1In the twelfth year of the reign of Nebuchadnezʹzar, who ruled over the Assyrians in the great city of Ninʹeveh, in the days of Arphaxʹad, who ruled over the Medes in Ecbatʹana—2he is the king who built walls about Ecbatʹana with hewn stones three cubits thick and six cubits long; he made the walls seventy cubits high and fifty cubits wide;3at the gates he built towers a hundred cubits high and sixty cubits wide at the foundations;4and he made its gates, which were seventy cubits high and forty cubits wide, so that his armies could march out in force and his infantry form their ranks—5it was in those days that King Nebuchadnezʹzar made war against King Arphaxʹad in the great plain which is on the borders of Ragae.6He was joined by all the people of the hill country and all those who lived along the Euphraʹtes and the Tigris and the Hydasʹpes and in the plain where Arʹioch ruled the Elymaeʹans. Many nations joined the forces of the Chaldeʹans.7Then Nebuchadnezʹzar king of the Assyrians sent to all who lived in Persia and to all who lived in the west, those who lived in Ciliʹcia and Damasʹcus and Lebʹanon and Antilebʹanon and all who lived along the seacoast,8and those among the nations of Carmel and Gilʹead, and Upper Galilee and the great Plain of Esdraeʹlon,9and all who were in Samarʹia and its surrounding towns, and beyond the Jordan as far as Jerusalem and Bethany and Chelʹous and Kadesh and the river of Egypt, and Tahʹpanhes and Ra-amʹses and the whole land of Goshen,10even beyond Tanis and Memphis, and all who lived in Egypt as far as the borders of Ethiopia.11But all who lived in the whole region disregarded the orders of Nebuchadnezʹzar king of the Assyrians, and refused to join him in the war; for they were not afraid of him, but looked upon him as only one man, and they sent back his messengers empty-handed and shamefaced.12Then Nebuchadnezʹzar was very angry with this whole region, and swore by his throne and kingdom that he would surely take revenge on the whole territory of Ciliʹcia and Damasʹcus and Syria, that he would kill them by the sword, and also all the inhabitants of the land of Moab, and the people of Ammon, and all Judea, and every one in Egypt, as far as the coasts of the two seas.13In the seventeenth year he led his forces against King Arphaxʹad, and defeated him in battle, and overthrew the whole army of Arphaxʹad, and all his cavalry and all his chariots.14Thus he took possession of his cities, and came to Ecbatʹana, captured its towers, plundered its markets, and turned its beauty into shame.15He captured Arphaxʹad in the mountains of Ragae and struck him down with hunting spears; and he utterly destroyed him, to this day.16Then he returned with them to Ninʹeveh, he and all his combined forces, a vast body of troops; and there he and his forces rested and feasted for one hundred and twenty days.