Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/6_200.lzh/6_270.TXT

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of the Julian period 4108, and before Christ 607 or
606; according to Mr. Bedford {}, 605.
Ver. 2. The Lord gave Jehoiakim Icing of Judah ittto
his hand, &c.] And the city of Jerusalem too, or he
coulid not have took the king, and so the Syriac version
renders it, and the Lord delivered it into his hands,
and Jehoiakim, &c.: this was from the Lord, because
of his sins, and the sins of his ancestors, and of his
people; or otherwise the king of Babylon could not
have taken the city, nor him, because of the great
power of the Jews, as Jacchiades observes: with part
of the vessels of the house of God; not all of them; for
some, as Sandlab says, were hid by Josiah and Jere-
miah, which is not to be depended on; however,
certain it is that all were not carried away, because
we read of some of the vessels of the temple being
carried away afterwards, in Jeconiah's time, 2. Kings
xxiv. 13. and still there were some left, as the pillars,
sea, bases, and other vessels, which were to be carried
away, and were carried away by the king of Babylon,
in Zedekiah's time, Jer. xxvii. 19--22. and lii. 17--20:
which he carried into the land of Shinar, to the house
of his god; which Jarchi understands both of the' men
that were carried captive, and the vessels that were
taken out of the temple; but the latter seem only to
be intended, since of men Jehoiakim is only spoken
of before; and it does not appear he was ever carried
into Babylon; but it is certain the vessels of the temple
were carried thither; which is meant by the land of
Shinar, where Babylon stood, and where the tower
of Babel was built, Gen. x. 2. the same, as Grotins
thinks, with the Singara of Pliny {} and Ptolemy t. So
the Targum of Onkelos, on Gen. x. 10, and xi. 2, in-
terprets the land of Shinar the land of Babylon; like-
wise the Jerusalem Targum on Gen. x. 10. and the
Targuru of Jonathan on Gen. xi. 2q. Isa. xi. 11. and
Zech. v. 11. only on Gen. x. 10, he paraphrases it the
land of Pontus. So Hestiaeus % an ancient Phoenician
writer, calls Shinar Sennaar of Babylonia. It seems
to have its name from \^ren\^, which signifies to shake
out; because from hence the men of the flood, as
Saadiah says, or the builders of Babel, were shook
out by the Lord, and were scattered over the face of
the earth. And as the tower of Babel itself, very pro-
bably, was built for idolatrous worship, for which
reason the Lord was so displeased with the builders of
it; so in this same place, or near it, now stood an idol's
temple, where the king of Babylon, and the inhabitants
thereof, Worshippod, here called the house of his gods {w},
as it may be rendered; for the BabylonSans worshipped
more gods than one; there were Rach, Shach and
Nego, from whom Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,
are supposed to have their names given them by the
Chaldeans, ver. 7. Rach is thought to be the sun,
whose priests were called Rachiophantae, observers
of the sun; Shach, to which Sheshach is referred by
some, Jer. li. 41. for which a feast was kept once a
year for five days, when servants had the rule and
government of their masters; and Nego either was
worshipped for the sun, or some star.- so called from
its brightness. Venus was also had in veneration with
the Babylonians, whom they called Mylitta; in whose
temple many acts of uncleanness and filthiness were
committed, as Herodotus {x} relates. And, besides these,
there were Merodach, Nebo, and Bel; of which see
Isa. xlvi. 1. Jer. !. 2. the latter seems to have been
their chief deity, and who was called Jupiter Belus;
and with whom were the goddesses $uno and Rhea.
And in the city of Babylon stood the temple of Bel, or
Jupiter Belus, which was extant in the times of He-
rodotus, and of which he gives an account {y}, and is this:
"the temple of Jupiter Belus had gates of brass; it was
"two furlongs on every side, and was four-sqnare.
"In the midst of the temple was a solid tower, a
"furlong in length and breadth; upon which another
"temple was placed, and so on to eight. The going
"up them was without, in a winding about each
"tower; as you went up, in the middle, there was
"a room, and seats to rest on. In the last tower
"'was a large temple, in which was a large bed
". splendidly furnished, and a table of gold set by it;
"but there was no statue there; nor did any man lie
"there in the night; only one woman, a native of
"the place, whom the god chose from among them
"all, as the Chaldean priests of this deity say."
Diodorus Siculus says {z} it was of an extraordinary
height, where the Chaldeans made observations on
the stars, and could take an exact view of the rise and
setting of them; it was all made of brick and bitumen,
at great cost and expense. Here the vessels of the
sanctuary were brought by Nebuchadnezzar, to the
praise and glory of his idols, as Jarchi and Jacchiades
observe; to whom he imputed the victory he had ob-
tained over the Jews. Even these he brought into the
treasure-house ofhis god; very probably this was the
chapel Herodotus {a} speaks of, where was a large golden
statue of Jupiter sitting, and a large golden table by it,
and a golden throne and steps, reckoned by the Chal-
deans at eight hundred talents of gold. And Diodorus
Siculus {b} relates that there were three golden statues,
of Jupiter, Juno, and Rhea. That of Jupiter was as one
standing on his feet, and, as it were, walking, was forty
feet in length, and weighed a thousand Babylonian
talents (computed three millions and a half of our
money). That of Rhea was of the same weight, sitting
upon a tin'one of gold, and two lions standing at her
knees; and near to them serpents of a prodigious big-
hess, made of silver, which weighed thirty talents. That
of Juno was a standing statue, weighing eight hundred
talents; in her right hand she held the head of a serpent,
and in her left a sceptre set with precious stones; and
there was a golden table, common to them all, forty feet
long, fifteen broad, and of the weight of fifty talents.
Moreover, there were two bowls of thirty talents, and
as many censers of three hundred talents, and three
cups of gold; that which was dedicated to Jupiter
weighed a thousand two hundred BabylonSan talents,
and the other six hundred. Here all the rich things

{r} Scripture Chronology, p. 676.
{s} Nat. Hist. T. 5. c. 24.
{t} Geograph. I. 5. c. 18
{u} Apud Joseph. Antiqu. I. 1. c. 4. sect. 3.
{w} \^wyhla tyb\^ domum deorum suorum, Cocceius, Michaelis.
{x} Clio, sive 1. 1. c. 199.
{y} Ibid. c. 181.
{z} Biblioth. 1. 2. p. 98. Ed. Rhodoman.
{a} Clio, sive I. 1. c. 183.
{b} Biblioth. I. 2. p. 98.