No royal penman ever took greater delight in recording his achievements than did Nebuchadnezzar in describing the glories of his capital city: “Is not this great Babylon that I have built for the house of the kingdom, by the might of my power, and for the honor of my majesty?”[41] Upon the cylinders found at Senkereh in the ruins of the temple of the sun, upon tablets taken from the ruins of Birs Nimrud,[42] which still rise one hundred and fifty-three feet above the level of the plain, and elsewhere, we find the boastful records of this haughty monarch, and in one instance a single inscription consists of six hundred and nineteen lines. Thus writes the great king: “The fanes of Babylon I built, I adorned. Four thousand cubits complete, the walls of Babylon, whose banner is invincible, as a high fortress by the ford of the rising sun, I carried around Babylon its fosse which I dug. With cement and brick I reared up a tall tower at its side like a mountain. I built the great gates, whose walls I constructed with pine woods and covering of copper. I overlaid them to keep off enemies from the front of the wall of unconquered Babylon. Those large gates for the admiration of multitudes of men, with wreathed work I filled—the invincible castle of Babylon, which no king had previously effected, the city of Babylon I fitted to be a treasure city,”[43] etc. These few lines indicate the style and general character of the chronicles found upon many cylinders and slabs. During his reign Jerusalem was besieged, and captured[44] after a siege of a year and a half. King Zedekiah fled by night “by the way of the gate between the two walls which is in the king’s garden,” but was overtaken in the plains of Jericho, and brought before the king of Babylon at Riblah, where his sons were slain before him and his eyes were destroyed. A few years later Nebuchadnezzar besieged Tyre, with doubtful success. He had left Gedaliah in charge of Judah, but the new ruler was slain by Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah. Again the king of Babylon came to take vengeance, and carried the Jews away to Babylon. He afterward turned his attention to the capture of Egypt, whose king had incited Palestine to rebellion. Nebuchadnezzar defeated and deposed him, swept over Egypt and installed a king who was tributary to Babylon.[45] After this he devoted himself to the rebuilding of his city, using thousands of captives as laborers and drawing upon all his provinces for his supplies. All the writers of this period give their testimony to the glory of his city, his palaces, temples, hanging gardens, and the golden images of his gods. He builded the shrines of multitudes of gods at Babylon, and Jeremiah alludes to this fact when he says: “For it is a land of graven images, and they confide in their idols.”[46] The prophets of Israel never stayed in their denunciation of this idolatrous king, even though they and their people were within the grasp of his mailed hand.