Nebo, also known as Nabu, was a prominent god in the Babylonian and Assyrian pantheons, honoured as the patron of literacy, scribes, wisdom and the rational arts. He was credited with inventing writing and served as a divine scribe who wrote down the fates assigned to people, which tied him closely to learning and to the recording of divine decrees. His symbols included a stylus resting on a tablet and a simple wedge shape, signs of his authority over writing and knowledge.
Nabu rose to prominence among the Babylonians in the 1st millennium BC, when he came to be seen as the son of Marduk, the chief god of Babylon. His cult centre was Borsippa, Babylon’s sister city, and each New Year his statue was carried from there to Babylon so that he could pay his respects to his father.
The Hebrew Bible names him as Nebo in Isaiah 46:1 and Jeremiah 48:1. In Isaiah he stands beside Bel, a title of Marduk, in a passage against idolatry.
Isaiah pictures the idols of Bel and Nebo as loads on tired animals.
Bel boweth down, Nebo stoopeth, their idols were upon the beasts, and upon the cattle: your carriages were heavy loaden; they are a burden to the weary beast.
Isaiah 46:1, KJV
The next verse says the gods themselves go into captivity.
They stoop, they bow down together; they could not deliver the burden, but themselves are gone into captivity.
Isaiah 46:2, KJV
The chapter then turns to the God of Israel, who carries his people instead of being carried by them.
God answers that he carries Israel from birth to old age.
And even to your old age I am he; and even to hoar hairs will I carry you: I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you.
Isaiah 46:4, KJV
In Isaiah, the fall of these gods stands for the coming fall of Babylon. For how the Bible handles other gods, see The Gods in the Bible.
