'That Wicked One': A Grotesque Talmudic Portrait of Nebuchadnezzar Based on the Parable against the King of Babylon in Isaiah 14 (Shabbat 149b-150a)
This sugya discusses Nebuchadnezzar (fl. c. 600 BCE). Through a series of aggressive midrashim, he is portrayed as a grotesque tyrant: casting lots to rape young men, causing laughter to vanish from the world, and suffering humiliating punishment in Gehenna. His final degradation includes a miraculous elongation of his foreskin when attempting to violate Zedekiah, symbolic retribution for his perverse abuse of power.
Despite his dominance, even Nebuchadnezzar is finally cut down. The bat kol proclaims his equal status in death—'be laid with the uncircumcised'.
The sugya closes with legends of his downfall and imagery of his exaggerated power: riding a lion with a serpent tied to its head.
The depiction of Nebuchadnezzar in the Bible
See the depiction of Nebuchadnezzar in the Bible, as summarized in Wikipedia, “Nebuchadnezzar II“, section “In Jewish and biblical tradition“:
The Babylonian captivity initiated by Nebuchadnezzar came to an end with the fall of Babylon to the Achaemenid king Cyrus the Great in 539 BC. Within a year of their liberation, some exiled Jews returned to their homeland. Their liberation did little to erase the memory of five decades of imprisonment and oppression. Instead, Jewish literary accounts ensured that accounts of the hardship endured by the Jews, as well as of the monarch responsible for it, would be remembered for all time. The Book of Jeremiah calls Nebuchadnezzar a "lion" and a "destroyer of nations".
Nebuchadnezzar's story thus found its way into the [Hebrew] Bible. The Bible narrates how Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the Kingdom of Judah, besieged, plundered and destroyed Jerusalem, and how he took away the Jews in captivity, portraying him as a cruel enemy of the Jewish people.
The Bible also portrays Nebuchadnezzar as the erstwhile legitimate ruler of all the nations of the world, appointed to rule the world by God. As such, Judah, through divine ruling, should have obeyed Nebuchadnezzar and should not have rebelled.
Nebuchadnezzar is also depicted as carrying out death sentences pronounced by God, slaying two false prophets.1 Nebuchadnezzar's campaigns of conquest against other nations are portrayed as being in-line with God's will for Nebuchadnezzar's dominance […]
In the Book of Daniel […] the figure of Nebuchadnezzar differs considerably from his portrayal in the Book of Jeremiah. He is for the most part depicted as a merciless and despotic ruler. The king has a nightmare, and asks his wise men, including Daniel and his three companions Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, to interpret the dream, but refuses to state the dream's contents. When the servants protest, Nebuchadnezzar sentences all of them, including Daniel and his companions, to death.
By the end of the story, when Daniel has successfully interpreted the dream, Nebuchadnezzar shows much gratitude, showering Daniel with gifts, appointing him the governor of the "province of Babylon" and making him the chief of the kingdom's wise men.
A second story again casts Nebuchadnezzar as a tyrannical and pagan king, who, after Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego refuse to worship a newly erected golden statue, sentences them to death through being thrown into a fiery furnace. They are miraculously delivered, and Nebuchadnezzar then acknowledges God as the "lord of kings" and "god of gods".2
Though Nebuchadnezzar is also mentioned as acknowledging the Hebrews' God as the true god in other passages of the Book of Daniel, it is apparent that his supposed conversion to Judaism does not change his violent character, given that he proclaims that anyone who speaks amiss of God "shall be cut in pieces and their houses shall be made a dunghill".
In a third story, Daniel interprets another dream as meaning that Nebuchadnezzar will lose his mind and live like an animal for seven years before being restored to his normal state (Daniel 1-4).
The Nebuchadnezzar in the Book of Daniel, a fickle tyrant who is not particularly consistent in his faith, contrasts with the typical "servant of God" in other books of the Bible.
The Parable against the King of Babylon in Isaiah 14:4-21
See Wikipedia, “Isaiah 14“, section “The Parable against the King of Babylon (14:4–21)“:
The mashal, or the parable against the king of Babylon is the oracle revealed to Isaiah the prophet. It is also considered a proverb.
