The Ancient Tower of Babel, believed to be the

Founda
Babylonian Temple Ziggurat of Etemenanki
 
The Exile of
Judah to Babylo
of Wonders
The Prophet
Jeremiah and the Fiv
of Solomon’s Temple Trea
Part Four
by Robert Mock MD
robertmock@biblesearchers.c
December, 2002
Edited September, 2007
Section One
 
Topics
Mishnah 3
The
Recording of the Mishnayots
The Empire
of Neo-Babylo
The
Destruction of Jerusalem and the
from the Temple of Solom
The Princes
of Judah
The Destiny
for the Vessels of the Hous
Babylon
The Fabled
City of Babylon that Nebu
built
The Palaces
of Nebuchadnezzar II
The Walls of
Babylon
The Sacred
Temple of Marduk (Esagila)
The Golden
Image of Nebuchadnezzar II
 
Introduction
 
The story of the Five Guardians in the Emeq HaMelekh, protecting the Treasures
of Solomon’s Temple,
brings us to the city of Babylon where Shimur Ha Levi,
Haggai the
Prophet, Zechariah the Prophet son of Iddo, Zedekiah, Hezekiah
plus Ezra and
Baruch the scribes record their hiding locations on parchment,
copper,
and two giant white marble tablets. Living in the most glorious city of the
then known world, they become acquainted with former residents of the Nation of
Israel, which were fast becoming part of the Lost Tribes of Israel, known in
part later
as the Cimmerians and the Saki.
 
A royal procession (water color by W. Anger)
In front: the Procession Street; Center: the Išhtar
Gate; on the horizon: the Etemenanki, a temple tower.
 
On the Behistun
Inscription north of Babylon the Saki were later described. 
When they
first approached the city of Babylon, they walked through the Ishtar Gate,
passed by the Palaces of the king, the walls of Babylon up to 300
feet tall, and the
Temple of Etemenanki thought to be built over the
ruins of the Tower of Babel.
Nearby was the Hanging Gardens, a
mountain of vegetation built with only bricks and bitumen
rivers and a jungle like forest.
 
Daniel and his three government assistants Hananiah Mishael and Azariah were living in
 
What was most important to
Daniel and the Guardians was the location of the vessels tha
the House of the Lord, which were placed in the Temple of Esagila.
Dedicated to Jupiter the
god of Babylon who was called Marduk,
a large golden statue sto
temple almost identical to the statue
of Nebuchadnezzar erected on the Plain of Dura. In re
had three Wonders of the Ancient World, the Hanging Gardens, the Tower
of Babel recrea
Colossi Statue which competed with the
Colossi Memnon and the Colossus at Rhodes.
 
Mishnah 3
These
are the Vessels that were taken by (buried in) the ground: the locking rods,

boards, the rings, the standing pillars of the courtyard. These

are the Vessels: 1,2
silver Mizrakot (sacrificial basins); 50,000
(50*) Mizrakot of fine gold; 600,000 (600*
gold, and 1,200,000
(1200*) of silver. These five [men] inscribed these Mishnayot in
together with the other prophets that were with them, including Ezra the Cohen,
th
*Numbers
may be off by a factor of 103 due to translation so 100,000 may
actually
 
See commentary on Numbers in the Mishnayots
 
Here is the inventory of these treasures.  The
place of hiding is unknown, yet the inscription o
first
recorded in these Mishnayots in the great City of Babylon:
 
The locking rods, the pegs, the
boards, the rings, the standing pillars of the courty
1,200,000 (1,200) silver Mizrakot
(sacrificial basin)
50,000 (50) Mizrakot
(sacrificial basins) of fine gold.
600,000 (600) (unclear word -
talents?) of fine gold
1,200,000 (1,200) (talents?) of silver.
 
The curtained outer court of the Wilderness Sanctuary (Mishkhan)
was assembled as a po
define the purified and holy area upon
which the Sanctuary of the Lord was to be erected.  Here
standing
pillars of the courtyard, including the pegs, boards, rings and the locking
rods. Where t
this hiding area is, was not revealed.  Yet in
this same location was a hoard of gold and silver bu
defined in
term of weight of a talent of approximately 75 pounds. 
 
Included at this hiding place also were the sacrificial
basins used in the temple sacrifices.
era, the value
and thereby the scarcity of these two precious metals is about 10:1.  From
every
in the Egyptian empire, silver was more valuable in
relationship to gold.  Yet in all the Mishnayo
must have had
a mining access to silver that was unknown to the Pharaoh’s of Egypt as all the

vessels created for the temple of the Lord showed at least a 2:1
ratio of silver to gold. 
As we shall later see, the walls of Babylon will be
recipient site of a hoard of treasures brought b
captives to
Babylon and secreted there for safekeeping until the Time of the End. There is
no in
hoard of treasures was placed in the modern kingdom of
Iraq, whereas the recording of these tr
completed in Babylon.
 
 The Recording of the Mishnayots in Babylon
 
The Mishnayots we are reading, were not written by
the Rabbabim in the 2nd and 3rd centu
Mishna
was composed but as recorded they have a far more ancient heritage. 
According to
Maccabean account, assuming that the
mishnayots of Emeq HaMeleck are the true ‘records’, w
to the
first Chanukah celebration about 165 BCE. 
 
The Ishtar Gate of Nebuchadezzar Restored by Saddam
Hussein
 
This festival called the Festival of Lights was instituted by the Maccabean rulers celebrating th
 Yet, according to the rabbinic
calen
Olam Rabbah, the
first deportation
young men, scholars and busines
421
BCE, seven to eight years later.
 
