NEBUCHADNEZZAR, king of Babylon, B.C. who598-562. He was the son of Nabopolassar, who had combined with Cyaxares, king of Media, and a of Egypt, for the overthrow of Nineveh. After the fall of Assyria, the Median provinces and the north of Assyria, as far as Cilicia, fell to Cyaxares of Media, the south of Assyria and part of Arabia fell to Babylon, the western boundary of Nabopolassar being the Upper Euphrates. All west of Carchemish and south of Cilicia was joined to Egypt. Babylon, by the successes of Nabopolassar and his son Nebuchadnezzar, became for a brief period mistress of Western Asia. B.C. 605, Nabopolassar sent his son Nebuchadnezzar against Necho II., king of Egypt, who was defeated near Carchemish, and all Syria fell to him. Palestine revolted about B.C. 602, he swept down on it, attacking Tyre on the way, and over ran Judah, deposed Jehoiachin, and raised his uncle Zedekiah to the throne, carrying Jehoiachin to Babylon. But Zedekiah also revolted, and, B.C. 589, Nebuchadnezzar sent an army to Pales tine under his general Nebuzaradan, and B.C. 587 Jerusalem fell. The city was destroyed, the temple burned, its sacred vessels and treasures carried off, Zedekiah's sons put to death, and then Zedekiah's eyes put out, plundering other cities of Judah, and carrying their people into captivity. He followed this up, B.C. 586, by the siege of Tyre, which is said to have been taken B.C. 573. The Jews again revolted, and murdered Gedaliab, the Chaldman governor, which led in 582 to Judah being again ravaged, and the last of its captives sent to Babylon. About this time Nebuchadnezzar repressed the tribes on the borders of the desert east of Palestine, and his army penetrated far into Arabia.
_In B.C. 572, Nebuchadnezzar, in personal com mand of his army, invaded Egypt, defeated the army of Hophra, overran the country, and plun dered it of all its wealth. Hophra was deposed, and was replaced by a general named Ahmes or Amasis. The Babylonian empire was at this time at its greatest. It seems to have comprised Elam or Khuzistan on the east, and parts north of this, including Zimri and the region as far as the Zagros mountains, taking in all the best parts of Assyria, and probably all the districts south of the Merdin Rocks, south to the shores of the Persian Gulf, and westwards to Cilicia, where the boundary touched the Mediterranean ; all Syria, as far as the Mediterranean, was included ; all the northern parts of Arabia and Egypt, with part of Lybia, southwards to the Lybian desert, the cataracts of the Nile.
In Nebuchadnezzar's reign ti2leitt commerce was carried on with India. The great temple of Babylon, called Seggal, which was dedicated to Bel-Merodach, he rebuilt, and richly adorned with gold, silver, and precious stones, and here he once more raised the head of the Ziggurrat or tower called Temin-sami-irtsiti, the foundation of heaven and earth. The sanctuary of Bel he roofed with cedar brought from the mountains of Lebanon, and overlaid with gold ; the temples of Birbir and Ziru, dedicated to Bel and Rubat, the temple of the Sun, the temple of the Moon-god, the temple of Vul, the atmospheric god, the temple of the goddess Gula, the temple of Venus, and other buildings, he constructed and beautified. He formed the celebrated hanging gardens, con sisting of arched terraces covered with earth, which was planted with trees and flowering shrubs. He rebuilt the great walls of Babylon ; on the other side of the Euphrates he rebuilt the temple of Nebo, and sonic smaller shrines. Here was a celebrated ruined temple in the form of a truncated pyramid or ziggurrat, 70 feet (42 cubits) high, and this Nebuchadnezzar rebuilt in the form of a temple of seven stages, each stage being dedicated to one of the planetary bodies. He rebuilt the principal temples at all the cities of Babylonia, but in Babylon he lavished his wealth, and the richer classes followed his example, and the noblest youths from conquered provinces served in the presence of the king and courtiers. According to the writings of Daniel, during the latter part of his reign the king became insane. He died B.C. 562, and was suc ceeded by his son Amil-Maruduk, the Evil Mero dach of the Hebrew Scriptures. The name Nebuchadnezzar is written in many ways in the Bisutun inscription,—we have Nabokhodrossor, Nabukhadrachar, and Nabukhudrachar. In pure Babylonian inscriptions it undergoes even more numerous changes. In Daniel he is called Nebuchadnezzar or Nabuchodonosor, in Ezekiel (xxvi. 7) the name is written Nebuchadrezzar. The first component of the word, Nebo, was the name of a Babylonian divinity (Isaiah xlvi. 1). The Muhammadans call him Bakht-un-Nasr.— Smith's Babylonia ; Layard's Nineveh, ii. p. 177 ; Bunsen. See Babylon.