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Babylon

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Events

1. c. 1894 BCSumu-abum founds the First Dynasty of Babylon
2. c. 1792 BCHammurabi becomes king of Babylon
3. c. 1595 BCThe Hittites sack Babylon, ending Hammurabi's dynasty
4. c. 1225 BCTukulti-Ninurta I of Assyria takes Babylon and carries off Marduk's statue
5. c. 1126 BCNebuchadnezzar I, who brought Marduk's statue back from Elam, becomes king of Babylon
6. 721 BCMerodach-baladan takes the throne of Babylon
7. 689 BCSennacherib destroys Babylon
8. 648 BCAshurbanipal takes Babylon after the revolt of his brother Shamash-shum-ukin
9. 626 BCNabopolassar becomes king of Babylon
10. 605 BCNebuchadnezzar II becomes king of Babylon
11. c. 575 BCNebuchadnezzar builds the Ishtar Gate of Babylon
12. 561 BCEvil-merodach releases Jehoiachin from prison
13. 556 BCNabonidus becomes king of Babylon
14. 539 BCCyrus takes Babylon
15. 538 BCCyrus lets the exiles return
16. 323 BCAlexander the Great dies at Babylon
17. c. 312 BCSeleucus I regains Babylon; the Seleucid era begins

In ancient writers

• Herodotus, Histories 1.178–183 — Babylon is a square city on a plain, sixty miles around, ringed by a deep moat and a huge wall; in one of its two halves stands the sanctuary of Zeus Belus with a tower of eight stages climbed by an outer spiral path.
• Strabo, Geography 16.1.5 — In Strabo's day Babylon was largely deserted, so that the comic line about Megalopolis, the great city is a great desert, fitted it; for lack of timber, beams and pillars were of palm wood and the houses vaulted.
• Cyrus Cylinder, Akkadian inscription, lines 15–18 — Cyrus claims Marduk led him into Babylon without a battle, delivered Nabonidus into his hands, and that all Babylon and the land of Sumer and Akkad kissed his feet and rejoiced at his kingship.

Questions

• When did the Jews return from Babylon?
• Where was Babylon?

History

Babylon lay on the Euphrates in southern Mesopotamia, about 85 km south of modern Baghdad, beside today's Hillah. It first appears as a small town on a tablet of the Akkadian king Shar-kali-sharri in the twenty-third century BC. Its rise came with the First Dynasty of Babylon: Hammurabi (1792–1750 BC in the middle chronology) united southern Mesopotamia and made the city its capital. In 1595 BC the Hittite king Mursili I sacked it, and Kassite kings then ruled Babylonia for about four centuries.

In Genesis, Babel is among the first cities of Nimrod's kingdom and the place of the tower whose builders were scattered. Under Assyrian rule Babylon often rebelled; its king Merodach-baladan sent envoys to Hezekiah, and in 689 BC Sennacherib destroyed the city. Nabopolassar, who became king there in 626 BC, founded the Neo-Babylonian kingdom, and his son Nebuchadnezzar (605–562 BC) rebuilt Babylon with double walls, palaces, the Ishtar Gate and the ziggurat Etemenanki. Exiles from Judah were brought here in 597 and in 587 or 586 BC; tablets from the royal palace list rations for Jehoiachin, king of Judah, whom the Bible also places at the Babylonian court.

In 539 BC Cyrus of Persia took Babylon, as the Nabonidus Chronicle and the Cyrus Cylinder record, and the Book of Ezra opens with his decree letting the exiles return. The Book of Daniel sets the feast of Belshazzar in the city. Babylon remained a royal residence of the Persian kings. Alexander the Great entered it in 331 BC and died in Nebuchadnezzar's palace in 323 BC.

After Seleucus founded Seleucia on the Tigris about 305 BC, people and trade drained away from Babylon, though its temple scholars went on writing astronomical texts in cuneiform into the first century AD. When Trajan came in AD 116, he found mostly mounds and ruins. In Revelation, Babylon became the name of the proud world power that falls. By late antiquity the once great city was a minor place.

Scripture: Gen 10:10; Gen 11:1–9; 2 Kgs 20:12–13; 2 Kgs 24:10–16; 2 Kgs 25:8–11; 2 Kgs 25:27–30; Ezra 1:1–4; Dan 5:1–30; Rev 18:1–24

Checked against its sources; not yet read by a historian.

