Not able to shake the hand of Bel

by Damien F. Mackey In the case of the latter, King Nabonidus, I have been able to identify (as an historical companion to the ‘Jonah incident’ article) a perfectly parallel situation between Nebuchednezzar, alienated from his kingdom, with his son Evil-Merodach temporarily left in charge, and Nabonidus, away from his kingdom, with his son Belshazzar temporarily left in charge. King Nebuchednezzar was likened by the prophet Jeremiah to a great Sea Monster (51:34): “King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon has devoured me; he has crushed me. He has set me aside like an empty dish; he has swallowed me like a Sea Monster; he filled his belly with my delicacies; he has vomited me out”. No doubt the prophet had well in mind in this description the Sea Monster’s devouring, then vomiting out, of the contemporaneous prophet Jonah. Especially considering that King Nebuchednezzar was Jonah 3:6’s “King of Nineveh”. On this, see e.g. my article: De-coding Jonah (6) De-coding Jonah | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu Of relevance for this current article, I need to note that King Nebuchednezzar had, according to my revision, some important alter egos, namely: Esarhaddon, enabling for: The ‘Jonah incident’ [to be] historically identified (6) The 'Jonah incident' historically identified | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu Ashurbanipal Nabonidus In the case of the latter, King Nabonidus, I have been able to identify (as an historical companion to the ‘Jonah incident’ article) a perfectly parallel situation between Nebuchednezzar, alienated from his kingdom, with his son Evil-Merodach temporarily left in charge, and Nabonidus, away from his kingdom, with his son Belshazzar temporarily left in charge: Nebuchednezzar’s madness historically identified (6) Nebuchednezzar's madness historically identified | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu And we know from Baruch 1: 11, 12, that Nebuchednezzar’s son was called Belshazzar. That means that Evil-Merodach was the same person as Belshazzar. During this time of the Great King’s sickness and alienation, the Crown Prince was not authorized to take the hand of Bel at the New Year’s feast in Babylon. And we find this situation repeated again with Nebuchednezzar’s alter ego, Ashurbanipal, who, for many years did not take the hand of Bel.