Daniel 2:37

a kingdom. The O.T. is not designed to be. compendium of "ancient history". It is the history of Jehovah's People, Israel; and other nations are referred to only as, and in so far as, they come into connection with Israel. Babylon was the most ancient of kingdoms (Genesis 10:10). Compare Deuteronomy 32:8. Nebuchadnezzar was not the first king; but he was the "head" or beginning of Gentile dominion in the earth when Israel had been "removed" (according to Jeremiah 15:4; Jeremiah 24:9; Jeremiah 29:18). These successive kingdoms are reckoned only as they obtained possession of Jerusalem. They existed before that; and each, in turn, was absorbed in the one that succeeded.