7

Elmer Holmes Bobst Library New York University

MARI AND THE BIBLE

STUDIES IN THE HISTORY AND CULTURE OF THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST

EDITED BY

B. HALPERN anv M.H.E. WEIPPERT

VOLUME XII

MARI AND THE BIBLE

BY

ABRAHAM MALAMAT

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

si i and culture of the an ar East ISSN 6169-9 ISBN 9004108637 falk. pape Mari (Ext Assyro-B an lterature—Relation to thy i T fi 9$99.M3M343._ 199 ar

Die Deutsche Bibliothek ~ CIP-Finheitsaufnahme

Avrihim: B Abraham Malamat. - Leiden ; Boston

CONTENTS

Preface i

MARI AND THE WEST

The Cultural Impact of the West (Syr Mesopotamia in the Old B

The Sacred Sea

Mari and its Relations with the Eastern Mediterranea

Hazor Once Again in New Mari Document: 4 Mari and Hazor: Trade Relations in the Old Babylonian Period 45

Mari and Hazor: The Implication for the Middle E

ze Age Chronolog 51

PART ‘TWO PROPHECY Intuitive Prophecy ~ A General Survey 9

Prophetic Revelations in Mari and the Bible Complementary Consi

Episodes Involving Samuel and Saul and. th Prophetic Texts from Mar 02 A Mari Prophecy and Nathan’s Dynastic Oracle 06

Parallels between the New Prophecic Biblical Prop

New Light fr Prophe The Secret C Mari a

m M. 1

m Mari (ARM XXVD) on Biblical

13. New Mari Documents and Prophecy in Ezekiel + A New Prophetic Message from Ale it Biblical Counterp 5 Deity Revokes Kingst Towards Intellectual Reasoning in Mari and in the Bil

PART THREE

CUSTOMS AND SOCIETY

16 A Recently Discovered Wo ts Hebrew Cognate

17 A Note on the Ritual of Tr the Bible

18 Is there a Word for the Royal Harem in the Bible? The

) The Correspondence of Sibtu, Queen of Mari in ARM X

20 The Great King ~ A Pre-eminent Royal Title in Cuneiform Sources and in the Bible

21 ‘Amm L'BADAD YISKON: A Diplomatic Report from Mari and an Oracle of Balaar

of the Old Babylonian Period and Biblical

“Clan” in Mari and

Making in Mari and

Abbreviation: List of Archives Royales de Mari (ARMT Indices ~ ARM(T) and other Ai Biblical and Post-Bit General Index

ent Near Eastern Sources ical

192 16 237 240

241 245

PREFACE

The present volume contains twenty-two chapters, almost all originally

published in journals or in t usually Fests

However, the articles have here und

and substantial updatin

B; especially those chapters 19, 20 and 21, which have remai

ier date (except for

ically unchanged

Two of the chapters have hitherto not been published in English

(chs. | and 13) and a few others are still in the press elsewhere, The

book frequently incorporates cross-references, so that the reader may

asily find comple

of th redundant have been eliminated,

with. On the

hand, certain passage ginal papers which have now become

I remains some he b

overlap, There has not been any attempt throughout

form to the technical apparatus, which remains

The original articles span a period of over 25 years and have been nject of Mari and the Bible

papers included in the volume w

«lected from my entire output on the si

but the

composed in the 1990s. The papers have been arra

to subject matter and divided into three parts. After an h

xdluctory First Part deals with Mari ied relations with Syria, Palestine and the Mediterra: Mari “Prophecy” an that the former is a forerunner of biblical

Chapter, which emphasizes method,

and its va nean. The Se counte

d Part deals with

ts biblical

prophecy, but should not be conceived as its origin. The Third Part

deals with cus

s, both religious and profane, and institutions and, in a way, social facets at large

In short, the present book highlights the significance of Mari, not P

nly for its time, but also for the later corpus of the Bible, as well a:

for biblical Israel, from the spiritual sphere to the material and

mundane. Mari remains thr

hout the years, and perhaps i

ingly, without doubt one of the mos tant external sources

illuminating the Bible and Early Isra

Under the title of each chapter, the source of th publica-

ndicated. Here we express our thanks to the variou

with the chapter sequence) for

Verlag (Berlin), MacMillan salem), SI

Israel Academy of Press (Sheffield), Peter rusalem), Osterreichische

ie Israel Exy demie der Wissenschaft University Press (London and Oxfor for FS Frerichs (U.S.A), De Gruyter B Orient (Paris), Padaia (Brescia), Kohlhamamer (Stuttgart), Eisenbrauns Winona Lake, IN), Oriental Institute (Prague), CDL Press (Bethesda MD), the American Oriental Society (Baltimore

ritish Academy and Oxford EJ. Brill (Leiden), S. Gitin lin), Société Exudes du Proche

The work on of papers published in the 1990s has been Fund for Basic Ri ministered by the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities and

Tam

ateful to the Academy. My sincere thanks go also to

the Mari in Paris and above all to its head, Prof. J.-M.