The parable is 18 verses long from verse 4 to verse 21.
The relevant verses, cited and homiletically interpreted in our sugya (Isaiah.14, translation JPS 1985):
Verse 4
ונשאת המשל הזה על־מלך בבל ואמרת
איך שבת נגש
שבתה מדהבה
you shall recite this mashal over the king of Babylon:
How is the taskmaster vanished,
How is oppression ended!
Verse 7
נחה שקטה כל הארץ
פצחו רנה
All the earth is calm, untroubled;
Loudly it cheers.
Verse 9-11
שאול מתחת רגזה לך
לקראת בואך
עורר לך רפאים
כל־עתודי ארץ
הקים מכסאותם
כל מלכי גוים
Sheol below was astir
To greet your coming—
Rousing for you the shades
Of all earth’s chieftains,
Raising from their thrones
All the kings of nations.כלם יענו ויאמרו אליך
גם־אתה חלית כמונו
אלינו נמשלת
All speak up and say to you,
“So you have been stricken as we were,
You have become like us!הורד שאול גאונך
[…]
Your pomp is brought down to Sheol
[…]
Verse 12
איך נפלת משמים
הילל בן־שחר
נגדעת לארץ
חולש על־גוים
How are you fallen from heaven,
O Shining One, son of Dawn!
How are you felled to earth,
O vanquisher of nations!
Verse 18
כל־מלכי גוים
כלם שכבו בכבוד
איש בביתו
All the kings of nations
Were laid, every one, in honor-
Each in his tomb;
In the Sugya
The Talmud reserves a special animosity for Nebuchadnezzar, seemingly more so than for any other biblically villainous figure.
His name is frequently avoided altogether, replaced with the dysphemism 'that wicked one'.3
Outline
Intro
The Parable against the King of Babylon in Isaiah 14:4-21
In the Sugya
The Passage - 'That Wicked One': A Grotesque Talmudic Portrait of Nebuchadnezzar (Shabbat 149b-150a)
Rabba bar Huna - Explains “ḥolesh” (Isaiah 14:12) as casting lots, linked to homosexual exploitation by Nebuchadnezzar - Isaiah 14:12; R' Yoḥanan - All kings “rest” from such exploitation (symbolic end of abuse) - Isaiah 14:18
R' Yoḥanan - No one laughed during Nebuchadnezzar’s reign - Isaiah 14:7
R' Yitzḥak citing R' Yoḥanan - Prohibits standing in Nebuchadnezzar’s palace—demons dwell there - Isaiah 13:21
Rav Yehuda citing Rav - Nebuchadnezzar’s foreskin miraculously elongated when he tried to rape Zedekiah - Habakkuk 2:15–16
Rav Yehuda citing Rav - Upon Nebuchadnezzar’s descent to Gehenna, others trembled; a bat kol confirmed he shares their fate - Isaiah 14:10; Ezekiel 32:19
Rav Yehuda citing Rav - Babylon’s oppression—measuring and demanding tribute—is over - Isaiah 14:4
Rav Yehuda citing Rav Yirmeya bar Abba - Nebuchadnezzar rode a lion and tied a serpent to its head to show dominion - Daniel 4:33; Jeremiah 27:6
The Passage
Rabba bar Huna - Explains “ḥolesh” (Isaiah 14:12) as casting lots, linked to homosexual exploitation by Nebuchadnezzar - Isaiah 14:12; R' Yoḥanan - All kings “rest” from such exploitation (symbolic end of abuse) - Isaiah 14:18
[...]
כתיב:
״איך נפלת משמים
הילל בן שחר
נגדעת לארץ
חולש על גוים וגו׳״,
אמר רבה בר רב הונא:
מלמד ש:
היה מטיל פור על גדולי מלכות
לידע איזה בן יומו של משכב זכור.
וכתיב: ״כל מלכי גוים כולם וגו׳״,
אמר רבי יוחנן: שנחו ממשכב זכור.
