Chaldea: The southern portion of Babylonia, Lower Mesopotamia, lying chiefly on
the right bank of the Euphrates, but commonly used of the whole of
the Mesopotamian plain. The Hebrew name is Kasdim, which is usually
rendered "Chaldeans"
(Jeremiah 50:10; 51:24,35) The country so named is a
vast plain formed by the deposits of the Euphrates and the Tigris,
extending to about 400 miles along the course of these rivers, and
about 100 miles in average breadth. "In former days the vast plains
of Babylon were nourished by a complicated system of canals and
water-courses, which spread over the surface of the country like a
network. The wants of a teeming population were supplied by a rich
soil, not less bountiful than that on the banks of the Egyptian Nile.
Like islands rising from a golden sea of waving corn stood frequent
groves of palm-trees and pleasant gardens, affording to the idler or
traveller their grateful and highly-valued shade. Crowds of
passengers hurried along the dusty roads to and from the busy city.
The land was rich in corn and wine." Recent discoveries, more
especially in Babylonia, have thrown much light on the history of the
Hebrew patriarchs, and have illustrated or confirmed the Biblical
narrative in many points. The ancestor of the Hebrew people, Abram,
was, we are told, born at "Ur of the Chaldees." "Chaldees" is a
mistranslation of the Hebrew Kasdim, Kasdim being the Old Testament
name of the Babylonians, while the Chaldees were a tribe who lived on
the shores of the Persian Gulf, and did not become a part of the
Babylonian population till the time of Hezekiah. Ur was one of the
oldest and most famous of the Babylonian cities. Its site is now
called Mugheir, or Mugayyar, on the western bank of the Euphrates, in
Southern Babylonia. About a century before the birth of Abram it was
ruled by a powerful dynasty of kings. Their conquests extended to
Elam on the one side, and to the Lebanon on the other. They were
followed by a dynasty of princes whose capital was Babylon, and who
seem to have been of South Arabian origin. The founder of the dynasty
was Sumu-abi ("Shem is my father"). But soon afterwards Babylonia
fell under Elamite dominion. The kings of Babylon were compelled to
acknowledge the supremacy of Elam, and a rival kingdom to that of
Babylon, and governed by Elamites, sprang up at Larsa, not far from
Ur, but on the opposite bank of the river. In the time of Abram the
king of Larsa was Eri-Aku, the son of an Elamite prince, and Eri-Aku,
as has long been recognized, is the Biblical "Arioch king of Ellasar"
(Genesis 14:1) The contemporaneous king of Babylon in the north, in the
country termed Shinar in Scripture, was Khammu-rabi.
