Nabopolassar of Babylon found himself at the goal of his wishes. Nineveh was at his feet. When after his long and heavy labour he had entered into the enjoyment of the independent sovereignty over Babylon, a new enemy appeared unexpectedly, an army from the Nile, in order to encamp on the Euphrates, and set foot on the borders of Babylon, and endanger the state which Nabopolassar had just restored, if he did not actually diminish the results obtained.[585] He felt himself no longer equal to the toil of war, so Berosus tells us, and handed over a part of the army to Nebuchadnezzar, who "was in his youthful strength."[586] Nebuchadnezzar and the Egyptians met at Karchemish. Necho suffered a severe defeat, which put a speedy end to all his schemes of conquest. "Who is this," exclaims Jeremiah, "that cometh up as the Nile, whose waters are moved as the rivers? The Egyptian cometh up like the Nile, and saith, I will go up and will cover the earth, and will destroy the city, and the inhabitants thereof. Order ye the buckler and shield, and draw near to the battle. Harness the horses, and get up, ye horsemen. Put on the helmets and the brigandines, and furbish the spears. Come up, ye horses, and rage, ye chariots; let the Ethiopians come forth that handle the shield, and the Libyans that bend the bow. But why have I seen them dismayed and turned back, and their mighty ones are beaten down, and are fled apace and look not back? Let not the swift flee away, nor the mighty man escape; they shall stumble and fall toward the north by the river Euphrates, and the sword shall devour, and it shall be made satiate, and shall be drunk with the blood of the Egyptians. Go up into Gilead, and take balm, O virgin daughter of Egypt. But there is no medicine for thee. The people have heard thy shame, and thy cry has filled the land."[587] FOOTNOTES: [564] Herod. 2, 137 ff; 147 ff. [565] Diod. I, 65, 66. [566] Manetho's list would put the death of Nechepsus in 672 B.C. [567] Above, p. 171 _n._, where the grounds for this date are given. According to the statement of Diodorus, the anarchy after the Ethiopians lasted two years, the Dodecarchy 15 years. If Esarhaddon conquered Egypt in 672 B.C., 17 years bring us to the year 655 B.C. as the beginning of the defection from Assyria. [568] Strabo, p. 801. [569] Polyæn. "Strateg.," 7, 30. [570] On the side of the alabaster statue of Ameniritis, which was dug up in a chapel at Karnak, we find under the name: "The regent of the South and the North, the royal sister of ---- the royal daughter of ----" the names are chiselled out. But a Scarabæus of Gurnah informs us: "Ameniritis, goddess, consort, daughter of Kashta;" and legends in the place where the statues were found run thus: "The royal sister of Raneserke (Sabakon), the royal daughter of Kashta, the just." Mariette, "Revue Archæeolog." N.S. 1863, p. 418, 419. [571] Herod. 2, 154. [572] Diod. 1, 67. [Greek: Chôran pollên katelêrouchêse.] Jerem. xlvi. 21.