THE HISTORY OF PROPHECY. No. VII. THE PROPHECIES OF THE FALL OF BABYLON. THE prophet Isaiah lived and wrote, as we have already stated, in the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, or between the years 760 and 706 B. C. At this period, Babylon was, as described by him," the glory of kingdoms," "the golden city." And yet of this " queen of the whole earth" does he predict a terrible end, and against her does he denounce a long line of coming judgments. the Jeremiah prophesied in reign of Josiah, Jehoiakim, and Zedekiah, or between the years B. C. 629 and 588. His predictions are more full and distinct, but exactly concurrent with those of his predecessor. 1. Isaiah names the very individual before whom Babylon should fall. "Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to CYRUS, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him, and I will loose the loins of kings." Isaiah xlv. 1. This particular prediction is supposed to have been uttered about the year B. C. 708. Cyrus was not born until the year B. C. 600; and his conquests began about B. C. 550. He "subdued" the Hyrcanians, Syrians, Assyrians, Lydians, Phoenicians, and Babylonians, besides several smaller states, and various considerable tribes of barbarians. 2. The very time of the coming overthrow was also fixed, and with the greatest precision and exactness, by the prophet who succeeded Isaiah. Jeremiah, in his twenty-fifth chapter, written, as is expressly stated, in "the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon," or B. C. 606, has this prediction; "These nations,' DECEMBER 1833. -the Jews and their neighbours,“shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years; and it shall come to pass that when seventy years are accomplished, I will punish the king, of Babylon, and that nation, saith the Lord, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations.' Jer. xxv. 11, 12. And again, in his twenty-seventh chapter, the same prophet declares from God, "I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzer, king of Babylon; and all nations shall serve him, and his son, and his sons' son, until the very time of his land come, and then many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of him." Jer. xxvii. 6, 7. Here, then, we have the most minute and exact account of the future. Nebuchadnezzar had not yet quite conquered Judea ; but he did shortly after subdue it. That country, and all Syria, and the nations lying round about, were subjected to him, and his son EvilMerodach, and his grandson Belshazzar, until the very time of his land" came. That time was declared to be seventy years from the beginning of Nebuchadnezzar's reign. And accordingly, in the time of Belshazzar, his grandson, in the seventeenth year from the accession of Nebuchadnezzar, was Babylon taken, and the judgment began to be poured out upon Chaldea, which was to make her "perpetual desolations." 3. But the nation before whom Babylon was to fall is particularly described, as well as the individual conqueror. "I will stir up the Medes against them, which shall not regard silver; and as for gold, they shall 3 M an ། before their gates. They remained in their holds," and relied, in perfect inactivity, on the strength of Живть their walls for safety. 6 robgu, hopes not delight in it." Isa. xiii. 17. might failed; they became as Go up, O Elam, (Persia) besiege, women." Jer. li. 30. The hands O Media. The Lord hath raised up of the king of Babylon waxed the spirit of the kings of the Medes, feeble." Jer. I. 43. They befor his device is against Babylon held their foes surrounding their to destroy it." "I will raise and walls on every side, but they made cause to come up against Babylon, agnations from no sortie, or attack, nor attempted assembly of in any way to drive them from the north country." Jerem. 1. 9. Nothing can be more wonderfully accurate than this detailed description of the powers that should come against Babylon. First, we are told of the Medes, who, at the time of Isaiah's first prophecy, were not even a distinct people, but a mere tribe or province of the Assyrian empire. Then Elam, or Persia, is added; and lastly, we are told of an assembly of the nations of the north. And so it fell out, nearly two giving of this prophecy. Cyrus, the Persian, was the nephew and son-in-law of the king of Media, and he was appointed to the command of the united Median and Persian army against Babylon. And by his talent and ability he formed alliances with, subdued, or otherwise gained the aid of most of the northern nations in this expedition. He conquered the Armenians, and then incorporated their army with his own. received the Hyrcanians, who had rebelled against Babylon, into his alliance. In like manner, Lydia, Phrygia, and Cappadocia, previously tributaries of Babylon, were drawn or compelled into this confederacy, and thus nearly all the nations of the north were united to "come up against Babylon.". centuries after the He 4. When this vast armament approached Babylon, they ** encamped against it round about." Cyrus surrounded the city on every side, and rode round it to discover a point of attack, but without suc 5. Two years elapsed while the Babylonians remained in this state of inactivity, and Cyrus and his army lay still before the walls, but without making any progress in the siege. At last the plan of draining the Euphrates was devised, and complete success attended it. The prophets had each of them, very many years before, predicted this particular occurrence. drought is upon her waters, and they shall be dried up." I will dry up thy sea, and make thy springs dry." Jerem. 1. 36. That saith to the deep, be dry:-I will dry up thy rivers." Isa. xliv. 27. A great trench was dug round the walls on every side, so as to drain off the waters of the river, and to leave its channel as a passage into the city, through the midst of which one of its streams flowed. 6. But this plan must have failed, had the besieged been aware of it. Had the operations of Cyrus been understood, nothing would have been more easy and simple than to shut all the watergates, and then, manning the banks of the river, to have taken › the Persians as in a net. But it was foretold that the city should be taken unawares. snare was laid for Babylon: it was caught and was not aware; it was found and also caught, for it had sinned against the Lord! How is the praise of the whole earth surprized ?" cess. And the Babylonians be- Jerem. I. 24. put oured p haved just as had been predicted of them." They forbore to fight; They remained in their holds; their It was also expressly stated, how this surprize should take place Kas I will make them drunken, that mot 7. 