plain of Shinar. The different tribes descended from Noah were here
collected, and from this point were dispersed, through the confusion of
their language. The time when this tower was built is differently stated
in the Hebrew and Samaritan chronologies. The former fixes it in the
year 101 after the flood, which Mr. Faber thinks encumbered with
insuperable difficulties. This writer then goes on to show, that the
chronology of the Samaritan Pentateuch reconciles every date, and
surmounts every difficulty. It represents Shem as dying nearly a century
and a half before the death of Peleg, instead of more than that number
of years afterward, and almost four centuries and a half before the
death of Abraham; whom, in accordance with the history, it makes to
survive his father Terah precisely a hundred years. It removes the
difficulties with which the Hebrew chronology invests the whole history,
by giving time, while it allows the dispersion to have taken place in
the latter part of Peleg’s life, for the thirteen sons of his younger
brother Joktan to have become heads of families; for Noah and his sons
to have died, as it is proved they must have done, prior to the
emigration from Armenia; for Nimrod, instead of being a boy, to have
been of an age suitable to his exploits, and to have acquired the
sovereign command, not, in the face of all probability, while the four
great patriarchs were living, but after their decease; and for the
families of mankind to have multiplied sufficiently to undertake the
stupendous work of the tower. It explains also the silence respecting
Shem in the history of Abraham, by making the former die in Armenia four
hundred and forty years before the latter was born, instead of surviving
him thirty-five years; and, lastly, it makes sacred history accord with
profane; the Babylonic history of Berosus, and the old records consulted
by Epiphanius, both placing the death of Noah and his sons before the
emigration from Armenia.
The sum of the whole is as follows: All the descendants of Noah remained
in Armenia in peaceable subjection to the patriarchal religion and
government during the lifetime of the four royal patriarchs, or till
about the beginning of the sixth century after the flood; when,
gradually falling off from the pure worship of God, and from their
allegiance to the respective heads of families, and seduced by the
schemes of the ambitious Nimrod, and farther actuated by a restless
disposition, or a desire for a more fertile country, they migrated in a
body southwards, till they reached the plains of Shinar, probably about
sixty years after the death of Shem. Here, under the command of their
new leader, and his dominant military and sacerdotal Cuthites, by whom
the original scheme of idolatry, the groundwork of which was probably
laid in Armenia, was now perfected; and, with the express view to
counteract the designs of the Almighty in their dispersion into
different countries, they began to build the city and tower, and set up
a banner which should serve as a mark of national union, and concentrate
them in one unbroken empire; when they were defeated and dispersed by
the miraculous confusion of tongues. All this probably occupied the
farther space of twenty or twenty-one years; making eighty-one from the
death of Shem, and five hundred and eighty-three after the flood. All of
which also will come within the life of Peleg, who, according to the
Samaritan Pentateuch, died in the year 640. The tower of Belus in
Babylon, mentioned by Herodotus, was probably either the original tower
of Babel repaired, or it was constructed upon its massive foundations.
