[31] At this point in time, Nebuchadnezzar was still away on his campaign against the Egyptians,[39] having chased the retreating Egyptian forces to the region around the city of Hamath. Given that Nebuchadnezzar was the enemy of what the Bible proclaims as God's chosen people, possibly the worst enemy they had faced until this point, there must be a special reason for referring to him with the epithet "my servant".
Though Nebuchadnezzar had been recognised as the eldest son and heir by Nabopolassar, Nabu-shum-lishir,[44] Nabopolassar's second-born son,[45] had been recognised as "his equal brother", a dangerously vague title. The name of the son whose name is unpreserved in the letter ended with either ahi, nsir or uur, and the remaining traces can fit with the name Nab-apla-uur, meaning that Nabopolassar could be the other son mentioned in the letter and thus a son of Kudurru. Additionally, Nebuchadnezzar also restored the ziggurat of the Ezida, the E-urme-imin-anki, and also worked on the temple of Gula, Etila, as well as numerous other temples and shrines in the city. [31], In the war against the Babylonians and Medes, Assyria had allied with Pharaoh Psamtik I of Egypt, who had been interested in ensuring Assyria's survival so that Assyria could remain as a buffer state between his own kingdom and the Babylonian and Median kingdoms. Klaas A. D. Smelik noted in 2004 that "in the Hebrew Bible, there is no better company conceivable than these; at the same time, there is no candidate less likely for this title of honour than the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar". [60] The supposed length of the siege can be ascribed to the difficulty in besieging the city: Tyre was located on an island 800 metres from the coast, and could not be taken without naval support.
Shortly thereafter, Nebuchadnezzar again campaigned in the Levant and secured large amounts of tribute.
[117] The apocryphal Book of Judith, which probably applies the name Nebuchadnezzar to Tigranes the Great of Armenia, refers to Nebuchadnezzar as a king of the Assyrians, rather than Babylonians, and demonstrates that Nebuchadnezzar was still viewed as an evil king, responsible for destroying Jerusalem, looting its temple, taking the Jews hostage in Babylon, and for the various misdeeds ascribed to him in later Jewish writings. Notably, Nebuchadnezzar spent all of 600 BC in Babylon, when the chronicle excuses the king by stating that he stayed in Babylon to "refit his numerous horses and chariotry". [97][98] Alternatively, these later traditions might instead derive from royal propaganda. The biblical Book of Jeremiah paints Nebuchadnezzar as a cruel enemy, but also as God's appointed ruler of the world and a divine instrument to punish disobedience. [71], Nebuchadnezzar died at Babylon in 562 BC. [48], In 597 BC, the Babylonian army departed for the Levant again, but appears to not have engaged in any military activities as they turned back immediately after reaching the Euphrates. The Babylonian Chronicle records that "he marched about victoriously" (meaning that he faced little to no resistance), returning to Babylon after several months of campaigning. [6] The Bible narrates how Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the Kingdom of Judah, besieged, plundered and destroyed Jerusalem, and how he took away the Jews in captivity, portraying him as a cruel enemy of the Jewish people. [37] Necho's forces were completely annihilated by Nebuchadnezzar's army, with Babylonian sources claiming that not a single Egyptian escaped alive. To the south, this street went by the Etemenanki, turning to the west and going over a bridge constructed either under the reign of Nabopolassar or Nebuchadnezzar. [48] Archaeological excavations confirm that Jerusalem and the surrounding area was destroyed and depopulated. [4] The original Kudurru's second son, Nabu-shumu-ukin, also appears to be attested as a prominent general under Nabopolassar, and the name was also used by Nebuchadnezzar II for one of his sons, possibly honoring his dead uncle. [2][3] Nebuchadnezzar must have been made high priest at a very young age, considering that his year of death, 562 BC, is 64 years after 626 BC. [36] As Nabopolassar was occupied with fighting the Kingdom of Urartu in the north, the Egyptians took control of the Levant largely unopposed, capturing territories as far north as the city of Carchemish in Syria, where Necho established his base of operations. Though apparently successful, it is unclear what the achievements gained in this campaign were. [51] In 599 BC, Nebuchadnezzar marched his army into the Levant and then attacked and raided the Arabs in the Syrian desert.
