Nebat
(aspect), the father of Jeroboam, (1 Kings 11:26; 12:2,15) etc., is described as an Ephrathite or
Ephraimite of Zereda. (B.C. about 1000.)
Nebo
A town of Reuben on the east side of Jordan. (Numbers 32:3,38) In the remarkable prophecy
adopted by Isaiah, (Isaiah 15:2) and Jeremiah, (Jeremiah 48:1,26) concerning Moab, Nebo is
•
mentioned in the same connection as before, but in the hands of Moab. Eusebius and Jerome
identify it with Nobah or Kerrath, and place it eight miles South of Heshbon, where the ruins of
el-Habis appear to stand at present. (Prof. Paine identifies it with some ruins on Mount Nebo, a
mile south of its summit, and Dr. Robinson seems to agree with this.—ED.)
•The children of Nebo returned from Babylon with Zerubbabel. (Ezra 2:29; 10:43; Nehemiah 7:33)
The name occurs between Bethel and Ai and Lydda, which implies that it was situated in the
territory of Benjamin to the northwest of Jerusalem. This is possibly the modern Beit-Nubah,
about 12 miles northwest by west of Jerusalem, 8 from Lydda.
•Nebo, which occurs both in Isaiah, (Isaiah 46:11) and Jeremiah, (Jeremiah 45:1) as the name of
a Chaldean god, is a well known deity of the Babylonians and Assyrians. He was the god who
presided over learning and letters. His general character corresponds to that of the Egyptian Thoth
the Greek Hermes and the Latin Mercury. Astronomically he is identified with the planet nearest
the sun. In Babylonia Nebo held a prominent place from an early time. The ancient town of
Borsippa was especially under his protection, and the great temple here, the modern Birs-Nimrud,
was dedicated to him from a very remote age. He was the tutelar god of the most important
Babylonian kings, in whose names the word Nabu or Nebo appears as an element.
(prophet), Mount, the mountain from which Moses took his first and last view of the promised
land. (32:41; 34:1) It is described as in the land of Moab, facing Jericho; the head or summit of a
mountain called Pisgah, which again seems to have formed a portion of the general range of Abarim.
(Notwithstanding the minuteness of this description, it is only recently that any one has succeeded
in pointing out any spot which answers to Nebo. Tristram identifies it with a peak (Jebel Nebbah)
of the Abarim or Moab mountains, about three miles southwest of Heshban (Heshbon) and about
a mile and a half due west of Baal-meon. “It overlooks the mouth of the Jordan, over against
Jericho,” (34:1) and the gentle slopes of its sides may well answer to the “field of Zophim.” (Numbers
23:14) Jebel Nebbah is 2683 feet high. It is not an isolated peak but one of a succession of bare
turf-clad eminences, so linked together that the depressions between them were mere hollows rather
than valleys. It commands a wide prospect. Prof. Paine, of the American Exploration Society,
contends that Jebel Nebbah, the highest point of the range, is Mount Nebo, that Jebel Siaghah, the
extreme headland of the hill, is Mount Pisgah, and that “the mountains of Abarim “are the cliffs
west of these points, and descending toward the Dead Sea. Probably the whole mountain or range
was called sometimes by the name of one peak and sometimes by that of another as is frequently
the case with mountains now.—ED.)
Nebuchadnezzar, Or Nebuchadrezzar
(may Nebo protect the crown), was the greatest and most powerful of the Babylonian kings.
His name is explained to mean “Nebo is the protector against misfortune.” He was the son and
successor of Nabopolassar, the founder of the Babylonian empire. In the lifetime of his father
Nebuchadnezzar led an army against Pharaoh-necho, king of Egypt, defeated him at Carchemish,
B.C. 605, in a great battle (Jeremiah 46:2-12) recovered Coele-Syria, Phoenicia and Palestine, took