Who was Nebuchadnezzar?

Son of Nabopolassar and virtually founder of the later kingdom of Babylon, the first of the four great Gentile empires. Nebuchadnezzar acted as his father's general and defeated Pharaoh-necho at Carchemish, B.C. 606. Jer. 46:2. Judah about this time became tributary to Babylon, and some captives (including Daniel) and holy vessels were carried away. 2 Chr. 36:5-7; Dan. 1:1-4. This is called 'the first captivity' of Judah.

Three years later, Judah revolted and Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem. In B.C. 599 the king and many captives, with the treasures of the temple, were taken to Babylon: this is called 'the great captivity.' In B.C. 588 Nebuchadnezzar again besieged Jerusalem, burnt the temple, and destroyed the city. He also took Tyre, B.C. 573, after a siege of thirteen years, for which "he had no wages, nor his army" (the inhabitants having escaped with their riches by sea); but God rewarded him with the spoils of Egypt, which he conquered. 2 Kings 24, 2 Kings 25; 2 Chr. 36; Ezek. 29:18-20.

Babylon and Assyria are much blended together in history, sometimes being independent one of the other, and at other times being tributary to one another. In B.C. 745 Tiglath-pileser may be said to have founded the later kingdom of Assyria, and among his victories he became master of Babylonia, as the kingdom of Babylon was called. About 721 Merodachbaladan became king of Babylon, and in 712 he sent ambassadors to Hezekiah on hearing of his sickness. This is recorded in 2 Kings 20:12, where he is called Berodach-baladan. In B.C. 702 Sennacherib king of Assyria expelled Merodach, and Babylon was governed by viceroys from Assyria. In B.C. 681 Esar-haddon became king of Assyria but held his court at Babylon, to which place Manasseh king of Judah was carried prisoner about B.C. 677. 2 Chr. 33:11. About B.C. 625 Nabo-polassar revolted from the king of Assyria and established the later kingdom of Babylon. He with Cyaxares (the Ahasuerus of Dan. 9:1) founder of the Median kingdom, attacked and took Nineveh, and put an end to the Assyrian rule. Nebuchadnezzar, co-regent with Nabo-polassar, took Jerusalem, and carried many captives and the holy vessels to Babylon, about B.C. 606. In B.C. 604 Nabo-polassar died and Nebuchadnezzar reigned alone. In B.C. 603 Jehoiakim revolted and in 599 Nebuchadnezzar again took Jerusalem, and Ezekiel was carried to Babylon: this is called the great captivity. 2 Kings 24:1-16. Mattaniah was left as king in Jerusalem, his name being changed to Zedekiah: he reigned 11 years. 2 Kings 24:17-20. Having rebelled against Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, after a siege of eighteen months, once more took Jerusalem, destroyed the city and burnt the house of the Lord, bringing the kingdom of Judah to an end: B.C. 588. 2 Kings 25:1-26. For the personal history of the king see NEBUCHADNEZZAR. In B.C. 561 Nebuchadnezzar died. He was the 'head of gold' in Daniel's great image. The glory of the later Babylonian Empire virtually began and ended with him. The succession of kings was somewhat as follows:

KINGS OF BABYLON. B.C. 625 Nabo-polassar. 606 Nebuchadnezzar, co-regent. 604 Nabo-polassar dies. Nebuchadnezzar reigns alone. 561 Evil-Merodach succeeds. He raises up Jehoiachin in the 37th year of his captivity. 2 Kings 25:27. 559 Neriglissar succeeds. Perhaps the same as one of the princes called Nergal-sharezer in Jer. 39:3, 13. 556 Laborosoarchod succeeds. Reigned 9 months and is slain. 555 Nabonidus or Nabonadius (also called Labynetus), a usurper: Belshazzar his son afterwards reigning with him. 538 Babylon taken, and Belshazzar slain. End of the Empire of Babylon.

Babylon has a large place in the O.T. with reference to its intercourse with Israel, in nearly every chapter of Jeremiah, from 20 - 52, Babylon is mentioned. Babylon is also of note as being the first of the four great empires prophesied of by Daniel. The kingdom of the Lord, established in the house of David, and maintained in Judah, had for the time come to an end because of iniquity, and the 'times of the Gentiles' had begun.* Of Nebuchadnezzar it was said, "Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength and glory . . . . Thou art this head of gold." Dan. 2:37-38. Babylon was God's instrument by which Judah was punished; and then because of the pride and wickedness of the king of Babylon he also was brought under the rod of the Almighty.

