Cyaxares, Judea. We first hear of him with certainty after the death of his father; Succeeds whose extensive projects he made it his business to complete. This his father. was done by so reducing the Assyrian monarchy as to subordinate it to the Babylonian, and finally to blend both, as one sovereignty, in his own person. In conjunction with Cyaxares, the Mede, he Joins crossed the Euphrates, rescued Carchemish from the usurpation of Rescues Egypt, overran Syria, and some years afterwards subjugated Egypt Carchemish. itself. He first appears in the Bible in the reign of Jehoiakim, king Invades of Judah, as invading that country; and although he did not wholly ravage it, but upon certain conditions restored the Jewish prince to his throne, he plundered the temple, carrying its spoils to the temple of Belus, and, at the same time, among other captives distinguished for their beauty and illustrious for their rank, he took with him Daniel and his three companions, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. Daniel and It was at this period also that, having established and extended his companions. empire, he applied himself to fortify and ornament his capital, and Fortifies that Babylon first began to acquire that magnitude and splendour for which it has been celebrated in all ages. his Babylon. In the second year of his reign the king was exceedingly distressed, His vision. on account of a dream, which appeared to him to involve in it some important intimations, and which yet passed entirely from his memory. Of the terrified Chaldeans, who were the priests and the astrologers of the country, he made the extraordinary requisition, that they should not only give an interpretation of the vision, but recall its vanished circumstances to his mind; enforcing this arbitrary demand by threatening the destruction of themselves and families, in case of their non-compliance. There can be no doubt that these menaces would have been too surely executed, had not the insignificant captive, Daniel, undertaken, in reliance upon the God of heaven, to accomplish that which lay not within the compass of human ability. His faith did not deceive him; the sanguinary decree was suspended; the purport and circumstances of the monarch's dream were revealed to the prophet in a vision of the night; and by detailing the last, Interpreted and explaining the first, he obtained, with the remission of the by Daniel. punishment threatened against the Chaldeans, the highest distinctions of the empire, under its absolute and impetuous master. As hasty in his gratitude as in his wrath, the tribute now paid by Nebuchadnezzar to the wisdom of this extraordinary young man was not less extravagant than his former displeasure against the sages who had forfeited his confidence. He prostrated himself before him; commanded that they should offer an oblation to him, "with sweet odours;" promoted his three friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, to distinguished offices in the state; and made him chief of the wise men of Babylon. The vision itself is too important to be wholly passed over in silence, both on account of the great events which it foretold, and because it establishes certain facts connected with this biographical sketch. It presented to him a gigantic image, and its significa. tion. The image of excellent brightness and appalling majesty, singularly composed of four metals. His "head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, his legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay. While the attention of Nebuchadnezzar was fastened upon this object, from an unseen quarter a stone was launched at the image, and having smitten the incongruous materials of which it was composed, and crumbled them into dust, the stone itself increased, and became a great mountain, which appeared to fill the whole earth. Such was the dream; and the interpretation was as momentous as the vision was in itself extraordinary. It referred to the successive monarchies of the Babylonians, signified by the richest metal; the Persians, who next rose, typified by the silver; the Grecians, to whom these again were subjected in the days of Alexander, prefigured by the brass; and the Romans, by whom these last were subdued, symbolized by the iron; these, in their turn, losing their power, and having their dominion broken into various fragments by the incursions of the northern barbarians, represented by the debased and incoherent mixture of iron and clay, forming the feet of the image. The stone is explained by the prophet himself also to refer to the spiritual kingdom of the Messiah, set up under the Roman domination, which alone can neither know change nor end, and which is to be as universal in its influence as eternal in its character. We observed, that Nebuchadnezzar might be considered as the first monarch of the Babylonish empire; since under him its ascendancy over that of Assyria was so complete as to immerge the latter in itself: and this fact is distinctly established by the address of Daniel to the king," Thou art this head of gold." While Nebuchadnezzar was thus occupied at Babylon, Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, rebelled the second time; on which occasion