TYRE DESTROYED 59 the sea; Tyre, by its wealth and commerce, gained the supremacy in Phoenicia, although Sidon was an older city, five miles distant. But Tyre was defiled by the worship of Baal and Astarte; it was a city of exceeding dissoluteness. It was not only proud and luxurious, but abominably licentious; it was a city of harlots. And what was to be its fate? It was to be destroyed, and its merchandise was to be scattered. "Howl, ye ships of Tarshish! for your strength is laid waste, so that there is no house, no entering in.... The Lord of Hosts hath purposed it, to stain the pride of glory, and bring to contempt all the honorable of the earth." The destruction of Tyre has been complete. There are no remains of its former grandeur;... Its traffic was transferred to Carthage. Yet how strong must have been a city which took Nebuchadnezzar thirteen years to subdue! It arose from its ashes, but was reduced again by Alexander. JOHN LORD, LL. D., Author of "The Old Roman World," "Modern Europe," etc. Beacon Lights of History, Vol. II, pp. 312, 313. Nebuchadrezzar, or Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon,.... Nebuchadrezzar seems to have been of Chaldean origin. Tyre revolted in the seventh year of his reign, and was besieged for thirteen years; a contract-tablet dated in his fortieth year shows that at that time it was under Babylonian officials. The Encyclopaedia Brittannica, Vol. XIX, pp. 331, 332. 45. Was the Bible prophecy that the Jews would be taken as captives from Jerusalem to Babylon fulfilled? II Kings 20:16, 17 BIBLE EVIDENCE. And Isaiah said unto Hezekiah, Hear the word of the Lord. 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. Daniel 1:1, 2 (607 B. C.)-In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon unto Jerusalem, and besieged it. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand,. II Kings 24:6, 11, 14, 15 (B. C. 610)—So Jehoiakim slept with his fathers: and Jehoiachin his son reigned in his stead. And Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came against the city, and his servants did besiege it. And he carried away all Jerusalem, .... none remained, save the poorest sort of the people of the land. 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. II Kings 25:1, 2, 6 (B. C. 593)-And it came to pass.... that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came,... against Jerusalem,... And the city was besieged unto the eleventh year of king Zedekiah. So they took the king, and brought him up to the king of Babylon to Riblah;... 60 JEWS CAPTIVES IN BABYLONIA SECULAR EVIDENCE. With a directness characteristic of the sacred writers, Daniel enters at once upon his subject..... Like one conscious of uttering only well-known truth, he proceeds at once to state a variety of particulars by which his accuracy could at once be tested. Thus in the two verses quoted, he states five particulars purporting to be historical facts, such as no writer would be likely to introduce into a fictitious narrative: (1) That Jehoiakim was king of Judah; (2) That Nebuchadnezzar was king of Babylon; (3) That the latter came against the former; (4) That this was in the third year of Jehoiakim's reign; and (5) That Jehoiakim was given into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar,.. ... This overthrow of Jerusalem was predicted by Jeremiah, and immediately accomplished, B. C. 606. Jer. 25:8-11. Jeremiah places this captivity in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, Daniel in the third. This seeming discrepancy is explained by the fact that Nebuchadnezzar set out on his expedition near the close of the third year of Jehoiakim, from which point Daniel reckons. But he did not accomplish the subjugation of Jerusalem till about the ninth month of the year following; and from this year Jeremiah reckons. (Prideaux, Vol. I, pp. 99, 100.) Jehoiakim, though bound for the purpose of being taken to Babylon, having humbled himself, was permitted to remain as ruler in Jerusalem, tributary to the king of Babylon. This was the first time Jerusalem was taken by Nebuchadnezzar. Twice subsequently, the city, having revolted, was captured by the same king,... Of these subsequent overthrows, the first was under Jehoiachin, son of Jehoiakim, B. C. 599, when all the sacred vessels were either taken or destroyed, and the best of the inhabitants, with the king, were led into captivity. The second was under Zedekiah, when the city endured the most formidable siege it ever sustained, except that by Titus, in A. D. 70. During the two years' continuance of this siege, the inhabitants of the city suffered all the horrors of extreme famine. At length the garrison and king, attempting to escape from the city, were captured by the Chaldeans. The sons of the king were slain before his face..... The city and temple were at this time utterly destroyed, and the entire population of the city and country, with the exception of a few husbandmen, were carried captive to Babylon, B. C. 588. URIAH SMITH, Daniel and the Revelation, pp. 23, 24, 26. 