SAMGAR, SAMGARNEBO (See Nebo-sarsekim; Sarsechim)
SAMGAR-NEBO săm’ gär nē’ bō (
סַֽמְגַּר־נְב֞וּ). A Babylonian army officer who participated in the siege of Jerusalem (
Jer 39:3). It is uncertain whether this text lists four (RSV) officials or only three. If only three, they are Nergal-sharezer the Samgar (Samgar being interpreted as a Babylonian title rather than a personal name), Nebo-sarsechim the Rabsaris, and Nergal-sharezer the Rabmag.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915)
An officer of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, who, according to the Massoretic Text of Jer 39:3, took his seat with other nobles in the middle gate of Jerusalem after the Chaldean army had taken the city. Schrader (COT, ii, 109) holds that the name is a Hebraized form of the Assyrian Sumgirnabu ("be gracious, Nebo"), but Giesebrecht (Comm., 211) conjectures for Samgar a corruption of Sar-mag (Sar-magh), equivalent to Rab-mag (rab-magh), which implies virtual dittography. The number of variant readings exhibited by the Septuagint seems to confirm the belief that the text is corrupt. Nebo (nabu) is there joined with the following Sarsechim to agree with Nebushazban of Jer 39:13. If the name Samgar-nebo is correct, the first Nergal-sharezer "should perhaps be dropped; we would then read: "Samgar-nebo the Sarsechim, Nebushazban the Rab-saris (compare 39:13) and Nergal-sharezer the Rab-mag" (Sayce).
See Rab-mag; Rab-saris.
Horace J. Wolf
