Within three years Babylonia asserted herself.

In B.C.
605, the crown prince, Nebuchadnezzar, acting on behalf of his father, Nabopolassar, who was aged and infirm,[14212] led the forces of Babylon against the audacious Pharaoh, who had dared to affront the "King of kings," "the Lord of Sumir and Accad," had taken him off his guard, and deprived him of some of his fairest provinces.

Babylonia, under Nabopolassar and Nebuchadnezzar, was no unworthy successor of the mighty power which for seven hundred years had held the supremacy of Western Asia.

Her citizens were as brave; her armies as well disciplined; her rulers as bold, as sagacious, and as unsparing.

Habakkuk's description of a Babylonian army belongs to about this date, and is probably drawn from the life--"Lo, I raise up the Chaldaeans, that bitter and hasty nation, which shall march through the breadth of the land, to possess the dwelling-places that are not theirs.