JETS 37/3 (September 1994) 321-331

NEBUCHADNEZZAR, GILGAMESH,
AND THE "BABYLONIAN JOB"
PAUL FERGUSON*

Nebuchadnezzar stood on his palace roof, which had been made of ce-
dar from the forests of Lebanon. Stacked all around were over fifteen mil-
lion bricks, each containing his name and royal titles. He was surrounded
by six walls and a 262-foot moat. 1 Some of the buildings seemed to rival
the heavens. The "contented one"2 swelled with pride and cried out, "Is not
this Babylon, which I have built?" (Dan 4:30).
He had forgotten that all the bricks were made of mud. He had also
forgotten the affirmation made at his accession that all he possessed came
from one deity. 3 He had not remembered that his father had represented
himself on a monument as the "son of nobody," helpless without his god.4
He had failed to notice two streets below him called "Bow Down, Proud
One" and "May the Arrogant Not Flourish." He did not even recall that
one of the names of his palace was "The Place Where Proud Ones Are
Compelled to Submit." 5

I. THE KING'S MADNESS: FACT OR FOLKLORE*?

As soon as the king uttered his boast he lapsed into a strange kind of
mental illness that would last until seven periods of time passed (4:25, 32).
Those who proceed with the assumption that there are no supernatural
elements in the narrative have always been quick to brush aside the pos-
sibility of reality in this incident. Louis Hartman confidently states that
"enough is known of Nebuchadnezzar's forty-three year reign so that it is
impossible to fit in such a period of insanity." 6
It has apparently escaped the attention of many expositors that there
are no definite time markers associated with the king's illness. 7 The only

* Paul Ferguson is professor of Old Testament at Christian Life College in Mount Prospect, IL
D J Wiseman, Nebuchadrezzar and Babylon (Oxford Oxford University, 1985) 51-71,
M Roaf, Cultural Atlas of Mesopotamia (New York Facts on File, 1990) 199
S Langdon, Building Inscriptions of the Neo-Babylonian Empire (Paris Leroux, 1905) 83
3
S Mercer, Assyrian Grammar (New York AMS, 1966) 78-79
S Langdon, Neubabylonischen Konigsinschriften (Vorderasiatische Bibliothek 4, Leipzig
Hinnchs, 1912) 67-68, lines 4, 19
5
Wiseman, Nebuchadrezzar 47, 63
6
L Hartman and A Di Leila, The Book of Daniel (Garden City Doubleday, 1978) 178
Daniel 4 13 (Aramaic) uses the indefinite word ciddän, which may refer to a month rather
than a year, cf J Goldingay, Daniel (Dallas Word, 1989) 81
322 JOURNAL OF THE EVANGELICAL THEOLOGICAL SOCIETY