D was of significant help in various ways, I cannot list h lk assistan tudents whose discourses with me were of considerable be my endeavor, But a number of

I greatly profited should be mentioned: Prof. Pinhas Artzi (Ramat

Gan) (who Rafi Grafman ( Jerusal ate Jona Greenfield Levine (New York Jerusal

4 two of the articles, chs, 19 and 20), Mr nfs. Moshe Greenberg ( Jerusalem), the salem), W.W. Hallo (New Haven), Baruch Millard (Liverpool) and Aaron Shaffer

A

My thanks also to Mrs. R. Nikolsky and Miss A. Lifshitz who assisted Mrs. GA. Bi

Publishing House of EJ. Brill Ancient Near East and Asian andling and taking care of the

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY MARI AND THE BIBLE: A COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE*

culture or society, two methods shall ned here w applied to the Babylonian we i hed scholar Benno Landsberger in his semin f a2 Dia. igen begriffiichkeit der baby hen W slated into English as “T Conceptual Autonomy of the nian World”, 1976). This ap proach to understandis ancie ure has enjoyed acceptanc mong scholars bold enou hat their empathy enable them to reconstruct the p: re or | ly, and that the are capable of putting themsel ¢ shoes of the

A less presumptuous method, not in contrast to the previous one, has become w fur nerations, It aims at understanding the culture y ncic 7 modem, of a soc he basis of nethod.? Th pproach has gained favour in many of the humaniti al well as linguistics.” Grit comps od claim that

Th F bs 1

P Mali N FLD c Ancbopolagcal(

‘ Anshropolgy, Lt 0:

087; M 8 kirchen 20

For bit c J. M "

2 PXTRODUGTORY ESSAY — MARI AND THE BIBLE

distort

that comparisons between different societies lea Notwi

T have adopted

al or imagined shortcoming:

tanding and with

| for proffering new interpretations in my Hebrew Bible.’ A sk the great Russian thinker V. Bakhtin, conveys the idea

studies related to Mari and

fic culture is only possible

from the vantage point of a different one. What is required is a

parative study which presents not only similarities, parallels and analo-

gies, but which also ¢

Such an approach, juxtaposing similarity and contrast, is by some

referred to as the “contextual” approach.’ A further reflection re

arding Mari and the Bible: these are relatively distant from one

and time (see below). Yet this fact does not

y. It would appear

to be accommodated inter alia by the French school as “compara.

and scale”, a concept employed by Mare Blo Advocated are broad compar

tive method on the

the

considerable time-spans, indeed often

r greater than the gay tween Mari and the Bible, both of which be 1¢ cultural milieu

By what means may we most

and efficiently approach ative study of Mari and the Bible? It goes without sayin

Ki ‘Comparativists and Non-Compar 1 Anthropol R and RC AH u Andbopelgy, Car P NY Li parative Anth above, rictun ra onceming biblical studic Imon, “The * M terpretation-— Principle and P VT 29 (19 6. For the lin the comparat method M. Harris, The Rise of Anthropological Theor, New York 1968, 156 ft For m kon Me Early nate Experimce (he

Schweich Lectures 19 British A ‘Oxford 1989, repr 1992, and

EXTRODUCTORY ESSAY — MARI AND THE BIBLE

dental, thereby leading to

romanticism in arriving at conclusions, and not irect

nection between Mari and the

h would

be suggestive of an erstwhile genetic link between them, This for

example, was the path taken (mistake inion) by the first

excavator of Mari, only W.F. Albright Babylonian dynasty

rot, and many others. I shall mention here tate that the First Old af Mari, was founs

carly Hebrews.

Historical. i. One would

be advis proach designating “typological” as suiting the existence rable di

tance in space and e entities being compared.” ‘The typological or phenome approach rests upon comparison of typical phenomena, similar customs, related organizations and insti tutions and even anale neeptual works. V uch par allels are viewed systematically, a relatively firm foundation is laid

for comparison between Mari and the world of the Bible. Current

relationship between Mari ai

On the basis of these assumptions and restrictions, we will now Israel applied systematically

move to controlled empirical anal between Mari

ther. Such a

on the one hand and the Bible an

Comparisons of a Techni m

First we shall deal with the chronological perspective." This

not as significant in comparative research as one might imay

it will therefore be examined here only briefly. At the same time, it

is the the Patriarchs and the

beginning of Israelite exi are problematic. While the relevant Mari documents are of the Old Bab the 18th century B.C., accordiny

onian ‘period (the first half of

1 Middle Chronology

WE, Albright, Yau Canaan, L CE, Malul For a more det ce M m eh ve

4 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY — MARI AND THE BIBLE to which we adhere portions of the biblical text date to

the 12th~1Ith centuri A gap of 500 years or more thus sepa.

