tus,

A. M. 1757. A. C. 2247; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 2857. A. C. 2554. GEN. CH. xi. TO VER. 10.

of God, and by the violence of the winds. But as it | versed in all Jewish antiquities, have made it appear seems more consistent with the divine wisdom (for the that Nimrod was either very young at the time, or even admonition of posterity) to have such a monument of not yet born, when the project of building the tower and men's folly and ambition for some time standing; so we city was first formed, there is reason to believe (even may observe that, in confirmation of our sacred penman, supposing him then alive, and in great power and authowho speaks of it as a thing existing in his time, Herodo-rity among his people,) that he was not in any tolerable the Greek historian, tells us expressly that he him- condition to undertake so great a work. self actually saw it, as it was repaired by Belus, or some of his successors; Pliny, the Latin historian, that it was not destroyed in his days; and some modern travellers, (whom by and by we shall have occasion to quote,) that there are some visible remains of it extant even now: and, therefore, the fancy of its being beat down with the winds is taken up, in pure conformity a to some Persian tales recorded of Nimrod, whom these historians suppose to be the first projector of it. It cannot be denied, indeed, but that the generality of interpreters, meeting with the expression of the children of men, whereby they understand bad men and infidels, as opposed to the children of God, which usually denote the good and the faithful, are apt to imagine, that none of the family of Shem, which retained (as they say) the true worship and religion, were engaged in the work, but some of the worser sort of people only, who had degenerated from the piety of their ancestors. But by the children of men in that place, it is evident that we are to understand all mankind, because in the initial words of the chapter they are called the whole earth. Nor can we well conceive how, in so short a time after that awakening judgment of the deluge, the major part of mankind, even while Noah and his sons were still alive, should be so far corrupted in their principles, as to deserve the odious character of unbelievers. But admitting his kingdom to be larger than this supJosephus, indeed, and some other authors, are clearly position; yet, from that day to this, we can meet with of opinion that Nimrod, a descendant from the impious no works of this kind attempted but from a fulness of Ham, was the great abettor of this design, and the ring-wealth and wantonness of power, and after peace, luxury, eader of those who combined in the execution of it. and long leisure had introduced and established arts: so Ext, though the undertaking seems to agree very well that nothing can be more absurd than to attribute such a with the notion which the Scriptures give us of that ambi-prodigious work to the power and vanity of one man, in Lious prince, yet, besides that others, extremely well the infancy both of arts and empire, and when we can scarce suppose that there was any such thing as artificial wealth in the world.

The account which Moses gives us of him is-that he' began to be a mighty one in the earth; which the best writers explain, by his being the first who laid the foundation of regal power among mankind; but it is scarce imaginable how an empire, able to effect such a work, could be entirely acquired, and so thoroughly established, by one and the same person, as to allow leisure for amusements of such infinite toil and trouble.

1

Antiq. b. i. c. 5.

'Gen. xi. 15. 2 Gen. xi. 1. • Bochart's Phaleg. b. i. c. 10. The author of the book called Malem tells this story:That when Nimrod saw that the fire, into which he caused Abrabam to be cast for not submitting to the worshipping of idols, did lam no damage, he resolved to ascend into heaven, that he might that great God whom Abraham revealed to him. In vain did his courtiers endeavour to divert him from this design; he was resolved to accomplish it, and therefore gave orders fer the building of a tower that might be as high as possible. aey worked upon it for three years together, and, when he went up to the top, he was much surprised to see himself as far from heaven as when he was upon the ground: but his confusion was ruch increased, when they came to inform him next morning that his tower was fallen and dashed in pieces. He commanded them then that another should be built, which might be higher and stronger than the former; but when this met with the same fate, and he still continued an obstinate persecutor of those who worshipped the true God, God took from him the greatest part of his njects, by the division and confusion of their tongues, and those who still adhered to him he killed by a cloud of flies, which he nt amongst them.-Calmet's Dictionary on the word Nimrod. The poets, in like manner, having corrupted the tradition of this event with fictions of their own, do constantly bring in Jupiter defeating the attempts of the Titans in this manner:-" Jupiter, from the citadel of heaven, hurling his thunderbolts, overturned the ponderous masses on their founders," &c.-Ovid.

