Summary: Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, was a successful leader in terms of military endeavors, building projects, and increasing the prosperity of his kingdom.

Nebuchadnezzar

Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, was a successful leader in terms of military endeavors, building projects, and increasing the prosperity of his kingdom.

Nebuchadnezzar II

Nebuchadnezzar II

• King of Babylon

• King of Sumer and Akkad

• King of the Universe

A portion of the so-called "Tower of Babel stelea" depicting Nebuchadnezzar II on the right and featuring a depiction of Babylon's great ziggurat (the Etemenankib) to his left

King of the Neo-Babylonian Empire

Reign August 605 BC – 7 October 562 BC

Predecessor Nabopolassar

Successor Amel-Marduk

Born c. 642 BC

Uruk (?)

Died 7 October 562 BC (aged c. 80)

Babylon

Spouse Amytis of Media (?)

Issue

Among

others

• Kashaya

• Amel-Marduk

• Nitocris (?)

Akkadian

Nabû-kudurri-u?ur

Dynasty

Chaldean dynasty

Father Nabopolassar

Nebuchadnezzar II (Babylonian cuneiform: Nabû-kudurri-u?ur, meaning "Nabu, watch over my heir." Biblical Hebrew: ????????????????? N??u?a?ne???ar), also spelled Nebuchadrezzar II, was the second king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, ruling from the death of his father Nabopolassar in 605 BC to his death in 562 BC. Historically known as Nebuchadnezzar the Great, he is typically regarded as the empire's greatest king. Nebuchadnezzar remains famous for his military campaigns in the Levant, his construction projects in his capital, Babylon, and for the critical part, he played in Jewish history. Ruling for 43 years, Nebuchadnezzar was the longest-reigning king of the Chaldean dynasty. At the time of his death, Nebuchadnezzar was among the most powerful rulers in the world.

He was possibly named after his grandfather of the same name or after Nebuchadnezzar I (r. c. 1125–1104 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. At the Battle of Carchemish in 605 BC, Nebuchadnezzar inflicted a crushing defeat on an Egyptian army led by Pharaoh Necho II. It ensured that the Neo-Babylonian Empire would succeed the Neo-Assyrian Empire as the dominant power in the ancient Near East. Shortly after this victory, Nabopolassar died, and Nebuchadnezzar became king. Despite his successful military career during his father's reign, the first third or so of Nebuchadnezzar's reign saw little to no significant military achievements and notably a disastrous failure in an attempted invasion of Egypt. These years of lackluster military performance saw some of Babylon's vassals, particularly in the Levant, beginning to doubt Babylon's power, viewing the Neo-Babylonian Empire as a "paper tiger" rather than a power indeed on the level of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. The situation grew so severe that people in Babylonia began disobeying the king, some going to revolt against Nebuchadnezzar's rule.

After this disappointing early period as king, Nebuchadnezzar's luck turned. 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. In 587 BC, Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the Kingdom of Judah, and its capital, Jerusalem. 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 Jews, after that, referred to Nebuchadnezzar, the greatest enemy they had faced until that point, as a "destroyer of nations." The biblical Book of Jeremiah paints Nebuchadnezzar as a cruel enemy, God's appointed ruler of the world, and a divine instrument to punish disobedience. 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.

In addition to his military campaigns, Nebuchadnezzar is remembered as a great builder-king. The prosperity ensured by his wars allowed Nebuchadnezzar to conduct great building projects in Babylon and elsewhere in Mesopotamia. The modern image of Babylon is significant to the city as it was after Nebuchadnezzar's projects, during which he, among other works, 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 center through renovations to the city's Processional Street and the Ishtar Gate. As most of Nebuchadnezzar's inscriptions deal with his building projects rather than military accomplishments, he was for a time seen by historians mainly as a builder rather than a warrior.