A. 1. The book of Daniel is itself the nearest and weightiest help to explain the difficulties of its several parts. Thus Daniel 2 and Daniel 7 reflect light one on another. There is a manifest unity in the colossal image seen in Nebuchadnezzar's dream, which has its answer in "the four great beasts" that "came up from the sea" in Daniel's vision during the first year of Belshazzar's reign. In the visions all were thus seen at once, though in historical fact they were to succeed each other; as the rest of the chapter would plainly enough indicate. It was not a question of what Babylon had been, or of Nebuchadnezzar's succeeding Nabopolassar, but of God's gift of world-empire to these four successive powers. They begin with Nebuchadnezzaar, and are terminated by the judgment to be executed on the final form of the fourth or Roman empire by the Stone cut without hands, i.e. God's kingdom wielded by the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven. Nabopolassar was doubtless king of Babylon; but in no way head of the image or imperial system which commenced with his son Nebuchadnezzar, to whom God gave this place expressly. He, not his father, could say though arrogantly, "Is not this great Babylon that I have built?" as he built enormously besides. His foreign conquests were great, yet less momentous than his energetic home policy. But his overthrow of the Jewish kingdom in its last stronghold was the turning-point, and in him the Gentile imperial system began. Daniel 2:37-38 affords light clear enough for beginning with Nebuchadnezzar and excluding his father or any other before him; as no reasonable mind doubts the parralelism of the two chapters. Compare Jeremiah 27, Ezekiel 12, 17.

He was the man in whom God set up the Gentiles. The house of David, the throne of Judah, had corrupted itself; the measure of the people's iniquity was full, and the term of the Divine long-suffering was spent in Nebuchadnezzar's day; and he is used by the Lord to be the rod of His indignation against Jerusalem, and the hand to take from Him the sword of rule and judgment in the earth.

I have made the earth, the man and the beast that are upon the ground, by My great power and by My outstretched arm, and have given it unto whom it seemed meet unto Me. And now have I given all these lands into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, My servant; and the beasts of the field have I given him also to serve him. And all nations shall serve him, and his son, and his son's son, until the very time of his land come: and then many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of him. And it shall come to pass, that the nation and kingdom which will not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, and that will not put their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation will I punish, saith the Lord, with the sword, and with the famine, and with the pestilence, until I have consumed them by his hand (Jeremiah 27:5-8).

