NABUZARDAN. — General of Nabuchodonosor (Babylonian Nabū-zēr-iddinam = “Nabū gave me a scion”; Hebrew Nēbhāzar ādīān), charged with restoring, after the capture of the “ever-rebellious city” in 586, under Godolia, a finally pacified Judea.
Little is known about N. from the cuneiform sources. There is, however, a letter from one of his servants, and in particular N. is listed in Nabuchodonosor’s “court calendar,” published by Unger, among the amēlu mašennim, high dignitaries of the court and Empire, in the first place. There he is designated by the title amēlu rab nuhūmu (sic), “prefect of the bakers (and cooks).” More is known from the biblical pericopes Ier. 39, 1-14; 52, 1-30, of which II Reg. 24, 18-25, 21 is an abbreviated reference. Here he appears as rabh ṭabbāhīm, “prefect of the butchers”; the meaning, according to the context and sound Hebrew lexicography, is “prefect of the bodyguard,” “prefect of the praetorians.” Arriving in Jerusalem a month after its capture, he set about systematically and economically destroying all the bases of Jewish power. Things that had value in themselves, or at least as metal, were dismantled, collected, cut into transportable pieces, and sent on to Babylon. It was then that his soldiers demolished the walls (at least in order to deprive them of all defensive value; in Neemia’s time there were still ruins) and set fire to the palaces, the royal palace, and even the Temple of Jahweh, whose furnishings had first been removed.
N., by order of Nabuchodonosor, freed Geremia, but carried out a very severe purge among the people, certainly on the basis of the denunciations of the deserters, which perhaps caused the disturbances under Godolia and the flight of the people to Egypt. Ier. 52, 24-27 lists the persons sought as “criminals,” including the two highest-ranking priests, all of whom were taken to Reblatta and cruelly executed, after Nabuchodonosor’s sentence. The deserters themselves, the remaining skilled workers and men of distinction, and even part of the agricultural population were deported. Only the poorest people, vine-dressers and farmers, were left, so as not to create in the country a void harmful to the treasury of Babylon.