Nisroch
NISROCH
A god of the Assyrians, in whose temple, and in the very act of idolatry, Sennacherib was slain by his own sons, 2Ki 19:37 . According to the etymology, the name would signify “the great eagle;” and the earlier Assyrian sculptures recently exhumed at Nineveh have many representations of an idol in human form, but with the head of an eagle, as shown above. Among the ancient Arabs also the eagle occurs as an idol. The other accompanying cut, representing a winged figure in a circle, armed with a bow, is frequently met on the walls of ancient Nineveh in scenes of worship, and is believed to be an emblem of the supreme divinity of the Assyrians.
Fuente: American Tract Society Bible Dictionary
Nisroch
(Heb. Nisnrok’, , usually referred to the root , eagle, with Persian ending och or ach, intensive, i.q. great eagle; but, according to Bohlen, perhaps a Sanscrit word, from nis, night’ and 7o’gis, . light, i.q. the light of night, i.e. the moon [see Gesen. Thesaur. p. 892]; Sept. , 2 Kings 19:57; , Isa 37:38; v. r. , , ), an idol worshipped by the Assyrians, in whose temple Sennacherib was worshipping when assassinated by his sons, Adrammielech and Sharezer (2Ki 19:37; Isa 37:38). Adopting the above Shemitic derivation of the name, Mr. Layard has discovered an eagle-headed figure in the ruins of Nineveh (at Nimrod), which he supposes to have been the Assyrian Nisroch; and one quite similar has since been dug out at Khorsabad (Nineveh and its Remains, 2:388; Nineveh and its Palaces, p. 219 sq.). . . . A Zoroastrian oracle speaks of God as he that has the head of the hawk. But there are many great if not insuperable difficulties in the way. The name Nisroch is not found on any of the inscriptions; and nisr has not in Assyrian the meaning which it has in Hebrew. No name of any god on the sculptures at all resembles Nisroch, and the hawk-headed figure is more, as professor Rawlinson says, an attendant genius than a god (Four Great Empires, 2:263). Sir Henry Rawlinson even affirms that Asshur had no temple at Nineveh in which Sennacherib could have been worshipping (Herodot. 1:485); while Layard thinks that the king may have been slain in a temple of this god, and that the Hebrews, seeing the hawk-headed figure so frequently sculptured in connection with him, believed it to be the presiding divinity (Nineveh and Babylon, p. 637). The Jewish rabbins pretend that Nisroch was an idol formed from one of the boards of Noah’s ark (Rashi on Isaiah 37; Kimchi on 2 Kings 19); while others suppose it was an image of the dove which Noah sent out from the ark (Gen 8:8), and have sought confirmation in Lucian’s statement (De Jove Trag. c. 42) that the Assyrians sacrificed to the dove. Many other theories are noticed in Iken’s Dissert. de Nisroch, Idolo Assyr. (Brem. 1747). See also Ideler, Ursprung d. Sternnamsen,p. 416; Creuzer, Symbol. 1:723 sq. Selden confesses his ignorance of the deity denoted by this name (De Dis Syris, synt. ii, c. 10); but Beyer, in his Additamenta (p. 323-325), has collected several conjectures (see Kulenkamp, De Nisroch Idolo Assyriorum, Romans 1747). One is mentioned as more probable by Winer (Realw. s.v.), that it was the constellation Aquila, the eagle being in the Persian religion a symbol of Ormuzd. Parkhurst, deriving the word from the Chaldee root , serak (which occurs in Daniel 6 in the form , sarekayya, and is- rendered in the A. V. presidents), conjectures that Nisroch may be the impersonation of the solar fire, and substantially identical with Molech and Milcom, which are both derived from a root similar in meaning to serak. Josephus has a curious variation. He says (Ant. 10:1, 5) that Sennacherib was buried in his own temple, called Aiasce ( ). It may be inferred from these various renderings that the Hebrew name has been in some way corrupted, and that the initial consonant N or in is a corruption. In that case the real name is something like Asarach or Assar (Niebuhr, Gesch. Assur, p. 131; Brandis, Historisch. Gewinn, p. 105). This would at once connect the name with Asshur, the deified patriarch and head of the Assyrian pantheon, to whom belong as emblems the winged circle and the sacred tree, and who is usually called by his worshippers Asshur, my lord. It has been thought that the reading Nisroch has arisen from taking as a phonetic sign the determinative v which is usually prefixed to the name of a god.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Nisroch
probably connected with the Hebrew word _nesher_, an eagle. An Assyrian god, supposed to be that represented with the head of an eagle. Sennacherib was killed in the temple of this idol (2 Kings 19:37; Isa. 37:38).