Verses (296)

2 Kgs 17:24

And the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel: and they possessed Samaria, and dwelt in the cities thereof.

2 Kgs 17:30

And the men of Babylon made Succoth-benoth, and the men of Cuth made Nergal, and the men of Hamath made Ashima,

2 Kgs 20:12

At that time Berodach-baladan, the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present unto Hezekiah: for he had heard that Hezekiah had been sick.

2 Kgs 20:14

Then came Isaiah the prophet unto king Hezekiah, and said unto him, What said these men? and from whence came they unto thee? And Hezekiah said, They are come from a far country, even from Babylon.

2 Kgs 20:17

Behold, the days come, that all that is in thine house, and that which thy fathers have laid up in store unto this day, shall be carried into Babylon: nothing shall be left, saith the LORD.

2 Kgs 20:18

And of thy sons that shall issue from thee, which thou shalt beget, shall they take away; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.

2 Kgs 24:1

In his days Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up, and Jehoiakim became his servant three years: then he turned and rebelled against him.

2 Kgs 24:7

And the king of Egypt came not again any more out of his land: for the king of Babylon had taken from the river of Egypt unto the river Euphrates all that pertained to the king of Egypt.

2 Kgs 24:10

At that time the servants of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up against Jerusalem, and the city was besieged.

2 Kgs 24:11

And Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came against the city, and his servants did besiege it.

2 Kgs 24:12

And Jehoiachin the king of Judah went out to the king of Babylon, he, and his mother, and his servants, and his princes, and his officers: and the king of Babylon took him in the eighth year of his reign.

2 Kgs 24:15

And he carried away Jehoiachin to Babylon, and the king’s mother, and the king’s wives, and his officers, and the mighty of the land, those carried he into captivity from Jerusalem to Babylon.

2 Kgs 24:16

And all the men of might, even seven thousand, and craftsmen and smiths a thousand, all that were strong and apt for war, even them the king of Babylon brought captive to Babylon.

2 Kgs 24:17

And the king of Babylon made Mattaniah his father’s brother king in his stead, and changed his name to Zedekiah.

2 Kgs 24:20

For through the anger of the LORD it came to pass in Jerusalem and Judah, until he had cast them out from his presence, that Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.

2 Kgs 25:1

And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he, and all his host, against Jerusalem, and pitched against it; and they built forts against it round about.

2 Kgs 25:6

So they took the king, and brought him up to the king of Babylon to Riblah; and they gave judgment upon him.

2 Kgs 25:7

And they slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and put out the eyes of Zedekiah, and bound him with fetters of brass, and carried him to Babylon.

2 Kgs 25:8

And in the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month, which is the nineteenth year of king Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, came Nebuzar-adan, captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, unto Jerusalem:

2 Kgs 25:11

Now the rest of the people that were left in the city, and the fugitives that fell away to the king of Babylon, with the remnant of the multitude, did Nebuzar-adan the captain of the guard carry away.

2 Kgs 25:13

And the pillars of brass that were in the house of the LORD, and the bases, and the brasen sea that was in the house of the LORD, did the Chaldees break in pieces, and carried the brass of them to Babylon.

2 Kgs 25:20

And Nebuzar-adan captain of the guard took these, and brought them to the king of Babylon to Riblah:

2 Kgs 25:21

And the king of Babylon smote them, and slew them at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah was carried away out of their land.

2 Kgs 25:22

And as for the people that remained in the land of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had left, even over them he made Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, ruler.

2 Kgs 25:23

And when all the captains of the armies, they and their men, heard that the king of Babylon had made Gedaliah governor, there came to Gedaliah to Mizpah, even Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and Johanan the son of Careah, and Seraiah the son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, and Jaazaniah the son of a Maachathite, they and their men.

2 Kgs 25:24

And Gedaliah sware to them, and to their men, and said unto them, Fear not to be the servants of the Chaldees: dwell in the land, and serve the king of Babylon; and it shall be well with you.

2 Kgs 25:27

And it came to pass in the seven and thirtieth year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, that Evil-merodach king of Babylon in the year that he began to reign did lift up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah out of prison;

2 Kgs 25:28

And he spake kindly to him, and set his throne above the throne of the kings that were with him in Babylon;

2 Kgs 25:29

And changed his prison garments: and he did eat bread continually before him all the days of his life.

1 Chr 9:1

So all Israel were reckoned by genealogies; and, behold, they were written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah, who were carried away to Babylon for their transgression.

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