carried to Babylon Daniel and others of the people, and part of what Gold and Silver and Brass they found in the Temple:  and in [382] the fourth year of Jehoiakim, which was the twentieth of Nabopolassar, they routed the army of Pharaoh Nechoh at Carchemish, and by pursuing the war took from the King of Egypt whatever pertained to him from the river of Egypt to the river of Euphrates.  This King of Egypt is called by Berosus, [383] the Satrapa of Egypt, Coele-Syria, and Phoenicia; and this victory over him put an end to his Reign in Coele-Syria and Phoenicia, which he had newly invaded, and gave a beginning to the Reign of Nebuchadnezzar there:  and by the conquests over Assyria and Syria the small Kingdom of Babylon was erected into a potent Empire.

Whilst Nebuchadnezzar was acting in Syria, [384] his father Nabopolassar died, having Reigned 21 years; and Nebuchadnezzar upon the news thereof, having ordered his affairs in Syria returned to Babylon, leaving the captives and his army with his servants to follow him:  and from henceforward he applied himself sometimes to war, conquering Sittacene, Susiana, Arabia, Edom, Egypt, and some other countries; and sometimes to peace, adorning the Temple of Belus with the spoils that he had taken; and the city of Babylon with magnificent walls and gates, and stately palaces and pensile gardens, as Berosus relates; and amongst other things he cut the new rivers Naarmalcha and Pallacopas above Babylon and built the city of Teredon.

Judaea was now in servitude under the King of Babylon, being invaded and subdued in the third and fourth years of Jehoiakim, and Jehoiakim_ served him three years, and then turned and rebelled_, 2 King. xxiv. 1.  While Nebuchadnezzar and the army of the Chaldaeans continued in Syria, Jehojakim was under compulsion; after they returned to Babylon, Jehojakim continued in fidelity three years, that is, during the 7th, 8th and 9th years of his Reign, and rebelled in the tenth:  whereupon in the return or end of the year, that is in spring, he sent [385] and besieged Jerusalem, captivated Jeconiah the son and successor of Jehoiakim, spoiled the Temple, and carried away to Babylon the Princes, craftsmen, smiths, and all that were fit for war:  and, when none remained but the poorest of the people, made [386] Zedekiah their King, and bound him upon oath to serve the King of Babylon:  this was in spring in the end of the eleventh year of Jehoiakim, and beginning of the year of Nabonassar 150.

Zedekiah notwithstanding his oath [387] revolted, and made a covenant with the King of Egypt, and therefore Nebuchadnezzar in the ninth year of Zedekiah [388] invaded Judaea and the cities thereof, and in the tenth Jewish month of that year besieged Jerusalem again, and in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the 4th and 5th months, after a siege of one year and an half, took and burnt the City and Temple.