The king said to Haman, "The silver is yours, and the people also, to do with them as you please." He burned the house of the Lord, the kings house, and all the houses of Jerusalem; even every great house he burned with fire. He built an 11-mile defensive wall outside the city, wide enough on top for chariots driven by four horses to pass each other. Also Judah did not keep the commandments of the LORD their God, but walked in the customs which Israel had introduced. who came with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Azariah, Raamiah, Nahamani, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispereth, Bigvai, Nehum, Baanah.The number of men of the people of Israel: These came with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah, Reelaiah, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispar, Bigvai, Rehum and Baanah.The number of the men of the people of Israel: When the LORD will have compassion on Jacob and again choose Israel, and settle them in their own land, then strangers will join them and attach themselves to the house of Jacob. A sword against the Chaldeans, declares the Lord,And against the inhabitants of BabylonAnd against her officials and her wise men! Of the sons of the priests: the sons of Habaiah, the sons of Hakkoz, the sons of Barzillai, who took a wife from the daughters of Barzillai the Gileadite, and he was called by their name. Stand fast now in your spellsAnd in your many sorceriesWith which you have labored from your youth;Perhaps you will be able to profit,Perhaps you may cause trembling. And Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon came to the city, while his servants were besieging it. You are wearied with your many counsels; Stand up and save you from what will come upon you. 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. Now on the seventh day of the fifth month, which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. Now these are the words of the letter which Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the rest of the elders of the exile, the priests, the prophets and all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. and say, Just so shall Babylon sink down and not rise again because of the calamity that I am going to bring upon her; and they will become exhausted. Thus far are the words of Jeremiah. In the early part of our 20th century prior to 1919, the Bible Students, as Jehovah's Witnesses were then known, had to be released from a form of spiritual captivity to the ideas and practices of false religion. The predictions of Isaiah have to do with Babylons ultimate destruction in the Day of the Lord. In the Old Testament, Babylon was responsible for the destruction of the Temple in . And he *said to me, The waters which you saw where the harlot sits, are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues. Writhe and labor to give birth,Daughter of Zion,Like a woman in childbirth;For now you will go out of the city,Dwell in the field,And go to Babylon.There you will be rescued;There the Lord will redeem youFrom the hand of your enemies. He knewof the coming Babylonian (Assyrian) captivity, hence his predilection to flee and to want for their destruction. There was nothing in his house nor in all his dominion that Hezekiah did not show them. Remember, O Lord, against the sons of EdomThe day of Jerusalem,Who said, Raze it, raze itTo its very foundation. O daughter of Babylon, you devastated one,How blessed will be the one who repays youWith the recompense with which you have repaid us. And the afflicted of His people will seek refuge in it.. When Babylon the Great is destroyed, the kings and merchants who grew wealthy off of her trade will weep over her demise. The number of the men of the people of Israel: the sons of Parosh, 2,172; the sons of Shephatiah, 372; the sons of Arah, 775; the sons of Pahath-moab of the sons of Jeshua and Joab, 2,812; the sons of Elam, 1,254; the sons of Zattu, 945; the sons of Zaccai, 760; the sons of Bani, 642; the sons of Bebai, 623; the sons of Azgad, 1,222; the sons of Adonikam, 666; the sons of Bigvai, 2,056; the sons of Adin, 454; the sons of Ater of Hezekiah, 98; the sons of Bezai, 323; the sons of Jorah, 112; the sons of Hashum, 223; the sons of Gibbar, 95; the men of Bethlehem, 123; the men of Netophah, 56; the men of Anathoth, 128; the sons of Azmaveth, 42; the sons of Kiriath-arim, Chephirah and Beeroth, 743; the sons of Ramah and Geba, 621; the men of Michmas, 122; the men of Bethel and Ai, 223; the sons of Nebo, 52; the sons of Magbish, 156; the sons of the other Elam, 1,254; the sons of Harim, 320; the sons of Lod, Hadid and Ono, 725; the men of Jericho, 345; the sons of Senaah, 3,630. 'Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf; for in its welfare you will have welfare. Then the lookout called, "O Lord, I stand continually by day on the watchtower, And I am stationed every night at my guard post. Sheshbazzar brought them all up with the exiles who went up from Babylon to Jerusalem. At that time the servants of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon went up to Jerusalem, and the city came under siege. Many interpreters agree that Babylon in its religious and political sense will be revived at the end of the age. It has no more relevance to prophecy than has China, Japan, Mexico or Canada. The whole earth is at rest and is quiet;They break forth into shouts of joy. Babylon and the wh0re of Babylon in the intertestamental period is referencing Israel and Judah (Jerusalem), because they had abandoned God and started doing human sacrifices to molek and baal. The last king of Babylon was Nabonidus in BC 556539. These have one purpose, and they give their power and authority to the beast. What is the significance of the Babylonian Empire in biblical history? The land was sacked by the Elamites and Amorites in the period 1960-1830 b.c. I will also make it a possession for the hedgehog and swamps of water, and I will sweep it with the broom of destruction, declares the Lord of hosts. Given how Babylonia was influenced by ancient Sumer, it comes as no surprise that this pantheon of gods is shared between the two cultures. Also King Cyrus brought out the articles of the house of the LORD, which Nebuchadnezzar had carried away from Jerusalem and put in the house of his gods; and Cyrus, king of Persia, had them brought out by the hand of Mithredath the