Nebo

“ It is identical in form with the name of a well-known Babylonian god Nabu (see Nebo) , whose worship appears to have spread far to the west. The tradition associating the death of Moses with Mount Nebo may have had as a starting-point the existence of a sanctuary on the top of the mount, or, at all events, the sacred character of the mountain. ”

“ I have not told you before, how bitter that moment was to me. To turn back at Mount Nebo, within sight of Canaan, into the sandy desert, so hot and waterless!—And as I turned, verily my anguish shamed me out of my manliness to play the woman. ”

“ When Nebo took his place among the mystic seven great gods, he found associated with him Marduk (or Jupiter) , Nergal (or Mars) , Ishtar (or Venus) , Nineb (or Saturn) , the Sun, represented in a chariot drawn by horses, as copied in the seventh card of the Atouts, and the Moon (Nan-nar) , who was called the “Heifer of Anu,” and was the presiding genius. She received the name because the horns of the new moon resembled those of a cow. Her Assyrian temple was at Ur of the Chaldeans, and she was also worshipped in Egypt and is represented by the eighteenth Atout. ”

“ Like Ea, he is the embodiment and source of wisdom.... The study of the heavens formed part of the wisdom which is traced back to Nebo, and the temple school at Borsippa became one of the chief centres for the astrological, and, subsequently, for the astronomical lore of Babylonia.... Like Nebo, Ea is also associated with the irrigation of the fields and with their consequent fertility. A hymn praises him as the one who fills the canals and the dikes, who protects the fields and brings the crops to maturity." Nebo links with Merodach (Marduk) , who is sometimes referred to as his father. ”

“ Nebo does not long remain in sight from our windows; for speedily we swing out into the sloping valley land, bringing into close companionship on the right the northern half of the Wasatch range, which, were it a trifle more arctic and bristling aloft, would remind us strongly of the Sangre de Cristo. On each side now are spread wide areas of grain field and grassland, with abundant hedges and thickets and orchards surrounding clusters of houses and barns. ”

“ Nebo however is addressed as
Nebo, bearer of the tablets of destiny of the gods, director of Esagila. [8]
Nusku is:
Protector of the sacrificial gifts of all the Igigi, [9]
Messenger of Anu, who brings Bel’s commands to fulfilment.
Founder of the cities, renewer of the sanctuaries, [10]
a title quite appropriate for an earthly king but seemingly rather incongruous when applied to a god. ”

“ In time Borsippa became a suburb of Babylon and the union between the two was symbolized by erecting a shrine to Nebo in Marduk's temple at Babylon to which Nebo was carried in solemn procession on the New Year's Day, while the statue of Marduk was on the return trip carried part way back to E-zida (‘the true house’) , Nebo's temple in Borsippa. To express further the relationship to Marduk, Nebo was regarded as the son of Marduk. Originally an agricultural deity, Nebo became in time the god of wisdom, and it is in this capacity that he was chiefly worshiped by the Assyrians. ”

“ On the third day of the month Iyyar the city of Calah will consecrate the couch of Nebo, and the god will enter the bed-chamber. On the fourth day Nebo will return. The son of the king my lord has (now) received the news. I am the governor of the temple of Nebo thy god, and will (therefore) go. At Calah the God will come forth from the interior of the palace, (and) from the interior of the palace will go to the grove. A sacrifice will be offered. The charioteer of the gods will go from the stable of the gods, will take the god out of it, will carry him in procession and bring him back. ”

“ Before him are two altars, over which appear, respectively, a star and the crescent moon; in front of the god is the figure of a man in an attitude of adoration. Borsippa, where the cylinder was found, was the special seat of the worship of Nebo, whose name appears in those of the kings Nebuchadnezzar, Nebopalasser, and Nabonaid. Regarded as the inventor of writing and as the god of learning, Nebo was the lord of the planet Mercury, and this shows a close connection between Babylonian and Græco-Roman ideas in reference to the god associated with that planet. ”