When these five Jewish
Tzaddiks (
ones), rode these mishnayots, the
Babylon,
who with Ezra the Cohen
still in captivity in Babylon.  We do
of these men was taken
as captives
Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azar
in the
first deportation of 605 BCE (4
Sedar Olam Rabah, the rabbinic
cale
the other prophets that were with the
have no other revelation on these pe
 
The Empire of
Neo-Ba
 
The country in which
Daniel and h
taken as captives, was land renown for its antiquity, but in reality were
really a new country
city.  It was a marvelous city,
undergoing massive reconstruction, with beautiful temples and sp
and a city that visitors marveled at the curious gardens.
 
Evoking the ancient wonders
of
the Sumerians, the Chaldeans
living in the parched and arid land
along
the Euphrates valley had
been recently conquered by the
Assyrians and the city
of Babylon
was leveled to the ground.  Soon
they were to become the rivals
to
the Assyrians for power in the
Mesopotamian valley.  Besides,
they
had axe to score with their
brutal Assyrian masters. With the
weakening of the
Assyrians who
were menaced by the Scythians,
the Semitic cousins to the
Israelites, the Medes, who were soon to ascend and form the Persian
the Cimmerians, who many historians feel were the resettled tribes of the
Nation of Israel in the
highlands, Babylon soon took advantage of her
weakened nemesis. 
 
The Behistun Inscription – the Persian Rosetta Stone
 
It is
fascinating to note as ancient history is now being revisited that the Children
of Omri, the f
Ahab, who were called the Ghomerians,
the Greek Kimmerioi later the Khumerians, would a
suggest, and would later be known as the Cimmerians.  In the
ancient Sumerian language, wh
Chaldeans and the Assyrians were
descendants, biblical suffix i when
applied to a person m
of”.  Therefore Gileadi meant a
native of Gilead. When this is applied to the in habitants of the N
we call them Israeli.  Whereas the inhabitants of the ancient
Nation of Israel (House of Israel) w
some of their most famous kings, such as King Omri, father
of Ahab, they were also known by t
such as Isaac.  As the
ancient prophecy said, “In Isaac shall thy seed be called (or named).”
9:7) As the ‘sons of Isaac” over the centuries they
were called the Saki, Sacae, Sacchi, Sakas
Saxones, Sachsen,
and Saxons.
 
 depicted the land of Canaan was written, including
a man
the Sacan’ wearing a Hebrew hat.  Under the
list of nations
in the Persian and Elamite language
means the same as Gi
in the Babylonian language. Yes,
even the dispossessed trib
Land of Israel would wreak havoc upon  the
nation that caus
 
It was the Chaldean king Nabopolasser (626-605 BCE),
w
rebellion against Assyria in 626 BCE and by 612; he
conq
capital of Assyria in Nineveh and crushed the empire of the
Assyria. 
 
On the banks of the Euphrates River, on July 25, 616 BC
Nabopolasser defeated the forces of the king of Assyria
Harran. 
Situated on the trade route from the Mediterranean
Assyria,
this ancient city of Harran was
built by Abram and
they fled from Nimrod. This city was
named after the brothe
Harran and at this town, Terah, an oracular
Sumerian priest
to the Sumerian moon god Sin.
 
The Babylonians,
combining their forces with the
Median ruler Cyaxares began to attack the
Empire to Assyria , first at
Aššur in 614 and two
years later, Nineveh was destroyed.  With the
loss of
their two capitals, it would seem that the
time of the Assyrians was
over.  Yet a new
renegade Assyrian king, Aššur-uballit, made his
new
capital and kingdom at Harran in rebellion to
Nabopolassar and newly arisen
Babylonian
empire.
 
The Behistun Inscription in the Center of the Mountain
Cliff
 
As recorded in the  Fall of Nineveh
Chronicle,
Nabopolassar 'marched to
Assyria victoriously' in
the fifteenth
year of his reign (612 BCE) and
Aššur-uballit’s forces fled the city of Harran
in
exile.  A treaty between Assyria and Egypt was
invoked and Pharaoh Necho of
Egypt (610-595)
sent a large military force to the north to assist
the Assyrian
prince in his claim to the crumbling
Assyrian empire. 
 
It was in route to Harran
that the beloved Judean
king Josiah met Pharaoh Necho seeking to halt
this advance. 
We ask the question, why?  In the
next chapter, we will see the link between the
Saki, the deported
Israelites sent to the heart of
the Assyrian empire by Ashurbanipal and the
tribe of the Mandi, whose newly risen leader
Cyaxares of the Medes who was now
in league
with the Babylonian ruler Nabopolasser.  Was
King Josiah seeking
to align himself with Cyaxares against Pharaoh Necho?
 
It was in 605 BCE, Nabopolasser’s
son, Nebuchadnezzar II, (Nabu-Kudurri-usur, 'O Nabu,
') th i i i d d f th I i lf d t t th th
 
Nebuchadnezzar II was in
Judah, preparing Daniel and the hosts of royal sons and noble
taken back to Babylon, when news
came of his father, Nabopolaser’s death. Taking the sw
across the desert by camel and steed, he raced back to Babylon to secure his
throne. 
 
Following slowly behind
with Nebuchadnezzar’s main forces, we
find Daniel and the three
thousands of the best students
and warriors of the Nation of Judah accompanying the first captu
the temple of Solomon making their way as captives across the Fertile Crescent.
They were des
a part of the greatest commercial enterprise in
the ancient world.  
 
As they approached the
city of Babylon, they were greeted with the immense walls of a city
the size of Jerusalem.   The Ishtar Gate had not been built
and the palace of the king’s fat
palatial residence
of Nebuchadnezzar II.
 
