1. It was the twelfth year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, who ruled over the Assyrians in the great city of Nineveh. At that time Arphaxad was ruling over the Medes in Ecbatana.
2. Around Ecbatana he built a wall of hewn stones, three cubits thick and six cubits long. He made the walls seventy cubits high and fifty cubits wide.
3. At its gates he raised towers one hundred cubits high with foundations sixty cubits wide.
4. He made its gates seventy cubits high and forty cubits wide to allow passage of his mighty forces, with his infantry in formation.
5. At that time King Nebuchadnezzar waged war against King Arphaxad in the vast plain that borders Ragau.
6. Rallying to him were all who lived in the hill country, all who lived along the Euphrates, the Tigris, and the Hydaspes, as well as Arioch, king of the Elamites, in the plains. Thus many nations joined the ranks of the Chelodites.
7. Then Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Assyrians, contacted all the inhabitants of Persia and all who lived in the west, the inhabitants of Cilicia and Damascus, Lebanon and Antilebanon, and all who lived along the seacoast,
8. the peoples of Carmel, Gilead, Upper Galilee, and the vast plain of Esdraelon,
9. and all in Samaria and its cities, and west of the Jordan as far as Jerusalem, Bethany, Chelous, Kadesh, and the river of Egypt; Tahpanhes, Raamses, all the land of Goshen,