XXII. Priests and Prophets in Judea THE FALL of Assyria and
Babylon were only the first of a series of disasters that were
to happen to the Semitic peoples. In the seventh century B.C. it
would have seemed as though the whole civilized world was to be
dominated by Semitic rulers. They ruled the great Assyrian
empire and they had conquered Egypt; Assyria, Babylon, Syria
were all Semitic, speaking languages that were mutually
intelligible. The trade of the world was in Semitic hands. Tyre,
Sidon, the great mother cities of the Phoenician coast, had
thrown out colonies that grew at last to even greater proportion
in Spain, Sicily and Africa. Carthage, founded before 800 B.C.,
had risen to a population of more than a million. It was for a
time the greatest city on earth. Its ships went to Britain and
out into the Atlantic. They may have reached Madeira. We have
already noted how Hiram co-operated with Solomon to build ships
on the Red Sea for the Arabian and perhaps for the Indian trade.
In the time of the Pharao