Isa 13:19-20, 14:23-24, 46:10-11, Jer 50:13, 39-40, 45, 51:11-12, 43, 62-64 | TSK | STEP | Babylon.Babylon, whose destruction and utter ruin are here predicted, was situated in the midst of a large plain, having a very deep and fruitful soil, on the Euphrates, about 252 miles south-east of Palmyra, and the same distance north-west of Susa and the Persian gulf, in lat. 32 degrees 30' N. and long. 44 degrees 20' E. According to Herodotus, it formed a perfect square, each side of which was 120 stadia, and consequently its circumference 480 stadia, or sixty miles; inclosed by a wall 200 cubits high, and fifty wide, on the top of which were small watch towers of one story high, leaving a space between them, through which a chariot and four might pass and turn. On each side were twenty-five gates of solid brass; from each of which proceeded a street, 150 feet broad, making in all fifty streets; which, crossing each other at right angles, intersected the city into 676 squares, extending four stadia and a half on each side, along which stood the houses, all built three or four stories high, and highly decorated towards the street; the interior of these squares being employed as gardens, pleasure grounds, etc. Its principal ornaments were the temple of Belus, having a tower of eight stories, upon a base of a quarter of a mile square; a most magnificent palace; and the famous hanging gardens, or artificial mountains raised upon arches, and planted with large and beautiful trees. Cyrus took it by diverting the waters of the Euphrates, which ran through the midst, and entering by the channel; and the river being never restored to its proper course, overflowed the whole country, and made it a morass. Darius Hystaspes afterwards depopulated the place, lowered the walls, and demolished the gates; Xerxes destroyed the temples; the building of Seleucia nearly exhausted it of its inhabitants; a king of the Parthians carried a number of them into slavery, and destroyed the most beautiful parts; so that modern travellers describe it as a mass of shapeless ruins, the habitation of wild beasts. when God overthrow. Heb. the overthrowing of.

Isaiah 13:19-20

Babylon.Babylon, whose destruction and utter ruin are here predicted, was situated in the midst of a large plain, having a very deep and fruitful soil, on the Euphrates, about 252 miles south-east of Palmyra, and the same distance north-west of Susa and the Persian gulf, in lat. 32 degrees 30' N. and long. 44 degrees 20' E. According to Herodotus, it formed a perfect square, each side of which was 120 stadia, and consequently its circumference 480 stadia, or sixty miles; inclosed by a wall 200 cubits high, and fifty wide, on the top of which were small watch towers of one story high, leaving a space between them, through which a chariot and four might pass and turn. On each side were twenty-five gates of solid brass; from each of which proceeded a street, 150 feet broad, making in all fifty streets; which, crossing each other at right angles, intersected the city into 676 squares, extending four stadia and a half on each side, along which stood the houses, all built three or four stories high, and highly decorated towards the street; the interior of these squares being employed as gardens, pleasure grounds, etc. Its principal ornaments were the temple of Belus, having a tower of eight stories, upon a base of a quarter of a mile square; a most magnificent palace; and the famous hanging gardens, or artificial mountains raised upon arches, and planted with large and beautiful trees. Cyrus took it by diverting the waters of the Euphrates, which ran through the midst, and entering by the channel; and the river being never restored to its proper course, overflowed the whole country, and made it a morass. Darius Hystaspes afterwards depopulated the place, lowered the walls, and demolished the gates; Xerxes destroyed the temples; the building of Seleucia nearly exhausted it of its inhabitants; a king of the Parthians carried a number of them into slavery, and destroyed the most beautiful parts; so that modern travellers describe it as a mass of shapeless ruins, the habitation of wild beasts.

14:4-6,12-15; Jer 51:41; Da 2:37,38; 4:30

when God overthrow. Heb. the overthrowing of.

Ge 19:24; De 29:23; Jer 49:18; 50:40; Zep 2:9

14:23; Jer 50:3,13,21,39,45; 51:25,29,43,62-64; Re 18:21-23

Isaiah 14:23-24

make.

13:21,22; 34:11-15; Jer 50:39,40; 51:42,43; Zep 2:14; Re 14:8

Re 18:2,21-23

I will sweep.

1Ki 14:10; 2Ki 21:13; Jer 51:25,26

Lord.

Ex 17:16; Ps 110:4; Jer 44:26; Am 8:7; Heb 4:3; 6:16-18

Surely.

46:10,11; Job 23:13; Ps 33:10; 92:5; Pr 19:21; 21:30; Jer 23:20

Jer 29:11; La 3:37; Mt 11:25; Ac 4:28; Eph 1:9

Isaiah 46:10-11

the end.

