Sheshach

shē´shak ( שׁשׁך , shēshakh , as if "humiliation"; compare שׁכך , shākhakh , "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; Jeremiah 51:41; the Septuagint omits in both passages). By the device known as Atbaš (אתבשׂ ), 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., ששך is substituted for שבבל , bābhel . This theory has not failed of opposition. Delitzsch holds that "Sheshach" represents Šiš -kû -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.