specific period of time mentioned in the entire chapter is the word for
"month" in 4:29. Interestingly the literal Aramaic wording for the termina-
tion point of the king's malady is "at the end of the days." Though it is cer-
tainly proper to render these words "at the end of this time," even seven
days of such a harrowing experience would probably suffice to bring about
serious attitude adjustments in most of us. Hence it does not appear to be
necessary to assume that the king's mental lapse lasted for a period of
seven years.
James Montgomery sagaciously notes that since royal families do not
usually make such frailties public, records of the king's condition were
probably never made. 8 Nevertheless there are certain facts that suggest
that something was amiss in the latter part of the king's reign.
Meticulous historical records are available up to about the eleventh
year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign, after which the chronicles are practically
silent. 9 In 1912 Stephen Langdon published fifty!two building inscriptions
belonging to Nebuchadnezzar. 1 0 Langdon assigns only about four of them
to the latter half of Nebuchadnezzar's reign. He notes that this part of the
king's reign is "remarkably poor in its number of literary productions." 1 1
Not only does the number of inscriptions suddenly drop, but also their
content radically changes. Earlier preoccupation with religion wanes, and
attention is turned to palaces and politics. Prayers show evidence of being
copied from earlier sources. In reworking one of his closing prayers the king
manages to insert eight of his own royal titles. Flaunting of royal traits
before deity was totally absent in his earlier prayers. Langdon notes that
after the year 590 BC "we have scarcely anything but palace inscriptions
with little to say about the religious interests of the king." 1 2 This would cer-
tainly agree with the king's attitude portrayed in Dan 4:29.
In 1975 A. K. Grayson published a most intriguing fragment of a tab-
let. 1 3 D. J. Wiseman identifies Nebuchadnezzar II as the subject of the brief
narration. 1 4 For some unspecified reason the king becomes extremely dis-
oriented. His orders are contradictory, and he does not even heed the men-
tion of his name. He does not show concern for son or daughter and ceases
8
J Montgomery, The Book of Daniel (Edinburgh Τ and Τ Clark, 1926) 220!221
9
D J Wiseman, Chronicles of the Chaldean Kings (London Trustees of the British Museum,
1956) 72 Berger only finds three inscriptions specifically dated from the 7th, 12th and 37th
years, Ρ Berger, Die neubabylonischen Konigsinschriften (Neukirchen!Vluyn Neukirchener,
1973) 108
10
Langdon devotes about 140 pages to the Babylonian and English texts of these inscrip-
tions They are cited from his 1912 edition unless otherwise indicated Langdon, Konigsin-
schriften 61!209, 299 Berger mentions various works not referred to by Langdon Berger,
Konigsinschriften 1!125
11
Langdon, Building 1!17, 22, Konigsinschriften 10!11
Langdon, Building 17!33, Konigsinschriften 12, 25
13
A Κ Grayson, Babylonian Historical!Literary Texts (Toronto University of Toronto, 1975)
87!89
4
Grayson holds that the subject changes after Nebuchadnezzar is introduced Wiseman,
however, is probably correct in seeing Nebuchadnezzar rather than Amel!Marduk as the sub-
ject Inscriptions of Nerighssar and Nabonidus do not mention any son or daughter of Amel!
Marduk Wiseman, Nebuchadrezzar 102!103^
 NEBUCHADNEZZAR, GILGAMESH, AND THE "BABYLONIAN J O B " 323

his care for worship centers. Even his own life is of no value to him. The
text ends with the king going to the holy gate and weeping bitterly to the
great gods. The text is much too small and fragmentary to dogmatically as-
sert that it is the Babylonian version of the account in Daniel 4. It does,
however, indicate that a great deal of caution is in order before dismissing
the account of the king's madness as nothing more than folklore.

I I. BABYLON AND THE WORLD TREE

Information available from this period indicates that the description of

the world tree in the king's dream (4:10-12, 20-23) is congruous with the
image he had of himself and of his kingdom. The tree was "in the midst of
the earth." The belief that Babylon was the center of the world repre-
sented a long tradition. A quarter of a millennium before Nebuchadnezzar
an ancient treatise on the topography of Babylon identified the city as the
"link of heaven and the underworld." A. R. George sees this as attributing
to the city a position at the middle point of the cosmos.15
The only known Mesopotamian map of the world probably dates from
just a few generations before Nebuchadnezzar. It depicts Babylon as a
large rectangle located near the center of the earth. All the other kingdoms
are small circles that revolve around it. 16 The entire earth is drawn as a
large circle with four to eight triangles radiating around it. These points
(nagû) represented distant, remote regions of the earth. The nagû may be
equated with the "ends of the earth." 17
In the dream the tree was seen from the end of the earth (4:11). In v. 22
Daniel compares this to the fact that the king's dominion reached to the
end of the earth. In his building inscriptions Nebuchadnezzar describes his
kingdom as encompassing "all the lands, the entire inhabited world . . . ,
kings of far-off mountains and remote nagû."18
The dream goes on to state that in this tree was food for all living crea-
tures and that the beasts of the field found shade under it. In his Inscription
Number 9 the king sees his vast empire as a tree that shades and nourishes
all peoples. He says, "The produce of the lands, the product of mountains,
the wealth of the sea I received in her. Under her everlasting shadow I
gathered all men in peace. Vast heaps of grain beyond measure I stored up
within her." 19 Interestingly the ancient geographical treatise on the topog-
raphy of Babylon calls it the city that "ensures the life of the land." 20

