The Babylon Code: Is America in Prophecy?

By Richard N. Rhoades

At a reception in the Kremlin on November 17, 1956, Nikita Khrushchev made a startling comment aimed at America: Whether you like it or not, history is on our side. We will bury you! The break-up of the USSR in 1991 was hailed by the Westespecially Americaas a victory over communism and its global threat of tyranny. Throughout the world the cry was heard: Communist rule is over! The evil empire is gone! But was it?

In The Babylon Code: Is AMERICA in Prophecy? author Richard N. Rhoades examines the writings of Russian dissidents and high-ranking communist military leaders to explain the real reason behind Khrushchevs angry outburst and to illustrate why Russia is more dangerous today than ever before. His research reveals a long-range KGB strategic plan for global domination, known among some of the highest ranking Communist military defectors to the West.

Rhoades also explores the real reason Russia is now flexing its muscles to the United States and the world, and what the ancient Hebrew prophets said about a great latter nation in the Bible code-named Babylon, whose real identity is mentioned in the Hebrew Scriptures not once but twice as AMERIKA (AMERICA). The Babylon Code offers a well-researched, in-depth look at the causes of these threats and actions, viewing Russia, America and its Jewish inhabitants with a new perspective.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Oct 29, 2014
• ISBN: 9781491736463

Richard N. Rhoades

Richard Rhoades holds a Master of Divinity degree from Asbury Theological Seminary.He is also the author of Lady Liberty: The Ancient Goddess of America and Faith of The Ages: The Hebraic Roots of the Christian Faith. He currently lives in California.

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CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

Preface

About This Book

Chapter 1 The Rise Of Ancient Babylon

Chapter 2 The Babylonian Captivity

Chapter 3 The Fall Of Ancient Babylon

Chapter 4 The Latter Day Babylon Of Jeremiah

Chapter 5 The Latter Day Babylon Of Isaiah

Chapter 6 The Deception Of America

Chapter 7 The Northern Confederacy

Chapter 8 The Bright Arrows Of Destruction

Chapter 9 The Day Of The LORD

Chapter 10 The Babylon Code Revealed

Conclusion

Endnotes

Bibliography

PHOTOS & ART ILLUSTRATIONS

Southwestern Artist Sharon Higgins: page 146.

Wikimedia Commons:

Front Cover, Title page & pages: 3, 4, 9, 33, 35, 37, 45, 59, 62, 75, 76, 91, 94, 95, 100, 103, 138, 139, 145, 150, 167, 172, 175, 177, 190, 192, 193, 194, 195, 203, 204, 205, 206, 207, 208, 209, 210, 211, 215, 217, 218, 219, 220, 225, 226, 234, 241, 249, 250, 251, 252, 259, 263, 289, 291, 294, 295, 298, 307.

Scripture quotations marked AKJV are from the Authorized King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture quotations marked JPS are from the Tanakh, published by the Jewish Publication Society. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked NASV are from the New American Standard Bible. Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations from The Interlinear NIV Hebrew-English Old Testament Copyright © 1979, 1982, 1985, 1987 by the Zondervan Corporation. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV, Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

Other Works

by

Richard N. Rhoades

*

FAITH

Of The Ages

The Hebraic Roots

Of The Christian Faith

*

LADY LIBERTY

The Ancient Goddess Of America

*www.ladylibertybooks.net

To the LORD God Adonai, and then to the Jewish people, who have selflessly given their lives, property and fortunes to preserve the Word of God and freely give it to the nations of the world.

Acknowledgements

This author would like to acknowledge the very special contributions of the following persons. First and foremost, I want to thank my wife Judith, who during the past seventeen years of research and fact gathering for this book has been a constant source of encouragement and support. I am endebted to Joseph and Debbie Good, the founders of Hatikva Ministries, who first introduced me to this subject, in 1996. I also want to thank Al and Tommie Cooper, founders of God’s Learning Channel, based in the Southwest between the desert towns of Odessa and Midland, Texas, whose TV broadcasts played a major role in my discovery of this subject.