“ Nebo was proclaimed to be the son of Merodach and Zirbanit, Merodach the son of Ba, and Ninib the offspring of Bel and Esharra.
1. Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from an Assyrian statue in alabaster in the British Museum. * Ishtar, Nebo, Sin, and Shamash being heavenly bodies, to begin with, and the other great gods, Anu, Bel, Ea, and Ramman having their stars in the heavens, the Chaldæans were led by analogy to ascribe to the gods which represented the phases of the sun, Merodach, Ninib, and Nergal, three stars befitting their importance, i.e. three planets. ”

“ At the same time Nebo has, like so many of the Chaldaean gods, a number of general titles, implying divine power, which, if they had belonged to him only, would have seemed to prove him the supreme deity. He is “the Lord of lords, who has no equal in power,” “the supreme chief,” “the sustainer,” “the supporter,” “the ever ready,” “the guardian over the heavens and the earth,” “the lord of the constellations,” “the holder of the sceptre of power,” “he who grants to kings the sceptre of royalty for the governance of their people.” ”

“ Towards the east, the eye, after traversing the desert hills and mountains of Judah down to the plains of Jericho and the deep basin of [Pg 194] the Dead Sea, is arrested by the range of the Arabian mountains; the hills of the land of Gilead appear on the north, lower down those of Ammon, and still further to the south, Nebo rising above the other summits of Moab. Seen through the pure light their sides are tinged with colour too beautiful for description, and testing to the utmost the painter's skill. To the south rise the gloomy herbless slopes of the distant heights of Bethlehem. ”

“ Nob, a place in Palestine: Nob.
5012 נָבָא (naw-baw') : a primitive root; to prophesy, i.e. speak (or sing) by inspiration (in prediction or simple discourse) : prophesy (-ing) , make self a prophet.
5013 נְבָא (neb-aw') : (Aramaic) corresponding to נָבָא: prophesy.
5014 נָבַב (naw-bab') : a primitive root; to pierce; to be hollow, or (figuratively) foolish: hollow, vain.
5015 נְבוֹ (neb-o') : probably of foreign derivation; Nebo, the name of a Babylonian deity, also of a mountain in Moab, and of a place in Palestine: Nebo. ”

“ He also presided at birth and death, and could cure diseases. One of his symbols seems peculiar and is still retained on the Tarots. It is a sword, for in the minds of the men of his day a pestilence was a certain follower of war. Although Nebo was not the god of war, he was first its herald and then the healer of the sick or wounded, so it was under these conditions that a sword became his attribute.
Nebo shared with Shamash, Gula, and Nergal of Assyrian mythology, the power of restoring [Pg 111] the dead to life, which, being interpreted, means curing the ill, whether from disease or sin. ”

“ From the number of colossal figures of Nebo discovered here it would appear that the cult of Nebo was a favourite one, at least during the later period. The other buildings on the E. side of the platform had been ruined by the post-Assyrian use of the mound for a cemetery, and for tunnels for the storage and concealment of grain. While the ruins of Calah were remarkably rich in monumental material, enamelled bricks, bronze and ivory objects and the like, they yielded few of the inscribed clay tablets found in such great numbers at Nineveh and various Babylonian sites. ”

“ Ashteroth of "the horns," that the ancients had sight or instruments sufficiently powerful to enable them to observe that Venus, like the moon, had her phases, her "horns." Though Nebo has been identified with the planet Mercury, we must not see any astronomical allusion to its being the nearest planet to the sun in Isaiah's coupling the two together, where he says, "Bel boweth down, Nebo stoopeth."
[132] Isaiah speaks of the King of Babylon—
"How art thou fallen from Heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!" ”

“ The very expressions which are used, commanding future races to abandon the rest of the immortals in favour of Nebo, prove that even those who prided themselves on being worshippers of one god realized how far they were from believing in the unity of God. ”

“ God's command to Moses to betake himself to Mount Nebo, and there to die, was couched in the following words: means not destruction, but elevation. 'Die in the mount whither thou goest up;' go up all alone, and let no one accompany thee. ”

“ In a long cuneiform text inscribed on a terra cotta prism found at Nineveh, King Asshur-banapal glories in having received from Nebo and Tashmitu (his consort) the power to understand “the art of tablet-writing.” In “Babylonian Magic and Sorcery from the British Museum,” by Leonard W. King, M. A., Assistant in the Department of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities, British Museum, there are tablets invoking the protection of Nebo as well as of other gods. ”

