Reference: CHALDEANS

This name is taken, 1. For the people of Chaldea, and the subjects of that empire generally; 2. For philosophers, naturalists, or soothsayers, whose principal employment was the study of mathematics and astrology, by which they pretended to foretell the destiny of men born under certain constellations.

The Chaldeans were originally a warlike people, who at first inhabited the Carduchian or Koordish mountains north of Assyria and Mesopotamia, Jer 50:17. As the Assyrian monarchs extended their conquests towards the north and west, the Chaldeans also came under their dominion; and this rough and energetic people appear to have assumed, under the sway of their conquerors, a new character, and to have been transformed from a rude horde into a civilized people. A very vivid and graphic description of the Chaldean warriors is given by the prophet Habakkuk, who probably lived about the time when they first made incursions into Palestine or the adjacent regions, Hab 1:6-11. Of the date of their location in Babylonia nothing is now known. In the reign of king Hezekiah, B. C. 713, a king of Babylon is mentioned, the first of whom we read after Nimrod and Amraphel. About one hundred years later we find the Chaldeans in possession of the kingdom of Babylon. The first sovereign in the new line appearing in history was Nabopolassar. His son Nebuchadnezzar invaded Palestine, as foretold by Jeremiah and Habakkuk, Ezr 5:12; Jer 39:5. He was succeeded by his son Evil-merodach, 2Ki 25:27; Jer 52:31. After him came, in quick succession, Neriglissar, Laborosoarchod, and Nabonnidus or Belshazzar, under whom this empire was absorbed in the Medo-Persian. The Chaldeo-babylonian dynasty continued probably not more than one hundred years.

Chaldeans (Wise men).

These are mentioned repeatedly in Daniel along with magicians, astrologers, and soothsayers. These Chaldeans were a particular class of learned men, forming with others the Magi, or wise men of Babylon. In Da 5:11 it is said that Daniel had been made 'master' of them, doubtless because it had been discovered that he had more wisdom than all of them. When the Chaldeans, etc., were called in before the king to interpret the writing on the wall, Daniel was not among them, and we may be sure he kept himself aloof from such. See MAGI.

Chaldeans, Chalde'ans Chaldees.

After the mention of Ur of the Chaldees in Ge 11:28,31; 15:7; and the Chaldeans who fell upon Job's camels (Job 1:17) we do not read of them for some fifteen hundred years, when God sent them to punish Judah. 2Ki 24:2. Then, however, they cannot be distinguished from the Babylonians. Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon was called a Chaldean, Ezr 5:12, and on the taking of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar it was the Chaldeans who destroyed the city, 2 Kings 25; and in 2Ch 36:17 Nebuchadnezzar is called 'the king of the Chaldees.' It is evident therefore that the Babylonians are called Chaldees; and at one time the Assyrians were associated with the Babylonians. We read "Behold the land of the Chaldeans; this people was not, till the Assyrian founded it for them that dwell in the wilderness." Isa 23:13. This passage has been variously interpreted. The meaning appears to be that it was the Chaldeans that were going to destroy Tyre. They were a people that had not been reckoned among the nations until the Assyrians, consolidated them into a nation. They had formerly dwelt in the wilderness (as when they fell upon Job's camels, Job 1:17). This was the people that would bring Tyre to ruin. Lowth translates the verse thus: "Behold the land of the Chaldeans; this people was of no account; (the Assyrian founded it for the inhabitants of the desert; they raised the watch towers, they set up the palaces thereof): this people hath reduced her to a ruin." Herodotus says "the Assyrians built the towers and temples of Babylon." Isa 48:14,Isa 48:20; Jer 21:4,9,Jer 21:10; Eze 23:14; Da 5:30; 9:1.

It has been judged that the Hebrew word Kasdim, translated 'Chaldeans,' is from the Assyrian word Kasadu, 'to conquer,' and is applied to those who 'conquered' the Chaldean plain. The earlier inhabitants had an agglutinative language, such as the descendants of Cush would have: whereas the Chaldeans spoken of in the O.T. were a Semitic race, who then possessed the land. At first they were a number of tribes in South Babylonia, but were afterwards united and increased. They became merged by the mixing of races, intercourse, etc., so as not to be distinguishable from the Babylonians.