Chaldea

Chaldea (or Chaldaea) was the southern portion of Babylonia, comprising the alluvial plain of Lower Mesopotamia lying chiefly between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers as they approached the Persian Gulf. In the Old Testament it is sometimes used synonymously with Babylonia as a whole, particularly by the prophets, though strictly it designated the homeland of the Chaldean people who eventually rose to dominate the entire Babylonian empire under the Neo-Babylonian dynasty of Nabopolassar and Nebuchadnezzar (626–539 BC).

Ur of the Chaldees, the birthplace of Abraham (Gen. 11:28, 31; 15:7; Neh. 9:7), lay in this southern region, making Chaldea the geographic origin of Israel's covenant ancestor. The prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel extensively describe Chaldea in their oracles against Babylon (Jer. 50–51; Ezek. 23), and Isaiah's oracles against Babylon (Isa. 13–14; 47) use Chaldea as virtually synonymous with the ruling world empire. Daniel ministered in the Chaldean royal court throughout the Babylonian period.