CHAPTER III.

ON THE EMPIRE OF BABYLON.

DANIEL II. 31, 32.—“ THOU, O KING, SAWEST, AND BEHOLD A GREAT IMAGE. THIS GREAT IMAGE, WHOSE BRIGHTNESS WAS EXCELLENT, STOOD BEFORE THEE; AND THE FORM THEREOF WAS TERRIBLE. THIS IMAGE'S HEAD WAS OF FINE GOLD."

37, 38.-" THOU, O KING, ART A KING OF KINGS; FOR THE GOD OF HEAVEN
HATH GIVEN THEE A KINGDOM, POWER, AND STRENGTH, AND glory.
AND WHERESOEVER THE CHILDREN OF men dwell, THE BEASTS OF THE
FIELD, AND THE FOWLS OF HEAVEN HATH HE GIVEN INTO THINE HAND,
AND HATH MADE THEE RULER OVER THEM ALL. THOU ART THIS HEAD
OF GOLD."

VII. 2-4.-" I SAW IN MY VISION BY NIGHT, AND, BEHOLD, THE FOUR WINDS
OF THE HEAVEN STROVE UPON THE GREAT SEA. AND FOUR GREAT BEASTS
CAME UP FROM THE SEA, DIVERSE ONE FROM ANOTHER.
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."

THE history of the first prophetic empire, Babylon, is the period where sacred and profane history meet and combine together. Till the reign, however, of Cyrus, and the Persian kingdom, the materials of direct comparison are few. Yet there are several reasons which make it useful to dwell on the first stage of the prophecy. The sacred writings themselves here supply the thread of history, and interpret their own meaning. The chronology is given in the prophets with peculiar fulness; and being confirmed by the witness of profane authors, forms a clear and firm point of departure for the whole series of the later predictions. The whole period abounds also with typical lessons, which reflect a steady light

dated from the death of his father, a.c. 604; but in Judea, two years earlier, a c. 606, from his actual supreme command over the Babylonian forces.

There is another remark which seems to result from comparing the canon with Scripture, and which simplifies the chronology. The canon refers each reign to the beginning of the current Egyptian year, not to its actual date. In a similar manner the reigns in the sacred his¬ tory are referred to the beginning of the Jewish year, generally of that which precedes, but sometimes of that which follows. Thus we are told, that the fourth year of Hezekiah was the seventh of Hoshea, the sixth of Hezekiah was the ninth of Hoshea, the fourth of Jehoiakim was the first of Nebuchadnezzar, the tenth of Zedekiah was the eighteenth of Nebuchadnezzar. Now this sameness could not exist if the years were reckoned from the actual accessions, and they are therefore reckoned in each case from the beginning of the Jewish year.

Let us now trace the history of this first prophetic empire from the testimony of the sacred text. Under Jehoiakim, and after the death of Josiah, a. c. 609, the cup of national iniquity was full. At the close of his third, and the beginning of his fourth year, Nebuchadnezzar was sent to execute the divine judg ments, March and April, a.c. 606; and with that year the captivity of Judah and the prophetic empire of Babylon begin together. Two prophecies of Jeremiah were given to announce this signal era, and to mark the limit of Babylon's power. The first, in chapter xxv., relates to the captivity itself.

"The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah (A.c. 606), that was the first year of Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, which Jeremiah the prophet spake unto all the people of Judah, and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying,

"From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon king of Judah, (a.c. 628) even unto this day, that is

the three-and-twentieth year, the word of the Lord hath come unto me, and I have spoken unto you, rising early and speaking; but ye have not hearkened. And the Lord hath sent unto you all his servants the prophets, rising early and sending them; but ye have not hearkened, nor inclined your ear to hear. They said, Turn ye again now every one from his evil way, and from the evil of your doings, and dwell in the land that the Lord hath given to you and to your fathers for ever and ever. And go not after other gods to serve them, and to worship them, and provoke me not to anger with the works of your hands; and I will do you no hurt. Yet ye have not hearkened unto me, saith the Lord; that ye might provoke me to anger with the works of your hands to your own hurt.

"Therefore, thus saith the Lord of hosts; Because ye have not heard my words, Behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith the Lord, and Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations round about, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and an hissing, and perpetual desolations. Moreover, I will take from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones and the light of the candle. And this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.

"And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, saith the Lord, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations. And I will bring upon that land all my words which I have pronounced against it, even all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah hath prophesied against all the nations. For many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of them also: and I will

recompense them according to their deeds, and according to the works of their own hands."

Such was the solemn decree of the Most High, which marks this important era, and by which His chosen people were delivered over for their sins into the hand of Babylon. The kingdom of David and Solomon, that glorious type of good things to come, was now overturned in the dust, and the long period of the Gentile monarchies began. But as the first of those kingdoms had here its precise bounds assigned, which it might not pass, so the whole course of them is expressly revealed in these visions of Daniel. Fixed times are also given to the Church, like the seventy years, to be understood when that whole period should be approaching towards its final close.

A second prophecy, in chapter xxvii., exhibits the same great era in connexion with the supreme power given to Babylon, and the subjection of the other Gentile nations.

"In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, came this word unto Jeremiah from the Lord, saying,

"Thus saith the Lord to me; Make thee bonds and yokes, and put them upon thy neck, And send them to the king of Edom, and to the king of Moab, and to the king of the Ammonites, and to the king of Tyrus, and to the king of Zidon, by the hand of the messengers which come to Jerusalem unto Zedekiah king of Judah; And command them to say unto their masters, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Thus shall ye say unto your masters,

"I have made the earth, the man and the beast that are upon the ground, by my great power and by my outstretched arm, and have given it unto whom it seemed meet unto me. And now have I given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant; and the beasts of the field have I given him also to serve him and his son, And his son's son, until the very time of his land come; and then

many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of him. And it shall come to pass, that the nation and kingdom which will not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, and that will not put their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon; that nation will I punish, saith the Lord, with the sword and with the famine, and with the pestilence, until I have consumed them by his hand. But the nations that bring their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him, those will I let remain still in their own land, saith the Lord; and they shall till it, and dwell therein."

In this solemn and impressive manner was the first prophetic empire instated, by God himself, in the possession of a supreme dominion. But its bound was doubly assigned, like the abode of Israel in Egypt which was predicted by years and by generations. Its appointed term was to be seventy years, and it was to cease under the son's son of the reigning monarch. Both of these assigned marks of its duration were accomplished at the fall of Belshazzar, when the second or Medo-Persian empire succeeded in its room.

There is one further remark which suggests itself on this last prediction. Its language is the very same with the words of Daniel, when he expounds to Nebuchadnezzar himself the meaning of the head of gold. The terms denote universal dominion. Yet, in fact, the kingdom of Nebuchadnezzar never reached into Europe, nor perhaps into Africa beyond the bounds of Egypt. Hence the terms are clearly used, not in a strict, but in a popular sense, and refer to the nations which were then prominent in history, the kingdoms of the east. Over the rest there might be a virtual supremacy, in their acknowledgment of Babylon as the most powerful of existing nations; but there could be no direct and immediate control. And this teaches us the need of caution in other prophetic visions; and that we must not strain the meaning of their words beyond the pattern of this inspired interpretation. When it is said, Rev. xiii. "All that dwell on the earth shall worship" the beast; we can have no warrant from