To understand the world of
Daniel, the three worthies and the Jewish deportees to this la
know the empire built by King
Nebuchadnezzar, under the religio-political realm which he gover
the land that demanded grandiose dreams to maintain one’s accession
to the throne. The fer
Nebuchadnezzar, was the source of
oracular visions, evoking a great image which the God
used as
the  prophetic model to show a Hebrew seer and Chaldean in the court of
Nebuchadne
empires that would arrive until the first coming of
the messiah, Y’shua ben Yosef (Jesus, son of
visions in
this emperor’s mind would also show the prophetic history of the Jewish
people until t
End.
 
The Destruction of
Jerusalem and the
Booty taken from
the Temple of Solomon
 
According to the diary of Daniel, his last days in
Jerusalem were recorded as such:
 
Daniel 1:2 - “And the Lord
gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with some of
the house of God, which he
carried into the land of Shinar to the house of his god
brought the
articles into the treasure house of his god.”
 
This obviously does not record the emotions and
insecurities of the young prince, who was
descendant of King
Hezekiah.  Recording this event in later years as a wise and aged
court
former prime minister of Babylon, the most noteworthy
record was not the emotional trauma u
of the country and the
devastation of loosing the brightest youth in the land, but what was the d
the sacred relics that belonged within the House of their God,
the God of Abraham, Isaac a
 
Even the royal court scribes in Jerusalem recording these
events, after eulogizing one of th
the Judean kings, Josiah,
declined to make any record of the reign of Josiah’s son, Jehoiakim
did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all
that his fathers had done. (I Kings 2
Hebrew scribes, the invasion of Nebuchadnezzar was not just an
coincidence for they state, “th
against him (Jehoiakim) bands of
Chaldeans, and bands of the Syrians, and bands of the Moab
of
the children of Ammon, and sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to
the word of th
He spake by his servants the prophets”  The
armies of Nebuchadnezzar were a mixed army, bo
Syrians, Amorites
and Moabites living to the east of Jerusalem and rivals to the power of Judah
 
But why?  The dissention with the city of Jerusalem
was because many in the royal courts
seeking independence with
the God of Abraham as their leader.   Rather they were
conten
what they felt was the lesser of two evils,
domination by Egypt rather than domination by Bab
geo-politics is seen to today in the Nation of Israel. Yet the capture of
Jerusalem was not
becau
was an independent thinker, a rebel or a political chameleon
that did not have the political skills
the sympathizers of
the Egyptians against those that advised allegiance with the Babylonians. 

b f J h i ki ’ df th M h
  
The son of Jehoia
Jehoiachin
was no
also did evil in the
and the story was

BCE, Jehoiachin, i
flagrant rebellion, h
meet Nebuchadne
and his family was
This
time almost a
remaining in the Te
plus all the
treasur
in the House of Go
back to Babylon. 
  
2 Kings 24: 8,13 - “Jehoiachin
was eighteen years old when he became king, and he re
Jerusalem three
months….And he carried out from there all
the treasures of the hou
and the treasures
of the king’s house, and he cut in pieces all the articles of gold w
king of Israel had made in the temple of the Lord, as the Lord had
said…..
 
For a second time, the Lord gave the people of
Jerusalem reprieve. Twenty years after his f
against the
Judeans, this time in the reign of King Zedekiah, Nebuchadnezzar
returned with h
third time. 
 
2 Kings 25:8-10 - “And
in the fifth
month, on the seventh day of the
month (which was the nineteenth
year
of King Nebuchadnezzar king of
Babylon), Nebuzaradan the captain of
the
guard, a servant of the king of
Babylon, came to Jerusalem. He
burned the
house of the Lord and
the king’s house; all the houses of
Jerusalem, that
is all the houses of
the great, he burned with fire. And all
the army of
the Chaldeans who were
with the captain of the guard broke
down the walls of
Jerusalem all
around.”
 
Saddam Hussein’s Former Palace overlooking the Restored
Building in
Ancient Babylon
 
Babylon 2007 – Slide Show
 
The city was ransacked.  The Temple, already
stripped of its remaining treasures and mos
metal vessels
and utensils in past campaigns, only had remaining the bronze vessels that were
in the service of the Temple.
 
2 Kings 25:13-17 - The bronze
pillars that were in the house of the Lord, and the ca
bronze
Sea that were in the house of the Lord, the Chaldeans broke in pieces,
and ca
bronze to Babylon. They also took away the pots, the
shovels, the trimmers, the spo
bronze utensils with which
the priests ministered. The fire pans and the
basins, the t
gold and solid silver, the captain of the
guard took away.  The two pillars, one Sea
which Solomon had made for the house of the Lord, the bronze of all these articles was
 
Babylonian Chronicle – “…Encamped
against the city of Judah and on the second
month of Addaru,
he seized the city and captured the king.  He appointed there a ki
received its heavy tribute and sent (it) to Babylon.”
 
This same account was recorded by the royal chroniclers of
Judah:
 
II Kings 24:12-13,
15, and 17 – “…the king of Babylon, in the eighth
year of his
reign, took him (Jehoiachim) prisoner. And he carried out
from
there all the treasure of the house of the Lord and the treasures
of the
king’s house…and he carried Jehoiachin captive to Babylon…
then the king
of Babylon made Mattaniah, Jehoiachin’s uncle, king in
his palace,
and changed his name to Zedekiah.” 
 
The
Babylonian Chronicle
 
Jeremiah, the prophet, a lone voice who urged the king,
his grandson, to
submit to the submission of the yoke of Babylon, now watched
the final
scenes of Jerusalem’s demise.  He already was viewed
as a Babylonian
sympathizer and a traitor to Judah. As such he
was thrown into a dungeon
awaiting his own death. Saved by a Babylonian,
he lived to record his own
account of the last hours before Jerusalem’s
destruction.
 
