=Ruin of the Assyrian Empire.=--The Assyrian régime began with the
capture of Babylon (about 1270). From the ninth century the Assyrians,
always at war, subjected or ravaged Babylonia, Syria, Palestine, and
even Egypt. The conquered always revolted, and the massacres were
repeated. At last the Assyrians were exhausted. The Babylonians and
Medes made an alliance and destroyed their empire. In 625 their
capital, Nineveh, "the lair of lions, the bloody city, the city gorged
with prey," as the Jewish prophets call it, was taken and destroyed
forever. "Nineveh is laid waste," says the prophet Nahum, "who will
bemoan her?"


THE BABYLONIANS

=The Second Chaldean Empire.=--In the place of the fallen Assyrian
empire there arose a new power--in ancient Chaldea. This has received
the name Babylonian Empire or the Second Chaldean Empire. A Jewish
prophet makes one say to Jehovah, "I raise up the Chaldeans, that
bitter and hasty nation which shall march through the breadth of the
land to possess dwelling places that are not theirs. Their horses are
swifter than leopards. Their horsemen spread themselves; (their
horsemen) shall fly as the eagle that hasteth to eat." They were a
people of knights, martial and victorious, like the Assyrians. They
subjected Susiana, Mesopotamia, Syria, and Jordan. But their régime
was short: founded in 625, the Babylonian Empire was overthrown by the
Persians in 538 B.C.

=Babylon.=--The mightiest of its kings, Nebuchadrezzar (or
Nebuchadnezzar), 604-561, who destroyed Jerusalem and carried the Jews