REZEPH . A city mentioned in the message of the Rabshakeh of Sennacherib to Hezekiah ( 2 Kings 19:12 , Isaiah 37:12 ). It is the Ratsappa or Ratsapi of the Assyrian inscriptions, the modern Rasafa , between Palmyra and the Euphrates. This district belonged for several centuries to the Assyrians, and many of the tablets show it to have been an important trade-centre. Between b.c. 839 and 737 the prefects who had authority in the place were, to all appearance, Assyrians, only one, of unknown but apparently late date, having a name which may be West Semitic, namely, Abda’, possibly a form of ‘Abda or ‘ Obadiah .
T. G. Pinches.