NEBUCHADNEZZAR II

HIS LIFE

• Nebuchadnezzar II was born in 634 B.C and died in 562 B.C.E
• Babylon was taken over by his dad Nabopolassar
• After, Nebuchadnezzar married Amytis of Media the daughter of a King
• Nebuchadnezzar secured an alliance between the Babylonians and the Medes
• Going Nebuchadnezzar II was the greatest King of Babylon as to his father

RULING STYLE

• Nebuchadnezzar II made sure that men and woman had the same rights
• Upon ascending to the throne he spoke to the gods in his inaugural address saying " O Merciful Marduk, may the house that I have built endure forever

DEFEAT AND CONTROL

• Nebuchadnezzar II defeated the Egyptians and their allies the Assyrians at Carchemish subdued Palestine and the region of Syria consolidating power he controlled all of the trade routes from Mesopotamia to the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea
• With all of the tolls and taxes he gathered in creating a city in which he hoped would be one of the wonders of the world

THE NEW CITY

• In the forty three years of his rein he made most of the time employing a vast army of slave labor to surround his city with walls so thick that chariot races were conducted on the top which was 56 miles
• Schools and temples were plentiful and literacy, mathematics and craftsmanship flourished along with a tolerance of the interest in other gods and other faith

THE END OF NEBUCHADNEZZAR'S REIN

• Nebuchadnezzar died a king
• He died the way he hoped in the city he built, and old man

IN THE BIBLE

• He is portrayed in unflattering light in the Bible mostly notably in the Book of Daniel and the Book of Jeremiah ( where he is seen as the "enemy of God" and one whom the deity of the Israelites intends to make an example of, or conversely the agent of God used as a scourge against the faithless followers of YahWeh, the form of a Hebrew name of God used in the Bible

PSALM 137

• Those portraits not withstanding Nebuchadnezzar II was most certainly responsible for the so called the Babylonian Exile of the Jews and so for the formation of the modern day Judaism ( in that the temple destroyed the Priestly class of the Levites of the Jews had to recreate their religion "in a foreign land" as recounted famously in Psalm 137 from the Bible and elsewhere