15
A R George, "The Cuneiform Text Tin tirki Babilu and the Topography of Babylon,"
Sumer 35 (1979) 231
16
W Horowitz, "The Babylonian Map of the World," Iraq 50 (1988) 153-154 , Genesis X and
Babylonian Geography (VTSup 4 1 , Leiden Brill, 1990) 4 0 - 4 1 Cf also Horowitz, Mesopotamian
Cosmic Geography (forthcoming)
17
The nagû may not be t h e ends of the e a r t h b u t simply very remote regions, Horowitz,
"Babylonian Map" 156-16 3
18
Langdon, Konigsinschriften 146, II 1 7 - 3 3 , III 2 - 7 , 206, line 17
19
Ibid 95, lines 1 8 - 2 6 , 173, lines 2 6 - 3 7
20
George, "Cuneiform" 231
324 JOURNAL OF THE EVANGELICAL THEOLOGICAL SOCIETY

The tree's height reached to the heavens (v. 11). The king's father
Nabopolassar leaves an inscription about the restoration of Etemenanki
("The House of the Foundation of the Heavens and the Earth"). He claims
that he and his sons made its summit in Babylon "rival or equal to the heav-
ens." 2 1 He continually makes the claim that he built the palace and city
from the abyss to the mountaintops. 2 2
In the ancient world the king and his kingdom were inseparable. An im-
pressive array of data from the Mesopotamian world identifies the king as
a tree. For example, a Sumerian royal hymn addressing the king says, "O
chosen cedar . . . , for thy shadow the country may feel awe." 2 3

I I I . NEBUCHADNEZZAR AND H I S PALACE

In Dan 4:4 the king says he was "happy and flourishing" in his palace.
In Inscription Number 9 Nebuchadnezzar says,
The palace, the seat of my royal authority, a place of union of mighty peoples,
abode of joy and happiness, the place where proud ones are compelled to sub-
mit, I rebuilt upon the bosom of the wide world. . . . My royal decisions, my im-
perial commands, I caused to go forth from it. 24
The king proudly asserted that he made his palace to be gazed at in aston-
ishment by everyone. It was "bursting with splendor. Luxuriance, dread!
fulness, awe, gleaming majesty surrounded it." 2 5 He boasted that he made
Babylon into a fortress, strong like a mountain. He says, "I made the
dwelling!place of my lordship glorious." 26
These palace inscriptions prompted James Montgomery to declare that
the setting of the king's "self!complacence in his glorious Babylon are
strikingly true to history." 2 7 Robert Pfeiffer, who believed that Daniel was
written over three centuries later than its traditional date, was justifiably
mystified as to how all this would be known by a Palestinian author in the
Maccabean era. He resigned himself to the fact that we may never know. 2 8
The inscriptions of Nebuchadnezzar are poetic, pious, hymnic and pray-
erful. A moral element is present, but comments about military accom-
plishments are almost always absent. They are written in the first person
and stress his building achievements. They seem to betray one major char-
acter flaw. They are egocentric (constantly using the pronouns "I," "my")

Langdon, Konigsinschriften 60, I 36, 62, I 44 N e b u c h a d n e z z a r also m a d e t h e same claim

