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Nebo-Sarsekim Tablet
document · 595/594 BC · Assyria and Babylon · also called Nabu-sharrussu-ukin tablet
See it on the map and timeline
- Date
- 595/594 BC (the date written on the tablet)
- Found
- Probably Sippar, Iraq (from a temple archive), 1920. Part of a temple archive thought to come from Sippar; acquired by the British Museum in 1920 and left unpublished until Michael Jursa of the University of Vienna recognised its importance in 2007.
- Now
- British Museum, London (BM 114789)
- Passages
- Jeremiah 39:3
What it is
A small clay tablet, about 5.5 cm wide, recording a gift of gold to the Esagila temple in Babylon made by Nabu-sharrussu-ukin, the chief eunuch (rab sha-reshi) of Nebuchadnezzar II. It is dated in the king’s 10th year (595/594 BC).
How it connects to the Bible
Jeremiah 39:3 lists the Babylonian princes who sat in the middle gate of Jerusalem when the city fell, among them “Sarsechim, Rab–saris” in the KJV, a name and title that many read as Nebo-sarsekim the chief official. Jursa argued that the official on the tablet is the same man: the name is rare, the title matches, and the tablet is only eight years earlier.
What scholars debate
The identification depends on how the names in Jeremiah 39:3 are divided, which translations do differently.