Nebuchadnezzar

(prince, or lord, of Nebo) (2 Kings 24:1)—king of Babylon, son and successor of Nabopolassar. He lived 600 years before Christ and shared the reins of government with his father for two years before his death. Nebuchadnezzar’s first war was with Pharaoh Necho, king of Egypt, who not long before had defeated Josiah, king of Judah, at Megiddo, and, taking advantage of his victory, had taken possession of the whole country from the Euphrates to Egypt. Nebuchadnezzar met his forces and defeated them at Carchemish, thereby putting an end to Egyptian power in Asia. Advancing further southward, he took Jerusalem in the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, and took from there Daniel with the rest of the captives, along with some of the sacred vessels of the temple, as trophies of his victory.

When his father, Nabopolassar, died, Nebuchadnezzar hastened across the desert with part of his forces to Babylon and ascended his father’s throne about 604 B.C. About three years afterward, Jehoiakim rebelled against him, and Phoenicia also revolted. Nebuchadnezzar invaded Tyre and advanced upon Jerusalem with part of his forces, and after a long resistance took it. According to the testimony of Josephus, he put the king to death and raised Jehoiakim to the throne. On account of a new revolt against Nebuchadnezzar, Jerusalem was again besieged and taken, the temple of Jerusalem was plundered, and the princes and the mass of the people were led away to Babylon; only the poorest class of the people remained in Jerusalem.

Zedekiah, whom Nebuchadnezzar had set upon the throne, after a nine-year vassal reign, rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar and, in order to fight against him, entered into an alliance with the king of Egypt. The consequence of this was the fourth, two-year siege of Jerusalem, the final destruction of the city, and the depopulation of the country; the leading men of the city were brought to Nebuchadnezzar at Riblah and put to death there by the cruel conqueror. Tyre also fell after a thirteen-year siege.

Almost simultaneously victories were won in Egypt, and all the peoples of Assyria, Phoenicia, Palestine, and Egypt bowed before the victorious standards of Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar was renowned, however, not only for his victories but also for the construction of various enormous, magnificent buildings. He adorned his capital, fortified it with an enormous stone wall, developed agriculture, built aqueducts, constructed a multitude of canals and roads, and so on. In his reign, Babylon became a new capital.

His riches, acquired from conquered countries, grew to enormous proportions; he had in his service millions of foreign captives, whom he employed for architectural and, in general, for construction work. On all the bricks of his time, in the enormous stone ruins, is read a single inscription: Nebuchadnezzar, son of Nabopolassar, king of Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar also built an enormous palace, rebuilt the temple of Bel and the temple of Merodach in Borsippa, and constructed hanging gardens for his wife, the Median Nitocris, considered among the ancients wonders of the world and commonly ascribed to Semiramis, and so on.

Yet equal to the glory of his reign was also his excessive pride. “The king spake, and said, Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty?” it is said in the Book of the prophet Daniel. “While the word was in the king’s mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, saying, O king Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken; The kingdom is departed from thee” (4:27, 28 [as cited]). And so it came to pass: “he was driven from men, and did eat grass as oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hairs were grown like eagles’ feathers, and his nails like birds’ claws” (v. 30 [as cited]).

Undoubtedly this was a kind of madness, in the fits of which he considered himself an ox. On the so-called Babylonian Standard Inscription, in which Nebuchadnezzar enumerates all his gigantic undertakings, there is contained a remarkable paragraph that indirectly points to a temporary derangement of the king of Babylon. “Four years already,” it says there, among other things, “has the seat of my kingdom been in this city… which, however, does not gladden my heart. In all my dominions I have not raised up one high place of power and might; I have not stored up precious treasures of my kingdom in the treasuries.

In Babylon, in the service of Merodach, my lord and the joy of my heart (?!), I have not sung hymns of praise nor offered him sacrifices upon his altars.” How clearly one hears in all this disillusionment, repentance, and a gloomy state of mind! At the end of those days (that is, seven years), the prophet Daniel continues in his book, speaking in the person of the king: “I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the most High… whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation” (v. 31 [as cited]).

Upon the return of his reason, Nebuchadnezzar soon died, after a reign of forty-three years, about 561 B.C. After his death the kingdom of Babylon began to decline. He was succeeded by his son, Evil-merodach, who probably had already governed the kingdom during his father’s illness. During the long reign of Nebuchadnezzar, God revealed many wonders. The upbringing of Daniel and his three companions, the dream of Nebuchadnezzar interpreted by Daniel, the miraculous deliverance of the three youths from the fire in the heated furnace of Babylon, the miraculous deliverance of Daniel from the den of lions—all this clearly showed the pagans that there is a Most High Hand which governs the destinies of men and human kingdoms.