Great and mighty empires, indeed, have seemingly been acquired by single persons; but when we come to examine into the true original of them, we shall find, that they began upon the foundations of kingdoms already attained by their ancestors, and established by the care and wisdom of many successive rulers for several generations, and after a long exercise of their people in arts and arms, which gave them a singular advantage In this manner over other nations that they conquered. grew the empires of Cyrus, Alexander, and all the great conquerors in the world; nor can we, in all the records of history, find one large dominion, from the very foundation of the world, that was ever erected and established by one private person: and, therefore, we have abundant reason to infer that Nimrod, though confessedly the beginner of sovereign authority, could, at this time, have no great kingdom under his command.

Since, then, this building was undoubtedly very ancient, as ancient as the Scripture makes it, and yet could not be effected by any separate society in the period assigned for it, the only probable opinion is, that it was (as we said before) undertaken and executed by the united labours of all the people that were then on the face of the earth. It is not unlikely, however, that after the dispersion of the people, and their leaving the place unfinished, Nimrod and his subjects, coming out of Arabia, or some other neighbouring country, might, after their fright was over, settle at Babel, and there building the city of Babylon, and repairing the tower, make it the metropolis (as afterwards it was) of all the Assyrian empire.

7

8

To this purpose there is a very remarkable passage in Diodorus Siculus, where he tells us, "That on the walls of one of the Babylonian palaces was portrayed a general hunting of all sorts of wild beasts, with the figure of a woman on horseback piercing a leopard, and "Revel. Examined, vol. ii. dissert. 3. 7 Bochart's Phaleg. b. i. c. 10. Ibid, b. i.

• Gen. x. 8.

8

A. M. 1757. A. C. 2247; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 2857. A. C. 2554. GEN. CH. xi. TO VER. 10

a man fighting with a lion; and that on the walls of the other palace were armies in battalia, and huntings of several kinds." Now of this Nimrod, the sacred historian informs us, that he was a great and remarkable hunter, so as to pass into a proverb; and this occupation he might the rather pursue as the best means of training up his companions to exploits of war, and of making himself popular by the glory he gained, and the public good he did, in destroying those wild beasts, which at that time infested the world. And as this was a part of his character, the most rational account that we can give of these ornaments in the Babylonian palaces is, that they were set up by some of Nimrod's descendants in their ancestor's imperial city, in memory of the great founder of their family, and of an empire which afterwards grew so famous.

1

2

neither numbers nor materials, to make themselves masters of what their vanity projected; we may reasonably suppose, that the affectation of renown was another motive to their undertaking; since it is very well known, that this is the very principle which has all along governed the whole race of mankind, in all the works and monuments of magnificence, the mausoleums, pillars, palaces, pyramids, and whatever has been erected of any pompous kind, from the foundation of the world to this very day. So that, taking their resolution under the united light of these two motives, the reasoning of the builders will run thus:-" We are here in a vast plain; a our dispersion is inevitable; our increase, and the necessaries of life demand it. We are strong and happy when united; but, when divided, we shall be weak and wretched. Let us then contrive some means of union and friendly society, which may, at the same time, perpetuate our fame and memory. And what means so proper for these purposes as a magnificent city, and mighty tower, whose top may touch the skies? The tower will be a land

centre of unity, to prevent our being dispersed; and the city, which may prove the metropolis of the whole earth, will at all times afford us a commodious habitation. Since then we need fear no dissolution of our works by any future deluge, let us erect something that may immortalise our names, and outvie the labours of our antediluvian fathers." And that this seems to have been the reasoning of their minds, will further appear, if we come now to take a short survey of the dimensions of the building, according to the account which the best historians have given us of it.

