The cuneiform inscriptions and the Old Testament - The Search For ...

68 THE CUNEIFOBM INSCBIPTIONS AND TEE 0. T.
Should we not then regard the punishment referred-to in
this Biblical passage * as that of "impaling" i, e. the
379 spiking of a living body upon a pointed stake ? Executions of
this kind are frequently portrayed on the reliefs, at any rate
of the Assyrians. We might compare with the expression
used in scripture the oft-recurring Assyrian phrase ina
zakipi azkup; also the Aramaic ^pT ^^^1, as well as
\^^-oy crux **.
BOOK OF NEHEMIAH.
I. 1. And it came to pass in the month Kislev (1???);
comp. chap. II. 1 and it came to pass in the month Nisan
(]D^J). The reader is aware that these and the other
corresponding names of months first came into use among
the Hebrews after the time of the exile, and it has there-
fore been often assumed that they are of Persian origin.
But it has been established beyond all doubt that their
source is Babylono-Assyrian. In the first place, they were
already employed by the prophet Zechariah I, 7. VII, 1.
Secondly, we find them in continuous texts of the iuscrip-
* The passages Esth. V, 14. VII, 10 are not necessarily of the
same character.
** It is evident from the Behistun-inscription of Darius lines 63, 83
(diku u baltu dead and living) that the phrase ina zakipi askun
(aStakan) can also express the fixing of living beings upon a stake.
Respecting the mode of the execution these words do not allow us to
form any definite conclusion. The choice, however, of the preposition
ina in place of ana points in the main to a form of execution like
that which is indicated by the Assyrian ina zakipi azkup, which is,
without doubt, the method of impaling. From the Persian word
uzma in the Behistun inscription, corresponding to the Babylonian
zakipu, it is impossible to gain any mere precise idea about the
manner in which the death-penalty was inflicted, since the meaning
and etymology of the Persian word are themselves doubtful.