The Gentile Times Reconsidered Chronology Christ

The Seventy Years for Babylon 203
managed to escape [from] the defeat and which was not overcome.
They (the army of Akkad) inflicted a defeat upon them (so that) a
single (Egyptian) man [did not return] home. At that time
Nebuchadnezzar (II) conquered all of Ha[ma]th. 18
For twenty-one years Nabopolassar ruled Babylon. On the eighth
day of the month Ab he died. In the month Elul Nebuchadnezzar
(II) returned to Babylon and on the first day of the month Elul he
ascended the royal throne in Babylon. 19
In (his) accession-year Nebuchadnezzar (II) returned to Hattu.
Until the month Shebat he marched about victoriously in Hattu. In
the month Shebat he took the vast booty of Hattu to Babylon.
. . .
The first year of Nebuchadnezzar (II): In the month Sivan he
mustered his army and marched to Hattu. Until the month Kislev
he marched about victoriously in Hattu. All the kings of Hattu came
into his presence and he received their vast tribute.
The chronicle makes evident the far-reaching consequences of
Egypt’s defeat at Carchemish. Immediately after the battle in the
summer of 605 B.C.E., Nebuchadnezzar began to take over the
western areas in vassalage to Egypt, using Riblah in Hamath in
Syria as his military base.
The terrifying annihilation of the whole Egyptian army at
Carchemish and in Hamath paved the way for a rapid occupation
of the whole region by the Babylonians, and they do not seem to
have met much resistance. During this victorious campaign
Nebuchadnezzar learned that his father Nabopolassar had died, so
he had to return to Babylon to secure the throne, evidently leaving
his army in Hattu to continue the operations there.
As Wiseman points out, Hattu was a geographical term that at
that time denoted approximately Syria-Lebanon. As argued by Dr.
18 Hamath was a district at the river Orontes in Syria where Pharaoh Nechoh, at a
place called Riblah, had established the Egyptian headquarters. After the defeat of
the Egyptian army, Nebuchadnezzar chose the same site as the base for his
operations in the west.—See 2 Kings 23:31–35; 25:6, 20–21; Jeremiah 39:5–7;
52:9–27.
19 Nabopolassar’s death on 8 Abu corresponds to August 16, 605 B.C.E. (Julian
calendar). Nebuchadnezzar ascended the throne on Ululu 1 (September 7, 605).
The battle of Carchemish in May or June, 605, therefore, took place in the same
year as his accession-year. His first regnal year began next spring, on Nisanu 1,
604 B.C.E. The reason why the Bible dates the battle to the first year of
Nebuchadnezzar (cf. Jer. 46:2 and 25:1) seems to be that the Jewish kings applied
the nonaccession-year system, in which the accession-year was counted as the
first year. See the Appendix for chapter two, “Methods of reckoning regnal years.”