[81] According to tradition, Nebuchadnezzar constructed the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, featuring exotic shrubs, vines and trees as well as artificial hills, watercourses and knolls, so that Amytis would feel less homesick for the mountains of Media. [42] According to the Babylonian Chronicle, Ashkelon's king was captured and taken to Babylon, and the city was plundered and levelled to the ground. [52] Judah represented a prime target of Babylonian attention given that it was at the epicenter of competition between Babylon and Egypt. As the inscriptions on the stele were written by Nebuchadnezzar, he is also unquestionably the king depicted. The Book of Jeremiah also prophesises Nebuchadnezzar's victory over Egypt, stating that "Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant" will invade Egypt and "deliver to death those appointed for death, and to captivity those appointed for captivity, and to the sword those appointed for the sword". These projects included restoration work on the South Palace, inside the city walls, the construction of a completely new North Palace, on the other side of the walls facing the gate, as well as the restoration of Babylon's Processional Street, which led through the gate, and of the gate itself. [13] This lack of sources has the unfortunate effect that even though Nebuchadnezzar had the longest reign of all of them, less is confidently known of Nebuchadnezzar's reign than of the reigns of almost all the other Neo-Babylonian kings. Similar bricks were used for the walls surrounding the Processional Street, which also featured depictions of lions (symbols of the goddess Ishtar). [70], Other great building projects by Nebuchadnezzar include the Nar-Shamash, a canal to bring water from the Euphrates close to the city of Sippar, and the Median Wall, a large defensive structure built to defend Babylonia against incursions from the north. Out of the fifty or so known inscriptions by the king, only a single one deals with military action, and in this case only small-scale conflicts in the Lebanon region. [34] After the fall of Harran, Psamtik's successor, Pharaoh Necho II, personally led a large army into former Assyrian lands to turn the tide of the war and restore the Neo-Assyrian Empire,[35] even though it was more or less a lost cause as Assyria had already collapsed. [19], Nabopolassar appears to, regardless of his ethnic origin, have been strongly connected to the city of Uruk,[21][24] located south of Babylon. After this disappointing early period as king, Nebuchadnezzar's luck turned. Aur-uballi II of Assyria according to Archival Sources", "Nergal-arra-uur, King of Babylon as seen in the Cuneiform, Greek, Latin and Hebrew Sources", "Nabonidus, Belshazzar, and the Book of Daniel: an Update", "My Servant Nebuchadnezzar: The Use of the Epithet "My Servant" for the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar in the Book of Jeremiah", "The Antiochus Cylinder, Babylonian Scholarship and Seleucid Imperial Ideology", "On the Initiation of Babylonian Priests", Muslim conquest of Mesopotamia and Persia, Faceted Application of Subject Terminology, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nebuchadnezzar_II&oldid=1099557455, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with unsourced statements from June 2022, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 21 July 2022, at 11:33. [31] Harran was the seat of Ashur-uballit II, who had rallied what remained of the Assyrian army and ruled what was left of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. Documents from Tyre near the end of Nebuchadnezzar's reign demonstrate that the city had become a centre for Babylonian military affairs in the region. [76] Amel-Marduk was not the eldest living son of Nebuchadnezzar and the reason why he was picked as crown prince is not known. It thus appears that Nebuchadnezzar achieved little military success after the failure of his invasion of Egypt.
There was no lack of statesmanlike qualities, given his success in building the Babylonian Empire.
Some scholars, such as Donald Wiseman, prefer the anglicisation "Nebuchadrezzar", with an "r" rather than an "n", following the assumption that "Nebuchadnezzar" is a later, corrupted form of the contemporary Nab-kudurri-uur. As such, Zedekiah was supposedly taken to Riblah in northern Syria, where he had to watch his sons being executed before having his eyes gouged out and sent to be imprisoned in Babylon. At that time Nebuchadnezzar conquered all of Ha[ma]th. [49] The damage to the text however makes this idea speculative and conjectural. Nebuchadnezzar also repaired Borsippa's walls. Mesopotamian rulers typically only stressed divine legitimacy in this fashion when their actual legitimacy was questionable, a method often employed by usurpers.
