Hi all,
This is my first time hear, so I hope I don`t brake the groove.
Bagdad is not were Babylon was.
Babylon lays desolate to this day as the prophesy says it would.
It was the medians and Persians through Syrus (a median) that over through Babylon (medians are in the north) and then it deteriated away until around alexanders time and then the empire of Babylon eventually fell never to rise again.
So, the great empire of the city of Babylon has layed waste for about the last 2200 yrs.
The Golden City
The city of Babylon straddled the Euphrates River about fifty miles south of what is now modern Baghdad in Iraq. . Baghdad is located on the Tigris River, approximately 40 miles east of the Euphrates. Herodotus claimed that the town was laid out in an exact square, approximately fifteen miles on each side.
Babylon to fall
In addition to the passage mentioned earlier (Jeremiah 50:17-18), there are many other prophecies that affirm the ultimate desolation of Babylon. In the early 8th century before the birth of Christ, and almost two hundred years before Cyrus conquered the golden city, Isaiah declared: Fallen, fallen is Babylon; and all the graven images of her gods are broken unto the ground (21:9)
Again Jehovah, through his prophet, rhetorically calls to Babylon: Come down, and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon; sit on the ground without a throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans... (Isaiah 47:1). Babylon is designated as a virgin because for many years she had escaped the ravages of other nations. But that status would come to an end!
Or consider the announcements of Jeremiah: Declare you among the nations and publish, and set up a standard; publish, and conceal not: say, Babylon is taken... (Jeremiah 50:2). Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed; wail for her; take balm for her pain... (Jeremiah 51:8). Among other contexts, a survey of Isaiah, chapters 13 and 14, and Jeremiah, chapters 50 and 51, will reveal numerous declarations concerning Babylons impending fall and ultimate desolation.
The prophetic chronology
In giving consideration to the time factor in prophecies regarding the destruction of Babylon, two things must be kept in view. First, there was to be an initial defeat of the superpower. Second, afterward there would be a gradual but progressive degeneration of the locale that ultimately would result in total ruin.
The conquerors specified
But who would overthrow mighty Babylon? Both Isaiah and Jeremiah provide that information. In a section that concludes with: Fallen, fallen is Babylon, the messianic prophet wrote: Go up, O Elam; besiege O Media; all the sighing thereof have I made to cease... (Isaiah 21:2). As I have noted elsewhere, Elam is here used to facilitate the Hebrews understanding of the source of the impending invasion, since Persia was not yet prominent. Later, Elam is considered as a part of the Persian empire... (Jackson, 1991, p. 48). Skinner observed that Elam and Media were
the dominions of Cyrus. The former lay east of the Tigris and north of the Persian Gulf; Media was the mountainous district adjoining it on the north. Cyrus, according to the Babylonian records, was originally king of Anzan, in the north of Elam; in 549 he conquered Media, uniting the two in one kingdom (1963, 1:170).
Rawlinson noted that Elam is named because it was familiar to the Hebrews, whereas Persia would have been a designation alien to them at the time of Isaiahs writing (1950, 10:336). What precision!
Again Isaiah details the conquering exploits of Cyrus, leader of the Medo-Persian forces and the brilliant strategist who overthrew the city of Babylon:
Thus says Jehovah 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 the doors before him, and the gates shall not be shut... (45:1).
The prophecy was uttered two centuries before the birth of the Persian monarch.The works of Herodotus and Xenophon are the two principal sources of historical confirmation. Herodotus (484-425 B.C.), known as the father of history. He vividly describes the overthrow of Babylon.
Xenophon (c. 430-355 B.C.), a student of Socrates, was a Greek historian born in Athens. It provides considerable data on the fall of Babylon.
