Rabsaris

Rabsaris is a Mesopotamian court title borne by senior officers in two distinct settings: an Assyrian envoy sent by Sennacherib against Jerusalem under Hezekiah, and a Babylonian prince present at the fall of Jerusalem under Nebuchadnezzar. The title is the same across both contexts; the persons holding it are different.

The Assyrian Officer at Jerusalem

In the Hezekiah crisis, Rab-saris is one of three named officers Sennacherib sends against the city: "And the king of Assyria sent Tartan and Rab-saris and Rabshakeh from Lachish to King Hezekiah with a great army to Jerusalem. And they went up and came to Jerusalem. And when they had come up, they came and stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is in the highway of the fuller's field" (2 Kgs 18:17). Rab-saris is paired with Tartan and Rabshakeh; the dispatch is from Lachish; the standing-place at the conduit of the upper pool fixes the encounter geographically.

The Babylonian Princes at Jerusalem's Fall

The title appears again, now Babylonian, in two notices from the fall of Jerusalem. The princes of the king of Babylon come in and sit in the middle gate: "And all the princes of the king of Babylon came in, and sat in the middle gate, [to wit,] Nergal-sharezer, Samgar-nebo, Sar-sechim the Rabsaris, Nergal-sharezer the Rabmag, with all the rest of the princes of the king of Babylon" (Jer 39:3). Here "Sar-sechim the Rabsaris" carries the title.

In the same chapter, after the city falls and Jeremiah is sought out, the officers act on Nebuzaradan's commission: "So Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard sent, and Nebushazban, Rab-saris, and Nergal-sharezer, Rab-mag, and all the chief officers of the king of Babylon" (Jer 39:13). The Rab-saris of this verse is Nebushazban, distinct from the Sar-sechim of Jer 39:3 — or, on the harmonizing reading the umbrella allows, Nebushazban as a second name for the same office-holder.

In every appearance the bearer is a senior court officer beside a parallel title (Tartan, Rabshakeh, Rab-mag), and the title — not the personal name — is what the umbrella collects.