CHAPTER XI.

NOTICES OF BABYLON IN DANIEL, ISAIAH, JEREMIAH, AND EZEKIEL.

It is proposed in the present chapter to bring together the scattered notices in Scripture bearing upon the general condition of Babylon, the character of its government, and the manners and customs of its people; and to inquire how far profane history confirms or illustrates what Scripture tells us on these. matters. A certain number of the points have necessarily been touched in some of the earlier chapters of the present volume, and thus it will be impossible to avoid a certain amount of repetition; but the endeavour will be made to pass lightly over such topics as have been already put before the reader, and thus to reduce the repetition to a minimum.

We have noticed indirectly, in connection with its commerce, the great wealth of Babylon. Isaiah calls it emphatically "the golden city" (Isa. xiv. 4), or "the exactress of gold," as the passage may be rendered literally. Jeremiah compares Babylon to "a golden cup in the hand of the Lord" (Jer. li. 7), and calls her abundant in treasures" (ib. ver. 13), declaring more

over that, at her fall, all those who partook of her spoil should be “satisfied” (ib. 1. 10). In Daniel the Babylonian kingdom is typified by the "head of gold” (Dan. ii. 38), and the opulence of the monarch is shown by the enormous size of the image, or rather pillar, of gold which he set up, a pillar ninety feet high by nine feet wide (ib. iii. 1). The inscriptions are in accordance. Nebuchadnezzar tells us that he brought into the treasury of Merodach at Babylon wares, and ornaments for the women, silver, molten gold, precious stones, metal, umritgana and cedar wood, a splendid abundance, riches and sources of joy." The temple of Merodach he "made conspicuous with fine linen, and covered its seats with splendid gold, with lapis lazuli, and blocks of alabaster." Its portico "with brilliant gold he caused men to cover; the lower threshold, the cedar awnings with gold and precious stones he embellished." And the rest of his sacred buildings were adorned similarly.*

2

The primary source of the wealth of Babylon was its agriculture. Herodotus tells us that the yield of grain was commonly two hundred-fold, and in some instances three hundred-fold. Pliny asserts that the wheat-crop was reaped twice, and afterwards afforded good keep for beasts. When Babylonia became a province of the Persian Empire, it paid a tribute of a thousand talents of silver, and at the same time

1" Records of the Past," vol. v., pp. 116–7.

3 Ibid., pp. 119-20. 5 Herod., i. 193.

4 Ibid., vol.

6 Plin. H. N., xviii. 17.

2 Ibid., p. 117. vii., pp. 72, 75-6.

'Herod., iii. 92.

furnished the entire provision of the court during onethird of the year. Notwithstanding these calls upon them, its satraps became enormously wealthy. To the wealth obtained by agriculture is to be added that derived from commerce, and from conquest. Both of these points have already engaged our attention, and we have seen reason to believe that the gains made were in each case very great. Scripture makes allusion to the agricultural wealth of the country, when it enumerates among the chief calamities of the final invasion the "cutting off of the sower, and of him that handled the sickle in the time of harvest" (Jer. 1. 16); and again when it makes special mention of the "opening of the granaries" as a feature in the sack of the city (ib. ver. 26). The commercial wealth is implied in the description of Babylon as "a city of merchants" (Ezek. xvii. 4), and of Babylonia as "a land of traffick” (ib.). The wealth derived from conquest receives notice in the statement of Habakkuk, "Because thou hast spoiled many nations, all the remnant of the people shall spoil thee" (Hab. ii. 8), and is illustrated by the narrative of Kings (2 Kings XXV. 13-17). Nebuchadnezzar alludes to it when he says, "A palace for my royalty in the midst of the city of Babylon I built . . . tall cedars for its porticoes I fitted . . . with silver, gold, and precious stones I overlaid its gates I valiantly collected spoils; as an adornment of the house were they arranged and collected within it; trophies, abundance, royal treas1 Herod., i. 192.

2 Ibid.

ures, I accumulated and gathered together;"1 and again, "Gatherings from great lands I made; and, like the hills, I upraised its head."2

Among the spoil which was regarded as of especial value were scented woods, more particularly cedars, and perhaps pines, from Lebanon and Amanus. Isaiah, in describing the general rejoicing at the fall of the Babylonian Empire, remarks, "The whole earth is at rest and is quiet; they break forth into singing: yea, the fir-trees rejoice at thee, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying, Since thou art laid down, no feller is come up against us" (Isa. xiv. 7, 8). The cuneiform inscriptions show that the practice of cutting timber in the Syrian mountains and conveying it to Mesopotamia, which had been begun by the Assyrian monarchs (2 Kings xix. 23), was continued by the Babylonians. Nebuchadnezzar expressly states that “the best of his pine-trees from Lebanon, with tall babil-wood, he brought;" and Nabonidus tells us that, in his third. year, he went to “Amananu, a mountainous country, where tall pines grew, and brought a part of them to the midst of Babylon."

The great size of Babylon, and the immense height and thickness of its walls, have been dwelt upon at some length in a former chapter. Jeremiah is particularly clear upon these points, though, naturally, he

1"Records of the Past," vol. v., p. 131. 2 Ibid., p. 133.

5

3 Ibid., vol. v., p. 119.

"Transactions of the Bibl. Archæolog. Society," vol. vii., p. 154.

5 See above, ch. vi.

enters into no details. "Though Babylon should mount up to heaven," he says, “and though she should fortify the height of her strength, yet from me shall spoilers come unto her, saith the Lord" (Jer. li. 53); and again, "The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken, and her high gates shall be burned with fire" (ib. ver. 58); and, with respect to the size of the city, "One post shall run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to show the king of Babylon that his city is taken at one end" (ib. ver. 31).

The government of Babylon by a despotic monarch, the sole source of all power and authority, and the absolute master of the lives and liberties of his subjects, which the Babylonian notices in Scripture set before us consistently, and which appears most markedly in Daniel (ch. ii. 12, 48, 49; iii. 6, 15, 29), is in complete accordance with all that profane history teaches on the subject. Nebuchadnezzar claims in his inscriptions to rule by Divine right. The sceptre of righteousness is delivered into his hand that therewith he may sustain men.' From him alone commands issue; by him alone all works are accomplished. No subject obtains any mention as even helping him. The inscriptions of Neriglissar and Nabonidus are of nearly the same character. And the classical accounts agree. It is clear that in Semitic Babylon, prior to the Medo-Persic conquest, there was no noble class possessing independent power, or any right of controlling the king.

1" Records of the Past," vol. v., p. 114.