A power that destroys
1 It was in the twelfth year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, king of the As syrians, who ruled in the great city of Nine veh that, at the same time, Ar phaxad, king of the Medes, ruled at Ecbatana.
2 Arphaxad had built around Ecbatana ramparts of stone, with each stone cut to the size of one and a half me ters wide and three meters long. The ramparts were thirty-five meters high and twenty-five meters wide.
3 He built at the gates city towers which were fifty meters high and rested on foundations twenty meters wide.
4 The gates themselves were thirty-five meters high and twenty meters wide, wide enough for his valiant warriors and foot soldiers to march through them in battle array.
5 In those days, King Ne bu chad nezzar made war on King Arpha xad in the Great Plain, that is, the plain near the territory of the Ragae.
6 All the people who lived in the mountains, those who lived along the banks of the rivers Euphrates, Tigris and Hydas pes, those on the plains of Arioch, king of the Ela mites, and many other peoples joined the ranks of the Chaldeans to fight against the sons of Cheleoud.
7 Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Assy rians, sent his messengers to all those living in Persia and in the West, to the inhabitants of Cilicia, Damascus, Leba non and Anti-Lebanon, to those along the seacoast,
8 to the people of Carmel, Gilead, Upper Galilee and the Great Plain of Esdraelon,
9 to those in Samaria and its towns, and beyond the Jordan as far as Jerusalem, Bethany, Chelous, Kadesh, the River of Egypt, Tah panhes, Raamses, and all the country of Goshen
10 as far as the region beyond Tanis and Memphis, and to all the inhabitants of Egypt as far as the country of Ethiopia.
11 But the inhabitants of all these regions took no notice of the order of Nebu chadnezzar, king of the Assyrians, and did not join him in waging war. They no longer feared him because they considered him just like any other man. They sent back his messengers empty-handed and shamefaced.
12 Nebuchadnezzar was greatly enraged against all these regions and swore by his throne and by his kingdom to punish all the districts of Cilicia, Damascus and Syria, and to put to the sword all who were in the lands of Moab, Ammon, the whole of Judea, and all those in Egypt as far as the coasts be tween the two seas.
13 In the seventeenth year, Nebuchadnezzar went to battle with his army against King Arphaxad, and conquered him in the campaign. He drove back the army of Arphaxad with all his cavalry and chariots.
14 Nebu chad nezzar occupied all the cities. Finally, he reached Ecbatana where he demolished its towers, pillaged the streets of the city and reduced its splendor to ruins.
15 He pursued Arphaxad into the mountains of the Ragae, pierced him through with arrows and utterly destroyed him.
16 Then he returned to Nineveh with a great crowd of followers and a considerable multitude of soldiers. He and his entire army stayed there amusing themselves and feasting for one hundred and twenty days.