Jeremiah
27:19-   “For
thus says the Lord of hosts concerning the pillars, concerning t
concerning the carts, and concerning the remainder of the
vessels that remain in this
Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon
did not take, when he carried away captive Jeco
(Jehoiachin) the son of
Jehoiakim, king of Judah from Jerusalem to Babylon, and all
Judah and Jerusalem.    Yes, thus says the Lord of hosts, the
God of Israel, concerning
remain in the house of the Lord, and
in the house of the king of Judah and of Jerusalem
be carried to Babylon, and there they shall be until the day that I visit
them, says t
I will bring them up and restore them to this place.’”
 
Here we see a prophecy.  The vessels were to be a sign and an indicator at a future date

Lord of hosts would again revisit His people. 

Note carefully, the Lord of hosts states with
the vessels in
the House of the Lord did not follow the Jewish people into captivity but
ra
Jewish people followed the vessels to the land of their captors.
So also, the Lord of hosts
He would
restore those same vessels back to His home in Jerusalem and the people wou
vessels back. That is if they chose to return.
 
Carefully consider this at the Time of the End.  The
Lord of hosts has already given in the proph
vessels the Lord
of hosts will be using as His mark of divine involvement during the closing
day
era. The vessels will become living vessels.  Israel
and Judah have been spoken many times as
“Vessel” in which the Lord
of hosts as the Potter is molding and shaping for His use before the G
the
Lord.  When we see the beginning of the restoration of
the House of Judah and then t
Israel back to the Land of Israel, the
Gentile believers in Yeshua (Jesus) will have a great
Lord of
hosts is about to intervene His will into the history of man. 
 
The Princes of
Judah
 
Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were taken as
the Judean elite, the ones (Daniels 1:4) “
was no
blemish, but good-looking, gifted in all wisdom, possessing knowledge and quick
understand, who had ability to serve in the king’s palace, and whom they
might teach the langu
literature of the Chaldeans.” 
 
 crown prince son of Marduk.. 
As Isaiah stated, (Isaiah 46:1) “Bel bows
do
stoops; their idols were on the beasts and on the
cattle.”  
  
Yet according to the story as told by Daniel, (Daniel 1:8) “he (Daniel) purpo
heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s
d
with the wine which he drank.” They would serve in whatever
capacity th
would choose to give them to serve, but they would
still serve their God.
watched as the armies would head to Syria and
then they would witness
Jewish captives.  These captives
returning also through the Ishtar Gate o
include the young
teenage king Jehoiachin with his family (2 Kings
24:10-16
years later King Zedekiah, blinded after all his
sons, the royal heirs, were
his presence. (2 Kings 25:7)
 
Daniel and his three friends lived in the palace of the
king.  This was where all the royal bus
governmental official
duties were performed. The atmosphere within the palaces was awe inspi
great spiritual fortitude to be loyal civil servants to a foreign king,
and at the same time know ex
spiritual roots were, to the God
of Abram their forefather.   
The Palace of Nebuchadnezzar II
 
As royal officials, they dutifully and
quietly did their
official duties.  As the
elite of the scholars in the Royal
Academies, they soon became members
of the elite guild called the Chaldeans,
who served as royal advisors and were
instructed in the mysteries of the
astronomical and earthly sciences in the
temple schools of higher learning
and the
ziggurat observatories in the land of
Babylon.  
 
The Destiny for the Vessels of the
House of the Lord in
Babylon
 
According to Daniel, he watched as a silent observer, a
civil servant, serving inside the gove
which were built
within the palace of the king.  There he observed with almost a protective
inst
of the vessels of God’s house that were brought to Babylon
and placed in the Temple of Es
temple of Marduk. 
What he did not see were the furnishings, the Ark of the Covenant,
neit
menorah nor the altar of incense.
 
Daniel 1:2 - “And the Lord
gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with some
of th
house of God, which he carried into the
land of Shinar to the house of his god; an
the articles into the
treasure house of his god.”
 
What remained of the vessels of the House of the Lord, after
the entire furnishings of the Wild
Tabernacle, the furnishings
within the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies were hidden by J
the Five Guardians, the rest were carried to Babylon during three
different military campaign
of Nebuchadnezzar. 
 
605 BCE - The initial
vessels taken from the Temple of Jerusalem were selected to b
museum
archives of the Temple of Marduk.  There in Babylon, the vessels went
alon
of the royal sons, the elite and the thinkers in the land
of Judah.  It can be assumed that
remaining vessels that
had not been hid by Jeremiah and the five guardians of the temp
were sent to Babylon at this time. (Daniel 1:1-2)
 the capture of King Zedekiah. (2 Kings 25:13-17)
 
The Fabled City of
Babylon that Nebuchadnezzar II built
 
The land of
Babylonia owed its prosperity to its vi
strategic position along the
important Mesopotamia
The city of Babylon was strategically
positioned nea
south Tigris River trade route from Assyria
to the P
also straddled the Euphrates trade route
going to the
eastern trade route going to Iran via the Zagros
Moun
 
The Clay Cylinder of Nebuchadnezzar II - British Museum     
 
Babylon was not only the capital of the country of

also its religious center. It became the most

populo
Near East under Nebuchadnezzar II. Its fame
becam
legends with its showcase strength in its massive wal
ziggurat reputed to have been built on the site of the m
Tower
of Babel, the opulent Ishtar Gate, the magnifice
the fabled
Hanging Gardens, recognized as one of the
Ancient World. 
 
The word, Babylon, comes from Babel, which is noted
only once in the Vulgate in Genesis 11
derived from the Hebrew
word, batal, meaning ‘to confound’.   
Outside the Bible, Babylonia i
1:1,4, 2:22, 6:1-3, 1
Maccabees 6:4, and II Maccabees 8:20. 
 
