flOO > 
NAB 
throne b}’ the Babylonians upon their fhaking ofF the 
government of the Medes. See Chronology, vol. iv. 
p. 538. 
NABOPOL AS'SAR, a prince of Babylon, united with 
Aftyages againft Syria, which country they conquered, 
and, having divided it between them, founded two king¬ 
doms ; that of the Medes under Aftyages, and that of the 
Chaldeans under Nabopolaffar, in the year B. C. 626. 
Nabopolaffar died after a reign of twenty-one years. 
NA'BOTH, [Heb. a fpeech.] In fcripture-hiftory, an 
Ifraelite of the city of Jezreel. He had a fine garden, 
hard by Ahab’s palace; Ahab required him either to fell 
it to him, or to exchange it for another. Naboth, atten¬ 
tive to the divine law, which prohibited the alienation of 
inheritances without neceflity, or to fell them irredeem¬ 
ably, refufed to fell or exchange the inheritance of his 
fathers. Ahab having taken the refufal extrepnely ill, 
Jezebel his wife bade him make himfelf eafy, and fhe 
would get him the vineyard. She wrote letters in Ahab’s 
name, and fealed them with his ring, requiring the ma- 
giftrates of Jezreel to hold a faft, or perhaps rather a 
general court, and to fuborn two or three fellows to bear 
falfe witnefs againft Naboth, that he had blafphemed God 
; nd the king, and thus condemn, and put him to death. 
The abandoned magiftrates direftly executed her orders. 
Naboth was ftoned to death as a blafphemer, and Ahab 
took pofieffion of the vineyard; but the vengeance of 
Heaven purfued him and his family, for the covetoufnefs, 
hvpocrify, perjury, and murder, committed in this affair. 
1 Kings xxi. 2 Kings ix. 
j Egg of Naboth, in anatomy, a kind of ovary near the 
neck of the womb, difcovered by Naboth, a profefl’or of 
medicine in the univerfity of Leipfic. 
NAB'TE, a town of Arabia, in the province of Hedsjas : 
100 miles weft-north-weft: of Medina. 
NABUCHODONO'SOR, Nabocolassar, or Nebu¬ 
chadnezzar II. fur named the Great, king of Babylon, 
was the fon of Nabopolaffar. He was taken by his father 
as partner in his kingdom about B.C. 606, and fenf by 
him at the head of an army againft the Egyptians and 
revolted Syrians. He gained a complete viftory over the 
former; and thence entering Judaea, took Jerufalem, 
rifled the Temple, and threw king Jehoiakim into fetters. 
He however releafed him; and, conftituting him a kind 
of tributary viceroy over Judaea, purfued his fuccefs againft 
Pharaoh-Necho king of Egypt. He was re-called to 
Babylon by the death of his father, whom he fucceeded 
as foie monarch of the Babylonian empire, B. C. 604. 
Having made an alliance with Cyaxares king of Media, 
whofe daughter he married, he joined that prince in the 
fiege of Nineveh, which city was taken, and an end put 
to the Affyrian empire. 
Jehoiakim in the mean time having fhaken off the 
Babylonian yoke, an army was fent to reduce him to 
fubjeftion, which laid wafte the country, and, feizingthe 
king, put him to death. He was fucceeded by his fon 
Jehoiachin, againft whom Nebuchadnezzar marched in 
perfon. Becoming mafter of Jerufalem, he fent Jehoi¬ 
achin captive to Babylon, together w'ith a vaft number 
of his people of all ranks 5 and, after pillaging the temple 
and palace, he raifed to the throne of Judah Mattaniali, 
whole name he changed to Zedekiali, exacting from him 
an oath of allegiance. It is to be obferved, that fome 
writers do not admit the fucceftion of a fon of Jehoiakim, 
but carry on his reign to the acceftion of Zedekiah. 
A confederacy was foon after planned between feveral 
petty princes, whom Nabocolaffar had fubdued, for the 
purpofe of afferting their independence; and Zedekiah 
was induced to liften to their propofals. At length he 
broke out into open revolt, relying on their fupport, and 
on that of Pharoah-Hophra, or Apries, king of Egypt. 
The Babylonians thereupon again entered Judaea, feized 
upon all the fortreffes, and laid clofe fiege to Jerufalem. 