Jerusalem had been supreme because the throne and the glory of Jehovah was there. Though Assyria, Egypt and Babylon had tried repeatedly to overthrow Jerusalem, they were held in check by the power of God and divine intervention, but when the measure of the wickedness of Jerusalem was full, Nebuchadnezzar was chosen to become the first great monarch of the times of the Gentiles. The dominion was then taken away from Jerusalem and transferred to the Gentiles. Therefore the golden head in this prophetic man-image represents Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian empire. The chest of silver, according to divine interpretation, stands for an inferior monarchy which was to follow the Babylonian empire. This second world empire is the Medo- Persian. The belly and thighs of brass represent the third great monarchy, the Graeco-Macedonian. The fourth great monarchy which was to rise during the times of the Gentiles, represented by the two legs of iron, is the iron empire, Rome. Here, then, is history pre-written. God, who knows the end from the beginning, revealed in this dream the course of the times of the Gentiles, beginning with the Babylonian monarchy and followed by three more: The Medo-Persian, the Graeco-Macedonian and the Roman. Notice the process of deterioration as indicated in the composition of this image: Gold, silver, brass, iron, and finally the iron getting less and clay taking a prominent place. It shows that politically the times of the Gentiles are not improving. Everything which this image represents has been fulfilled, except the last portion, when a stone falls out of heaven and strikes the ten toes and the clay, so that the whole colossal figure goes to pieces, the different constituent metals become like the chaff on the summer threshingfloor and the striking stone becomes a mountain and fills the whole earth. The fourth Empire, the Roman, has not yet fulfilled its history. The final form, and with it the final form of the times of the Gentiles is yet to pass into history. This final form is symbolically seen in the ten toes and the clay, in the feet of the image. The territory which constituted the now extinct Roman empire will in the near future undergo a political revival. It will reappear in a confederated Europe, except certain countries which never belonged to the Roman empire. In that confederacy will be kingdoms to the number of ten; the clay represents democracies, the rule by the people and for the people. The late great war has brought such a political combination into our times. Such is the future and end of the times of the Gentiles, as foretold in the feet of the image. But what does the smiting stone represent, the stone which abolisheth the image and becomes itself a great mountain filling the whole earth? The Stone is Christ. That the stone represents Christ is seen from the Scriptures. "Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation" (Isa. 28:16). Zechariah speaks of this stone with seven eyes upon it and engraven. We read of Him in the New Testament as the foundation stone of the church, the cornerstone, the stone rejected by the builders. Most interesting is His own word in the Gospel of Matthew: "And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder" (Matt. 21:44). Here we have Israel 's sin and judgment and the fate of the Gentiles. Israel stumbled against this stone; for them He was a stumblingstone and rock of offense. In consequence they were broken as a nation. But the Gentile world, rejecting Him, will be broken when the stone falls. They will be ground to powder by the falling stone. Our Lord must have had the dream of Nebuchadnezzar in mind when he spake these words. The falling stone of which He speaks and the striking stone in the dream mean the same Person, Himself The stone doing its work in smiting the image is a prophecy of the second coming of our Lord. The mountain filling after that the earth foreshadows that kingdom which will be established with the return of Christ and His enthronement as King of kings. Verses 46-49. The heathen monarch then acknowledged Daniel's God in a threefold way: The God of Gods (the Father); the Lord of Kings (God the Son); the Revealer of Secrets (God the Holy Spirit). Daniel is lifted from the place of humiliation to a place of exaltation. He did not forget his companions; they share honor and glory with him. It is a beautiful picture of that day when our Lord will receive the throne and when His own will not be left behind in sharing with Him His glory.

But what is meant by these four symbolic "beasts"? The answer is furnished in verse 17: "These great beasts, which are four, are four kings which shall arise out of the earth." But by the term "kings," we are to understand kingdoms, for this is the interpretation in the 23rd verse. "Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms." And in the second chapter of this prophet we likewise learn that there should be four great kingdoms — manifestly the same kingdoms — which are set before us here. There was seen a great image, as is well known to most of you. It was composed of a golden head, silver breast and arms, brazen belly and thighs, iron legs, and feet part of iron and part of clay. Daniel was enabled to explain the meaning of all this to the king Nebuchadnezzar. He said to the king, "Thou art this head of gold. And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth. And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron," etc. Now the fourth iron kingdom in this case is represented as having ten toes, whilst in Dan. 7 the fourth beast had ten horns. Besides, in this chapter, as well as in the seventh, a solemn crisis destroys the fourth kingdom, and introduces a fifth and heavenly one. Here, a mystic "stone" smites the image on its feet, and grinds the whole to powder (see ver. 44 and 45); and there the judgment sits, and the Son of Man comes with the clouds of heaven. The millennium in both cases is the grand result. Manifestly, then, the four great beasts, in the vision of the seventh chapter, set forth the same four great kingdoms that are seen in this symbolic image of the second. In both chapters the rise of four grand, universal empires is presented. Let us now return to Dan. 7.

Can we ascertain anything further as to these four empires? Certainly. We can ascertain what empires they are which are typified by these four great beasts. We desire to show this on Scripture authority alone. We have proof, in the first place, that the first and lion-like beast meant the Babylonian or Chaldean empire. We have seen that Daniel said to Nebuchadnezzar expressly, "Thou art this head of gold." He said to him, "Thou, O king, art a king of kings; for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory. And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field, and the fowls of the heaven, hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head of gold." This golden head was the first of the four kingdoms. The sovereignty of the kingdom was concentrated in the person of Nebuchadnezzar. He was monarch over the empire of Babylon. (See Dan. 1:1) So that we have the plainest proof as to what is meant by the lion, or lion-like beast, the first of the four beasts in the vision before us.

