Jerusalem, (Daniel 1:1,2) pressed forward to Egypt, and was engaged in that country or upon its
borders when intelligence arrived which recalled him hastily to Babylon. Nabopolassar, after
reigning twenty-one years, had died and the throne was vacant. In alarm about the succession
Nebuchadnezzar returned to the capital, accompanied only by his light troops; and crossing the
desert, probably by way of Tadmor or Palmyra, reached Babylon before any disturbance had arisen
and entered peaceably on his kingdom, B.C. 604. Within three years of Nebuchadnezzar’s first
expedition into Syria and Palestine, disaffection again showed itself in those countries. Jehoiakim,
who, although threatened at first with captivity, (2 Chronicles 36:6) had been finally maintained
on the throne as a Babylonian vassal, after three years of service “turned and rebelled” against his
suzerain, probably trusting, to be supported by Egypt. (2 Kings 24:1) Not long afterward Phoenicia
seems to have broken into revolt, and the Chaldean monarch once more took the field in person,
and marched first of all against Tyre. Having invested that city and left a portion of his army there
to continue the siege, he proceeded against Jerusalem, which submitted without a struggle. According
to Josephus, who is here our chief authority, Nebuchadnezzar punished Jehoiakim with death,
comp. (Jeremiah 23:18,19) and Jere 36:30 But placed his son Jehoiachin upon the throne. Jehoiachin
reigned only three months; for, on his showing symptoms of disaffection, Nebuchadnezzar came
up against Jerusalem for the third time, deposed the son’s prince whom he carried to Babylon,
together with a large portion of the population of the city and the chief of the temple treasures),
and made his uncle, Zedekiah, king in his room. Tyre still held out; and it was not till the thirteenth
year from the time of its first investment that the city of merchants fell, B.C. 585. Ere this happened,
Jerusalem had been totally destroyed. Nebuchadnezzar had commenced the final siege of Jerusalem
in the ninth year of Zedekiah—his own seventeenth year (B.C. 588)—and took it two years later,
B.C. 586. Zedekiah escaped from the city, but was captured near Jericho, (Jeremiah 39:5) and
brought to Nebuchadnezzar at Riblah in the territory of Hamath, where his eyes were put out by
the king’s order while his sons and his chief nobles were slain. Nebuchadnezzar then returned to
Babylon with Zedekiah, whom he imprisoned for the remainder of his life. The military successes
of Nebuchadnezzar cannot be traced minutely beyond this point. It may be gathered from the
prophetical Scriptures and from Josephus that the conquest of Jerusalem was rapidly followed by
the fall of Tyre and the complete submission of Phoenicia, Ezek 26-28 after which the Babylonians
carried their arms into Egypt, and inflicted severe injuries on that fertile country. (Jeremiah 46:13-26;
Ezekiel 23:2-20) We are told that the first care of Nebuchadnezzar, on obtaining quiet possession
of his kingdom after the first Syrian expedition, was to rebuild the temple of Bel (Bel-Merodach)
at Babylon out of the spoils of the Syrian war. The next proceeded to strengthen and beautify the
city, which he renovated throughout and surrounded with several lines of fortifications, himself
adding one entirely new quarter. Having finished the walls and adorned the gates magnificently,
he constructed a new palace. In the grounds of this palace he formed the celebrated “hanging
garden,” which the Greeks placed among the seven wonders of the world. But he did not confine
his efforts to the ornamentation and improvement of his capital. Throughout the empire at Borsippa,
Sippara, Cutha, Chilmad, Duraba, Teredon, and a multitude of other places, he built or rebuilt cities,
repaired temples, constructed quays, reservoirs, canals and aqueducts, on a scale of grandeur and
magnificence surpassing everything of the kind recorded in history unless it be the constructions
of one or two of the greatest Egyptian monarchs. The wealth greatness and general prosperity of
Nebuchadnezzar are strikingly placed before us in the book of Daniel. Toward the close of his reign
the glory of Nebuchadnezzar suffered a temporary eclipse. As a punishment for his pride and vanity,
frankie
(Frankie)
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