Conference: 1995 Pre-Trib Study Group
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Nebuchadnezzar's Successors
Nebuchadnezzar's deathwas followed by a steady weakening of the regime. His successor, Amel-Marduk("Evil-Merodach" of 2 Kings 25:27; Jeremiah 52:3 1), ruled but twoyears and was replaced in 560 B.C. after an army coup by the commander inchief, Neriglissar (Nergal-Sharezer of Jeremiah 39:3), son-in-law ofNebuchanezzer. After frequent absences from active service, he was, in turn,ousted, and his weak son Labashi-Marduk lasted only a few months before anothercoup d'etat brought Nabonidus to the throne.
Soon after his election,Nabonidus led the army to Palestine and Northern Arabia, leaving his sonBelshazzar as co-regent in Babylon. Nabonidus' decision to stay in Arabiaresulted from his unpopularity at home as much as from his desire to found asettlement there with exiles from Palestine.
In Babylon there hadbeen inflation brought on both by the continuing military expenditure and bythe extensive program of public works begun by Nebuchadnezzar. This inflationrate amounted to 50% between 560 B.C. and 530 B.C., resulting in widespreadfamine.
In the last year ofNabonidus, the Babylon Chronicle (British Museum) records that the idols of thecities around Babylon, except Borsippa, Kutha, and Sippar, were brought in, anaction taken only at the sign of impending war. This cylinder, one of 4 bearingthe same text found at the four corners of the ziggurat at Ur, is inscribed inBabylonian cuneiform: prayer to the moon-god Sin, to whom the Ziggurat isconsecrated; mentions "Beishazzar, the son first (born) the offspring ofmy heart (body)." Inscriptions designate Daniel as "the 3rd Ruler inthe kingdom." (5:29) The Rise of Cyrus
Cyrus II ("theGreat," 559-530 B.C.) was the founder of the Achaemenid Persian Empirethat continued for two centuries until the time of Alexander the Great (331B.C.).
Cyrus' father, Cambyses1(600-559 B.C.), was king of Anshan, a region in eastern Elam. His mother wasMandane, a daughter of Astyages, king of Media (585 -550 B.C.) When Cambyses Idied in 559 B.C., Cyrus inherited the throne of Anshan and, after unifying thePersian people, attacked his father-in-law, the weak and corrupt Astyages. TheMedian general Harpagus, whom Astyages had previously wronged, deserted theking and brought his army to the side of the young Cyrus. Astyages was sooncaptured and the Persians took the capital city of Ecbatana in 550 B.C. withouta battle. (This was also to be the result at Babylon 11 years later.)
Cyrus succeeded inwelding the Medes and Persians into a unified nation. Moving swiftly to thewest, he absorbed all the Median territories as far as the Halys River in AsiaMinor. When Croesus, the fabulously wealthy king of Lydia, refused to recognizethe sovereignty of Medo-Persia, Cyrus defeated him in battle and took over hisempire in 546 B.C. Seven years later, he was ready to launch the great assaultagainst Babylon itself.
Babylon was in noposition to resist a Medo-Persian invasion in the year 539 B.C. During thepreceding fourteen years, Nabonidus the king had not so much as visited thecapital city, leaving the administration of the metropolis to his profligateson Beishazzar, to whom he also "entrusted the kingship." ("VerseAccount of Nabonidus," Pritchard, Ancient Near Eastern Texts, 313.)Nabonidus further weakened the empire by incurring the displeasure of thepowerful Babylonian priesthood.
Toward the end ofSeptember, the armies of Cyrus, under the able command of Ugbaru, districtgovernor of Gutium, attacked Opis on the Tigris River and defeated theBabylonians. This gave the Persians control of the vast canal system ofBabylon. On October 10, Sippar was taken without a battle and Nabonidus fled.
Two days later, onOctober 12, 539 B.C., Ugbaru's troops were able to enter Babylon without a battle. Herodotusdescribes how the Persians diverted the River Euphrates into a canal upriver sothat the water level dropped "to the height of the middle of a man'sthigh," which thus rendered the flood defenses useless and enabled theinvaders to march through the river bed to enter by night. (Herodotus 1.191.)[Review Daniel Chapter 5.] The Handwriting on the Wall
The Talmud suggests thatthe writing was vertical and backwards: MEN E, ME NE, TEKEL, PER ES.