Sources

There are very few cuneiform sources for the period between 594 BC and 557 BC, covering much of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II and the reigns of his three immediate successors; Amel-Marduk, Neriglissar, and Labashi-Marduk. 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. Though the handful of cuneiform sources recovered, notably the Babylonian Chronicle, confirm some events of his reign, such as conflicts with the Kingdom of Judah, other events, such as the 586 BC destruction of Solomon's Temple and other potential military campaigns Nebuchadnezzar conducted, are not covered in any known cuneiform documents.

As such, historical reconstructions of this period generally follow secondary Hebrew, Greek, and Latin to determine what events transpired at the time and contract tablets from Babylonia. Though using the sources written by later authors, many of them created several centuries after Nebuchadnezzar's time and often including their cultural attitudes to the events and figures discussed, present problems in and of themselves, blurring the line between history and tradition, it is the only possible approach to gain insight into Nebuchadnezzar's reign.

Background

Ancestry and early life

The preserved portion of the Eanna temple at Uruk.

Nebuchadnezzar was the high priest of the Eanna temple from 626/625 BC to 617 BC. He was the eldest son of Nabopolassar (r. 626–605 BC), the founder of the Neo-Babylonian Empire. In historiography, r. can be used to designate the ruling period of a person in dynastic power, to distinguish from his or her lifespan. For example, one may write "Charles V (r. 1519–1556)" instead of "Charles V (1500–1558)" if the writer considers the year of enthronement to be more important information for the reader than the year of birth, or occasionally to emphasize when a ruler abdicated before dying.

This is confirmed by Nabopolassar's inscriptions, which explicitly name Nebuchadnezzar as his "eldest son," as well as inscriptions from Nebuchadnezzar's reign, which refer to him as the "first" or "chief son" of Nabopolassar, and as Nabopolassar's "true" or "legitimate heir." The Neo-Babylonian Empire was founded through Nabopolassar's rebellion and later war against the Neo-Assyrian Empire, which liberated Babylonia after nearly a century of Assyrian control. The war destroyed Assyria, and the Neo-Babylonian Empire, which rose in its place, was mighty but hastily built and politically unstable.

As Nabopolassar never clarified his ancestry in lineage in any of his inscriptions, his origin is not entirely clear. Subsequent historians have identified Nabopolassar as a Chaldean, an Assyrian, or Babylonian. Although no evidence conclusively confirms him as being of Chaldean origin, the term "Chaldean dynasty" is frequently used by modern historians for the royal family he founded. The term "Chaldean Empire" remains an alternate historiographical name for the Neo-Babylonian Empire.

Nebuchadnezzar as crown prince

Though little information survives, Nebuchadnezzar's military career began in his father's reign. Based on a letter sent to the temple administration of the Eanna temple, Nebuchadnezzar participated in his father's campaign to take the city of Harran in 610 BC. 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. 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. According to the Babylonian Chronicle, Nebuchadnezzar also commanded an army in an unspecified mountainous region for several months in 607 BC.

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 kingdom and the Babylonian and Median kingdoms. 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 even though it was more or less a lost cause as Assyria had already collapsed. 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.

Nebuchadnezzar's most significant victory from his time as the crown prince came at the Battle of Carchemish in 605 BC, which put an end to Necho's campaign in the Levant by inflicting a crushing defeat on the Egyptians. Nebuchadnezzar's army annihilated Necho's forces, with Babylonian sources claiming that not a single Egyptian escaped alive. Nebuchadnezzar had been the sole commander of the Babylonian army at this battle as his father had chosen to stay in Babylon, perhaps on account of illness. The account of the battle in the Babylonian Chronicle reads as follows:

The king of Akkad stayed home (while) Nebuchadnezzar, his eldest son (and) crown prince, mustered [the army of Akkad]. He took his army's lead and marched to Carchemish, which is on the bank of the Euphrates. He crossed the river at Carchemish. [...] They did battle together. The army of Egypt retreated before him. He inflicted a [defeat] upon them (and) finished them off ultimately. In the district of Hamath, the army of Akkad overtook the remainder of the army of [Egypt, which] managed to escape [from] the defeat and which was not overcome. They inflicted a defeat upon them (so that) a single (Egyptian) man [did not return] home. At that time, Nebuchadnezzar conquered all of Ha[ma]th.