“ Nebo, in fact, appears to be the Tammuz of the new age, the son of the ancient goddess, who became "Husband of his Mother". If Nebo had no connection with Great Mother worship, it is unlikely that his statue would have borne an inscription referring to King Adad-nirari and Queen Sammu-rammat on equal terms. The Assyrian spouse of Nebo was called Tashmit. This "goddess of supplication and love" had a lunar significance. A prayer addressed to her in association with Nannar (Sin) and Ishtar, proceeds:
In the evil of the eclipse of the moon which ... ”

“ The heavenly bodies capable of explaining them, the real interpreters of destiny, were at first the two divinities who rule the empires of night and day—the moon and the sun; afterwards there took part in this work of explanation the five planets which we call Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Mars, and Mercury, or rather the five gods who actuate them, and who have controlled their course from the moment of creation—Merodach, Ishtar, Ninib, Nergal, and Nebo. ”

“ Spirit of heaven remember, spirit of earth remember.
[Footnote 1: "Nin-cigal" ("The Lady of the Mighty Earth") was Queen of
Hades and a form of "Allat" or "Istar." She is also identified with Gula
or Bahu (the Bohu or "Chaos" of Gen. i. 2) , "The Lady of the House of
Death," and wife of Hea or Nin-a'su.]
TABLET IX May Nebo, the great steward, the recliner (or incubus) supreme among the gods, like the god who has begotten him, seize upon his head; against his life may he not break forth. Spirit of heaven remember, spirit of earth remember. ”

“ Among all the thousands of tablets or inscribed stones on which we find recorded prayers and magical formulas, we have as yet discovered no document treating of the existence of a supreme god, or even containing the faintest allusion to a divine unity. We meet indeed with many passages in which this or that divinity boasts of his power, eloquently depreciating that of his rivals, and ending his discourse with the injunction to worship him alone: “Man who shall come after, trust in Nebo, trust in no other god!” ”

“ In primitive times nothing was undertaken without an attempt to consult the wishes of the superior gods, and it is interesting to trace through the tablets on which are inscribed the wonderful cuneiform inscriptions, discovered and deciphered during the past fifty years, how the people were taught by their prophets or priests to consult the predestinations of Nebo, who inscribed at birth what would befall each person during life. ”

“ Now the village Beit Nebâla, 31⁄2 miles north-east of Lydda. (Mem. II. 296; Sh. XIV.) NEBO, Mount (1) Deut. xxxii. 49; xxxiv. 1 Jebel Neba 15 Now Jebel Neba in Moab, overlooking the Jordan Valley. See Conder’s Heth & Moab, pp. 129–137, 249. NEBO (2) Num. xxxii. 3, 38; xxxiii. 47; 1 Chr. v. 8; Is. xv. 2; Jer. xlviii. 1, 22 — Perhaps on the mountain—Mount Nebo. (Heth & Moab, pp. 129–137.) The notices of Eusebius and Jerome make the two (Mount Nebo and Nebo) to be distinct and distant from each other, and place the town 8 miles south of Heshbon, where a number of ruins exist. NEBO (3) Ezra ii. 29 ”

“ All that we anticipated of the sunset, or the after-sunset, is now present. The ocean with its waves of Tyrian dye laced with silver, the tinted bergs, the dark-blue inland hills and brown headlands underlie a sky of unutterable beauty. The west is all one paradise of colors. Surely, nature, if she follows as a mourner on the footsteps of the fall, also returns jubilant and glorious to the scenes of Eden. Here, between the white light of day and the dark of the true evening, shade and brightness, like Jacob and the angel, now meet and wrestle for the mastery. ”

“ What heightens the effect of this dye of the ocean, is the pale emerald water around the berg, and in which it floats as in a vast bath, the loveliness, clarity and divine beauty of which no language can paint in a way to kindle the proper feeling and emotion. From ten to fifty feet in breadth, it encircles the berg, a zone or girdle of sky-green, that most delicate tint of the sunset heavens, and lies, or plays with a kind of serpent play, between the greenish white ice and the violet water, as the bright deeps of air lie beyond the edge of a blue-black cloud. ”