Note 950 — Chapter XXII
E. J. (Edward James) Chinnock translation
The Hebrew name for Babylon is Babel, i.e. Bab-Bel, court of Bel: porta vel aula, civitas Beli (Winer). In Jer. xxv. 26; li. 41, it is called Sheshach, which Jewish commentators, followed by Jerome, explain by the Canon Atbash, i.e. after the alphabet put in an inverted order. According to this rule the word Babel, which is the Hebrew name of Babylon, would be written Sheshach. Sir Henry Rawlinson, however, says it was the name of a god after whom the city was named; and the word has been found among the Assyrian inscriptions representing a deity.