Page 13 - The Prophet-statesman a Drama of Daniel

CHAPTER II

THE CITY FALLS

The next few days were highly eventful. It was only a brief forty-eight hours after the

first reports came of the approach of the Babylonian armies, that it became abundantly
apparent that they were headed straight for Jerusalem. They did not pursue a direct route
southward which would have been the course to Egypt, but turned due west to the
Jordan, pouring across the Plain of Moab and striking for the fords south of Jericho.

Amasiah, the captain of the host of Judah, made a hasty mobilization of his forces at
Gilgal to try to make a stand against the on-rushing Chaldean armies; these armies had
a highly trained infantry, excellently armed, a large force of archers, and a vanguard of

cavalry adapted for speed, but equipped for combat as well.

Before this blitzkrieg of six centuries before Christ, the disorganized forces of
Jehoiakim were as nothing, so that the encounter outside the walls of Gilgal could hardly

be dignified by being called a battle. So swiftly and completely were they scattered and
routed, that Nebuchadnezzar himself did not even go to Jerusalem. He only sent a few
cohorts under his brilliant general, Nebuzar-Adan, to complete the subjugation of the
city, and remained himself in Gilgal,

So helpless and supine lay the Holy City before the Chaldean invaders, that the usual
methods of siege were totally unrequired. The Chaldeans marched in unopposed, and
seized the reins of government. The dissolute Jehoiakhim, was captured and put in irons

by Nebuzar-Adan, and his son, Jehoiachin, was placed on the throne to serve as a puppet
king under the mandate of the Babylonian conqueror. When it became apparent that the
city would fall, panic seized upon many of the inhabitants who fled pell-mell into the
surrounding country to escape the expected slaughter.

Among these were many of the court parasites. They saw the impending downfall of
Jehoiakim and abandoned him to his fate. But those who could not or would not flee,

found themselves for the most part in better case. They did not know of the discipline
of the Chaldean army nor of the clemency of Nebuzar-Adan. They did not understand
that Nebuchadnezzar had no desire to destroy the Holy City, and even in the moment of
his triumph sensed that his easy victory over Judah and Jerusalem was due more to a
withdrawal of the mighty hand of the God that had always before fought for Jerusalem,

than to his own superior military power. It was well-known to all the nations that an
army of 185,000 picked troops of Sennacherib, the Assyrian, had been suddenly and