Eutychius, patriarch of Alexandria, will needs have it, that Nimrod was the first author of the religion of the Magians, the worshippers of fire: and from hence, very probably, a late archbishop of our own has thought that this tower of Babel (whose form was pyra-mark to us, through the whole extent of this plain, and a midal, as he says, and so resembling fire, whose flame ascends in a conic shape) was a monument designed for the honour of the sun, as the most probable cause of drying up the waters of the flood. "For though the sun," says he, was not merely a god of the hills, yet the heathens thought it suitable to his advanced station o worship him upon ascents, either natural, or where the country was flat, artificial, that they might approach, as near as possibly they could, the deity they adored." This certainly accounts for God's displeasure against the builders, and why he was concerned to defeat their undertaking; but as there is no foundation for this conjecture in Scripture, and the date of this kind of idola-ever we read of the tower, enclosed in the temple of try was not perhaps so early as is pretended, the two ends which Moses declares the builders had in view, in forming their project, will be motives sufficient for their undertaking it.

For, if we consider, that they were now in the midst of a vast plain, undistinguished by roads, buildings, or boundaries of any kind, except rivers; that the provision of pasture, and other necessaries, obliged them to separate, and that, when they were separated, there was a necessity of some landmark to bring them together again upon occasion, otherwise all communication, and with it all the pleasures of life, must be cut off; we can hardly imagine any thing more natural, and fit for this purpose, than the erection of a tower, large and lofty enough to be seen at great distances, and consequently sufficient to guide them from all quarters of that immense region; and when they had occasion to correspond, or come together, nothing certainly could be more proper than the contiguous buildings of a city for their recep

tion and convenient communication.

If we consider, likewise, that all the pride and magnificence of their ancestors were now defaced, and utterly destroyed by the deluge, without the least remains or memorial of their grandeur; that consequently the earth was a clear stage whereon to erect new and unrivalled monuments of glory and renown to themselves; and that at this juncture they wanted neither art nor abilities,

'Calmet's Dictionary on the word Nimrod.
2 Tenison on Idolatry.

It is the opinion of the learned 3 Bochart, that what

Belus, may very properly be applied to the tower of
Babel; because, upon due search and examination, he
conceives them to be one and the same structure. Now
of this tower Herodotus tells us, that it was a square of
a furlong on each side, that is, half a mile in the whole
circumference, whose height, being equal to its basis,
was divided into eight towers, built one upon another;
but what made it look as divided into eight towers, was
very probably the manner of its ascent.
The passage
to go up it, continues our author, was a circular or
winding way, carried round the outside of the building,
to its highest point : from whence it seems most likely
that the whole ascent was, by the benching-in, drawn in
a sloping line from the bottom to the top eight times
round it, which would make it have the appearance of
eight towers one above another. This way was so exceed-
ing broad, that it afforded space for horses and carts,
and other means of carriage, to meet and turn; and the
towers, which looked like so many stories upon one
another, were each of them seventy-five feet high, in
which were many stately rooms, with arched roofs sup-
See Phaleg, part 1. b. i. c. 9.

3

4 Book 1.

Prideaux's Connection, part 1.

a Here they speak as if they feared a dispersion; but it is hard to tell for what cause, unless it was this:-That Noah, baving projected a division of the earth among his posterity, (for it was a deliberate business, as we noted before,) the people had no mind to submit to it, and therefore built a fortress to defend themselves in their resolution of not yielding to his design; but what they dreaded, they brought upon themselves by their own vain attempt to avoid it. See Patrick's Commentary, and Usher to A. M. 1757.

A. M. 1757. A. C. 2247; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 2857. A. C. 2554. GEN. CH. xi. TO VER. 10.

ported by pillars, which were made parts of the temple, | Grecian expedition, wherein he had suffered a vast loss after the tower became consecrated to that idolatrous of men and money, out of pretence of religion, as being use; and on the uppermost of the towers, which was held himself a Magian, and consequently detesting the worship more sacred, and where their most solemn devotions of God by images, but in reality with a design to repair were performed, there was an observatory, by the benefit the damages he had sustained, demolished it, and laid it of which it was, that the Babylonians advanced their skill all in rubbish; having first plundered it of all its immense in astronomy beyond all other nations. riches, among which were several images or statues of massy gold, and one particularly of forty feet high, which very probably was that which Nebuchadnezzar' consecrated in the plains of Dura.