The Southwest Artist Sharon Higgins has been a treasure. Sharon has graciously made possible the art illustrations for Faith of the Ages, Lady Liberty, and now The Babylon Code.

I also want to acknowledge the many staff members at iUniverse, whose expertise and professionalism have made The Babylon Code possible, as well as our other books.

Finally, I would like to acknowledge our friends, family members and well-wishers who over the years have expressed their warm support and encouragement.

May God richly bless each of you!

Preface

When Nikita Khrushchev emerged victorious as the Soviet premier on February 25, 1956, following Stalin’s death in 1953, the outside world knew little of him. Short and heavyset, it is said that he radiated energy but not intellect, and was dismissed by many as a buffoon who would not last long. British Foreign Secretary Harold Macmillan openly wondered, How can this fat, vulgar man with pig eyes and ceaseless flow of talk be the head—the aspirant Tsar for all those millions of people?

At the time, world leaders openly scoffed at Nikita Khrushchev’s appointment to the helm of the Soviet Union. Even when Khrushchev made his outburst against America from Moscow on November 18, 1956, boasting, We will bury you, they didn’t believe him. Instead, they took it as a joke.

However, for those high ranking Communist military leaders who knew the Communist Party and later defected to the West, Khrushchev’s outburst was no joke. Rather, it was an ominous warning to the leaders of the West, especially to those in Washington, D.C., of what was yet to come.

Today, Khrushchev’s angry statement—We will bury you!—has long been forgotten by the West, especially America. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, in 1991, to this present date our elected officials, military leaders, as well as the media (both conservative and liberal), continue to affirm the West’s belief that the Evil Empire is gone; that the Cold War is over!

But for those who personally know the ruthlessness of the KGB and its diabolical plan to crush Western capitalism, nothing could be further from the truth.

About This Book

The idea for this book took place on the back side the the desert in southwest Texas, in January 1996. One day while watching TV, I turned to God’s Learning Channel, located in Odessa, Texas, and was introduced to the Hebrew scholar Joseph Good who was teaching on a great latter day nation in the Bible code-named Babylon. During the program, Joseph not only told his audience that this nation was the United States of America, but that it could be established in the Scriptures. Joseph made another startling claim: that the Statue of Liberty is in the Scriptures. As I listened, thoughts raced through my mind: Did the ancient prophets really teach about such a nation? Can it be proved by Scripture? Is the Statue of Liberty really in the Scriptures?

From that point on I was compelled to find the truth for myself. Little did I know that my quest to find the answers to my questions would span almost two decades of fact gathering and thousands of miles. What started as a simple quest to find answers to my questions turned into a seventeen year journey that began in my hometown public library. From there my quest expanded to scores of public libraries both large and small. Some of the more notable libraries included the Library of Congress, the New York Public Library, the National Park Library on Liberty Island, the Sacramento Public Library, the Atlanta Public Library, the Albuquerque Public Library, as well as libraries and museums in France.

During this time the volume of information was so great that what originally became one huge manuscript had to be divided into two manuscripts. Eventually, those two manuscripts became two books: the first entitled Lady Liberty: The Ancient Goddess of America, and its sequel, The Babylon Code.

In The Babylon Code you will hear from those who know the truth about the unexpected demise of the Soviet Union, it’s hidden agenda of the Communist elite, and it’s rapid rise as the new Russia under it’s so-called pro-democratic leaders. But even more important, you shall see the unfolding of this great end-time event in the Scriptures, as it was predicted some twenty-five centuries earlier by the Hebrew prophets.

For centuries, theologians have maintained that America is not in the Scriptures. Yet most Bible scholars agree that other latter day nations are indeed named in Scripture, such as Gog and Magog [Russia], Persia, [Iran], Ethiopia, Libya and Gomer [Germany] (Ezek. 38:2-6). So here is the great question: Why would God, who knows the end from the beginning, use ancient terms in Scripture to identify modern day nations, such as Russia, Iran, Libya, Ethiopia, and Germany, and overlook the wealthiest and most powerful nation on earth—America?