Fuente: Easton’s Bible Dictionary
Nisroch
The god of Nineveh, in whose temple Sennacherib was assassinated by his sons (2Ki 19:37; Isa 37:38). From nisr Arabic (Hebrew nesher, “eagle”), with the intensive och, “the great eagle.” The eagle headed human figure that overcomes the lion or bull, depicted in colossal size upon the walls and the portals, and in the groups upon the embroidered robes; a type of the supreme God. Philo Bybl. in Eusebius, Praepar. Evang. i. 10 says first Zoroaster taught that Ormuzd the Persian god was symbolized by the eagle’s head. The constellation Aquila represented it.
Nisroch may be a corruption for Asarak, Assar (related to Asshur), an Assyrian god met with in many Assyrian proper names. Septuagint in many copies have for N. Asorach, Esorach, for which Josephus (Ant. 10:1, section 5) has Araskes. Sir H. Rawlinson says “Asshur had no temple in Nineveh in which Sennacherib could have been worshipping.” Jarchi explains Nisroch “a beam of Noah’s ark.” Nisroch is apparently the eagle headed winged figure, with cone in one hand and basket in the other, taken from the N.W. palace, Nimrud. G. Rawlinson says Nisr is not found with this meaning, and Nisroch nowhere in the inscriptions; Nisroch he regards as a corruption.
Fuente: Fausset’s Bible Dictionary
Nisroch
NISROCH.An Assyr. [Note: Assyrian.] deity in whose temple Sennacherib was worshipping when assassinated (2Ki 19:37, Isa 37:38).
Gesenius compared the name with the Arabic nisr (eagle), and conjectured that it referred to one of the eagle-headed divinities that appear in the bas-reliefs. In later times attempts have been made to identify Nisroch with Nusku (the fire-god)whose name would naturally be most familiar in the construct form Nusuk,and even with Marduk. But Nusku did not at this period occupy a sufficiently prominent position in the Assyr. [Note: Assyrian.] pantheon; and the idea of Marduk, the great god of Babylon, being the patron of Sennacherib, the arch-enemy of that city, is manifestly incongruous. The deity that should logically hold this place is Ashur. Accordingly Prince suggests that Nisroch is a hybrid form due to a confusion of Ashur with Nusku. But comparison with the Greek forms seems to indicate that the original reading was something similar to Asorach. This Schrader explains as Ashurach, a hypothetical lenghtened form of Ashur. And Meinhold conjectures a compound (Ashur-Aku) of Ashur with Aku, the Sumerian name of the moon-god, whose Assyr. [Note: Assyrian.] name Sin is an element in the name Sennacherib.
W. M. Nesbit.
Fuente: Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible
Nisroch
An idol of the Assyrians-derived from the same root as Nisan, but not an Hebrew derivation. (2Ki 19:37)
Fuente: The Poor Mans Concordance and Dictionary to the Sacred Scriptures
Nisroch
nisrok, nizrok (, nisrokh): The Assyrian god in whose temple Sennacherib was worshipping when put to death by his sons (2Ki 19:37; Isa 37:38). The name is not found elsewhere. Some identify him with Asshur, the national deity. See BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA, RELIGION OF.
Fuente: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Nisroch
Nisroch, an idol of the Ninevites (2Ki 19:37; Isa 37:38). The word is now usually supposed to mean ‘great eagle.’ This bird was held in peculiar veneration by the ancient Persians; and was likewise worshipped by the Arabs before the time of Mohammed.
Fuente: Popular Cyclopedia Biblical Literature
Nisroch
[Nis’roch]
An Assyrian idol, in the temple of which at Nineveh Sennacherib was slain. 2Ki 19:37; Isa 37:38.
Fuente: Concise Bible Dictionary
Nisroch
H5268
An idol.
2Ki 19:36-37; Isa 37:37-38
Fuente: Nave’s Topical Bible
Nisroch
Nisroch (nsrch), great eagle? An Assyrian deity in whose temple at Nineveh Sennacherib was murdered by his sons, Adrammelech and Sharezer. 2Ki 19:37; Isa 37:38.
Fuente: People’s Dictionary of the Bible
Nisroch
Nis’roch. (the great eagle). An idol of Nineveh, in whose temple, Sennacherib was worshipping, when assassinated by his sons, Adrammelech and Shizrezer. 2Ki 19:37; Isa 37:38. This idol is identified with the eagle-headed human figure, which is one of the most prominent on the earliest Assyrian monuments, and is always represented as contending with, and conquering, the lion or the bull.
Fuente: Smith’s Bible Dictionary
NISROCH
an Assyrian idol
2Ki19:37; Isa 37:38
Fuente: Thompson Chain-Reference Bible
Nisroch
a god of the Assyrians. Sennacherib was killed by two of his sons, while he was paying his adorations in the temple of this deity, 2Ki 19:37; Isa 37:38. It is uncertain who this god was.