Thoughts on the Book of Daniel.
By Uriah Smith
VERSE 39. And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth. It is almost with a feeling of regret, as we look at Babylon, raised to such a pinnacle of splendor, by so much care, and pains, and labor, that we turn to look at the picture of her downfall and desolation. But we must remember that the Chaldeans were the oppressors of God's people, and were guilty of iniquities which challenged retribution at the hand of high Heaven. So said the Lord by the prophet: “And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, saith the Lord; for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations.” Jer. 25:12. Nebuchadnezzar reigned forty-three years, and was succeeded by the following rulers: His son Evilmerodach, two years; Neriglissar, his son-in-law, four years; Laborosoarchod, Neriglissar's son, nine months, which, being less than one year, is not counted in the canon of Ptolemy; and lastly, Nabonadius, the Belshazzar of Daniel, son of Evilmerodach, and grandson of Nebuchadnezzar, with whom that kingdom came to an end. In the first year of Neriglissar, only two years from the death of Nebuchadnezzar, broke out that fatal war between the Babylonians and the Medes, which was to result in the utter subversion of the Babylonian kingdom. Cyaxeres, king of the Medes, the Darius of Daniel, summoned to his aid his nephew, Cyrus of the Persian line, in his efforts against the Babylonians. The war was prosecuted with uninterrupted success on the part of the Medes and Persians, until, in the sixteenth year of Belshazzar, Cyrus sat down in a regular siege against Babylon, the only city that held out against him in all the East. The Babylonians, gathered within their impregnable walls, with provision on hand for twenty years, and land within the limits of their broad city, sufficient to furnish food for the inhabitants, and garrison, for an indefinite period, scoffed at Cyrus from their lofty walls, and derided his seemingly useless efforts to bring them into subjection. And according to all human calculation, they had good ground for their feelings of security. On no human probability, with the means of warfare then known, could that city ever be taken. Hence, they breathed as freely and slept as soundly as though no foe was waiting and watching for their destruction around their beleaguered walls. But God had decreed that that proud and wicked city should come down from her throne of glory; and his decrees what mortal arm can hinder! In their very feelings of security, lay the source of their danger. Cyrus resolved to accomplish by stratagem what he could not effect by force; and learning of the approach of an annual festival, in which the whole city would be given up to mirth and revelry, he fixed upon that day as the time to carry his purpose into execution. There was no entrance for him into that city except where the river Euphrates entered and emerged, passing under its walls. He resolved to make the channel of the river his own highway into the stronghold of his enemy. To do this, the water must be turned aside. Accordingly he dug an immense trench around the city, and on the evening of the feast-day above referred to, detailed three bodies of soldiers, the first to turn the river at a given hour into an immense, artificial lake a short distance above the city, the second to take their station at the point where the river entered the city, and the third where it came out, with instructions that when, in the darkness of the night, they found the river fordable, they should enter its channel, and immediately urge their way to the palace of the king, where they were to meet, surprise the palace, slay the guards, and capture or slay the king. When the river was turned into the lake mentioned above, Cyrus also opened the trench he had dug around the city, drawing off the surplus water into that, which soon made the river fordable, and the soldiers detailed for that purpose followed its channel into the heart of the city of Babylon. But all this would have been in vain, had not the whole city, on that eventful night, given themselves over to the most reckless carelessness and presumption, a state of things upon which Cyrus calculated largely for the carrying out of his purpose. For on each side of the river, through the entire length of the city, were walls of a great height, and of equal thickness with the outer walls. In these walls were huge gates of solid brass, debarring all entrance from the river bed to any and all of the twenty-five streets that crossed the river, when closed and guarded; and had they been thus closed at this time, the soldiers of Cyrus might have marched into the city along the river bed, and then marched out again, for all that they would have been able to accomplish toward the subjugation of the place. But in the drunken revelry of that fatal night, these river gates were all left open, and the entrance of the Persian soldiers was not perceived. Many a cheek would have paled with terror, had they noticed the sudden going down of the river, and understood its fearful import. Many a tongue would have spread wild alarm through the city, if they had seen the dark forms of their armed foe stealthily threading their way to the citadel of their strength. But no one noticed that the river suddenly became emptied of its waters; no one saw the entrance of the Persian warriors; no one took care that the river gates should be closed and guarded; no one cared aught but to see how deeply and recklessly he could plunge into the wild debauch. That night's work cost them their kingdom and their freedom. They went into their brutish revelry, subjects of the king of Babylon; they awoke from it slaves to the king of Persia. The soldiers of Cyrus first made known their presence in the city by falling upon the royal guards in the very vestibule of the king of Babylon. Belshazzar soon became aware of the cause of the disturbance, and died, vainly fighting for his tyrannical and beastly life. This feast of Belshazzar is described in the fifth chapter of Daniel; and the scene closes with the simple record, “In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain. And Darius the Median took the kingdom, being about threescore and two years old.” Thus the first division of the great image was completed. Another kingdom had arisen as the prophet had declared. The first installment of the prophetic dream was fulfilled. But before we take our leave of Babylon, let us briefly glance forward to the end of its melancholy fall. It would naturally be supposed that the conqueror, becoming possessed of so noble a city, far surpassing anything in the world, would have taken it as the seat of his empire, and maintained it in its primitive splendor. But God had said that that city should become a heap, and the habitation of the beasts of the desert; that their houses should be full of doleful creatures; that the wild beasts of the island should cry in their desolate dwellings, and dragons in their pleasant palaces. To this end it must first be deserted. Cyrus removed the imperial seat to Susa. The pride of the Babylonians being particularly provoked by this act, they soon rose in rebellion, which brought upon themselves the whole strength of the Persian Empire. The city was again taken by stratagem; and that they might not be able to rebel again, its brazen gates were taken away, and its stupendous walls demolished. This was the commencement of its destruction. By this act, it was left exposed to the ravages of every hostile band. Xerxes, on his return from Greece, plundered the temple of Belus of its immense wealth, and then laid the lofty structure in ruins. Alexander the Great endeavored to rebuild it; but after employing ten thousand men two months to clear away the rubbish, died in the midst of a beastly debauch; and the work was suspended. In the year 294, B. C., Seleucus Nicator built the city of New Babylon in its neighborhood, drawing from the old city inhabitants and material for the new. Now almost exhausted of inhabitants, neglect and decay were telling fearfully upon the ancient city. The violence of Parthian princes hastened its ruin. About the end of the fourth century, it was used by the Persian kings as an inclosure for wild beasts. At the end of the twelfth century, according to a celebrated traveler, the few remaining ruins of Nebuchadnezzar's palace were so full of serpents and venomous reptiles, that they could not, without great danger, be closely inspected. And to-day, scarcely enough even of the ruins are left to mark the spot where once stood the largest, richest, and proudest city the earth has ever seen. Thus the ruin of great Babylon shows us how accurately God will fulfill his word, and stamps upon the brow of skepticism the infamous brand of idiocy.