NEBUCHADNEZZAR
(ac. “Nabu-kudurri-usur”: “May Nebo defend the borders!”).
Another possible transcription is Nebuchadrezzar. Son of Nabopolassar and king of Babylon. His father successfully led a Chaldean rebellion against Assyria, and founded (in 625 BC) the New Babylonian Empire.
The Uman-mandá, allies of Nabopolassar, took over Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, in the year 612. The new rulers of the Assyrian territories had, since then, the power of Egypt in check. Pharaoh Necho II, enthroned in 609 BC, invaded Palestine (2 Kings 23:9; 2 Chron. 35:20), defeating Josiah, king of Judah, who wanted to oppose him, and killing him in battle. of Megiddo (in the year 608).
Necho returned from Egypt shortly afterward with a large army, in order to extend his dominions beyond the Euphrates. Nabopolassar sent his son, Nebuchadnezzar, to confront the Egyptians, who were crushed (in 605 BC) at the battle of Carchemish.
Nebuchadnezzar rejected them as far as Egypt, and subdued the countries that he passed through (2 Kings 24:7; Jer. 46:2), from the Euphrates to the river of Egypt. Upon hearing of his father’s death, he left his generals to finish the war in the west, and hurried to Babylon, where he was made king in 605 BC. (Against Apion, 1:9).
The OT writers, especially Jeremiah and Ezekiel, his contemporaries, mention Nebuchadnezzar. The book of Ezekiel gives important teachings about his reign. The inscriptions on bricks, and the testimonies of the Babylonian historian Berossus, a priest who lived in the 3rd century BC, complete the documentary picture.
After paying tribute to Nebuchadnezzar for three years, Judah rebelled against him (2 Kings 24:1). The king of Babylon returned to the land of Judah, crushed the revolt, had King Jehoiakim put in chains, ordered his son Jehoiakim, the crown prince, deported to Babylon, and established Zedekiah, Jehoiakim’s brother, as regent (2 Chron. 36: 6, 10). (See JOACIM, JOACHIM, ZEDEKIAH).
For eight years, Zedekiah remained submissive, but in the ninth year, with the promise of an Egyptian army, he rebelled (Jer. 37:5). In the year 586, Nebuchadnezzar took Jerusalem, burned the Temple, and deported all the notables of the country (2 Kings 24:25; 2 Chron. 36:5-21; Jer. 39; 52).
At this time (586-573 BC) the king of Babylon besieged Tire (Ez. 29:18; Against Apion 1:21; Ant. 10:11, 1). In the twenty-third year of his reign (582) he fought against Coleosyria, Moab, and Ammon, deporting many hundreds of Jews (Jer. 52:30; Ant. 10:9, 7). In the thirty-seventh year of his reign (about 567), Nebuchadnezzar invaded Egypt (cf. Ez. 29:19).
It is likely that Nebuchadnezzar undertook further expeditions, but no documents are known about this. His policy consisted of deporting the defeated, dispersing them throughout the various regions of his empire. Thus having a large workforce, he carried out important works.
From the inscriptions of Nebuchadnezzar himself it can be seen that he attributed more importance to his constructions than to his military victories, which are relegated to the background. In the inscription of the House of India are found the following words of Nebuchadnezzar: “Since the time when Merodach created me for sovereignty, when Nebo his true son entrusted his subjects to me, I have loved as life itself the erection of his abode; and I have made no more glorious city than Babylon and Borsipa” (col. VII, lines 26-32).
Among other of these numerous works we can mention the great wall of Babylon and the magnificent royal palace; he restored the great temple of Marduk in Babylon, that of Nebo in Borsipa, and a large number of other sanctuaries.
He is said to have made the hanging gardens of Babylon for Queen Amitis, his Median wife, who was longing in the plain of Babylon for the mountains of her country (Against Apion 1:9; Ant. 10:11, 1). It is said that he built, near Sipara, for irrigation, an immense artificial lake that measured more than 225 km in perimeter and 55 m. deep.
He made a network of canals that covered the entire country, building docks and jetties in the Persian Gulf. All of this contributed to pride dominating him, for which he was punished, falling victim to lycanthropy (a mental disorder in which the affected person imagines that he is an animal).
Nebuchadnezzar was “seven times” deprived of reason, eating grass like an ox (Dan. 4). Then he came to his senses; Having reigned more than 43 years, he died in 562 BC. He succeeded his son Evil-merodach.
Nebuchadnezzar and archeology.
Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon has been the subject of systematic excavations carried out from 1899 to 1917 by Robert Koldowey and the Deutsche Orientgesellschaft (cf. Koldowey, “Das Wiedererstehende Babylon”, 4th ed., 1925).
In these excavations, which to date have been the only ones with a truly scientific methodology, the imposing Ishtar Gate was discovered, which crossed the passage of the double wall; It was decorated with enameled bricks representing a whole series of bulls and dragons (cf. R. Koldowey, “Das IschtarTor in Babylon”, 1918).
Nebuchadnezzar’s throne room was similarly decorated with magnificent geometric borders on enamelled bricks. The king’s own ziggurat was in the temple precinct. According to Herodotus, it had eight floors, but only the first remains.
Thus, archeology perfectly illustrates the Babylon described by the Word of God, and, together with the inscriptions, documents the character of that Nebuchadnezzar who said, in a fit of arrogance; “Is not this the great Babylon that I built for a royal house by the might of my power, and for the glory of my majesty?”