Chaldea

3 definitions found

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  Chaldea
       n 1: an ancient region of Mesopotamia lying between the Euphrates
            delta and the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Desert;
            settled in 1000 BC and destroyed by the Persians in 539
            BC; reached the height of its power under Nebuchadnezzar
            II [syn: {Chaldaea}]


       2: an ancient kingdom in southern Mesopotamia; Babylonia
          conquered Israel in the 6th century BC and exiled the Jews
          to Babylon (where the Daniel became a counselor to the
          king) [syn: {Babylonia}, {Chaldaea}]

From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [easton]:

  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" (Jer. 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" (Gen. 14:1). The contemporaneous king of Babylon in the
     north, in the country termed Shinar in Scripture, was
     Khammu-rabi. (See {BABYLON}; {ABRAHAM}; {AMRAPHEL}.)
     

From Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary (late 1800's) [hitchcock]:

  Chaldea, as demons, or as robbers