Sheriff (Hastings' Dictionary)

In Dn 3»- ' ' sheriffs ' is the EV tr. of Aram. KjTirfi, a word of quite uncertain meaning. Bevan and Driver regard it as improbable that it has any connexion with the Arab, afta ' to notify a decision of the law' (ptcp. mufti, ' a, jurisconsult '). This supposed connexion probably underlies the RVm ' lawyers.' Bevan thinks it possible that the word may be a mutilated form of some Persian title ending in pat ' chief.' For an account of other conjectures see Driver or Prince, ad loc.

Perhaps Theod. and LXX render by oi iir' iiowiCiv, but it is impossible to be certain, as their text contains only seven names of officials as against eight in the Aramaic text. J. A. Selbie. SHESHACH {^'^). — This name, which occurs only in Jer 25 (32) »« 51(28)« (LXX om. in both passages), is generally taken to be a designation of Babylon (cf. the parallelism in the latter pas- sage : ' How is Sheshach taken, and the praise of all the earth surprised !

How is Babylon become a desolation among the nations !') It is probable, in fact, that Sheshach is simply a crj'ptical wav of writing Babel. By the device known as AtSash SHESHAI SHESHBAZZAS 493 {rzr.K) whereby K = n, : = r, and so on, the last letter of tlie Heb. alphabet being substituted for tlie first, the second last for the second, etc., "uc would be written for S^d.

An example of tlie same thing should probably be discovered in 'cp zh of Jer 51 (-S) ', wliich apparently has been substituted for an original C"^;'; (LXX XaXooious). See, further, A. Berliner, Beitrdoe zur ITeb. Gramm. aus Tal- mud und Midrasch, pp. 12-14. It is right to add that Frd. Delitzsch [Paradies, 214 tr.) rejects this explanation of Sheshach, holding that it represents SisJcii-KI of an ancient Bab.

regal register, which may have stood for a quarter or division (perhaps Borsippa) of the city of Babylon (cf. Lautli in r::>IlA, 1881, p. 47 f.) Schrader {A',1 T- 415 [COT ii. 108 f.]) objects that tlie name quoted bj' Delitzsch is not found in the later Bab. literature (dating from the time of Nebuchadnezzar), and that even the reading of the name Is by no means settled. J. A. Selbie.