He installed there a king of his choice. [99] The ancient Greek historian Herodotus names the "last great queen" of the Babylonian Empire as "Nitocris", though that name (nor any other name) is not attested in contemporary Babylonian sources. At the time of his death, Nebuchadnezzar was among the most powerful rulers in the world.[11]. [75], Amel-Marduk's accession does not appear to have gone smoothly.
Nebuchadnezzar's first, 598597 BC, assault on Jerusalem is recorded in the Bible, but also in the Babylonian Chronicle,[48] which describes it as follows:[48], The seventh year [of Nebuchadnezzar], in the month of Kislimu, the king of Akkad mustered his troops, marched to the Levant, and set up quarters facing the city of Judah [Jerusalem]. At the Battle of Carchemish in 605 BC, Nebuchadnezzar inflicted a crushing defeat on an Egyptian army led by Pharaoh Necho II, and ensured that the Neo-Babylonian Empire would succeed the Neo-Assyrian Empire as the dominant power in the ancient Near East.
In the 580s BC, Nebuchadnezzar engaged in a successful string of military actions in the Levant against the vassal states in rebellion there, likely with the ultimate intent of curbing Egyptian influence in the region. It is possible to conclude, based on subsequent geopolitics, that the victory resulted in all of Syria and Palestine coming under the control of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, a feat which the Assyrians under Tiglath-Pileser III (r.745727 BC) only accomplished after five years of protracted military campaigns. The prosperity ensured by his wars allowed Nebuchadnezzar to conduct great building projects in Babylon, and elsewhere in Mesopotamia. The desecration went so far as to drag Kudurru's body through the streets of Uruk. The destruction of Jerusalem led to the Babylonian captivity as the city's population, and people from the surrounding lands, were deported to Babylonia. The modern image of Babylon is largely of the city as it was after Nebuchadnezzar's projects, during which he, among other work, rebuilt many of the city's religious buildings, including the Esagila and Etemenanki, repaired its current palace and constructed a brand new palace, and beautified its ceremonial centre through renovations to the city's Processional Street and the Ishtar Gate. [101], According to the historian Josette Elayi, writing in 2018, Nebuchadnezzar is somewhat difficult to characterise on account of the scarcity of Babylonian source material. [39] The account of the battle in the Babylonian Chronicle reads as follows:[31], The king of Akkad[d] stayed home (while) Nebuchadnezzar, his eldest son (and) crown prince mustered [the army of Akkad]. SeventeenthDynasty, (15001100 BCE)Kidinuid dynastyIgehalkid dynastyUntash-Napirisha, Twenty-first Dynasty of EgyptSmendes Amenemnisu Psusennes I Amenemope Osorkon the Elder Siamun Psusennes II, Twenty-third Dynasty of EgyptHarsiese A Takelot II Pedubast I Shoshenq VI Osorkon III Takelot III Rudamun Menkheperre Ini The stele is one of only four known certain contemporary depictions of Nebuchadnezzar, with the other three being carved depictions on cliff-faces in Lebanon, in much poorer condition than the depiction in the stele. Nebuchadnezzar's invasion of Egypt did failthe Babylonian Chronicle states that both the Egyptian and Babylonian armies suffered a huge number of casualties. [48] According to the Bible, and the 1st-century AD Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, Zedekiah attempted to flee after resisting the Babylonians, but was captured at Jericho and suffered a terrible fate. [105] It is possible that the epithet is a later addition, as it is missing in the Septuagint version of the Old Testament, perhaps added after Nabuchadnezzar began to be seen in a slightly more favourable light than immediately after Jerusalem's destruction. [12], Though little information survives concerning them, the Babylonian Chronicle preserves brief accounts of Nebuchadnezzar's military activities in his first eleven years as king. [6] The Book of Jeremiah calls Nebuchadnezzar a "lion" and a "destroyer of nations". The significance of his son and heir bearing the name of one of Babylon's greatest kings would not have been lost on Nabopolassar. A second story again casts Nebuchadnezzar as a tyrannical and pagan king, who after Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego refuse to worship a newly erected golden statue sentences them to death through being thrown into a furnace.