The story of Nebuchadnezzar's victory at Carchemish reverberated through history, appearing in many later ancient accounts, including in the Book of Jeremiah and the Books of Kings in the Bible. 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 that the Assyrians under Tiglath-Pileser III (r. 745–727 BC) only accomplished after five years of protracted military campaigns." The defeat of Egypt at Carchemish ensured that the Neo-Babylonian Empire would grow to become the central power of the ancient Near East and the uncontested successor of the Neo-Assyrian Empire.

Building projects

Babylon's Ishtar Gate was restored and beautified in the reign of Nebuchadnezzar

The Babylonian king was traditionally a builder and restorer, and as such large-scale building projects were necessary as a legitimizing factor for Babylonian rulers. The projects were made possible through the prospering economy during Nebuchadnezzar's reign, sustained by his conquests. 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. 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.

Extensive work was also conducted on civil and military structures. Among the most impressive efforts was the work done surrounding the city's northern ceremonial entrance, the Ishtar Gate. 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. The ruins of Nebuchadnezzar's North Palace are poorly preserved, and as such, its structure and appearance are not entirely understood. Nebuchadnezzar also constructed a third palace, the Summer Palace, built some distance north of the inner city walls in the northernmost corner of the outer walls.

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). Similar bricks were used for the walls surrounding the Processional Street, which also featured depictions of lions (symbols of the goddess Ishtar). Babylon's Processional Street, the only such street yet excavated in Mesopotamia, ran along the eastern walls of the South Palace and exited the inner city walls at the Ishtar Gate, running past the North Palace. To the south, this street went by the Etemenanki, turning to the west and going over a bridge constructed under Nabopolassar or Nebuchadnezzar's reign. Some of the Processional Street bricks bear the name of the Neo-Assyrian king Sennacherib (r. 705–681 BC) on their underside, perhaps indicating that construction of the street had begun already during his reign. However, the fact that the upper side of the bricks all bear the name of Nebuchadnezzar suggests that construction of the street was completed under Nebuchadnezzar's reign. Glazed bricks such as the ones used in 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.

Nebuchadnezzar also directed building efforts in Borsippa, with several of his inscriptions recording restoration work on that city's temple, the Ezida, dedicated to the god Nabu. Additionally, Nebuchadnezzar also restored the ziggurat of the Ezida, the E-are-imin-Anki. Also, it worked on the temple of Gula, Utila, and numerous other temples and shrines in the city. Nebuchadnezzar also repaired Borsippa's walls.

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. The Median Wall was one of two walls built to protect Babylonia's northern border. Further evidence that Nebuchadnezzar believed the north to be the most likely point of attack for his enemies is that he fortified northern cities, such as Babylon, Borsippa, and Kish, but left the walls of southern cities, such as Ur and Uruk, as they were. Nebuchadnezzar also began work on the Royal Canal, also known as Nebuchadnezzar's Canal, a grand canal linking the Euphrates to the Tigris, which in time completely transformed the agriculture of the region. However, the structure was not completed until the reign of Nabonidus, who ruled as the last king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire from 556 to 539 BC.

Death and succession

Nebuchadnezzar died in Babylon in 562 BC. Having ruled for 43 years, Nebuchadnezzar's reign was the longest of his dynasty, and he would be remembered favorably by the Babylonians. The last known tablet dated to Nebuchadnezzar's reign, from Uruk, is dated to the same day, 7 October, as the first known tablet of his successor, Amel-Marduk, from Sippar. 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.

