Biography

"His father Nabopolassar was an official of the Neo-Assyrian Empire who rebelled in 620 BCE and established himself as the king of Babylon.[4][5] Nebuchadnezzar ascended the throne in 605 BCE and subsequently fought several campaigns in the West, where Egypt was trying to organise a coalition against him. His conquest of Judah is described in the Bible's Books of Kings and Book of Jeremiah.[6] His capital, Babylon, is the largest archaeological site in the Middle East.[7] The Bible remembers him as the destroyer of Solomon's Temple and the initiator of the Babylonian captivity. He is an important character in the Book of Daniel, a collection of legendary tales and visions dating from the 2nd century BC.[8] Nebuchadnezzar is an important character in the Old Testament Book of Daniel.[8] Daniel 1 introduces Nebuchadnezzar as the king who takes Daniel and other Hebrew youths into captivity in Babylon, to be trained in "the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans". In Nebuchadnezzar's second year, Daniel interprets the king's dream of a huge image as God's prediction of the rise and fall of world powers, starting with Nebuchadnezzar's kingdom (Daniel 2). Nebuchadnezzar twice admits the power of the God of the Hebrews: first, after Hashem saves three of Daniel's companions from a fiery furnace (Daniel 3); and secondly, after Nebuchadnezzar himself suffers a humiliating period of madness, as Daniel predicted (Daniel 4). The consensus among critical scholars is that the book of Daniel is historical fiction."