Nebuchadrezzar in the Bible Encyclopedia - ISBE
neb-u-kad-nez'-ar, -rez'-ar: Nebuchadnezzar, the second king
of Babylon of that name, is best known as the king who
conquered Judah, destroyed Jerusalem, and carried the people
of the Jews captive to Babylon. Of all the heathen monarchs
mentioned by name in the Scriptures, Nebuchadnezzar is the
most prominent and the most important. The prophecies of
Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel, and the last chapters of
Kings and Chronicles centered about his life, and he stands
preeminent, along with the Pharaohs of the oppression and
the exodus, among the foes of the kingdom of God. The
documents which have been discovered in Babylon and
elsewhere within the last 75 years have added much to our
knowledge of this monarch, and have in general confirmed the
Biblical accounts concerning him.
1. His Name:
His name is found in two forms in the Bible, Nebuchadnezzar
and Nebuchadrezzar. In the Septuagint he is called
Nabouchodonosor, and in the Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible,
390-405 A.D.) Nabuchodonosor. This latter form is found also
in the King James Version Apocrypha throughout and in the
Revised Version (British and American) 1 Esdras, Ad Esther
and Baruch, but not Judith or Tobit. This change from "r" to
"n" which is found in the two writings of the name in the
Hebrew and the Aramaic of the Scriptures is a not uncommon
one in the Semitic languages, as in Burnaburiyash and
Burraburiyash, Ben-hadad and Bar-hadad (see Brockelmann's
Comparative Grammar, 136, 173, 220). It is possible,
however, that the form Nebuchadnezzar is the Aramaic
translation of the Babylonian Nebuchadrezzar. If we take the
name to be compounded of Nabu-kudurri-usur in the sense "O
Nebo, protect thy servant," then Nabu-kedina-usur would be
the best translation possible in Aramaic. Such translations
of proper names are common in the old versions of the
Scriptures and elsewhere. For example, in WAI, V, 44, we
find 4 columns of proper names of persons giving the
Sumerian originals and the Semitic translations of the same;
compare Bar-hadad in Aramaic for Hebrew Ben-hadad. In early
Aramaic the "S" had not yet become "T" (see Cooke, Text-Book
of North-Sem Inscriptions, 188 f); so that for anyone who
thought that kudurru meant "servant," Nebuchadnezzar would
be a perfect translation into Aramaic of Nebuchadrezzar...
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