Babylon

In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. The Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with part of the vessels of the house of God; and he carried them into the land of Shinar to the house of his god. He brought the vessels into the treasure house of his god.  Daniel 1:1,2

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“This is the dream; and we will tell its interpretation before the king.  You, O king, are king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, the strength, and the glory.  Wherever the children of men dwell, he has given the animals of the field and the birds of the sky into your hand, and has made you rule over them all. You are the head of gold.  Daniel 2:36-38

Lion, Eagle Wings and a Man’s Heart

“The first was like a lion, and had eagle’s wings. I watched until its wings were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth, and made to stand on two feet as a man. A man’s heart was given to it.

A lion has gone up from his thicket, and a destroyer of nations. He is on his way. He has gone out from his place, to make your land desolate, that your cities be laid waste, without inhabitant.  Jeremiah 4:7

“Behold, he will come up like a lion from the pride of the Jordan against the strong habitation: for I will suddenly make them run away from it; and whoever is chosen, I will appoint him over it. For who is like me? Who will appoint me a time? Who is the shepherd who will stand before me?”  Jeremiah 49:19

“Israel is a hunted sheep. The lions have driven him away. First, the king of Assyria devoured him, and now at last Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has broken his bones.”  Jeremiah 50:17

Yahweh will bring a nation against you from far, from the end of the earth, as the eagle flies; a nation whose language you will not understand; a nation of fierce facial expressions, that doesn’t respect the elderly, nor show favor to the young, and they will eat the fruit of your livestock, and the fruit of your ground, until you are destroyed. They also won’t leave you grain, new wine, or oil, the increase of your livestock, or the young of your flock, until they have caused you to perish.  Deuteronomy 28:49-51

Behold, he will come up as clouds, and his chariots will be as the whirlwind. His horses are swifter than eagles. Woe to us! For we are ruined.  Jerusalem, wash your heart from wickedness, that you may be saved. How long will your evil thoughts lodge within you?  Jeremiah 4:13, 14

Yahweh says: “Behold, he will fly as an eagle, and will spread out his wings against Moab.  Jeremiah 48:40

Behold, he will come up and fly as the eagle, and spread out his wings against Bozrah. The heart of the mighty men of Edom at that day will be as the heart of a woman in her pangs.  Jeremiah 49:22

Our pursuers were swifter than the eagles of the sky. They chased us on the mountains. They set an ambush for us in the wilderness. Lamentations 4:19

“Look among the nations, watch, and wonder marvelously; for I am working a work in your days, which you will not believe though it is told you.  For, behold, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, that march through the width of the earth, to possess dwelling places that are not theirs.  They are feared and dreaded. Their judgment and their dignity proceed from themselves.  Their horses also are swifter than leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves. Their horsemen press proudly on. Yes, their horsemen come from afar. They fly as an eagle that hurries to devour.  All of them come for violence. Their hordes face the desert. He gathers prisoners like sand.  Yes, he scoffs at kings, and princes are a derision to him. He laughs at every stronghold, for he builds up an earthen ramp, and takes it.  Then he sweeps by like the wind, and goes on. He is indeed guilty, whose strength is his god.”  Habakkuk 1:5-11

and say, ‘Thus says the Lord Yahweh: “A great eagle with great wings and long feathers, full of feathers, which had various colors, came to Lebanon, and took the top of the cedar.  He cropped off the topmost of its young twigs, and carried it to a land of traffic. He planted it in a city of merchants.  Ezekiel 17:3,4

“Say now to the rebellious house, ‘Don’t you know what these things mean?’ Tell them, ‘Behold, the king of Babylon came to Jerusalem, and took its king, and its princes, and brought them to him to Babylon.  He took some of the royal offspring, and made a covenant with him. He also brought him under an oath, and took away the mighty of the land; that the kingdom might be brought low, that it might not lift itself up, but that by keeping his covenant it might stand. Ezekiel 17:12-14

“Put the trumpet to your lips! Something like an eagle is over Yahweh’s house, because they have broken my covenant, and rebelled against my law. Hosea 8:1

Through Silvanus, our faithful brother, as I consider him, I have written to you briefly, exhorting, and testifying that this is the true grace of God in which you stand. She who is in Babylon, chosen together with you, greets you; and so does Mark, my son.  Greet one another with a kiss of love. Peace be to you all who are in Christ Jesus. Amen I Peter 5:12,14

Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner, greets you, and Mark, the cousin of Barnabas (concerning whom you received commandments, “if he comes to you, receive him”), and Jesus who is called Justus. These are my only fellow workers for God’s Kingdom who are of the circumcision, men who have been a comfort to me.  Colossians 4:10,11

Another, a second angel, followed, saying, “Babylon the great has fallen, which has made all the nations to drink of the wine of the wrath of her sexual immorality.” Revelation 14:8

The great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. Babylon the great was remembered in the sight of God, to give to her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.  Revelation 16:19

And on her forehead a name was written, “MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF THE PROSTITUTES AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.” Revelation 17:5
The woman whom you saw is the great city, which reigns over the kings of the earth.”  Revelation 17:18

He cried with a mighty voice, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, and she has become a habitation of demons, a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird!  For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her sexual immorality, the kings of the earth committed sexual immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth grew rich from the abundance of her luxury.”  I heard another voice from heaven, saying, “Come out of her, my people, that you have no participation in her sins, and that you don’t receive of her plagues, for her sins have reached to the sky, and God has remembered her iniquities. Revelation 18:2-5

Babylon’s

house of

false gods

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Borsippa Inscription

I have completed its magnificence with silver, gold, other metals, stone, enameled bricks, fir and pine. The first which is the house of the earth’s base, the most ancient monument of Babylon; I built and finished it. I have highly exalted its head with bricks covered with copper. We say for the other, that is, this edifice, the house of the seven lights of the earth, the most ancient monument of Borsippa. A former king built it, (they reckon 42 ages) but he did not complete its head.

Since a remote time, people had abandoned it, without order expressing their words. Since that time the earthquake and the thunder had dispersed the sun-dried clay. The bricks of the casing had been split, and the earth of the interior had been scattered in heaps. Merodach, the great god, excited my mind to repair this building. I did not change the site nor did I take away the foundation.

In a fortunate month, in an auspicious day, I undertook to build porticoes around the crude brick masses, and the casing of burnt bricks. I adapted the circuits, I put the inscription of my name in the Kitir of the portico. I set my hand to finish it. And to exalt its head. As it had been in ancient days, so I exalted its summit.

by Nebuchadnezzar II

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