1183. The specific meaning of 'Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar' is not so clear because, with the exception of Calneh in Amos 6:2, these names are not mentioned anywhere else in the Word; but they are different forms of such worship. As for the land of Shinar however in which these forms of worship existed, it is clear that in the Word it means external worship which has within it that which is unholy. This is clear from its meaning in verse 2 of the next chapter, also in Zechariah 5:11, and especially in Daniel, where the following words appear,
The Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babel, and part of the vessels of the house of God; and he took them away into the land of Shinar, into the house of his god, and he brought the vessels into the house of the treasury of his god. Dan. 1:2.
This reference means that holy things were profaned. 'The vessels of the house of God' are holy things, 'the house of the god of the king of Babel in the land of Shinar' the unholy into which the holy were brought. Although these are historical events they nevertheless embody those arcana within them, as do all the historical narratives of the Word. The matter is made clearer still by the profanation of the same vessels, referred to in Daniel 5:3-5. Unless those events had represented holy things they would never have taken place.