While we do not claim to have all the answers to this question, seventeen years of research and fact gathering has led us to conclude that America is indeed in the Hebrew Scriptures in a major way. History concurs that among the nations of the ancient world, Babylon was the most beautiful, prosperous, and powerful nation on earth. But even more important, Babylon was inhabited by a major Jewish population—the largest concentration of Jews on earth.

In much the same manner, the Hebrew prophets predicted the sudden rise of another great nation of the last days code-named Babylon. Like ancient Babylon, it too would be the most beautiful, prosperous, and powerful nation on earth. Like Babylon, it too would be inhabited by a major Jewish population—the largest concentration of Jews on earth.

In the Hebrew Scriptures we are told that God has so designed history that it is bound to repeat itself, saying: "The thing that has been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun" (Eccl. 1:9; AKJV).

According to the Hebrew prophets, ancient Babylon was destined to play an even greater role in the latter day plan of God. Babylon would become the prototype for one of the most incredible prophetic accounts in the Hebrew Scriptures—The Babylon Code.

Now, by God’s unmerited grace and boundless mercy, we pass this timely message on to the American people, especially the American Jewish people.

Richard Rhoades

1

The Rise Of Ancient Babylon

THE HEBREW SCRIPTURES TELL US THAT NIMROD founded the city of Babel [Babylon] as his capital (Gen. 10:10). Historical evidence suggests that Babylon began as a small town that had sprung up at the beginning of the 3rd millennium B.C.E. (BC). Located on the Euphrates River in the fertile Mesopotamian valley the town of Babylon grew in size and gained independence with the rise of the First Amorite Babylonian Dynasty, in 1894 B.C.E.

Ancient tablets record that during the reign of the sixth Amorite king, Hammurabi (1728-1686 B.C.E.), Babylon experienced great prosperity, advanced astronomy, architecture, mathematics, and literature, creating a short-lived Babylonian Empire that quickly dissolved upon his death. Afterwards, Babylon spent long periods of time under Assyrian, Kassite and Elamite domination.

Between 900 B.C.E. and 681 B.C.E., twenty-four kings had sat on the throne of Babylon. The rulers included Assyrian and Chaldean tribal leaders, as well as Babylonian nobles and officials.¹ During this time Babylonia suffered economic instability because its trade and prosperity was dependent upon an effective canal system, which was nonexistent due to an ineffective government.²

The deaths of Kandalanu, king of Babylon, and Ashurbanipal, king of Assyria, in about 627 B.C.E., were followed by a surge of Chaldeans from the south. Leading them was a man named Nabopolassar, who occupied Babylon and ascended the throne on November 23, 626 B.C.E.³ Tradition holds that Nabopolassar was a Chaldean who had been a governor of the Sealand under the Assyrians. A political opportunist, Nabopolassar seized the moment and moved into the political vacuum created by the deaths of Kandalanu and Ashurbanipal.

Despite the fact that Nabopolassar was the founder of a brief but powerful Chaldean Dynasty, in his inscriptions he claimed to be the son of a nobody.⁴ While the reason for referring to himself in this manner is uncertain, rather than meaning he was of low birth, it is believed that this was his way of declaring himself the servant of his god.⁵

For ten years the Babylonians and Assyrians fought each other in Babylonia. During this time cities were besieged and changed hands several times. It is said that on one occasion the people of Nippur sold their children into slavery to avoid starvation during a siege. Nevertheless, by 616 B.C.E., Nabopolassar had established his rule over Babylon and was ready to invade Assyria. He led his troops up the Euphrates, where they fought and beat an Assyrian army that was supported by Egyptian troops.⁶

