18　奇迹和邪恶并存的城市

古巴比伦的国王已经打败了尼尼微。可他并没有就此止步。他希望让自己统治下的古巴比伦，变得像以前的尼尼微那样强大。于是，他并没有停止战争，而是继续征服其他土地，直到古巴比伦王国变成其他国家的领袖和统治者。那么，古巴比伦最终会不会也像尼尼微那样衰亡呢？

待巴比伦的这位国王去世之后，他便把这个广袤的帝国留给了自己的儿子。注意，这位国王的儿子，可不是叫约翰、詹姆士、查理或其他简单的名字。他叫尼布甲尼撒；我可不知道，他的父亲平常是叫他这个长长的全名呢，还是简短一点，只叫像“尼布”“甲尼”或者“尼撒”这样的昵称。下面就是尼布甲尼撒将自己的名字写下来的样子，因为他用的是楔形文字。你们喜不喜欢用这种与众不同的方式来写你们的名字呢？

尼布甲尼撒继位后，便开始动手把巴比伦城建成世界上最庞大、最宏伟、最美

hundred huge brass gates. The Euphrates River flowed under the wall,across the city,and out under the wall at the other side.

Nebuchadnezzar could not find anyone in Babylon who was beautiful to be his queen. The Babylonian women must have felt pretty bad—or mad—about that.He went to Media,the country that had helped his father conquer Nineveh.There he found a lovely princess,and so he married her and brought her home to Babylon.

Now,Media was a land of hills and mountains,whilst Babylon was on level ground and without even a hill in sight. Nebuchadnezzar's queen found Babylonia so flat and uninteresting that she became homesick,and she longed for her own country with its wild mountain scenery.Just to please her and keep her contented,Nebuchadnezzar set to work and built a hill for her,but the strange thing was he built it on top of the roof of his palace！On the sides of this hill he made beautiful gardens,and these gardens he planted not only with flowers but also with trees,so that his queen might sit in the shade and enjoy herself.These were called Hanging Gardens.The Hanging Gardens and the tremendous walls were known far and wide as one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

Would you like to know what the other Wonders were?

Well,the pyramids in Egypt were one；the magnificent statue of Zeus at Olympia,where the Olympic Games were held,was another—so those two plus the Hanging Gardens make three.

Nebuchadnezzar believed in many gods,like the ones the Phoenicians worshiped.The

妙的城市。他将该城建成正方形，四周都有城墙，并且城墙竟然有一个人的五十倍高：嗬，五十倍呀！城墙很宽阔，战车都能在上面走；而在这道城墙上，他还开了一百扇巨大的铜制城门。幼发拉底河在城墙之下流淌，穿过整座城市，再从另一面的城墙之下流出。

尼布甲尼撒发现，巴比伦王国里没有一个才貌足以当他王后的美女。对此，古巴比伦的女人们心中一定都很难过，或者很生气呢。于是，尼布甲尼撒便前往曾经帮助过他父亲征服尼尼微的米堤亚。他在该国发现了一位美丽的公主，因此娶她为妻，并带着她回到了巴比伦。

注意，米堤亚是一个山峦密布的地方，而巴比伦却坐落于平原上，连一座小山也看不到。尼布甲尼撒的王后发现巴比伦一坦平洋、毫无意思之后，便开始思念自己的家乡，向往起家乡那种山峦起伏的景色来。为了取悦妻子并满足她的愿望，尼布甲尼撒开始行动起来，为她人工建造出了一座小山；而奇怪的是，他竟然还将这座小山建在王宫的屋顶之上呢！在这座小山四面的山坡上，他布置了许多美丽的花园，并且这些花园里不仅种着花花草草，还栽上了树木，好让他的王后可以坐在树荫下玩得高兴一点儿。这些花园，史称“空中花园”。古巴比伦的空中花园和巨型城墙举世闻名，属于“世界七大奇迹”之一哩。

那你们想不想知道其他六大奇迹都是些什么呢？

好吧，埃及的金字塔是一大奇迹；举办奥林匹克运动会的奥林匹亚那尊宏伟的宙斯雕像则是另外一大奇迹；这样，它们再加上空中花园，便有三大奇迹了。

Jews away off in Jerusalem believed in one God. Nebuchadnezzar wanted the Jews to worship his gods,but they would not.He also wanted them to pay him taxes,and they would not.So he sent his armies to Jerusalem,destroyed the city,burnt the beautiful Temple that Solomon had built,and brought the Jews and all their belongings to Babylon.There in Babylon Nebuchadnezzar kept the Jews prisoners,and there in Babylon the Jews remained prisoners for seventy years.

Babylon had become not only the most magnificent city in the world；it had become also the most wicked. The people of Babylon gave themselves up to the wildest pleasures.Their only thought seemed to be，“Let's eat,drink,and be merry”；they thought nothing of the morrow；the more wicked the pleasure the more they liked it.

But although Nebuchadnezzar seemed able to do and able to have everything in the world he wanted,he finally went crazy. He thought he was a bull,and he used to get down on his hands and knees and eat grass,imagining he was a beast of the field.

And Babylon,in spite of its tremendous walls and brass gates,was doomed. Babylon was to be conquered.It didn't seem possible.How could it be conquered,and who was to do the conquering?You would probably never guess.

尼布甲尼撒崇拜众多神灵，它们与腓尼基人所崇拜的那些神灵没什么两样。可在相距遥远的耶路撒冷，犹太人却只信奉一个上帝。尼布甲尼撒希望犹太人也来信奉他所信奉的那些神灵，可犹太人不愿意。他还想要犹太人向他上交税赋，可犹太人也不愿意。于是，他便派大军去攻打耶路撒冷，摧毁了这座城市，焚毁了所罗门建造的那些美丽神庙，还将犹太人和犹太人所有的财物全都掳到了巴比伦。到了巴比伦后，尼布甲尼撒又把犹太人关进了监狱；因此，那些犹太人便在巴比伦的监狱里做了七十年的囚犯。

此时，巴比伦不仅成了当时世界上最宏伟壮观的城市之一，也变成了世界上最为邪恶的城市。巴比伦人全都纵情于声色犬马，尽情享乐。他们似乎一心只想着“我们吃吧，喝吧，快活吧”。他们只顾眼前享乐，根本就不考虑未来；而越是纵情享乐，他们就越喜欢那样的生活。

不过，尽管尼布甲尼撒似乎无所不能，似乎能够得到世界上他所想要的一切，可他最终却疯了。他以为自己是一头公牛，因此曾经四肢着地，趴下去啃青草吃，还幻想着自己就是原野上的一头野兽。

而巴比伦呢，尽管有着巨大的城墙和铜制城门，最终却难逃劫数。巴比伦终将会被敌人攻克。原来这种情况似乎是不可能出现的。它是怎样被攻破的，又是谁将它攻破的呢？结果你们很可能永远也猜不到。