[67] The ruins of Nebuchadnezzar's North Palace are poorly preserved and as such its structure and appearance are not entirely understood. [113], Given that Nebuchadnezzar is referred to as the father of Belshazzar in the Book of Daniel, it is probable that this portrayal of Nebuchadnezzar, especially the story of his madness, was actually based on Belshazzar's real father, Nabonidus, the last king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire (r.556539 BC). According to the Bible, in Zedekiah's fourth year as king of Judah (594 BC), the kings of Ammon, Edom, Moab, Sidon and Tyre met in Jerusalem to deal with the possibility of throwing off Babylonian control. [57] Josephus's account of Nebuchadnezzar's reign is obviously not entirely historic, as he describes Nebuchadnezzar as, five years after the destruction of Jerusalem, invading Egypt, capturing the Pharaoh and appointing another Pharaoh in his place. Nebuchadnezzar had six known sons.
Among the most impressive efforts was the work done surrounding the city's northern ceremonial entrance, the Ishtar Gate. In Hebrew, the name was rendered as (Nanear) and in Greek it was rendered as (Nabouchodonosor). [32] The Babylonian victory in the Harran campaign, and the defeat of Ashur-uballit, in 609 BC marked the end of the ancient Assyrian monarchy, which would never be restored. If it refers to Nebuchadnezzar, a siege begun in 598 BC and lasting for thirteen years, later simultaneously with the siege of Jerusalem, is unlikely to have gone unmentioned in Babylonian records. In the last year recorded in the chronicle, 594 BC, Nebuchadnezzar campaigned in the Levant yet again. Modern excavations at Ashkelon have confirmed that the city was more or less destroyed at this point in time.
[63], Nebuchadnezzar's campaigns in the Levant, most notably those directed towards Jerusalem and Tyre, completed the Neo-Babylonian Empire's transformation from a rump state of the Neo-Assyrian Empire to the new dominant power of the ancient Near East. Possibly named after his grandfather of the same name, or after Nebuchadnezzar I (r.c. 11251104 BC), one of Babylon's greatest ancient warrior-kings, Nebuchadnezzar II already secured renown for himself during his father's reign, leading armies in the Medo-Babylonian war against the Assyrian Empire. Through the destruction of Jerusalem, the capture of the rebellious Phoenician city of Tyre, and other campaigns in the Levant, Nebuchadnezzar completed the Neo-Babylonian Empire's transformation into the new great power of the ancient Near East. The war resulted in the complete destruction of Assyria,[17] and the Neo-Babylonian Empire, which rose in its place, was powerful, but hastily built and politically unstable. Instead, Jewish literary accounts ensured that accounts of the hardship endured by the Jews, as well as the monarch responsible for it, would be remembered for all time. [68], The restored Ishtar Gate was decorated with blue and yellow glazed bricks and depictions of bulls (symbols of the god Adad) and dragons (symbols of the god Marduk). [84] The known sons of Nebuchadnezzar are: Three of Nebuchadnezzar's daughters are known by name:[25], It is possible that one of Nebuchadnezzar's daughters married the high official Nabonidus. [13] Though using the sources written by later authors, many of them created several centuries after Nebuchadnezzar's time and often including their own cultural attitudes to the events and figures discussed,[15] presents problems in and of itself, blurring the line between history and tradition, it is the only possible approach to gain insight into Nebuchadnezzar's reign. The Jews thereafter referred to Nebuchadnezzar, the greatest enemy they had faced until that point, as a "destroyer of nations". As most of Nebuchadnezzar's inscriptions deal with his building projects, rather than military accomplishments, he was for a time seen by historians mostly as a builder, rather than a warrior. "[12], The Babylonian captivity initiated by Nebuchadnezzar came to an end with the fall of Babylon to the Achaemenid king Cyrus the Great in 539 BC. From the publication of these tablets and onwards, historians have shifted to perceiving Nebuchadnezzar as a great warrior, devoting special attention to the military achievements of his reign. [48][55], In 589 BC, Zedekiah refused to pay tribute to Nebuchadnezzar, and he was closely followed in this by Ithobaal III, the king of Tyre. [74] Having ruled for 43 years, Nebuchadnezzar's reign was the longest of his dynasty[28] and he would be remembered favourably by the Babylonians. Many Assyriologists, such as Wolfram von Soden in 1954, thus initially assumed that Nebuchadnezzar had mainly been a builder-king, devoting his energy and efforts to building and restoring his country. Subsequent historians have variously identified Nabopolassar as a Chaldean,[19][20][21] an Assyrian[22] or a Babylonian. [26], Nab-kudurri-uur is typically anglicised to 'Nebuchadnezzar', following how the name is most commonly rendered in Hebrew and Greek, particularly in most of the Bible. [69] Glazed bricks such as the ones used in the Procession Street were also used in the throne room of the South Palace, which was decorated with depictions of lions and tall, stylized palm trees. [57], Extensive work was also conducted on civil and military structures.
