Babylon
A place in the Bible
A very large city by the Euphrates River, the capital of an empire. Its king Nebuchadnezzar took Jerusalem and carried many people of Judah into exile.
What happened here
- The exile: the king of Babylon took the court of Jerusalem, the soldiers, and the craftsmen as captives.
- Daniel: he was one of the young men of Judah taken to Babylon. The king made him ruler of the province of Babylon and chief of all its wise men.
- By the rivers: a psalm tells how the exiles sat and wept by the rivers of Babylon, remembering Zion.
- The return: the Lord announced through Jeremiah that, when seventy years in Babylon were over, he would bring them back.
- In the family of Jesus: the Gospel of Matthew gives the genealogy of Jesus before and after the Babylonian exile.
Today
Its ruins remain near the city of Hillah, in Iraq.
Where it appears in the Bible
Daniel 1:1; 2 Kings 24:14-15; Daniel 1:6; Daniel 2:48; Psalms 137:1; Jeremiah 29:10; Matthew 1:11-12
What the Bible says
Daniel 1:1
In the third year of the reign of Joakim king of Juda, Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon came to Jerusalem, and besieged it.
2 Kings 24:14-15
14And he carried away all Jerusalem, and all the princes, and all the valiant men of the army, to the number of ten thousand into captivity: and every artificer and smith: and none were left, but the poor sort of the people of the land. 15And he carried away Joachin into Babylon, and the king’s mother, and the king’s wives, and his eunuchs: and the judges of the land he carried into captivity from Jerusalem into Babylon.
Daniel 1:6
Now there were among them of the children of Juda, Daniel, Ananias, Misael, and Azarias.
Douay-Rheims Bible (Challoner revision), public domain.
Source: Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), “Babylon”; Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897), “Babylon”; UNESCO, “Babylon”