and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.  He rebuketh the sea, and maketh it dry, and drieth up all the rivers:  Bashan languisheth, and Carmel, and the flower of Lebanon languisheth....  He that dasheth in pieces is come up before thy face....  The gates of the rivers shall be opened, and the palace shall be dissolved.  And Huzzab shall be led away captive, she shall be brought up, and her maids shall lead her as with the voice of doves, tabering upon their breasts....  Draw thee waters for the siege, fortify thy strong holds:  go into clay, and tread the morter, make strong the brick-kiln.  There shall the fire devour thee; the sword shall cut thee off....  Thy shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria:  thy nobles shall dwell in the dust:  thy people is scattered upon the mountains, and no man gathereth them.  There is no healing of thy bruise; thy wound is grievous:  all that hear the bruit of thee shall clap the hands over thee:  for upon whom hath not thy wickedness passed continually?[544]

The doom of Babylon was also foretold: 

Bel boweth down, Nebo stoopeth....  Come down, and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon, sit on the ground:  there is no throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans....  Stand now with thine enchantments, and with the multitude of thy sorceries, wherein thou hast laboured from thy youth; if so be thou shalt be able to profit, if so be thou mayest prevail.  Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels.  Let now the astrologers, the star-gazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save thee from these things that shall come upon thee.  Behold, they shall be as stubble; the fire shall burn them....  Thus shall they be unto thee with whom thou hast laboured, even thy merchants, from thy youth:  they shall wander every one to his quarter; none shall save thee.[545]

Against a gloomy background, dark and ominous as a thundercloud, we have revealed in the last century of Mesopotamian glory the splendour of Assyria and the beauty of Babylon.  The ancient civilizations ripened quickly before the end came.  Kings still revelled in pomp and luxury.  Cities resounded with “the noise of a whip, and the noise of the rattling of the wheels, and of the prancing horses, and of the jumping chariots.  The horseman lifteth up both the bright sword and the glittering spear....  The valiant men are in scarlet."[546] But the minds of cultured men were more deeply occupied than ever with the mysteries of life and creation.  In the libraries, the temples, and observatories, philosophers and scientists were shattering the unsubstantial fabric of immemorial superstition; they attained to higher conceptions of the duties and responsibilities of mankind; they conceived of divine love and divine guidance; they discovered, like Wordsworth, that the soul has—­

                 An obscure sense
    Of possible sublimity, whereto
    With growing faculties she doth aspire.