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Chaldea

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Chaldea, Kaldu in Assyrian, was the southern part of Babylonia, the marshes and river lands near the head of the Persian Gulf, where the Euphrates and Tigris draw together below Babylon. The Chaldeans first appear in Assyrian records in the ninth century BC, under Ashurnasirpal II and Shalmaneser III, as tribes settled in walled towns among the canals, Bit-Yakin, Bit-Dakkuri and Bit-Amukani the chief of them. Isaiah can still speak of the Chaldeans as a people that "was not, till the Assyrian founded it". They fought the Assyrians for a century: Merodach-baladan of Bit-Yakin, who sent envoys to Hezekiah, twice made himself king of Babylon.

In 626 BC Nabopolassar took the throne of Babylon and founded the dynasty that modern historians often call Chaldean, though whether he came from a Chaldean tribe is debated. Under his son Nebuchadnezzar the Chaldeans became for the prophets the name of Babylon's power: Habakkuk sees God raise up "the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation"; bands of the Chaldees came against Jehoiakim; "the army of the Chaldees" pursued Zedekiah to the plains of Jericho. Ezekiel received his call "in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar", a canal near Nippur; cuneiform tablets from al-Yahudu, a village of Judean exiles somewhere in Babylonia, now show their life there. Isaiah bids the exiles, "Go ye forth of Babylon, flee ye from the Chaldeans".

Daniel's "king of the Chaldeans", Belshazzar, fell when Cyrus took Babylon in 539 BC. In Daniel the Chaldeans are also a class of wise men beside the magicians and astrologers, and Herodotus, Strabo and Diodorus likewise use the name for the priests and astronomers of Babylon, a sense that survived into the Middle Ages. Jeremiah foretold that Chaldea "shall be a spoil".

Genesis sets the birthplace of Abraham's family in "Ur of the Chaldees", from which Terah went out towards Canaan. Most scholars identify it with Ur at Tell el-Muqayyar, excavated by Woolley from 1922, though some have argued for a northern Ur near Haran, and the epithet is in any case later than Abraham's age. Stephen's speech recalls that Abraham came out of the land of the Chaldeans. The old Chaldea is now the south of Iraq, the marshes and the provinces around Nasiriyah and Basra; the name is also borne by the Chaldean Catholic Church, the largest church of Iraq's Christians, whose union with Rome goes back to the sixteenth century.

Scripture: Gen 11:28; Gen 11:31; Job 1:17; 2 Kgs 20:12; 2 Kgs 24:2; 2 Kgs 25:4–5; Isa 13:19; Isa 23:13; Isa 47:1; Isa 48:20; Jer 24:5; Jer 50:10; Ezek 1:3; Ezek 11:24; Dan 1:4; Dan 2:2; Dan 5:30; Dan 9:1; Hab 1:6; Acts 7:4

Sources

Checked against its sources; not yet read by a historian.

Verses (85)

Gen 11:28
And Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his nativity, in Ur of the Chaldees.
Gen 11:31
And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son’s son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abram’s wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there.
Gen 15:7
And he said unto him, I am the LORD that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it.
2 Kgs 24:2
And the LORD sent against him bands of the Chaldees, and bands of the Syrians, and bands of the Moabites, and bands of the children of Ammon, and sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of the LORD, which he spake by his servants the prophets.
2 Kgs 25:4
And the city was broken up, and all the men of war fled by night by the way of the gate between two walls, which is by the king’s garden: (now the Chaldees were against the city round about:) and the king went the way toward the plain.
2 Kgs 25:5
And the army of the Chaldees pursued after the king, and overtook him in the plains of Jericho: and all his army were scattered from him.
2 Kgs 25:10
And all the army of the Chaldees, that were with the captain of the guard, brake down the walls of Jerusalem round about.
2 Kgs 25:13
And the pillars of brass that were in the house of the LORD, and the bases, and the brasen sea that was in the house of the LORD, did the Chaldees break in pieces, and carried the brass of them to Babylon.
2 Kgs 25:25
But it came to pass in the seventh month, that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, of the seed royal, came, and ten men with him, and smote Gedaliah, that he died, and the Jews and the Chaldees that were with him at Mizpah.
2 Kgs 25:26
And all the people, both small and great, and the captains of the armies, arose, and came to Egypt: for they were afraid of the Chaldees.
2 Chr 36:17
Therefore he brought upon them the king of the Chaldees, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man, or him that stooped for age: he gave them all into his hand.
Neh 9:7
Thou art the LORD the God, who didst choose Abram, and broughtest him forth out of Ur of the Chaldees, and gavest him the name of Abraham;
Job 1:17
While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The Chaldeans made out three bands, and fell upon the camels, and have carried them away, yea, and slain the servants with the edge of the sword; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.
Isa 13:19
And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees’ excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.
Isa 23:13
Behold the land of the Chaldeans; this people was not, till the Assyrian founded it for them that dwell in the wilderness: they set up the towers thereof, they raised up the palaces thereof; and he brought it to ruin.
Isa 43:14
Thus saith the LORD, your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; For your sake I have sent to Babylon, and have brought down all their nobles, and the Chaldeans, whose cry is in the ships.
Isa 47:1
Come down, and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon, sit on the ground: there is no throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans: for thou shalt no more be called tender and delicate.
Isa 47:5
Sit thou silent, and get thee into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans: for thou shalt no more be called, The lady of kingdoms.
Isa 48:14
All ye, assemble yourselves, and hear; which among them hath declared these things? The LORD hath loved him: he will do his pleasure on Babylon, and his arm shall be on the Chaldeans.
Isa 48:20
Go ye forth of Babylon, flee ye from the Chaldeans, with a voice of singing declare ye, tell this, utter it even to the end of the earth; say ye, The LORD hath redeemed his servant Jacob.
Jer 21:4
Thus saith the LORD God of Israel; Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands, wherewith ye fight against the king of Babylon, and against the Chaldeans, which besiege you without the walls, and I will assemble them into the midst of this city.
Jer 21:9
He that abideth in this city shall die by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence: but he that goeth out, and falleth to the Chaldeans that besiege you, he shall live, and his life shall be unto him for a prey.
Jer 22:25
And I will give thee into the hand of them that seek thy life, and into the hand of them whose face thou fearest, even into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans.
Jer 24:5
Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel; Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge them that are carried away captive of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans for their good.
Jer 25:12
And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, saith the LORD, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations.
Jer 32:4
And Zedekiah king of Judah shall not escape out of the hand of the Chaldeans, but shall surely be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon, and shall speak with him mouth to mouth, and his eyes shall behold his eyes;
Jer 32:5
And he shall lead Zedekiah to Babylon, and there shall he be until I visit him, saith the LORD: though ye fight with the Chaldeans, ye shall not prosper.
Jer 32:24
Behold the mounts, they are come unto the city to take it; and the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans, that fight against it, because of the sword, and of the famine, and of the pestilence: and what thou hast spoken is come to pass; and, behold, thou seest it.
Jer 32:25
And thou hast said unto me, O Lord GOD, Buy thee the field for money, and take witnesses; for the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans.
Jer 32:28
Therefore thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the Chaldeans, and into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and he shall take it:

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