Daniel and the Revelation - Uriah Smith.pdf

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desire to be revenged on Darius for his great cruelty in thus mutilating him.
In this way he won the confidence of the Babylonians till they at length
made him chief commander of their forces; whereupon he betrayed the city
into the hands of his master. And that they might ever after be deterred from
rebellion, Darius impaled three thousand of those who had been most active
in the revolt, took away the brazen gates of the city, and beat down the
walls from two hundred cubits to fifty cubits. This was the commencement
of its destruction. By this act, it was left exposed to the ravages of every
hostile band. Xerxes, on his return from Greece, plundered the temple of
Belus of its immense wealth, and then laid the lofty structure in ruins.
Alexander the Great endeavored to rebuild it; but after employing ten
thousand men two months to clear away the rubbish, he died from excessive
drunkenness and debauchery, and the work was suspended. In the year 294
B.C., Seleucus Nicator built the city of New Babylon in its neighborhood,
and took much of the material and many of the inhabitants of the old city, to
build up and people the new. Now almost exhausted of inhabitants, neglect
and decay were telling fearfully upon the ancient city. The violence of
Parthian princes hastened its ruin. About the end of the fourth century, it
was used by the Persian kings as an enclosure for wild beasts. At the end of
the twelfth century, according to a celebrated traveler, the few remaining
ruins of Nebuchadnezzar's palace were so full of serpents and venomous
reptiles that they could not, without great danger, be closely inspected. And
to-day scarcely enough even of the ruins is left to mark the spot where once
stood the largest, richest, and proudest city the world has ever seen. Thus
the ruin of great Babylon shows us how accurately God will fulfill his word,
and make the doubts of skepticism appear like willful blindness.
"And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee." The use of the
word kingdom here, shows that kingdoms, and not particular kings are
represented by the different parts of this image; and hence when it was said
to Nebuchadnezzar, "Thou art this head of gold," although the personal
pronoun was used, the kingdom, not the person of the king, was meant.
The succeeding kingdom, Medo-Persia, is the one which answers to the
breast and arms of silver of the great image. It was to be inferior to the
preceding kingdom. In what respect inferior? Not in power; for it was its
conqueror. Not in extent; for Cyrus subdued all the East from the Aegean
Sea to the River Indus, and thus erected the most extensive empire that up
to that time had ever existed. But it was inferior in wealth, luxury, and
magnificence.