Daniel - Historian of the Future

Week 6 - The Dark Dream

Nebuchadnezzar Attacks Tyre

Ezekiel 26 - God sends His servant Nebuchadnezar against Tyre as judgement for gloating over the fall of Jerusalem.

Nebuchadnezzar Conquers Eqypt

Ezekiel 29:19 - God judges Egypt for being a "staff of reed" for Israel, and gives it to Nebuchadnezar as payment for his hard work in besieging Tyre.

Nebuchadnezzar Flourishes at Home - Daniel 4

4:1 At rest in my home and flourishing in my palace.
4:1-7 The I of sIn - Nebuchadnezar is candidly self-centered.
4:6-7 Avoiding Daniel, and hoping for a favorable interpretation.
4:10 A Watcher. No expectation of privacy under heaven.
4:22 The symptoms are consistent with Boanthropy, but the sudden onset (that very hour) is not typical.
4:30 "Is this not Babylon the Great, which I myself have built by the might of my power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?” Keenly aware of Egyptian Pharaoh’s and Mesopotamian monarchs who had been erased from the historical record by envious and resentful successors, Nebuchadnezzar had each of the estimated 15 million bricks used for his building projects stamped with the inscription:
“Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, who provides for (the temples) Esagila and Ezida, the eldest son of Nabopolassar, king of Babylon, am I”

End of the Chaldean Dynasty

Isaiah 14:12-22 No descendents of Nebuchadnezar to rule.

Prepare a place to slaughter his sons for the sins of their forefathers; they are not to rise to inherit the land and cover the earth with their cities. "I will rise up against them," declares the LORD Almighty. "I will cut off from Babylon her name and survivors, her offspring and descendants," declares the LORD.

Jeremiah 39:13 Nergal-sharezar, son-in-law of Nebuchadnezar released Jeremiah from prison at the taking of Jerusalem.

Evil-merodach, son of Nebuchadnezar, succeeded Nebuchanezar and released Jehoiachin from prison. Jeremiah 52:31 He reigns 2 years, 562 - 560.

Nergal-sharezar, married to Nitocris, daughter of Nebuchadnezar, assassinates Evil-merodach. He reigns 3 years, 559 - 556.

Nergal-sharezar is succeeded by his son, a mere boy, who is murdered by a conspiracy of nobles (instigated by Adad-guppi according to her steele) after only 9 months, and there being no other heirs of Nebuchadnezar (others being previously murdered), Nabonidus her son, who marries Nitocris, widow of Nergal-sharezar and daughter of Nebuchadnezar, becomes king in the vacuum.

Nabonidus reigns 17 years, 555 - 538, but is not much interested in Kinging, and is often absent for long periods (7 years on one occasion) on archealogical digs - his true passion. He leaves his son Belshazzar, Nebuchadnezar's grandson by Nitocris, in charge in Babylon during his absence.

The Prayer of Nabonidus

Among the Dead Sea Scrolls is a fragment of an account by Nabonidus of a long illness (an ulcer), from which he was delivered by praying to the most high God after 7 years of praying to "the gods of silver, gold, bronze, iron, wood, stone, lime - because I thought and considered them gods..."

Those wishing to discredit the book of Daniel often claim that Daniel confused Nebuchadnezar with Nabonidus - since boths accounts refer to a period of 7 years and end with the king glorifying the God of Israel. However, Daniel describes 7 years of madness - with no human thought, not an ulcer with idolatry common for the time.