Babylonia, (Βαβυλωνία), a name for the southern portion of Mesopotamia, constituting the region of which Babylon was the chief city. The latter name alone is occasionally used in Scripture for the entire region; but its most usual designation is CHALDEA SEE CHALDEA (q.v.). The Chaldaeans proper, or Chasdim, however, were probably originally from the mountainous region farther north, now occupied by the Kurds (with which name, indeed, many find an etymological connection; see Golius, ad Alfrag. p. 17; Rodiger, in the Zeitschr. f. d. Kunde d. Morgenl. 3, 8), a portion of whom under the Assyrian sway may have migrated into Mesopotamia (see Isaiah 23:13), and thus eventually became masters of the rich plain of Shinar (see Vitringa, ad Jesa. 1:412 sq.; Gesenius, art. Chaldaer, in Ersch and Gruber’s Encycl.). The original inhabitants nevertheless appear to have been of the Shemitic family (see Adelung, Mithridat. 1:314 sq.; Olshausen, Emend. zum A. T. p. 41 sq.); and their language belonged to the class of tongues spoken by that race, particularly to the Aramaic branch, and was indeed a dialect similar to that which is now called the Chaldee. SEE ARAMAEAN LANGUAGE; SEE CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS. The two words, Babylonia and Chaldaea, were, however, sometimes used in another signification; Babylonia, as containing in an extended sense Assyria also and Mesopotamia, nearly all the countries which Assyria in its widest meaning embraced; while Chaldaea indicated, in a narrower signification, the south-western part of Babylonia between the Euphrates and Babylon (Strabo, 16; Ptol.). In Hebrew, Babylonia bore the name of SHINAR SEE SHINAR (q.v.), or “the land of Shinar;” while “Babylon” (Psalms 137:1) and “the land of the Chaldaeans” (Jeremiah 24:5; Ezekiel 12:13) seem to signify the empire of Babylon. It is in the latter sense that we shall here treat it. SEE CHALDAEANS.
I. Geography and general Description. — This province of Middle Asia was bordered on the north by Mesopotamia, on the east by the Tigris, on the south by the Persian Gulf, and on the west by the Arabian Desert. On the north it began at the point where the Euphrates and Tigris approach each other, and extended to their common outlet in the Persian Gulf, pretty nearly comprising the country now designated Irak Arabi. The climate is temperate and salubrious. The country in ancient times was very prolific, especially in corn and palms. Timber-trees it did not produce. Many parts have springs of naphtha. As rain is infrequent, even in the winter months, the country owes its fruitfulness to the annual overflow of the Euphrates and the Tigris, whose waters are conveyed over the land by means of canals. Quintus Curtius (i. 5) declares that the country between the Euphrates and the Tigris was covered with so rich a soil that the cattle were driven from their pastures lest they should be destroyed by satiety and fatness. During the three great empires of the East, no tract of the whole appears to have been so reputed for fertility and riches as the district of Babylonia, which arose in the main from the proper management of the mighty river which flowed through it. Herodotus mentions that, when reduced to the rank of a province, it yielded a revenue to the kings of Persia which comprised half their income. The terms in which the Scriptures describe its natural as well as its acquired supremacy when it was the imperial city, evidence the same facts. They call it “Babylon, the glory of kingdoms; the beauty of the Chaldee excellency; the lady of kingdoms, given to pleasure; that dwelleth carelessly, and sayeth in her heart I am, and there is none else beside me.” But now, in the expressive and inimitable language of the same book, may it be said, “She sits as a widow on the ground. There is no more a throne for thee, O daughter of the Chaldaeans!” As for the abundance of the country, it has vanished as clean away as if “the besom of desolation” had swept it from north to south, the whole land, from the outskirts of Bagdad to the farthest reach of sight, lying a melancholy waste.
In order to defend the country against hostile attacks from its neighbors, northward from Babylonia, between the two rivers, a wall was built, which is known under the name of the Median Wall (Xen. Anab. 2:4,12). — The Babylonians were famous for the manufacture of cloth and carpets; they also excelled in making perfumes, in carving in wood, and in working in precious stones. They were a commercial as well as manufacturing people, and carried on a very extensive trade alike by land and by sea. Babylon was indeed a commercial depot between the Eastern and the Western worlds (Ezekiel 17:4; Isaiah 43:14). SEE COMMERCE. Thus favored by nature and aided by art, Babylonia became the first abode of social order and the cradle of civilization. Here first arose a powerful empire-here astronomy was first cultivated here measures and weights were first employed. Herodotus has noticed the Chaldaeans as a tribe of priests (i. 28); Diodorus (i. 28) as a separate caste under Belus, an Egyptian priest; while the book of Daniel refers to them as astrologers, magicians, and soothsayers; but there can be little doubt, as laid down by Gesenius (Jesa. 23:13), that it was the name of a distinct nation, if not, as Heeren (Manual of Anc. Hist. p. 28) has maintained, the name of the northern nomades in general. In connection with Babylonia, the Chaldaeans are to be regarded as a conquering nation as well as a learned people; they introduced a correct method of reckoning time, and began their reign with Nabonassar, B.C. 747. There is a scriptural reference to the proud period in the history of the Chaldees when learned men filled the streets and the temples of Nineveh and Babel: “’ Behold the land of the Chaldaeans; this people was not, till the Assyrian founded it for them that dwell in the wilderness: they set up the towers thereof, they raised up the palaces thereof; and he brought it to ruin” (Isaiah 23:13). Babylonia, during this period, was “the land of the Chaldaeans,” the same as that into which the children of Judah were carried away captive (Jeremiah 24:5). SEE CAPTIVITY.
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Author: McClintock and Strong Cyclopedia
Keywords: Babylonia
Bible reference(s): 1 Peter 5:13, 2 Chronicles 32:31, 2 Kings 23:29, 2 Kings 24:7, 2 Kings 25:27, Daniel 5:30, Daniel 9:1, Ezekiel 12:13, Ezekiel 17:4, Genesis 10:6, Genesis 11:3, Isaiah 13:21, Isaiah 21:1, Isaiah 23:13, Isaiah 43:14, Jeremiah 24:5, Jeremiah 46:2, Jeremiah 50:15, Jeremiah 51:31, Job 1:17, Joshua 7:21, Psalms 137:1
Source: John McClintock and James Strong, Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature.
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