A power that destroys
1It was in the twelfth year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Assyrians, who ruled in the great city of Nineveh that, at the same time, Arphaxad, king of the Medes, ruled at Ecbatana. 2Arphaxad had built around Ecbatana ramparts of stone, with each stone cut to the size of one and a half meters wide and three meters long. The ramparts were thirty-five meters high and twenty-five meters wide. 3He built at the gates city towers which were fifty meters high and rested on foundations twenty meters wide. 4The 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. 5In those days, King Nebuchadnezzar made war on King Arphaxad in the Great Plain, that is, the plain near the territory of the Ragae.
6All the people who lived in the mountains, those who lived along the banks of the rivers Euphrates, Tigris and Hydaspes, those on the plains of Arioch, king of the Elamites, and many other peoples joined the ranks of the Chaldeans to fight against the sons of Cheleoud.
7Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Assyrians, sent his messengers to all those living in Persia and in the West, to the inhabitants of Cilicia, Damascus, Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon, to those along the seacoast, 8to the people of Carmel, Gilead, Upper Galilee and the Great Plain of Esdraelon, 9to those in Samaria and its towns, and beyond the Jordan as far as Jerusalem, Bethany, Chelous, Kadesh, the River of Egypt, Tahpanhes, Raamses, and all the country of Goshen 10as far as the region beyond Tanis and Memphis, and to all the inhabitants of Egypt as far as the country of Ethiopia.
11But the inhabitants of all these regions took no notice of the order of Nebuchadnezzar, 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. 12Nebuchadnezzar 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 between the two seas. 13In 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. 14Nebuchadnezzar 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. 15He pursued Arphaxad into the mountains of the Ragae, pierced him through with arrows and utterly destroyed him. 16Then 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.