Amel-Marduk's accession does not appear to have gone smoothly. Amel-Marduk was not the eldest living son of Nebuchadnezzar, and the reason he was picked as the crown prince is unknown. The choice is extraordinary given that some sources suggest that the relationship between Nebuchadnezzar and Amel-Marduk was abysmal, with one surviving text describing both as parties in some form of conspiracy and accusing one of them (the text is too fragmentary to determine which one) of failing in essential duties of Babylonian kingship through exploiting Babylon's populace and desecrating its temples. Amel-Marduk also, at one point, appears to have been imprisoned by his father, possibly on account of the Babylonian aristocracy having proclaimed him as king while Nebuchadnezzar was away. It is possible that Nebuchadnezzar intended to replace Amel-Marduk as heir with another son but died before doing so.

In one of Nebuchadnezzar's late inscriptions, written more than forty years into his reign, he wrote that he had been chosen for the kingship by the gods before he was even born. Mesopotamian rulers typically only stressed divine legitimacy in this fashion when their actual legitimacy was questionable, a method often employed by usurpers. Given that Nebuchadnezzar had been king for several decades and was the legitimate heir of his predecessor, the inscription is extraordinary unless it was intended to help legitimize Nebuchadnezzar's successor, Amel-Marduk, who as a younger son and a former conspirator could be seen as politically problematic.

Family and children

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon as depicted by Ferdinand Knab in 1886.

According to tradition, the gardens were constructed by Nebuchadnezzar for his wife, Amytis of Media, so that she would feel less homesick.

No surviving contemporary Babylonian documents provide the name of Nebuchadnezzar's wife. According to Berossus, her name was Amytis, daughter of Astyages, king of the Medes. Berossus writes that '[Nabopolassar] sent troops to the assistance of Astyages, the tribal chieftain and satrap of the Medes to obtain a daughter of Astyages, Amyitis, as a wife for his son [Nebuchadnezzar].' Though the ancient Greek historian Ctesias instead wrote that Amytis was the name of a daughter of Astyages who had married Cyrus I of Persia, it seems more likely that a Median princess would marry a member of the Babylonian royal family, considering the good relations established between the two during Nabopolassar's reign. 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. By marrying his son to a daughter of Cyaxares, Nebuchadnezzar's father, Nabopolassar likely sought to seal the alliance between the Babylonians and the Medes. 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 and artificial hills and watercourses and knolls so that Amytis would feel less homesick for the mountains of Media. No archaeological evidence for these gardens has yet been found.

Nebuchadnezzar had six known sons. With the exceptions of Marduk-Nadin-ahi and Eanna-Sharra-user, most of the sons are attested to very late in their father's reign. It is possible that they might have been the product of a second marriage and that they could have been born relatively late in Nebuchadnezzar's reign, possibly after his known daughters. The known sons of Nebuchadnezzar are:

• Marduk-Nadin-ahi (Akkadian: Marduk-nadin-a?i) – the earliest attested of Nebuchadnezzar's children, attested in a legal document, probably as an adult as he is described as being in charge of his land, already in Nebuchadnezzar's third year as king (602/601 BC). He is also attested very late in Nebuchadnezzar's reign, named as a "royal prince" in a document recording the purchase of dates by Sin-mar-šarri-u?ur, his servant, in 563 BC.

• Eanna-Sharra-usur (Akkadian: Eanna-šarra-u?ur) – named as a "royal prince" among sixteen people in a document at Uruk from 587 BC recorded as receiving barley "for the sick."

• Amel-Marduk (Akkadian: Amel-Marduk), named Nabu-Shum-ukin (Nabû-šum-ukin), initially– succeeded Nebuchadnezzar as king in 562 BC. His reign was marred with intrigues, and he only ruled for two years before being murdered and usurped by his brother-in-law, Neriglissar. Later Babylonian sources mostly speak ill of his reign. Amel-Marduk is first attested, notably as crown prince, in a document 566 BC. Amel-Marduk had an older brother in Marduk-Nadin-ahi, alive as late as 563 BC, so why he was named crown prince is not apparent.

