CUP-BEARER (; Ipuin, properly the Iliphil part. of ryc,j, Hab. u. 15 ; Sept. olp6xoor ; po cillator, pincerna). The office of cup-bearer is one of great antiquity. We find several in the court of Pharaoh (C?p,b ltV, Gen. xl. 20), as well as in the courts of Solomon (I Kings x. 5 ; 2 Chron. ix. 4), of Sennacherib king of Assyria (2 Kings xviii. 17, etc.), of Artaxerxes Longimanus (Neh. i. ir), and of Herod (Jos. Ant. xvi. 8. I). They were generally eunuchs ; and there is no reason to suppose that Rabshakeh or Nehemiah were exceptiqps to the general rule, particularly as Rabshakeh (whose name, or rather title, means chief of the cup-bearers,' rendered der Erz schenke' by Luther) is mentioned in connection with Rabsaris, chief of the eunuchs.' If Rabshakeh was (as there is some reason to believe) an apostate Jew, it will spew how largely the captive Jews were employed in domestic service at ancient courts (cf. Dan. i. 4). As the cup-bearer had the
highly-valued privilege of access to the king's pre sence, and that, too, at his most merry and unbend ing moments, the office was one of high value and importance. This explains the enormous wealth which Nehemiah, during his term of service in the Persian court, had been able to amass. Cup bearers are frequently represented on the Assyrian monuments (Layard's Nin. ii. 306). It may be worth observing, that when Pharaoh's butler or cup-bearer (Gen. xl. ir), speaks of pressing grapes into Pharaoh's cup, this may merely belong to the imagery of his dream ; but, at the same time, it is not impossible that the king, under the control of a scrupulous hierarchy, may, at some period, have been forbidden to drink the juice of the grape ex cept in its unfermented state.—F. W. F.