The remains of this tower are still to be seen, and are thus described
by Captain Mignan, in his Travels in Chaldea:--
“At day light I departed for the ruins, with a mind absorbed by the
objects which I had seen yesterday. An hour’s walk, indulged in intense
reflection, brought me to the grandest and most gigantic northern mass,
on the eastern bank of the Euphrates, and distant about four miles and a
half from the eastern suburb of Hillah. It is called by the natives, _El
Mujellibah_, ‘the overturned;’ also _Haroot_ and _Maroot_, from a
tradition handed down, with little deviation, from time immemorial, that
near the foot of the ruin there is a well, invisible to mortals, in
which those rebellious angels were condemned by God to be hung with
their heels upward, until the day of judgment, as a punishment for their
wickedness. This solid mound, which I consider, from its situation and
magnitude, to be the remains of the Tower of Babel, (an opinion likewise
adopted by that venerable and highly distinguished geographer, Major
Rennell,) is a vast oblong square, composed of kiln-burnt and sun-dried
bricks, rising irregularly to the height of one hundred and thirty-nine
feet, at the south-west; whence it slopes toward the north-east to a
depth of one hundred and ten feet. Its sides face the four cardinal
points. I measured them carefully, and the following is the full extent
of each face: that to the north, along the visible face, is two hundred
and seventy-four yards; to the south, two hundred and fifty-six yards;
to the east, two hundred and twenty-six yards; and to the west, two
hundred and forty yards. The summit is an uneven flat, strewed with
broken and unbroken bricks, the perfect ones measuring thirteen inches
square, by three thick. Many exhibited the arrow-headed character, which
appeared remarkably fresh. Pottery, bitumen, vitrified and petrified
brick, shells, and glass, were all equally abundant. The principal
materials composing this ruin are, doubtless, mud bricks baked in the
sun, and mixed up with straw. It is not difficult to trace brick work
along each front, particularly at the south-west angle, which is faced
by a wall, composed partly of kiln-burnt brick, that in shape exactly
resembles a watch tower or small turret. On its summit there are still
considerable traces of erect building; at the western end is a circular
mass of sold brick work, sloping toward the top, and rising from a
confused heap of rubbish. The chief material forming this fabric
appeared similar to that composing the ruin called Akercouff, a mixture
of chopped straw, with slime used as cement; and regular layers of
unbroken reeds between the horizontal courses of the bricks. The base is
greatly injured by time and the elements; particularly to the
south-east, where it is cloven into a deep furrow from top to bottom.
The sides of the ruin exhibit hollows worn partly by the weather, but
more generally formed by the Arabs, who are incessantly digging for
bricks, and hunting for antiquities.”
BABYLON, 2 Kings xxiv, 1. The capital of Chaldea, built by Nimrod, Gen.
x, 10. It was under Nebuchadnezzar that Babylon, then become the seat of
universal empire, is supposed to have acquired that extent and
magnificence, and that those stupendous works were completed which
rendered it the wonder of the world and of posterity: and accordingly,
this prince, then the most potent on the earth, arrogated to himself the
whole glory of its erection; and in the pride of his heart exclaimed,
“Is not this great Babylon that I have built?” The city at this period
stood on both sides of the river, which intersected it in the middle. It
was, according to the least computation, that of Diodorus Siculus, 45
miles in circumference; and according to Herodotus, the older author of
the two, 60 miles. Its shape was that of a square, traversed each way by
25 principal streets; which of course intersected each other, dividing
the city into 626 squares. These streets were terminated at each end by
gates of brass, of prodigious size and strength, with a smaller one
opening toward the river. The walls, from the most moderate accounts,
were 75 feet in height and 32 in breadth; while Herodotus makes them 300
in height and 75 in breadth: which last measurement, incredible as it
may seem, is worthy of credit, as Herodotus is much the oldest author
who describes them, and who gives their original height; whereas, those
who follow him in their accounts of these stupendous walls, describe
them as they were after they had been taken down to the less elevation
by Darius Hystaspes. They were built of brick, cemented with bitumen
instead of mortar; and were encompassed by a broad and deep ditch, lined
with the same materials, as were also the banks of the river in its
course through the city: the inhabitants descending to the water by
steps through the smaller brazen gates before mentioned. The houses were
three or four stories high, separated from each other by small courts or
gardens, with open spaces and even fields interspersed over the immense
area enclosed within the walls. Over the river was a bridge, connecting
the two halves of the city, which stood, the one on its eastern, and the
other on its western, bank; the river running nearly north and south.