• Marduk-Shum-usur (Akkadian: Marduk-šum-U?ur or Marduk-Suma-u?ur) – named as a "royal prince" in documents from Nebuchadnezzar's 564 BC and 562 BC years, recording payments by his scribe to the Ebabbar temple in Sippar.

• Mushezib-Marduk (Akkadian: Mušezib-Marduk) was once named a "royal prince" in a contract tablet from 563 BC.

• Marduk-Nadin-shumi (Akkadian: Marduk-nadin-šumi) was once named a "royal prince" in a contract tablet from 563 BC.

Three of Nebuchadnezzar's daughters are known by name:

• Kashshaya (Akkadian: Kaššaya) – is attested in several financial documents from Nebuchadnezzar's reign as "the king's daughter." Her name is of unclear origin; it might be derived from the word kaššû (kassite). Kashshaya is attested from contemporary texts as a resident of (and landowner in) Uruk. Kashshaya is typical, although speculatively, identified as the daughter of Nebuchadnezzar, who married Neriglissar.

• Innin-etirat (Akkadian: Innin-e?irat)– attested as "the king's daughter" in a 564 BC document which records her granting mar-banûtu status ("status of a free man") to an enslaved person by the name Nabû-mukkê-elip. The document in question was written in Babylon, but names including the divine prefix Innin are almost unique to Uruk, suggesting that she was a city resident.

• Ba'u-asitu (Akkadian: Ba'u-asitu) – attested as the owner of a piece of real estate is an economic document. The document was written at Uruk, where Ba'u-asitu is presumed to have lived. The precise reading and meaning of her name are somewhat unclear. Paul-Alain Beaulieu, who in 1998 published the translated text which confirms her existence, believes that her name is best interpreted as meaning "Ba'u is a/the physician."

It is possible that one of Nebuchadnezzar's daughters married the high official Nabonidus. Marriage to a daughter of Nebuchadnezzar could explain how Nabonidus could become king and why certain later traditions, such as the Book of Daniel in the Bible, describe Nabonidus's son Belshazzar as Nebuchadnezzar's son (descendant). Alternatively, these later traditions might instead derive from royal propaganda. The ancient Greek historian Herodotus names the "last great queen" of the Babylonian Empire "Nitocris," though that name (nor any other name) is not attested in contemporary Babylonian sources. Herodotus's description of Nitocris contains a wealth of legendary material that makes it difficult to determine whether he uses the name to refer to Nabonidus's wife or mother. However, William H. Shea proposed in 1982 that Nitocris may tentatively be identified as the name of Nabonidus's wife and Belshazzar's mother.

Legacy

Assessment by historians

Because of the scarcity of sources, assessments by historians of Nebuchadnezzar's character and the nature of his reign have differed considerably over time. He has typically been regarded as the greatest and most prestigious king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire.

Since the military activity was not a significant issue described in the inscriptions of any Neo-Babylonian king, regardless of their actual military accomplishments, in sharp contrast to the inscriptions of their Neo-Assyrian predecessors, Nebuchadnezzar's inscriptions talk very little about his wars. Out of the king's fifty or so known inscriptions, only one deal with military action, and in this case, only small-scale conflicts in the Lebanon region. 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. A significant change in evaluations of Nebuchadnezzar came with the publication of the tablets of the Babylonian Chronicle by Donald Wiseman in 1956, which cover the geopolitical events of Nebuchadnezzar's first eleven years as king. From the publication of these tablets onwards, historians have shifted to perceiving Nebuchadnezzar as a great warrior, devoting special attention to the military achievements of his reign.

According to the historian Josette Elayi, writing in 2018, Nebuchadnezzar is somewhat difficult to characterize because of the scarcity of Babylonian source material. Elayi wrote, about Nebuchadnezzar, "He was a conqueror, even though reservations can be had about his military capabilities. There was no lack of statesmanlike qualities, given his success in building the Babylonian Empire. He was a great builder who restored a country devastated by war for a long time. That is roughly all we know about him because the Babylonian Chronicles and other texts say little about his personality."

