NITROCH, a god of the Assyrians. Sennacherib was killed by two of his sons while he was paying his adoration to his god Nitroch in his temple (2 Kings xix. 37.). It is not known who this god Nitroch was. The Septuagint calls him Mefrach, Josephus calls him Arakas. The Hebrew of Tobit published by Munster calls him Dagon. The Jews have a strange notion concerning this deity, and fancy him to have been a plank of Noah's ark. Some think the word signifies a dove; and others understand it an eagle, which has given occasion to an opinion, that Jupiter Belus, from whom the Assyrian kings pretended to be derived, was worshipped by them under the form of an eagle, and called Nitroch. Our poet Milton gives this name to one of the rebel angels.

—— In the assembly next up stood Nitroch, of principalities the prince. Par. Lost, book vi. 447.