NEBUCHADNEZZAR
901
NEBUCHADNEZZAR
fertility of Babylonia, and its ample wealth of waters, the foundation of national prosperity, and so of power. Hence his vast canals and elaborate system of irrigation, which made the whole country a garden ; and this must have been a main cause of the full treasury, from which alone his palaces and temples can have received their maguiticence. The forced labor of captives may have raised the fabrics ; but the statues, the enamelled bricks, tlie fine woodwork, the gold and silver plating, the hang- ings and curtains, had to be bought ; and the enormous expenditure of this monarch, which does not appear to have exhausted the country, and which cannot have been very largely supported by tribute, must have been really supplied in the main from that agricultural wealth which he took so much pains to develop. We may gather from the productiveness of Babylonia under the Persians (Herod, i, 192, 193 ; iii, 92), after a conquest and two (three '?) revolts, some idea of its flourishing condition in the period of independence, for which (ac- cording to the consentient testimony of the monuments and the best authors) it was indebted to this king.
The moral character of Nebuchadnezzar is not such as entitles him to our approval. Besides the overween- ing pride which brought upon him so terrible a chastise- ment, we note a violence and fury (Dan. ii, 12; iii, 19) common enough among Oriental monarchsof the weaker kind, but from which the greatest of them have usually been free; while at the same time we observe a cold and relentless cruelty which is particularly revolting. The blinding of Zedekiah may perhaps be justified as an ordinary Eastern practice, though it is the earliest case of the kind on record ; but the refinement of cruelty by which he was made to witness his sons' execution before his eyes were put out (2 Kings xxv, 7) is wor- thier of a Dionysius or a Domitian than of a reaUj^ great king. Again, the detention of Jehoiachin in prison for thirty-six years for an offence committed at the age of eighteen (2 Kings xxiv, 8), is a severity surpassing Oriental harshness. Against these grave faults we have nothing to set, unless it be a feeble trait of magnanim- ity in the pardon accorded to Shadracb, Meshach, and Abednego when he found that he was without power to punish them (Dan. iii, 20).
It has been thought remarkable that to a man of this character (iod should have vouchsafed a revelation of the future by means of visions (Dan. ii, 29 ; iv, 2). But the circumstance, however it may disturb our precon- ceived notions, is not really at variance -with the gen- eral laws of God's providence as revealed to us in Script- ure. As with his natural, so with his supernatural gifts, they are not confined to the worthy. Even under Christianity, miraculous powers were sometimes pos- sessed by those who made an ill use of them (1 Cor. xiv, 2-33). And God, it is plain, did not leave the old lieathen world without some supernatural aid, but made his presence felt from time to time in visions, through prophets, or even by a voice from heaven. It is onh* necessary to refer to the histories of Pharaoh (Gen. xli, 1-7, 28), Abimelech (xx, 3), Job (Job iv, 13 ; xxxviii, ], 1; xl, 6; comp. Dan. iv, 31), and Balaam (Numb, xxii-xxiv), in order to establish the parity of Nebuchad- nezzar's visions with other facts recorded in the Bible. He was warned, and the nations over which he ruled were warned through him, God leaving not himself " without witness" even in those dark times. In con- clusion, we may notice that a heathen writer (Abyde- nus), who generally draws his inspirations from Berosus, ascribes to Nebuchadnezzar a miraculous speech just be- fore his death, announcing to the Babylonians the speedy coming of the " Persian mule," who with the help of the INIedes would enslave Babvlon (Abyd. ap. Euseb. PrcEp. Ec. Lx, 41).— Smith.
5. The Canon of Ptolemy the mathematician, who flourished about the commencement of the Christian fera, consists of a catalogue, arranged in chronological order, of the kings of Babylon, commencing with Nabo- iiassar, who reigned B.C. 747, and ending Avith Naboa-
ned, B.C. 556. According to this catalogue, Nabopolas- sar (yiaiiovTroXaaapoQ), who died B.C. 625, was suc- ceeded by Nabocolassar (Na/SoKoXcicrapot), B.C. 605. This Nabocolassar is therefore presumed to be the Nebu- chadnezzar of Scripture (for the Canon of Ptolemy, see Table Chronolof/ique des Regnes, etc., par I'Abbe Halmy, Paris, 1819). Nabopolassar, the father of Nabocolassar, is supposed to have been the first Chaldean monarch of Babylon, and to have disunited it from the Assyrian empire, of which it had hitherto formed a part (Jahn's llebreto Commonwealtli). According to a fragment of Alexander Polyhistor, reported by Syncellus in his Chronogi-aphia, it was this sovereign who destroyed the city of Nineveh, B.C. G12, which, according to Eusebius {Chron. p. 40), he effected in conjunction with Astyages, the eldest son of Cyaxares, king of the Medcs (see also Tobit xiv, 15, where the latter is named Assuerus). The following extract, preserved by Josephus, from the lost Chaldiean history of Berosus, priest of the temple of Bel (B.C. 208), will be found to throw considerable light on the Scripture narrative: "When his father Nabu- chodonosor heard that the governor whom he had set over Egypt and the places about Ca?le-Syria and Phoe- nicia had revolted from him, while he was not himself able any longer to undergo hardships, he committed to his son Nabuchodonosor, who was still but a youth, some parts of his army, and sent him against the enemy. So when Nabuchodonosor had given him battle, and fought with the rebel, he overcame him, and reduced the coun- trj' from under his subjection and made it a branch of his own kingdom. But about that time it happened that his father Nabuchodonosor fell ill, and ended his life in the city of Babylon, when he had reigned twenty- one years; and when he learned that his father Nabu- chodonosor was dead — having settled the affairs of Egypt and the other countries, and also those that con- cerned the captive Jews, and the Pha?nicians, Syrians, and Egyptians, and having committed the conveyance of them to Babylon to certain of his friends— he hastily crossed the desert, with a few companions, into Babylon. So he took upon him the management of public affairs, and of the kingdom which had been kept for him by one of the chief Chaldseans, and he received the entire dominions of his father, and ordered that when the captives came they should be placed in colonies in the most proper places of Babylonia" {A nt. x, 11 ; see also Apion, i, 19 ; Euseb. Chron. A rvien. i, 59 ; Yolney, Recherch. Nouv. sur Vhist. Ancienne, iii, 151 sq.). It will be observed that both Nebuchadnezzar (styled by some the Great) and his father are here equally named Nabuchodonosor, but in the citation of the same narra- tive from Berosus by Josephus (c. Apion. i, 19) the father of Nebuchadnezzar is called Nabolassar (No/3o- Xanaapoc). corresponding nearly with the Nabopolassar of Ptolemy; which has induced some to suppose the name Nabuchodonosor in the former citation to be an error of transcription. Some consider the Nabucho- donosor of the Book of Judith to be the same with the Saosduchin of Ptolemy, who was contemporary with Manasseh. Some foundation has thus been afforded for considering Nebuchadnezzar as a general name for Baby- lonian sovereigns (Prideaux, Connect.) ; this, however, is considered by Whiston as a groundless mistake (Whiston's Josephus, note on ch. ix). The similarity of the two names may have led to their being sometimes confounded. The conqueror of Nineveh is also called by the name of Nebuchodonosor in Tobit xiv, 15 (in the Cireck, for the Latin ends with ver. 14), and is on this account styled by some Nebuchadnezzar the First, a designation first applied to him by rabbi David Ganz, in the age of the world 3285.