Nevukhadnetzar (נְבוּכַדְנֶצַּר) is the Hebrew rendering of the great Neo-Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II (605–562 BC), whose name in Akkadian means "Nabu protects the boundary" or "Nabu protects the crown." He is the most prominent foreign ruler in the Hebrew Bible, appearing in 2 Kings, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel, and serving as the instrument of God's judgment on Judah.
Nebuchadnezzar is one of Scripture's most theologically complex figures — a pagan king used by God to execute covenant judgment, yet also a recipient of divine revelation (Daniel 2, 4) and ultimately a confessor of God's sovereignty. After seven years of insanity as divine discipline, he declares in Daniel 4:37: "Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven.\”
This trajectory — from arrogant world-conqueror to humbled worshiper — is one of Scripture's most dramatic portraits of the sovereignty of God over the nations. Jeremiah 25:9 explicitly calls Nebuchadnezzar God's "servant\” — an astonishing title for a pagan king — reminding readers that God uses even His enemies as instruments of His redemptive purposes.