Nabuchodonosor king of the Assyrians overcometh Arphaxad king of the
Medes.
1:1. Now Arphaxad king of the Medes had brought many nations under his
dominions, and he built a very strong city, which he called Ecbatana,
Arphaxad. . .He was probably the same as is called Dejoces by Herodotus;
to whom he attributes the building of Ecbatana, the capital city of
Media.
1:2. Of stones squared and hewed: he made the walls thereof seventy
cubits broad, and thirty cubits high, and the towers thereof he made a
hundred cubits high. But on the square of them, each side was extended
the space of twenty feet.
1:3. And he made the gates thereof according to the height of the
towers:
1:4. And he gloried as a mighty one in the force of his army and in the
glory of his chariots.
1:5. Now in the twelfth year of his reign, Nabuchodonosor king of the
Assyrians, who reigned in Ninive the great city, fought against
Arphaxad and overcame him,
Nabuchodonosor. . .Not the king of Babylon, who took and destroyed
Jerusalem, but another of the same name, who reigned in Ninive: and is
called by profane historians Saosduchin. He succeeded Asarhaddan in the
kingdom of the Assyrians, and was contemporary with Manasses king of
Juda.
1:6. In the great plain which is called Ragua, about the Euphrates, and
the Tigris, and the Jadason, in the plain of Erioch the king of the
Elicians.
1:7. Then was the kingdom of Nabuchodonosor exalted, and his heart was
elevated: and he sent to all that dwelt in Cilicia and Damascus, and
Libanus,
1:8. And to the nations that are in Carmelus, and Cedar, and to the
inhabitants of Galilee in the great plain of Asdrelon,
1:9. And to all that were in Samaria, and beyond the river Jordan even
to Jerusalem, and all the land of Jesse till you come to the borders of
Ethiopia.
1:10. To all these Nabuchodonosor king of the Assyrians, sent
messengers:
1:11. But they all with one mind refused, and sent them back empty, and
rejected them without honour.
1:12. Then king Nabuchodonosor being angry against all that land, swore
by his throne and kingdom that he would revenge himself of all those
countries.