How
Jews could keep their Sabbath in the Administration of the Persian State
Department in 523 BCE of Cambyses
The
Israelites in Exile quickly became integrated in the State Department of the
Assyrian Empire. In Rawlinson IV 2, 32 and 33 is published a text or hemerology
that counseled the king not to do certain activities on four days in a month.
The
Jews had this problem: working in the state department required them to cook
for the king, wash his clothes, prepare his chariot for a long trip, prepare the
fires for his sacrifices. So how could they keep the Lord’s Sabbath if they
have to work like this. So they seemingly devised a solution: a Jewish diviner
will counsel the king that there are four bad days in the month and on those
days the king should not do certain things to prevent evil from coming to him.
The
four days of the month fell every seventh-day and they asked the king the
following things:
1. Do
not eat flesh cooked over coals of an oven. [Real reason: the People of God
should not cook on Sabbath]. 2. Do
not change your clothes on these days. [Real reason: the People of God should
not do washing on Sabbath and when the king change clothes, he wants them to wash
it]. 3. Do
not put clean clothes on these days: 7th, 14th, 21st,
28th. [Real reason: if he change his clothes the dirty ones should
be immediately washed by the Jews on Sabbath]. 4. Do
not offer sacrifice on these days. [The real reason: Do not make fire for
burning on the Sabbath of the Lord]. 5. Do
not ride in your chariot. [Real reason: pray that your flight shall not be on
Sabbath]. 6. Do
not speak in the function of a king on these days. [Real reason: the king
should take a break or rest from his royal functions so that they also have a
break]. 7. The
medical staff shall not put their hands on the patients on this day. [Real
reason: no medical work on the Sabbath]. 8. The
king may bring a gift to Marduk and Isthar at night. [Real reason: Jews want to
have the opening of the Sabbath service themselves]. 9. On
these four days it was fine to lift up the hands to the god. [Real reason: they
want to lift their hands on Sabbath worshipping God]. Source: A. Clay, Miscellaneous
Inscriptions,,,page 96. https://ia800903.us.archive.org/26/items/miscellaneousin01claygoog/miscellaneousin01claygoog.pdf The hemerological texts
published here on plates 50 and 51 and translated on page 76 as well as Clay’s
discussion of the Babylonian Sabbath on these pages, dates to the year 523 BCE
of Cambyses. Rawlinson may date to the years of Ashurbanipal in 650 BCE.
A typical hemerological
text looked like this: Day 1 good day. Day 2 good day Day 3 good day Day 4 good day Day 5 good day Day 6 good day Day 7 bad day thus: don’t
to the list of things above. Day
8 good day. Day
9 good day Day
10 good day Day
11 good day Day
12 good day Day
13 good day Day 14 bad day thus: don’t to the list of things above. Day
15 good day. Day
16 good day Day
17 good day Day
18 good day Day
19 good day Day
20 good day Day 21 bad day thus: don’t to the list of things above. Day
22 good day. Day
23 good day Day
24 good day Day
25 good day Day
26 good day Day
27 good day Day 28 bad day thus: don’t to the list of things above. Day
29 good day Day
30 good day