' Seveh of Aegypt there
existed likewise a 'Pharaoh'. This leads us to conclude that the
kingdoms were divided."
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