46. Did Zedekiah, king of Judah, go to Babylon without seeing it, in fulfillment of a prophecy made six years before by Ezekiel? BIBLE EVIDENCE. Ezekiel 12:13 (B. C. 594)-My net also will I spread upon him, and he shall be taken in my snare: and I will bring him to Babylon to the land of the Chaldeans; yet shall he not see it, though he shall die there. Jeremiah 52:10, 11 (B. C. 588)-And the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes:... Then he put out the eyes of Zedekiah; and the king of Babylon bound him in chains, and carried him to Babylon, and put him in prison till the day of his death. SECULAR EVIDENCE. Jerusalem was made the target of the Babylonian army. It settled down to a long siege. Jeremiah advised capitulation, and consequent mercy and life for its occupants. But the vacillating king, under the control of the rebellious princes, simply echoed their spirit..... He was captured and carried to Riblah, to the presence of the king against whom he had rebelled. True to the Assyrian policy of cruelty meted out to persistent rebels, his own sons were slain before his eyes, his own eyes put out, probably in the manner indicated on Assyrian monuments, by the use of short spears, and he was manacled with fetters and carried a prisoner to Babylon. IRA M. PRICE, Ph.D., The Monuments and the Old Testament, pp. 214, 215. 47. Was there such a character as Belshazzar? BIBLE EVIDENCE. Daniel 5:1-Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank wine before the thousand. SECULAR EVIDENCE. The four cylinders numbered 53-56 are of great importance to Bible students. "They are inscribed with an account of the rebuilding by Nabonidus of the temple of the Moon-god in Ur. The text concludes with a prayer to the Moon-god on behalf of Nabonidus, and of his eldest son Bel-shar-utsur (Belshazzar). "And as for me, Nabonidus, the king of Babylon, protect thou me from sinning against thine exalted god-head, and grant thou me graciously a long life: and in the heart of Belshazzar, my first-born son, the off-spring of my loins, set the fear of thine exalted godhead, so that he may commit no sin and that he may be satisfied with the fulness of life!" "When the sceptics first framed their indictment of Daniel, Belshazzar appeared to be a myth. For history testifies that the last king of Babylon was Nabonidus; that he was absent from the capital when Cyrus entered it.... The contradiction between history and Scripture was complete. But the since-deciphered inscriptions have disclosed that Belshazzar was eldest son and heir to Nabonidus, that he was regent in Babylon during his father's absence, and that he was killed the night the Persian army entered the inner city.'”2 It is this inscription which gave an answer to the attacks of the socalled "higher critics." It confirms the accuracy of the Book of Daniel, and explains also the reason why Belshazzar, as a reward to Daniel, promised to make him "third ruler in the kingdom." Belshazzar was himself only second. ADA R. HABERSHON, The Bible and the British Museum, pp. 75, 76. 48. Can Belshazzar being called the son of Nebuchadnezzar in the Book of Daniel be "readily accounted for"? 2 Sir Robert Anderson in The Bible and Modern Criticism, pp. 136, 137, 62 BELSHAZZAR'S FATHER BIBLE EVIDENCE. Daniel 5:2 Belshazzar, while he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem;.... SECULAR EVIDENCE. That Belshazzar should have been called son of Nebuchadnezzar is readily accounted for on the supposition that he was his grandson, and there are many things to indicate that Nabonidus married Nebuchadnezzar's daughter, while there is nothing known to the contrary. But if this theory is rejected, there is the natural supposition that in the loose use of terms of relationship common among Oriental people "son" might be applied to one who was simply a successor. In the inscriptions on the monuments of Shalmaneser II., referred to below, Jehu, the extirpator of the house of Omri, is called the "son of Omri.' PROF. GEORGE FREDERICK WRIGHT, D.D.,LL.D., The Fundamentals, Vol. I, p. 295. In Dan. 5:2 Nebuchadnezzar is called the father of Belshazzar. This, of course, need only mean grand-father or ancestor. SMITH'S Bible Dictionary-Teacher's Edition, p. 82. 