(147, II 8)
2 2
Ibid 73, lines 31!32 , 139, line 60
2 3
Ρ W Coxon, "The G r e a t Tree of Daniel 4," A Word in Season (ed W McKane, Sheffield
JSOT, 1986) 104!105 Coxon suggests t h a t t h e m e t a l b a n d s around t h e t r u n k in D a n 4 15 are
a parallel to Mesopotamian cultic t r e e s
2 4
Langdon, Konigsinschriften 95, III 2 7 ! 4 2
2 5
Ibid 119, II 5 3 ! 5 4
2 6
Ibid 121, lines 3 2 ! 3 4 , 139, IX 2
2 7
Montgomery, Daniel 243
2 8
R Pfeiffer, Introduction to the Old Testament (New York H a r p e r , 1948) 7 5 8 ! 7 5 9
 NEBUCHADNEZZAR, GILGAMESH, AND THE "BABYLONIAN JOB" 325

and express an inordinate pride about his construction feats. 29 In short,

they closely parallel the style purportedly used by the king in Daniel 4.
His inscriptions are much different from Persian and Greek monuments
with which an author living in Maccabean times would be familiar. It would
have taken a well-read and highly-educated person who was close to the
king to have had enough information to write in a style that the monarch
himself regularly employed.
Louis Hartman claims that "certain correct historical allusions and the
nature of the Aramaic" open the possibility that this story may have begun
in oral form at the end of the Neo-Babylonian period and found literary ex-
pression in the Persian period. 30 Hartman's remarks reflect a major trend
in liberal Biblical scholarship: to date the narrative portions of the book of
Daniel earlier than the Maccabean era. 31

IV. THE GILGAMESH EPIC AND THE KING'S MADNESS

The Biblical description of Nebuchadnezzar's madness is not unique in

ancient Near Eastern literature. The portrayal of the king's humiliation
closely parallels the Mesopotamian picture of the primordial man, Enkidu,
found in the Gilgamesh epic. His whole body is covered with hair like a
woman. His locks sprout like grain. He knows nothing about people or land.
He eats grass with the gazelles, and with the game he drinks at the water
hole. He ranges at large over the open country. When he becomes civilized
in seven days he loses his kinship with the animals, and they run from
him. 32 One might say he loses the heart of an animal and receives a human
heart (cf. Dan 4:16).
Gardner and Maier see Enkidu as a representation of the low primitive
state from which civilized people sprang. 33 The same picture is found in a
Sumerian story that relates a dispute between the cattle and grain deities.
In this tale primordial humans "knew not the wearing of garments." They
ate grass with their mouths like sheep. They drank water from ditches. 34
Berossus describes early men of Babylonia as devoid of culture and living
without laws, just like wild animals. 35

29
Wiseman, Nebuchadrezzar 98
30
Hartman and Di Leila, Daniel 174
31
A Lacocque, The Book of Daniel (Atlanta John Knox, 1979) 8, 75 Lacocque holds that
Daniel 4 was worked out orally before the second century but put in writing in 164 BC John
Collins is adamant in stating that there is not one single verse in Daniel 1-6 that betrays edi-
torial insertion from Maccabean times, J Collins, Apocalyptic Vision in the Book of Daniel
(Missoula Scholars, 1977) 8-16
32
A Heidel, The Gilgamesh Epic and Old Testament Parallels (Chicago University of Chi-
cago, 1949) 19-22
33
J Gardner and J Maier, Gilgamesh (New York Vintage, 1984) 15, cf J Tigay, Evolution
of the Gilgamesh Epic (Philadelphia University of Pennsylvania, 1982) 202
34
Tigay, Evolution 203
35
Berossus, SANE, i, 155
326 JOURNAL OF THE EVANGELICAL THEOLOGICAL SOCIETY

