King James Bible Dictionary

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. (See BABYLON; ABRAHAM; AMRAPHEL.)

as demons, or as robbers

The southern portion of Babylonia. Often used interchangeably with Babylon, as the name of the empire founded in the valley of the Euphrates.

Abraham a native of
Genesis 11:28; Genesis 11:31; Genesis 15:7

Founded by the Assyrians
Isaiah 23:13

Character of its people
Habakkuk 1:6
Babylon; Chaldeans

more correctly Chald''a, the ancient name of a country of Asia bordering on the Persian Gulf. Chaldea proper was the southern part of Babylonia, and is used in Scripture to signify that vast alluvial plain which has been formed by the deposits of the Euphrates and the Tigris. This extraordinary flat, unbroken except by the works of man, extends a distance of 400 miles along the course of the rivers, and is on an average about 100 miles in width. In addition to natural advantages these plains were nourished by a complicated system of canals, and vegetation flourished bountifully. It is said to be the only country in the world where wheat grows wild. Herodotus declared (i. 193) that grain commonly returned two hundred fold to the sower, and occasionally three hundred fold. Cities.

Babylonia has long been celebrated for the number and antiquity of its cities. The most important of those which have been identified are Borsippa (Birs-Nimrun), Sippara or Sepharvaim (Mosaib), Cutha (Ibrahim), Calneh (Niffer), Erech (Warka), Ur (Mugheir), Chilmad (Kalwadha), Larancha (Senkereh), Is (Hit), Durabe (Akkerkuf); but besides these there were a multitude of others, the sites of which have not been determined. Present condition

This land, once so rich in corn and wine, is to-day but a mass of mounds, "an arid waste; the dense population of former times is vanished, and no man dwells there." The Hebrew prophets applied the term "land of the Chaldeans" to all Babylonia and "Chaldeans" to all the subjects of the Babylonian empire.

CHALDEAN, noun An inhabitant of Chaldea.

Learned and wise men of the East.
Daniel 1:4; Daniel 2:2; Daniel 4:7; Daniel 5:7; Jeremiah 50:35

It appears that the Chaldeans (Kaldai or Kaldi) were in the earliest times merely one out of many Cushite tribes inhabiting the great alluvial plain known afterwards as Chaldea or Babylonia. Their special seat was probably that southern portion of the country which is found to have so late retained the name of Chaldea. In process of time, as the Kaldi grew in power, their name gradually prevailed over those of the other tribes inhabiting the country; and by the era of the Jewish captivity it had begun to be used generally for all the inhabitants of Babylonia. It appears that while, both in Assyria and in later Babylonia, the Shemitic type of speech prevailed for civil purposes, the ancient Cushite dialect was retained, as a learned language for scientific and religious literature. This is no doubt the "learning" and the "tongue" to which reference it made in the book of Daniel, (Daniel 1:4) The Chaldeans were really the learned class; they were priests, magicians or astronomers, and in the last of the three capacities they probably effected discoveries of great importance. In later times they seem to have degenerated into mere fortune-tellers.