First as to the use of the term “Scribe” = _Sôphēr_ in Hebrew, and is used in the sense of “secretary” or the like; in 2 Samuel viii. 17, e.g., among David’s officials are reckoned “Zadok the son of Ahitub, and Ahimelech the son of Abiathar, who were priests; and Seraiah, who was scribe” (cp. 2 Sam. xx. 25; 2 Kings xviii. 18, etc.). As a royal official he had various duties; he acted as treasurer, according to 2 Kings xii. 11, 2 Chronicles xxiv. 11, apparently in some military capacity, according to 2 Kings xxv. 19, Jeremiah lii. 25; in Psalm xlv. 2 a _Sôphēr_ is clearly one who writes (“My tongue is the pen of a ready writer” [_Sôphēr_]); and, finally, in Esther iii. 12, viii. 9, he occupies the place of the Persian king’s secretary who writes out decrees. With one exception (Ps. xlv. 2), in all these passages the Scribe is spoken of as a royal official; they are, therefore, only important for us here as showing that the ideas of counting and writing are connected with the term _Sôphēr_; and these are exactly the meanings conveyed by the root. The three next passages, which give some _data_ regarding the office of the Scribe, have a special importance because they are pre-exilic— Jeremiah viii. 8, 9: “How do ye say, We are wise, and the Law of the Lord is with us? But, behold, the false pen of the Scribes hath wrought falsely. The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken; lo, they have rejected the word of the Lord; and what manner of wisdom is in them?” Jeremiah xviii. 18: “Then said they, Come and let us devise devices against Jeremiah; for the Law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet.” Jeremiah xxxvi.: This chapter is too long to quote in full; it tells us of Baruch, the Scribe, who wrote down Jeremiah’s words “upon a roll of a book”; it also mentions Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, the Scribe, who had his chamber “in the upper court, at the entry of the new gate of the Lord’s house” (verse 10); further, mention is also made of Elishama the Scribe, who had his chamber in the king’s house (verse 12); Elishama was clearly a royal official.