Apries marched to its relief; and Nabocolaffar, breaking 
up the fiege, advanced to meet him. The Egyptian king, 
NAB 
either beaten or intimidated, returned to his own country j 
and this difappointment prevented any of the other con¬ 
federates from riling. The king of Babylon was there¬ 
fore permitted to refume the fiege of Jerufalem unmo- 
lefted; and, after a long refiftance, it fell under his power 
B. C. 587. In revenge for its frequent revolts, he burned 
the city to the ground, rafed its fortifications, and carried 
all its,inhabitants into captivity, except a few whom he 
left to cultivate the land under a governor of his own. 
See the article Jerusalem, vol. x. p. 779. 
It was probably fome time after this fuccefs, that, in 
gratitude for fuppofed divine afliftance, and inflamed 
by the pride of conqueft, he let up that golden image 
of the god Bel in the plain of Dura, for the univerfal 
adoration of his fubje&s, which is mentioned in the book 
of Daniel, and which produced the miraculous inter- 
pofition in favour of the three Hebrew youths who nobly 
refufed to pollute themfelves with idolatrous worlhip. 
In the twenty-fecond year of his reign this potent 
prince again crofted the Euphrates on an expedition 
againft the nations to the weft. He laid fiege to Tyre, 
which underwent a blockade of thirteen years, at the end 
of which it was defected by its inhabitants, who removed 
with their moft valuable effefts to a neighbouring illand. 
In the mean time his detachments fubdued feveral of the 
furrounding cities and diftrifts; and made an incurfion 
into Judaea to revenge upon the few remaining people 
the death of their governor Gedaliah. From Tyre he 
marched into Egypt, which w r as then in great confufion 
from a civil war between Apries and Amafis. His tranf- 
aftions there are but obfcurely recorded; but it leems 
that he laid wafte a great part of the country, and carried 
off a rich booty, with numerous captives. Returning to 
Babylon, he undertook vaft works to augment the mag¬ 
nificence of that famous capital; and is faid to have built 
the walls of the city, the Temple of Belus, and a new 
palace with the celebrated hanging gardens; and to have 
embanked the river, and dug canals and artificial lakes. 
See the article Babylon, vol. ii. But in the height of 
his grandeur and prolperity, as he was pronouncing 
Is not this great Babylon that I have built for the houfe of 
the kingdom, by the might of my power, and for the honour 
of my majejly ? an affli&ion fell upon him,, which is myf- 
terioufly deicribed in the book of Daniel, as being driven 
from the fociety of men, dwelling with the beafts of the 
field,'’eating grafs like an ox, and being wet with the dew 
of heaven. By thofe who do not underftand the text 
literally, it is fuppofed that he was deprived of his under- 
ftanding, and was fequeftered in fome folitude, probably 
in great negleft, whilft his fon, Evil-Merodach, adminif- 
tered the government. In this ftate he continued feven 
years, when, refuming the diadem, he confined his fon for 
mif-government. He was brought to a deep fenfe of re¬ 
ligion by his fufferings; and, having occupied the throne 
about a year longer, he died B.C. 562, after a reign of 
forty-three years alone, and nearly two as partner with 
his father. In the 5th year of his reign happened that 
eclipfa of the fun mentioned by Ptolemy, which is the 
fureft foundation of the chronology of this period. 
NAB'UNAL (Elias de), a French cardinal, held in great 
efteem as a divine by his contemporaries, flourifhed in the 
fourteenth century, and took his furname from the place 
of his nativity in the province of Perigord. i He embraced 
the religious life in the order of friars minors, became 
fucceffively archbifhop of Nicofia, and patriarch of Jeru¬ 
falem. In the year 1342, pope Clement VI. promoted 
him to the dignity of cardinal-prieft, with the title of 
St. Vital. He died at Avignon in 1367. He was the 
author of 1. A Latin Commentary on the Four Books 
of Sentences of Peter Lombard. 2. A Commentary on 
the Apocalypfe. 3. A Treatife concerning the contem¬ 
plative Life. 4. Sermons, explanatory of various paffages 
in the Evangelifts. Gen. Biog. 
NABU'STA, a town of Hindooftan, in Oude: twelve 
miles north-north-weft of Currah. 
NA'CA, 