The bridge was 5 furlongs in length, and 30 feet in breadth, and had a
palace at each end, with, it is said, a subterraneous passage beneath
the river, from one to the other: the work of Semiramis. Within the city
was the temple of Belus, or Jupiter, which Herodotus describes as a
square of two stadia, or a quarter of a mile: in the midst of which
arose the celebrated tower, to which both the same writer, and Strabo,
give an elevation of one stadium, or 660 feet; and the same measure at
its base; the whole being divided into eight separate towers, one above
another, of decreasing dimensions to the summit; where stood a chapel,
containing a couch, table, and other things of gold. Here the principal
devotions were performed; and over this, on the highest platform of all,
was the observatory, by the help of which the Babylonians arrived to
such perfection in astronomy, that Calisthenes the philosopher, who
accompanied Alexander to Babylon, found astronomical observations for
1903 years backwards from that time; which reach as high as the 115th
year after the flood. On either side of the river, according to
Diodorus, adjoining to the bridge, was a palace; that on the western
bank being by much the larger. This palace was eight miles in
circumference, and strongly fortified with three walls one within
another. Within it were the celebrated pensile or hanging gardens,
enclosed in a square of 400 feet. These gardens were raised on terraces,
supported by arches, or rather by piers, laid over with broad flat
stones; the arch appearing to be unknown to the Babylonians: which
courses of piers rose above one another, till they reached the level of
the top of the city walls. On each terrace or platform, a deep layer of
mould was laid, in which flowers, shrubs and trees were planted; some of
which are said to have reached the height of 50 feet. On the highest
level was a reservoir, with an engine to draw water up from the river by
which the whole was watered. This novel and astonishing structure, the
work of a monarch who knew not how to create food for his own pampered
fancy, or labour for his debased subjects or unhappy captives, was
undertaken to please his wife Amyitis; that she might see an imitation
of the hills and woods of her native country, Media.
Yet, while in the plenitude of its power, and, according to the most
accurate chronologers, 160 years before the foot of an enemy had entered
it, the voice of an enemy had entered it, the voice of prophecy
pronounced the doom of the mighty and unconquered Babylon. A succession
of ages brought it gradually to the dust; and the gradation of its fall
is marked till it sinks at last into utter desolation. At a time when
nothing but magnificence was around this city, emphatically called the
great, fallen Babylon was delineated by the pencil of inspiration
exactly as every traveller now describes its ruins.
The immense fertility of Chaldea, which retained also the name of
Babylonia till after the Christian æra, corresponded with the greatness
of Babylon. It was the most fertile region of the whole east. Babylonia
was one vast plain, adorned and enriched by the Euphrates and the
Tigris, from which, and from the numerous canals that intersected the
country from the one river to the other, water was distributed over the
fields by manual labour and by hydraulic machines, giving rise, in that
warm climate and rich exhaustless soil, to an exuberance of produce
without a known parallel, over so extensive a region, either in ancient
or modern times. Herodotus states, that he knew not how to speak of its
wonderful fertility, which none but eye witnesses would credit; and,
though writing in the language of Greece, itself a fertile country, he
expresses his own consciousness that his description of what he actually
saw would appear to be improbable, and to exceed belief. Such was the
“Chaldees’ excellency,” that it departed not on the first conquest, nor
on the final extinction of its capital, but one metropolis of Assyria
arose after another in the land of Chaldea, when Babylon had ceased to
be “the glory of kingdoms.”
