| “Nimrod … and the beginning of his kingdom was Babel” (Genesis 10:9-10). |
| “The king [Nebuchadnezzar] spake, and said, Is not this great Babylon, that I have built … by the might of my power, and for the honor of my majesty?” (Daniel 4:30). |
| The name Babylon occurs many times in the Bible, and perhaps you have wondered why it is mentioned so often. We know from history that it was an ancient city, the capital of the Chaldean Empire, but why is it mentioned so many times in the Bible, and in different connections? |
| The history of Babylon goes a long way back, as we see by our first verse. Away back in the book of Genesis, we read about a man named Nimrod, who started a kingdom called Babel. Babel and Babylon are apparently the same in the Hebrew language, so that Babylon, at least in spirit, started a long time ago. It seems that Nimrod was also responsible for starting what later became the kingdom of Assyria. |
| Hundreds of years later we find the name Babylon again, when the people of Judah were taken captive by Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon. He was a very proud ruler, but used of God to punish the nation of Judah for worshipping idols, and constantly rebelling against God. God gave Nebuchadnezzar all the power and glory that he had, but then he dared to say, concerning the great city of Babylon, “Is not this great Babylon, that I have built … by the might of my power, and for the honor of my majesty?” (Daniel 4:30). |
| Babylon was indeed a large and beautiful city, and probably the biggest city in the ancient world. Its hanging gardens, built on terraces by Nebuchadnezzar for his wife, are regarded as one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. The Euphrates River flowed right through the city, guaranteeing a water supply, and apparently the city had twenty-five brass gates. |
| Its walls were absolutely amazing. Built of clay bricks, the walls were at least two hundred feet high, and possibly as high as three hundred feet. They were also about eighty feet thick. Can you imagine a wall like that — between twenty and thirty stories high? The average traffic lane on a major freeway in North America is about twelve feet (3.6 meters) wide, so those walls were wider than six lanes on a big highway. No wonder king Belshazzar (Nebuchadnezzar’s grandson) thought he was safe inside that wall! But we will see tomorrow what happened. |
