Kingdom Come

Living in Babylonian culture had as profound an effect on the generations of Israelites born during the years of exile as living in America culture has on the offspring of immigrants to this nation.

Child Adolesc Psychiatric Clin N Am 19 (2010)

Acculturation refers to the process that occurs when groups of individuals of different cultures come into continuous first-hand contact, which changes the original culture patterns of either or both groups.The encounter causes cultural diffusion of varying degrees and may have one of 3 possible outcomes: (1) acceptance, when there is assimilation of one group into the other; (2) adaptation, when there is a merger of the 2 cultures; and (3) reaction, which results in antagonistic contra-acculturative movements…

Second-generation children (offspring of immigrants) have been found to be at higher risk of more behavioral conditions…

The exile brought about a number of significant changes to the way Judaism was practiced…

When the Babylonians expelled the Jews from Judea, they destroyed the Temple completely. Jewish law stipulated that certain important aspects of Jewish religious life — most notably animal sacrifice — could only be performed at the Temple in Jerusalem…

This new focus gave rise to a new class of professional clergy within Judaism, the rabbi…a spiritual leader tasked with explaining God’s expectations to the common people. Early rabbis compiled the Talmud, a series of writings that further explain the Torah…

During the period of captivity, Jews continued to…develop their religious traditions, many of which became distinct from their origins, due to the influences of the local culture…

the deportees…personal fortunes were undoubtedly better than thse who remained behind…

Many of the exiles, finding themselves in comfortable circumstances, assimilated into Babylonian society in ways that concerned the pious among them. Ezekiel denounced such men as “a rebellious house.” 

As regards the number of Jews deported by Nebuchadnezzar...12,000 men, or in all 36,000 to 48,000 souls…about one-fourth of the population…was led captive into Babylonia...The actual return of the exiles…consisted of about 1,800 men, or 5,500 to 6,000 souls…Ezra and Nehemiah succeeded, after great difficulties, in establishing the post-exilic Jewish community…

And even for the people who returned to re-establish YHVH’s temple and worship, once they got back home, many didn’t change their cross-cultural ways. Especially religious toleration. What had served to preserve their religion in exile was distorted into destroying their religion at home.

“the princes came to me [Ezra], saying,

• The people of Israel, and the priests, and the Levites, have not separated themselves from the people of the lands,
• doing according to their abominations, even of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites.
• For they have taken of their daughters for themselves, and for their sons: so that the holy seed have mingled themselves with the people of those lands:
• yea, the hand of the princes and rulers hath been chief in this trespass… 

Clearly, for political / military alliances. Abominations that make desolate. Again!

I fell upon my knees, and spread out my hands unto the LORD my God, And said,  O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee, my God: for our iniquities are increased over our head, and our trespass is grown up unto the heavens…And now, O our God, what shall we say after this? for we have forsaken thy commandments… behold, we are before thee in our trespasses: for we cannot stand before thee because of this.” (Ezra 10)

Israel’s acculturation into the Babylonian lifestyle is noted by calling Jerusalem the “daughter of Babylon”. This is a common way of expressing the abstract concept of a rebirth of another city’s heritage in ideals, values and goals.

• “Deliver thyself, O Zion / rebuilt Jerusalem, that dwellest [is co-mingled] with
• the daughter [iteration] of Babylon [in their neighborhoods]. 
• Sing and rejoice, O daughter [future iteration] of Zion: for, lo, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith the LORD”. (Zechariah 2)

From the point of view of the future as prophesied, any reference to the daughter of Babylon, or even simply shortened to just Babylon, must be interpreted in its prophetic context.

“Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen:

that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.

I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour. I have declared, and have saved, and I have shewed, when there was no strange god among you: therefore ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, that I am God…and there is none that can deliver out of my hand: I will work, and who shall let it?…

but thou hast been weary of me, O Israel…thou hast made me to serve with thy sins, thou hast wearied me with thine iniquities…Thy first father hath sinned, and thy teachers have transgressed against me.

Therefore I have…given Jacob to the curse, and Israel to reproaches.“ (Isaiah 43)

This was fulfilled on Judah by the Babylonian captivity about 600 BC. (It’s easier to remember rounded numbers.)

