(4) Evil-merodach. The next Chaldee-Baby lonian monarch given in the Scriptures is the son of the preceding, Evil-merodach, who (2 Kings xxv :27) began his reign (B. C. 562) by deliver ing Jehoiachin, king of Judah, after the unfor tunate sovereign had endured captivity, if not incarceration for a period of more than six-and thirty years. Circumstances incidentally recorded in connection with this event serve to display the magnitude and grandeur of the empire, for it appears (verse 28) that there were other captive kings in Babylon besides Jehoiachin, and that each one of them was indulged with the distinction of having his own throne.
(5) Belshazzar. With Belshazzar (B. C. 538), the son or grandson of Nebuchadnezzar, closes the line of Chaldean monarchs. In the seven teenth year of his reign this sovereign was put to death while engaged with all his court in high revelry, by Cyrus. when lie took the city of Babylon in the night season (Dan. v :3o), and established in the city and its dependencies the rule of the Medo-Persians. (See BABYLON ; BEL SHAZZAR; CYRUS).
(6) Chaldean Immigration. Authentic his tory affords no information as to the time when the Chaldean immigration took place. It is pos sible that, at a very early period, a tribe of Chal dees wandered into Babylon and gave to the land the seven Chaldee kings mentioned by Berosus ; but it is possible also that the Chalchrans entered in a mass into the Babylonian territory for the first time not long before the era of Nabonassar 'B. C. 747), which Michaelis and others have thought the words of Isaiah render probable (chap. xxiii:13), 'Behold the land of the Chal dxans, this people was not, till the Assyrian founded it for them that dwell in the wilderness.' The circumstance, moreover, that a Shemitic dia lect is found to have prevailed in Babylon, cor roborates the idea that the Chaldreans were immi grants, since the northern must, from their position, have spoken a different form of speech.
(7) Kingdom of the Chaldees. The kingdom of the Chaldees is found among the four 'thrones' spoken of by Daniel (vi, vii, sq.), and is set forth under the symbol of a lion having eagles' wings.
The government was despotic, and the will of the monarch, who bore the title of 'King of Kings' (Dan. ii:37), was supreme law, as may be seen in Dan. iii:12, 14. 28. The kings lived inaccessible to their subjects in a well-guarded palace, denomi nated, as with the ancient Persians (Xenop.
Crop. t), 'the gate of the king' (Dan. ii :49, com pared with Esther it:19, 21. and iii :2).
The number of court and state servants was not small; in Dan. vi:1, Darius is said to have set over the whole kingdom no fewer than 'an hun dred and twenty princes.' The chief officers ap pear to have been a sort of 'mayor of the palace,' or prime minister, to which high office Daniel was appointed (Dan. ii :49), 'a master of the eunuchs' (Dan. i:3), 'a captain of the king's guard' (Dan. it:14). and 'a master of the magicians,' or presi dent of the Magi (Dan. iv:9).
Distinct probably from the foregoing was the class termed (Dan. iii :24. 27) 'the king's coun sellors,' who seem to have formed a kind of 'privy council' or even 'cabinet' for advising the mon arch and governing the kingdom. The entire em pire was divided into several provinces (Dan. 11:48; iii :1). presided over by officers of various ranks. An enumeration of several kinds may be found in Dan. iii :2, 3. The head officers, who united in themselves the highest civil and mili tary power, were denominated 'presidents' (Dan. vi :2) ; those who presided over single provinces or districts bore the title of governor ( :t ; ii :2).
The administration of criminal justice was rigorous and cruel, will being substituted for law, and human life and human suffering being totally disregarded. Nebuchadnezzar (Dan. ii:5) de clares to the college of the Magi: 'If ye will not make known unto me the dream with the in terpretation thereof, ye shall be cut in pieces, and your houses shall he made a dunghill (see also Dan. iii:to; vi:8 ; Jer. xxix :22).
(8) Religion. The religion of the Chaldees was, as with the ancient Arabians and Syrians. the worship of the heavenly bodies; the planets Jupiter. Mercury and Venus were honored as Bel, Nebo and Meni, besides Saturn and Mars (Gesenius On Isaiah). Astrology was naturally connected with this worship of the stars, and the astronomical observations which have made the Chaldfran name famous were thereby guided and advanced.
(9) Language. The language spoken in Baby lon was what is designated Chaldee, which is Semitic in its origin, belonging to the Aramaic branch. The immigrating Chal(hrans spoke prob ably a quite different tongue, which the geo graphical position of their native country shows to have belonged to the Medo-Persian stock.