In 615 B.C.E., the Babylonians attacked Ashur but failed to capture it. The following year the Medes, led by Cyaxares, attacked Ashur and sacked it. After Ashur’s fall, Nabopolassar made a treaty and alliance with the Medes.⁷ In 612 B.C.E., Nabopolassar joined forces with the king of the Medes, Cyaxares, and defeated the Assyrians, whose conquest and occupation of the peoples of Western Asia were accompanied with torture, bloodshed and deportations, at Nineveh. It is said that when the Assyrian Empire fell the peoples of the Fertile Crescent breathed a sigh of relief. Jubilation filled their hearts, and hope began to flourish throughout the land, in which the peoples of Judah shared.⁸

In an ancient abridged inscription Nabopolassar describes his victory over the hated Assyrians, saying:

I slaughtered the land of Subartu (Assyria). I turned the hostile land into heaps and ruins. The Assyrian, who since distant days had ruled over all the peoples, and with his heavy yoke had brought injury to the people of the Land, his feet from Akkad I turned back, his yoke I threw off.⁹

Assyria’s empire was divided between the Babylonians and Medes, with the Medes taking control of the north and eastern territories. Nabopolassar was rewarded by Cyaxares with the southwest territories, which included Moab, Ammon, Syria, Egypt, and Judah.¹⁰ Thus what began as a small vassal city-state of the old Assyrian Empire became a sovereign Babylonian city-state that would rapidly rise to prominence among the nations and become the most prosperous, magnificent and militarily powerful city-state of the ancient world.

From this point on the rule of the Chaldeans over Babylonia began, which lasted only eighty-eight years (626-538 B.C.E.). Since Babylon at this time was under Chaldean rulers, among the people of that day the name Chaldea was used as a synonym for Babylonia (Is. 13:19; 47:1, 5; 48:14, 20; Jer. 50:1), a use later extended by the Hebrew prophet Ezekiel to include the entire Babylonian Empire (Ezk. 23:23).

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Perhaps it was overconfidence. Perhaps it was out of necessity. But after the war with Assyria ended, instead of striking out to bring Babylon’s new territories under control, Nabopolassar returned to Babylon to attend the affairs of state. It was at this time that the Egyptian Pharaoh Necho II, who did not want a Babylonian power at his doorstep, joined forces with the vanquished Assyrian king in northern Syria.¹¹ Necho believed that by joining forces with the defeated Assyrian king he could defeat the Babylonians and restore Egypt to its former greatness.

When Nabopolassar, now up in years and in poor health, heard of Necho’s alliance with the vanquished Assyrian king and his depleted army he dispatched his son Nebuchadnezzar to lead Babylon’s military might against Necho and bring about the submission of its new territorial kings.¹²

Historians agree that Nebuchadnezzar’s sudden appearance on the scene of history began the dawning of a new day in Western Asia. From the very beginning, Nebuchadnezzar’s goal was to bring all the different territories of Western Asia under the dominion of one great empire with the aim of establishing a new order of Western civilization based on the Babylon model. The nineteenth century scholar George Rawlinson (1812-1902), who served as Professor of Ancient History in the University of Oxford, England, says:

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Nebuchadnezzar

Nebuchadnezzar is the great monarch of the Babylonian Empire, which, lasting only 88 years—from B.C. 625 to B.C. 538—was for nearly half the time under his sway. Its military glory is due chiefly to him, while the constructive energy, which constitutes its special characteristic, belongs to it still more markedly through his character of genius. It is scarcely too much to say that, but for Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonians would have no place in history.¹³

In 605 B.C.E., Necho and his soldiers met Nebuchadnezzar’s army at Carchemish, a city on the right bank of the Euphrates River, where they were soundly defeated.¹⁴ With Necho’s army in retreat, Nebuchadnezzar marched his troops toward the southwest, bringing Babylon’s new territories into submission, and then pressed on toward Egypt to crush the army of his avowed enemy—Necho.