A tour of Washington’s most prominent landmarks makes it clear that the American city was the product of a deliberate, concerted effort to emulate the capital of the Roman empire. Why would a new nation that had just thrown off the British Empire to establish a republic model its capital on a long-gone European empire?…

Obviously, to replace the monarchical British Empire with themselves as republican Roman. Empire, that is. 

And any biblical reference to Babylon must take into consideration the context of that city as an acculturated iteration of Babylon. 

For example:

• “Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will raise up against Babylon, and against them that dwell in the midst of them that rise up against me,
  • This is a future prophecy given by Jeremiah at the time that Babylon was in her prime. Yes, it was fulfilled by the Medes and Persians, but Babylon was rebuilt, most recently by Saddam Hussein, so is yet to be again fulfilled.
  • Them that dwell in the midst of the Babylonians are her associates – diplomats from allied nations, allied armies, a multitude of businesses and traders getting in on her wealth.
• Babylon hath been a golden cup in the LORD‘s hand, that made all the earth drunken:
  • This is documented in Revelation as having future fulfillment as well as having come to pass multiple times.
  • The key attribute, ergo meaning of the name Babylon, is “a city devoted to materialism and sensual pleasure.” You don’t have to be a biblical scholar to make that connection.
  • “Babylon” is today used as a noun describing a degenerate society of immoral hedonism, oppression and corrupt politics. The Weimar Republic’s Berline was just such a jungle of sex, drugs, scandalous politics, Freudian psychology and Neo-noir roaring ‘20s. This is Netflix’ “Babylon Berlin.”
  • San Fransisco Babylon is erotica, an illustrated history of this famous city and its dark underbelly as a scene of sexual depravity going back to the earliest times.
  • In the book Imagining Gay Paradise, chapter 14 is entitled Men of the Feast: Babylon for its review of the Babylon hotel in Bangkok, Thailand. There is a rooftop hanging garden but more importantly the name was determined by blending the Jewish definition of a gateway to the gods and the  Christians evocation of promiscuity since for the developer spirit and sex go together.
• O thou that dwellest upon many waters, abundant in treasures 
  • a sea-going nation rich from extensive trade routes
  • As of 2021, the United States is the richest country in the world by GDP of $22.996 trillion. The U.S. makes up 24% of the total global economy, says Investopedia.
• Thou art my battle axe and weapons of war: for with thee will I break in pieces the nations, and with thee will I destroy kingdoms;
  • The US is the strongest military power in the world. Without even counting its alliances, the US alone has a budget of $738 billion, 1,388,000 men and women in the armed forces, 6,125 nuclear weapons, 11 aircraft carriers, 68 nuclear submarines, 3,761 military aircraft, 867 attack helicopters, 6,209 tanks, and 113 warships.
  • Russia is second by a long shot with a budget of $43.2 billion, 1,000,000 men and women in the armed forces, 6,500 nuclear weapons, only 1 aircraft carrier, 28 nuclear submarines, 1,379 aircraft, and 70 warships.
• Behold, I am against thee, O destroying mountain, saith the LORD, which destroyest all the earth: and I will stretch out mine hand upon thee, and…will make thee a burnt mountain….And thou shalt be desolate for ever, saith the LORD.
  • This is consistent with a massed nuclear wipeout from forces allied with Russia against the US.

• blow the trumpet among the nations, prepare the nations against her,
  • call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashchenaz; / Turkey appoint a captain / leader against her; 
  • the Medes, the captains thereof, and all the rulers thereof, and all the land of his dominion – Iran with sphere of influence linking Russia and China

• For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; The daughter / legacy of Babylon is like a threshingfloor, it is time to thresh her: yet a little while, and the time of her harvest shall come.
• The violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon, shall the inhabitant of Zion say; and my blood upon the inhabitants of Chaldea, shall Jerusalem say.
• I will make them drunken, that they may…sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the LORD.
• how is Babylon become an astonishment among the nations!
• My people, go ye out of the midst of her, and deliver ye every man his soul from the fierce anger of the LORD. 
• And lest your heart faint, and ye fear for the rumour that shall be heard in the land; a rumour shall both come one year, and after that in another year shall come a rumour, and violence in the land, ruler against ruler.” (Zechariah 2)