the various nations tributary to Nebuchadnezzar's crown were instructed to invade Judea; and Jerusalem was shortly after again plundered by the king in person. Yet the final blow was not struck; for after laying the country waste, he placed its barren sceptre in the hand of Zedekiah. Rebellion of Egypt's decline. Zedekiah's rebellion. By one of those incidental, but important remarks, so frequently to be met with in the brief and simple narratives of the Bible, we learn the declining and diminished state of Egypt at this time. "And the king of Egypt came not again any more out of his land: for the king of Babylon had taken, from the river of Egypt unto the river Euphrates, all that pertained to the king of Egypt. Nine years after this event, the infatuated Zedekiah rebelled against his conqueror, encouraged by Pharaoh-hophra, king of Egypt; and, at the same time, other nations began to show symptoms of impatience under his yoke. Nebuchadnezzar, with the promptitude and energy which characterised him, determined to march against all these revolters; but, perplexed as to the quarter against which he should first direct his irresistible forces, he seems, from a singular 21, 23. Pharaoh passage in the prophecies of Ezekiel, to have had recourse to a Ezek. xxi. practice common in that day, of divination by arrows; a mode not Divination confined to the Babylonians, but practised by the Greeks, and by the by arrows. Arabs down to the very days of Mohammed. He determined to march against the Jews; and having rapidly taken their chief cities, he sat down before Jerusalem. In the meanwhile the king of Egypt attempted a diversion in their favour, but retreated upon the ad- Retreat of vancement of Nebuchadnezzar against him. The siege of Jerusalem hophra. occupied so long a time, that the monarch himself withdrew from it, leaving its conduct to his generals, by whom it was at length assaulted, and taken by night. The last king of Judah was deprived Jerusalem of sight, and sent to Babylon, and the city entirely dismantled; but the progress of this dreadful transaction will be noticed more particularly in its proper place. After this complete victory, he returned home enriched with the spoils of tributary nations, and more especially with the plunder of Jerusalem, to execute another absurd project of unlimited power, affording a fresh example of that intoxication of reason and justice almost inseparable from its possession. 66 taken. Dura. Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, whose Golden height was threescore cubits, and the breadth thereof six cubits: he image. set it up in the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon." Grotius supposes that he has discovered the site of this idolatrous transaction, on the banks of the Euphrates, on a spot called Duraba by Ptolemy. St. Jerome notices a small difference as to the reading of this name among various writers, and remarks that the term Dura is rendered Plain of by the LXX. by a word which signifies an enclosure. An enclosed plain appears consonant with the structure of Persian temples, which consisted simply of a large court, surrounded by walls, but uncovered by any roof, in the midst of which the perpetual fire burned upon an altar. Supposing an enclosure at all, less compass than is implied by the term a plain could not admit the countless throngs who, impelled by the severe decree of the king, crowded to pay homage to the idol; and if it were set up on an open country, known by the name of Dura, the place will appear to be still better adapted to the innumerable worshippers than any imaginable enclosure. The image may either be supposed to have been consecrated to Belus, the principal idol of the Babylonians, or to the memory of his father, it being no unusual thing to deify a deceased monarch: or it might be a representation of himself-an excess of pride, folly, and impiety, not without its parallel in the records of human presumption. To determine this point is very immaterial, and must be to us absolutely impossible. The proportions of the image have greatly surprised and puzzled all writers upon the subject. A statue ninety Dimensions feet in height, and only nine in breadth, is in altitude ten times its of the thickness; whereas, in the proportion of the human figure, a man's height does not exceed six times his breadth. To reduce the figure to a due proportion, and ascribe the remainder to the pedestal, as image. Egyptian idols. Riches of is done by Dr. Prideaux, would be to make the pedestal exceed by ten feet the height of the figure; a violation of proportion not to be imagined, even in the rudest state of the arts. The ingenious editor of Calmet has proposed a much more probable solution in the fragments attached to the Dictionary of the Bible; and which fully agrees with the known forms of the statues of the same age. Although the specimens of that country have all perished, we have Egyptian examples of sculpture of an equal antiquity; and it is probable, from the high scientific renown of Egypt, as well as from the circumstance that he had despoiled Egypt of several of her cities, and was no doubt well acquainted with her public monuments of all kinds, that Nebuchadnezzar would