To the Babylonian citizens, their name comes from the
Chaldean word, bab-ilu, meaning the
Even so, the local citizens called themselves, Ka-dingir, Babi-dingir,
Tintir, and Shu-an-na, fo
Babylonia was called by its inhabitants Dingir.
 It is interesting to note that an inter-testament
Je
found in the Apocrypha was written called Daniel and Susanna,
so similar to the word the Baby
themselves, Shu-an-na. To
the Hebrew prophets, the inhabitants of Babylon were called ‘daug
Chaldeans.’ (Isaiah 47:1) and also
Sesach or Sesac. (Jeremiah 25:26)
 
The Palaces of
Nebuchadnezzar
 
Within the ruins of Babylon, the archeologists found this
clay cylinder of Nebuchadnezza
describes three
palaces built for the king.  The first was a remodeling of the
palace of his fa
Nabopolasser (625-605 BCE) which according to the
record had become in disrepair. It was a
renovation project,
but not fit for the megalomania grandeur that the new king was beginning to

himself.  So on the northern edge of Babylon, he built a new

palace that had a blue parapet and
surrounded by massive fortifications.
 
Later in his reign, Nebuchadnezzar
after erected the triple wall and tower fortifications arou
a third palace overlooking the Euphrates River.  This was his
‘summer home’ with the same
shafts still used today
for cooling houses in the Near East.  All the palaces were built
with bak
sealed with bitumen, while the roofs and door frames were
constructed of imported cedar, cypre
 
Brick of Nebuchadnezzar - British Museum
 
The newer southern palace of Nebuchadnezzar was constructed
around five courtyards w
the king’s private quarter and
the quarters for his harems.  Within the palace was a throne

rooms behind the throne room were two oblong and one
central square well shafts.  At th
shaft was a wheel with
a long line of pottery buckets that brought water up an oblong shaft, and
would descend down the opposite oblong well shaft The central square shaft was an inspectio
  
The Walls of
Babylon
 
It

was the walls of Babylon

that gave it its image of strength and
impregnability.  Built
around what was believed to be the
decaying and tumbled down site of the
ancient Tower of
Babel, according to Herodotus, the walls were 300
feet high
and 80 feet thick and built with an additional 35 foot deep
wall
foundation.  The inner walls were “not so thick as the first, but
hardly less strong.”  In all the wa
concourse wide
enough to allow a four-horse chariot room enough to turn around. 
 
Today, the archeological site of ancient Babylon is near
the present town of Hille, revealing
five square miles
though Herodotus claims that the city was 14 square miles while the walled ci
miles in circumference. 
 
It is estimated that Nebuchadnezzar II used 15
million baked bricks in the official buildings of
empire.  The
bricks were large, one foot square, separated by three to four inches of mortar
and
embossed or written the name of the king,
 
“Nebuchadnezzar,
king of Babylon, who cares for Esagila and Ezida, eldest son of Nabo
of Babylon”.
 
Around
this city was a double or possible triple wall, with
over 250 guard towers
and eight massive gates that were
centered along this thick wall of only
brick and bitumen
mortar.  It was the Torah and contemporary cuneiform
inscriptions that assigned a very great age
to the city.  In
Genesis 11:1-9, it testified to a command to the
citizens, "Let
us make brick, and bake them with fire. And they had brick
instead of stones, and slime instead of mortar."  
 
Fragment of Ishtar Gate,
Babylon, in the
Istanbul, Museum of the
Ancient Orient
 
Outside the walls was a
deep moat which in times of siege
could be flooded by opening up th
Euphrates River and sealing off
the perimeter from the enemy forces. Overall there were about
gates; twenty five of them were connecting the inner city with the Euphrates
which flowed
the city on a diagonal route. 
 
As Daniel
and the first captives from the city of Jerusalem entered the city, they
walked in
the north going first past a special festival
house called the Bit Akitu and then taking a gentl
were
paraded down “Processional Way”,
called the Aibur-shabu, or “the enemy shall never
 
Flanking to the right was the imposing Northern Palace and to
the left the looming military bastio
 The roadway was laid with huge flagstones of lim
with an inscription of the dedication by Nebuchadn
either
were side slabs of rebeccia with white vei
cascading
through the mineral slabs mounting the
sights were awe-inspiring
with luxury and grandeu
processional way was also lined with
about 120 li
symbolizing the goddess Ishtar and horned bulls
w
the walls in molded glazed bricks.
  
Once they passed by the Ishtar Gate, they then
the Southern Palace, down a sloping street to th
ziggurat tower and the temple complex that surro
massive ziggurat
tower, called the Etemenanki.
 
Within the city they were confronted with a site
which caused memories of revulsion within th
Jerusalem. One
hundred eighty statutes dedicated to Ishtar were placed in strategic
locati
city, along with a total of 53 temples. Was it
not their king, Manasseh who allowed statutes
placed
throughout Jerusalem which according to the most famous prophet in the city,
Jeremiah,
cause of the eventual overthrow of the city of
Jerusalem?
 
II
Kings 22:4-6 - “He (Manasseh
the house of the Lord, of
which t
Jerusalem will I put my name. A
altars
for all the host of heave
courts of the house of the Lor
made his son pass through th
Molach) and observed times
an
enchantments, and dealt with fa
and wizards: he
wrought much w
the sight of the Lord to provoke
 
The Ruins of Ancient Babylon with Nearb
Babylon by Saddam Hussein
 
The city was crowded with row
houses two to
three stories in
flat roofs were buttressed with timber,
packed with slime and mud. Whereas the Processional W
throughout
the city, the new arrivals would become well acquainted with the 24 streets
which m
across the city. They were narrow with a width of four to
twenty feet with high windowless walls
Packed with raw
dirt, the Jerusalemites soon found out that these streets were the dumping
gro
garbage.  After a certain amount of debris would pile
up in the street, they would pack more clay
Over the years,
the street would get higher and higher, eventually meaning that they soon had
t
their houses from the progressively elevating streets. For
the poor within the city, in which wood
construction was a luxury,
there were built circular mud-brick huts, supported by a central suppo
walls packed with a mixture of reeds and mud.
 
