Bible Synapse
Nebuchadnezzar Chronicle
document · 605–594 BC · Assyria and Babylon · also called Jerusalem Chronicle, ABC 5, Chronicle of the early years of Nebuchadnezzar
See it on the map and timeline
- Date
- 605–594 BC (the events it records)
- Found
- Unknown (bought by the British Museum in 1896), 1896. The British Museum bought it from a dealer in 1896; where it was dug up is not recorded. Donald Wiseman first published it in 1956.
- Now
- British Museum, London (BM 21946)
- Passages
- 2 Kings 24:10–17, 2 Chronicles 36:10, Jeremiah 46:2
What it is
A clay tablet from the series of Babylonian chronicles, covering the years 605 to 594 BC. It tells how the crown prince Nebuchadnezzar crossed the Euphrates and defeated the Egyptian army at Carchemish, became king, and campaigned in the west year after year. In his 7th year, in the month Kislimu, he marched to the west, besieged “the city of Judah”, and on the 2nd day of Addaru seized it, captured its king, appointed a king of his own choice and sent heavy tribute to Babylon.
How it connects to the Bible
2 Kings 24 tells how Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem, “the king of Babylon took him in the eighth year of his reign” (King Jehoiachin), and made Mattaniah, renamed Zedekiah, king in his place. The chronicle’s date fixes this first capture of Jerusalem to March 597 BC. Jeremiah 46:2 dates the battle of Carchemish to the 4th year of Jehoiakim.
What scholars debate
The chronicle does not name Jerusalem; “the city of Judah” is generally understood to mean it. Kings places the capture in Nebuchadnezzar’s eighth year and the chronicle in his seventh, a difference scholars explain in various ways.