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RAB-MAG.—The title of Nergal-sharezer, a Babylonian official present at the taking of Jerusalem (Jer_39:3; Jer_39:13). For various conjectures as to the origin of the title, see Hastings’ DB [Note: Dictionary of the Bible.] , s.v. Tentatively adopting the oldest and most obvious account, that it means ‘chief magus,’ we note here that the name magus may very well have been applied to a sacred caste employed in Babylon long before it became associated with Zoroastrianism, to which the silence of the Avesta shows it was originally foreign. See Magi.
James Hope Moulton.