I, Nebuchadnezzar, son of Nabopolassar, have conquered lands far and wide, from the Great Sea in the West to the Gulf in the east, from Nineveh in the North to Ur in the South, along both Tigris and Euphrates, but of all my cities, my favorite is Babylon. I have built the Hanging Gardens as a testament of love for my wife, to remind her of the forests of Media and the mountains of Elburz, where during the winter, snows cover the peaks and the wind breathes its secrets; with the help of eight hundred Parthians, we brought her native plants to the banks of our river and built giant ziggurats one hundred cubits high, and running water from the aqueducts and reservoirs comes cool and quenching for the forested plants in the midsummer heat, running to these Gardens I have built not only for Amytis but also for all of mankind to see and worship, that I, Nebuchadnezzar, can bring water to the driest places in our land at any time of year; these, my gardens, my gates, my city, demonstrate my greatness to eternity so that in thousands of years, when cities across the sea become capitals of the world, and my empire has perished into dust, these Ishtar gates will remain as a symbol of my power; let the world remember Nebuchadnezzar as a man who gave to his people memorials of strength and beauty, who brought unity to Assyria and Babylonia and created one of the greatest empires the world has ever known; who, with the help of the gods, has brought cool waters and shady palms to stifle the summer heat, stone bridges to withstand the river’s floods, and objects of great and wondrous beauty to admire and fill man with awe; these accomplishments are testament to my greatness, this, my kingdom, the greatest ever to exist in the history of mankind, greater than Assyria or the Media, encompassing Hittites and Egyptians, Cimmerians and Israelites, yes my Babylonia is the product of thousands slaughtered for the sake of a unified kingdom.
Only one is greater than I, Nebuchadnezzar, who striketh and taketh away without concern for the empires of the world, that G—d who preserved Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego against my will, the G—d of Daniel; only He decides when my empire shall fall, long after I am dead; after my name has lasted a thousand times longer than my enemies; and yet this: when Marduk entered my soul to cast judgment on those I have conquered, to destroy and rebuild what I deem worthy, where was G—d of the Israelites then?—for when I was a youth riding into Judah, where I saw the walls of Jerusalem and the glowing dome of their temple dedicated to their god above gods, and yet was I still in youth, and the fall of many lands to my dominion had not yet passed, methought the forested city atop the hills should prove difficult to my forces, but with my army we did march through the gates, laying seige to the highest towers and conquering their holy temple—then where was G—d?—Marduk was stronger in me than in the Israelites, Marduk stronger than G—d, and since, I too have wondered if G—d is Marduk, for making me grow the talons of an eagle and the coat of an ox as a punishment for my arrogance and so I, Nebuchadnezzar become meek, as a great conqueror and yet also ever subject to myself; G—d punished the Israelites for their own arrogance when I razed the Temple of Solomon; and G—d was punishing me with insanity for my arrogance; surely, this is the judgment of Marduk for being stronger in me than in the Israelites, for while Daniel and his people pray to G—d, they are not I, and rule not in Babylonia, and while Daniel the Israelite has the power of G—d in his reading of dreams, and yet though the gods are in him, I wonder for whom they are greater, since he is the one to guide me, Nebuchadnezzar, builder of Babylon; wait, no, let not the insanity return, I am beneath Daniel, an ox while he remains a man with reason; and for G—d to make me a slave, then surely he must be powerful; since he rules regions farther than my own; beyond the stretches of my river, to the mountains in the north, the mounts Amytis called home, beyond, to the farthest regions of Scythia, and beyond, across the Great Sea, the city-states of the Greeks and the reaches of Etruria, and when I consider how vast His empire is…yet I know that should I attempt more, I, a hoary-headed old man, should lose control of Assyria, where always there are those rapacious generals of Nineveh, willing to stab an old friend to take his rank, fools who would sell their children into slavery for a plate of gold; and before dawn, when death’s cousin has left me, Marduk will enter my mind and bring me to those lands of afar; and G—d reminds me that my son is weak of constitution and I cannot trust my generals to go west, for to reserve my son in Babylonia would be to show his weakness and end his life sooner than it will end of itself; and again, I hear the voice of Daniel telling me to keep my empire intact, for in that there is consolation, and evil happenings shall not come to pass; ends of empires and beginnings of new nations shall come when I am gone, and until then, let the hovels that line my river where the Israelites live fall away, let the creepers and vines growing with the water of their tears turn to wild jungle, golden flowers and trees, let my statues of idols and gods decay along the shore, towers and mausoleums crumble, so that the legend of my godliness rises as the towers fall; when, before the dawn I gaze into the darkness of the river, still and quiet before the rooster crows, then I know that my gardens foretell this; in my towers too I see conquests and death, empire in decline; if only I knew how mine empire should end, whether I have built it strong enough to last a hundred foolish kings, or whether my son and his line will preserve and protect it for hundreds of years; if I knew, then I should know that it is I Nebuchadnezzar who am above Daniel; and yet, by the time the cool night has changed for the heat of the rising sun, I am in the face of the king of gods, G—d, Marduk, whose everlasting dominion shall outlive even mine own.
The post Last Night I Was Nebuchadnezzar appeared first on Daniel Ryan Adler.