WHO IS THE DAUGHTER OF BABYLON?

From the book Will Babylon Be Rebuilt in the Last Days? by S. Douglas Woodward

According to Blue Letter Bible (searching the King James Version), five verses in the Old Testament discuss the mysterious personage, the daughter of Babylon. These five scriptures are cited below:

Psalm 137:8

O daughter of Babylon, who are to be destroyed,

Happy the one who repays you as you have served us!

Isaiah 47:1

Come down and sit in the dust,

O virgin daughter of Babylon.

Sit on the ground without a throne,

O daughter of the Chaldeans!

For you shall no more be called

Tender and delicate.

Jeremiah 50:42

They shall hold the bow and the lance.

They are cruel and shall not show mercy.

Their voice shall roar like the sea

They shall ride on horses,

Set in array, like a man for the battle,

Against you, O daughter of Babylon.

Jeremiah 51:33

For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel:

“The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor

When it is time to thresh her,

Yet a little while

And the time of her harvest will come.”

Zechariah 2:7

“Up, Zion! Escape, you who dwell with the daughter of Babylon.”

Four of the verses predict the destruction of the daughter of Babylon. One instructs the people of Zion to flee from her, apparently due to the coming judgment. Nothing in these verses presents a hopeful future for the daughter of Babylon.

So, who is the daughter of Babylon? Is this just a synonym for Babylon itself? Many commentators, including Andy Woods in his recent book on the rebuilding of Babylon, implicitly assume this is so. They draw no distinction. And yet, there are differences. Isn’t it likely that just looking at her name, ‘the daughter‘ of Babylon, the prophets address a descendant of Babylon? Couldn’t it also be a symbolic allusion or cipher to an entity that behaves as Babylon did?

I contend there are real distinctions. There is a third Babylon. It is not Mystery Babylon. It is not the world system that is the final Babylon. No, its distinctions do not allow us to conclude the passages above reference Babylon on the Euphrates; rather, they reflect a descendant of the ‘spirit’ (perhaps an influencing ‘prince – a principality) of Babylon,’ such as the ‘prince of Persia’ or the ‘prince of Greece’ (Dan. 10:20). This prince was once the prince of the former city Babylon and the land (of the Chaldeans). Indeed, the prince of Babylon is likely “that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world” (Revelation 12:9). That is my view.

With that said, let’s consider Jeremiah 50-51 and its likely interpretation.

To begin, Jeremiah asserts his pronouncements are addressed to Babylon and against the Land of the Chaldeans. Just as the five verses referencing the daughter of Babylon deal with judgment, his first prophecy is destruction. “Babylon is taken, Bel is shamed. Merodach is broken in pieces; Her idols are humiliated; her images are broken in pieces.” (Jer. 50:2) And, as Andy Woods notes and virtually all commentators agree, Babylon has not been destroyed and humiliated as is depicted in Jeremiah 50-51. She was peacefully conquered by the Medes and Persians. Likewise, two centuries later, Alexander took control of Babylon and made it his capital without a battle. But after centuries of being deserted and its buildings decayed, there is no glory and no city to upon which to build the globe’s capital. Indeed, this Babylon lies in the dust with little more than lonesome bricks signed by Saddam Hussein, a few buildings, and its beautiful Ishtar gate restored.

If Jeremiah is speaking to a future Babylon, yet to be built and subsequently destroyed, then other verses in these two chapters should reinforce that interpretation. Suppose they point out unlikely differences that reference this ancient city restored. In that case, we must conclude we are dealing with a city and land that mirrors ancient Babylon. It is not literally a new city built on the foundation of ancient Babylon. The Scripture speaks here in a metaphor. In my view, that is what the Bible teaches. We can take the Bible literally, but that does not mean all prose in the Bible avoids all use of metaphor and simile.  Clearly, that would be a foolish position.

So what is the daughter of Babylon? I believe it is the United States, and its most iconic city is New York City.

The passages below point out many unique characteristics of the USA.

