ed in the East. He was succeeded by his son:

(M178) EVIL-MERODACH. As soon as he was settled in the throne, he released
Jechonias, king of Judah, out of prison, where he had been confined near
seven and thirty years.(1054)

In the reign of this Evil-Merodach, which lasted but two years, the
learned place Daniel's detection of the fraud practised by the priests of
Bel; the innocent artifice by which he contrived to destroy the dragon,
which was worshipped as a god; and the miraculous deliverance of the same
prophet out of the den of lions, where he had victuals brought him by the
prophet Habakkuk.

Evil-Merodach rendered himself so odious by his debauchery and other
extravagancies, that his own relations conspired against him, and put him
to death.(1055)

(M179) NERIGLISSOR, his sister's husband, and one of the chief
conspirators, reigned in his stead.

Immediately on his accession to the crown, he made great preparations for
war against the Medes,(1056) which made Cyaxares send for Cyrus out of
Persia, to his assistance. This story will be more particularly related by
and by, where we shall find that this prince was slain in battle in the
fourth year of his reign.

(M180) LABOROSOARCHOD, his son, succeeded to the throne. This was a very
wicked prince. Being born with the most vicious inclinations, he indulged
them without restraint when he came to the crown; as if he had been
invested with sovereign power, only to have the privilege of committing
with impunity the most infamous and barbarous actions. He reigned but nine
months; his own subjects conspiring against him, put him to death. His
successor was:

(M181) LABYNITUS, OR NABONIDUS. This prince had likewise other names, and
in Scripture that of Belshazzar. It is on good grounds supposed that he
was the son of Evil-Merodach, by his wife Nitocris, and consequently
grandson to Nabuchodonosor, to whom, according to Jeremiah's prophecy, the
nations of the East were to be subject, as also to his son, and his
grandson after him: "All nations shall serve him, and his son, and his
son's son, until the very time of his land shall come."(1057)

Nitocris is that queen who raised so many noble edifices in Babylon.(1058)
She caused her own monument to be placed over one of the most remarkable
gates of the city, with an inscription, dissuading her successors from
touching the treasures laid up in it, without the most urgent and
indispensable necessity. The tomb remained