Mene: numbered, reckoned. "God hath numbered thykingdom and finished it." Your number is up.
Tekel: weighed. "Thou art weighed in thebalances, and art found wanting."
Peres: (rendered "upharsin": "u"is Aramaic for "and"; "pharsin" is the plural form of"peres.") broken, divided. "Thy kingdom is divided, and given tothe Medes and the Persians." (By implying a different vowel,"paras" rather than "peres," it also appears to be a play onwords: paras was the word for Persia.) God's Personal Letter to Cyrus Cyrus wasable to boast that the conquest was almost bloodless with no significant damageto the city. Daniel (who lived at least until the third year of Cyrus)presented Cyrus with the writings of Isaiah (Josephus, Antiq. XI, i.2) thatincludes a letter addressed to Cyrus by name, written 150 years earlier: Isaiah44:27 - 45:7.
The famous Steele ofCyrus: -
"...withoutany battle, he entered the town, sparing any calamity ...I returned to sacredcities on the other side of the Tigris, the sanctuaries of which have beenruins for a long time... and established for them permanent sanctuaries. I alsogathered all their former inhabitants and returned to them theirhabitations."
This cylinder,discovered by Hormuzd Rassam in the 19th century, can presently be seen in theBritish Museum in London.
The Jews were actuallyencouraged by Cyrus to return to Jerusalem and to rebuild their temple. (2Chron. 36:22; Ezra 1:1-4.) Furthermore, he gave them back the vessels thatNebuchadnezzar had plundered from Solomon's Temple and he contributedfinancially to the construction of their second temple. About 50,000 Jewsresponded to this royal proclamation and returned to Jerusalem under theleadership of Zerubbabel.
A year later, on July23, 537 B.C., the return of Jewish exiles under Zerubbabel got under way justseventy years after the captivity began just as Jeremiah had predicted. Thefoundations of the second Temple were laid by the spring of 536 B.C.
It was a successor,Artaxerxes 1(465 - 423 B.C.) who issued the specific decree concerning therebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem. This decree is the trigger for one of themost remarkable prophecies in the Bible: the famous "Seventy Sevens"of Daniel 9. The Decline The Achaemenids
Cyrus claimed the title"King of Babylon" and made his son Cambyses to act as his viceroy inBabylon in 538 B.C. Things remained peaceful until his death in 522 B.C.
Inthe reign of Darius 11(521-486 B.C.) a further return of exiles to Jerusalemwas allowed. His rule did not go unchallenged and several local Babylonianscontrolled the city for varying periods, usually taking the throne-name of"Nebuchadnezzar" to bolster their claims. Thus Nidintu-Bel("Nebuchadnezzar III") held sway October-December 522 B.C. Araka("Nebuchadnezzar IV") was put to death November 27, 521 B.C.
Dariusintroduced a rigid royal control with local administrative reforms aimed atcurbing corruption and establishing a courier system between Babylon and othercapitals. He built himself a palace (Apadana), a house for his crown prince,and an arsenal.
Inthe fourth year of Xerxes (485-465 B.C.) the Babylonians made another attemptto gain their independence. Bel-shimanni and Shamash-eriba claimed the thronein 482 and this revolt was suppressed with much cruelty and damage to Babylon.On his visit in 460 B.C., Herodotus reported that the city was virtuallyintact, however.
Xerxesand his successors (Artaxerxes I - Darius III, 464-332) had little to spare forBabylon amid their lengthy and expensive wars with Greece. Irrigation work wasneglected and the diversion of trade to the main Persian road from Sardis toSusa aided the decline of the city's influence.
The Rise of Greece
OnOctober 1, 331 B.C. Alexander (III, "the Great") was welcomed by theBabylonians when he entered the city after his victory over the Medes atGaugamela. He was acclaimed king and on his return from the east nine yearslater he planned extensive renovations including the creation of a port for thecity large enough for 1000 warships. Though the site of Esagila was cleared,work ceased on Alexander's ambitious plans at his death in Babylon on June 13,323 B.C.