[...]
it is written:
“How have you fallen from heaven,
O day-star, son of the morning!4
How have you been cut down to the ground,
casting lots (חולש) over the nations!” (Isaiah 14:12),
and Rabba bar Rav Huna said:
This verse teaches us that
he, Nebuchadnezzar, would cast lots (פור) for the royal leaders of the nations he had captured,
in order to know whose day it was to service him with homosexual sex5
And it is written: “All the kings of the nations, all of them sleep in glory, every one in his own house” (Isaiah 14:18).
And R' Yoḥanan said: The meaning of this verse is that they rested from homosexual sex.
R' Yoḥanan - No one laughed during Nebuchadnezzar’s reign - Isaiah 14:7
ואמר רבי יוחנן:
כל ימיו של אותו רשע
לא נמצא שחוק בפי כל בריה,
שנאמר:
״נחה שקטה כל הארץ
פצחו רנה״,
מכלל דעד השתא לא הוה רנה.
And R' Yoḥanan said:
All of the days of the life of that wicked man,
laughter could not be found in the mouth of any creature,
as it is stated:
“The whole earth is at rest and is quiet;
they break forth into singing” (Isaiah 14:7).
This proves by inference that until now there was not any song.
R' Yitzḥak citing R' Yoḥanan - Prohibits standing in Nebuchadnezzar’s palace—demons dwell there - Isaiah 13:21
(See footnote.)6
ואמר רבי יצחק, אמר רבי יוחנן:
אסור לעמוד בביתו של אותו רשע,
שנאמר: ״ושעירים ירקדו שם״.
And R' Yitzḥak said that R' Yoḥanan said:
It is prohibited even nowadays to stand in the ruins of the house of that wicked man, Nebuchadnezzar, in Babylonia,
for it is stated about that place: “And demons shall dance there” (Isaiah 13:21).
There is concern that one may be injured by the harmful forces there (Maharsha).
Rav Yehuda citing Rav - Nebuchadnezzar’s foreskin miraculously elongated when he tried to rape Zedekiah - Habakkuk 2:15–16
ואמר רב יהודה, אמר רב:
בשעה שביקש אותו רשע, לעשות לאותו צדיק כך,
נמשכה ערלתו שלש מאות אמה,
והיתה מחזרת על כל המסיבה כולה.
שנאמר:
״שבעת קלון מכבוד
שתה גם אתה והערל״,
ערל בגימטריא שלש מאות הוי.
And Rav Yehuda said that Rav said:
At the time when that wicked man, Nebuchadnezzar, wanted to do to that righteous man, Zedekiah, this act of sodomy,
his foreskin was stretched 300 cubits,
and it surrounded the entire company at Nebuchadnezzar’s feast,
as it is stated:
“Woe to one who gives his neighbor drink, who puts your venom in and also makes him drunk so that you may look upon their nakedness. You are filled with shame instead of honor.
Drink, you, and be like one who is uncircumcised [ve-he’arel]” (Habakkuk 2:15–16).
The word arel, which refers here to one who is uncircumcised and also connotes the foreskin, has a numerical value7 of 300.
Rav Yehuda citing Rav - Upon Nebuchadnezzar’s descent to Gehenna, others trembled; a bat kol confirmed he shares their fate - Isaiah 14:10; Ezekiel 32:19
ואמר רב יהודה, אמר רב:
בשעה שירד אותו רשע לגיהנם
רעשו כל יורדי גיהנם,
אמרו:
שמא למשול עליהם הוא בא?!
או ליחלות כמותם הוא בא?!
שנאמר:
״גם אתה חולית כמונו?!
אלינו נמשלת?!״,
יצתה בת קול ואמרה:
״ממי נעמת רדה
והשכבה את ערלים״
And Rav Yehuda also said that Rav said:
When that wicked man descended into Gehenna,
everyone who had already descended to Gehenna trembled (רעשו)
and they said, referring to themselves in third person:
Perhaps he is coming to rule over them?!
or is he coming to be weakened like them?!
As it is stated:
“They all answer and say to you: Have you also become weak like us?!
Have you become like us [eleinu nimshalta]?!” (Isaiah 14:10).
The Hebrew phrase: Eleinu nimshalta, can mean: Have you become like us, or alternatively: Have you come to rule over us.