• First, who destroys this Babylon? Jeremiah affirms it is an assembly of nations from the north of Israel (Jer. 50:3, 9, 41). Some would point to Daniel 11 and suggest Turkey is the King of the North and will come against Israel. However, suppose we believe that the prophecies reference the United States. In that case, it is unthinkable that a rising “new Ottoman Empire” could become the dominant world power, eclipsing the USA, Europe, China, and Russia (despite its present problems). Jeremiah describes her destruction in numerous other verses (e.g., Jer. 50:3, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 21, 22, 23, 24, 26, 27, 29, 30, 32, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 42, 45, 46). That is 25 verses out of 46 telling of Babylon’s destruction. The litany continues throughout chapter 51 as well. But at this point, I will suspend recounting this prophesied list of destruction.
• Next, this daughter has a mother, sharing many of the same attributes: “Your mother shall be sore confounded, she that bare you shall be ashamed: Behold, the hindermost of the nations shall be a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert.” (Jer. 50:12) I have proposed (as have others) that this speaks of Great Britain – perhaps surviving the destruction of her daughter. Today, the strongest alliance is the Anglo-American alliance which has dominated the world economically, politically, and militarily for 120 years (and The British Empire, upon which the ’sun never set’ for 300 years). It remains the controlling power today despite the weakening of the dollar, our recent poor military performance, and the ascendancy of China on the world stage.
• Additionally, this nation is the ‘hindermost’ of nations. The word for hindermost should not be translated ‘least’ as in the New King James or NIV, but ‘last in the line of nations.’ My interpretation is that ‘hindermost’ references the United States as the last significant empire coming on the scene as this age ends. She is not the least of nations – she is “the hammer of the whole earth (Jer. 5:23). And as Revelation says, “Who can make war with him?” (Rev. 13:4) As my co-authors and I (Douglas Krieger and Dene McGriff) wrote in The Final Babylon, the connection is undeniable (for at least the past 70 years or so) between the United States and the spirit of Antichrist.
• The theme of God’s people fleeing Babylon is repeated four times: Jer. 50:8, 28; 51:6, and 51:45. As pointed out earlier, there are millions of Jews in the United States. There are none in Babylon and next to none in Iraq. It seems unlikely that Antichrist would demand all Jews move to Babylon. This would seem akin to the demand that all Jews move into the ghetto in Warsaw, a prelude to yet another holocaust (which may be in the offing, but in Israel, not Iraq). That would seem a trap – Israelis certainly would choose death in Israel before becoming immigrants again to Babylon.
• “Babylon hath been a golden cup in the LORD’s hand, that made all the earth drunken: The nations have drunken of her wine; therefore, the nations are mad.” (Jer. 51:7) Because of the powerful Christian influence at the founding of our nation and its missionary successes for over 150 years, the United States was once a golden cup in the LORDS’ hands. However, America’s growing decadence beginning in the 1920s has altered its status. Similarly, Israel was a golden cup in the Lord’s hands at several points in its biblical history. But today, it has been ‘regathered in unbelief.’ (See Zephaniah 2) But the Bible promises that this era will be concluded. There are eight mentions of a believing nation in Jeremiah’s two chapters under study here. (Jer. 50:4-5, 19, 20, 28, 34; 51:10, 36) And many extended passages in Ezekiel (see the prophecy of ‘the dry bones’ in Ezekiel 37) promise the same. Israel will return and be reborn. These are included in sections of Scripture dealing with the last days. This alignment is no accident. These two themes are woven together. The commitment which Paul speaks of, someday, “all Israel will be saved” (Rom. 11:26) for the sake of the fathers (the Patriarchs). It will come to pass, although there are differences of opinion on exactly how.
• “O thou that dwellest upon many waters, abundant in treasures, thine end has come, and the measure of thy covetousness.” (Jer. 51:13) Babylon was once a land on many waters due to its two mighty rivers and extensive canal system. We recall Psalm 137, where God’s people lament Jerusalem’s destruction as they sit by the waters of Babylon. However, short of an engineering miracle (likely exceeding any cost that can be borne by any nation or group of nations), Babylon on the Euphrates will not be the ‘land on many waters’ again.  In contrast, the United States is. She has three coasts (including the Gulf Coast), the Great Lakes (comprising an 18% of the fresh water in the world), and the ‘mighty Mississippi,’ the world’s third largest rivers at 1.15 million square miles. Only the Amazon at 2.72 and the Nile at 1.31 million square miles are larger.

