Herodotus, p. 353.); and he prefers the | The magnificence and splendour of Babylon, after its enlargement and improvement by Nebuchadnezzar, when it became one of the wonders of the world, is well expressed by his arrogant boast: "Is not this great Babylon, which I have built for the house [or capital] of my kingdom, by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty?" (Dan. iv. 30) It contained many streets, adorned with houses, three or four stories high; and these furnished with spacious parks and gardens. Among its curiosities, the most celebrated were, 1. The tower and temple of Belus, on the western side of the Euphrates, which ran through the centre of the city, from north to south; 2. The strong and spacious palace of Nebuchadnezzar, which formed the citadel; and, 3. The hanging gardens. 1. The tower of Belus was of a pyramidal form, somewhat loftier, but less massy, than the pyramids of Egypt. It consisted of eight stories, of which the lowest was a stadium in breadth (or 500 feet), and it rose to the some altitude. On the summit, according to Diodorus, was erected a statue of Belus, 40 feet high: but Herodotus, when he visited Babylon, found no statute there. This intelligent, traveller, however, was informed by the Chaldæans, that there formerly stood in the temple of Belus adjoining a statue of solid gold, twelve cubits high, which was spared by Darius Hystaspes, but afterwards was taken away by Xerxes, who slew the priest that forbade him to remove it.2 Might not this have been the identical " golden image," made by Nebuchadnezzar, in all the pride of conquest, which he set up as an object of idolatrous worship to his subjects, recorded by the prophet Daniel? (iii. I.) It was evidently distinct from the statue or image of Jupiter Belus, noticed by Herodotus and Didorus; and was designed to represent Nebuchadnezzar himself or the genius of his empire, according to Jerome, supported by Daniel :-" Thou art this head of gold." (Dan. ii. 38.) This arrogant monarch, having made not only the head, but the whole image of gold, prefiguring the stability and permancy of his empire, in opposition to the succession of the four monarchies, signified by the image, in his dream compounded of various metals. And the height of the image, twelve cubits, mentioned by the Chaldæans, well accorded with the breadth, "six 1 See Rennel's Map of Babylon, p. 335. Both the tower and the temple of Belus (the former of which probably stood on the site of the tower of Babel, Gen. xi. 4.) were enclosed within a square court of two stadia in length, having gates of brass, which were still subsisting in the tune of Herodotus. It fronted, probably, the middle eastern gate of Belus. cubits," noticed in Scripture (perhaps, | walls, eleven feet asunder, and 50 cuwith the arms extended). For the bits high, commanding an extensive height, "sixty cubits," being evidently view over the walls. Trees of various disproportionate to its breadth, must kinds were planted therein, some of have included the elevation of the pil- considerable size; not less than eight lar, or pedestal on which it stood. cubits in girth, according to Curtius. And Strabo mentions a contrivance to prevent the large roots from injuring the superstructure, by building vast hollow piers, which were filled with earth to receive them. These trees, modern travellers inform us, have been perpetuated in the same place, notwithstanding the sinking of the terraces, by the mouldering of the piers that supported them. And Nicbuhr observed there trees of particular kind, some very antient, which have been left untouched by the inhabitants; whereas, from the Gulf of Persia to that neighourhood, no other kinds are to be found than date and fruit trees.2 2. The royal palace and citadel were spacious, and strongly fortified. The former was a square of five stadia in circuit. It was contiguous to the citadel, called by Berosus, "Borsippon," and by Strabo, "Borsippa," which was a square of 15 stadia. These names are evidently derived from the Punic, "Byrsa, or Bursa;" or from the Hebrew, "Bosrah;" all signifying "a fortress:" and they are still retained, with some slight variation, by the natives: for Niebuhr observed a ruin on the west side of the river, which his guide called Birs; where, according to the tradition of the country, formerly stood Nimrod's palace.1 3. The celebrated hanging gardens, also contiguous to the royal palace, were built by Nebuchadnezzar to gratify his wife, who was a native of Media, a mountainous country, with the resemblance of her own, in the level country of Babylon. According to Diodorus, they formed a square of 400 feet (about 3 acres) supported by 20 The Scriptures are totally silent concerning these celebrated gardens: but they mention the willows which were planted on the banks of the rivers of Babylon. Isaiah (xv. 7.) describing in prophetic language the captivity of the Moabites by Nebuchadnezzar,says, that they shall be carried away to the valley of willows. The territory surrounding the ruins of antient Babylon is, at present, composed chiefly of plains, whose soil is rich, and the river banks are still hoary with reeds, and covered with the grey ozier willows, on which the captives of Israel suspended their harps, and refused to be comforted, while their conquerors tauntingly commanded them to sing the songs of Sion.3 "By the waters of Babylon we sat down and wept, We hanged our harps upon the willows, In the midst thereof. For there, They that carried us away captive required of us Mirth. Sing us one of the songs of Sion.' How shall we sing THE LORD's song in a strange land?" 1 Tom. ii. p. 236. 