Sheshach - International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

SHESHACH

she'-shak (sheshakh, as if "humiliation"; compare shakhakh, "to crouch"):

The general explanation is that this is "a cypherform of `Babel' (Babylon)" which is the word given as equivalent to "Sheshach" by the Targum (Jeremiah 25:26; 51:41; the Septuagint omits in both passages). By the device known as Atbas 'atbas, 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., sh-sh-k is substituted for babhel. This theory has not failed of opposition. Delitzsch holds that "Sheshach" represents Sis-ku-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.

Horace J. Wolf

Bibliography Information
Orr, James, M.A., D.D. General Editor. "Entry for 'SHESHACH'". "International Standard Bible Encyclopedia". 1915.