A king being warned about possible reduction to an animal-like state is

not unique to the book of Daniel. A generation before the time of Neb-
uchadnezzar's father, a Median king receives such a warning in one of Es-
arhaddon's treaties. 36 If he does not recognize the authority of his overlord,
this king will be condemned to expulsion from gods and men. He must
roam the open country like a wild ass or gazelle (cf. Dan 5:21).
All these parallels closely match the state to which Nebuchadnezzar is
reduced. He is driven out from humans and lives with the wild ass. He re-
ceives the heart of an animal. He lives in the open field and eats grass like
an ox. His fingernails become like the claws of an eagle. All this must take
place until seven periods of time pass over him (4:15-17, 29-32; 5:21). The
king in seven periods of time undergoes the reverse process that Enkidu ex-
periences in seven days. Tragically and ironically he becomes like the wild
oxen and the dragons he repeatedly boasted about placing on the gates of
Babylon.37 He is reduced to the lowest state to which a man could descend
in the Mesopotamian conception. He is demoted to the original state of man
before he received the civilization of which Nebuchadnezzar is so proud.
The phrasing of Nebuchadnezzar's fate according to these parallels
seems to be a sterling example of communication. The king was warned that
he would descend from the most exalted state of humanity to the lowest
state of existence a Mesopotamian mind could conceive of. There would have
been no plainer way to tell an educated Babylonian he would be humbled
than to inform him that he was going to become like Enkidu.
D. J. Wiseman notes that schools in Nebuchadnezzar's reign were still
making copies of the Gilgamesh epic. 38 Since this epic was one of the most
widely circulated pieces of Babylonian literature, the king would certainly
have been familiar with it. 39

V. OTHER GILGAMESH PARALLELS

The parallels between Daniel 4 and the Gilgamesh epic do not end here.
Both these works have statements of the glorification of a king's building
accomplishments. 40 Both are concerned about the mortality of a human
king and the consequences of arrogance toward deity. 41 Each narrative tells
of the chopping down of a very extraordinary tree. In Gilgamesh and Daniel
4 "watchers" have a prominent part in the plot. Each piece has a troubling
dream or dreams that must be interpreted.
Watchers (cf. Dan 4:13, 17, 23) are important figures in the Gilgamesh
epic. Besides the guardian of the cedar there are watchers of the night.
There are scorpion people who are stationed at the gate through which Gil-
36
E Reiner, "The Vassal Treaties of Esarhaddon," ANET 538
37
Langdon, Konigsinschriften 73, lines 20-21
38
Wiseman, Nebuchadrezzar 86
39
Heidel, Gilgamesh 16, 93
40
ANET 72-73
41
A L Oppenheim, "Mesopotamian Mythology II," Or 17 (1948) 17-48 Oppenheim pointed
out that the epic contains unprecedented arrogance toward the gods
 NEBUCHADNEZZAR, GILGAMESH, AND THE "BABYLONIAN J O B " 327

gamesh must pass to find out about eternal life.42 The Babylonians knew of
personified night watchers who, alert and never sleeping, control destinies
on the earth. 43 Deities were in charge of watching the night while the great
gods slept. 44
Gilgamesh is especially proud of his expedition with Enkidu to the cedar
mountain in which he killed the guardian and chopped down the sacred
cedar. 45 The cedar mountain is the dwelling place of the gods. It has a gate
seventy-two cubits high. The towering cedar "uplifted its fullness before
the mountain; fair was its shade and full of delight."46 Gardner and Maier
observe that the cedar on the mountain is in the singular and see the forest
as a single world tree. 47 The cedar is protected by a guardian appointed by
Enlil, the high god. The guardian Huwawa is a watcher who never sleeps. 48
Abraham Malamat has called attention to many examples of Mesopota-
mian kings from Sargon I and onward who seemed to have been obsessed with
the cedar mountain. A royal inscription of Naram-Sin, Sargon's grandson, ex-
tols his conquering the mountain and personally felling cedars there. 49
Nebuchadnezzar speaks of finding one of Naram-Sin's inscriptions and
refers to him as an ancestor (abu).50 Apparently this type of exploit was
considered necessary before a ruler could be classified as a great king.
In reading the Wadi Brissa inscription, one is made to feel that Nebu-
chadnezzar identified his Lebanon campaign with Gilgamesh's expedition
to the cedar mountain. This is the longest of his engravings (800 lines). He
made the gigantic work in duplicate on each side of the pass through which
his troops would have marched in Lebanon on their way to the west.
A little farther away a partial triplicate is found. It is the only monu-
ment of Nebuchadnezzar that commemorates a military expedition. It is
dated by Stephen Langdon to the time of the final destruction of Jerusalem
(586 BC). 51 Part of it is written in ancient archaic script. Berger finds many
word-for-word correspondences with the royal engravings of Hammurapi. 52
Twenty times the mighty cedars are mentioned. Nebuchadnezzar calls
Lebanon "the lush, green mountain forest of Marduk." 53 Twice in the in-
scription he boasts that he felled the mighty cedars with his own clean
hands. 54 The inscription depicts the king in a pointed, conical hat like the

