“539. RABSHAKEH’S ORATION—ISAIAH 36-37”

Rabshakeh’s Oration—Isaiah 36-37

In the chapters which relate to the Assyrian invasion of Judah under Sennacherib, there are many particulars which receive new and interesting illustration from the recent discoveries of Layard and Botta in Assyrian antiquities. These, indeed, refer chiefly to the public life of the Assyrians; and do not furnish those details of all the social and private life of the people which the painted tombs of Egypt present to us. But it is chiefly in this their public life and warlike operations that the Scripture brings the Assyrians before us; and the sculptures which have been brought to light, do therefore furnish respecting this remarkable ancient people, exactly the kind of information which was most to be desired; and it is to be hoped that further discoveries may supply information respecting much that yet remains obscure or doubtful.

The chapters to which we have come, treat, nearly in the same words, of that invasion of the land of Judah by Sennacherib, king of Assyria, which is recorded in 2 Kings 18-19. The historical incidents have already occupied our attention in considering that portion of Scripture; and we are now left more at liberty to point out the indications of Assyrian usages which the present narrative of the same transaction offers. We shall, of course, take them in the order in which they occur; and in our way through the Prophets, all those which the Scriptures appear to furnish must pass under our notice.

What first comes under consideration is the insolent message delivered before the walls of Jerusalem by Rabshakeh, in the name of his master the king of Assyria. He first derides the Hebrews for trusting for help to the king of Egypt: “Lo, thou trustest on the staff of this broken reed, on Egypt; whereon if a man lean, it will go into his hand, and pierce it.” This comparison would only be likely to occur to persons in the habit of using walking-staves.

Assyrian King with Staff

As it happens, this was equally true both of the Assyrians and the Egyptians, and was therefore the more appropriate; and in both the staves used in walking were taller than is usual with us—generally as tall as the shoulder; and it is evident from the Egyptian specimens that men, when standing still, threw much of the weight of their bodies upon their staves—or, in other words, were apt to lean forcibly upon them, so that from this, as well as from their length, the accident of their breaking, unless of good quality, could not fail to be of frequent occurrence, which, from both circumstances, would more frequently be attended with injury than might at first be supposed. It is also observable that the Egyptian walking-staff has usually a slim, rod-like appearance, whereas the Assyrian one is commonly a stout and substantial stick; so that the former would be much more liable to break than the latter. It is therefore likely that the known frequency of this accident among the Egyptians gave much sarcastic point to the similitude which Rabshakeh, leaning upon his own strong staff the while, denounced Judah’s trust in the Egyptian king. It is well to add that the walking-cane appears far more frequently in the Egyptian than in the Assyrian monuments. This is doubtless because the latter refer chiefly to warlike proceedings, in which the personages find sufficient occupation for their hands in the management of their weapons and their reins. It appears, however, as among the Egyptians in social life. The king uses it when he takes his walks abroad, which may remind us moreover that staves were anciently the scepters of kings, though all staves were not scepters. Indeed, in Hebrew there is but one word for a staff and a scepter.

Assyrian King and Cup-bearer

Of this Rabshakeh himself, it has already been remarked, that this is not a name but a title of office, that of “chief cupbearer;” and it has been shown that this was a high office in the East, so that there is nothing extraordinary in persons holding it appearing as generals, ambassadors, or governors. In one of the sculptures from Nimrud, recently arrived at the British Museum, a cup-bearer is represented in the discharge of his proper office. The king is seated on his throne, which is an ornamented and elevated chair without any back, and has just taken the broad saucer-like wine-cup from the salver, and holds it not as we should do, but sustains it upon the points of his fingers, after a fashion still usual in the same region. Before him stands the cup-bearer, holding in his right hand a fly-flapper, and in the other the salver on which he has presented the wine-cup, which is furnished with a curious handle terminating in bird’s heads. The physiognomy and beardless face of the cup-bearer, indicate that he was an eunuch. There is little doubt that Rabshakeh was also of that class. In fact one of the principal offices of the Assyrian is expressly designated by his official title of “Rabsaris,” or “chief of the eunuchs.” Indeed the monuments show the personal attendants of the ring to have been chiefly eunuchs; and that those persons rose to the highest rank, and were not merely servants, is shown from the Scripture instances, remarkably corroborated by the sculptures, in which, says Layard, “eunuchs are represented as commanding in war; fighting both in chariots and on horseback; and receiving the prisoners and the heads of the slain after battle. They were also employed as scribes, and are seen writing down the number of the heads and the amount of the spoil obtained from the enemy. The were even accustomed to officiate in religious ceremonies. They appear, indeed, to have occupied the more important posts, and to have exercised the same influence in the Assyrian court as they have since done in the East, where they have not only filled the highest offices of state, but have even attained to sovereign power.”

In the Thirty-second Volume of the Archaeologia of the Society of Antiquaries, there is a memoir by Mr. Birch of the British Museum, relative to “Two bas-reliefs of Assyrian sculpture removed from Khorsabad.” These bas-reliefs form a portion of the discoveries of M. Botta, and were sent by our consul at Mosul (Mr. Rassam) to the late Sir Robert Peel, who sent them to the British Museum for examination and inspection. They were two heads of colossal size, of which engravings are furnished in the publication named. One is that of a warrior; the other, which is that of an eunuch, has the features of a man, rather full, with aquiline nose, soft expression, hair gathered in undulating curls to the back of the head, where it clusters in short spiral curls, with a light fillet colored blue and red passing over the head. The chin is particularly double, and there are ear-rings resembling the Egyptian symbol of life.

Head of Eunuch, from Khorsabad

Mr. Birch, looking to this as a work of art, says: “The eyes and brows of the head of the eunuch are most peculiar in their treatment. The eyebrow is literally cut out and colored black; the lids of the eyes are shell-like, and dyed with the stibium, and the pupil is for a full eye, and colored black. A singular effect is produced by the pupil not being so large as the eye; but this was, no doubt, very different when the monument was in situ, as the height must have rendered it less striking. The chin is peculiarly double and full, although the rest of the face indicates youth; but it would appear from the Egyptian monuments that some of the tribes of Central Asia—the Cheta, for example, a people in the vicinity of Mesopotamia, had this physical development. There is a smile upon the features; and the whole bears much relation to the Egyptian sculptures in part of the treatment; while, on the other hand, it is unequivocally of the same school as early Persian art, and the rigid works of the Archaic-Greek school, executed prior to the Persian invasion of Greece.”

Autor: JOHN KITTO