Neriglissor, his sister's husband, and one of the chief conspirators, reigned in his stead.
Immediately on his accession to the crown, he made great preparations for war against the Medes,[1056] which made Cyaxares send for Cyrus out of Persia, to his assistance. This story will be more particularly related by and by, where we shall find that this prince was slain in battle in the fourth year of his reign.
Laborosoarchod. A.M. 3448. Ant. J.C. 556.
Laborosoarchod, his son, succeeded to the throne. This was a very wicked prince. Being born with the most vicious inclinations, he indulged them without restraint when he came to the crown; as if he had been invested with sovereign power, only to have the privilege of committing with impunity the most infamous and barbarous actions. He reigned but nine months; his own subjects conspiring against him, put him to death. His successor was:
Labynitus, or Nabonidus. A.M. 3449. Ant. J.C. 555.
Labynitus, or Nabonidus. This prince had likewise other names, and in Scripture that of Belshazzar. It is on good grounds supposed that he was the son of Evil-Merodach, by his wife Nitocris, and consequently grandson to Nabuchodonosor, to whom, according to Jeremiah's prophecy, the nations of the East were to be subject, as also to his son, and his grandson after him: “All nations shall serve him, and his son, and his son's son, until the very time of his land shall come.”[1057]
Nitocris is that queen who raised so many noble edifices in Babylon.[1058] She caused her own monument to be placed over one of the most remarkable gates of the city, with an inscription, dissuading her successors from touching the treasures laid up in it, without the most urgent and indispensable necessity. The tomb remained closed till the reign of Darius, who, upon his breaking it open, instead of those immense treasures he had flattered himself with discovering, found nothing but the following inscription:
if thou hadst not an insatiable thirst after money, and a most sordid, avaricious soul, thou wouldst never have broken open the monuments of the dead.
In the first year of Belshazzar's reign, Daniel had the vision of the four beasts, which represented the four great monarchies, and the kingdom of the Messiah, which was to succeed them.[1059] In the third year of the same reign he had the vision of the ram and the he-goat, which prefigured the destruction of the Persian empire by Alexander the Great, and the persecution which Antiochus Epiphanes, king of Syria, should bring upon the Jews.[1060] I shall hereafter make some reflections upon these prophecies, and give a larger account of them.
Belshazzar, whilst his enemies were besieging Babylon, gave a great entertainment to his whole court, upon a certain festival, which was annually celebrated with great rejoicing.[1061] The joy of this feast was greatly disturbed by a vision, and still more so by the explication which Daniel gave of it to the king. The sentence written upon the wall imported, that his [pg 351] kingdom was taken from him, and given to the Medes and Persians. That very night the city was taken, and Belshazzar killed.