Psalm 137 personifies Babylon as a woman who is doomed to destruction and whose infant children will be savagely killed.

Because of Babylon's pride, she will be destroyed. Although the conquest of Jerusalem is in keeping with the will of God, the brutality and greed of the conquerors the fruit of Babylon's idolatry and failure to recognize the kingship of God are not. This is a result of her overweening pride, evidenced in her statement that 'I am, and there is none besides me' (v. God gave his people over into her power, but rather than caring for them she has shown them no mercy. If God is sovereign and makes use of Babylon to punish Judah, can Babylon as a tool in the hand of its Master be blamed for its behavior? Isaiah addresses this problem by portraying Babylon as a woman, the queen of kingdoms ( 47:5 ), who should be tender and delicate but is not. Yet the destruction of Jerusalem by Babylon presents the prophets with a dilemma. The prophets describe Babylon as a city of pride and idolatry. The postexilic reader would have seen the roots of the destruction of Jerusalem in the foolish pride of Hezekiah and in the greed of Babylon. The visit was probably an attempt by Babylon to foment problems for Assyria in the west, thereby diverting attention from Babylon. This was a startling revelation, for Assyria was the great power of the day and seemingly unassailable. The prophet Isaiah chastised the king for showing off the treasures of Judah and predicted that Babylon would some day carry these riches off. This theme will reappear in the prophetic writings against the city.ĭuring the reign of Hezekiah, envoys from Babylon came to Jerusalem ( 2 Ki 20:12-19 ). The great evil of the tower builders is their sinful pride against the rule of God. The Hebrew word for 'confused' in verse 9 is babal, which sounds like babel (Babylon). As a result of this biblical imagery, Babylon has transcended its historical significance to become synonymous with sin and pride in Western art and literature.īabylon first appears in the Bible under the guise of the tower of Babel ( Gen.

In the Book of Revelation, these themes culminate in the image of the whore of Babylon. Certain themes become associated with it. Babylon has both a historic role and a theological role in the Bible. Bible Dictionaries - Baker's Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Babylon Babylon Ĭapital of the Neo-Babylon Empire of the mid-first millennium b.c.

Babylon dictionary equivalent