Just as victory was within Nebuchadnezzar’s grasp he received news from Babylon that his father, Nabopolassar, had died. Fearing a dispute over his succession to the throne, Nebuchadnezzar ended his campaign against Egypt and returned to Babylon, leaving Necho and his troops to fight another day. When Nebuchadnezzar arrived in Babylon, he secured his position as king and then returned to the territories of Syria, Moab, and Judah to take control of Babylon’s Western territories.¹⁵

In 604 B.C.E., Jehoiakim went before Nebuchadnezzar and submitted to him as a vassal ruler (Jer. 36:9-29; 2 Kings 24:7). However, Jehoiakim’s allegiance to Babylon would not last long. The Hebrew Scriptures state:

5 Jehoiakim was twenty and five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem and he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD his God.

6 Against him came up Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and bound him in fetters, to carry him to Babylon.

7 Nebuchadnezzar also carried off the vessels of the house of the LORD to Babylon, and put them in his temple at Babylon (2 Chron. 36:5-7; AKJV).

Apparently, Nebuchadnezzar abandoned his plan of taking Jehoiakim to Babylon and, instead, restored him to the throne of Judah as a vassal king, where he remained faithful to Babylon for three more years. The Scriptures say, "In his days Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up, and Jehoiakim became his servant for three years; then he turned and rebelled against him" (1 Kings 24:1).

During this period the people of Judea began to seethe with discontent. Nebuchadnezzar’s army had withdrawn from Judah and bands of neighboring Arameans, Moabites and Ammonites were raiding Judean frontier communities.

In 598 B.C.E., the Judean people’s discontent broke out in open revolt. Jehoiakim joined the rebellion and refused to pay tribute to Nebuchadnezzar: [King Jehoiakim] . . . turned against him (2 Kings 24:1). At first, Nebuchadnezzar refused to become involved in Judah’s internal affairs. He placed the matter in the hands of his trusted heads of state. But after months of little or no progress, Nebuchadnezzar himself became involved in the campaign to bring Judah under Babylon’s control.

As Nebuchadnezzar marched his troops toward Jerusalem, Jehoiakim suddenly died. Perhaps his death was an assassination. The facts are unknown. Nevertheless, the Scriptures tell us that Jeremiah had prophesied Jehoiakim’s death, saying:

18 Therefore thus saith the LORD concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah; They shall not lament for him, saying, . . . Ah lord! or Ah his glory!

19 He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem (Jer. 22:18-19).

At this time Jehoiakim’s son, Jehoiachin, who was only eighteen, ascended to the throne of Judah. His reign lasted only three months. According to the biblical account: He did evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his father had done (2 Kings 24:9).

When Nebuchadnezzar and his troops arrived at the gates of Jerusalem, in 597 B.C.E., Jehoiachin, along with his mother and his courtiers, commanders and officers, surrendered without a fight. Judah was punished for its rebellion. Nebuchadnezzar ordered Jehoiakin and the leading families of Judah to be deported to Babylonia. Ironically, these were the same people who enjoyed hearing the flattering words of the false prophets and soothsayers (Jer. 27-29; Ezek. 12:21f.; 13:23).

For Nebuchadnezzar the deportation of Jehoiachin, his courtiers, and the leading families of Judah, was not enough. He ordered that the best decorations of the royal palace, as well as the sacred vessels of the Temple be carried off to Babylon (2 Kings 24:12-16). In addition, there was now a need for new Judean leadership that would be loyal to the interests of Babylon.

In Jehoiachin’s place, Nebuchadnezzar appointed Mettaniah, Jehoiachin’s uncle, and gave him the name Zedekiah, which denoted his vassalage position to Babylon.¹⁶ This time, when Nebuchadnezzar left Judea, he made certain that Judah’s new leader, whom he had personally appointed, was on the throne of a much weaker and smaller kingdom. Apparently, while Nebuchadnezzar was in Jerusalem his troops drove back the invading Bedouins who were raiding and plundering frontier Judean communities. As before, however, the restored peace was only temporary. As soon as the Babylonian troops withdrew the raiding and plundering of Judean communities resumed.

