NERGAL-SHAREZER
951
NERI
^-^3 L.[0^-ru/^...y^
Cyliuder iu the British Museum.
eye. Among the southern Arabs his temple was paint- ed red ; and they oifered to him garments stained with blood, and a warrior (probably a prisoner), who was cast into a pool. It is related of the caliph Hakim that in the last night of his life, as he saw the planet Mars rise, he murmured, " Dost thou ascend, thou accursed shed- der of blood ? then is my hour come ;" and at that mo- ment the assassins sprang upon him from their hiding- place (Mohammed Abu-Taleb, ap. Norberg, Onomast. p. 105; Bar-Hebrceiis, p. 220). See Gesenius, Thesaur. p. 913, and Comment, zu Jesa, ii, 3-14 ; Nork, Bill. Mtjthol. i, GO sq.; Lanci, Paral. alia illust. del. Sac. Script, i, 284; Wichmanshausen, Diss, de Nergal. Cuth. Idolo (Viteb. 1707).
ITer'gal-share'zer (Hebrew Nergal' -Sharets'er, ^^S;"id"PJ~.3 ; Sept, 'isripyiKaaaacap, Vat. MS. THepi- yXiaadp v. r. Mapyavaaup, Mapyavvanap, N?;py£\- aapaaap ; l^ayapyuQ v. r. Njypys X, all in Jer. xxxix, 3 ; also Njjpj'iX Kal 2npo(Tap, ver. 13; Vulg. Neregel et Se- reser), the name apparently of two persons among the "princes of the king of Babylon,"' who accompanied Nebuchadnezzar on his last expedition against Jerusa- lem, B.C. 588. The first part of the name is the god Nergal (q. v.), and Sharezer is supposed from the Zend to va&SMjmnce of fire (Gesen.).
1. The first of these is mentioned only in Jer. xxxix, 3, without any other designation or notice.
2. "The other has the honorable distinction of Rab- mag (i'2~2'n), and it is to him alone that any particu- lar interest attaches (Jer. xxxix, 3). In sacred Script- ure he appears among the persons who, by command of Nebuchadnezzar, released Jeremiah from prison (Jer. xxxix, 13) ; profane history gives us reason to believe that he was a personage of great importance, who not long afterwards mounted the Babylonian throne. This identification depends in part upon the exact resem- blance of name which is found on Babylonian bricks in the form of Nergal-sfui7--uzur ; but mainly it rests upon the title Ruhu-emga, or Rab-mag. which this king bears in his inscriptions, and on the improbability of there having been, towards the close of the Babylonian period —when the monumental monarch must have lived — two persons of exactly the same name holding this of- fice. See Rab-mag. Assuming on these grounds the identity of the scriptural ' Nergal-Sharezer, Rab-mag,' with the monumental ' Nergal-shar-iizur, Rab-emga,^ we may learn something of the prince in question from profane authors. There cannot be a doubt that he was the monarch called Neriglissar or Neriglissoor by Be- rosus (Josephus, c. Ap. i, 30), who murdered Evil-Mero- dach, the son of Nebuchadnezzar, and succeeded him upon the throne. This prince was married to a daugh- ter of Nebuchadnezzar, and was thus the brother-ia-law of his predecessor, whom he put to death. His reign lasted between three and four j-ears. He appears to have died a natural death, and certainly left his crown to a young son, Laborosoarchod, who was murdered after a reign of nine months. In the Canon of Ptolemy he appears, under the designation of Nerigassolassur,
as reigning four years between Illoarudamus (Evil-Me- rodach) and Nabonadius, his son's reign not obtaining any mention because it fell short of a year. A palace built by Neriglissar has been discovered at Babylon. It is the only building of any extent on the right bank of the Euphrates. See Babylon. The bricks bear the name of Nergal-shar-uzur, the title of Rab-mag, and also a statement — which is somewhat surprising — that Nergal-shar-uzur was the son of a certain 'Bel- zikkar-iskun, ting of Babylon: The only explanation which has been offered of this statement is a conjecture (Rawlinson's Herodotus, i, 518) that Bel-zikkai--isKun may possibly have been the ' chief Chaldtean' who (ac- cording to Berosus) kept the royal authority for Nebu- chadnezzar during the interval between his father's death and his own arrival at Babylon. See Nebu- chadnezzar. Neriglissar could scarcely have given his father the title of king without some ground ; and this is at any rate a possible ground, and one compati- ble with the non-appearance of the name in any extant list of the later Babylonian monarchs. Neriglissar's of- fice of Rab-jiag will be further considered under that word. It is evident that he was a personage of impor- tance before he mounted the throne. Some (as Larcher) have sought to identify him with Darius the Mede ; but this view is quite untenable. There is abundant reason to believe from his name and his office that he was a native Babylonian — a grandee of high rank under Neb- uchadnezzar, who regarded him as a fitting match for one of his daughters. He did not, like Darius Medus, gain Babylon by conquest, but acquired his dominion by an internal revolution. His reign lasted from B.C. 559 to B.C. 556" (Smith).
Ne'ri (N?jpi)) the son of Melchi and father of Sa- lathiel, according to Luke's genealogy of Jesus (iii, 27, 28) ; probably identical with the Neriaii (q. v.) of the O. T. (Jer. li, 59). See Genealogy of our Lord.
Neri, Filippo de', St., the founder of the Congre- gation of the Oratory, was born of a noble family at Florence, July 22, 1515. His character, even in boy- hood, foreshadowed the career of piety and benevolence to which he was destined, and he was commonly known amcng his youthful companions by the name of " good Philip." On the death of his parents he was adopted bj' a very wealthy uncle, with whom he lived for some time at San Germano, near Monte Cassino, and by whom he was recognised as his destined heir. But he relin- quished all these prospects for a life of piety and charity ; and, after having considerably advanced in his studies at his native place, he decided to set out for Rome, where he hoped to have greater opportunities for charitable labors. He went to the Italian capital in 1533, and there arduously devoted himself to philosophical and theological studies in the Augustine schools. But he by no means confined himself to his intellectual improve- ment. He won the esteem and reverence of all by his extraordinary devotion to the Church and to the poor and needy and forsaken. He abounded in charitable labors, instructing children who had no teachers, caring for the sick, reclaiming vicious persons, and engaging in all manner of enterprises requiring a benevolent dis- position and a pious soul. (The particulars of his life, some of which are very curious, have been fully narrated by his biographers Bacci and Gallonio.) In the pursuit of these objects he displayed a sincerity and a single- heartedness which naturally enough exposed him to the sneers and the slanders of the worldly, the prudish, and the sticklers for outward decorum. But he cared little for the opinion of such people, and went on unmindful of all opposition or want of interest. Neither money nor labor did he spare to accomplish his purposes. Thus he founded an asylum for poor and sick strangers, and other houseless or helpless persons, in which they were sheltered until they were able to return to their home. Realizing his need of closer alliance with the Church, he decided finally to take holy orders, and on May 23,