{Old Testament History}
Exile and Return Babylon's Last Kings
The Babylonian Empire reached its zenith under Nebuchadnezzar and, twenty-three years after his death, its capital city fell before Cyrus of Anshan, the founder of the Persian Empire. The rulers who governed Babylon during that scant quarter century were rather unpretentious and largely ineffective.
He entrusted the "Camp" to his oldest son, the first-born The troops everywhere in the country he ordered under his command. He let everything go, entrusted the kingship to him And, himself, he started out for a long journey, The military forces of Akkad marching with him; He turned toward Tema, deep in the west. He started out the expedition on a path leading to a distant region. When he arrived there, He killed in battle the prince of Tema, Slaughtered the flocks of those who dwelt in the city as well as in the countryside And he, himself, took his residence at Tema, the forces of Akkad were also stationed there. He made the town beautiful, built there his palace Like the palace in Babylon, he also built walls For the fortifications of the town and... He surrounded the town with sentinels. . . . 4
The Babylonian Priesthood < | Babylon's Last Kings | > Daniel of Babylon
{Old Testament History} {Bibliography}
1Berossus, Frag. 14, in C. Müller, Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum, II p. 507.
2George A. Barton, Archaeology and the Bible, p. 479.
3T. Fish, "Texts Relating to Nabonidus," in D. Winston Thomas, Documents from the Old Testament Times, p. 89.
4A. Leo Oppenheim, "Babylonian and Assyrian Historical Texts," in James Pritchard, Ancient Near Eastern Texts, pp. 313-314.
5"Priere de Nabonide' et autres ecrits d'un cycle de Daniel," Revue Biblique 63 (1956), pp. 407-15.
6The suggestion of a copyist's error is given in the Catholic Biblical Encyclopedia (edited by John E. Steinmueller and Kathryn Sullivan), p. 145. Others suggest that the tradition associated with the name of Nabonidus was erroneously ascribed to Nebuchadnezzar. See: David Noel Freedman, "The Prayer of Nabonidus," Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, No. 145 (1957), pp. 31-32.