Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/6_300.lzh/6_301.TXT

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.i feet wide. The whole pile consisted of substantial
" arches up. on arches, and was strengthened by a wall,
" surrounding it on every side, twenty-two feet thick;
" and the floors on each of them were laid in this
a order: first on the tops of the arches was laid a bed
" or pavement of stones, sixteen feet long, and four
" feet broad; over this was a layer of reed, mixed with
" a great quantity of bitumen; and over this two
" courses of brick, -closely cemented with plaster; and
" over all these were thick sheets of lead, and on these
" the earth or mould of the garden. This floorage was
" designed to retain the moisture of the mould; which
" was so deep as to give root to the greatest trees,
" which were planted on every terrace, together with
" great variety of other vegetables, pleasing to the
st eye; upon the uppermost of these terraces was a
"reservoir, supplied by a certain engine with water
" from the river, from whence the gardens at the other
" terraces were supplied." And it was either on the
roof of the palace, as before observed, or perhaps it
might be upon this uppermost terrace, that Nebuchad-
nezzar was walking, and from whence he might take
a view of the city of Babylon; the greatness of which,
as set forth by him, he prided himself with, in the fol-
lowing words:
Vet. 30. The king spake and said, &c.] Either with-
in himself, or to his nobles about him; or perhaps
to foreigners he had took up with him hither to
shew the grandeur of the city: is not this great Baby-
lon, that I have built; he might well call it great, for,
according to Aristotle {}, it was more like a country
than a city; it was, as Plmy d says, sixty miles in. com-
pass within the walls; and Herodotus affirms tt was
four hundred and fourscore furlongs round, and such
the greatness of it, and so beautified, as no other city
was he ever knew; see the note on Jet. li. bS. though
the king seems to have gone too far, in ascribing the
building of it to himself; at least he Was not the ori-
ginal builder of it; for it was built many hundreds of
years before he was born, by Nimrod or Belus, who
were the same, Gen. x. 10. and was much increased
and strengthened by Semiramis, the wife of his son
Ninus; wherefore to her sometimes the building of it
is ascribed; but inasmuch as it might be in after-times
greatly neglected by the Assy rian kings, Nineveh being
the seat of t. heir empire; Nebuchadnezzar, when he
came to the throne, and especially after he had en-
riched himself with the spoils of the conquered nations,
greaftly enlarged, beautitled, and fortitled it: and Bero-
sus relates, that he not only adorned the temple of
Bel therewith, but of the city which was of old he
made a new one, and fortitled it, built three walls
within, and as many without; and another royal pa-
lace contiguous to his father's, which greatly exceeded
it; and hanging-gardens in it, which looked at a dis-
tance like mountains, for the pleasure of his wife;
and now, because he had done so much to the repair-
ing, enlarging, and fortifylug of this city, he takes the
honour to himself of being the builder of it: and this
' was done, he says, for the house .of the kingdom; that it
might be the seat ,of the empire, and a proper place
for the royal family to dwell in, to have their palace,
and keep their court in: by the might of my power;
through the great riches he was possessed of, which he
employed in many great works, as before related, to
the advantage of this city; he takes all to himself, and
excludes all instruments, and even God himself;
though, unless the Lord build the city, in vain the
builders build, Psal. cxxvii. 1: for the henour of my
majesty ? not so much for the benefit of the city, for
the good of his subjects, as for the henour and glory
of himself; to shew his riches, power, and grandeur,
and to make his name immortal to future ages.
Ver. 31. W/die the word was in the king's mouth, there
fell a voice from heaven, &c.] Before the king had
done speaking in the above boasting manner, an arti-
culate voice from heaven was heard by him, and all
about him, formed by the angels, and much like what-
the Jews call Bath Kol; see Acts xii. 21, 22, 23. so
Abydenus g, in the account he gives of Nebuchadnez-
zar's oration to the people, relates, that when the
king had spoke it, \~paracrhma hfanisto\~, immediately he
disappeared: saying, O King Nebuchadnezzar, to thee
it is spoken, the kingdom is departed from thee; that is,
the administration of it; for he was not deposed, or
declared to be no longer king; his office was not taken
away from him, and another king set upon the throne;
only the administration was taken into other hands,
either of his wife or son, or his nobles; he being unfit
for it, till such time as his reason returned to him.
Vet. 32. And they shall drive thee from men, &c.]
According to the interpretation of the dream given by
Daniel, which this voice from heaven confirms; see
the note on ver. 25, where the same things are said as
here.
Yet. aS. The same hour was the thing fulfilled upon
Nebuchadnezzar, &c.] Whence it appears that this
was a true history, and a matter of fact; and not a
parable or allegory, as Odgen thought, describing the
fall of Lucifer or Satan ;.but relates what befell Nebu-
chadnezzar himself: nor was the change real as to soul
and body; for then he would not have been the same
person, not Nebuchadnezzar, and so not he himself
punished, but the beast into which he was changed:
and though there was a strange alteration, both in his
body and mind; in some parts of his body, and per-
haps in his voice, in his senses of feeling, tasting, and
smelling, in his palate, and appetite, and stomach; in
his rational powers, understanding, judgment, and me-
mory; so that he acted like a beast, and choosing to
l'ive as one; yet so as to retain the essential p. arts of a
man; his case was, that at once he fell raving mad
and distracted, when they first bound him with chains,
that he might not hurt himself and others, and after-.
wards turned him loose into the woods among the wild
beasts; or perhaps into one of his parks, among the
deer, hares, foxes, and such-like creatures; whither he.
might incline to go, fancying himself to be a beast,
and delight to be among them: and he was driven
.frora men, and did eat grass as oxen; which he did

{c} Politic. I. 3. c. 3.
{d} Nat. Hist. I. 6. c. 26.
{e} Clio, sive I. 1. c. 178.
{f} Apud Joseph. Antiqu. I. 10. c. 11. sect. 1. & contr. Allion, 1. 1.,
sect. 19.
{g} Apud Euseb. ut supra.