Nebuchadnezzar II
King of Babylon for forty-three years. He defeated Egypt at Carchemish, took Jerusalem in 597 BC, destroyed it a decade later and deported its people to Babylon.
As crown prince, Nebuchadnezzar defeated the Egyptian army at Carchemish in 605 BC and succeeded his father Nabopolassar the same year (Babylonian Chronicle 5 obv. 1–11). The same chronicle shows him campaigning in the west in almost every year down to 594 BC, where the tablet ends (Babylonian Chronicle 5 obv. 12–rev. 25). The Babylonian historian Berossus, as quoted by Josephus, gives him a reign of forty-three years (Josephus, Against Apion 1.146), and the book of Daniel has him speak of “this great Babylon, which I have built” (Daniel 4:30).
In the Bible he is the king who ends the kingdom of Judah (2 Kings 24:10–17) (2 Kings 25:1–21). Jeremiah calls him the Lord’s servant, the instrument of judgment on Jerusalem (Jeremiah 25:9), and the stories of Daniel are set at his court (Daniel 1:1–7).
In the timeline
- 605 BC, firm dateBabylon Defeats Egypt at Carchemish
The Babylonian crown prince Nebuchadnezzar destroys the Egyptian army at Carchemish on the Euphrates and, within months, becomes king. Egypt loses Syria and Palestine, and Judah passes from Egyptian to Babylonian rule.
- about 605 BC to 536 BC, traditional dateDaniel at the Babylonian Court
The book of Daniel tells of a young Judean taken to Babylon who serves its kings and stays loyal to his God through the furnace and the lions’ den, and who sees “one like a son of man” receive an everlasting kingdom.
- 16 March 597 BC, firm dateThe First Deportation to Babylon
Nebuchadnezzar takes Jerusalem, deports the young king Jehoiachin with thousands of Judah’s leading people, and puts Zedekiah on the throne. Babylon’s own chronicle dates the capture to the day.
- 587/586 BC, estimated dateThe Fall of Jerusalem and the Destruction of the Temple
After a long siege the Babylonian army breaches Jerusalem, burns Solomon’s temple and the city, and deports most of the remaining people. The kingdom of Judah comes to an end.