Babylon: The Head of Gold

The head of gold

Daniel tells Nebuchadnezzar straight up who the gold is: "You, O king, are the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given sovereignty, power, strength, and glory. Wherever the sons of men or beasts of the field or birds of the air dwell, He has given them into your hand and has made you ruler over them all. You are that head of gold." Daniel 2:37-38

Remember, Daniel lived during the Babylonian Empire. So this part is not really prediction. It gives us the key for reading the rest of the statue, and the beasts that come after it.

A lion with eagle's wings

"The first beast was like a lion, and it had the wings of an eagle. I watched until its wings were torn off and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a man and given the mind of a man." Daniel 7:4

If you look at Babylonian art, there are lions everywhere. There are carvings of lions across the walls of the Ishtar Gate, the massive gate of Babylon, and there are statues of lions. The lion was a very big deal in Babylon, so the imagery makes perfect sense.

The Ishtar Gate and the Processional Way that ran through it were built under Nebuchadnezzar II, lined with lions, bulls, and dragons in glazed brick. A reconstruction of the gate stands in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin, and lion panels from the Processional Way are in several museums today. Robert Koldewey, The Excavations at Babylon (1914); Pergamon Museum, Berlin

The wings stand for majesty and dominion, which Nebuchadnezzar had. But his wings were torn off. Go to Daniel 4, which is actually written by Nebuchadnezzar himself. He went into madness. "He ate grass like an ox, and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven." Daniel 4:33 It lasted until he looked up. "But at the end of those days I, Nebuchadnezzar, looked up to heaven, and my sanity was restored to me." Daniel 4:34 I can imagine it was a humbling experience. The lion was made to stand like a man and given the mind of a man. He ends his own letter this way: "He is able to humble those who walk in pride." Daniel 4:37

Daniel 4 calls the length of the madness "seven times." Daniel 4:32 Many read that as seven years.

One night

The fall of Babylon happened very suddenly. "Then Belshazzar gave the command, and they clothed Daniel in purple, placed a gold chain around his neck, and proclaimed him the third highest ruler in the kingdom. That very night Belshazzar king of the Chaldeans was slain, and Darius the Mede received the kingdom at the age of sixty-two." Daniel 5:29-31

We know from history that in 539 BC this is exactly what happened. In one night Babylon was taken. This was a massive city, with walls so wide chariots could ride on top of them. The Euphrates ran right through the city and fed the moat. Cyrus, the Medo-Persian king, diverted the Euphrates, so that the water went really low. His army waded across and walked right into the city, without needing to go through the walls. It is an incredible piece of history inside Daniel, and for a long time historians did not believe it.

The Greek historian Herodotus, writing in the fifth century BC, tells the story of the diverted river. He says the Persians entered along the riverbed while the people in the center of the city were celebrating a festival and did not know the outer parts had fallen. Herodotus, Histories 1.191 Compare Belshazzar's feast in Daniel 5. Xenophon tells a similar story. Xenophon, Cyropaedia 7.5 Herodotus also says the walls were wide enough on top for a four-horse chariot to turn. Herodotus, Histories 1.178-179

The Babylonian side of the story is the Nabonidus Chronicle, a cuneiform tablet. It says the army of Cyrus, led by Ugbaru, governor of Gutium, entered Babylon ‘without battle’ in 539 BC, and that Cyrus himself entered a few weeks later. Nabonidus Chronicle (ABC 7) iii.15-20

Daniel had already told Belshazzar what the writing on the wall meant: "your kingdom has been divided and given over to the Medes and Persians." Daniel 5:28 That brings us to the second empire.

Next: Medo-Persia: Silver, a Bear, and a Ram.