The Euphrates River diverted
When Cyrus surveyed Babylons fortifications, he said: ...I am unable to see how any enemy can take walls of such strength and height by assault (Xenophon, VIII.V.7). Accordingly, he devised a brilliant strategy for capturing the city.
the Euphrates river ran under the walls through the center of Babylon. From the river, canalsquite broad and sometimes navigablewere cut in every direction. The Jews in captivity could thus lament: By the rivers of Babylon, There we sat down, yea, we wept, When we remembered Zion (Psalm 137:1). Just to the west of the city was a huge lake-basin, some thirty-five feet deep and covering forty miles square, but which, at the time of the invasion, was but a marsh. Cyrus stationed soldiers at the point where the river entered the city, and also where it exited. At a given time, he diverted the Euphrates from its bed into the marshy lake area. His forces then entered Babylon under the city walls (Herodotus, I.191).
Consider what the prophets declared regarding Babylons fall.
Isaiah, writing more than a century-and-a-half earlier, referred to Jehovahs decree. The Lord saith to the deep: Be dry, and I will dry up thy rivers, that saith of Cyrus, he is my shepherd and shall perform my pleasure... (Isaiah 47:27).
Surprise capture during drunken feast
Concerning Babylons fall, Jeremiah represented the Lord as saying: I have laid a snare for you, and you are also taken, O Babylon... (50:24).
The term snare suggests that the citizens of the city would be taken by surprise; they were not aware of what was happening until it was too late (50:24b).
Herodotus wrote: Had the Babylonians been apprised of what Cyrus was about, or had they noticed their danger, they would never have allowed the Persians to enter their city... (I.191).
One aspect in the rapid conquest of the city had to do with the fact that the Babylonians, in their smug security, were engaged in drunken festivities; thus, they were wholly unconcerned about the enemy beyond their massive walls.
But the Lord had declared: When they are heated, I will make their feast, and I will make them drunken, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, says Jehovah (Jeremiah 51:39).
Again: And I will make drunk her princes and her wise men, her governors and her deputies, and her mighty men; and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, says the King whose name is Jehovah of hosts... (Jeremiah 51:57).
Herodotus recorded that the citizens of the central section of the city did not know that Babylon had fallen for a good while because they were engaged in a festival, continued dancing and revelling until they learnt the capture... (I.191).
Similarly, Xenophon said that there was a festival in Babylon, in which all the Babylonians drank and revelled the whole night Babylon to be sacked
The prophets indicated that when great Babylon was taken, her rich treasures would be looted. The Lord, speaking prophetically to Cyrus, had promised: [A]nd I will give you the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places... (Isaiah 45:3).
Jeremiah announced: [A]nd they shall become as women: a sword is upon her treasures, and they shall be robbed (50:37).
The treasures of Babylon were splendid beyond description. Herodotus, in describing just one of the temples in the city, declared that it contained more than twenty tons of gold (I.183).
It is interesting to note that when Cyrus issued his famous decree, allowing the Jews to return to their land, he endowed them with silver and gold to help finance the project, as well as returning some 5,400 vessels of gold and silver that originally had been taken from the Hebrew temple (Ezra 1:4,11).
When Jehovah beckoned the Persians to come against evil Babylon, He charged: [O]pen up her store-houses [granaries, ASV fn.]; cast her up as heaps, and destroy her utterly; let nothing of her be left (Jeremiah 50:26).
Xenophon reports that Babylon was furnished with provisions for more than twenty years (VIII.5.13). No wonder they felt secure; the storehouses were bulging. But God emptied themjust as His prophet had announced!
Babylon to fade into oblivion
The prophets repeatedly proclaimed the eventual utter desolation of ancient Babylon.
Isaiah gave the following particulars:
And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldeans pride, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall shepherds make their flocks to lie down there. But wild beasts of the desert shall live there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and ostriches shall dwell there, and wild goats shall dance there. And wolves shall cry in their castles, and jackals in the pleasant palaces: and her time is near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged (13:19-22).
Jeremiah was equally graphic; the reader may consult chapters 50 and 51 of his book for the numerous details given there.
this is a collection of information that I find extreamly interesting , thats why I have put so much hear.
for those that are interested.
anyway, I think this should settle the issue of this being past , precent and future.
for me any how