The fate of Jerusalem was now rapidly approach ing its consummation. After three years of fidelity, Jehoiachim renounced his allegiance to Babylon, and renewed his alliance with Necho, when Nebu chadnezzar sent incursions of Ammonites, Moab ites and Syrians, together with Chaldxans, to harass him. At length, in the eleventh year of his reign, he was made prisoner, and slain (Jer. xxii.) [JErtoimum]. He was succeeded by his son Jehoiachin, who, after three months' reign, surrendered himself with his family to Nebu chadnezzar, who had come in person to besiege Jerusalem, in the eighth year of his reign (2 Kings xxiv. 0-12) [JEHOIACHIN]. Upon this occasion all the most distinguished inhabitants, including the artificers, were led captive [CAPTIVITIES].
Among the captives, who amounted to no less than 50,00o, were Ezekiel (Ezek. i. 1) and Mordecai [EsTHER]. The golden vessels of Solomon were now removed, with the royal treasures, and Mat taniah, the brother of Jehoiachin, placed on the throne by Nebuchadnezzar, who gave him the name of Zedekiah, and bound him by an oath not to enter into an alliance with Egypt. Zedekiah, however, in the ninth year of his reign, formed an alliance with Pharaoh-Hophra, the successor of Necho. Hophra, coming to the assistance of Zedekiah, was driven back into Egypt by Nebu chadnezzar, who finally captured Jerusalem in the eleventh year of Zedekiah's reign (B.c. 588) [ZEDEKIAH]. The Temple, and the whole city, with its towers and walls, were all razed to the ground by Nebuzaradan, Nebuchadnezzar's lieu tenant, and the principal remaining inhabitants put to death by Nebuchadnezzar at Riblah. Jeremiah was, however, spared, and Gedaliah appointed governor. He was shortly after murdered by Ish mael, a member of the royal family, who was him self soon obliged to take refuge among the Ammon ites. Many of the remaining Jews fled into Egypt, accompanied by Jeremiah ; those who remained were soon after expatriated by Nebuchadnezzar, who depopulated the whole country.
He next undertook the siege of Tyre [TYRE], and after its destruction proceeded to Egypt, now distracted by internal commotions, and devastated or made himself master of the whole country from Migdol to Syene (according to the reading of the TAX., Ezek. xxix. 10 ; xxx. 6), transferring many of the inhabitants to the territory beyond the Euphrates.
We have referred to the captivity of the prophet Daniel, and have to turn to the book which bears his name for the history of this prophet, who, from an exile, was destined to become the great protector of his nation. In the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel, who was found superior in wisdom to the Chaldwan magi, was enabled not only to interpret, hut to reveal a dream of Nebu chadnezzar's, the very subject of which that mon arch had forgotten [DREAMS]. This was the
dream of the statue consisting of four different metals, which Daniel interpreted of four successive monarchies, the last of which was to be the reign of the Messiah. Daniel was elevated to be first minister of state, and his three friends were made governors of provinces. The history of these events (Dan. ii. 4, 8, 9) is written in the Chaldee language, together with the narrative which imme diately follows (ch. iii.), of the golden statue erected by Nebuchadnezzar in the plain of Dura, for refus ing to worship which, Daniel's three friends were thrown into a furnace, but miraculously preserved. The fourth chapter, also written in Chaldee, con tains the singular history of the judgment inflicted on Nebuchadnezzar as a punishment for his pride, and which is narrated in the form of a royal pro clamation from the monarch himself, giving an ac count to his people of his affliction and recovery. This affliction had been, by the monarch's account, predicted by Daniel a year before, in the interpre tation of his fearful dream of the tree in the midst of the earth. While walking in his palace, and admiring his magnificent works, he uttered, in the plenitude of his pride, the remarkable words re corded in ver. Is not this great Babylon that I have built for the house of the kingdom, by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty ? ' He had scarce uttered the words, when a voice from heaven proclaimed to him that his kingdom was departed from him ; that he should be for seven times (generally supposed to mean years, although some reduce the period to fourteen months ; Jahn, Introa'.) driven from the habitations of men to dwell among the beasts of the field, and made to eat grass as an ox, until he learned that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will.' The sentence was immediately fulfilled, and Nebuchad nezzar continued in this melancholy state during the predicted period, at the end of which he was restored to the use of his understanding (ver. 36). We have no account in Scripture of any of the actions of this monarch's life after the period of his recovery, but the first year of the reign of his suc cessor Evil-merodach is represented as having taken place in the thirty-seventh year of Jehoiachin, answering to B.C. 562 (2 Kings xxv. 27).