"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." 40 The city was taken on the day of a great yearly festival when the inhabitants gave themselves to pleasures, riot, and debauchery. Herodotus says the farther part of the city was taken and in the hands of the enemy before those who lived in the center suspected any danger. How could any one predict such remarkable events and strange circumstances unless God revealed them to him ? The Lord had also foretold who should lay siege to Babylon and overthrow the kingdom. "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, to open before him the two-leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut; I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron." 41 One hunCyrus had Thus wrote the prophet Isaiah B. C. 712. dred and seventy four years later, B. C. 538, taken Babylon after a siege of two years. By patient work and incredible exertions, he succeeded in turning the course of the river Euphrates by digging an immense trench around the city. When the river was fordable, the soldiers marched through the old river channel in the night. At the same time the Babylonians felt so secure and were so exceedingly careless that they had left the brazen gates in the great walls on both sides of the river open. Thus they made it possible for the Persians to enter the city. Xenophon says that when the Persians had surrounded the palace, some of the guests ran to the door to find out the cause of the noise outside. in and gained an easy victory. Then the Persians rushed who came, sword in hand, with his companions, they killed 40 Jer. 51: 39. 41 Isa. 45: I, 2. him and his men. The first thing done afterward by the victorious Persians was to give thanks to the gods that they had been able at last to punish that wicked kingdom. So exactly history agrees with the prophecy. Ruins of Babylon. After the vain attempt of Alexander to rebuild Babylon, the city declined more and more. Jerome writes that he made a visit to Babylon in his day (the fourth century of the Christian era), and that the Persian king at that time used the ruins as a park for wild animals. Benjamin of Tudela, a Jew, says in his notice of travel in the twelfth century: "The ancient Babylon is now desolate; yet the ruins from the palace of Nebuchadnezzar may still be seen. The people are afraid to enter the ruins on account of numerous poisonous serpents and scorpions who make it their abode." A German traveler, Mr. Rauwolf, who went that way. in 1574, says: "This country is so dry and barren that it cannot be plowed, and so desolate that if I had not known it from the position and the few remnants of great beauty which were left, I would never have believed that the mighty city, which once was the mightiest and most renowned city in all the world, and was situated in the pleasant and fruitful land of Shinar, ever had been found in this place." This author says that the place where the ruins of Babylon are found is dry, while others state that they found pools of water. This is not difficult to understand when we remember that the ruins are found in a tract of country many miles in circumference. A portion of this land is dry, while in the lower portions the water gathers, forming large pools of water. The ruins of the tower of Babel may be plainly recognized. They are about half a mile in diameter, but they are so decayed and full of poisonous animals that no per The son dare venture to proceed nearer than half a mile. river Euphrates, having been disturbed in its course, a large portion of the plain where Babylon stood has been turned into pools and swamps, thus fulfilling the words of the prophets : "For I will rise up against them saith the Lord of hosts, and cut off from Babylon the name, and remnant, and 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." 42 Later years so many bricks with arrow-headed inscriptions have been dug out, and slabs found with inscriptions in different languages explaining each other, that the learned have been enabled to read the arrow-headed inscriptions, many of which confirm the Bible history. A small town, Hilla, containing about five thousand Arabians, is found among the extensive ruins. On one of the bricks the following inscription is found: "The palace of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babel, who built this high house; he who walked in godliness before his lords, Nebo and Merodach, a son of Nabopolassar, king of Babel." About Tyre, once the greatest commercial city on the earth, the prophet says: "And they shall destroy the walls of Tyrus, and break down her towers: I will also scrape her dust from her, and make her like the top of a rock. It shall be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord God." 43 And where Tyre once stood, we now find a naked rock. But of Babylon it was written that wild beasts of the desert should lie there, and that the ruins should be full of doleful creatures," and this has also been literally fulfilled. Verily,. men cannot make known the things to come, but there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets. He has made known what shall be in the latter days. 45 42 Isa. 14: 22, 23. 44 Isa. 13: 21. 43 Eze. 26: 4, 5. 45 Dan. 2: 28. CHAPTER II. THE TEN PARTS OF THE FOURTH KINGDOM. HEN we look upon the ancient monarchies in the WH light of prophecy, they are generally spoken of only from the time when they are presented in prophecy standing before the people of God as an oppressing or persecuting power. Thus we speak of the kingdom of Babylon from the time Manasseh was carried captive to Babylon B. C. 677 by the Assyrian king, Esarhaddon. Among the Assyrian stones with writing, one has been found written by King Esarhaddon. He says that among other kings in the West who had to acknowledge his supremacy was also one by the name of Minasisi, Sar Jahudi, that is, Manasseh, king of Judah. Some count the reign of Babylon in prophecy from the time Nebuchadnezzar ascended the throne B. c. 606 (according to the chronology of the Jews). Persia, the second universal monarchy, is spoken of from B. C. 538, when Cyrus took Babylon. The third kingdom, Greece, from 331, when Alexander conquered Persia; and Rome, the fourth universal monarchy, from B. c. 161, when the Jews entered into a league with the Romans. In B. C. 63 Jerusalem was taken by Pompey, and became a Roman province. A Divided Kingdom. Of the fourth kingdom the prophet says that it should be divided. In the image this is shown by the feet and toes being part of potters' clay and part of iron. He gives a very minute description of the toes thereby indicating that their history forms no small part of the history of the world. "And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters' clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay. And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken. And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay." 1 Some of these parts of the fourth kingdom should be strong as iron; others should be weak or brittle like clay. They should try to become united by marriage alliances, but these attempts should not succeed. Attempts to Unite the Divided Parts by Marriage Alliances. As an instance of this may be mentioned what is stated in history of Theodoric, the mighty king of the Ostrogoths. He himself married Audofleda, a sister of Clovis, king of the Franks. One of his daughters, Theudigoth, married Alaric II, king of the Visigoths. The other, Ostrogoth, married Sigismund, son of Gundobad, king of the Burgundians. Thrasamund, king of the Vandals, had married Theodoric's sister Amalafrida, and her daughter Amalaberg married the Thuringian king Herminfried. 2 Here is mentioned no less than five of the toes which were united by marriage alliances; to wit, the Ostrogoths, Franks, Visigoths, Burgundians, and Vandals. Theodoric thus gained great influence. Yet these kingdoms were never united. Dissolution of the Fourth Kingdom. Constantine the Great chose Byzantium for his capital. In 330 he made it the capital of the Roman Empire and 1 Dan. 2: 41-43. 2 Wallis's "History of the World," book iii, p. 9. |