ned to favor the persons, and perhaps the religion, of the Jews.
One of his first acts was to release the unfortunate Jehoiachin from the
imprisonment in which he had languished for thirty-five years, and to
treat him with kindness and respect. He not only recognized his royal
rank, but gave him precedence over all the captive kings resident at
Babylon. Josephus says that he even admitted Jehoiachin into the number
of his most intimate friends. Perhaps he may have designed him some
further advancement, and may in other respects have entertained projects
which seemed strange and alarming to his subjects. At any rate he had
been but two years upon the throne when a conspiracy was formed
against him; he was accused of lawlessness and intemperance; his
own brother-in-law, Neriglissar, the husband of a daughter of
Nebuchadnezzar, headed the malcontents; and Evil-Merodach lost his life
with his crown.

Neriglissar, the successful conspirator, was at once acknowledged
king. He is probably identical with the "Nergal-shar-ezer, Rab-Mag," of
Jeremiah, who occupied a prominent position among the Babylonian nobles
left to press the siege of Jerusalem when Nebuchadnezzar retired to
Riblah. The title of "Rab-Mag," is one that he bears upon his bricks.
It is doubtful what exactly his office was; for we have no reason to
believe that there were at this time any Magi at Babylon; but it was
certainly an ancient and very high dignity of which even kings might
be proud. It is remarkable that Neriglissar calls himself the son of
Bel-sum-iskun, "king of Babylon"--a monarch whose name does not appear
in Ptolemy's list, but who is probably to be identified with a chieftain
so called, who assumed the royal title in the troubles which preceded
the fall of the Assyrian Empire.

During his short reign of four years, or rather three years and a
few months, Neriglissar had not time to distinguish himself by many
exploits. So far as appears, he was at peace with all his neighbors, and
employed his time principally in the construction of the Western
Palace at Babylon, which was a large building placed at one corner of a
fortified inclosure, directly opposite the ancient royal residence, and
abutting on the Euphrates. If the account which Diodorus gives of this
palace be not a gross exaggeration of the truth, it must have been a
magnificent erection, elaborately ornamented with painting and sculpture
in the best style of Babylonian art, though in size