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 one end, and that the passages are stopped." Jerem. li. 31. of One body of the Persians entered where the Euphrates flowed into the city, and another was posted where it left it. So that escape would have been impossible, even had the king had timely warning. But it was the memorable night of Belshazzar's feast. At the moment when Cyrus was preparing to enter the city, Daniel was explaining to the impious king the intent of the hand-writing on the wall. And the same night was Belshazzar slain, and Darius the Mede took the kingdom." Darius being the uncle of Cyrus, and the sovereign, whose armies he then commanded. fulfilled in the second siege, under Darius; when, in order to husband their provisions, they took their women and children, and each choosing one, strangled all the rest, that they might have no unnecessary mouths to consume their stores. This slaughter must have been immense, and from its peculiar nature might well deserve this special notice in the prediction. 10. " And I will punish Bel in Babylon, and I will bring forth out of his mouth that which he has swallowed up." "The days come. that I will do judgment upon the graven images of Babylon." Jerem. li. 44. Both the punishment, and the restitution, were as literally and exactly fulfilled as any of the former predictions. The vessels of the house of the Lord, which Bel had "swallowed up," were taken from him and restored to the Jews by Cyrus. (Ezra i. 7.) And Xerxes destroyed all the temples and idols of Babylon, and seized upon the sacred treasures; plundering the temple of Belus, according to Diodorus Siculus, of wealth equal to twenty-one millions of our money. 11. Many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of thee." Jer. xxv. 14. After the conquest of Babylon by Cyrus, this great and splendid city seemed like a prey, lying helpless and ready for every one that came against her. Again besieged and taken by a later Darius, it was rifled by Xerxes of treasures of vast amount; Alexander, the Great, Seleucus, Demetrius, and Antiochus, all fell upon Babylon and Chaldea as upon a helpless victim. The fertile territory which belonged to it, indeed, was made tributary, long after the city had fallen into decay, by the Romans, the Saracens, the Turks, and the Tartars, to an extent perhaps unparalleled,jud best ag 18 baved 12. None shall return in vain. Chaldea shall be a spoil; The treasures which fell into the hands of the Persians, were beyond conception. But the prediction was not fulfilled by this single conquest. Alexander, many years after, found such spoil as to be able to bestow large donations, from £5. to £15. each, upon every soldier in his army. Demetrius gave up the country to his troops, allowing them free booty. At a later period the command of this province was the golden prize most coveted by the Roman generers, and many of them enriched themselves to an almost incredible extent by the plunder of Chaldea. Ctesiphon, Seleucia, Perisabor, and Bagdad, arose in succeeding centuries, in the neighbourhood of Babylon, and each in its turn yielded a rich booty to the spoiler. In the second century Ctesiphon was pillaged by the soldiers of the emperor Marcus. In the fourth, Julian destroyed Perisabor, and the spoil,' says Gibbon, was such as might be expected from the riches and luxury of an oriental camp: large quantities of silver and gold, splendid arms and trappings, and beds and tables of massy silver.' Heraclius, two centuries later, swept over Chaldea, and though much of the treasure had been removed, and much had been expended, the remaining wealth appears to have exceeded their hopes, and even to have satiated their avarice. And when the Moslems, still later, sacked the palace of Chosroes, the same historian tells us, that the naked robbers of the desert were suddenly enriched beyond the measure of their hope or knowledge.' The gold and silver surpassed the estimate of fancy or numbers. And even to the present day, the gleanings of scattered treasure attract many to the ruins which cover Chaldea, and they never faili of success. So true to the present moment has proved the prediction, "None shall return in vain: all that spoil her shall be satisfied." 13. "I will punish the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations Jerem. XXV. 12. I will cut off the sower from Babylon, and him that handleth the sickle in time of harvest. Her cities are a desol lation, a dry land and a wils derness, a land where no man dwelleth, neither doth son of man pass thereby. I will send into Babylon fanners that shall fan her, and empty her land. Every purpose of the Lord shall be pers formed against Babylon, to make the land of Babylon a desolation without an inhabitant." Jerem. li. 2, 29, 43. " it too hot to walk over with any degree of comfort. And Rich calls it a bare desert, Ja flat and barren country.' Fable) * 3014 Cast her up as heaps, de stroy her utterly." Jer. 1. 26. So exactly has this been fulfilled, that the greatest wonder of every traveller who visits the spot, arises from the immense heaps of ruins which cover the face of the country. Sir R. Porter tells us, that immense tumuli of temples, palaces, and human habitations of every description,' present themselves on all sides, rather resembling natural hills, than mounds which cover the remains of great and splendid edifices." Rich speaks of a vast succession of mounds of rubbish.' And Mignan tells us that irregular hillocks and mounds, formed over masses of ruins, present at every step memorials of the past.' And Keppel's language is, Vast heaps constitute all that now remains of ancient Babylon.' But then, the Euphrates, never being restored to its course, over flows at this moment, the surrounding country, and turns fertile lands into morasses, and the little valleys into pools of water. Then, again, this derangement of the admirable system of irrigation to which Chaldea owed its ancient fertility, covers the greater part of the province with drought and barrenness. Captain Mignan crossed, in a single day, forty water-courses; a fact which evinces the admirable cultivation of the country in former days. But he now found the whole country a "desert wild,' with the very ground almost too hot to allow of travelling. So exactly in all points have these apparently conflicting pro phecies been fulfilled, not one jot or tittle falling to the ground." 16. Wild beasts of the desert shall lie there, and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures. |