s of his return, as much as anything, that
caused the crisis to pass off without difficulty.

Nebuchadnezzar is the great monarch of the Babylonian Empire, which,
lasting only 88 years--from B.C. 625 to B.C. 538--was for nearly half
the time under his sway. Its military glory is due chiefly to him, while
the constructive energy, which constitutes its especial characteristic,
belongs to it still more markedly through his character and genius.
It is scarcely too much to say that, but for Nebuchadnezzar, the
Babylonians would have had no place in history. At any rate, their
actual place is owing almost entirely to this prince, who to the
military talents of an able general added a grandeur of artistic
conception and a skill in construction which place him on a par with the
greatest builders of antiquity.

We have no complete, or even general account of Nebuchadnezzar's wars.
Our chief, our almost sole, information concerning them is derived from
the Jewish writers. Consequently, those wars only which interested these
writers, in other words those whose scene is Palestine or its immediate
vicinity, admit of being placed before the reader. If Nebuchadnezzar had
quarrels with the Persians, or the Arabians, or the Medes, or the tribes
in Mount Zagros, as is not improbable, nothing is now known of their
course or issue. Until some historical document belonging to his time
shall be discovered, we must be content with a very partial knowledge
of the external history of Babylon during his reign. We have a tolerably
full account of his campaigns against the Jews, and some information
as to the general course of the wars which he carried on with Egypt and
Phoenicia; but beyond these narrow limits we know nothing.

It appears to have been only a few years after Nebuchadnezzar's
triumphant campaign against Neco that renewed troubles broke out in
Syria. Phoenicia revolted under the leadership of Tyre; and about the
same time Jehoiakim, the Jewish king, having obtained a promise of aid
from the Egyptians, renounced his allegiance. Upon this, in his seventh
year (B.C. 598), Nebuchadnezzar proceeded once more into Palestine
at the head of a vast army, composed partly of his allies, the Medes,
partly of his own subjects. He first invested Tyre; but, finding that
city too strong to be taken by assault, he left a portion of his army to
continue the siege, while he himself pressed forward against Jerusalem.
On his near approach, Jehoiakim,