THE RISE OF ANCIENT BABYLON

THE HEBREW SCRIPTURES TELL US THAT NIMROD founded the city of Babel [Babylon] as his capital (Gen. 10:10). Historical evidence suggests that Babylon began as a small town that had sprung up at the beginning of the 3rd millennium B.C.E. (BC). Located on the Euphrates River in the fertile Mesopotamian valley the town of Babylon grew in size and gained independence with the rise of the First Amorite Babylonian Dynasty, in 1894 B.C.E.

Ancient tablets record that during the reign of the sixth Amorite king, Hammurabi (1728-1686 B.C.E.), Babylon experienced great prosperity, advanced astronomy, architecture, mathematics, and literature, creating a short-lived Babylonian Empire that quickly dissolved upon his death. Afterwards, Babylon spent long periods of time under Assyrian, Kassite and Elamite domination.

Between 900 B.C.E. and 681 B.C.E., twenty-four kings had sat on the throne of Babylon. The rulers included Assyrian and Chaldean tribal leaders, as well as Babylonian nobles and officials. During this time Babylonia suffered economic instability because its trade and prosperity was dependent upon an effective canal system, which was nonexistent due to an ineffective government.

The deaths of Kandalanu, king of Babylon, and Ashurbanipal, king of Assyria, in about 627 B.C.E., were followed by a surge of Chaldeans from the south. Leading them was a man named Nabopolassar, who occupied Babylon and ascended the throne on November 23, 626 B.C.E. Tradition holds that Nabopolassar was a Chaldean who had been a governor of the Sealand under the Assyrians. A political opportunist, Nabopolassar seized the moment and moved into the political vacuum created by the deaths of Kandalanu and Ashurbanipal.

Despite the fact that Nabopolassar was the founder of a brief but powerful Chaldean Dynasty, in his inscriptions he claimed to be "the son of a nobody." While the reason for referring to himself in this manner is uncertain, rather than meaning he was of low birth, it is believed that this was his way of declaring himself the servant of his god.

For ten years the Babylonians and Assyrians fought each other in Babylonia. During this time cities were besieged and changed hands several times. It is said that on one occasion the people of Nippur sold their children into slavery to avoid starvation during a siege. Nevertheless, by 616 B.C.E., Nabopolassar had established his rule over Babylon and was ready to invade Assyria. He led his troops up the Euphrates, where they fought and beat an Assyrian army that was supported by Egyptian troops.

In 615 B.C.E., the Babylonians attacked Ashur but failed to capture it. The following year the Medes, led by Cyaxares, attacked Ashur and sacked it. After Ashur's fall, Nabopolassar made a treaty and alliance with the Medes. In 612 B.C.E., Nabopolassar joined forces with the king of the Medes, Cyaxares, and defeated the Assyrians, whose conquest and occupation of the peoples of Western Asia were accompanied with torture, bloodshed and deportations, at Nineveh. It is said that when the Assyrian Empire fell the peoples of the Fertile Crescent breathed a sigh of relief. Jubilation filled their hearts, and hope began to flourish throughout the land, in which the peoples of Judah shared.

In an ancient abridged inscription Nabopolassar describes his victory over the hated Assyrians, saying:

I slaughtered the land of Subartu (Assyria). I turned the hostile land into heaps and ruins. The Assyrian, who since distant days had ruled over all the peoples, and with his heavy yoke had brought injury to the people of the Land, his feet from Akkad I turned back, his yoke I threw off.

Assyria's empire was divided between the Babylonians and Medes, with the Medes taking control of the north and eastern territories. Nabopolassar was rewarded by Cyaxares with the southwest territories, which included Moab, Ammon, Syria, Egypt, and Judah. Thus what began as a small vassal city-state of the old Assyrian Empire became a sovereign Babylonian city-state that would rapidly rise to prominence among the nations and become the most prosperous, magnificent and militarily powerful city-state of the ancient world.

From this point on the rule of the Chaldeans over Babylonia began, which lasted only eighty-eight years (626-538 B.C.E.). Since Babylon at this time was under Chaldean rulers, among the people of that day the name "Chaldea" was used as a synonym for Babylonia (Is. 13:19; 47:1, 5; 48:14, 20; Jer. 50:1), a use later extended by the Hebrew prophet Ezekiel to include the entire Babylonian Empire (Ezk. 23:23).

Perhaps it was overconfidence. Perhaps it was out of necessity. But after the war with Assyria ended, instead of striking out to bring Babylon's new territories under control, Nabopolassar returned to Babylon to attend the affairs of state. It was at this time that the Egyptian Pharaoh Necho II, who did not want a Babylonian power at his doorstep, joined forces with the vanquished Assyrian king in northern Syria. Necho believed that by joining forces with the defeated Assyrian king he could defeat the Babylonians and restore Egypt to its former greatness.

When Nabopolassar, now up in years and in poor health, heard of Necho's alliance with the vanquished Assyrian king and his depleted army he dispatched his son Nebuchadnezzar to lead Babylon's military might against Necho and bring about the submission of its new territorial kings.

Historians agree that Nebuchadnezzar's sudden appearance on the scene of history began the dawning of a new day in Western Asia. From the very beginning, Nebuchadnezzar's goal was to bring all the different territories of Western Asia under the dominion of one great empire with the aim of establishing a new order of Western civilization based on the Babylon model. The nineteenth century scholar George Rawlinson (1812-1902), who served as Professor of Ancient History in the University of Oxford, England, says:

Nebuchadnezzar is the great monarch of the Babylonian Empire, which, lasting only 88 years—from B.C. 625 to B.C. 538—was for nearly half the time under his sway. Its military glory is due chiefly to him, while the constructive energy, which constitutes its special characteristic, belongs to it still more markedly through his character of genius. It is scarcely too much to say that, but for Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonians would have no place in history.

In 605 B.C.E., Necho and his soldiers met Nebuchadnezzar's army at Carchemish, a city on the right bank of the Euphrates River, where they were soundly defeated. With Necho's army in retreat, Nebuchadnezzar marched his troops toward the southwest, bringing Babylon's new territories into submission,...