NERIGLISSAR - Fourth Neo-Babylonian king (Babylonian Nergal-šar-uşur "may Nergal protect the king"; Hebrew Nérghal Sar'şer), second successor of the great Nebuchadnezzar II; he reigned from 560 to 556 B.C.
He was the son of a certain Běl-šar-škun, a great Babylonian difficult to identify, "wise prince and perfect hero, guardian of Esagila and of (the city of) Babylon," which denotes his noble origin. Private cuneiform documents designate him as the owner of extensive lands in the provinces of Babylon, Opis and elsewhere. He knew how to add political influence to wealth, and Nebuchadnezzar gave him a daughter in marriage. Official documents report a mission of his to Aktak (later Seleucia) and to Tokrītān, on the Tigris. In the "court calendar," published by Unger, he is listed among the amēlu mademnim, the highest dignitaries of the court and of the Empire. There is the addition amēlu "Sin-magir" (which perhaps entered the corrupt text of Jer. 39:3, as Samgar), which gives solid probability to the opinion that he was governor of Bit-Sin-magir, north of Babylon, a delicate position on the border of Media.
Assuming the identification (only probable) with Nérghal Sar'şer (Vulg. Neregel, Sereser), N., although subordinate to Nabuzardan, would have been among those Babylonian dignitaries who after the capture of Jerusalem in 586 reorganized the country and who, according to Jer. 39:13, gave freedom to the prophet Jeremiah. N., named here among the "princes of the King of Babylon," is rabh māgh, a title equivalent to the one given him in the "court calendar," rab māgh, an office that certainly does not imply being "prefect of the magi," but which, according to the texts collected by Manitius, implies a relation with the "chariots" and the cavalry, without excluding civil duties.
N. ascended the throne after the year 560, following a revolution, in which the king Amēl-Marduk (son of Nebuchadnezzar, who pardoned Jehoiachin: cf. Jer. 52:31-34) was killed. Like all usurpers, N. emphasizes, in his inscriptions, the destinies of the great gods, who gave him kingship over the "capieneri" and who "placed on his brows the crown of Marduk."
He strove to regain the sympathy of the priests with restorations of the temples; moreover he gave his daughter Gigitum in marriage to a priest of Sippar. He succeeded in keeping intact the borders of the vast Empire, and even from Gutium, a province near Media, he brought the goddess Annunitum back to Sippar. But, having usurped the throne at an already advanced age, only four years remained for him to govern and to fortify his palace in Babylon. He was succeeded for 9 months by his minor son Labāš-Marduk, who, according to Nabonidus, did not know how to conduct himself in the Kingdom, having sat on the throne "against the will of the gods."
Bibliography6 works
Pietro Nober