The prevailing assumption in modern biblical research is that the

book of Genesis and the Former Prophets were edited during a later period, in the 7th century, or; assume. would have it; in the 6th or 5th cen It has been recently proposed that their redaction i even of Hellenistic dating. On the other ha s possible that the Patriarchal storie other parts of the Bible contain very ancient ions from the 2nd millenniun i pethaps even from

first half at millennium, th: within the very period of

in othe i the Middle, rather than the Late

triarchal Ag

ned chronological period, nor can the Patsiarchs be assigned ifc pan, Let us instead hypothesize an artificial scheme reated by late historic rs consisting of a generational scheme

a kind of telescoping of ¢ in which

ach raises the possibilit possibility

Israelite proto-histor hr ically over a . tails with the period of Mari documents. Thi

be examined.

ious levels: within the scope of the Mari documents

eh stretch ween the Habur and Euphrates rivers. The cit

of Hara

located in this region attributed to the fact that the Mari

ities as centers, even foci

movements between Mesopotat West, includin L aan. We frequent of the r traders between th tes and Syria, and even Palestin and most significantly, also. th derin F Con trary to the outmoded view of fic centrifug ent out of her lik e al current ture of Ps derings, though

e known from M: and the Bible. Above all, must be mentions term “Canaan LU Kinab orm peci : rom Canaan, In Mari this is the earl A hich ai dates the previously known fi nce t 00 Th the name Canaan ‘ome nism as regards the first half nillennium B.C. In Palestine proper an important, central a oned at M: Hazor, Recently, this identification has be fi eject locating the Hazor of the Mari tex lage called Hasur."" This village is about 300 km north ical Hi km south of el-Hama and 50 k est of Qatna. But no tell h sen discovered at this place, which also seem: table for a majo ty so close to that of Q% hich i 00 dun Though biblical Hazor di t iarchal tradition, it holds an important place in tion of the Israelite Conquest Since 1 ha ated a series of he di and economic relations between H. Mari (ef. belo B), af words here will suf ncerning thi H. Mari period ald be identified with its Middle Br Age IIB level (MB IIB) in which the extensive Lower ( < H ered an area of approximately 800-900 dunan re k it by far the lar in Palestine, T Hazor reflc he northern, Syrian cultural sphere. So ty Mari reference to Hazor in a of conte Roughly h these were addec pu: . 5 and

6 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY ~ MARI AND THE BIBLE

Thus, in the light of Mari, Hazor is found deserving the epithet head of all those kingdoms” (J King of Canaan” (Ju

hua 11:10), and its ruler, the title

s 4:2). 1 would like to refer here only to

two unpublished references: one of these speaks of female musicians ent from M the court of Hazor, thereby indicating the exist ence of of music at Hazor. The second reference appar ently implies that one of the wives of Zimri-Lim, the last king of

10 1760 B.C), called Atar-Aya, wa

wes true, family bonds

Mari (who reigned from m Hazor

tween the Mari dynasty and that of Hazor Hazor in the Mari documents sec

jan, F

a surprise for the hist

below chs, 5a, 5m and 5c

In-Depth Comparison

The two remaining comparisons are more than of technical signifi

cance to our problem, unlike the former comparisons. As for the sociological aspects, Mari and the Bible are the primary sources in ancient Near Eastern literature for the reconstruction of

remi-nomadic, tribal society." In the other sources up to the time of Islam, til

a peripheral tc

al society is reflected as an archaic remnant or at most as while at Mari and in the Bible tribalism is mani- ym and vitality, We thus h

¢ ample opportunity for

A. Both at Mari and in the Bible, the tribal regime is patrilineal,

while the basic social units are the Hebrew miipahd (extended) fam:

ily, the Hebrew 6

Such units aggregate

and the Hebrew clan, in its biblical sense

tribes. The above phenc their portrayal in our two sources is distinct: Mari presents a synchronic picture—varying degrees of settlement of the tribes, coexisting side by-side simultan nging from nomadic tribal to those which had already become sedentary. The Bible, on the other hand

reflects the nt diachronically, i.e., the various stage

are presente ce: first, the Patriarchs and

herit the Land and sett

the Israelites enterin

d of Car

madic, but

subsequently

As stated by us

chronic and diachronic aspects provide us with a virtual stereoscopic picture. Mari presents the events realistically, thereby m: ible “fieldwork” of the sort carried out by present-di gists. Yet, the Bible, with its clearly

torical viewpoint, divides the

process of settlement into different chronological stages. As one might expect, both sources refer to encounters between tribal society and the established urban culture and society, an ambivalent relationship of friction on the one hand and coexistence on the other. It would

appear that despite the overt conflict between the nomadic Israelites

with the Canaanites’ urban population, at least as portrayed in

Bible, the experience in Mesopotamia was more moderate and in volved a process of assimilation between the Akkadian-Old Babyloniar jociety and the western Semitic nomadic tribes newly arrived upon

the stage of history

tuals. I will here refe y one exampl treaty making by means of ritual. In Mari one of the possibilities

wide has been published from the northe phery of the Mari kinj dom which was sent to King Zimri-Lim. It is lar

