In this paper I will show you that this "Babylon" is a symbolic reference to Jerusalem as it existed prior to AD 70. Ed, Issue 46, Winter 2023. Now these are the people of the province who came up out of the captivity of the exiles whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away to Babylon, and returned to Jerusalem and Judah, each to his city. God can and will use evil people and nations to enact His will (Pharaoh in Egypt, e.g.) Tiglath-pileser became king of Babylon and later in 689 b.c. Cult and temple prostitutes were common. The destruction of Babylon is related to the judgment upon all the kings of the nations (14:18). Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was Nehushta the daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem. So He sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of the Lord which He had spoken through His servants the prophets. He burned the house of the LORD, the king's house, and all the houses of Jerusalem; even every great house he burned with fire. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits. Finally, in the book of Revelation, Babylon again stands for Rome, the capital of the Roman Empire, the enemy of Christianity. Now these are those who came up from Tel-melah, Tel-harsha, Cherub, Addan and Immer, but they were not able to give evidence of their fathers' households and their descendants, whether they were of Israel: the sons of Delaiah, the sons of Tobiah, the sons of Nekoda, 652. And make a signpost; make it at the head of the way to the city. Prepare for his sons a place of slaughterBecause of the iniquity of their fathers.They must not arise and take possession of the earthAnd fill the face of the world with cities. I will rise up against them, declares the Lord of hosts, and will cut off from Babylon name and survivors, offspring and posterity, declares the Lord. Then the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes at Riblah; the king of Babylon also slew all the nobles of Judah. Babylon, the symbol of religious confusion, was to appear again in the apostate church of Revelation 17, and its political power was to be revived in the final form of the Roman Empire as depicted in Revelation 18. But the army of the Chaldeans pursued them and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho; and they seized him and brought him up to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, and he passed sentence on him. Jehoiachin changed his prison clothes and had his meals in the king's presence regularly all the days of his life; read more. The king said to Haman, "The silver is yours, and the people also, to do with them as you please." The city also included great parks and gardens, some of which, such as the hanging gardens described by Diodorus, were outstanding wonders in the ancient world. Revelation 17:4: "She held a golden cup in her hand, filled with abominable things and the filth of her adulteries." The Bible has . "Command them to go to their masters, saying, 'Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, thus you shall say to your masters, read more. whose famous Code was discovered in 1901. But the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king and overtook him in the plains of Jericho and all his army was scattered from him. And. They will all respond and say to you,Even you have been made weak as we,You have become like us. The context of the book of Revelation seems to suggest Babylon (Revelation 14:8, 16:19, 18:2, 10, and 21) and theWhore of Babylon (Revelation 17:5) are symbolic of a spirit of a seductive culture which will fall to Gods wrath. "I will hurl you and your mother who bore you into another country where you were not born, and there you will die. Sometimes it is used in a religious sense, for Babylon has been the fountain of many of the pagan religions which have competed with Judaism and Christian faith ever since. The king appointed for them a daily ration from the kings choice food and from the wine which he drank, and appointed that they should be educated three years, at the end of which they were to enter the kings personal service. Apart from a reference to a Babylonish garment in Joshua 7:21, there is no Biblical reference to Babylon after Genesis 11 until the great prophecies of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel unfolded Gods plan for the ancient city. For Permission to Quote Information visit http://www.lockman.org. The fall of Babylon is a historical event that occurred in 539 BC. It was rebuilt by Esarhaddon, and was finally wrested from Assyria around 625 b.c. "Biblical History of Ancient Babylon." As for the pillars, the height of each pillar was eighteen cubits, and it was twelve cubits in circumference and four fingers in thickness, and hollow. The fruit you long for has gone from you, and all things that were luxurious and splendid have passed away from you and men will no longer find them. This was not a tribute to the God of the Bible but to false, pagan gods, which of course are not gods at all but in actuality, the name "babel" sounds like the Hebrew word for . Whoever there is among you of all His people, may the Lord his God be with him, and let him go up!, Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he sent a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and also put it in writing, saying: Thus says Cyrus king of Persia, The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and He has appointed me to build Him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Jeremiah devotes considerable Scripture to this theme, including 43:10-13; 44:30; 46:1-26. "I will rise up against them," declares the LORD