The aristocrats and the nobles in the city had houses and
palaces with separate bath are
could refresh themselves
from the intense heat or to anoint themselves with oils and
fragra
bathing by the common residence was done on the banks of
the  canals that ran through the cit
courtyard cisterns.
The bathroom of a noble was usually about 15 feet
square and constructed on the southern e
The lower part
of the walls and the floor were baked bricks and the floor was surfaced
with a sm
composition of bitumen and powdered limestone. 
It was delicately sloped to the center in which
off in baked or
glazed earthenware tile water runways. 
Privies and commodes
appear to
have their origin near this
era. 
Again the archeology of the palace of
Sargon the Great showed an
exotic
array of six ‘toilets’ with high seats
like the modern western toilet.
Cesspools were unearthed, with
drains connections to a main sewer
that was 3.28
feet high, and 16 feet
long, vaulted over with baked bricks. 
This sewer
ran below the pavement
along the outer wall of the palace. 
 
Within the city, a ferry would take
people from one side
of the
Euphrates to the other. In the
coregent era of Nebuchadnezzar II
and
his son Nabonidatus, a draw
bridge on stone peers, 100 feet
long and 30
feet wide, was placed
across the river.   There was even a
tunnel
under the river 15 feet wide
and 12 feet high, used for vehicular
traffic.
 
The Sacred Temple
of Marduk
 
The most sacred of the temples was the temple of Esagila,
which in Sumerian meant, ‘The
rises its head’, built to
honor the Supreme god, Marduk.  According to Daniel, within the sac
the temple of Nebuchadnezzar’s god, Marduk, the Temple of Esagila,
the sacred vessels fr
Solomon were placed for custody and
safekeeping.
 
Situated in the center of Babylon, the Temple of Esagila
housed two courts, the first was 40
then to a smaller court 49x25
meters.  Inside the temple shrine were two sacred rooms, the holy
‘holy of holies’ which stood the golden statue of
Marduk and his consort Zarpanitum.  Th
still functional
in the 1st century BCE less
than a hundred years before the time of Christ.
 
The Temple of Mardu
the Esagila and
the Z
Etemenanki
 
Herodotus in h
History of the Pe
(c.430 BCE) giv
description of t
Marduk called
 
Herodotus
I.18
second temple,
sitting figure o
[Marduk], all of
the
figure stand
table, and the throne whereon it
sits, and the base on which the throne is placed, are lik
The
Chaldeans told me that all the gold together was eight hundred talents'
weight.
 the son of Hystaspes,
plotted to carry the statue off, but had not the hardihood to lay h
Xerxes, however, the son of Darius, killed the priest who forbade
him to move the
it away. Besides the ornaments which I have
mentioned, there are a large number of priv
this holy
precinct.”
 
Here we see within the Temple
of Esagila, the most sacred of the Babylonian temples and
the god of the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, a large golden image of a
man that appea
in the presence of the large golden sitting
image of the god Marduk, the god of Babylon.
 
Where did this image come
from?  In whose image was this image made?  Did Herodotus leave
secular historical account of the Biblical Golden Image of
Nebuchadnezzar?
 
The Golden Image
of Nebuchadnezzar
 
Understanding
that the golde
Most Holy Place of the Temple
recorded many years after Nebu
died, it still documents one fact,
Nebuchadnezzar was Marduk
learn later the
god of Nabonidus
was not Marduk, but rather Sin. 
suggests that the golden “figur
was created during the
reign o
Nebuchadnezzar and docume
reign of Cyrus the Great. 
Did
Nebuchadnezzar build two imag
the likeness of man? 
The histor
seriously pause and consider th
image was the
same “Golden I
Nebuchadnezzar erected in th
in
the province of Babylon.
 
Nebuchadnezzar
praying to Marduk
in the Temple
Esagila
 
The image to Nebuchadnezzar built on the plain of
Dura was “threescore (60) cubits and the b
six cubits.” (Daniel. 3:1) yet the Golden Statue of Marduk
was only twelve cubits or about 20 feet
 
Was this the same statue, with a different base put
under it?  Both were made of gold.  Both a
the image of
a man.  Assuming the aspiration and deification of Nebuchadnezzar by his
people
become the personification of their god, Marduk. 
Both also seem to be shadowy types of the
“Image to the
Beast” which the world will pay homage with their foreheads (knowledge and
m
and their hands (physical giving to the king) and will personify
the “Mark of the Beast” and the
the temple of the Lord as
he, the Anti-Messiah, called the “Messiah the Prince” will seek to sit
the Most High.
 
At the time of the dedication of the golden image on the
Plain of Dura, Daniel’s political statu
elevated to sit in
the “gate of the king” (Daniel. 1:49), at the judgment seat where the chief
coun
judges sat.   He was recognized as one the supreme
advisors or one of the ‘wise men’ of the re
were the king’s
closest confidants, they were the Chaldeans also known as the Magi, the
magic
astrologers in the king’s inner council. 
 