41:22,23; 44:7; 45:21; Ge 3:15; 12:2,3; 49:10,22-26; Nu 24:17-24

De 4:24-31; 28:15-68; Ac 15:18

My counsel.

11; 43:13; Ps 33:11; 135:6; Pr 19:21; 21:30; Da 4:35; Ac 3:23

Ac 4:27,28; 5:39; Ro 11:33,34; Eph 1:9-11; Heb 6:17

Calling.

13:2-4; 21:7-9; 41:2,25; 45:1-6; Jer 50:29; 51:20-29

a ravenous bird.Or, "an eagle," a very proper emblem for Cyrus, says Bp. Lowth, as in other respects, so particularly because the ensign of Cyrus was a golden eagle, [aetos chrusous,] the very word {ayit,} which the prophet uses here, expressed as near as may be in Greek letters.

Eze 39:4

the man.

44:28; 45:13; 48:14,15; Ezr 1:2; Ps 76:10; Ac 4:28

that executeth my counsel. Heb. of my counsel.

Ps 119:24; *marg:

I have spoken.

14:24-27; 38:15; Nu 23:19; Job 23:13; Jer 50:45; Ac 5:39; Eph 1:11

Eph 3:11

Jeremiah 50:13

Because.

Zec 1:15

every.

18:16; 19:8; 25:12; 49:17; 51:37; Job 27:23; Isa 14:4-17; La 2:15,16

Hab 2:6-18; Zep 2:15

Jeremiah 50:39-40

12,13; 25:12; 51:26,37,38,43,62-64; Isa 13:20-22; 14:23; 34:11-17

Re 18:2,21-24

49:18; 51:26; Ge 19:24,25; De 29:23; Isa 1:9; 13:19,20; Ho 11:8,9

Am 4:11; Zep 2:9; Lu 17:28-30; 2Pe 2:6; Jude 1:7; Re 11:8; 18:8,9

Jeremiah 50:45

hear.

51:10,11; Ps 33:10,11; Isa 14:24-27; 46:10,11; Ac 4:28; Eph 1:11

Re 17:16,17

the least.

37:10; 49:20

surely he.We have already adverted to the completion of the prophecies respecting the final destruction of Babylon, (on Isa 13:18,) and shall only add a few more observations, in order to shew more clearly the full accomplishment of some of these predictions. Strabo says that in his time (about the Christian era) a great part of it was a desert. Jerome says that in his time (cir. A.D. 340) it was quite in ruins, the walls merely serving for an inclosure for wild beasts, for the hunting of the kings of Parthia: and modern travellers universally concur in describing it in a state of utter desolation, and the habitation of wild beasts and noxious reptiles.

Jeremiah 51:11-12

Make.

46:4,9; 50:9,14,25,28,29; Isa 21:5

bright. Heb. pure. the Lord hath.

27,28; 1Ki 11:14,23; 1Ch 5:26; 2Ch 36:22; Ezr 1:1; Isa 10:26; 13:17

Isa 13:18; 21:2; 41:25; 45:1,5; 46:11; Re 17:16,17

the spirit.Of Cyaxares king of Media, called "Darius the Mede" in scripture; and of Cyrus his nephew, king of persia, presumptive heir of the throne of his uncle.

his device.

12,29; 50:45

the vengeance.

24,35; 50:15,28; Ps 74:3-11; 83:3-9; Hab 2:17-20; Zec 12:2,3

Zec 14:2,12

the standard.

46:3-5; Pr 21:30; Isa 8:9,10; 13:2; Joe 3:2,9-14; Na 2:1; 3:14,15

ambushes. Heb. liers in wait.

Jos 8:14

the Lord hath both.

11,29; La 2:17

Jeremiah 51:43

cities.

29,37; 50:39,40

a land.

2:6; Isa 13:20; Eze 29:10,11

Jeremiah 51:62-64

to cut.

25,26,29,37; 50:3,13,39,40; Isa 13:19-22; 14:22,23; Re 18:20-23

desolation. Heb. desolations.

25:9,12; Eze 35:9

thou shalt bind.This was the emblem of its overthrow and irretrievable ruin; and the same emblem is employed in Re 18:21, to denote the utter ruin of mystical Babylon.

19:10,11; Re 18:21

Thus shall.

42; 25:27; Na 1:8,9; Re 14:8; 18:2,21

they shall.

58; Hab 2:13; Ps 76:12

Thus far.

Job 31:40; Ps 72:20