What is a cupbearer?

Another name for 'butler,' who presented the cup to the king, and was responsible to see that there was nothing injurious in it. 1 Kings 10:5; 2 Chr. 9:4; Neh. 1:11.

An officer of great importance in Oriental courts: he presented the drinking cup to the king. Gen. 40:1-23. Nehemiah held the office at Shushan, and was highly esteemed by the king. Neh. 2:1.

The cup-bearer, in those days, was one who stood in nearest intimacy to the king, and, more, particularly, to the king of Persia. You are aware that they made themselves extremely little before the eyes of their servants. As to their people — their subjects — they did not allow them to see them except on comparatively rare occasions. This grew up more and more among them, and it was always, through the jealousy and fear of men, a very responsible position, because the way that many of the subjects retaliated upon the haughtiness and pride of these kings was by forsaking their masters and getting rid of them. The cup-bearer, therefore, was one that stood in one of the most delicate and responsible positions in the empire. He was one who had the life of the king more particularly under his command — if I may say so — and he who is in this position was, practically, in a place of most intimate relationship to the king — a sort of vizier or prime minister to the king, to a certain extent. Nehemiah had the king's confidence, as we can clearly see, and was not interfered with as to his conscience, but his heart was with the people of God.

THE KING'S CUP-BEARER of those days had to be a man of integrity, who would see that nothing undesirable or poisonous was inserted into the King's wine. The tidings he had just received had so affected him that his sorrow was seen in his face. Noticing it, the king was of course suspicious and enquired what moved him to sorrow; as we see in the opening verses of chapter 2. A position was thus created that had definite danger in it, and Nehemiah was 'very sore afraid'. However, he told the king of the tidings that he had received, which accounted for his sad countenance that had revealed the sadness of his heart.

In this prayer of Nehemiah he fully acknowledged and appreciated the fact that God had kept His word in bringing back the remnant of the Jews to Jerusalem; but he feared that the Jews were lapsing again into an unfaithful state, even after God had redeemed them by His great power. But Nehemiah intended to act: he would not only pray and leave it there, nor did he pray that God would send someone to Jerusalem to help the suffering remnant. Since he knew and felt the sorrow of their condition, he considered he was the man to go. He did solicit the approval and help of others, but simply asked God to give him favor "in the sight of this man" (v. 11). Though Artaxerxes was king, yet Nehemiah considered him simply a man in whose heart God could work as easily as in any man. "For," he says, "I was the king's cupbearer." This was an honored and trusted position, and the more trusted, the less likely would the king be to give him a long leave of absence.

The apparel of the ministers must have been very striking, when it held the attention of such a glorious queen. Solomon would require his ministers to exercise the greatest care with respect to their garments. From 1 Timothy 3 we learn that the Lord requires His servants to have habits in keeping with their calling. The overseer was to be "blameless, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach; not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous… ." Paul showed the kind of garments that became the minister of Christ, when he wrote, "by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God" (2 Cor. 4:2); "giving no offence in any thing that the ministry be not blamed: but in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions … as having nothing, and yet possessing all things" (2 Cor. 6:3-10).

Cupbearers had their own special service with the king: it was a dignified position, as Nehemiah shows (Neh. 1:11), and one that called for a heart and mind set free from all anxiety, if joy and gladness were to be ministered to the king. This is the dignified service of those who minister to Christ in His assembly, and belongs to every true Christian, brother and sister alike. We may all surround Him where He leads the praises to His Father in the midst of the assembly, and there minister to His Heart, who is "anointed with the oil of gladness above His companions." Two or three, gathered to the Name of the Lord, may have this holy, happy privilege. Having been set free from all that would hinder, having no more conscience of sins, and being engaged with Christ Himself, we can in praise and worship present to Him the cup of joy for the delight of His heart.

This is not a proper name, but the title of Nergal-sharezer. Jer. 39:3, 13. It has been supposed by some to signify 'chief of the Magi,' and by others, 'chief priest.' On the monuments it is given as ruba emga, which has been interpreted 'the glorious prince.' This would be an appropriate title if Nergal-sharezer is the same person who became Neriglissar the king.

This, like Rab-mag, is a title, its meaning being 'chief eunuch.' It was the title of one who accompanied the Assyrian army when it was sent against Hezekiah. 2 Kings 18:17. One of the princes of Nebuchadnezzar at the siege of Jerusalem also bore this title. Jer. 39:3, 13.

This is a title, signifying 'chief cup-bearer,' borne by an officer who was sent by Sennacherib with the Tartan (general) and a Rab-saris to Jerusalem. He was the chief spokesman; and from the fact of his being able to speak in the Jews' language, he is supposed to have been either a proselyte or an apostate Jew. If so he may possibly have been acquainted with Isa. 10:5-6, for he says, "Am I now come up without the Lord against this place to destroy it? The Lord said to me, Go up against this land and destroy it." 2 Kings 18:17-37. On the other hand, he profanely classes the God of Israel with all the gods that could not protect their worshippers from his master. 2 Kings 19:4, 8; Isa. 36:2-22; Isa. 37:4-8.

Rab’sa ris - Chief eunuch

Rab’sha keh Chief cup-bearer

Both the chief butler and the chief baker of Pharaoh had offended their lord. Nothing is stated as to the nature of their offence, but bearing in mind the fact of Pharaoh being of an alien race and therefore likely to fear an attempt upon his life by poison, it is not surprising that both the chief custodians of his drink and his food had fallen under suspicion. Pending a decision in the matter, they were confined in the same prison as Joseph, and put in his charge. The first link in the Divinely ordered chain of events was that Joseph should be put in the place where the king's prisoners were bound. The second was that in due season these two men should be placed there too.

The history therefore by inspired wisdom supplies precisely what is needed, — evidence of the highest kind which enables us to discriminate what has been already accomplished from the still more momentous things to come, which can be fulfilled only by-and-by in the final downfall of the Assyrian as of every other foe, and in the triumphant establishment of God's kingdom over the earth, when converted Israel shall be delivered by the Messiah returning in judgment of their Gentile adversaries as well as of their own apostates. It is clear as light in the three scriptural accounts, each true to the divine design of the books wherein they respectively occur, that the great king never besieged Jerusalem, contenting himself with sending his servants and a considerable portion of his force from Lachish, whither Hezekiah had sent his confession and also the heavy fine imposed on him; that the Assyrian general in command (Tartan), the chief chamberlain (Rab-saris) and chief cup-bearer (Rab-shakeh) did come to Jerusalem, where the latter reviled Hezekiah, threatened the worst of siege-horrors in the ears of those sitting on the wall, and blasphemed Jehovah as if powerless like other gods; that thereon king Hezekiah and his servants rent their clothes, and, while the king humbled himself, his servants were sent to Isaiah, who gave a re-assuring answer from Jehovah to the king's petition. It is no less clear that Rabshakeh returned to his master, who had departed from Lachish to Libnah, and sent a message again to Hezekiah shorter and yet more blasphemous, and that Hezekiah spread the letter before Jehovah with prayer in the house of Jehovah, when the prophet sent to him a far fuller answer (which, as even sceptics confess, bears unmistakable marks of Isaiah's hand), that the Assyrian king should not approach the city, and should not shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shield, nor cast a mount against it, but Jehovah would turn him back by the way he came. That very night the angel of Jehovah smote 185,000 in the Assyrian camp, "all the mighty men of valour, and the leaders and captains." So Sennacherib returned with shame, and (when, we are not told) was slain by two of his own sons in the house of his god.