Thecareer of Alexander is detailed in Daniel 8. His successors, in Daniel 11.
Hisfour key generals divided it among themselves: Cassander took over Greece andMacedonia; Lysimachus took Thrace and Bithynia; Seleucus took Syria, Babylonia,and portions all the way to India; Ptolemy took Egypt, Palestine, and Arabia.
Thesubsequent struggles among his generals did not leave the city unscathed.Seleucus, who claimed the title of king in 305 B.C. was acknowledged from 311when all documents were dated by his "era." The foundation of a newrival capital city, Selucia, on the River Tigris, expedited the decline of theancient metropolis.
Thedispersal of Jews from Babylon is reported by Josephus. (Antiq. XVIII, ix 6-9.)
Atrophy and Decay
Thecity subsequently underwent a gradual decay, even though the ruins remainedoccupied.
Documentson clay from a school for priests indicates that the city continued at leastuntil 100 A.D.
Earlyin the first century A.D. a colony of merchants from Palmyra brought briefprosperity, but they left about 75 A.D. (Garner, p 7-8.)
Thecity was visited by Trajan in 115 A.D. Babylon was first reported deserted bySeptimus Severus 84 years later.
Asrecently as the 1800's the village of Hillah, containing over 10,000inhabitants, stood on the site of ancient Babylon. (Rich, p.1 57.) In the latenineteenth century, the German archeologist Robert Koldewey conducted extensivestudies at Babylon and the four Arab villages situated on the site. Babylon hadbeen inhabited for some time even before his arrival.
Thegreat prophecies concerning the city of Babylon in Isaiah chapters 13 and 14and Jeremiah 50and 51 have never been fulfilled.
The Destruction of Babylon
The Prophecies ofIsaiah
InIsaiah 13 and 14, the destruction of Babylon is predicted. In vigorous terms,Isaiah describes howBabylon will be destroyed and then will never again be inhabited. Thisidentifies the time ofthe destruction as that particular period known as the "Day of TheLord" that is mentioned throughout the scripture and is associated withthe final day of God's vengeance. (Joel 2:10; Mal 4:5; Dan 12:1; Matt24:21-22.) When God destroys Babylon, he will destroy all the evil in theworld.
13:10 This exact imagery is used inRevelation 6 to describe the judgement of the Tribulation just before theSecond Coming.
13:11-12 This startling idea parallelsMatthew 24:21-22. We can't say that the world's population has been on thebrink of annihilation before.
13:13 This clearly is yet future.
13:17 This reference to the Medesis one of the reasons why many have viewed this as referring to the events of539 B.C. However, nothing prohibits the Medes from being involved in thefuture. The Medes were a people who occupied the mountainous area ofnorthwestern Iran and northeastern Iraq, presently occupied by the Kurds today.They have been fighting Turkey, Iran, and Iraq in an attempt to establish theirown independent country of Kurdistan. Hundreds of Kurdish women and childrenwere the victims of Saddam Hussein's poison gas attacks in 1987 and 1988 andthe hatred by the Medes for the Babylonians runs deep.
13:19 "The glory of theBabylonians' pride": not Rome, nor allegorical: literally, the Chaldeans'pride. Overthrown like Sodom and Gomorrah, that is, with "fire fromheaven." This has yet to happen to Babylon.
13:20 After the Fall of Babylonunder the Persians, it was inhabited, even by Alexander and subsequently.
Isaiah 14
14:1-2 It is also important to notethat this judgement on Babylon will take place at a time when Israel isresettled in their own land from many nations. This cannot be applied to thefall of Babylon to the Persians, during which Israel was still in captivity andin exile from the land.
14:22-27 Clearly, this is part ofGod's climactic scenario as part of the "Day of the Lord" and is partof the final scenes at the end of the "Seventieth Week" of Daniel 9,and that is highlighted in Matthew 24 and Revelation 6 through 19.
The Prophecies ofJeremiah
50:1-3 Does the "nation fromthe north" refer to Magog or the Russians?
50:4 Again, the spiritual positionof Israel is described.
50:9 Again, it appears to be analliance of many nations that are coming against Babylon.