A bat kol emerged and said:
“Whom do you pass in beauty?!
Go down and be laid with the uncircumcised” (Ezekiel 32:19).
This confirmed that Nebuchadnezzar has the same status in Gehenna as everyone else.
Rav Yehuda citing Rav - Babylon’s oppression—measuring and demanding tribute—is over - Isaiah 14:4
״איך שבת נוגש
שבתה מדהבה״,
אמר רבי יהודה, אמר רב:
שבתה אומה זו שאמרה
מדוד והבא
ואיכא דאמרי:
שאמרה:
״מאד מאד הביא
בלא מדה״.
On a related note, the verse states: “And you shall take up this parable against the king of Babylonia and you shall say: How has the oppressor ceased (שבת)
The exactor of gold8 has ceased (שבתה)” (Isaiah 14:4).
Rav Yehuda said that Rav said:
The meaning of this verse is that this nation that said:.
Measure (מדוד) and bring a lot of money, has ceased (שבתה)
And some say that the meaning of the statement is that
this nation said:
Bring (הביא) very (מאד), very much,
without measure (מדה)
Rav Yehuda citing Rav Yirmeya bar Abba - Nebuchadnezzar rode a lion and tied a serpent to its head to show dominion - Daniel 4:33; Jeremiah 27:6
(See footnote.)9
״ורבו יתירה הוספת לי״,
אמר רב יהודה, אמר רב ירמיה בר אבא:
מלמד ש:
רכב על ארי זכר,
וקשר תנין בראשו,
לקיים מה שנאמר:
״וגם את חית השדה נתתי לו לעבדו״.
The Talmud cites another verse pertaining to Nebuchadnezzar:
“And surpassing greatness was added unto me” (Daniel 4:33),
about which Rav Yehuda said that Rav Yirmeya bar Abba said:
This teaches that
Nebuchadnezzar rode atop a male lion
and tied a serpent (תנין) to its head,
fulfilling what was said of him:
“And the beasts of the field I have also given him to serve him” (Jeremiah 27:6).
The Talmud discusses this story in Sanhedrin 93a, I plan to discuss this story.
On this story in the Talmud, see my two-part “Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah and the Fiery Furnace in the Talmud: Aggadic Expansion of Daniel 3 (Sanhedrin 92b-93a)“, final part here. And see also my appendix here, “Nebuchadnezzar's Giant Statue: The Beginning of the Fiery Furnace Story (Daniel 3:1-5), Formatted and With Etymologies“.
אותו רשע.
On the surface, this is of course because he's identified as the destroyer of the First Temple and the initiator of the Babylonian exile, as mentioned. But it can also be speculated that a broader anti-Babylonian agenda is a factor. It may not be a coincidence that this sugya appears in the same chapter and not long after one about contrasting Babylonia with Eretz Yisrael, see my recent piece: “Why Are Babylonian Birds Fat? Eretz Yisrael Amoraim Probe the Seemingly Superior Babylonia (Shabbat 145b)”.
It’s worth noting that 4 out of the 8 named statements in our sugya (the final 4) are cited from Rav Yehuda; 3 of these are citing Rav.
On this term, see Wikipedia, “Lucifer“, section “In the Bible“, with slight adjustments:
In the Book of Isaiah, chapter 14, the king of Babylon is condemned in a prophetic vision by the prophet Isaiah and is called Helel ben Shachar (Hebrew for "shining one, son of the morning") […]
The title Helel ben Shachar refers to the planet Venus as the morning star, and that is how the Hebrew word is usually interpreted.
The Hebrew word transliterated as Helel occurs only once in the Hebrew Bible […]
For the unnamed "king of Babylon", a wide range of identifications have been proposed.
They include a Babylonian ruler of the prophet Isaiah's own time, the later Nebuchadnezzar II, under whom the Babylonian captivity of the Jews began, or Nabonidus, and the Assyrian kings Tiglath-Pileser, Sargon II and Sennacherib.
The Talmud here clearly sees it as referring to Nebuchadnezzar.
