Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadInternational Standard Bible Encyclopedia: Sheshach
Subjects in this Topic:
shē´shak (ש×ש×ך, sheÌ„shakh, as if “humiliationâ€; compare ש×כך, shaÌ„khakh, “to crouchâ€): The general explanation is that this is “a cypherform of 'Babel' (Babylon)†which is the word given as equivalent to “Sheshach†by the Targum (; ; the Septuagint omits in both passages). By the device known as AtbasÌŒ (×תבשׂ), i.e. disguising a name by substituting the last letter of the alphabet for the first, the letter next to the last for the second, etc., ששך is substituted for שבבל, baÌ„bhel. This theory has not failed of opposition. Delitzsch holds that “Sheshach†represents SÌŒisÌŒ-kuÌ‚-KI of an old Babylonian regal register, which may have stood for a part of the city of Babylon. (For a refutation of this interpretation see Schrader, KAT2, 415; COT, II, 108 f.) Lauth, too, takes “Sheshach†to be a Hebraization of Siska, a Babylonian district. Winckler and Sayce read Uru-azagga. Finally, Cheyne and a number of critics hold that the word has crept into the text, being “a conceit of later editors.†See further JEREMIAH, 6.