(Zech. xii. 11). His naturalization in
Canaan seems to belong to a very early period; at all events, in
Sumerian he was called Martu, "the Amorite," and seal-cylinders speak of
"the Martu gods." One of these has been found in the Lebanon. The
Assyrian tablets tell us that he was also known as Dadu in the West, and
under this form we find him in names like El-Dad and Be-dad, or Ben-Dad.

Like Rimmon, Nebo also must have been transported to Palestine at an
early epoch. Nebo "the prophet" was the interpreter of Bel-Merodach of
Babylon, the patron of cuneiform literature, and the god to whom the
great temple of Borsippa--the modern Birs-i-Nimrud--was dedicated.
Doubtless he had migrated to the West along with that literary culture
over which he presided. There his name and worship were attached to many
localities. It was on the summit of Mount Nebo that Moses died; over
Nebo, Isaiah prophesies, "Moab shall howl;" and we hear of a city called
"the other Nebo" in Judah (Neh. vii. 33).

Another god who had been borrowed from Babylonia by the people of Canaan
was Malik "the king," a title originally of the supreme Baal. Malik is
familiarly known to us in the Old Testament as Moloch, to whom the
first-born were burned in the fire. At Tyre the god was termed
Melech-kirjath, or "king of the city," which was contracted into
Melkarth, and in the mouths of the Greeks became Makar. There is a
passage in the book of the prophet Amos (v. 25, 26), upon which the
Assyrian texts have thrown light. We there read: "Have ye offered unto
me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of
Israel? Yet ye have borne Sikkuth your Malik and Chiun your Zelem, the
star of your god, which ye made to yourselves."

Sikkuth and Chiun are the Babylonian Sakkut and Kaivan, a name given to
the planet Saturn. Sakkut was a title of the god Nin-ip, and we gather
from Amos that it also represented Malik "the king." Zelem, "the image,"
was another Babylonian deity, and originally denoted "the image" or disk
of the sun. His name and worship were carried into Northern Arabia, and
a monument has been discovered at Teima, the Tema of Isaiah xxi. 14,
which is dedicated to him. It would seem, from the language of Amos,
that the Babylonian god had been adored in "the wilderness" as far back
as the days when the Israelites were encamping in it. Nor, indeed, is
this surprising: Babylonian influence in the West belonged to an age
long anterior to that