Nebuchadnezzar’s Madness

After Ashurbanipal died, the Assyrian empire fell apart. And Assyria’s old enemies, the Babylonians, took over Assyria’s land. The Babylonians wanted revenge! Assyria had destroyed Babylon, so now the Babylonians destroyed Nineveh, Assyria’s most beautiful city.

Then the Babylonians settled down to rule their own empire. The Babylonian Empire wasn’t quite as big as the Assyrian Empire, because the Babylonians never took over Egypt. But it was almost as big. And for many years, the Babylonians were the most powerful people in the world.

Babylon, the city flooded by Assyria, was rebuilt. The great Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar (who became king around 605 BC/BCE) spent much of his reign making Babylon beautiful again. He built huge walls all around the city, to keep it safe from invasion. In one of the walls, he built a great blue gate decorated with yellow and white bulls and dragons, and named it after Babylon’s chief goddess, Ishtar. Underneath this gate, a great parade passed every year in honor of Ishtar. The gate became famous all through Nebuchadnezzar’s empire.

Nebuchadnezzar was such a famous ruler that he became known as “Nebuchadnezzar the Great.” But he was not a happy man. Clay tablets and scrolls written during his reign talk about “Nebuchadnezzar’s madness.” These stories say that, for several years, Nebuchadnezzar actually lost his mind!

One story about Nebuchadnezzar’s madness is told in the book of Daniel, in the Bible. The story says that Nebuchadnezzar was a little too pleased with himself. He thought he was a god. He even made an enormous golden statue of himself, almost a hundred feet high, and told all of his people to bow down and worship it. Here is the rest of the story:

ne day, the great king Nebuchadnezzar was walking on the roof of his palace in Babylon.

As soon as he said this, a voice came from heaven. “Nebuchadnezzar!” the voice said. “You have become too proud! You think you are greater than God Himself. Now listen to your doom—you will act like an animal, and eat grass like a cow, until you admit that God is more powerful than you are!”

At once Nebuchadnezzar lost his mind. He ran out into the fields and lived like a wild animal. He walked on his hands and knees, until his knees were as tough as hooves and his fingernails were as long as a bird’s claws. He drank from the river, slept under bushes, and woke up in the morning wet with dew. His hair grew long and shaggy, until he looked like a goat. And he ate grass like a cow. His people gathered around at a distance and watched him. “What is wrong with the king?” they whispered. “He has gone mad!”

Finally Nebuchadnezzar looked up at the sky. “I am not a god!” he said. “I am only a man. And God is more powerful than I am.”

At once Nebuchadnezzar was sane again. He stood up on his feet. He looked around him and knew that he was the king of Babylon, not an animal. He returned to his palace in Babylon to rule his people once again. But never again did he claim to be a god. Now he knew that he was only a man.