• “They shall roar together like lions; they shall yell as lions’ whelps.” (Jer. 51:38) One of the more controversial aspects of identifying the players in the last days is who the Merchants of Tarshish are. It has been my position that Tarshish refers to the settlements of the Phoenicians (aka the Canaanites) in Carthage and Spain. In The Final Babylon, my co-authors and I discuss the case that the Canaanites/Phoenicians are the mercantile empire of the world and are the forebear of the Merchants of Tarshish. England and America constitute their descendants. (By the way, Tarshish appears to be related to ‘the tin island’ of ancient times (Great Britain), and what may seem to be the most outlandish of claims – that Bronze-Age bronze was made from Britain’s tin and America’s copper (from the Great Lakes region).

• “The sea is come up upon Babylon: She is covered with the multitude of the waves thereof.” (Jer. 51:42) The Cathedral of St. John the Divine, riddled with occult symbolism, includes a column carved showing the City of New York being destroyed by a great wave. Is this an admittance by Luciferians of what may be in store for ‘The Big Apple?’ To say the least, its image is eerie.
• “And the nations shall not flow together anymore unto him” (Jer 51:44). There is only one central meeting place for the world. That is New York City. The United Nations has often been identified as the basis for the One World Government of the Beast. Its association with Luciferian symbols is well known. The United States is today’s dominant world government, providing ‘police protection’ for many democracies (which may soon come to an end), the world’s reserve currency (its petrodollar is fading from being the standard), and one of two essential capital marketplaces (Wall Street and The City of London are still in business).

However, it may not be the case that the United States or the United Nations flower into Antichrist’s world religion. Despite a close alignment with Luciferian and occult powers that influence many leaders in our government, the ‘one world religion’ may well be resident in Rome, specifically at the Vatican. Or it may be the case that all religions simply receive secondary status to the religion which worships the Beast (similar to the worship of Caesar as the Pontifex Maximus). An Islamic Antichrist, at least that portion of the theory which proposes the final world dictator is a Muslim (as the late John Price suggested in his book The End of America), could be the world religion. At the same time, other cities such as New York, London, and even Jerusalem would play a major part in other unspecified ways.

Who is Babylon? Are there three Babylons? (See the chart, ‘When is Babylon Destroyed?’) Does the fact that each of these three Babylon candidates has a distinctive empire make them distinct?  Is it important that each is destroyed at different times and by different destroyers? Does this prove that there are three Babylons?  Doesn’t it make it much more likely that the United States is indeed the daughter of Babylon?  Its attributes say this is so. Therefore, we shouldn’t confuse the daughter of Babylon with the ‘woman’ comprising the last world religion (Mystery Babylon). (1) The daughter of Babylon is destroyed by enemies from its north. (2) The antichrist and his ‘little horns’ destroy the woman. (3) And Jesus Christ himself completes the destruction when He returns in glory. “Babylon is fallen, is fallen. Hallelujah!”(Revelation 14)

When is the daughter of Babylon destroyed?  I argue it happens just before Daniel’s seventieth week commences and when the war of Gog and Magog begins.  If so, this means that America’s destruction could happen at any moment. But could this also be the moment for the Rapture of the Church? Are these events simultaneous?  Are we perched on the crest of the coming Kingdom? It certainly looks so. We best be ready.

For a deeper study, obtain a copy of S Douglas Woodward’s Will Babylon Be Rebuilt in the Last Days? or The Final Babylon, by Woodward, Douglas Krieger, and Dene McGriff.