It is, however, amply evident that the Phœnicians and the despised Canaanites were highly-cultivated peoples, whereas the Jews were not. The latter are never alluded to in Egyptian hieroglyphs.[584] Even after they had established their principality upon the bleak and barren uplands of Judæa, they were dependent for their art upon their neighbours. Although gold was so abundant in the days of David that he could collect about one thousand million pounds (one hundred thousand talents of gold and one million of silver) for building the Temple, yet Solomon, the Wise King, was obliged to seek stone-cutters and even carpenters among the Σίδονες πολυδαίδαλοι. Judæa had neither science nor art; architecture, sculpture, paintings nor mosaics; comfort nor cookery. The Great Temple that succeeded the Tabernacle of Moses was mainly the work of Hiram of Tyre, the Siromus of Herodotus (v. 104), the Hiromus of Dius, Menander and Josephus (‘Apion,’ i. 17, &c.), and probably a dynastic name, as ‘Haram’ the Sacred.
Another learned master of arms[585] declares that the first weapon mentioned in Hebrew Holy Writ is the _flammeus gladius_ wielded by the Cherubim (Gen. iii. 24), the ‘Chereb’ which the Septuagint renders Ῥομφαία.[586] On the Assyrian monuments the Kerubi (‘cherub,’ which derives, like the Arabic ‘Karrúb,’ from ‘Karb’ = propinquity) denotes the colossal figures symbolising the Powers of Good, and guarding the palace-gates. As they prevented the admission of Evil, they found their way to the entrance of the Garden of Eden, whence they warned off sinners and intruders. The ‘flaming Sword,’ which ‘turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life,’ was, according to some, the two-pronged blade, the Greek ‘chelidonian,’ which served as a talisman. Tiglath Pileser I. made one of these forked Swords of copper, inscribed it with his victories, and placed it as a trophy in one of his castles. But the Genesitic Sword is probably the weapon-symbol of Merodach, the Babylonian god and planet Jupiter. This revolving disc represented, like the Aryan ‘Vajra,’ the lightning or ‘thunderbolt’ with which our classics armed Zeus-Jovi;[587] and a highly poetical description of it is given in an old Akkadian hymn. Here it is called among other names _littu_ (or _litu_), which is, letter for letter, the same as the first of the Hebrew words translated ‘flaming Sword’ (_lahat ha-Chereb_): it may also signify the ‘Burning of Desolation.’ M. F. Lenormant[588] suggests that the true meaning is ‘magical prodigy.’ But it is safer to stand by the disc-like Sword, which corresponds with the wheels of Ezekiel’s vision (chap. x. 9, 10). In the Chaldæan battle of Bel and the Dragon we again find the great flaming Sword, turning all round the circle when wielded by the deity against the ‘Drake.’ So the Egyptians had long before depicted the solar god with a glory of solar rays, a most appropriate symbol; and his enemy, Apophis [Hieroglyphs], the serpent of Genesis, whom he destroys, is a monstrous reptile bristling with a dorsal line of four Sword-blades, like flesh-knives, typifying destruction.