In 595-594 B.C.E., the discontent of the Judean people again turned to rioting. Only this time they were not alone. Hostilities and rioting against Babylon rule were also taking place among the peoples of Ammon, Moab, and Edom.¹⁷ In the fourth year of Zedekiah’s reign the ambassadors for Ammon, Moab, Edom, Tyre, and Sidon came to his court in Jerusalem (Jer. 27:3), with the aim of forming an alliance to force the Babylonians to leave their territories. Shortly afterwards, at the request of Nebuchadnezzar, Zedekiah had to go to Babylon to explain the discontent and rioting among his people. Zedekiah visited the king twice: once by sending ambassadors (Jer. 29:3), and once by appearing in person before the king (Jer. 51:59).

In 589 B.C.E., Pharaoh Hoprah of Egypt, who had succeeded Psamtik II, the son of Necho, saw an opportunity to take advantage of Judah’s discontent and pledged to support any effort to overthrow Babylon’s rule of Judah (2 Kings 24:20). Shortly afterwards, Zedekiah accepted Hoprah’s offer and joined the rebellion of his people by refusing to pay tribute to Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar’s response was quick and decisive (2 Kings 25:1).

Early the next year Nebuchadnezzar marched his troops west as far as Biblah on the middle Orontes. He then sent an entire division against Jerusalem with orders to seal the city off with siege weapons and then move against the rest of Judah.¹⁸ As the innovators of weaponry the Chaldeans were unequaled among the nations. Nebuchadnezzar’s engineers were brilliant when it came to the development of weapons of mass destruction. The Bible historian Warner Keller says of Babylon’s primitive shock and awe firepower used against the walled city of Lachish:

Whatever wood they could lay hands on they dragged to the spot, stripped the whole area around Lachish of its forest and thickets, cleared the hills of timber for miles around, piled the firewood as high as a house outside the walls and set it alight. Countless olive-groves were hacked down for this purpose: the lay of ashes contains masses of charred olive stones.

Day and night sheets of flame leapt sky high, a ring of fire licked the walls from top to bottom. The besieging force piled on more wood until the white-hot stones burst and the walls caved in.¹⁹

For the campaign against the walled city of Jerusalem, Nebuchadnezzar’s strategy was much different. Since the time of Joshua, most of the hills surrounding Jerusalem were barren. As a result, the Babylonians were unable to use the same shock and awe firepower against the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Instead, they relied upon their more traditional weapons, such as battering rams, siege towers, and submission through starvation. Using this strategy, the siege against Jerusalem lasted eighteen months.

For Nebuchadnezzar, when it came to defeating an enemy, time and resources were not an issue. The eighteen month battle for Jerusalem was no exception. The inhabitants of Jerusalem were eventually starved into submission, and the city walls were breached. Zedekiah and his sons were captured while fleeing in the plains of Jericho. Both he and his sons were then taken to Nebuchadnezzar, who was headquartered at Riblah where Zedekiah was sentenced. Babylonian justice was swift and complete. The first part of the sentence was to slay Zedekiah’s sons before his very eyes. Then Nebuchadnezzar himself put out Zedekiah’s eyes, bound him, and took him away to Babylon (2 Kings 25:1-7).

One month later, Nebuzaradan, a captain of Nebuchadnezzar’s body guard, arrived in Jerusalem, rounded up thousands of Judeans for deportation to Babylon, and put the torch to the city, destroying Jerusalem along with the Temple,²⁰ bringing an end to the Kingdom of Judah. As a token of Babylonian justice Nebuzaradan left some of the poorest of the land to be vine dressers and plowmen.