Tong-kno

spread ritual, perhaps originating in the West." Now, re

intical to a ARM IL 37), which reports the making of a

treaty between a nomadic tribe and the local representative of Mari ec ch there the biblical co i

The last of the aspects to be examined tic one seems to be solid in th Mari ai the Bible, This aspect is primarily based upon the onomasticon and linguistic idiosyncrasies of the Mari texts—single words and term

and syntax of the Mari idi

population of the city of M.

population of the settlements ai

ingdom were Western Semi Amorites, just as were the Patri archs of Israel, Thus the culars of these population group: Amorite dialec her wor rt of archaic stratum of Hebi ge. This similarity between personal names among the Patriarchal cl he Mari onomasticon.

Let fes to the name Ya'aqob (Jacob), which, like most of the 1 a ily members, does not recur he description of later periods of biblical Israel, The name jowever, freq cut ariety of forn 4. theophoric

element at Mari: Yahkub-Il, Haqbu-II, Hac Hammu), Wh hn

1 and Hagbu- in later Akkadian

the Old Babylonian, or th ite period, is unparalleled. Moreover

later w from Egyptian sources of a Hyksos ruler narr El or Yagob-Har, attested only on Egyptian scarabs. Another fa Hykse n discovered recently in Northern fe, mo « fou the excavations of the ni Yakubum)." In the Bible, the name is Jace an us sufficient n of the existence of a solid and I pr : xaples of West Semitic vocables at Mari arranged by subject, in the book M te Experien This list includ te d there are u more example Th rds ds ively a for linguistic analy but also provid fl hi tual framework and ife-styl West Semites. I wish to analyze here parallels which have alread n included in. mt uch referriny al uni ‘ew gy and. ibn

mentio elation to nom: Since cat put tions of the Mari documen kings Y L and his son Zimri-Lim been k at of the k of Aleppo, Yarim-Lim. [ has ever be unt Nv . een disc 1 a fn I ies the Het les, which has no nciform dependent term (for Surprisingly, even a comple A ees dat Mari, i nent. T q with the sentence 1 nd country Y 1 A was employed for writi H f published, An illustrative pi he M, iceroy Yasmah-Adi fi King Samsi-A F In this context fer i of the Jewish S: . a Greek : L akin Aramaic) for lamenta 1 Siri (H a Th those whe E a nguage, but r 1 (R. Y Bet ¢ T, Yerushalmi, Me t R T o Old Babylonian peri A pee S ot, bu Amorite h : Hebrew ¢ hee (F

RY ESSAY — MARI AND THE BIBLE

I have presented here only a sample of comparisons, mostly paral:

lels, but contrasts too, between Mari and the Bible, Many areas may be added, such as comparative religion,” particularly in relation to prophecy or rather, intuitive prophecy, which apparently starts at Mari and reaches its apex in the Bible. This question however, over

which I have long beyond the scope of the present essay

PART ONE

MARI AND THE WEST

THE CULTURAL IMPACT OF THE WEST SYRIA-PALESTINE) ON MESOPOTAMIA IN THE OLD BABYLONIAN PERIOD*

The y I and economic ties between the E i the West ir the ancient Near Ea: he first third of the second millennium B.C, have been thoroughly exa nd researched, However, i ppears that such is not the case with r to the various cultural facets of the regi instance, religion and ritual, perhaps be these phenomena are not readily seen a easily be grasped. This paper will discuss some of the material and especially spirit ing the Old Babylonian period—p he mai r to throw light on the subje ay be foun € texts fi yal archives at Mari, in par xts published in recent The volum ts from Mari con he West (J.-M. Durand, Archives R Me ARM] 26 scasyessariailatte Et ever of the text He his volume have been published over the last ten ye ke t considera low A . rs of Mari and pr frox

ies of the nor Western) Syria. F Pari JM. Durand, A BE Bai

The first true king of Mari

Jonian pe n-Lim utstanding ruler in both cit n) rose to become a leading state : Euphrates, married, among others, a princess

from Aleppo, wh

known. After his reign, Mari

onquered by Samsi-Addu (whose capital was Ashur) who, as is well known, appointed his younger son, Yasmah-Addu, to be viceroy of Mari. We already know that Samsi-Addu had in fact compelled his son to marry a prin

