With regard to the first element of the name Jerusalem, Uru-salim in Assyrian, that is to all appearance the Sumero-Akkadian _uru_ (from an older _guru_), “city,” in the dialect _eri_, from which the Hebrew _’ir_, “city,” has to all appearance come. The vowel-change from _u_ to _e_ or _i_ is shown in _tu_, dialectic _te_, “dove”; _uru_, dial. _eri_, “servant”; _duga_, dial. _ṣiba_, “good,” etc. As is usual with two nationalities dwelling at no great distance from each other, borrowings of words took place between the Semites on the one hand and the Sumero-Akkadians on the other, which have left traces on the vocabularies of both. CHAPTER VII. ISAAC, JACOB, AND JOSEPH. Jacob, Yakub, and Yakub-ilu—Joseph, Yasup, and Yasup-ilu—Other similar names—The Egyptian monuments and the Semites. With the disappearance of Abraham from the scene of his earthly wanderings, a prominent figure connecting Babylonia with Palestine vanishes from history. His son Isaac and his grandson Jacob retain, however, their connection with those of the family who resided at Haran, taking their wives from among their relatives there—Isaac because his father wished it, Jacob because the souls of his father and mother were vexed on account of the daughters of Heth whom Esau, Jacob’s brother, had married. In this primitive story of three generations of a primitive family there is much to interest the student of ancient west Semitic manners and customs—the love of Isaac for Esau, because Isaac loved the savoury venison which the former provided for him; how Jacob, “the supplanter,” obtained his brother’s birthright and the blessing which he ought to have had; Laban’s covetousness and duplicity—all these things furnish material for the student of manners and customs and of human nature, but very little for the comparative archæologist who wishes to find connections between Abraham’s descendants and the country which gave their father (or their grandfather) birth. Nevertheless there are points which deserve illustration. To all appearance the manners and customs of the families of the patriarchs had not changed since they came out of Babylonia. There is the same pastoral life, the same dislike (and probably mistrust) of strangers and foreigners, the same freedom on the part of the men, even the most honoured among them, with regard to the marriage-tie, the same tendency to add to this world’s goods, and to become great and mighty chiefs in the land (would that Jacob had done this otherwise), as at first. The Babylonian spirit of commerce and the desire for “supplanting” was well developed in the father of the twelve tribes, and may be regarded as adding, as far as it goes, to the confirmation of the theory (but the question is more one of fact than of theory) that Abraham was of Babylonian race.