On this in general, see Wikipedia, “Jewish views on homosexuality”, section “Homosexuality in the Torah”.
For another Talmudic mention of the historical ruins of Nebuchadnezzar’s palace, see my previous piece where the Mishnah says a special blessing that’s made on sites related to Nebuchadnezzar, in my “Pt1 From Babylon’s Ruins to Jewish Multitudes: Talmudic Blessings for Idolatry, Crowds, and Leadership (Berakhot 57b-58a)“, section “Blessings Upon Seeing Biblical Babylon’s Archeological Landmarks: Its Ruins, Nebuchadnezzar’s Palace, the Lion’s Den and Fiery Furnace from the Book of Daniel, Statue of Mercury, and Excavation Pit“:
דרש רב המנונא:
הרואה בבל הרשעה,
צריך לברך חמש ברכות:
ראה בבל,
אומר: ״ברוך … שהחריב בבל הרשעה״.
ראה ביתו של נבוכדנצר,
אומר: ״ברוך … שהחריב ביתו של נבוכדנצר הרשע״.
ראה
גוב של אריות
או כבשן האש,
אומר: ״ברוך … שעשה נסים לאבותינו במקום הזה״.
[…]
Rav Hamnuna taught:
One who sees the wicked Babylonia
must recite five blessings:
One who saw the ruins of Babylonia,
recites: “Blessed…Who destroyed the wicked Babylonia”
One who saw the ruins of Nebuchadnezzar’s house,
recites: “Blessed…Who destroyed the house of wicked Nebuchadnezzar”
One who saw
the lion’s den into which Daniel was thrown (see Daniel ch. 6)
or the furnace into which Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were thrown (see Daniel ch. 3),
recites: “Blessed…Who performed miracles for our ancestors in this place”
[…]
And see my intro and notes there.
גימטריא - gematria.
In general, “uncircumcised” (ערל) is a common slur in the Bible for non-Semitic people, especially Philistines. See my note on this in an appendix here, ““Circumcised” as a Metonym for “Jewish”: Vows Concerning Benefit from the 'Circumcised' and the 'Uncircumcised' (Mishnah Nedarim 3:11)”.
And see also the next section, where the same slur is used.
מדהבה - a very unusual word, and the one the Talmud attempts to explain, as either related to “measurement” (מידה) or “very” (מאוד).
The depiction here is likely referencing the symbols at the historical ruins of Nebuchadnezzar’s palace, see Wikipedia, “Ishtar Gate“, section “History“:
King Nebuchadnezzar II reigned 604–562 BC, the peak of the Neo-Babylonian Empire. He is known as the biblical conqueror who captured Jerusalem.
He ordered the construction of the gate and dedicated it to the Babylonian goddess Ishtar.
The gate was constructed using glazed brick with alternating rows of bas-relief mušḫuššu (dragons), aurochs (bulls), and lions, symbolizing the gods Marduk, Adad, and Ishtar respectively.
And ibid., section “Design“:
The front of the gate has a low-relief design with a repeated pattern of images of two of the major gods of the Babylonian pantheon.
Marduk, the national deity and chief god, with his servant dragon Mušḫuššu, is depicted as a dragon with a snake-like head and tail, a scaled body of a lion, and powerful talons for back feet.
Marduk was seen as the divine champion of good against evil, and the incantations of the Babylonians often sought his protection.
And see also ibid., “Inscription of Nebuchadnezzar II“:
The inscription of the Ishtar Gate is written in Akkadian cuneiform in white and blue glazed bricks and was a dedication by Nebuchadnezzar to explain the gate's purpose.
On the wall of the Ishtar Gate, the inscription is 15 meters tall by 10 meters wide and includes 60 lines of writing.
The inscription was created around the same time as the gate's construction, around 605–562 BCE.
So the “lion with the tanin at the head” being ridden by Nebuchadnezzar in our Talmudic passage would be a symbol of Marduk, the Neo-Babylonian national deity and chief god. There’s a subversive element to Nebuchadnezzar riding his god.
Image of Mušḫuššu dragon in Istanbul, Ancient Orient Museum, Ishtar Gate (from Wikimedia Commons):