Some authors, following a mistake in the Latin version of Herodotus, wherein the lowest of these towers is said to be a furlong thick, and a furlong high, will have each of the other towers to be of a proportionate height, which amounts to a mile in the whole: but the Greek of Herodotus (which is the genuine text of that author) says no such thing, but only that it was a furlong long, and a furlong broad, without mentioning any thing of its height; and 'Strabo, in his description of it, (calling it a pyramid, because of its decreasing or benching-in at every tower,) says of the whole, that it was a furlong high, and a furlong on every side; for to reckon every tower a furlong high, would make the thing incredible, even though the authority of both these historians were for, as they are against it. Taking it only as it is described by Strabo, it was prodigious enough; since, according to his dimensions only, without adding any farther, it was one of the most wonderful works in the world, and much exceeded the greatest of the pyramids of Egypt, though it was not built of such durable materials.

Thus fell this great monument of antiquity, and was never repaired any more; for though Alexander, at his return to Babylon after his Indian expedition, expressed his intention of rebuilding it, and accordingly set ten thousand men on work to rid the place of its rubbish ; yet, before they had made any progress therein, that great conqueror died on a sudden, and has ever since left both the city and tower so far defaced, that the very people of the country are at a loss to tell where their ancient situation was. Since some late travellers, however, have, in their opinions, found out the true ruins, and remains of this once renowned structure, we shall 6 with an not be averse to gratify our reader's curiosity account of what one, of the best authority among them, has thought fit to communicate to the public.

"In the middle of a vast and level plain," says he, "about a quarter of a league from Euphrates (which in that place runs westward), appears an heap of ruined buildings like a huge mountain, the materials of which

3

'Prideaux's Connection, part 1. 4 Diodorus Siculus, b. 2.

In this condition continued the tower of Babel, or the temple of Belus, until the time of Nebuchadnezzar; but be enlarged it by vast buildings, which were erected round it, in a square of two furlongs on every side, or a 5 Dan. iii. 1. "See Vi Aggi di Pietro della Valle, part 2. b. 17. mule in circumference, and enclosed the whole with a wall of two miles and an half in compass, in which were Magians and Sabians. The Sabians worshipped God through senc The two great sects of religion among the Persians were the several gates leading to the temple, all of solid brass, sible images, or rather worshipped the images themselves. The which very probably were made of the brazen sea, the Babylonians were the first founders of this sect; for they first brazen pillars, and the other brazen vessels which were brought in the worship of the planets, and afterwards that of carried to Babylon, from the temple of Jerusalem; for images, and from thence propagated it to all other nations where it prevailed. The Magians, on the contrary, worship no images we are told, that all the sacred vessels which Nebu- of any kind, but God only, together with two subordinate chadnezzar carried from thence, he put into the house principles; the one, the author and director of all good, and of his god in Babylon, that is, into the house or temple the other, the author and director of all evil. These two sects of Bel, for that was the name of the great god of the have always had a mortal enmity to each other; and therefore it is no wonder that Xerxes, who had always the Archimagus Babylonians, surrounding it with the pomp of these addi-attending him in his expeditions, with several other inferior tional buildings, and adorning it with the spoils of the temple of Jerusalem. This tower did not subsist much above an hundred years, when Xerxes, coming from his

'See Phaleg. b. 16. * 2 Chron. xxxvi. 7. Dan. i. 2. The words of Herodotus are, "In the midst of the temple there is built a solid tower, eight furlongs in length and breadth; w this tower another one is erected, and still on till altogether !y are eight in number." Now, though it be allowed that the s may signify height as well as length, yet it is much wtter to take Herodotus in the latter sense here, otherwise the tower (if every story answers the lowest) will rise to a prodigious eight, although nothing near to what Jerom (b. 5. Commentary ver Isaiah) affirms, from the testimony of eye-witnesses, as he ys, who examined the remains of it very carefully, namely, at it was no less than four miles high.-Universal History, i. 1. c. 2.