49. How could Belshazzar have been king of Babylon, when "no tablets have been found dated in his reign"? BIBLE EVIDENCE. Daniel 5:30 In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain. SECULAR EVIDENCE. It is not probable that any such tablets will be found, for his father outlived him and even though Belshazzar were co-king, his father's name would be in the dates. The tablets, however, show that Belshazzar was the commander of the troops, that he was the man of action-his father being a studious recluse-that he was the darling of the people and that the actual administration was in his hands. He was the heir to the throne and even if not formally invested, was the virtual king in the eyes of the people. PROFESSOR JOSEPH D. WILSON, D.D., Theological Seminary of the Reformed Episcopal Church, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Author of "Did Daniel write Daniel?”--The Fundamentals, Vol. 1, p. 267. 50. Did Daniel by a lion with eagle's wings describe the kingdom and fate of Babylon? BIBLE EVIDENCE. Daniel 7:4-The first was like a lion, and had eagle's wings: I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth, and made stand upon the feet as a man, and a man's heart was given to it. SECULAR EVIDENCE. At first the lion had eagle's wings, denoting the rapidity with which Babylon extended its conquests under Nebuchadnezzar. At this BABYLON OVERTHROWN 63 point in the vision a change had taken place; its wings had been plucked. It no longer flew like an eagle upon its prey. The boldness and spirit of the lion were gone. A man's heart, weak, timorous, and faint, had taken its place. Such was emphatically the case with the nation during the closing years of its history, when it had become enfeebled and effeminate through wealth and luxury. URIAH SMITH, Daniel and the Revelation, p. 127. 51. Over one hundred and fifty years before the event, did Isaiah prophesy correctly that Babylon would be conquered? BIBLE EVIDENCE. Isaiah 13:1, 17, 19 (B. C. 712)-The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz did see. Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, which shall not regard silver; and as for gold, they shall not delight in it. And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. Daniel 5:30, 31 (B. C. 538)-In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain. And Darius the Median took the kingdom, being about threescore and two years old. SECULAR EVIDENCE. On the fall of Nineveh, B. C. 625, Babylon became not only an independent kingdom, but an empire. The city was taken by surprise B. C. 539, as Jeremiah had prophesied, Jer. 51:31, by Cyrus, under Darius, Dan. 5, as intimated 170 years earlier by Isaiah, Isa. 21:1-9, and, as Jeremiah had also foreshown, Jer. 51:39, during a festival. SMITH'S Bible Dictionary-Teachers Edition, p. 72. After Nebuchadnezzar the kingdom of Babylon rapidly declined through four reigns. Meantime, Cyrus, who in 553 had overthrown the kingdom of Media and erected the kingdom of Persia on its ruins, had been gradually extending his realm to the Aegean Sea on the west, and to the borders of India on the east. In 538 B. C. Cyrus captured Babylon and overthrew Nabuna'id. GEORGE A. BARTON, Ph.D.,LL.D, Archaeology and the Bible, p. 66. No. 122 is a "portion of a clay tablet inscribed with the annals of Nabonidus king of Babylon, recording the defeat of Astyages by Cyrus, and the capture and spoiling of Ecbatana, his capital city, and the taking of Babylon, and the downfall and death of Nabonidus king of Babylon, B. C. 556 to B. C. 538." ADA R. HABERSHON, The Bible and the British Museum, p. 71. The last words of the first chapter of Daniel are truly significant: "Daniel continued even unto the first year of King Cyrus." In other words, Daniel lived all the days of the Babylonian captivity,-over seventy years, and had the pleasure of meeting that Cyrus whose name the prophet Isaiah had mentioned nearly two hundred years before he issued his wonderful decree for the deliverance of God's people. S. N. HASKELL, The Story of Daniel the Prophet, p. 30, |