The

m the city of Qatna in central Syria ‘incess was known in Mari by the epithet “Beltum”, i.e. Mi the first Lady of Mari

in, with the return to power of the local royal family in Mari Zimri-Lim, the last king of Mari, took

places in the West mentioned above. The first, we now know, whom

from each of the two

is ascension to the throne, was from Qatna and

was named Dam-hurisi? in the third or fourth year of his reign he

also married the much praised princess Sibtu (another reading of her

Aleppo. This worthy

wornan was the daughter of Yarim-Lim, the powerful king of Yamhad

the capital of which was Aleppo in northern Syria.” It is possible that Zimri-Lim married a third princess from the West, Atar-Aya,

panied him on his great journey to Syria as far as the Mediterranean coast in the “ninth” year of his reign. In the relevant l based on texts not yet published, she city of Hazor

tocracy of the West strengthened the rates and the West a brought he court at Mari custe

and a life-style widespread in the West (cf. the pagan cults intro-

text, the editor takes thi but in J.-M. Durand!

Marrying wives from the a

Sce J-M. Durand, MARI 6 (1990), 291; iden, La cn Actes 38° RAL, Pais

M. sidserva D. Chapin N 0-30. SI aghter of the king of Qutna, Ii - A by the prin Mari BG Da ess ass Qua und ihr nibubim, Mim M. Bind, F 132 f

P A. Malamat, Th

duced into Jerusalem by the foreign wives of Ki L:1-8). By

be found ii

a; | King

the stories of the Patriarchs, as ti Genesis, There

the “direction” of the marri es coming from East em Syria to the far West, like the n Rebekah nd Rachel from the city of Nahor (on the north-western branch of the Habur river) who were married by Is J

As in the Bible, it may be assumed that there was also some form

of clan or tribal relationship between Mari and the West. All the

above places were inhabited by West Se

other words, Amorite tribes, at the beginning nium B.C 1 these tribes cultivated in c The royal custom of marrying wives from the West in the neo-Assyrian period; one of King Sennac tance, was Nagia-Zakutu, who came Sy

been from Palestine, Moreover, it is possible that c

Ashurnasirpal I (in our reading Yapha), wh

mother of King Shalmaneser II and oyal e West.’ T the newly discovered name of Atallya), presumabl of King Sargon Il

Let us now di another feature in whic East and West are more or le dent: visits aristocracy of southern Mesopotamia to Mar sequently to Western cities, There they were undo by the local culture which they then bre ack origin in the East. Relevant to thi

No, 375," which Mari in Babylon, add to his sovereign that Hammurabi, king of Babylon, has sent Mutu-Numaha, to Mari, after | Hamm

On the Ai Pr s MA pa-a, possibly meanin Hi 1 consi Ww *

either to Yamhad Qatna, as it!” Mention is also made

of the Babylonian companion who travelled with the boy on hit ourney abroad. In addition, in this document, emissaries from variou: cities are mentioned, including Qama and Hazor, who gathered around Yarim-Addu to listen to hi uctions, One may ask, wa: there some connection between the summoning of the emissaries nd the propose¢ to the W Hammurabi's son, that is to ay, should he have visited only Yamhad or Qatna, or also Haze Other texts concerning the journey of two of Hammurabi's sons (the eldest and nger brother) to Mari their stay there, have ecently be lish me of them relate indirectly to the text As in rriages mentioned above, a mirror image of this subject may be found in a planned royal departure from the West to al Euphrates. We refer to the famous intended visit in the reign of Zimri-L be undertaken by the son or the en o Ugarit alace in Mari in order to see its splendout the it is documented in a text published approximately fifty-five years ago. Other Westerners are escorts from Qatna and Hazor travelling to Mari and as far as Babylon, accompanying mis ions returniny ities (ARMT VI 78), In this connection, it i inter everal Si from an earlier period are mentioned in the U a : B

Now we turn to cultural matte phec law—but first, let us mention the in n this subject by Th, j hich has not received the attention it merits." Jacobsen put forwarc pothesis. wit rd to the well-known

Babylonian legend of the Creation, E Elis, especially with re

rd to the passage descr he . form ge Marduk and the prime a Hi h f According to Jacobsen, this episode neral di riginate in the East (south-eastern Mesopot is all xecepted, but a he West, along the S; ast, ch the Amorite period. The stor sent ast by th Amorite tribes, Since J tid not sul his hypothesis, his approach must remain purel fo) other hand, W.G, Lambert recent mi West ersion of the battle with the Sea, as well astern Enwma E go back to an i m the Indus V to the Ac rthele f mer cobsen's the

c fou he Baby e Cr

¢ o theop a Ma on Tal h althouy le that thi last part wai at a later date). T i ha the god Addu, written in ory a he Western fi AD, DU (ADAD is the f he Eastern Akkadian). This god, without any doubt, is ident h the Great G Alepp

