In 604 B.C.  Nabopolassar died, and the famous Nebuchadrezzar II ascended the throne of Babylon.  He lived to be one of its greatest kings, and reigned for over forty years.  It was he who built the city described by Herodotus (pp. 219 et seq.), and constructed its outer wall, which enclosed so large an area that no army could invest it.  Merodach’s temple was decorated with greater magnificence than ever before.  The great palace and hanging gardens were erected by this mighty monarch, who no doubt attracted to the city large numbers of the skilled artisans who had fled from Nineveh.  He also restored temples at other cities, and made generous gifts to the priests.  Captives were drafted into Babylonia from various lands, and employed cleaning out the canals and as farm labourers.

The trade and industries of Babylon flourished greatly, and Nebuchadrezzar’s soldiers took speedy vengeance on roving bands which infested the caravan roads.  “The king of Egypt”, after his crushing defeat at Carchemish, “came not again any more out of his land:  for the king of Babylon had taken from the river of Egypt unto the river Euphrates all that pertained to the king of Egypt."[555] Jehoiakim of Judah remained faithful to Necho until he was made a prisoner by Nebuchadrezzar, who “bound him in fetters to carry him to Babylon".[556] He was afterwards sent back to Jerusalem.  “And Jehoiakim became his (Nebuchadrezzar’s) servant three years:  then he turned and rebelled against him."[557]

Bands of Chaldaeans, Syrians, Moabites, and Ammonites were harassing the frontiers of Judah, and it seemed to the king as if the Babylonian power had collapsed.  Nebuchadrezzar hastened westward and scattered the raiders before him.  Jehoiakim died, and his son Jehoiachan, a youth of eighteen years, succeeded him.  Nebuchadrezzar laid siege to Jerusalem, and the young king submitted to him and was carried off to Babylon, with “all the princes, and all the mighty men of valour, even ten thousand captives, and all the craftsmen and smiths:  none remained save the poorest sort of the people of the land".[558] Nebuchadrezzar had need of warriors and workmen.

Zedekiah was placed on the throne of Judah as an Assyrian vassal.  He remained faithful for a few years, but at length began to conspire with Tyre and Sidon, Moab, Edom, and Ammon in favour of Egyptian suzerainty.  Pharaoh Hophra (Apries), the fourth king of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty, took active steps to assist the conspirators, and “Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon[559]”.

Nebuchadrezzar led a strong army through Mesopotamia, and divided it at Riblah, on the Orontes River.  One part of it descended upon Judah and captured Lachish and Azekah.  Jerusalem was able to hold out for about eighteen months.  Then “the famine was sore in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land.  Then the city was broken up, and all the men of war fled, and went forth out of the city by night by way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king’s garden.”  Zedekiah attempted to escape, but was captured and carried before Nebuchadrezzar, who was at Riblah, in the land of Hamath.