Jeremiah’s 70-Year Prophecy 511 script (26). Further, both texts present the inversion of circumstances as a divine imperative expressed through the lexemes of the text. Given these similarities and the chronological priority of the Esarhaddon inscription, one must consider whether or not it has exerted direct influence on the formation of the Jeremianic passages under consi- deration, and what events generated their deployment. 4. Assyrian Prototypes and 7th Century Judean Literature The literary record of Judah in the late 7th century, which saw the emergence of Jeremiah’s prophetic voice under the aegis of the Josianic court (27), evidences a profound familiarity with the tropes of Assyrian literature and culture in general and Esarhaddon’s reign in specific. We need only cite a few examples: a) Israel’s experience with neo-Assyrian policies of suzerainty is reflected in Samuel’s denouncement of [non-Davidic] kingship in 1 Sam 8,11-18 (28). b) Josiah’s selection of Jeremiah to appeal to his northern kinsmen echoes of Sennacherib’s selection of the Rabshakeh — quite possibly an Israelite from the earlier deportation of the north in 721 who scaled the ranks of the Assyrian military — to address his own former brethren (29). (26) Though the Akkadian and Hebrew systems of script differ (cuneiform syllabic characters vs. alphabetic phonemes), the scribal methods involved in the manipulation of written symbols for purposes of rhetoric or ideological implication are quite similar in both Israelite and Akkadian contexts. See V.A. HUROWITZ, “Additional Elements of Alphabetical Thinking in Psalm xxxiv”, VT 52 (2002) 326-333. See also M. FISHBANE, “Varia Deuteronomica”, ZAW 84 (1972) 349-352 for parallels between Akkadian and Deuteronomic scribal methods. (27) For Jeremiah’s activity during Josiah’s reign, see SWEENEY, King Josiah, 208-233; LEUCHTER, Jeremiah, 84-139. A Josianic stratum may be detected in Jer 30–31 and 2–4. (28) On 1 Sam 8,11-18 as a meditation on Assyrian hegemony, see M. LEUCHTER, “A King Like All The Nations: The Composition of I Sam 8,11-18”, ZAW (forthcoming), wherein close parallels are drawn between the points articulated by Samuel and the neo-Assyrian imperial practices recorded in numerous royal inscriptions. (29) The early Josianic oracles of Jeremiah (see the note above) pertain to Josiah’s intended control of the territories constituting the former northern kingdom of Israel, and it was to northern heritage that Jeremiah was bound by lineage (cf. Jer 1,1; 32,6-15). For the Rabshakeh as a once-Israelite, see M. COGAN – H. TADMOR, II Kings (AB; New York 1988) 230.