We stood on a spot which must have been near that occupied by Nebuchadnezzar when, in the pride of his heart, he exultantly exclaimed:
Is not this the great Babylon which I have built to be the seat of the kingdom, by the strength of my power and in the glory of my excellence?
And while the word was yet in the King’s mouth a voice came down from heaven: To thee, O King Nebuchadnezzar, it is said: Thy kingdom is taken from thee.[543]
But before this word was uttered the Prophet Jeremias, speaking with all the detail of an eye-witness, had foretold what would be the fate of the proud and wicked city on the Euphrates. How literally true are his predictions, let the reader judge from the following verses:
Thus saith the Lord of hosts: That broad wall of Babylon shall be utterly broken down, and her high gates shall be burnt with fire, and the labors of the people shall come to nothing, and of the nations shall go to the fire and shall perish.[544]
And Babylon shall be reduced to heaps, a dwelling place for dragons, an astonishment and a hissing, because there is no inhabitant.[545]
Thou shalt say: O Lord, thou has spoken against this place to destroy it; so that there shall be neither man nor beast to dwell therein, and that it should be desolate forever.[546]
Reading these graphic words of the inspired prophet in the presence of the ruins of Babylon as they appear to-day, one can but exclaim with the Royal Psalmist:
“Forever, O Lord, thy word standeth firm in heaven.”[547]