Well, my dear friend, this is a very big topic, and I am not certain how deeply you would like me to go in responding to your question. I will try to summarize its significance in the Scriptures. To begin with, Babylon was a very ancient city, located on the Euphrates River, perhaps 50 miles south of present-day Bagdad in Iraq. It was settled somewhere around 2300 years before Christ, and by the 7th century BC, it had become a very large, highly fortified city, and the seat of a great empire under King Nebuchadnezzar. Perhaps we think of it mostly with reference to the conquest and deportation of Judah, when Nebuchadnezzar removed many of the inhabitants, deporting them to Babylon as slaves, and removed the precious metal and stones from the Temple of God, and of the King of Judah’s treasury.

The people of Judah were exiled to Babylon for 70 years as a consequence of their sin of idolatry, their failure to honor God through obedience to His law, and for not allowing for the sabbath rest for their land over the years, which had been called for in the law. I believe that the 70 years of exile, allowing the land to rest amounted to the accumulated time of 70 years of their failure to observe this sabbath requirement. One final historical note would be that the Empire of Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar and his successors which we read about in the book of Daniel extended from about B.C. 625 to 538, when Babylon was conquered by the Medes and Persians, and Belshazzar was slain, thus ending the empire.

Regarding the OT references to Babylon, the Morrish Bible Dictionary states: “…In Jeremiah 50:11 of Babylon it is said, ‘O ye destroyers of mine heritage, because ye are grown fat as the heifer at grass, and bellow as bulls;’ its broad walls are mentioned, Jer. 51:12, 58; its gates of brass and bars of iron, Isa. 45: 2; and Nebuchadnezzar boasted of the ‘great Babylon’ which he had built by the might of his power and for the honour of his majesty. Dan. 4:30…. Babylon has a large place in the O.T. with reference to its intercourse with Israel, in nearly every chapter of Jeremiah, from 20 – 52, Babylon is mentioned. Babylon is also of note as being the first of the four great empires prophesied of by Daniel. The kingdom of the Lord, established in the house of David, and maintained in Judah, had for the time come to an end because of iniquity, and the ‘times of the Gentiles’ had begun. Of Nebuchadnezzar it was said, “Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength and glory …Thou art this head of gold.” Dan. 2:37, 38. The destruction of Babylon was fully foretold in scripture, though some of these prophecies may refer also to still future events, namely, the overthrow by the Lord (typified by Cyrus) of the last holder of Nebuchadnezzar-like authority, namely, the beast, the last head of the revived Roman empire. Isa. 13: 6-22; Isa. 14: 4-23; Isa. 21: 2-9; Isa. 47: 1-11; Jer. 25: 12-14 and Jer. 50, 51…. The moral features of Babylon were idolatrous corruption and worldliness, which will be seen in full manifestation in Babylon the Great (see Revelation 17). It is the place where the people of God get into captivity through dalliance with the world…”

Please forgive me for borrowing so heavily from the Bible Dictionary, but I felt that this resource summed up very well the Biblical significance of Babylon according to the Scriptures.  (SF)  (684.4)