2 Dr. Hales's Analysis of Chronology, vol. i. pp. 453 456. 3 Sir R. K. Porter's Travels in Georgia, Persia, &c. vol. ii. p. 297. 4 In Eusibius De Præp. Evang. lib. ix. c. 41. The name of Babylon was mystically given to Rome by the Apostle Peter, as we have shown at length in the critical preface to his first Epistle. Sketch of the History of the Babylonian or Chaldæan Empire, to illustrate the Predictions of the Prophets. A. M. 3398, b. c. 606. Nabopolassar having associated his son Nebuchadnezzar with him in the empire, sent him to reduce the provinces of Syria and Palestine, which had revolted from him. In his way thither, the young prince defeated the army of Pharaoh Necho king of Egypt and recaptured Carchemish. (Jer. xlvi. 2.) Having penetrated into Judæa, he besieged Jerusalem, and took it; and caused Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah king of Judah, to be put in chains, intending to have him carried to Babylon; but, being moved with his repentance and affliction, he restored him to his throne. (2 Chron. xxxvi. 6.) Great numbers of the Jews, and, among the rest, some children of the royal fami broke down the walls, and took away the gates, which Cyrus had spared. Alexander the Great designed to rebuild the temple of Belus, which had gone to decay; and actually employed ten thousand labourers for two months in removing the rubbish; but the attempt was rendered abortive, by his premature death, in the flower of his age, and pride of conquest. Seleucus Nicator, his successor in the kingdom of Syria, dismantled and spoiled Babylon, to build Seleucia in its neighbourhood, to which he transplanted the inhabitants; and in Strabo's time, about the Christian era, "the greater part of Babylon was become a desert;" which the Parthian kings converted into a park, where they took the recreation of hunting, in Jerome's time, A. D. 340. Thus were gradually fulfilled the predictions of Scripture :"Babylon, the beauty of kingdoms, the glory of the pride of the Chaldæans, shall become as Sodom and Gomorrah, which God overthrew. It shall never be re-established, neither shall it bely, were carried captive to Babylon, inhabited from generation to generation. The Arab shall not pitch his tent there, nor shall the shepherd make his fold there: the wild beasts of the desert shall lie there, and howl-complished the judgment which God ing monsters shall fill their houses:for her time is near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged." (Isaiah xiii. 17-23.)1 The remains of antient Babylon, as described by recent travellers, are so vast, that the whole could never be suspected of having been the work of human hands, were it not for the layers of bricks, which are found therein. They are firebaked, and cemented with zepht, or bitumen; between each layer are found oziers. Here are found those large and thick bricks imprinted with unknown characters, specimens of which are preserved in the British Muscum, in the Museum of the EastIndia Company, and in other depositories of antiquities. The composition of these bricks corresponds exactly with the account, given by the sacred historian of the builders of Babel. Let us make brick (said they), and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar. (Gen. xi. 3.) whither all the royal treasures, and part of the sacred vessels of the temple, were likewise transported. (2 Chron. xxxvi. 7. Dan. i. 1-7.) Thus was ac had denounced to Hezekiah by the prophet Isaiah (xxxix. 5-7.) From this celebrated period, which was the fourth year of Jehoiakim king of Judah, we are to date the seventy years captivity of the Jews at Babylon, so often foretold by Jeremiah. Among the members of the royal family thus taken captives was the prophet Daniel; Ezekiel followed some time afterwards. A. M. 3399, B. c. 605. Nabopolassar died, and Nebuchadnezzar began to reign alone; and in the fourth year of his empire he had the memorable vision related and interpreted by the prophet Daniel. (ii.) At this time Jehoiakim revolted from the king of Babylon, whose generals marched against him, and ravaged his country. (2 Kings xxiv. 1, 2.) Jehoiakim "slept with his fathers," neither regretted nor lamented by his subjects, agreeably to the prediction of Jeremiah (xxii. 18, 19.); though the precise manner of its fulfilment is not recorded by the sacred 1 For an account of the present state of the Ruins of antient Babylon, see Mr. Rich's Two Memoirs on the Ruins of Babylon, and particularly Sir R. K. Porter's Travels in Georgia, Persia, &c. vol. ii. pp. 308-332, 337-400; where the reader will find several beautiful views and plans of the ruins of the antient tower of Babel, as well as Babylon itself. of profane historians) was put to death After his return from these success- historian. Jehoiachin or Jeconiah, also | Ezek. xxvi.