NABUZARDAN. - General of Nebuchadnezzar (Babylonian Nabū-zēr-iddinam = "Nabū gave me an offspring"; Hebrew Nēbhāzar ādīān) charged with re-establishing, after the capture of the "ever-rebellious city" in 586, under Gedaliah, a finally peaceful Judea.
Not much is known about N. from cuneiform sources. There are, however, some letters from one of his servants, and in particular N. is listed in the "court calendar" of Nebuchadnezzar, published by Unger, among the amēlu mašennim, high dignitaries of the court and of the Empire, in 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 Jer. 39:1-14; 52:1-30, of which II Kings 24:18-25:21 is an abbreviated reference. Here he appears as rabh ṭabbāhīm "prefect of the butchers"; the sense, according to the context and sound Hebrew lexicography, is "prefect of the bodyguard," "prefect of the praetorians." Having arrived at Jerusalem a month after the capture, he set about methodically and economically destroying all the foundations of Judean power. The objects that had value in themselves or at least as metal were dismantled, gathered, cut into transportable pieces and sent off toward Babylon. It was then that his soldiers tore down the walls (at least to deprive them of any defensive value; in the time of Nehemiah the ruins were still there) and set fire to the palaces, the royal residence and even the Temple of Yahweh, from which the furnishings had first been removed.
N., by order of Nebuchadnezzar, freed Jeremiah, but carried out a very harsh purge among the people, certainly on the basis of the denunciations of the deserters, which was perhaps the cause of the disturbances under Gedaliah and of the flight of the people into Egypt. Jer. 52:24-27 lists the persons sought as "criminals," among them the two highest priests, all of whom were taken to Riblah and cruelly executed, after the sentence of Nebuchadnezzar. The deserters themselves were deported, along with the rest of the skilled workers and men of standing, and even part of the agricultural population. Only the poorest people, vinedressers and farmers, were left, so as not to create in the country a void harmful to the treasury of Babylon.
Bibliography
Pietro Nober