RAB-SHAKEH ; Sept. 'PaVicto2s).
This name is Aramaic, and signifies chief-cup bearer. Notwithstanding its seemingly official significance, it appears to have been used as a proper name, as butler with us ; for the person who bore it was a military chief in high command, under Sennacherib king of Assyria. Yet it is not impossible, according to Oriental usages, that a royal cup-bearer should hold a military command ; and the office itself was one of high distinction. He is the last named of three Assyrian generals who appeared before Jerusalem ; and was the utterer of the insulting speeches addressed to the besieged. He stood and cried with a loud voice in the Jews' language ;' perhaps because he was the only one of the three who could speak that language freely. 2 Kings xviii. 17, 19, 26, 28, 37 ; xix. 4, 8 ; Is, xxxvi. 2, 4, 12, 13, 22 ; xxxvii. 4, 8. —J. K.
RACA ('PaKd), a word which occurs in Matt.
v. 22, and which remains untranslated in the A. V. It is expressive of contempt, from the Chaldee Nr, and means an empty, worthless fellow. Jesus, contrasting the law of Moses, which could only take notice of overt acts, with his own, which renders man amenable for his motives and feelings, says in effect : Whosoever is rashly angry with his brother is liable to the judgment of God ; who soever calls his brother Raca is liable to the judg ment of the Sanhedrim ; but whosoever calls him fool (Mope) becomes liable to the judgment of Gehenna.' To apprehend the higher criminality here attached to the term fool, which may not at first seem very obvious, it is necessary to observe that while rata' denotes a certain looseness of life and manners, fool' denotes a wicked and reprobate person : foolishness being in Scripture opposed to spiritual wisdom.—J. K.