A great Chaldean god was Nebo, mentioned in Isaiah xlvi:1, "Bel boweth down, Nebo stoopeth," and he had an immense influence over the lives of the Assyrians and Babylonians, extending over centuries. In primitive times nothing was undertaken without an attempt to consult the wishes of the superior gods, and it is interesting to trace through the tablets on which are inscribed the wonderful cuneiform inscriptions, discovered and deciphered during the past fifty years, how the people were taught by their prophets or priests to consult the predestinations of Nebo, who inscribed at birth what would befall each person during life. Nebo had many names or designations. He was called Laghlaghghi-Gar, or illuminator; Gishdar, or god of the sceptre; Ilu-tashmit, or god of revelations; and the spouse of Tashmit; his name signifies Proclaimer Herald in Assyrian, and Height in Hebrew. Nebo, called Nabu by the Babylonians, was the son of Enlil, or Marduk, the Merodach of the Bible (Jeremiah l:2), who became merged in the Jupiter of the Romans. Nebo was the husband of Tashmitum, or Tashmit, or Tashmetu, sometimes called Erna. Her name is translated as signifying "revelation," "she who listens," or "she who intercedes." She is frequently invoked and besought to placate her more important spouse, or she is appealed to by worshippers to intercede with her consort to reveal what he had prophesied on the "tablets of fate." As the grandson of Ea, who was the god of doctors, Nebo inherited the privileges of healing. He also presided at birth and death, and could cure diseases. One of his symbols seems peculiar and is still retained on the Tarots. It is a sword, for in the minds of the men of his day a pestilence was a certain follower of war. Although Nebo was not the god of war, he was first its herald and then the healer of the sick or wounded, so it was under these conditions that a sword became his attribute. Nebo shared with Shamash, Gula, and Nergal of Assyrian mythology, the power of restoring the dead to life, which, being interpreted, means curing the ill, whether from disease or sin. It was to Nebo that the Assyrian kings ascribed their wisdom, for he was deemed to be the source of all knowledge, and the wonderful inventor of the art of writing that enabled the wise men who were his priests to preserve the records of the different reigns and the history of wars, the description of buildings and their donors, of deeds of valour and of charity, for the enlightenment of posterity. The great temple built at Calah in the time of Ram-man-nerari III (812-783 B. C.) is inscribed with a dedicatory inscription placed by the king on the statue of Nebo. It closes with the sentence: "Oh! posterity, trust in Nabu, Trust in no other god."