Bel is supposed to have been the same with Nimrod, and to Pave been called Bel from his dominion, and Nimrod from his rebellion; for Bel, or Baal, which is the same name, signify Land, and Nimrod rebel, in the Jewish and Chaldean language. The former was his Babylonish name, by reason of his empire in hat plare, and the latter his Scripture name, by reason of his ***iksoze, in revolting from God to follow his own wicked designs. (ride's Connection, part 1. b. 2.

Magi, in the capacity of his chaplains, should by them be prevailed on to take Babylon in his way to Susa, in order to destroy all the idolatrous temples there.

d Nebuchadnezzar's golden image is said indeed in Scripture to have been sixty cubits, that is, ninety feet high, but that must be understood of the image and pedestal altogether. For that image being said to have been but six cubits broad or thick, it is impossible that the image could have been sixty cubits high; for that makes its height to be ten times its breadth or thickness, which exceeds all the proportions of a man, forasmuch as no man's height is above six times his thickness, measuring the slenderest man living at the waist. But where the breadth of this image was measured it is not said; perhaps it was from shoulder to shoulder, and then the proportion of six cubits' breadth will bring down the height exactly to the measure which Diodorus has mentioned. For the usual height of a man being four and an half of his breadth between the shoulders, it must, according to this proportion, have been twenty-seven cubits high, which is forty feet and an half. Nor must it be forgot what Diodorus further tells us, namely, that this image contained a thousand Babylonish talents of gold, which, upon a moderate computation, amounts to three millions and an half of our money. But now, if we advance the height of the statue to ninety feet without the pedestal, it will increase the value to a sum incredible; and therefore it is necessary to take the pedestal likewise into the height mentioned by Daniel,- Prideaux's Connection, part 1. b. 2.

A. M. 1757. A. C. 2247; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 2857. A. C. 2554. GEN. CH. xi. TO VER. 10.
for besides the evidence of its situation, it is so acknow-
ledged to be, and so called by the inhabitants of the

are of a contrary opinion, namely,' that this and some other ruins not far distant from it, are not the remains of the original tower, but rather some later structures of the Arabs.

are so confounded together that one knows not what to make of it. Its figure is square, and rises in form of a pyramid with four fronts, which answer to the four quar-country to this very day." Notwithstanding some others ters of the compass, but it seems longer from north to south than from east to west, and is, as far as I could judge by my pacing it, a large quarter of a league. Its situation and form correspond with that pyramid which Strabo calls the tower of Belus; but even in his time it had nothing remaining of the stairs and other ornaments mentioned by Herodotus, for the greatest part of it was ruined by Xerxes and Alexander, who designed to have restored it to its former lustre, but was prevented by death. "There appear no marks of ruins round the compass of this rude mass, to make one believe that so great a city as Babylon ever stood here. All that one can discover, within fifty or sixty paces of it, is only the remains here and there of some foundations of buildings; and the country round about it is so flat and level, that one can hardly conceive it should be chosen for the situation of so noble a city, or that there ever were any considerable structures on it. But considering withal, that it is now at least four thousand years since that city was built, and that in the time of Diodorus Siculus, as he tells us, it was almost reduced to nothing, I, for my part, am astonished that there appears so much as there does.

"The height of this mountain of ruins is not in every part equal, but exceeds the highest palace in Naples. It is a misshapen mass, wherein there is no appearance of regularity. In some places it rises in points, is craggy, and inaccessible, in others it is smooth, and of easy ascent.—Whether ever there were steps to ascend it, or doors to enter into it, it is impossible at present to discover; and from hence one may easily judge, that the stairs ran winding about on the outside, and that, being the less solid parts, they were the soonest demolished, so that there is not the least sign to be seen of them now. "In the inside of it, there are some grottos, but so ruined that one can make nothing of them; and it is much to be doubted, with regard to some of them, whether they were built at the same time with the work, or made since by the peasants for shelter, which last seems to be more likely. It is evident from these ruins, however, that the tower of Nimrod (so our author calls it) was built with great and thick bricks, as I carefully observed, causing holes to be dug in several places for that purpose; but they do not appear to have been burned, but only dried in the sun, which is extremely hot in these parts.