The Magi and the royal court should have been most
grateful to Daniel for he saved their l
into the conduit
of divine wisdom, when the Lord of hosts, revealed to him a dream that
Nebu
this.  Anyone can give an
interpretation, whether valid or not, but to be a revealer of the secrets
would take a man who was endowed with wisdom and special skills from
God.  His response to
was,
 
Daniel 2:4 - “The thing
(dream) is gone from me: if you will not make known unto me t
the interpretation of it, you shall be cut in pieces, and your houses shall be
made a dung
 
This
was getting serious.  Wipe out the whole echelon of
royal
advisors was within the power of Nebuchadnezzar and
his edict was
indicative of his disturbed human mind. This
edict was not just to those
sitting in the court of the king at that
time but to all the Magi in the whole
land of Babylon. 
 
Daniel speaking with King Nebuchadnezzar about the
Vision of the Great Image
 
Daniel was not in the king’s court at the time of this
confrontation.  He was presented with the edict of the king
by
Arioch, the king’s captain of the royal guard.  With great
diplomacy
and almost assuredly a palpitating heart, he asked
Arioch, the king’s captain
to request of the king a short time to
summon the God of his fathers for a
special revelation. What
courage!  What faith!  Daniel was not
skilled in oracular
revelations.  But he had faith that the Lord of
host, the God
of his forefathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob would honor this
request. With his friends, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, they
enter into a
special prayer season with their Lord.  In a dream,
while asleep, Daniel
was revealed not only the dream of the
king, but the meaning. The Lord of hosts
was speaking with
Daniel as a conduit for the revelations of the Most High.
 
In the presence of Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel, known as
Belteshazzar, quickly informed the king that he did not come with any
special oracular ski
“there is a God in heaven that reveals
secrets, and makes known to the king Nebuchadne
be in the latter
days” (Daniel 2:28) 
 
The king in his dream had seen a great image. 
It had a head of gold, the chest and arms w
the abdomen and
thighs of brass, the legs of iron and the feet a mixture of iron and miry
with the seed of men. (Daniel 2:43)  And then there was a stone,
‘cut out without hands’ tha
and destroy this image.  
 
This was not just an image, it was a warp tunnel into the
prophetic future. The image whose
was excellent…and the form
of the image was terrible.”  This word, terrible is a unique word
Chaldean in origin, dchiy, (Strong’s 1763) meaning to fear,
to be formidable, to make afraid o
this was not a
happy dream and Nebuchadnezzar, the ruler of the world with the power
and eg
was truly disturbed.
 
And then the God of heaven introduced Nebuchadnezzar to
the Kingdom of God. It would
of the kingdoms of gold
(Babylon), silver (Medo-Persia), brass (Greece) and iron (Rome)
feet of iron and clay (the Islamic and European) nations that would inherit
the vast reaches
empires.  This stone that was ‘cut out
without hands’, would become the central focus of
dream. 
Within the realm of Nebuchadnezzar and standing before him was a remnant of
the p
would eventually form the foundation of this kingdom, the House
of Judah.  That dusty litt
glorious temple,
Jerusalem, would someday become the capital of that glorious kingdom i
millennium.
Nebuchadnezzar
continued to brood over the image.  He could care less about the
future.
secure his legacy in the present.  He was
not satisfied with being the head of the statue he w
become the whole
statue. And so he built the statue, of himself, all of gold.  Here
he could im
his subjects and governmental
rulers the idea of the universal glory
of his kingdom that would last
forever.  Here was a monument, a
total of 103 feet in height,
including the pedestal of the statute and
10 feet in width.  In reality,
comprehending balance and aesthetic
proportions of human form, the statute
was about 52 feet on a
pedestal of 30 - 40 feet in height.
 
The Colossi of Memnon
 
Megalithic statutes are well known in antiquity.  The Colossi
of
Memnon at ancient Thebes in Upper Egypt was a stone built statute
of King
Amenhotep II, the father of Akhenaten, was about 65 feet
high.  Compare
this with the Statute of Liberty in the New York harbor, which is 305
feet tall, y
herself is only 111 feet.  If this same ratio
1:3 were put on the sixty cubit statue of Nebuchadnez
statue would be about 20 cubits or less, much closer to the size of the statue
of Marduk i
Esagila.  
 
 The Colossus of Rhodes
 
The ancient Colossus at Rhodes, known as one of the
s
the ancient world stood over 70 feet in height as it
was b
harbor of the city of Rhodes. It was dedicated to the go
was built from the booty of the war left behind by Demetri
when he raised his unsuccessful siege of Rhodes in 305
B
  
The name for the Plain of Dura, where the golden
imag
Nebuchadnezzar originally stood, survives in the name o
the Euphrates River called Nahr
Dura which is about 5 m
Hille, the present city
near the ruins of Babylon.  Therefore five miles from the great city
of B
tributary river called Nahr Dura was the great Plain of
Dura.  Here the king summoned all the
leaders of his
empire, the princes, and the governors of the provinces, the captains of th
judges, the treasurers, the counselors, the sheriffs and the
provincial rulers to come to a
dedication service. 
 
This was an auspicious and august gathering.  Zedekiah,
king of Judah, recognized as one o
governors of the vassal state in the
province of Judah was also summoned to this gathe
year of his reign about 594/593 BCE.  Accompanying the king was his chamberlain,
Seraiah b
Maaselah, who was to take an oracle against
Babylon.  While walking along the majestic walls
the
Euphrates, he was to attach a stone to this manuscript and toss it into the
Euphrates, saying
Babylon sink, and shall not rise from the evil
that I will bring upon her…” (Jeremiah.51:59-64)
interesting to note that Seraiah and Baruk the scribe for Jeremiah
were both sons of Neriah.  Ca
that Seraiah and Barak were
brother?
 
