Nego

Found only in the compound proper name Abed-nego (13; 13», ‘servant of Nego’) given by the prince of the eunuchs to Azariah, one of Daniel’s three companions, Dn 17 28 3128. (LXX and Theod. ’ASdevays). It is prac- tically certain that ‘2 is a corruption, which may be set down to the mistake of a copyist or, more probably, of the author of Dn, from ‘3; NEBO (wh. see). Cf. the use of Nebuchadnezzar for the correct form -rezzar. This is the view of Hitzig, Gritz, Schrader (KAT? 429 [COT ii.

126}), Sayce (HCM 532), ete., and is supported by the discovery of the name ‘Abed-nebo’ on a bilingual Assyr.- Aram. tablet of the 7th cent. (iii. Rawl. 46 col. i. 82) and in two Aramaic inscriptions of the 6th and 5th cents. B.C. discovered, one of them by Flinders Petrie and the other by Sayce, on the sandstone * Read in the last clause ‘ went and dwelt with Amalek.’ NEHELAMITE, THE NEHEMIAH 507 rocks north of Silsilis in sit Egypt (see HCM 177 n.)

The same name was borne, long after the Christian era, by heathen Syrians (Bevan, Daniel, p- 61). It is possible that the author of Dn pur- posely changed Nevo into Nego, in order to obscure the reference to a heathen deity. J. A. SELBIE.