Abrech (Hastings' Dictionary)

A word called out before Joseph as he passed through the land of Egypt in his ofllcial capacity of prime minister to the Pharaoh ((in 41"). Its exact signification ia not a matter of agieement amongst scholars. The LXX (tKipvitv lp.Trpoaeei> airov K-qpu^) and the Vulg. {clamante prcccone, lit omnes coram eo genu flecterent) are not literal or direct translations. The Targ. of Onk. interprets it as ' father of the king,' on the ground possiblv of Gn 45'.

Jewish scholars who have derived it from Heb. refer it to the root tii; bend the knee, in the Hiph. Imv., where, for the usual n, an K has l>een substituted (cf. Jer 25'). Luther regarded the case as hopeless, in saying, 'Was ahrec/t heisse, lassen wir die Ziincker suchen bisz an den jiingsten Tag' (Ges. Thes. p. 19). Of the many proposed Egyp. (and Coptic) derivations, we need note only the following :—(!) Abrek (oTrpe/c) caput inclinare (Rossi, Etyinnl. cegypt. p. 1, in Ges. Thci. p.

19) ; (2) ap-rex-v, heiidofthe wise (Harkavv, Ikrl. yEgypt. Zeitschr. 1869, p. 132) ; (3) ab-rck, rejoice thou (Cook, Speaker's Com. in loco, p. 482) ; (4) ab{u)-rek, thy commandment is the object of our desire, i.e. 'we are at thy service' (Renouf, Pro- ceedings Soc. Bib. Arch. Nov. 1888, pp. 5-10). On the other hand, several derivations are suggested from the Asiatic-Sem. side: (1) Sayce compares it with an ' Accadian ' abrik, a seer, appearing also in the Sem.

form, on an unpublished tablet, of abrikku (Hibbert Lectures, 18S7, p. 183, n. 3) ; (2) Delitzsch compares the Assyr. abarakku (fem. ab(a)rakkatu), a titled personage, possibly orajirf vizier (Paradies, p. 225 ; Beb. Lang. p. 26 ; Proleg. p. 145; and Assyr. Worterbuch, p. 68 f.); (3) Schrader dissents from Delitzsch (COT* i. , 139) ; (4) HaJivy derives it from paraku (Rev. d. Etudes Juives, 1885, p. 304). But of all the suggested sources of this much-abused word, the Heb. and the Assyr.

above mentioned seem to carry with them the least number of difficulties. (The text of Gn 41*"- does not indicate that there was any- thing more than a salute. ) It is, in either event, an Egyptianised Sem. word, probably carried down into E^pt during the centuries of Hyksos rule. This opinion receives support, too, from tne evidence of the Tel el-Amama tablets that there had been for many centuries before Joseph's day free inter- national communication between Egypt and Asia. Ira M. Pricb.