50:10-3 Again, the absence ofsubsequent habitation marks this event as yet future.
50:15 Again, the period of time isthe "Day of Vengeance" of God, a time of climax described throughoutthe Scripture and yet future.
50:20 The repeated references tothe forgiveness of Israel imply a time that is after the New Testament periodalluded to in Romans 11:25. It certainly cannot be applied to Israel at thetime of her return from the Babylonian captivity. (Zech 12:10; 13:1.)
50:40 A repeated comparison to theoverthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, which has never yet happened to Babylon.
50:41,46 A multinational force, notjust the Persians.
51:7 A reading of the languageclearly links this with Revelation 17 and 18.
51:26 Again, a reference to thenon-reuse of remaining materials. When Robert Koldewey arrived in Babylon inthe late 1800's, he found entire sections of the old city being mined forbricks. (Kodewey, p.168.)
51:45 Again, remarkably similarlanguage as in Revelation 17 and 18. The destruction of Babylon predicted byboth Isaiah and Jeremiah has never been fuijIlled.
Revelation 17
Noticethat the prostitute is not the beast, but rides the beast. She initiallyexploits the beast, but is eventually destroyed by him. (Rev. 17:16,17.)
Thereference to the "cup" is another link with Jeremiah, et al.
Again,note the distinction between the Woman and the Beast.
MysteryBabylon as a false religious system is here identified with the city of Romefrom the first century until this present hour. (Cf. Dave Hunt, A Woman Ridesthe Beast, Harvest House, 1994.)
Revelation 18
Thedestruction of Mystery Babylon continues in Chapter 18, with commercial as wellas religious overtones. Notice that there are three groups that bemoan herfall: kings, merchants, and those who trade by sea. Notice that here are 28literal commodities listed: perhaps this is to prevent us from allegorizingthese references.
Theclear references to Rome, in both religious and commercial terms, have causedmost commentators to identify "Mystery Babylon" as the Romanreligious system commingled with the emerging European Community. Thisallegorical view has overlooked the re-emergence of a literal city of Babylonas well.
Babylon Re-emerges? Zecharaiah 5:5-15
Thestrange vision in Zecharaiah 5 suggests that there will be an appropriate timewhen the commercialand religious power center of the Planet Earth will, once again, migrate backto its originalsite of the literal city of Babylon.
Notethat the "ephah" and the "talent" were the standardcommercial measures of volume and weight, respectively. The two carriers hadthe "wings of a stork" which is an unclean bird. The captive womancalled "wickedness" may be a reference to the harlot of Revelation 17and 18.
Babylon Today:"Nebuchadnezzar V"
SaddamHussein was born in 1937 in the village of Tikrit, 100 miles north of Baghdadon the Tigris River. (About 800 years earlier, Saladin, the greatest Muslim warriorof the twelfth century, was born in the same village. It was Saladin's captureof Jerusalem in 1187 that resulted in the Third Crusade.) Saddam Hussein'sexploits on behalf of the Baath Party became legend and when they seizedcontrol in 1968, Saddam Hussein, at the age of 31, became a leader in Iraq. Afew weeks after becoming president of Iraq in 1979, he executed some of hisclosest friends and fellow members of the ruling Baath Party. Utterruthlessness and brutality has continued in his grasp for power.
SaddamHussein has spent over 20 years--60 million bricks, and over $900million-rebuilding the city of Babylon as a deliberate strategem to identifyhimself with the Nebuchadnezzar of old. Part of his strategy is to vigorouslybuild his Babylonian identity to appeal to the entire Arab world to uniteagainst Israel and the "infidel West."
Progress to date
Perhapsof greatest interest is the southern palace that includes Nebuchadnezzar'sthrone room where the famous "handwriting on the wall" took place inDaniel 5. This very large ceremonial room has been used for various stateoccasions over the past several years. It was used for major culturalceremonies in fall of 1995.
Areplica of the famed Ishtar Gate, the main Processional Way, the Ninmakh Temple,the Ishtar Temple and others are all in various stages of completion. Alsobeing completed is the 4000 seat Greek Theatre (originally established duringthe reign of Alexander) as well as other facilities. |
