In the Service of the King: Officialdom in Ancient Israel and Judah.

• Author: Rainey, A.F.
• Position: Reviews of Books

In the Service of the King: Officialdom in Ancient Israel and Judah. By NILI SACHER Fox. Cincinnati: HEBREW UNION COLLEGE PRESS, 2000. Pp. 367.

This monograph meets the need for an up-to-date examination of all the various titles for officials in the Hebrew Bible. Nili Fox has not only collected the Hebrew terms, she has also compared each one with relevant titles and usages in Egypt, Mesopotamia, and the Levant. She has thus placed the material for ancient Israelite/Judean bureaucracy firmly within the framework known from contemporary societies. The philological and lexicographical work is generally on a very high and duly cautious level. No exaggerated theories or dubious etymologies are to be found here. The secondary bibliography is thorough and there is a useful index.

Instances where parallel offices are documented in neighboring cultures are duly noted. But the general conclusion seems to be that Israelite/Judean cadres were not mere copies of those of some other regime but were established to meet the needs of the local situation. There are some interesting influences from Egypt, such as the harrowing of Ramesside hieratic numerals (pp. 250-68), which were used throughout the age of the monarchy (rather than the system of numerals in use among the Phoenicians). This certainly could be an argument for a more sophisticated governmental structure than some modem writers are willing to admit. Contact with the Phoenicians is, nevertheless, present hut perhaps evident chiefly in contrasts used by the prophets (cf. soken below),

This reviewer can only feel pleased with the proper definition of the "son of the king" as "a person born of the royal family" and not some ridiculous "junior official" (pp. 43-53) and the description of the significance of the Samaria Ostraca (pp. 204-16). The treatment of the lmlk seal impressions on wine jars is also thorough and scrupulous. It can profitably be compared now with the more extensive analysis by A. Vaughn, Theology, History, and Archaeology in the Chronicler's Account of Hezekiah (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1999), 81-165.

There are two issues, however, on which a much different interpretation can be advocated. The first is the meaning and function of the soken (pp. 87, 178-82). Fox has rightly debunked the possibility that this term is etymologically related to Akkadian sakin mati (pp. 181-82), but the meaning which she proposes, "one who provides service," is not commensurate with the few...