IN 677, B. C., Babylon became connected with the people of God by the capture of Manasseh, king of Judah, and is at this point introduced into prophecy.
The character of this empire is indicated by the nature of the material in that portion of the image by which it was symbolized—the head of gold. It was the golden kingdom of a golden age. Babylon, its metropolis, towered far above all its later rivals. Situated in the garden of the East, laid out in a perfect square sixty miles in circumference, fifteen miles on each side, surrounded by a wall three hundred and fifty feet high, and eighty-seven feet thick, with a moat, or ditch, around this, of equal cubic capacity with the wall, divided into six hundred and seventy-six squares, each two and a quarter miles in circumference, by its fifty streets, each one hundred and fifty feet in width, crossing each other at right angles, twenty-five each way, every one straight and level, and fifteen miles in length; its two hundred and twenty-five square miles of inclosed surface, divided as just described, and laid out in luxuriant pleasure-grounds and gardens, interspersed with magnificent dwellings—this city, with its sixty miles of moat, its sixty miles of outer wall, its thirty miles of river wall through its center, its hundred and fifty gates of solid brass, its hanging gardens, rising terrace above terrace, they equaled in height the walls themselves, its temple of Belus, three miles in circumference, its two kingly palaces, one three and a half, and the other eight miles in circumference, with its subterranean tunnel under the river Euphrates connecting these two palaces, its perfect arrangements for convenience, ornament, and defense; and its unlimited resources—this city, containing in itself many things which were themselves wonders of the world, was itself another and still mightier wonder. Never before saw the earth a city like that; never since has it seen its equal. And there, with the whole earth prostrate at her feet, she sat, a queen in peerless grandeur, "the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency," fit capital of that kingdom which constituted the golden head of this great historic image.
Such was Babylon, with Nebuchadnezzar, youthful, bold, vigorous, and accomplished, seated upon its throne, when Daniel entered its impregnable walls to serve a captive for seventy years in its gorgeous palaces. There, the children of the Lord, oppressed more than cheered by the glory and prosperity of the land of their captivity, hung their harps on the willows of the sparkling Euphrates, and wept when they remembered Zion.
And there commenced the captive state of the church in a still broader sense; for, ever since that time, the people of God have been in subjection to, and more or less oppressed by, earthly powers. And so they will be, till earthly powers shall give way to Him whose right it is to reign. And lo! the day of deliverance draws on apace.
Into another city, not only Daniel, but all the children of God, from least to greatest, from first to last, are soon to enter; a city not merely sixty miles in circumference, but fifteen hundred miles; a city whose walls are not brick and bitumen, but precious stones and jasper; whose streets are not the stone-paved streets of Babylon, smooth and handsome as they were, but transparent gold; whose river is not the mournful waters of the Euphrates, but the river of life; whose music is not the sighs and laments of broken-hearted captives, but the thrilling peans of victory over death and the grave, which ransomed multitudes shall raise; whose light is not the intermittent light of earth, but the unceasing and ineffable glory of God and the Lamb. Into this city they shall enter, not as captives entering a foreign land, but as exiles returning to their father's house; not as to a place where the chilling words of bondage, servitude, and oppression shall weigh down their spirits, but where the sweet words, home, freedom, peace, purity, unutterable bliss, and unending life, shall thrill their bosoms with delight forever and ever. Yea, our mouths shall be filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing, when the Lord turns again the captivity of Zion. Ps. 126:1, 2.
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 Evil-merodach, 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 Evil-merodach, 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, who is called Darius in Daniel 5:31, 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 laid siege to Babylon, the only city in all the East which then held out against him. 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. Never, according to human probability, with the means of warfare then known, could that city 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 their 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 in passing under its walls. He resolved to make the channel of the river his own highway into the stronghold of his enemy. To this, the water must be turned aside. For this purpose he dug an immense trench around the city, and on the evening of the feast-day above referred to, he detailed three bodies of soldiers; the first, to turn the river at a given hour into a large 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, and 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 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 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; and353had 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 for 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 palace of the king. 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 islands 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, a celebrated city in the province of Elam, east by south from Babylon, on the banks of the river Choaspes, a branch of the Tigris. This was probably done, says Prideaux (i. 180), in the first year of his sole reign. The pride of the Babylonians being particularly provoked by this act, in the fifth year of Darius Hystaspes, B. c. 517, they rose in rebellion, which brought upon themselves again the whole strength of the Persian Empire. The city was once more taken by stratagem. Zopyrus, one of the chief commanders of Darius, having cut off his own nose and ears and mangled his body all over with stripes, fled in this condition to the besieged, apparently burning with desire to be revenged on Darius for his great cruelty in thus mutilating him. In this way he won the confidence of the Babylonians till at length he made him chief commander of their forces; whereupon he betrayed the city into the hands of his master. And that they might ever after be deterred from rebellion, Darius impaled three thousand of those who had been most active in the revolt, took away the brazen gates of the city, and beat down the walls from two hundred cubits to fifty cubits.. 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, he 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 willful blindness.