"In laying these bricks, neither lime nor sand was made use of, but only earth tempered and petrified; and in those parts which made the floors, there had been mingled with the earth, which served instead of lime, bruised reeds or hard straws, such as large mats are made of, to strengthen the work. In several other places, especially where the strongest buttresses were to be, there were, at due distances, other bricks of the same size, but more solid, and burnt in kilns, and set in good lime or bitumen, but the greater number were such as were dried in the sun.

This is the most of what this sedulous traveller could discover; and yet, upon the foot of these remarks, he makes no doubt to declare, "That this ruin was the ancient Babel or the tower of Nimrod (as he calls it),

We cannot dismiss this subject, however, without making some reflections on the vanity and transitoriness of all sublunary things, as well as the veracity of all God's predictions; since that goodly city, which was once the pride of all Asia, and the designed metropolis of the whole universe, according to the words of the prophets, 'is fallen, is fallen low, very low, and become a dwelling-place for dragons, an astonishment, and an hissing without an inhabitant;' and that stately tower, which once reared its head on high, and seemed to menace the stars, is brought down to the ground, even to the dust; insomuch, that the place of it is to be seen no more; or, if by chance found out by some inquisitive traveller, the whole is now become only a confused heap of rubbish, according to the word of God by the same pro phet; I will roll thee down from the rocks, and make thee as a burnt mountain, and they shall not take of the a stone for a corner, nor a stone for foundations, bu thou shalt be an everlasting desolation, saith the Lord.'" 'Universal History, b. 1. c. 2. Isa. xxi. 9. and Jer, li. 37.

3

3 Jer. li. 25, 26.

a Various have been the conjectures respecting the reason which induced the human race to unite, as one man, in this grea enterprise. Some have supposed that their design was to raise tower so high as to enable them to climb up to heaven; a strang Scripture:- Let us build a city, and a tower whose top ma opinion, founded upon a literal interpretation of these words in reach unto heaven;' an expression evidently intended to signi no more than that its height was to be uncommonly great. Sims expressions are to be found in Deut. i. 28, and ix. 1, where th cities of the heathen nations, who inhabited the land of Canaan are described as great, and walled or fenced up to heaver Nor was it uncommon for the Greek poets to use the expressio high as heaven, or reaching to the sun, when they wished describe things of an extraordinary height. Josephus and som them from a second deluge, which they greatly dreaded; but ha others have thought that it must have been designed to preser that been the case, they would have betaken themselves to th mountains, and not made choice of the low country, for buildin a place of security. A third opinion is, that, as the tower was: the form of a pyramid, to the figure of which the flame of fire bea a resemblance, it was a monument designed in honour of the su to whose influence they ascribed the drying up of the flood. B there is no foundation in Scripture for that conjecture, and t date of that species of idolatry was probably not so early as supposes. The reason assigned in Scripture is, Let us ma us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the wh earth.' The most probable conjecture, therefore, seems to that, as they were now in a vast plain, undefined by any buil ings, or roads, or any distinct boundaries; and as they must so separate to attend their flocks, or go in quest of provisions, jected division of the earth among his posterity;-they built t perhaps dreading a dispersion, in consequence of Noah's p tower, as a pharos, or landmark, to enable them to find their w back to the surrounding city; which, with its immense tow they believed would be a lasting monument of their fame, a design had been to make the whole world one kingdom, a transmit their name with honour to posterity. In this view, the

Babel its metropolis.

This interpretation seems also to account for the reason of divine frustration of their great design, and of their consequ dispersion. It is given in these words, Behold the people and now nothing will be restrained from them which they h one, and they have all one language, and this they begin to imagined to do; that is, not as some have explained the wo

A. M. 1759. A. C. 2245; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 2859. A. C. 2552. GEN. CH. x. ; AND CH. xi. VER. 10. TO THE END.