42
Heidel, Gilgamesh 42, 65
43
CAD 4 326
44
ANET 390
45
Heidel, Gilgamesh 3 5 - 3 7
46
Ibid 45
47
G a r d n er and Maier, Gilgamesh 133-13 4 E A Speiser sees the singulars used in the col-
lective sense (ANET 82)
48
Heidel, Gilgamesh 35
49
A M a l a m a t , Man and the Early Israelite Experience (Oxford Oxford University, 1989)
107-121
50
Langdon, Konigsinschriften 79, III 2 5 - 2 6
51
Ibid 3 3 - 3 7
52
Berger, Konigsinschriften 94-96
Langdon, Konigsinschriften 175, ix 14
54
Ibid 153, A IV 5 - 8 , 157, A V 1 6 - 1 8
328 JOURNAL OF THE EVANGELICAL THEOLOGICAL SOCIETY

55
ones worn by Merodach!Baladan and Nabonidus. He is standing before a
tree with an object in his hand. The deteriorated condition of the relief
56
does not allow us to make out any more details. In column 4, directly to
the left of the tree, the king states: "With my own clean hands I felled (the
mighty cedars)." It seems reasonable, then, to assume that this engraving
portrays the king in the very act of chopping down a cedar.
Column 5 is written above and below the tree. Column 6 is in back of
the king. Both columns describe in detail Babylon's elaborate defense sys-
tem. The king boasts that he made the city into a mountain!high fortress.
He goes on to state that he gathered all men to its shadow for their well!
being, prosperity and blessing. His kingdom reached the ends of the earth,
57
and he raised the city of Babylon to the summit.
In column 9 he tells how he had chased away the enemy that had scat-
tered the people and plundered the mountain. He gathered the people and
made them lie down in security. 5 8 He built a special road through the moun-
tains to transport the cedars back to Babylon. Among other things he used
59
the cedars to roof his palace built on the bosom (irtu) of the wide world.
This inscription clearly shows how totally obsessed Nebuchadnezzar
was with the mighty cedars of Lebanon. It is little wonder that he dreamed
about them. There would have been no more vulnerable point for God to
speak to Nebuchadnezzar about his pride than through the metaphor of the
great tree. He would have had little problem in identifying the sheltering,
nourishing tree with his own kingdom. As an informed, educated pagan he
would realize that this tree would have a divinely!appointed watcher just
as everything significant in his world did. Imagine his horror and feeling of
helplessness when the watcher actually announces the decree that the tree
is to be cut down (Dan 4:13!14)!
He would have definitely considered this as an unfavorable nightmare
needing the attention of dream professionals. According to A. Leo Oppen-
heim the Babylonian concept of interpretation would include not only ex-
plaining the meaning of the dream but also removing its undesirable
consequences. 60 Only Daniel could do this by telling the king, in effect,
that he must become the kind of ruler he had advertised himself to be in
the Wadi Brissa inscription (Dan 4:27). He must be a true shepherd to the
people entrusted to him by deity. 6 1