2. Manifold are the prophecies respecting Babylon and the land of the
Chaldeans; and the long lapse of ages has served to confirm their
fulfilment in every particular, and to render it at last complete. The
judgments of Heaven are not casual, but sure; they are not arbitrary,
but righteous. And they were denounced against the Babylonians, and the
inhabitants of Chaldea, expressly because of their idolatry, tyranny,
oppression, pride, covetousness, drunkenness, falsehood, and other
wickedness. The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amos did see:
“The noise of a multitude in the mountains, like as of a great people: a
tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together: the Lord
of Hosts mustereth the host of the battle. They come from a far country,
from the end of heaven, even the Lord and the weapons of his
indignation, to destroy the whole land. Behold, the day of the Lord
cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land
desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it. Babylon,
the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees’ excellency, shall be
as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It shall never be inhabited,
neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation: neither
shall the Arabian pitch tent there: neither shall the shepherds make
their fold there. But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there: and
their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell
there, and satyrs shall dance there. And the wild beasts of the islands
shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant
palaces.” “Thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon,
and say, How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased! Thy pomp
is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols: the worm is
spread under thee, and the worms cover thee. Thou shalt be brought down
to hell, to the sides of the pit. Thou art cast out of the grave like an
abominable branch.--I will cut off from Babylon the name, and remnant,
the son, and nephew, saith the Lord. I will also make it a possession
for the bittern, and pools of water: and I will sweep it with the besom
of destruction, saith the Lord of Hosts.” “Babylon is fallen, is fallen;
and all the graven images of her gods he hath broken unto the ground.”
“Thus saith the Lord, that saith unto the deep, Be dry; and I will dry
up thy rivers: that saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and shall perform
all my pleasure,--and I will loose the loins of kings, to open before
him the two-leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut.” “Bel boweth
down,” &c. “Come down, and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of
Babylon: sit on the ground, there is no throne, O daughter of the
Chaldeans. Sit thou silent, and get thee into darkness, O daughter of
the Chaldeans; for thou shalt no more be called the lady of kingdoms.”
Many other prophecies against Babylon, and the whole land of Chaldea,
are found in the Old Testament; and though the limits of this article
will only allow a reference to be made to the exact fulfilment of a few,
there is not one of the great number of predictions on record, the
accomplishment of which has not been remarked by numerous writers, and
more especially by those who have visited the spot. For, though for many
centuries the site of Babylon was unknown, or the ruins of other
Chaldean cities mistaken for its remains, its true situation and present
condition have been, within a few years, satisfactorily ascertained, and
accurately described, by several most intelligent and enterprising
travellers.
When in the plenitude of its greatness, splendour and strength, Babylon
first yielded to the arms of Cyrus, whose name, and the manœuvre by
which the city was taken, were mentioned by Isaiah nearly two hundred
years before the event; which was also predicted by Jeremiah: “Go up, O
Elam, (or Persia,) besiege, O Media. The Lord hath raised up the spirit
of the kings of the Medes, for his device is against Babylon, to destroy
it.” The kings of Persia and Media, prompted by a common interest,
freely entered into a league against Babylon, and with one accord
entrusted the command of their united armies to Cyrus, the relative and
eventually the successor of them both.--But the taking of Babylon was
not reserved for these kingdoms alone: other nations had to be “prepared
against her.” “Set up a standard in the land; blow the trumpet among the
nations, prepare the nations against her, call together against her the
kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Aschenaz: Lo, I will raise and cause to
come up against Babylon an assembly of great nations from the north
country,” &c. Cyrus subdued the Armenians, who had revolted against
Media, spared their king, bound them over anew to their allegiance, by
kindness rather than by force, and incorporated their army with his
own.--“The mighty men of Babylon have foreborne to fight. They have
remained in their holds; their might hath failed, they became as women.”
So dispirited became its people, that Babylon, which had made the world
to tremble, was long besieged, without making any effort to drive off
the enemy. But, possessed of provisions for twenty years, which in their
timid caution they had plentifully stored, they derided Cyrus from their
impregnable walls, within which they remained. Their profligacy, their
wickedness and false confidence were unabated; they continued to live
carelessly in pleasures: and Babylon the great, unlike to many a small
fortress and unwalled town, made not one struggle to regain its freedom
or to be rid of the foe.--Much time having been lost, and no progress
being made in the siege, the anxiety of Cyrus was strongly excited, and
he was reduced to great perplexity, when at last it was suggested and
immediately determined to divert the course of the Euphrates. And while
the unconscious and reckless citizens were engaged in dancing and
merriment, the river was suddenly turned into the lake, the trench, and
the canals; and the Persians, both foot and horse, so soon as the
subsiding of the water permitted, entered by its channel, and were
followed by the allies in array, along the dry part of the river. “I
will dry up thy sea, and make thy springs dry. That saith to the deep,
Be dry, I will dry up thy rivers.”--One detachment was placed where the
river first enters the city, and another where it leaves it. And “one
post did run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to show
the king of Babylon that his city is taken at the end, and that the
passages are shut.” “They were taken,” says Herodotus, “by _surprise_;
and such is the extent of the city, that, as the inhabitants themselves
affirm, they who lived in the extremities were made prisoners before any
alarm was communicated to the centre of the place,” where the palace
stood. Thus a “snare was laid for Babylon, it was taken, and it was not
aware; it was found and also caught; for it had sinned against the Lord.
