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336 The expanding Assyrian domination in time encompassed the city of Babylon—a ghost of its erstwhile glory. As a gesture to the subjugated followers of Marduk the Assyrians appointed "kings" in Babylon, who were no more than vice- roy-vassals. But in 721 B.C. a native leader named Merodach- Baladan reinstated the New Year Festival in Babylon, "took the hand of Marduk" and claimed independent Kingship. The action evolved into a full rebellion that saw intermittent war- fare for some three decades. In 689 B.C. the Assyrians took back full control of Babylon, and went to the extreme of moving Marduk himself to the Assyrian capital, as a cap- tive god. But continued resistance in what used to be Sumer and Akkad, and Assyrian entanglements in distant lands, eventu- ally led to a resurgent Babylon. A leader named Nabopolassar declared independence and the start of a new Babylonian dynasty in 626 B.C. It was the beginning of the Neo-Babylo- nian era; and now it was Babylon that emulated Assyria in conquests near and far—all in the name of "the lords Nabu and Marduk" and, according to the inscriptions, with the active help of "Marduk, the king of the gods, the ruler of Heaven and Earth," who after twenty one years in Assyrian captivity engineered the demise of Assyria and the renewed ascendancy of Babylon. As border wars grew into world wars (in ancient terms and scope) and as one national god was pitted against another, the Biblical Prophets also expanded their mission to global dimensions. As one reads their prophecies, one is amazed and impressed by their knowledge of geography and _ politics in distant lands, their grasp of the motives for national in- trigues and international conflicts, and their foresight in pre- dicting the outcome of correct or incorrect moves by the kings of Israel and Judaea in the dangerous chesslike game of making and breaking alliances. To those great Prophets, deemed so important that the Bible included as separate books their words and _ exhorta- tions, the international turmoil that engulfed Mankind and even involved the nations' Elohim was not a series of unre- lated struggles but aspects of one great Divine Scheme—all the doing and planning of Yahweh to put an end to individual DIVINE ENCOUNTERS