-xxviii. Obad. through- A. M. 3419, B. c. 585. Three years | iniquities, his own relations conspired 47. BASHAN OF BATANEA. See pp. 16. ferred to Simeon. (Josh. xv. 28.) It | 4. it is called the city of David, because BENJAMIN (canton of the tribe of). See p. 12. supra. BEREA, a city of Macedonia, where Paul preached the Gospel with great success. The historian Luke gives an honourable character to the Bereans, in Acts xviii. 10. BESOR (brook). See p. 36. supra. BETHABARA Signifies a place of passage. It was a water distinct from Jordan, and removed somewhat from it (John i. 28. x. 40.), to which men passed over Jordan. The town was out of the precincts of Judæa, in the Sythopolitan country, where the Jews dwelt among the Syro-Grecians, and was over against Galilee. According to Dr. Lightfoot, it was over against Jericho. (Josh. iii. 16.) BETHANY, now a miserable little village, was a town of Judæa, where Lazarus dwelt, and where he was raised from the dead, fifteen furlongs east from Jerusalem, on the way to Jericho. (John xi. 8.) But the tract of ground which bore that name reached within eight furlongs of Jerusalem, it being only a sabbath-day's journey from it (Luke xxiv. 50. Acts i. 12.): and then began the tract called BETHPHAGE, from the day, that is, the green figs, which grew upon it, which ran along so near to Jerusalem, that the utmost street within the walls was called by that name. BETHLEHEM,now called BEIT-LAHHM, was a celebrated city, about six miles south-west from Jerusalem: it was formerly called Ephrath or Ephrata.(Gen. xxxv. 19. xlviii. 7. Mic. v. 2.) It was a city in the time of Boaz (Ruth iii. 11. iv. 1.), and was fortified by Rehoboam. (2 Chron. xi. 6.) In Matt. ii. 1. 5. it is called Bethlehem of Judæa, to distinguish it from another town of the same name situated in Lower Galilee, and mentioned in Josh. xix. 15. In Luke ii. David was born and educated there. (Compare John vii. 42. and 1 Sam. xvi. 1. 18.) This city, though not considerable for its extent or riches, is of great dignity as the appointed birth-place of the Messiah (Matt. ii. 6. Luke ii. 6— 15.); it is pleasantly situated on the brow of an eminence, in a very fertile soil, which only wants cultivation to render it what the name Bethlehem imports-a house of bread. It is said to be nearly as large as NAZARETH, and to contain from a thousand to fifteen hundred inhabitants, who are almost wholly Christians. On the north-eastern side of it is a deep valley, where tradition says that the angels appeared to the shepherds of Judæa, with the glad tidings of our Saviour's nativity (Luke ii. 8-14.); and in this valley Dr. Clarke halted at the identical fountain for whose delicious water David longed. (2 Sam. xxiii. 15—18.) Of the various pretended holy places which are here shown to Christians, the cave of the nativity is the only spot verified by tradition from the earliest ages of Christianity.2 About two miles from this place, on the road to Jerusalem, stood the site of Rachel's tomb (Gen. xxxv. 19, 20. 1 Sam. x. 2.), which is now covered by a small square Mohammedan building, surmounted by a dome, and resembling in its exterior the tombs of saints and sheiks in Arabia and Egypt. BETHSAIDA, a city beyond Jordan, on the coast of the sea of Tiberias, near the place where the river enters that sea. It was originally a village,and was enlarged into a city and beautified by Philip the Tetrarch, who called it Julia, in honour of the emperor's daughter. It was one of the cities against which Christ denounced a woe (Matt. xi. 21.) for her impenitence and infidelity; after the mighty works he had done in her. It also was the residence of the apostles Philip, Andrew, and Peter. (John i. 45.) BITHYNIA, a region of Asia Minor, bounded on the north by the Euxine Sea, on the south by Phrygia, on the west by the Propontis, and on the east by Galatia. Saint Peter addressed his first Epistle (among others) to the Hebrew Christians who were scattered throughout Bithynia. (1 Pet. i. 1.) 1 At present Bethany is a small and poor village, and the cultivation round it is much neglected; but it is a pleasant roinantic spot on the shady side of the Mount of Olives, abounding in trees and long grass. Dr. Richardson's Travels, vol. ii. p. 371, 2 Dr. Clarke's Travels, vol. iv. pp. 408-420. See also Hasselquist's Travels, p. 144. ; and Buckingham's Travels, pp. 218-222. |