Bible Story Recalled by Hussein-Babylon Link

A ruler who long ago held sway over the region now controlled by Iraq’s Saddam Hussein once confronted a disturbing phenomenon described in the Bible--a hand writing these words on a wall:

“MENE, MENE, TEKEL and PARSIN.”

As interpreted by the prophet Daniel, the Aramaic words meant in part, “God has numbered the days of your kingdom . . . you have been weighed in balances and found wanting.”

That ancient, banqueting king was Belshazzar, successor to Nebuchadnezzar, whose military might and grandeur had made Babylonia the dominant power of the Middle East, a legacy to which Saddam has likened his own role.

“Defender of the Arab nation,” Nebuchadnezzar is described in Iraqi history books, a mantle that Saddam also claims.

Like Iraq today, the center of Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylonian kingdom lay in the Tigris-Euphrates valley, cradle of Western civilization’s beginnings. His surrounding military conquests had made him master of an empire.

By extolling that past grandeur, Hussein has sought to boost his own credentials for dominion.

Before the war, he had spent millions of dollars and used 1,000 laborers to rebuild the ancient capital of Babylon, whose ruins are 60 miles south of the modern capital of Baghdad.

For all of Babylon’s splendor, from its palaces, gardens, bridges, statues and temples to its idols, its decorated processional avenue, immense gates and fortifications, the ancient city became synonymous in Jewish lore with vice and corruption.

Nebuchadnezzar’s older, expansionist empire of 2,500 years ago, like Hussein’s modern Iraq, also was a dire foe of Israel.

Instead of hurling missiles on Israel, however, Nebuchadnezzar’s armies overran the Jewish kingdom, besieged Jerusalem, looted the city of its treasures, burned it and took much of its population into captivity.

That forced exile to Babylon came in two waves, in 598 and 587 BC, the latter the most sweeping, the total numbers put variously at 4,600 and 10,000.

By their skills, some Jewish captives were assigned important tasks. Some gained influence in the royal court, notably Daniel, and also three called Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.

Although the biblical book bearing Daniel’s name was not written until much later, it tells several dramatic episodes with Nebuchadnezzar.

In one familiar case, when Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego refused to bow in worship to Nebuchadnezzar’s image, they were cast into a fiery furnace, but emerged unscathed.

Nebuchadnezzar recurrently was troubled by complicated dreams that his astrologers, enchanters and sorcerers could not fathom, but Daniel reportedly saw through them.

One dream was interpreted to mean that Nebuchadnezzar would, in effect, go mad and become like an animal until he recognized the Most High God of Israel. That, indeed, happened to him. The biblical account says:

“He was driven from among men, and ate grass like an ox, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven till his hair grew as long as eagles’ feathers and his nails were like birds’ claws.”

But his reason returned, the account says. He recognized and praised God, and was restored to his royal court and rule. He reigned for 43 years, dying in 562 BC, with Israel still in captivity.

But under successors, the Babylonian empire fell to the Persian king Cyrus, who, in 538 BC, issued his edict that Jews could return to Israel.