And the LORD sent against him bands of the Chaldees, and bands of the Syrians, and bands of the Moabites, and bands of the children of Ammon, and sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of the LORD, which he spake by his servants the prophets.
The Lord sent against him bands of the Chaldees, х Kasdiym (H3778)]. This is either a new race or the same people under a different name who supplanted the Assyrians and Babylonians. They appear in Scripture in three different states-first, as nomad tribes (Job 1:17; Jeremiah 40:10); secondly, as a priestly caste, men of science so-called, such as astrology and divination (Daniel 2:1-49); and thirdly, they appear as a great and powerful nation, under Nebuchadnezzar, who is called "king of the Chaldees," 2 Chronicles 36:17: cf. Daniel 9:1; Habakkuk 1:6 [Septuagint, chaldaioi]. From other notices in the sacred history (Genesis 11:28; Genesis 15:7), it would appear that they inhabited a district north of Babylon; while several classical writers assign their locality to the southwestern part of the Babylonian empire-a district now known as Irak al Araby. Afterward the name Chaldea was used as synonymous with Mesopotamia.