[73] Amel-Marduk's administrative duties probably began before he became king, during the last few weeks or months of his father's reign when Nebuchadnezzar was ill and dying. Though the city withstood numerous sieges, it would not be captured until Alexander the Great's siege in 332 BC. [citation needed] Evidence that Babylonian control was beginning to unravel is also clear from contemporary Babylonian records, such as the aforementioned rebellion in Babylonia itself, as well as records of a man being executed in 594 BC at Borspippa for "breaking his oath to the king".
[42], In both 602 BC and 601 BC, Nebuchadnezzar campaigned in the Levant, though little information survives beyond that a "vast" amount of booty was brought from the Levant to Babylonia in 602 BC. [67] His building inscriptions record work done to numerous temples, notably the restoration of the Esagila, the main temple of Babylon's national deity Marduk, and the completion of the Etemenanki, a great ziggurat dedicated to Marduk. A stele of Amasis, also fragmentary, may also describe a combined naval and land attack by the Babylonians. Rulers with names in italics are considered fictional. When the servants protest, Nebuchadnezzar sentences all of them (including Daniel and his companions) to death. [54] The outcome of these efforts was Zedekiah's open revolt against Nebuchadnezzar's authority. The path into Egypt was difficult, and the lack of secure control of either side of the Sinai Desert could spell disaster. Kudurru can be identified with Nebuchadnezzar (Nab-kudurri-uur, "Kudurru" simply being a common and shortened nickname), a prominent official in Uruk who served as its governor under the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal (r.669631 BC) in the 640s BC. [56] In response to Zedekiah's uprising,[48] Nebuchadnezzar conquered and destroyed the Kingdom of Judah in 586 BC,[48][55] one of the great achievements of his reign. [2], Nebuchadnezzar II's name in Akkadian was Nab-kudurri-uur,[6] meaning "Nabu, watch over my heir". [83] Most of the sons,[84] with the exceptions of Marduk-nadin-ahi[78] and Eanna-sharra-usur,[85] are attested very late in their father's reign.
The situation grew so severe that people in Babylonia itself began disobeying the king, some going as far as to revolt against Nebuchadnezzar's rule. [66] Nebuchadnezzar extensively expanded and rebuilt his capital city of Babylon and the most modern historical and archaeological interpretations of the city reflect it as it appeared after Nebuchadnezzar's construction projects. [57] Still, Nebuchadnezzar's military accomplishments can be questioned,[12] given that the borders of his empire, by the end of his reign, had not noticeably increased in size and that he had not managed to conquer Egypt. [55] Josephus states that Nebuchadnezzar besieged Tyre in the seventh year of "his" reign, though it is unclear whether "his" in this context refers to Nebuchadnezzar or to Ithobaal III of Tyre. [46] Given that Astyages was still too young during Nabopolassar's reign to already have children, and was not yet king, it seems more probable that Amytis was Astyages's sister, and thus a daughter of his predecessor, Cyaxares. [27], Nebuchadnezzar II's name, Nab-kudurri-uur, was identical to the name of his distant predecessor, Nebuchadnezzar I (r.c. 11251104 BC), who ruled more than five centuries before Nebuchadnezzar II's time.
The Assyriologist Adrianus van Selms suggested in 1974 that the variant with an "n" rather than an "r" was a rude nickname, deriving from an Akkadian rendition like Nab-kdanu-uur, which means 'Nabu, protect the mule', though there is no concrete evidence for this idea.