Real evidence for the t N m Aleppo and the se A M ane a, as claimed by Jacobsen) appear pectedly in one of the M letters. published re a i M: lume ARM 2 tains a Sh 5 f , ter sent to Zimri-Lim by Nur-Sin, ambas M he ce Addu intended for the k Mari. T phet by th name of Abiya, bears the title ap indent,” a particul: Most recently W. RS, Hess and D-T. T V N P s Sco S. Dalley, Mh ‘ ©

Text published by JM. Durand, 1 ‘ a Voras Mi ARI 7 (19 ‘On th

aca wih te Ua A.M A th Hono AG. Auld, Si r

kind of seer who often apf

ars in the Mari texts, After reciting the f Mari ani ties, the god declares: “I have restored you (Zimri-Lim) to the throne f your father

the changes in its ruling dynas.

and I have given you the weal which T yan- quished the sea. I have anointed you with the oil of my luminosity ation rite is peculiar to the West, although cur in the East.” “Sea” (tam mythical sea, the ocean. V are then made by the god Addu.

The above text is at present the oldest example in the West of the motif widespread th

Anointment in the

occasionally it does «

mitemtum) here

means the nands of Zimri-Lim

‘nt Near East concerning the

and the sea god. Several seals, pos

sibly, bear more or less contemporancous depictions of this battle

Familiarity with this motif is found in the West, especially in L ome 400 years after the Mari period,

and echoes

may be heard

beyond Ugarit in the Bible and even in post-biblical literature

the tales from Ugarit mention the weapons with which the storm god vanquished the sea god. (In Ugarit, the storm god is Baal, not Addu, the latter known widely as Hadad.) These weapons were a club and a

ar in the above-mentioned text from

Mari, the weapons (no di factured in Aleppo in accordance with the mythical description in the story) were given by the king of Aleppo to Zimri-Lim. One wor

s if a number of samples of the

were produced and also given to other vassals of the king

of Aleppc

In his article, Duran¢

a short new instructive text which

we-mentioned prophetic text; ac- 1ew text, Zimri-Lim placed weapons of the god Addu

he temple

ding to this of Aleppo in

Dagan, in the city of Terqa, situated rth-west of Mari.” It may be

d that when the

©, A. Malamat, MEIE, pp. 86-17. Note that there is also one reference ddiviner of this type in B

‘On anointing king tem custom, see now A. Malamat, ch. 14, p, 1 f Durand, MARI 7, p a

2), On anointing as a di yal Mesopotamian institution, see recently S. Dalley, Anointing in Ancient Mes

tam s Traditions, cds. M. Dudley

raphy of the (

weapons were brought from Aleppo in the West t egion of the central Euphrates, the mythical story itself moved east together wit them, but so far no mention of it has been f in. Mari proper c The “prophetic” text disc above bi ano Ht phenomenon of the ancient Near East, which tion of the prophecy itself and the r In the eastern regi h as Babylon the West, divination was of a mantic nature ing the will of th y involved special skill chief diviner bearing the title er”). H inspecting the entrails of an anim parti Now this type of ation was also widespre and in the regions of the West, there devel divination which in time gained promine tion may be called “intuitive propl he phenomenon are also used) eno man was used; instead, it resulted from divine in world the phenomenon ‘ from the “outside”, while today, especially in come from the “inside”.) (See ch. 6, p. 6 Prophecy in Mari, in comparison with proph been discussed in detail elsewhere.* (S paper we shall concentrate on the possi was by and large a western phe on® and not an easter one have been collect - {1 26 Texts containin i # “eA. Malama Irat, Jer Hh , English version (above . tin the Hebrew version first appeared 1 25, May 1992; JM. Sasson, The P ters with Dvn

a state of ecstasy, as described both in Mari texts and in the Bible, it is actually pr exp

in the West. One ex: the Wen-Amon tal

to find in the

the Ith century B.C

Adm ts” from the Mari period are also to be found in Babyl iner mentioned there in the Mari tc is also called apilun 26/2, No. $71), and even texts from outside Mari speak is form of prophecy in the cast and 1 south, Above all, menti¢ made of the texts from Ishehali to the east of the Diyala and Tigris. There, the goddess Kittitum sends prophetic messages to Ibal-pi-ll, King of Eénunna.”” However this example does not prove that this type of prophecy originated in the above-mentioned region fe acceptable explanation is that it € sm the West following the massive Amorite migration east ards to southern Mesopotamia. In particular, with regard to Baby lonia as well as to E’nunna, assumptions have been made that sort

kind of Amorite enclaves existed there or, at least, that the Amorite

ined the astonishing similarity of the Codex

Hammur to an eater extent, the

temporancous Law of Einunna, with certain legal portions of the

especially those found in the Book of Exodus. Thus we come to the realm of ancient Near Eastern law in Mesopotamia. Most of the legal code not bear any resemblance to the Bible, with the exception of the tw mentioned above. (So far no te mains of possible Amorite legal codes have been discovered.) Much

has been written on thi but we shall iced by others), that of W.G.