Here also is cast the epic account of the three Hebrew
worthies, Daniel’s friends in the Minis
Office that were cast
into a fiery furnace because they refused the bow down to the golden
allegiance to King Nebuchadnezzar.  No doubt, King
Zedekiah did not have any compunct
giving allegiance to the
king and the god of the Babylonian king, Marduk.  Besides, soon
a
returned to Jerusalem, he formed an alliance with the
Egyptian and revolted against Neb
The rest is now
history.  
 
 Go to Part Three – “The Copper Scroll, the Anointing Oil, the Temple Incense and the Ashes of t

Go to Part Four – “The Exile of Judah and Babylon the City of Wonders - Section On

Go to Part Five – “Babylon, the City of Wonders – Section Two”

Go to Part Six – “Baghdad, the 49 Lamped Menorah, Bread Molds, and the Table of Show

Go to Part Seven – “The Garden of Eden, the Margalit Pearl, Almugim Trees, Golden Tables of S
Industrial Gemstones”

Go to Part Eight – “Industrial Gems, Golden Trees, The Tree of Life, the Guardian Angel of Solo

Go to Part Nine – “The Cosmic Golden Curtains”

Go to Part Ten – “The Garments of the Priests, Levites and the High Priest”

Go to Part Eleven – “The Harps and Lyres of King David”

Go to Part Twelve – “Treasures at Ein Kahal, in a Wall at Babylon And at Tel Bruk where the Will
Babylon”

Go to Part Thirteen – “The Twelve Stones for the Tribes of Israel, David, son of David, a righteous
and the Gihon River at the Final Restoration of Israel”

 
 
Credits
and Links:
Bible Searchers Sites
The Oracles of Zechariah by Robert D. Mock MD
Jeremiah and the Five Guardians of Solomon’s Temple
Treasures  by Robert D.
Mock MD
 
Vendyl Jones Research
Institute Sites
Vendyl Jones Research Institute Home Page
Emeq Hamelekh  by the Vendyl Jones Research Institute
The Copper Scroll and the
Escavations at Qumron by
Vendyl Jones
Dead Sea Scroll Deception Part One by Vendyl Jones
Dead Sea Scroll Deception Part Two  by Vendyl Jones
Dead Sea Scroll Deception Part Three by Vendyl Jones
The Ark of the Covenant by Vendyl Jones
A Door of Hope by the Vendyl Jones Research Institute
Ashes for Beauty--The Mysterious Ashes of the Red
Heifer by Jim Long
The Gate Between Two Walls, by Vendyl Jones
Vendyl Jones and the Ark of the Covenant by Gerard Robins
 
Temple
Mount Sites
The Temple Institute on recreation the Furnishing for the New Temple in
Jerusalem
The Temple Mount in Jerusalem by
the Temple Mount Organization
The Gihon Springs Temple Site by Ernest Martin
 
Emeq
HaMelekh Sites
Emeq HaMelekh   by Robert D. Mock MD
Emeq Hamelekh  by the Vendyl Jones Research Institute
The Temple and the Copper Scrolls by the Order of the Nazorean Essenes
Emeq HaMelekh and the Ark in King Tut’s Tomb by Emeq Hamelekh  by the Vendyl Jones
The Treasures in the House of the Lord by Lambert Dolphin
 
Babylon
Ancient Babylon collection of pictures by Joseph Berrigan
Babylon by the Catholic Encyclopedia New Advent
Babylon Why the Confusion by Zion Ministry
Cybermuseum Mesopotamia by Jay Dambroso
Babylonian by CrystalLinks
Babylon
Links - The Ancient World by Frank Smitha of Britannica India
 
The
Dynasty of Nebuchadnezzar
The Fall of Nineveh by Jona Lenderling
Opis or Ancient Baghdad by Jona Lenderling
Baghdad, Ancient Center for Jewish Life by Eliezer Segel
Nabuchodonosor by the Catholic Encyclopedia New
Advent
Nidintu-Bel, Nebuchadnezzar III by Jona Lenderling
Arakha, Nebuchadnezzar IV by Jona Lenderling
Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream
 
Hanging
Gardens and the Temples Esagila and Etememanki
The Hanging Gardens of Babylon by Alaa Ashmawy
The Hanging Gardens of Babylon by the UnMuseum
The History of Plumbing - Babylonia by The Plumber
The Tower of Babel by the UnNatural Museum
Temple of Esagila by Jona Lenderling
Akitu Festival of the New Years by Jona Lenderling
 
Cyrus and
Persia
The First Declaration of Human Rights
Cyrus takes Babylon by Jona Lenderling
Zopyrus and the Capture of Babylon by Jona Lenderling
Gobryas  by Jona Lenderling
Mesopotamia and the Persians
The Behistun Inscription by Jona Lenderling
Susa, favorite capital of Darius the Great by Jony Lenderling
The Collossi of Memnon
The Colossus of Rhodes by Alaa Ashmawy
 
 Message
from BibleSearchers
 
BibleSearchers
scans the world for information that has relevance on the time of the
end.  It is our prayer
the believers in the Almighty
One of Israel to “watch and be ready”.  Our readiness has nothing to do
tryin
progression of evil on our planet earth.  In our
readiness, we seek to be prepared for the coming of the M
that goodness and evil will be manifested in its fullest.  Our preparation
is a pathway of spiritual readiness
peace.  Our defender is
the Lord of hosts. The time of the end suggests that the Eternal One of
Israel’s in
out this chapter of earth’s history so that the
perpetrators of evil, those that seek power, greed and contro
eliminated from this planet earth.  The wars of the heavens are being
played out on this planet earth and
through it to testify of
the might, power, justice and the love of the God of Israel.  In a world
of corruption a
disinformation, we cannot always know what the historical
truth is and who is promoting evil or mis-inform
guarantee our sources but we will always seek to portray trends that can be
validated in the Torah and th
prophets of the Old and the New
Testament.
 
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