of hosts, "and will cut off from Babylon name and survivors, offspring and posterity," declares the LORD. According to Herodotus the walls were 56 miles in circumference, 335 feet high, and 85 feet wide. ), in which time Abraham was born. I am so bewildered I cannot hear, so terrified I cannot see. Babylon became the empire that wrecked Jerusalem, scorched the temple, and took the people of God into exile. It came about as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. Their quiver is like an open grave,All of them are mighty men. The interpretation of Isaiah 13:20-22 is inevitably determined by the meaning assigned to Revelation 17, 18. For thus says the Lord, When seventy years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill My good word to you, to bring you back to this place. Behold, the land of the Chaldeansthis is the people which was not; Assyria appointed it for desert creaturesthey erected their siege towers, they stripped its palaces, they made it a ruin. So Jehoiakim slept with his fathers, and Jehoiachin his son became king in his place. Then the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes at Riblah; the king of Babylon also slew all the nobles of Judah. 5:5-11). The king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and he also slaughtered all the princes of Judah in Riblah. Although the name "Babylon" is derived from the Akkadian word babilu meaning "gate of god," it is an evident counterfeit of God's eternal city. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran. How can we sing the LORD'S song In a foreign land? These searched among their ancestral registration, but they could not be located; therefore they were considered unclean and excluded from the priesthood. Babylon was indeed like the lion, the king of beasts, and had eagles wings like the king of birds. Interpretation has been made more difficult by the varied meanings of Babylon itself. To understand Scripture when its referenced in prophecy (or revelation). All those about them encouraged them with articles of silver, with gold, with goods, with cattle and with valuables, aside from all that was given as a freewill offering. The major attention given to Babylon in Isaiahs prophecies confirm Babylons importance in prophecy relating to the nations. Babylon in the Bible is named six times in the book of Revelation, the hotbed of end-times discussions (along with the books of Daniel and Ezekiel). Then it will be when seventy years are completed I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, declares the Lord, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans; and I will make it an everlasting desolation. Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem and captured the city. read more. May the offspring of evildoers not be mentioned forever. It will stand forever. So they possessed Samaria and lived in its cities. The accounts in Daniel (1) of his three companions ordeal in the fiery furnace heated seven times more than it normally was heated (Daniel 3:20) because they refused to worship the image of Nebuchadnezzar, and (2) King Darius throwing Daniel in the lions den (Daniel 6:16-18) because he refused to stop praying to the Lordshow us just a few examples of the heinous acts of punishment perpetrated by the Assyrian/Babylonian regimes. There was nothing in his house nor in all his dominion that Hezekiah did not show them. Here it is declared: It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits, and they are seven kings; five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come; and when he comes, he must remain a little while. Then Haman said to King Ahasuerus, "There is a certain people scattered and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom; their laws are different from those of all other people and they do not observe the king's laws, so it is not in the king's interest to let them remain. On the ninth day of the fourth month the famine was so severe in the city that there was no food for the people of the land.read more.Then the city was broken into, and all the men of war fled by night by way of the gate between the two walls beside the kings garden, though the Chaldeans were all around the city. It will never be inhabited or lived in from generation to generation; Nor will the Arab pitch his tent there, Nor will shepherds make their flocks lie down there. Noahs great-grandson, Nimrod, was the first mighty man of the Bible (Genesis 10:10), and the Bible says Babel was one of the towns that encompassed the beginning of Nimrods kingdom in the land of Shinar. The message which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah the son of Neriah, the grandson of Mahseiah, when he went with Zedekiah the king of Judah to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. Now on the tenth day of the fifth month, which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard, who was in the service of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. But you have been cast out of your tombLike a rejected branch,Clothed with the slain who are pierced with a sword,Who go down to the stones of the pitLike a trampled corpse. read more. Then I heard something like the voice of a great multitude and like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, saying,Hallelujah! "He who dwells in this city will die by the sword and by famine and by pestilence; but he who goes out and falls away to the Chaldeans who are besieging you will live, and he will have his own life as booty. The pantheon of Babylonian gods is a pantheon of shared deities. "For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, That fierce and impetuous people Who march