n eye for an eye, a

Lambert,” who

pinion is AR. Millard, La Prophétie et léeric # ns on this opin CCharpin (above Jong Ellis, JCS 6 266 : hh ype of Ishchali by West Semi Firt Old Babylonia Babylon; W.P. Albrigl

i f Ideas between Southem Mesopotamia and Syria

21:23-24) and in the Codex Hammui 06-200) tit

pra th in Amorite ci ll as in bi rrative,” an ¢ in the ancient Near E ust, without con das belongin ¢ Amorite cultural heritage a ultie a he We he laws of ESnur here . rity be Bible (Ex. 21 ind the he “Goring Ox oa ho ste i . ly a mone fine, while a thief who s i : death (cla compare the biblical which speak hief on wh the sun shines and of break cals during the darkness of night (E There d

by the Amorites and were th ht to the E South-Eat from the West

More problematic are the fol

Gilgamesh. As is well-known, a portion of one of

r-called Bai

cribes undertaken by Gilgamesh and his companion Enkid r ar forest protected by the monster : i her versions of the Gilgamesh Epic tion of the cedar forest is specifically mentioned here life and death struggle between the heroes and the i nn (Saria) and Lebanon trembled. In ins and in the Lebanon Valley, right in the midst of he Amorite However, thi nt ¢ ¢ in itself that the of Gilg r hereof, were compe nder Amorite influence and were transporte m Mesopotamia, Lambert himself thinks th learly another western containe¢ in the Epic of Gil He refe 1 V, col, 1:6 of the later al version, in which it is menti 1e cedar forest (which remains nameles the seat of the god ni), that is to ay, the mount est served as a place of assembly or a pantheon of the gods, in ¢ word + of Olyn Lambert sees this learly as the expression o! fe theme, since such mountain erving as the seats of the gods are found in Ugarit, and are re Bible and yythology, but do not exist in stricted ourselves to a few points which may possibl Amorites and the West had a certain influence in astern and southern Mesopotamia; certainly, further evidence can Eps a C . esp. : Yahdun-L E The Lebanon, ( Hh P H K Hecker, Ab eis and the ¢ Epic in RJ Gigi, B ms T ain a ¢ E est Leben - » : Emp Amerits, New Ha pp. 87 £ * Ba Lira, ed. HLP. Maller, Darmstadt 199 However r is point as evidence of Amotice inf the temples in Sumerian literature we described a nbled.C the m he mple of Enlil Ekur (My thanks to Prof. A. Shaffer on this point

in other Me

Amorite dialec But this pp: 126 ff). Elsewh Mélanes Bi), P hand, and of the E See Di RM 6-229. For ati Charpin, Médlanes J. F

MESOPOTAMIA be put forward is lingu ince both at Mari and tamian cities discove le of th he Ay angua, :

h enetrated Canaanite and biblical He i isu ra ase

HAZOR ONCE

AGAIN IN NEW MARI DOCUMENTS*

Mari d

ments,! we avail ourselves no he late nes of Mar texts, ARMT 23, 24 and 25, in whi fen occurrences of Hazor are attested. (In the meantime ap 6 hich Hazor i mentioned only once [ARMT 2 1. 27 the topony ot attested.) This number ¢ he seven references to Hazor in earlier Mari volumes, to be added to a few other in ga new

nineteen occurrences, Thi erable number if we tak into account the distance between Mari and Hi he latter perhap being the only « tioned in the M hi

While the earlier 1 were containe feat extent it Mari letters, and were thus of a more lively a quant nature the new material is entirely of an econ ministrative con text—somewhat dry in character. Neverthele of able interest, in addition to the ention of Hazor and Tbni-Ad:

ARMT 23 contains three new ref to Hazor, as well as 01 carlier instance in an la with significantly im proved readings (text 556). In t the ments the

FS A. Fine), Al 61

Fesschritt A. F hor: 78 1960), pp. 12-19} in J.A N H Tucntith C E Honor of N ¢ Gity, N 1-38 9S rE Hi Yy Hazor (of the West) in Mi f i,“ Syro-P Mari et Hi 1 i

