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RabsarisInsight on the Scriptures, Volume 2
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RABSARIS
(Rabʹsa·ris) [Chief Court Official].
The title of the chief court official in the Assyrian and Babylonian governments. The Rabsaris was one of the committee of three high Assyrian dignitaries that was sent by the king of Assyria to demand the surrender of Jerusalem in King Hezekiah’s time.—2Ki 18:17.
The Rabsaris was one of the Babylonian officials taking control of Jerusalem for Nebuchadnezzar when the city fell in 607 B.C.E., and Nebushazban is named as the Rabsaris in connection with Jeremiah’s being directed to dwell with Gedaliah. (Jer 39:3, 13, 14; 40:1-5) Excavations have unearthed inscriptions bearing the title.—Bulletin of the Israel Exploration Society, Jerusalem, 1967, Vol. XXXI, p. 77; Le palais royal d’Ugarit, III, Paris, 1955, No. 16:162, p. 126.
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RabshakehInsight on the Scriptures, Volume 2
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RABSHAKEH
(Rabʹsha·keh) [from Akkadian, probably meaning “Chief Cupbearer”].
The title of a major Assyrian official. (2Ki 18:17) A building inscription of the Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser III says: “I sent an officer of mine, the rabsaq, to Tyre.” Also, from a tablet in the British Museum an inscription of King Ashurbanipal reads: “I ordered to add to my former (battle-) forces (in Egypt) the rabsaq -officer.”—Ancient Near Eastern Texts, edited by J. Pritchard, 1974, pp. 282, 296.
While Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, was laying siege to the Judean fortress of Lachish, he sent a heavy military force to Jerusalem under the Tartan, the commander-in-chief, along with two other high officials, the Rabsaris and the Rabshakeh. (2Ki 18:17; the entire account appears also at Isa chaps 36, 37.) Of these three superior Assyrian officials, Rabshakeh was the chief spokesman in an effort to force King Hezekiah to capitulate in surrender. (2Ki 18:19-25) The three stood by the conduit of the upper pool.
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