throughout the earth To seize dwelling places which are not theirs. "For the king of Babylon stands at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination; he shakes the arrows, he consults the household idols, he looks at the liver. Chaldea will become plunder;All who plunder her will have enough, declares the Lord. The stone became a great mountain that filled the whole earth (Daniel 2:25-35). Which subdued the nations in anger with unrestrained persecution. Whoever there is among you of all His people, may his God be with him! So arrogant was Nebuchadnezzar that he had a 90-foot tall gold statue built of himself and commanded everyone to worship it. It was this city, proud of its supposed invulnerability, which had ignored the rapidly expanding power of the Medes and the Persians. The Levites: the sons of Jeshua and Kadmiel, of the sons of Hodaviah, 74. The Bible is first and foremost a religious text read by billions of Christians worldwide. Sheol from beneath is excited over you to meet you when you come; It arouses for you the spirits of the dead, all the leaders of the earth; It raises all the kings of the nations from their thrones. "How you have fallen from heaven, O star of the morning, son of the dawn! Revelation Chapter 18. Author: Christopher R Smith A sword against her treasures, and they will be plundered! For I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. The city had become a spirit. This is the plan devised against the whole earth; and this is the hand that is stretched out against all the nations. His successors were insignificant by comparison. The Tower of Babylon was the highest and largest of all, being 91 . There were ninety-six exposed pomegranates; all the pomegranates numbered a hundred on the network all around. Which used to strike the peoples in fury with unceasing strokes. He then blinded Zedekiahs eyes and bound him in fetters of bronze to bring him to Babylon. The destruction of Babylon is related to the judgment upon "all the kings of the nations" (14:18). So he led Jehoiachin away into exile to Babylon; also the king's mother and the king's wives and his officials and the leading men of the land, he led away into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. The Word "Babylon" Babylon is Akkadian "babilani" which means "the Gate of God (s)" and it became the capital of the land of Babylonia. At that time Berodach-baladan a son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he heard that Hezekiah had been sick. Now the bronze pillars which belonged to the house of the. For the Lord is going to destroy Babylon,And He will make her loud noise vanish from her.And their waves will roar like many waters;The tumult of their voices sounds forth. Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he sent a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and also put it in writing, saying: "Thus says Cyrus king of Persia, 'The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and He has appointed me to build Him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. For they prophesy falsely to you in My name; I have not sent them, declares the Lord. A stone (cut by no human hands) struck the image on its feet and broke them into pieces, followed by the whole image becoming as chaff and blown by the wind. Under his rule Babylon grew to become the greatest city in Mesopotamia. Added is the prediction of the destruction of Tyre in Ezekiel 26:7- 28:19. They said, "Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth." Come down and sit in the dust,O virgin daughter of Babylon;Sit on the ground without a throne,O daughter of the Chaldeans!For you shall no longer be called tender and delicate. In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and carried Israel away into exile to Assyria, and settled them in Halah and Habor, on the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes. 238 city: 'Babylon is the Greek spelling of the name which in Hebrew is uniform-ly 'Babel' [ and] refers to an ancient city on the eastern bank of the Eu-phrates about twenty miles south of Bagdad, near the modern village of Hilla A sword against their horses and against their chariotsAnd against all the foreigners who are in the midst of her,And they will become women!A sword against her treasures, and they will be plundered! And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness; and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast, full of blasphemous names, having seven heads and ten horns. Jeremiah himself suffered affliction and imprisonment (37:15-38:13). "Those who see you will gaze at you, They will ponder over you, saying, 'Is this the man who made the earth tremble, Who shook kingdoms, Who made the world like a wilderness And overthrew its cities, Who did not allow his prisoners to go home?' The sons of Israel did things secretly which were not right against the LORD their God. Nebuchadnezzar was the head of gold (606-561 BC, kingdom of Babylon). Much of the building was done during the reign of King Nebuchadnezzar, referred to in the Bible as Nebuchadnezzar. The word which the Lord spoke concerning Babylon, the land of the Chaldeans, through Jeremiah the prophet: Declare and proclaim among the nations.Proclaim it and lift up a standard.Do not conceal it but say,Babylon has been captured,Bel has been put to shame, Marduk has been shattered;Her images have been put to shame, her idols have been shattered. For a nation has come up against her out of the north; it will make her land an object of horror, and there will be no inhabitant in it. The Lord confounded the language at the time the people were building the Tower of Babel ( Gen. 11:1-9; Ether 1:3-5, 33-35 ). After these things I heard something like a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying. "All the kings of the nations lie in glory, Each in his own tomb. That the wings would be plucked and the beast would stand as a man with a mans heart was the divine portrayal of Nebuchadnezzars experience in Daniel 4 as well as an anticipation of the ultimate humiliation of the Babylonian rulers in Daniel 5. Practically all of the predictions of Jeremiah seem to relate to the fall of Babylon by the attack of the Medes and the Persians. Jeremiah 51:49. What Does It Mean That There Is No One Holy Like God? Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen. At the time of the downfall of the city of Babylon recorded in Daniel 5, the city was still a monument to the genius of Nebuchadnezzar. Babel (Hebrew), or Babylon (Greek), was one of the cities of an ancient kingdom established by Nimrod early in mankind's history ( Genesis 10:10 ). And the kings of the earth, who committed acts of immorality and lived sensuously with her, will weep and lament over her when they see the smoke of her burning, standing at a distance because of the fear of her torment, saying, Woe, woe, the great city, Babylon, the strong city! Setting siege to the large city of Babylon, the Medes had dug a canal diverting the water that flowed under the city wall. when I saw among the spoil a beautiful mantle from Shinar and two hundred shekels of silver and a bar of gold fifty shekels in weight, then I coveted them and took them; and behold, they are concealed in the earth inside my tent with the silver underneath it.. Now a capital of bronze was on it; and the height of each capital was five cubits, with network and pomegranates upon the capital all around, all of bronze. At that time the servants of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon went up to Jerusalem, and the city came under siege. And Babylon, the beauty of kingdoms, the glory of the Chaldeans' pride, Will be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. Those who had escaped from the sword he carried away to Babylon; and they were servants to him and to his sons until the rule of the kingdom of Persia. Pay her back even as she has paid, and give back to her double according to her deeds; in the cup which she has mixed, mix twice as much for her. "I am the LORD, your Holy One, The Creator of Israel, your King." The men of Babylon made Succoth-benoth, the men of Cuth made Nergal, the men of Hamath made Ashima, and the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak; and the Sepharvites burned their children in the fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech the gods of Sepharvaim. the land suffered various invasions including that of Assyria. Therefore He brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion on young man or virgin, old man or infirm; He gave them all into his hand. In The Book Of Revelation the reference to Babylon is obviously symbolic. "Then afterwards," declares the LORD, "I will give over Zedekiah king of Judah and his servants and the people, even those who survive in this city from the pestilence, the sword and the famine, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of their foes and into the hand of those who seek their lives; and he will strike them down with the edge of the sword He will not spare them nor have pity nor compassion."' O my threshed people, and my afflicted of the threshing floor! Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon, Build houses and live in them; and plant gardens and eat their produce. 'I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.' And though she should fortify her lofty stronghold, From Me destroyers will come to her, declares the. Zavada, Jack. They would cut off feet, lips, and noses. Your pomp and the music of your harpsHave been brought down to Sheol;Maggots are spread out as your bed beneath youAnd worms are your covering. How you have fallen from heaven,O star of the morning, son of the dawn!You have been cut down to the earth,You who have weakened the nations! Its name stems from the narrative in Genesis 11:1-11, which concerns the construction of the Tower of Babel (bel). And a second time they said, Hallelujah! "Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another's speech." Babylon carried Israel off in a two-stage deportation (597 and 587 BC), and Israels people were subject to their rulers. 'Take wives and become the fathers of sons and daughters, and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; and multiply there and do not decrease. Because you are glad, because you are jubilant, Because you skip about like a threshing heifer. So Jehoiakim slept with his fathers, and Jehoiachin his son became king in his place. All who came upon them have devoured them; And their adversaries have said, We are not guilty. Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away into exile some of the poorest of the people, the rest of the people who were left in the city, the deserters who had deserted to the king of Babylon and the rest of the artisans. The city of Babylon was located about 50 miles south of Baghdad along the Euphrates River in present-day Iraq. In 560 b.c. Then they burned the house of God and broke down the wall of Jerusalem, and burned all its fortified buildings with fire and destroyed all its valuable articles.read more.Those who had escaped from the sword he carried away to Babylon; and they were servants to him and to his sons until the rule of the kingdom of Persia. At the beginning of their living there, they did not fear the Lord; therefore the Lord sent lions among them which killed some of them. She who is in Babylon, chosen together with you, sends you greetings, and so does my son, when I saw among the spoil a beautiful mantle from Shinar and two hundred shekels of silver and a bar of gold fifty shekels in weight, then I. and walked in the customs of the nations whom the LORD had driven out before the sons of Israel, and in the customs of the kings of Israel which they had introduced. But in terms of Babylon the Great, we have to look at the end times for this phrase. Belshazzar the king held a great feast for a thousand of his nobles, and he was drinking wine in the presence of the thousand. However, they did not listen, but stiffened their neck like their fathers, who did not believe in the LORD their God. At that time the servants of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon went up to Jerusalem, and the city came under siege. And those who dwell on the earth, whose name has not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, will wonder when they see the beast, that he was and is not and will come. read more. Peter is saying: Rome is the new Babylon. Breathtaking buildings adorned with enameled brick, neatly paved streets, and statues of lions and dragons made Babylon the most impressive city of its time. Then they burned the house of God and broke down the wall of Jerusalem, and burned all its fortified buildings with fire and destroyed all its valuable articles. So they possessed Samaria and lived in its cities. "Nevertheless you will be thrust down to Sheol, To the recesses of the pit. God rejected all the descendants of Israel and gave them into the hand of plunderers, until He cast them out of His sightThe people of Israel walked in all the sins that Jeroboam didso Israel was exiled from their own land to Assyria (2 Kings 17:20-23). Revelation 18 almost reads like a news report of the breakdown of civilisation. "If it pleases the king, let a royal edict be issued by him and let it be written in the laws of Persia and Media so that it cannot be repealed, that Vashti may no longer come into the presence of King Ahasuerus, and let the king give her royal position to another who is more worthy than she. Only occasionally does there seem to be a reference to a future ultimate destruction as in Jeremiah 51:62-64. "Prepare for his sons a place of slaughter Because of the iniquity of their fathers. A wilderness, a parched land and a desert. Terrified at her torment, they will stand far off and cry: "'Woe! But a temple to what? Babylon is mentioned several times in the Bible. The beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to come up out of the abyss and go to destruction. Zavada, Jack. ", "As for you, son of man, make two ways for the sword of the king of Babylon to come; both of them will go out of one land. Then the heads of fathers' households of Judah and Benjamin and the priests and the Levites arose, even everyone whose spirit God had stirred to go up and rebuild the house of the LORD which is in Jerusalem. In the first month, which is the month Nisan, in the twelfth year of King Ahasuerus, Pur, that is the lot, was cast before Haman from day to day and from month to month, until the twelfth month, that is the month Adar. O daughter of Babylon, you devastated one, How blessed will be the one who repays you. Much of Jeremiahs ministry was to his own generation as he predicted the downfall of Jerusalem and the victory of the Babylonian armies. Daniel tells of Nebuchadnezzar strolling the roof of his palace, boasting about his own glory, when the voice of God came from heaven, promising insanity and humiliation until the king recognized God as supreme: The prophets mention Babylon as both a warning of punishment for Israel and an example of what displeases God. "For I have set My face against this city for harm and not for good," declares the LORD "It will be given into the hand of the king of Babylon and he will burn it with fire."'. At the very time the Medes were pouring into the city, the handwriting appeared on the wall (Daniel 5:5, 24-28). "You will not be united with them in burial, Because you have ruined your country, You have slain your people. 'Return it to its sheath In the place where you were created, in the land of your origin, I will judge you. Then the king of Assyria invaded the whole land and went up to Samaria and besieged it three years. Now, then, hear this, you sensual one,Who dwells securely,Who says in your heart,I am, and there is no one besides me.I will not sit as a widow,Nor know loss of children. But these two things will come on you suddenly in one day:Loss of children and widowhood.They will come on you in full measureIn spite of your many sorceries,In spite of the great power of your spells. A new "Babylon" will emerge. Both man and beast have wandered off, they have gone away! Now, then, hear this, you sensual one,Who dwells securely,Who says in your heart,I am, and there is no one besides me.I will not sit as a widow,Nor know loss of children.. There was nothing in his house nor in all his dominion that Hezekiah did not show them. So the king of Babylon took him captive in the eighth year of his reign. Now these are the people of the province who came up out of the captivity of the exiles whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away to Babylon, and returned to Jerusalem and Judah, each to his city. What is the significance of Babylon in the Bible? And do according to all that I have commanded you. The captain of the guard also took away the bowls, the firepans, the basins, the pots, the lampstands, the pans and the drink offering bowls, what was fine gold and what was fine silver.