In Jewish and biblical tradition

The Babylonian captivity initiated by Nebuchadnezzar ended with the fall of Babylon to the Achaemenid king Cyrus the Great in 539 BC. Within a year of their liberation, the captured Jews returned to their homeland. Their liberation did little to erase the memory of five decades of imprisonment and oppression. Instead, Jewish literary accounts ensured that accounts of the hardship endured by the Jews and the monarch responsible for it would be remembered for all time. The Book of Jeremiah calls Nebuchadnezzar a "lion" and a "destroyer of nations."

Nebuchadnezzar's story thus found its way into the Old Testament of the Bible. 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. The Bible also portrays Nebuchadnezzar as the legitimate ruler of all the world's nations, appointed to rule the world by God. Through the divine ruling, Judah should have obeyed Nebuchadnezzar and not rebelled. Nebuchadnezzar is also depicted as carrying out death sentences pronounced by God, slaying two false prophets. Nebuchadnezzar's campaigns of conquest against other nations are portrayed as being in line with God's will for Nebuchadnezzar's dominance.

Despite Nebuchadnezzar's negative portrayal, he is notably referred to with the epithet 'my servant' (i.e., God's servant) in three places in the Book of Jeremiah. Nebuchadnezzar's attack on the Kingdom of Judah is theologically justified in the Book of Jeremiah on account of its populace's 'disobedience' of God. The king is called "Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant." The Book of Jeremiah also states that God has made all the Earth and given it to whom it seemed proper to give it to, deciding upon giving all of the world's lands to "Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant." The Book of Jeremiah also prophesies 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."

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 particular reason for referring to him with the epithet "my servant." Other uses of this epithet are usually limited to some of the most positively portrayed figures, such as the various prophets, Jacob (the symbol of the chosen people) and David (the chosen king). 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 honor than the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar." The epithet may be a later addition, as it is missing in the Septuagint version of the Old Testament, perhaps added after Nebuchadnezzar began to be seen in a slightly more favorable light than immediately after Jerusalem's destruction. Alternatively, possible theological explanations include Nebuchadnezzar, despite his cruelty, being seen as an instrument in fulfilling God's universal plan, or perhaps that designating him as a "servant" of God was to show that readers should not fear Nebuchadnezzar, but his true master, god.

Nebuchadnezzar's forces at the siege of Jerusalem, as depicted in a 10th-century French manuscript

In the Book of Daniel, recognized by scholars as a work of historical fiction, Nebuchadnezzar is given a portrayal that differs considerably from his portrayal in the Book of Jeremiah. For the most part, he is depicted as a merciless and despotic ruler. The king has a nightmare and asks his wise men, including Daniel and his three companions Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, to interpret the dream, but refuses to state the dream's contents. When the servants protest, Nebuchadnezzar sentences them (including Daniel and his companions) to death. By the end of the story, when Daniel successfully interprets the dream, Nebuchadnezzar is nevertheless shown to be very grateful, showering Daniel with gifts, making him the governor of the "province of Babylon" and making him the chief of the kingdoms' wisemen. A second story again casts Nebuchadnezzar as a tyrannical and pagan king. After Daniel and his companions refuse to worship a newly erected golden statue, he sentences them to death by being thrown into a furnace. They are miraculously delivered, and Nebuchadnezzar then acknowledges God as the "lord of kings" and "god of gods." Though Nebuchadnezzar is also mentioned as acknowledging the God as the true God in other passages of the Book of Daniel, it is apparent that his supposed conversion to Judaism does not change his violent character, given that he proclaims that anyone who speaks amiss of God "shall be cut in pieces and their houses shall be made a dunghill." In a third story, Daniel interprets another dream as meaning that Nebuchadnezzar will lose his mind and live like an animal for seven years before being restored to his normal state (Daniel 1-4). The portrayal of Nebuchadnezzar in the Book of Daniel is a fickle tyrant who is not particularly consistent in his faith, far from the typical "servants of God" in other books of the Bible.

