What think you of Nebuchadnezzar? Have you not heard from Scripture that he was bloodthirsty, fierce, with the disposition of a lion? Have you not heard that he disinterred the kings?^[1] Have you not heard that he brought the people away into captivity? Have you not heard that he put the king’s sons to the sword before Zedekiah’s eyes and then blinded him? Have you not heard that he shattered the cherubim?^[2] I do not mean the invisible cherubim—it is blasphemy to think it—but the sculptured images and the mercy seat in the Holy of Holies, from the midst of which God was apt to speak with his voice. He trampled on the veil of sanctification, he took the censer and carried it away to a temple of idols; he seized all the offerings; he burned the temple to its foundations. What punishment did he not deserve for slaying kings, for burning the holy object, for reducing the people to captivity, for putting the sacred vessels in the temples of the idols? Did he not deserve ten thousand deaths?

You have seen the enormity of his crimes. Turn now to the loving-kindness of God. Nebuchadnezzar was turned into a wild beast; he dwelled in the wilderness; God scourged him to save him. He had claws like a lion’s, for he had preyed on the saints. He had a lion’s mane, for he had been a ravening, roaring lion. He ate grass like an ox, for he had behaved like a brute beast, not knowing him who had given him his kingdom. His body was drenched with dew, because, after seeing the fire quenched by the dew, he had not believed. And what happened? Afterwards he says, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes to heaven . . . and I blessed the Most High, and I praised and glorified him who lives forever.^[3] When therefore he acknowledged the Most High, and uttered words of thanksgiving to God, and repented of his past wickedness and recognized his own weakness, in that hour God restored to him his royal dignity.

What then? If God granted pardon and a kingdom to Nebuchadnezzar after such terrible crimes, when he had made confession, will he not grant you the remission of your sins if you repent and the kingdom of heaven if you live worthily? God is merciful and quick to forgiveness but slow to vengeance. Therefore let no one despair of salvation. Peter, the chief and foremost of the apostles, denied the Lord thrice before a little serving maid; but, moved to repentance, he wept bitterly. His weeping revealed his heartfelt repentance, and for that reason not only did he receive pardon for his denial but also retained his apostolic prerogative. ^[4] THE FRIENDSHIP BETWEEN JEHOIACHIN AND EVIL-MERODACH. ISHO‘DAD OF MERV: Evil-merodach was the son of Nebuchadnezzar. Since he had ruled the kingdom badly and had, in addition, troubled the land with a severe conflict, when his father came back [from his military campaign], his father imprisoned him, fearing that he might rebel against him. Now he was imprisoned in the same place where also Jehoaichin was imprisoned. There they kept each other company for a long time and became friends. Therefore, after Nebuchadnezzar was dead and Evil-merodach was appointed as the new king, he granted [Jehoiachin] favors and gifts. And this was a reward given to Jehoiachin, because he had obeyed the prophecy and had surrendered, so that God did not refuse him the wage that he had earned.^{[1] [2]}

Jeremiah calls this son of Jehoiakim Jeconiah,^[1] and the Pharaoh Neco called the father of this man, though named Eliakim, Jehoiakim, whom Babylon, having carried off, cast forth before the gate, as the present prophet and Josephus in the tenth book of his Antiquities says.^[2] And the other editions have given the signet ring as a seal. And every person who through repentance makes shine again what is according to the image becomes a seal, a ring on the right hand of God.^[3] For good works are understood as the part on the right of God, who places the sheep at the right.^[4] The father gave this kind of seal to the profligate son who returned.^[5] If Jeconiah had become this way, he would have been a model for those who are subjects of devotion. But that did not happen. Yet he seemed to be persuaded by what the prophet said: He who goes out to surrender to the Chaldeans who besieged you shall live.^[6] For after he brought with him his mother and the mighty men, he left, deserting to the Babylonians. But if he also displays mature repentance, so that he becomes a seal of righteousness in circumcision.^[7] So that, according to this, he seems to be on the right hand of God, he would be delivered, since he did pay a penalty for his recent sins, though one more moderate. For in Babylon, after he chastised in prison and in chains, due to Evil-merodach, he was then set free, becoming one who ate with the king, and thus in a foreign land he finished life.

In the twelfth year of king Zedekiah, seventy years before the dominance of the Persians, Nebuchadnezzar campaigned against the Phoenicians and Jews, as Berossus says in his Researches on the Chaldeans.^[1] Juba,^[2] writing On the Assyrians, admits that he took his account from Berossus, testifying to its accuracy. Nebuchadnezzar blinded Zedekiah and removed him to Babylon, deporting the whole people except a few who escaped to Egypt. The captivity lasted for seventy years. Jeremiah and Habakkuk continued to prophesy under Zedekiah, and in the fifth year of his reign Ezekiel was prophesying in Babylon. After him came the prophet Nahum, then Daniel, and again after him, Haggai and Zechariah prophesied for two years under Darius I, and after him, one of the twelve, the Herald.^[3]