Nebuchadnezzar I

Nebuchadnezzar I
King of Babylon
Detail from kudurru of Nebuchadnezzar granting Šitti-Marduk freedom from taxation
Reign	c. 1125 – 1104 BC
Predecessor	Ninurta-nādin-šumi
Successor	Enlil-nādin-apli
House	2nd Dynasty of Isin

Nebuchadnezzar I (/ˌnɛbjᵿkədˈnɛzər/), r. c. 1125–1104 BC, was the fourth king of the Second Dynasty of Isin and Fourth Dynasty of Babylon. He ruled for 22 years according to the Babylonian King List C, and was the most prominent monarch of this dynasty. He is best known for his victory over Elam and the recovery of the cultic idol of Marduk.

He is unrelated to his later namesake, Nabû-kudurrī-uṣur II, who has come to be known by the Hebrew form of his name “Nebuchadnezzar.” Consequently, it is anachronistic but not inappropriate to apply this designation retroactively to the earlier king, as he does not make an appearance in the Bible. He is misidentified in the Chronicle Concerning the Reign of Šamaš-šuma-ukin as the brother of Širikti-šuqamuna probably in place of Ninurta-kudurrῑ-uṣur I. He succeeded his father, Ninurta-nādin-šumi, and was succeeded in turn by his son Enlil-nādin-apli, brother Marduk-nādin-aḫḫē and then nephew Marduk-šāpik-zēri, the only members of this family known to have reigned during the dynasty.

The Enmeduranki legend, or the seed of kingship, is a Sumero-Akkadian composition relating his endowment with perfect wisdom (nam-kù-zu) by the god Marduk and his claim to belong to a “distant line of kingship from before the flood” and to be an “offspring of Enmeduranki, king of Sippar.” It begins with a lament over preceding events: