Dead Men Tell Tales

by Harry Rimmer

It is not to be expected that the young conqueror would remain silent concerning his early victories. His father, Nabopolassar, also recounts with some satisfaction the military ability of his son. Through all of his reign, however, Nebuchadnezzar was more of a builder and architect than conqueror, although he frequently took the field in notable military action. Most of the relics from his reign have to do with the building of great temples and edifices. There are, however, a number of fragmentary chronicles such as that which, in the Babylonian Room of the British Museum in Table Case “E,” bears the number of 33,041. This recounts a later expedition undertaken by Nebuchadnezzar in the thirty-seventh year of his reign. This was to put down an uprising in Egypt.

There are innumerable tablets and records in the British Museum that attest the order and genius of the government in the forty-two years of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign. We will refer to this later when we come to the closing period of his great career. We have introduced the historicity of Nebuchadnezzar now, and the coincidence of his account which climaxes the reign of Necho, to establish at one more point the historical accuracy of the Old Testament text.

The last Pharaoh who comes into the account of the Sacred Book is positively identified as Hophra. He is called Apris by the Greeks, and is frequently found in the hieroglyphics under the name of Psammetichus, the Second. His name, Hophra, occurs in the Scripture only once, which is the forty-fourth chapter of Jeremiah and the thirtieth verse. Here the three great characters of this last drama are found conjoined in these simple words:

“Thus saith the Lord; Behold I will give Pharaoh-hophra king of Egypt into the hand of his enemies, and into the hand of them that seek his life; as I gave Zedekiah king of Judah into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, his enemy, and that sought his life.”

Hophra was a rash, inexperienced, over-confident ruler who wasted what small strength and wealth his kingdom possessed in useless warfare against mighty powers which were manifestly beyond his ability to cope with. The background of his contact with the Sacred Record begins with his conspiracy that enmeshed Zedekiah. This entire rebellion was a faithless and degraded example of lack of honour and responsibility to a plighted and pledged word. This is primarily so because after the defeat of Necho and his subsequent death, Nebuchadnezzar raised Hophra, the son of Necho, to the throne of Egypt where he governed as a satrap. He was to reign for Babylon, and had taken the oath of fidelity to his over-lord and master.

To make matters worse the conduct of Zedekiah added insult to injury! When Nebuchadnezzar dethroned Jehoiakim and carried him bound in chains to his subsequent death in Babylon, he was followed on the throne by Jehoiakin who reigned for a very brief period. Then Nebuchadnezzar raised Zedekiah to a position of power and on his twenty-first birthday elevated him to the governorship of Jerusalem. For the better part of eleven years, he reigned more or less successfully. He seems to have been a graceless scoundrel and utterly without honour. Completely violating their treaties and their oaths of fidelity, Pharaoh and Zedekiah joined in a conspiracy and rebelled against the power of Nebuchadnezzar. It is a matter of wonder to the modern student that these kings of Judah never learned their lesson.

The Chaldeans besieged Jerusalem to put down this revolt, and Hophra marched to its aid. Because the company of Chaldeans was small, as Nebuchadnezzar had not anticipated a strong resistance, the wise captains of this advance-guard did not join battle with Hophra, but retired in good order rather than fight a hopeless conflict when they were so strongly outnumbered.

The city of Jerusalem went wild with delight and rejoicing over its deliverance. The gloomy Jeremiah warned the leaders in vain that the Chaldeans would return, and in overwhelming force. Refusing to listen to the prophecies of Jeremiah, the people treated him harshly and cast him out. While the city was rejoicing at this early victory, Jeremiah himself gave a manifestation of confidence in the ultimate fulfillment of his own prophecies, when he fled from the city and delivered himself voluntarily into the hands of the Chaldeans. In the meantime, Hophra, overcome with pride at his easy victory, boasted with blasphemy that not even could God defeat him! The sycophantic Zedekiah acquiesced in this boasting and blasphemy and showered the foolish Hophra with unlimited compliments.

With Jeremiah gone and all of Judah turning to the ways of idolatry, God did not lack champions. Messengers and prophets were sent rapidly to Zedekiah and to the princes of the kingdom, but they mocked the messengers of God and despised His words. They misused His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord rose against His people beyond remedy. Therefore, says the thirty-sixth chapter of II Chronicles,

“He brought upon them the king of the Chaldees, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man, or him that stooped for age; he gave them all into his hand.”