How is the praise of the whole earth surprised!”--“In their heat I will
make their feasts, and I will make them drunken, that they may rejoice
and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the Lord. I will bring
them down like lambs to the slaughter,” &c. “I will make drunken her
princes and her wise men, her captains and her rulers, and her mighty
men, and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep,” &c. Cyrus, as the night
drew on, stimulated his assembled troops to enter the city, because in
that night of general revel within the walls, many of them were asleep,
many drunk, and confusion universally prevailed. On passing, without
obstruction or hinderance, into the city, the Persians, slaying some,
putting others to flight, and joining with the revellers, as if
slaughter had been merriment, hastened by the shortest way to the
palace, and reached it ere yet a messenger had told the king that his
city was taken. The gates of the palace, which was strongly fortified,
were shut. The guards stationed before them, were _drinking_ beside a
blazing light, when the Persians rushed impetuously upon them. A louder
and altered clamour, no longer joyous, caught the ear of the inmates of
the palace, and the bright light showed them the work of destruction,
without revealing its cause. And not aware of the presence of an enemy
in the midst of Babylon, the king himself, (who had been roused from his
revelry by the hand writing on the wall,) excited by the warlike tumult
at the gates, commanded those within to examine from whence it arose;
and according to the same word, by which “the gates” (leading from the
river to the city) “were not shut, the loins of kings were loosed to
open before Cyrus the two-leaved gates” of the palace. The eager
Persians sprang in. “The king of Babylon heard the report of them;
anguish took hold of him;” he and all who were about him perished; God
had “numbered” his kingdom and finished it; it was “divided,” and given
to the Medes and Persians; the lives of the Babylonian princes, and
lords, and rulers, and captains, closed with that night’s festival; the
drunken slept “a perpetual sleep, and did not wake.”--“I will fill thee
with men as with caterpillars.” Not only did the Persian army enter with
ease as caterpillars, together with all the nations that had come up
against Babylon, but they seemed also as numerous. Cyrus, after the
capture of the city, made a great display of his cavalry in the presence
of the Babylonians, and in the midst of Babylon. Four thousand guards
stood before the palace gates, and two thousand on each side. These
advanced as Cyrus approached; two thousand spearmen followed them. These
were succeeded by four square masses of Persian cavalry, each consisting
of ten thousand men: and to these again were added, in their order, the
Median, Armenian, Hyrcanian, Caducian, and Sacian horsemen,--all, as
before, “riding upon horses, every man in array,”--with lines of
chariots, four abreast, concluding the train of the numerous hosts.
Cyrus afterward reviewed, at Babylon, the whole of his army, consisting
of one hundred and twenty thousand horse, two thousand chariots, and six
hundred thousand foot. Babylon, which was taken when not aware, and
within whose walls no enemy, except a captive, had been ever seen, was
thus “filled with men as with caterpillars,” as if there had not been a
wall around it. The Scriptures do not relate the manner in which Babylon
was taken, nor do they ever allude to the exact fulfilment of the
prophecies. But there is, in every particular, a strict coincidence
between the predictions of the prophets and the historical narratives,
both of Herodotus and Xenophon.