Why is the City of Babylon Considered Evil?

The ancient city of Babylon was founded around 2300 BC, and it was located between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. What remains of the once-great city of Babylon lies in Hillah, Iraq, a little more than fifty miles south of Baghdad. Although it was founded by “a mighty hunter for the Lord,” the city came to be equated with evil throughout the Bible. Why is that so?

Nimrod founded Babylon.

To read about Nimrod in Genesis 10:8–12 is often to be led astray about the founder of Babylon. After all, Babylon is equated with evil throughout the Bible and particularly in the end times. So how could “a mighty hunter before the Lord” be the founder of such an infamous city (Genesis 10:9)?

Blame it on geber, the Hebrew word for “mighty.” To describe a man with geber is to say that he’s a “man’s man.” No man will mess with him, and every man likely wants to be him. Geber is part of the angel Gabriel’s name, Geber-i-el. In Hebrew, when an “i” makes its way into a name, it means “mine.” And as in elohim, the Hebrew word for God, “el” means God. All together, Gabriel means “God is my might.” In many ways, the meaning of Gabriel’s name is the opposite of Nimrod’s. Nimrod’s name could be interpreted as, “I am my strength” or “I am the mighty one before the Lord.” In fact, “before the Lord” could mean “in the face of.” Think of two boxers at weigh-in, face-to-face, puffing and preening to be seen as the strongest—except Nimrod thinks he can go toe-to-toe with all-powerful God. Seen in that light, this founder of Babylon’s true colors begin to show. (You can also see why “nimrod” is sometimes used today to describe a foolish person.)

Nimrod’s description as a hunter could be interpreted as one who sought to hound or capture God himself, or one who shakes his fist at God. All of these descriptions characterize Nimrod as a prideful leader. So the verse following Nimrod’s short but powerful introduction shouldn’t be surprising: “And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel” (Genesis 10:10). An arrogant leader founds history’s most arrogant city, Babylon.

King Nebuchadnezzar saw himself as Nimrod’s successor.

An extra-biblical source known as the Borsippa Tablet was found in the plain of Shinar. On that tablet, Nebuchadnezzar, the future king of Babylon in the book of Daniel, wrote:

I have completed its magnificence with silver, gold, other metals, stone, enameled bricks, fir and pine. The first which is the house of the earth’s base, the most ancient monument of Babylon I built and finished it. I have highly exalted its head with bricks covered with copper. We say for the other, that is, this edifice, the house of the seven lights of the earth, the most ancient monument of Borsippa. A former king built it, (they reckon 42 ages) but he did not complete its head. Since a remote time, people had abandoned it, without order expressing their words. Since that time the earthquake and the thunder had dispersed the sun-dried clay. The bricks of the casing had been split, and the earth of the interior had been scattered in heaps. Merodach, the great god, excited my mind to repair this building. I did not change the site nor did I take away the foundation. In a fortunate month, in an auspicious day, I undertook to build porticoes around the crude brick masses, and the casing of burnt bricks. I adapted the circuits, I put the inscription of my name in the Kitir of the portico. I set my hand to finish it. And to exalt its head. As it had been in ancient days, so I exalted its summit (emphasis added).

That “most ancient monument of Babylon” has to be the Tower of Babel. After all, the Tower was left unfinished when God confounded the people’s language and scattered them away from the city. Think about it: How could they have finished the Tower once no one understood each other?

In the Borsippa Tablet, King Nebuchadnezzar proudly proclaimed how he finished that ancient monument. From this passage and Nebuchadnezzar’s story in Daniel, it’s not hard to see how much Nebuchadnezzar desired to follow the footsteps of Nimrod. Like his earliest predecessor, Nebuchadnezzar was a prideful and power-hungry leader who would ultimately pay a crazy price for his hubris.

Big government birthed Babylon.

Though they may not have called it such, both Nimrod and Nebuchadnezzar were fans of big government. To them, big government simply meant total control. But big government didn’t originate with either Babylonian leader. Rather, big government arrived on earth when capital punishment was introduced in Genesis 9:6: “Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.”

By default, this verse creates the need for an overseeing government, else who deems a party’s guilt or innocence? If a man kills another man, both a judge and jury are necessary. But how are those men chosen? And how is such a choosing run? And who chooses the choosers? By that point, voting becomes a reality and the basic building blocks of government have created the foundation for how people can govern themselves.

Only about a century passes for government to begin overextending its power. When it’s introduced in Genesis 9:6, government has but one function: to mete out proper capital punishment. A hundred years later, government is creating costly boondoggle projects for its own benefit (i.e., The Tower of Babel).

Babylon Today

Though Babylon is no longer a city of renown, Saddam Hussein began efforts to rebuild it in 1983. In fact, Hussein saw himself as a successor to Nebuchadnezzar, going so far as to inscribe “This was built by Saddam Hussein, son of Nebuchadnezzar, to glorify Iraq” on bricks throughout the partially rebuilt city. The 2003 invasion of Iraq cut short his rebuilding efforts, but as of 2006, Iraqi and UN officials had planned to continue its restoration.

Tellingly, the city of Babylon plays an important—and evil—