Bible Synapse
Fall of Nineveh Chronicle
document · 616–607 BC · Assyria and Babylon · also called Babylonian Chronicle of the fall of Nineveh, ABC 3, Gadd Chronicle
See it on the map and timeline
- Date
- 616–607 BC (the events it records (the tablet itself may be a later copy))
- Found
- Unknown (acquired by the British Museum in 1896), 1896. Registered by the British Museum in 1896 (96-4-9, 6). Like most Babylonian chronicles it came through the antiquities trade and has no recorded find-site. It was first published in 1923.
- Now
- British Museum, London (BM 21901)
- Passages
- Nahum 3:7, Zephaniah 2:13, 2 Kings 23:29
What it is
A clay tablet, once broken into four pieces, from the series of Babylonian chronicles, recording events year by year from the 10th to the 18th year of Nabopolassar of Babylon (616–607 BC). It tells how the Babylonians and the Medes attacked Assyria; in Nabopolassar’s 14th year (612 BC) they besieged Nineveh and inflicted a great defeat in the month Abu, and the Assyrian king Sin-shar-ishkun died. Ashur-uballit then took the Assyrian throne at Harran, and after Harran fell he tried to retake it with a large army from Egypt.
How it connects to the Bible
Nahum and Zephaniah foretold the end of Assyria’s capital: “Nineveh is laid waste” (Nahum 3:7), and the Lord “will make Nineveh a desolation” (Zephaniah 2:13). The chronicle dates its fall to 612 BC. It also shows Egypt fighting on Assyria’s side, which helps to explain why Pharaoh Necho was marching to the Euphrates when Josiah met him at Megiddo (2 Kings 23:29).
What scholars debate
The KJV says Necho went up “against the king of Assyria”; in the light of the chronicle many modern translations say that he went to help him.