55
J Oates, Babylon (London Thames and Hudson, 1979) 117, Roaf, Cultural Atlas 201
56
H Pognon, Wadi Brissa (Paris F Vieweg, 1887) 4, 5, Plate IV
57
Langdon, Konigsinschriften 163, Β V 43!44, 173, ix 3!12
58
Berger, Konigsinschriften 95!97
59
Langdon, Konigsinschriften 173, VIII 56
60
A L Oppenheim, Interpretation of Dreams in the Ancient Near East (Philadelphia Ameri-
can Philosophical Society, 1956) 217!261
61
Both Lugalzaggesi and Hammurapi viewed themselves as making their subjects he down
in green pastures Nebuchadnezzar takes over this metaphor in the Wadi Brissa inscription Cf
S Ν Kramer, The Sumerians (Chicago University of Chicago, 1963) 323!324, Berger, Konigs-
inschriften 94!96, Langdon, Konigsinschriften 173, VIII 34
 NEBUCHADNEZZAR, GILGAMESH, AND THE "BABYLONIAN J O B " 329

The king receives this prescription in total silence, even though it could
have neutralized the foreboding evil. He is speechless because he has been
caught by his own words. Ironically when the king makes his fateful boast
a year later (Dan 4:29-30) he is probably standing on the very cedars he
bragged about hewing down in the Wadi Brissa inscription.
What is the source of all this extraordinary information that so vividly
displays the intents of the king's heart? This did not come from a third-
century author living in Palestine who sought to revive interest in Baby-
lonian lore. It came from a God who searches hearts and who knew the
secret rooms in the king's soul. He is the one who knows best how to reach
every one of us.

VI. THE "BABYLONIAN JOB" AND THE GENRE OF DANIEL 4

Daniel 4 purports to be the actual words of Nebuchadnezzar except for

vv. 28-33. It begins with a hymn of praise (vv. 1-3) and closes with a
hymn of praise (vv. 34-37). Its opening style is that of an epistle. It is con-
ceded even by critics that the introduction is compatible with that of Neo-
Babylonian and later epistles. 62
Many have found it incredible that the king would issue such a doc-
ument. Montgomery says that "as an edict the document is historically
absurd; it has no similar parallels in the history of. . . imperial edicts." 63
While it is true that there are no "edicts" like Daniel 4, it is also true that
the chapter does not claim to be an edict.
It is, however, incorrect to say that Daniel 4 has no matching genre in
Babylonian literature. There is a Babylonian document called Ludlul Bel
Nëmeqi ("I will praise the Lord of Wisdom" [Marduk]). This document shows
a good deal of similarity to Daniel 4. The piece had a broad distribution in
the ancient Near East judging from the fact that twenty-five copies and
fragments of it have survived. It dates from about 1200 BC. 64 W. G. Lambert
has even found an instance where it is quoted in a Neo-Babylonian royal in-
scription. 65 It is often referred to as the "Babylonian Job." 66
The text is a "monologue of a well read and poetic Babylonian in a high
position." Lambert conjectures that he may have been a feudal lord ruling
a city. 67 Like Daniel 4 it opens and closes with a doxology and confession

62
Collins, Apocalyptic 61
63
Montgomery, Daniel 222
64
J Walton, Ancient Israelite Literature in Its Cultural Context (Grand Rapids Zondervan,
1989) 1 7 0 - 1 7 1 , R Biggs, "I Will Praise the Lord of Wisdom," ANET 5 9 6 - 6 0 0 Since ANET, the
publication of forty missing lines of Tablet 1 have been restored, cf D J Wiseman, "A New
Text of the Babylonian Poem of the Righteous Sufferer," Anatolian Studies 30 (1980) 104-107
65
W G Lambert, Babylonian Wisdom Literature (Oxford Clarendon, 1960) 2 1 - 2 7 , 284,
288
Oppenheim and Lambert do not see this work as the same genre as Job but r a t h e r as a
psalm Oppenheim, Interpretation 217, Lambert, Babylonian 27
67
Lambert, Babylonian 22
330 JOURNAL OF THE EVANGELICAL THEOLOGICAL SOCIETY