But returning to the first vision, we note that it was a great image, whose brightness was excellent, and the form thereof terrible. So it was seen by Nebuchadnezzar; whereas Daniel was given to behold the self-same first empire as a lion with eagle's wings. This power was not to endure long, because its continuance was measured, as Jeremiah (Jer. 25:11-12) had already predicted, by the captivity of Judah — in round numbers about seventy years. It was a power of peculiar majesty and splendour, Nebuchadnezzar being called "the head of gold," as it appears to be in part, if not mainly, from receiving his power as king of kings direct from God in a way that none else of these empires did afterwards, and allowing no human element to enfeeble his acting as so constituted. It was not won by conquest merely; it was God's immediate gift in his case, instead of being derived successively from others put down. Thus Cyrus was in many respects a greater man, and employed to do God's will on behalf of the Jewish remnant typically. Even Nebuchadnezzar was not a ruler to be despised, being (I suppose) the greatest city-builder the world ever saw. There are to be seen countless bricks with his name on them still, although thousands of years have passed since they were made. There they remain, strong and recognizable as ever almost, circumstances being no doubt peculiarly favourable for their preservation. Nebuchadnezzar also had much energy and practical wisdom in many other respects, as in seeing to the water-ways of the great rivers, and the irrigation of his fruitful plains, in order that the country might flourish and the people be prosperous as it never was before.

He was now a maniac, and was driven away from men, and ate grass as the ox. He remained thus apparently seven years, signified by 'seven times' (as a time, times, and half a time signify three and a half years in Dan. 12:7); then his reason returned, and the kingdom was restored to him. He now said, "I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honour the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and his ways judgement: and those that walk in pride he is able to abase." Dan. 2 — Dan. 4.

Thus Nebuchadnezzar learnt to honour the God who had made him the head of gold. How long he survived this is not known. Evil-merodach, his son, succeeded him in B.C. 561. There is evidence that many towns were built during his reign in his name being found on the bricks among their ruins in every direction.

The foe of Judah, the chosen instrument of the Lord to execute His wrath upon the people and the city, now comes to the front. Jeremiah had predicted the coming judgment; Isaiah and the other prophets did the same. Then Jehoiakim proclaimed a fast (Jer. 36:9). It was nothing but hypocrisy. Immediately after, he cut the scroll to pieces and cast it into the fire. Jeremiah and his secretary Baruch hardly escaped with their lives. Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, bound Jehoiakim in fetters to carry him to Babylon (2 Chron. 36:6). This was not done because Nebuchadnezzar was suddenly called to Babylon. The book of Daniel introduces us more fully to this great monarch, the head of the times of the Gentiles; we give in the annotations on that book more information about his character and history.

Nabopalassar, founded the new Babylonian empire, which began the period of the Chaldees--as they are chiefly known to us in Scripture. Here we may at once indicate that he was succeeded by his son, Nebuchadrezzar (or Nebuchadnezzar), and he in turn by his son, Evil-merodach, who, after two years' reign, was dethroned by his brother-in-law, Neriglissar. After four years (559-556 B.C.) Neriglissar was succeeded by his youthful son, Laborosoarchod. After his murder, Nabonidos (Nabunit, Nabuna'id) acceded to the government, but after seventeen years' reign (555-539 B.C.) was dethroned by Cyrus. The eldest son of Nabonidos, and heir to the throne, was Belshazzar whom we know from the book of Daniel, where, in a not unusual manner, he is designated as the son, that is, the descendant of Nebuchadrezzar (Dan. 5:2, 11, 18). We infer that, while his father, Nabonidos, went to meet Cyrus, to whom he surrendered, thereby preserving his life, Belshazzar had been left as "king" in Babylon at the taking of which he perished in the night of his feast, described in Holy Scripture. (See The Prophet Daniel, by A.C. Gaebelein.)

Jehoiakim became a vassal of Nebuchadnezzar. Three years later he rebelled. Punishment followed swiftly. It was "at the commandment of the LORD."

Nebuchadnezzar was the instrument used of God to lead Judah into captivity, and he was the first of the great Gentile rulers to exercise the government of imperial power. God had not left authority in the hands of the Gentiles for them to do their own will; they were given their authority to carry out the will of God. This Nebuchadnezzar had to learn when God's judgment fell on him, even as "A watcher and a holy one" cried, "to the intent that the living may know that the most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomsoever He will, and sets up over it the basest of men" (Dan. 4:13-17).