142 



It is commonly written >^i<*n5^^^, then rarely ^^^^"^l^^ll* 

 The LXX write it l^a[iovxoSov6aop, and Berosus NojSouxo- 

 dovoaopog. The generally-accepted meaning of the name is, 

 '' Nebo defend the landmark/' or, in Assyrian, Nabu-hudur' 

 \i!<,UT. The first part of the name is Nahu, i.e. ''the 

 prophet.''^ The ideograph for his name is *^>{- *"^Q or 

 >->Jf- >-Y^Y^ and the Semitic explanation of this is given 

 (W.A.I, ii. 60, 46), to be ^^ >^] ^ i^t]]] Na-hUim 

 or Nebo ; Syriac, Q<r^j. A curious ideograph for this god is 



found in W.A.I., ii. 48, thus: — }l /aUxv and the 



gloss reads ^^^ ^^I^ TIM-SAK. His wife's name 

 was Tasmetum, or " the hearer," the ideograph for whoso 

 name was y^K, and its pronunciation i^ *^ M TT KUR- 

 NU-UN. Nebo is called by the following titles (W.A.I, i. 

 2, 60, 29-40 : " Nebo the son of Merodach, the first-born god, 

 the creator of the oracle, the creator of writing and written 

 tablets, the god of knowledge," etc. Moreover, on the 

 colophons of tablets it is frequently said that " Nebo and 

 Tasmit gave the king broad ears, and his seeing eyes regarded 

 the secrets of Nebo, the literature of the library, etc." He 

 ranked as one of the great gods, and we know his 

 worship was wide-spread and carried on even until after the 

 death of Christ, for Addai, one of the seventy-two apostles, 

 preaching to the inhabitants of Edessa, asks, '' Who is this 

 Nebo, an idol made which ye worship, and Bel which ye 

 honour ? " f There was a temple dedicated to Nebo 

 at Borsippa. 



The word Imdiir, " landmark," is often found in the 

 cuneiform inscriptions, and ''remover of borders and land- 

 marks" is a title given to Rimmon-Nirari, and to Ninip.:j; 

 Nebuchadnezzar apparently first took care to build and 

 restore the temples of E-SAG-ILI (^f ^J^f ^^IST) 

 and E-ZIDA. (^f >-]]\{ *|M) "^^^ ^^^^> °^' " ^°^^y- 



* Jeremiah xxxix. 1, 11 ; xliii. 10; Ezekiel xxix. 18. 



t : oil ^oAj] ^rvj^CDJ 1r*.£il IpAs Qni "Uoy QILD (Addai, 

 p pO, Triibner & Co.). .01^ tO^I .♦o.Vn^ W .od It is curious 

 to note that the LXX translate the 1^13 of Isaiah xlvi. 1, by i^aywv^ 

 Symmachus writes the name "Nifiovc, Aquila and Theodotion, N«/3a», 



J Norris Diet., p. 539 ; and W.A.I., iv., 44, 9. 