of the deity's sovereignty to show mercy or judgment. It also contains affir-

mations of his god's universal kingship. 68 An opening line—"whose hands
the heavens cannot hold back"—is reminiscent of Dan 4:35 ("He does ac-
cording to his will in the host of heaven. . . . No one can ward offhis hand)." 69
As in Daniel 4, the speaker announces his intention to provide people
with instruction in worship and to present his situation as a public exam-
ple of his god's ability to punish and restore. 70 The person's situation is
associated with a terrifying dream, as in Dan 4:5. The author repeatedly
stresses that four classes of dream interpreters and omen experts could
not help him. 71
This unfortunate individual, like Nebuchadnezzar, used to walk like a
proud man constantly prattling. He was put out of his house and had to
wander outside like a recluse and an ox. He lost his position of authority
and was replaced by someone else. 72 He was like one who had gone crazy.
He was fettered. His fingernails grew out. 73
As in the case of Nebuchadnezzar, the same god who struck him down
now raised him up. After his restoration he proceeds down "Bow Down,
Proud One" Street saying, "He who has done w r o n g . . . let him learn from
me." 74 Like Nebuchadnezzar in Dan 4:2, he wanted to make known to all
people what his god had done for him.
As a well-informed worshiper of Marduk, King Nebuchadnezzar would
have known about various hymns written to his god. It is not unthinkable
that he might have borrowed an old, time-honored pattern to communicate
to his countrymen the testimony of his lesson in divine sovereignty. In one
of his inscriptions he describes himself as causing "to exist in the mouths
of men the fear of the great gods."75

VII. NEBUCHADNEZZAR: A JEWISH CONVERT4?

When Nebuchadnezzar sat down to write about the things he had expe-
rienced, Daniel was available as an advisor to suggest to him ways to ex-
press acceptable worship to the God who had brought about the situation.
He has been impressed that he needs to be more pious, but he still speaks
of Bel or Marduk as being his god. He can still speak of a "spirit of the holy
gods" being in Daniel (4:8, 18).
He has already expressed similar ideas within a pagan context. In Build-
ing Inscription Number 15 he says,

Wiseman, "New Text" I 1-40, IV 33-45

Biggs, "I Will Praise" I 9, 11, 27-32
Ibid I 39-40, IV 27-46
Ibid II 7-10, 106-110, cf Dan 4 6-7
Ibid I 50-104, II 21
Ibid l i l e , g
Ibid IV 9-10, III n-p
Langdon, Konigsinschriften 101, I 8-10
 NEBUCHADNEZZAR, GILGAMESH, AND THE "BABYLONIAN J O B " 331

Without you, my lord, what exists? . . . You begot me and entrusted me with
the rule over all peoples. . . Make the fear of your godhead be in my heart.
Prolong the days of the one who pleases you, for you truly are my life. 76
It h a s been noted t h a t a few p h r a s e s in Daniel 4 are found in t h e Hebrew
Psalter. But using J e w i s h liturgy to express himself does not m a k e t h e king
a convert to J u d a i s m . It would also certainly not indicate t h a t a J e w from
the second century BC wrote Daniel 4 . 7 7

VIII. CONCLUSIO N

Daniel 4 is not a fabrication of someone in exile who felt insecure a n d

wanted to imagine w h a t it would be like if a grea t Babylonian king were
converted to his faith. It genuinely reflects actual religious feelings and
self!concept s t h a t Nebuchadnezza r possessed. It is cast in t h e literary form
and language of expression c u r r e n t durin g t h e time t h e king lived. It closely
resembles his own personal style as found in his building inscriptions.

Ibid 123!124, I 2 3 ! 3 2 , 5 5 ! 7 2 , II 1
R Ρ Davies, Daniel (Sheffield J S O T , 1988) 3 1 , H a r t m a n a n d Di Leila, Daniel 51