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Jewish captives leave Jerusalem

In 582 B.C.E., which marked Babylon’s third and last reprisal and deportation of Judeans (Jer. 52:30), Gedaliah was appointed as governor.²¹ Those who were left in Judah gathered around Gedaliah, who promised them undisturbed enjoyment of their possessions.²² Jeremiah states that their labors in the field were resumed and they gathered in wine and summer fruit in great abundance (40:12). However, Gedaliah’s reign was short-lived. Neighboring peoples, such as Baalis, king of Ammon, and Ishmael, were jealous of Gedaliah’s leadership and prosperity of the remaining Judean inhabitants. The scholars of Unger’s Bible Dictionary write: [Ishmael] came to Mizpah with a secret purpose of destroying Gedaliah. Gedaliah, generously refusing to believe a friendly warning that he received of the intended treachery, was murdered with his Jewish and Chaldean followers, two months after his appointment. After his death the Jews, anticipating the resentment of the king of Babylon, gave way to despair. Many, forcing Jeremiah to accompany them, fled to Egypt under Johanan (2 Kings 25:22-26; Jer. 40:13; 41:18),²³ making the royal house of David, which had reigned without interruption for 400 years, a land of desolation.

According to Jeremiah 52:28-30, 3,023 Judean citizens were carried away to Babylonia in 597 B.C.E., 832 Judean citizens were carried away to Babylon in 586 B.C.E., and in 582 B.C.E., 745 more were deported, making a total of 4,600 people in all. In biblical days, however, only the men were counted. In 2 Kings 24:16, the number cited as being deported in 597 B.C.E. was 8,000 (men). Therefore, taking into account the numbers of Judean men cited by Jeremiah for the years 597 B.C.E., 586 B.C.E., and 582 B.C.E., as well as giving consideration to those cited in 2 Kings 24:16, it is believed that the number of Judean men deported was about 12,000, which including women and children is believed to have been somewhere between 36,000 to 48,000 exiles.²⁴

Thus, what had never before been done, in a brief period of time Babylon gained its independence and sovereignty from the most powerful nation on earth, Assyria, and became the greatest nation in the ancient world, just as prophesied by the prophet Jeremiah, saying:

4… Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; . . .

5 I have made the earth, the men and the beasts which are on the face of the earth by My great power and by My outstretched arm, and I will give it to the one who is pleasing in My sight. 6 Now I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, My servant, and I have given him also the wild animals of the field to serve him. 7 All the nations shall serve him and his son and his grandson until the time of his own land comes; then many nations and great kings will make him their servant (Jer. 27:4-7; NASV).

2

The Babylonian Captivity

FOR THE EXILES OF JUDEA LIFE IN BABYLON was the beginning of a new era. Leaving the towns and villages of Judah and going to the bustling life of Babylonia was a major change for Babylon’s newest inhabitants.

We can only imagine the thoughts of those Judean exiles when they arrived in their new homeland and saw the vast fields of wheat, corn, and barley, which were surrounded by miles of canals that were used for irrigation, travel and commerce. What thoughts went through their minds when they first saw the well-dressed, well-fed Babylonian people? What did they think when they saw the large two and three-story homes, the straight streets and wide boulevards of Babylon? How did they react when they saw the many shops filled with wool, clothes, fruits and vegetables, fresh meats of cattle, sheep, swine, fish, and fowl, the different shaped jeweled cups, rings and other workmanship of precious metals, silks, fine linen, essences, ointments and perfumes? Most important, what did they think when they saw Babylon’s towering temples; its numerous shrines and images erected to the many gods and goddesses of Babylon?

One thing is certain, regardless of what they thought, Babylon was their new homeland. From that point on Babylon would be the country where the majority of exiles would work, marry, rear their children, worship the God of their fathers, and die. The scholars of the Jewish Encyclopedia write:

In consequences of the favorable external circumstances of the exiles, and particularly of such of them as were engaged in the diversified commerce in the Babylonian metropolis, the longing for home gradually disappeared, and they learned to content themselves with material prosperity. Most of these indifferent persons were lost to their people; for, in their anxiety to retain the wealth they had acquired, they learned to conform to the manners and customs of the country, thus sacrificing not