note Tablet from Girsu with a fragment of a Sumerian Creation Epic As for millet and sesame, I will not say to what an astonishing size they grow, though I know well enough but I also know that people who have not been to Babylonia have refused to believe even what I have already said about its fertility. The blades of wheat and barley are at least three inches wide. So great is the fertility of the grain fields that they normally produce crops of two-hundredfold, and in an exceptional year as much as three-hundredfold. note Īnother ancient author, the Greek researcher Herodotus of Halicarnassus, was impressed by the fertility of ancient Babylonia There are also in the land of the Babylonians waterless and infertile regions near Arabia, while lying opposite Arabia there are hilly and fertile areas. The land also produces dates, apples, and all sorts of other fruit, as well as fish and birds, field birds as well as waterfowl. These roots are the equal of barley in nutrition. It produces wild barley, chickpea, and sesame, and even, in its marshlands, edible roots, called gongai. The land lies between the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers. In a well-known description of ancient Babylonia, Berossus (or Bel-re'ušunu, to use his real name) says that The land Detail of a stone vase from Uruk This was the heartland of the Babylonian Empire, which dominated the ancient Near East between the fall of the Assyrian empire (612 BCE) and the rise of the Achaemenid Empire (after 539). after Persian King Cyrus invades the capital and defeats this world power at the battle of Opis.Babylonia is the Greek name of what the inhabitants knew as Mât Akkadî, the fertile alluvial plain between the Euphrates and Tigris. The once great empire collapses in 539 B.C. It was Belshazzar who saw God's handwriting on a wall and requested the prophet Daniel interpret the meaning of "Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin" (Daniel 5:25). His son Belshazzar, whose job it was to defend the capital city, co-ruled with him starting in 553. Neo-Babylonian King Nabonidus rules from 555 to 539 B.C. This Neo-Babylonian king took King Jehoiachin of Judah out of prison and gave him a place at his table (2Kings 25:27 - 30, Jeremiah 52:31 - 34). The Babylonians not only destroy the city but also burn Jerusalem's temple and carry away all its treasures.Įvil-Merodach (Amel-Marduk, 561 - 560 B.C.) In 586 B.C., Jerusalem is attacked a third time by Nebuchadnezzar, this time during the reign of Judah's king Zedekiah. Nebuchadnezzar sets up Zedekiah as the new "puppet" King of Judah (2Kings 24 - 25). Jehoiachin is captured and taken captive to Babylon, as well as the prophet Ezekiel and others. In 597 B.C., Nebuchadnezzar came up again against Jerusalem during the reign of Judah's King Jehoiachin (2Chronicles 36:10). The prophet Daniel and his companions are taken captive. In 605, he made his first attack of Jerusalem during the reign of Judah's King Jehoiakim (2Chronicles 36:7). Nebuchadnezzar is considered the greatest of all Neo-Babylonian monarchs. First, however, is a unique contact made when rival Assyria was still expanding its power as an empire. Below is a list of their interactions with the Kingdom of Judah. Amazingly, Isaiah sang of Babylon's fall one-hundred years before its rise on the world stage (Isaiah 13:1, 13:19, 14:22)! Its fall is prophesied in such detail that even the then unknown Medes are recorded as being its future destroyers (Isaiah 13:17 - 19).ĭuring its short period of dominance, which lasted only until 539 B.C., the Babylonians had several major contacts with God's people. At its peak around 560 B.C., it controlled 193,051 square miles (500,000 square kilometers) of land. In its westward sweep, the Neo-Babylonian Empire destroyed Judah and conquered Egypt. Its splendor as the Queen city of the pre-Christian world, the "glory of kingdoms" and "the city of gold" (Isaiah 13:19, 14:4) was clearly envisioned by Isaiah the prophet. It was a dependency of Assyria before it became a mighty force of its own. When did the Neo-Babylonian Empire begin? The Babylonians, in 612 B.C., was the power that conquered the mighty Assyrians.
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