Wonders _
Babylon, Ancient Iraq
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, Zedekiah, Hezekiah plus Ezra and Baruch the scribe were living in a land where the inhabitants of Judah were exposed to a life of sensual pleasure, robust economic prosperity and a religion in Babylon that was ‘almost’ a clone of the temple services that they were accustom to at the temple of Solomon.
Also they found that they were in the company of many of their exiled brethren from Judah during the invasion of Senna-cherib about a century prior when according the Taylor Prism, Hezekiah was ‘shut up like a bird in a cage’. Here also were some descendants of the former Northern Kingdom of Israel known as the Saki in the Behistun Stone and the Guti, Ghomerians, and the Cimmerians that had participated in the wars against Assyria that Babylon eventually conquered.
Within the city of Babylon, the most conspicuous sites were the Temple Etemenanki, a seven story ziggurat reputedly built over the site of the ancient Tower of Babylon. Here also was the Hanging Gardens, fed by a chain pump bringing water from the Euphrates. It was built for the wife of Nebuchadnezzar, Amyitis, a Median princess, daughter of Cyaxarses and dedicated to the semi-legendary Queen Semirames.
The religion of Babylon was a religion easily adapted to by the Judean captives. The rituals in the Temple of Esagila, where the sacred vessels of Solomon were stored, and the gods of the Babylonians and the festive New Years celebration of Akitu were a seductive lure to the displaced children of Judah.
After the death of Nebuchadnezzar, Nabonidus took over the realm. In the Cylinder, Stele and Chronicles of Nabonidus we learn of the last remaining years of Babylon, the co-regency of his son Belshazzar, who was drinking libations in the gold sacred vessels from the Temple of the Lord when Babylon fell without the shedding of any blood. Gobryas, the general of Cyrus, who was of Israeli descent, conquered Babylon, the priests of Babylon fled to Pergamum and soon the seventy years of exile were over as Cyrus the anointed messiah encouraged all the displaced tribes and peoples to return to the land of their ancestors.
Babylon, Ancient Iraq
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, Zedekiah, Hezekiah plus Ezra and Baruch the scribe were living in a land where the inhabitants of Judah were exposed to a life of sensual pleasure, robust economic prosperity and a religion in Babylon that was ‘almost’ a clone of the temple services that they were accustom to at the temple of Solomon.
Also they found that they were in the company of many of their exiled brethren from Judah during the invasion of Senna-cherib about a century prior when according the Taylor Prism, Hezekiah was ‘shut up like a bird in a cage’. Here also were some descendants of the former Northern Kingdom of Israel known as the Saki in the Behistun Stone and the Guti, Ghomerians, and the Cimmerians that had participated in the wars against Assyria that Babylon eventually conquered.
Within the city of Babylon, the most conspicuous sites were the Temple Etemenanki, a seven story ziggurat reputedly built over the site of the ancient Tower of Babylon. Here also was the Hanging Gardens, fed by a chain pump bringing water from the Euphrates. It was built for the wife of Nebuchadnezzar, Amyitis, a Median princess, daughter of Cyaxarses and dedicated to the semi-legendary Queen Semirames.
The religion of Babylon was a religion easily adapted to by the Judean captives. The rituals in the Temple of Esagila, where the sacred vessels of Solomon were stored, and the gods of the Babylonians and the festive New Years celebration of Akitu were a seductive lure to the displaced children of Judah.
After the death of Nebuchadnezzar, Nabonidus took over the realm. In the Cylinder, Stele and Chronicles of Nabonidus we learn of the last remaining years of Babylon, the co-regency of his son Belshazzar, who was drinking libations in the gold sacred vessels from the Temple of the Lord when Babylon fell without the shedding of any blood. Gobryas, the general of Cyrus, who was of Israeli descent, conquered Babylon, the priests of Babylon fled to Pergamum and soon the seventy years of exile were over as Cyrus the anointed messiah encouraged all the displaced tribes and peoples to return to the land of their ancestors.