prefer to form his idol after the pattern of her images. We may, at least, fairly presume, in the absence of other specimens of sculpture of equal date, that those which remain of Egypt may be considered as representing the taste of that age, and the proportions and attitudes then preferred. The idols of Egypt, of a date so remote as the age of Nebuchadnezzar, were uniformly carved in a sitting posture, and with a lofty ornament on the head, considered, by the Egyptians, as a mark of some divine attribute. Let us suppose, therefore, the height of the figure to be described by Daniel, not as it was while sitting, but as it would have been if erect that is, proportionally, not perpendicularly-and to this conjecture let the head-ornament, inseparable from statues of the gods of that age, and the pedestal upon which the image was placed, be taken also into the account, and the alleged disproportion will vanish. The original word, (,) rendered breadth, may be translated either depth or thickness, as will best comport with the preservation of the due proportion of the figure. As we have already (under the article SEMIRAMIS,) adverted to the immense wealth treasured up in the temple of Babylon, the image thus raised agrees with the testimony of ancient writers in general, both as to the inexhaustible riches of the Babylonish monarchs, and their appropriation to purposes of idolatry. Incredible as these may appear at first sight, it must be recollected, that we are very inadequate judges of the actual mines of the oriental world; and that it is indisputable that the overflowing affluence of the Persian monarchy was subsequently drawn from the spoils of the Babylonian empire; while it is equally evident that Nebuchadnezzar derived the immense resources which enabled him to effect this, and similar works of magnificence, from the plunder of subjected nations, among whom Judea was not the least, and from the treasuries of their respective monarchs, whom he either rendered tributary, or reduced to a state of captivity. It was one of the strongest tokens of submission which he could 6 In Early Oriental History. demand from the conquered nations, to require of them to worship his God. And while the remotest provinces of his empire were expected to present this homage, in the persons of their governors and representatives, the varieties of language among them rendered it necessary that a signal should be given, which all would comprehend. This was now made by all the then known instruments of music, some of which are now unknown to us; and when these were heard, all the people prostrated themselves before the idol. Meshach, There were three men, and only three among these multitudes, Shadrach, who had fortitude to resist the imperial decree, at least, so far as and their personal homage was concerned, and who dared to be singular Abed-nego. in order to be good. These were Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, the illustrious companions of Daniel; who, from what elsewhere unequivocally determines his character, himself must have been absent at the time on the public business, or have been tolerated in his voluntary withdrawment, since he is not named on this memorable occasion. When the king heard of this refusal, his rage was unbounded, and he commanded them to be brought before him; but whether he felt some" compunctious visitings of nature, which rendered him unwilling to inflict so cruel a punishment as he had threatened upon any man; or whether he recollected, with any emotions of respect and gratitude, the services of men who had faithfully promoted the interests of his empire, in wonderful inconsistency, both with his general impetuosity of temper, and his excessive wrath at their presumption, he condescended to expostulate with them, to suspend their punishment, and to give them an opportunity of securing its remission, by affording another chance of obedience. But when their firm but respectful reply, absolutely refusing to worship his idol, met his ear, and they dared to justify, in the royal presence, conduct dictated by their consciences, and demanded of them by their God, his suppressed indignation broke forth in augmented and uncontrollable fury, and with an impotence of malice which defeated its own purpose, he ordered the furnace to be heated (the death to which the disobedient were doomed) seven times hotter than usual. They were then led forth to execution, and the fierceness of the fire was such, that the flames rushing upon the soldiers who were employed to cast them into the furnace, consumed them. The monarch himself was present to feast his eyes upon this cruel sacrifice to his superstition and tyranny, when a decisive miracle was wrought to preserve his victims. appeared to have no power to harm the men, who fell down into the midst of it; but rising from their bands, (these only being consumed,) they walked unhurt amidst the flames, accompanied by a fourth personage, then first seen, of so glorious and majestic an aspect, that Nebuchadnezzar had no hesitation in deeming him a divine person. Struck with this miraculous deliverance, he now called them forth, and, in the presence of the whole court, it appeared The fire Miraculous deliverance. |