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 based on Belshazzar's birth father, Nabonidus, the last king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire (r. 556–539 BC). Separate Jewish and Hellenistic traditions exist concerning Nabonidus having been mad, and, likely, this madness was simply reattributed to Nebuchadnezzar in the Book of Daniel through conflation. Some later traditions conflated Nebuchadnezzar with other rulers as well, such as the Assyrian Ashurbanipal (r. 669–631 BC), the Persian Artaxerxes III (r. 358–338 BC), the Seleucids Antiochus IV Epiphanes (r. 175–164 BC) and Demetrius I Soter (r. 161–150 BC) and the Armenian Tigranes the Great (r. 95–55 BC). 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.

Titles

In most of his inscriptions, Nebuchadnezzar is typically only titled "Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, son of Nabopolassar, king of Babylon" or "Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, the one who provides for Esagil and Ezida, son of Nabopolassar, king of Babylon." In financial documents, Nebuchadnezzar has also ascribed the ancient title "king of the Universe," He sometimes also used the title "king of Sumer and Akkad," used by all the Neo-Babylonian kings. Some inscriptions accord Nebuchadnezzar a more elaborate version of his titles, including the following variant, attested in an inscription from Babylon:

Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, pious prince, the favorite of the god Marduk, the exalted ruler who is the beloved of the God Nabû, the one who deliberates (and) acquires wisdom, the one who constantly seeks out the ways of their divinity (and) reveres their dominion, the indefatigable governor who is mindful of provisioning Esagil and Ezida daily and (who) constantly seeks out good things for Babylon and Borsippa, the wise (and) pious one who provides for Esagil and Ezida, foremost heir of Nabopolassar, king of Babylon, am I.

See also

• List of biblical figures identified in extra-biblical sources

• Nebuchadnezzar (Blake) – famous 19th-century painting depicting the biblical story of Nebuchadnezzar's madness

• Nabucco – 19th-century opera by Giuseppe Verdi based loosely on the biblical story of Nebuchadnezzar

Notes[edit]

0. As Nebuchadnezzar wrote the inscriptions on the stele, he is also unquestionably the king depicted. The stele is one of only four known certain contemporary depictions of Nebuchadnezzar. The other three are carved depictions on cliff faces in Lebanon, in much poorer condition than the depiction in the stele. The Etemenanki ziggurat was presumably the inspiration for the Biblical Tower of Babel, hence the name 'Tower of Babel stele.'

1. ^ Nebuchadnezzar was made high priest of the Eanna temple in Uruk by his father in 626/625 BC. It is assumed that he was made high priest at a very young age, considering his death took place more than sixty years later. It is not known at what age Babylonians became eligible for priesthood, but there are records of freshly initiated Babylonian priests aged 15 or 16.

2. ^ The cuneiform signs are AG.NÍG.DU-ÙRU

3. ^ "Akkad" here refers to Babylonia and derives from the city Akkad, the capital of the ancient Akkadian Empire that Nabopolassar worked to connect himself to. The "king of Akkad" referred to here is thus Nabopolassar.

4. ^ The word translated as 'equal brother,' talimu, has also been alternatively translated as 'chosen brother,' 'close brother,' or 'beloved brother.' Regardless of the correct interpretation, the epithet clearly illustrates Nabopolassar's great affection for his second son. Such public affection bestowed upon the brother of the heir to the throne often led to later conflicts and usurpations.

General Notes:

a Stele

A stele, or occasionally stela, when derived from Latin, is a stone or wooden slab, generally taller than it is wide, erected in the ancient world as a monument. The surface of the stele often has text, ornamentation, or both. These may be inscribed, carved in relief, or painted.

b Etemenanki was a ziggurat dedicated to Marduk in the ancient city of Babylon. It exists only in ruins, located about 90 kilometers south of Baghdad, Iraq.