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.