treasurer, and he counted them out to Sheshbazzar, the prince of Judah. to break Assyria in My land, and I will trample him on My mountains. For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns. "This day the ladies of Persia and Media who have heard of the queen's conduct will speak in the same way to all the king's princes, and there will be plenty of contempt and anger. They will all respond and say to you,Even you have been made weak as we,You have become like us. He built an enormous city of which the ruins . The beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to come up out of the abyss and go to destruction. Verse 2. "How you have fallen from heaven, O star of the morning, son of the dawn! And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them. He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. "All the kings of the nations lie in glory, Each in his own tomb. He also took from the city one official who was overseer of the men of war, and seven of the kings advisers who were found in the city, and the scribe of the commander of the army who mustered the people of the land, and sixty men of the people of the land who were found in the midst of the city. ), whose kings were native Babylonians. That same night Belshazzar the Chaldean king was slain. Behold, the land of the Chaldeans--this is the people which was not; Assyria appointed it for desert creatures--they erected their siege towers, they stripped its palaces, they made it a ruin. At that time the servants of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon went up to Jerusalem, and the city came under siege. Babylon will be rebuilt greater than ever in the land of Shinar (Zech. You are wearied with your many counsels;Let now the astrologers,Those who prophesy by the stars,Those who predict by the new moons,Stand up and save you from what will come upon you. All the kings of the nations lie in glory. With the recompense with which you have repaid us. The destruction of Babylon is related to the judgment upon "all the kings of the nations" (14:18). In Greek, Babylon was used mainly in the book of Revelation and is defined also as "confusion." This word, in this context, refers to an evil and persecuting system that will be eventually destroyed by God for its wickedness (Revelation 18). Babylon in the Bible is first mentioned by name in 2 Kings 17:24, when the king of Assyria displaced the people of Israel with those of Babylon, among others. They also took away the pots, the shovels, the snuffers, the basins, the pans and all the bronze vessels which were used in temple service. Then the captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest and Zephaniah the second priest, with the three officers of the temple. 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. "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.'. And as for His stretched-out hand, who can turn it back? In the year that King Ahaz died this oracle came: Do not rejoice, O Philistia, all of you,Because the rod that struck you is broken;For from the serpents root a viper will come out,And its fruit will be a flying serpent. Jeremiah is seen as the true prophet of God in contrast to the false prophets who had predicted victory over Babylon (cp. 'Moreover, I will take from them the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones and the light of the lamp. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; Nevertheless you will be thrust down to Sheol. 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. And you, Pashhur, and all who live in your house will go into captivity; and you will enter Babylon, and there you will die and there you will be buried, you and all your friends to whom you have falsely prophesied., For I have set My face against this city for harm and not for good, declares the Lord. Babylon the Great, commonly known as the Whore of Babylon, refers to both a symbolic female figure and place of evil mentioned in the Book of Revelation in the Bible. King Nebuchadnezzar also took some of the young men of Judah to Babylon. For behold, I am going to arouse and bring up against BabylonA horde of great nations from the land of the north,And they will draw up their battle lines against her;From there she will be taken captive.Their arrows will be like an expert warriorWho does not return empty-handed. The peoples will take them along and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel will possess them as an inheritance in the land of the LORD as male servants and female servants; and they will take their captors captive and will rule over their oppressors. At the very time the Medes were pouring into the city, the handwriting appeared on the wall (Daniel 5:5, 24-28). Why the Name Babylon? All rights reserved. "You shall also say to this people, 'Thus says the LORD, "Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death. So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city. for her sins have piled up as high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities. Nebuchadnezzar was the head of gold (606-561 BC, kingdom of Babylon). She has become a dwelling place of demons and a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird. under alliance with the Chaldeans, they had also captured Nineveh. "All of them come for violence. Then they made their sons and their daughters pass through the fire, and practiced divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking Him. This event saw the conquest of Babylon by the Achaemenid Empire under Cyrus the Great and marked the end of the Neo-Babylonian Empire. The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked,The scepter of rulers Which used to strike the peoples in fury with unceasing strokes,Which subdued the nations in anger with unrestrained persecution. The very name Bab-iliu means "the gate of the gods" in Akkadian, which is the oldest recorded Semitic language and the most common language of the ancient Near East until the eighth century BC.. Isaiah 14 seems to confirm that the ultimate destruction in view is one related to the second advent of Christ and the Day of the Lord. At that time the servants of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon went up to Jerusalem, and the city came under siege. 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. Babylon is called, mother of prostitutes and of earths abominations in Revelation 17:5.