Previ ,

rth of F A

d but the restoration is with from Hazor to Mari in the

at the Mari palace. This text

hiteen persons from vario e provided by the

h indicate

It concern

king of Hazor

the king of Mari

MARI

AND HAZOR: TRADE ATIC OLD BABYLONIAN PERIC The ati i o1 the Syrian-lraqi li c Akkadian cunei Old Bi uury B.G.E " ‘ published in ARM Thi Jeral between the ¢ Hazor i ed at Mari. True, th Syria. Alepe over Mari, W f bot H . Hear fi i of ) docume ome of the : ‘ F ra ‘ nat N u ME fi

However, in ext he far north, be

The close

wuggest the exi ft ern Palestine and the oth enon of homonym The most important undoubtedly Hi hi totalliny 50 of bronze, Although to da ectcs bive. yielded

al dy merchant from Crete) i nercial i Ugai

Mati p Mi

th Zime

Ale

ppo and Ugari 7 Lai H document know he Am ph tc H a ky MB II ely Atar-Aya, one of Z u M them P P N Mir

Syria-Palestis well known

for its wine exports and over, wine of the best quality. There are referenc ious places in the West ch ppo or C sh, shipping scores of wine and olive « js he palace of Mari” Another export from Hazor were precious ‘ i king of Mari, a diplomatic gesture com- only made by Lk ter periods. Among the precio tems from Haze nd silver ve ld jewelry ARMT 2 03, 129), includis ing or, pethaps, a necklace sclging: by ies| weight, Inte ly enough, most of these gifts were ent to Zimri-Lim during his grand 0 Aleppo and further Ugarit. T from Hazor were stored in variou in distar ns, such in Ugarit, which were maintained by the king of M Relevant to these preciot ptriguing Mari letter which 1 : c iterate and translate." The letter written by Zit add father-in-law Yarim-Lim king of Aleppo, and pertai en Mari and Hazor A Mari official ispatched all the way to Hazor tc obtain “silve and tas stom ither as raw materials o1 finished products. The Hazorites claimed that the emissary made H Hi : hey detained a merchant c T roves that precious metals were : Canaanite cities in MB II. They are otherwise attested only rare dence Akkadian le nent from Ha: 100 pieces. of si 1 by sporadic finds of gold ites a Megiddo an le later at Tell elAjjul. A fe . f gold and silver were listed among the t ‘ Thutmose III in northern Palestine, but urely neither Ha any other site within ( was the ult

latter refers to figs and dat y bees). The above indicate stability in set i over a long period. The Syr Palestinian 5 fi were considered to b

excellent quality and ly esteemed in Mari and Mesopotamia

the East. It is notewor fron West conform to the so-calle

according to Deuteronomy 8:8,

>wn also in Meso.

potamia}, of vines, fi pomegranates [absent in the Mari source a ive trees and The “Tale of Sinuhe,” an Egyptias tory from the 20th centur E., that is, some 200 years prior

the Mari docume al Canaas fertile land,

Addendum; In the renewe ations of were unearthed in 91 uneiform tabl le dan administrative text), both fragmentary, listing PN: c Mari documents. Sur prisingly, in the summer of 1996 Bronze age document were discovered, a math ism of the type known at Mari, and a partially preserved | The records deliveri of sacrificial animals to Mari and of vast amounts of textiles and metal T letter confirms interestingly from the other end, the close commercial and cultural ties between

Mari and Hazor (W. Horowitz, IE7 46 [1

68 f, and JE forth

MARI ANI R: THE IMPLICATION FOR THE

MIDDLE BRONZE AGE CHRONOLOGY*

Where textual ev \ k I : Palestine. So & : ; Hazos / Anon the entire N \ Jaire bp Ziemil : | until his defeat by H E o: f : Mari f Yasmab-Ai . icon ‘ | This time Mi and Ha i : | 1 tai VI f t wa The .

pinsk he

earlier like oth Mari and in th E i MB II E ty of H M. i f Qatna. hi Hazor di MB II E 2—b B A Upper City level XVI oO P M his point. We sh 1 BC WG. Dever, P Mi Ca 2 i v r D: ment: The Middl \ r

ulated MB II A

BA II

BIB Mari, (d) B MB Il #

and the pottery of the Old Assyrian colon

pointed out." But the Cappadocian fi Mari at least in the main, by k would well synchronize with a later period

MB II A Palestine

PART PROPHECY

INTUITIVE

A phenomenon at

in the Bible is intui

which existed alon Mariot ner-pr In the religiot far greater signifi Mari. The pre

rable to the socio. but see below

h in ANET. pp. 6 1980; Schmit

PROPHECY

A GENERAL

East. I hie informal Mar . Mari ot from M:

SURVEY*

Hele divine Lokalp

2a; Moran

977; Wilson

087; Park

vo Types of Di A Mari letter not directly related to our subject can serve as a key for understanding the reality behine hecy at Mari. Babdi-Lim,

the palace prefect, advised Zimri-L ferily] you are the king

of the Haneans (i.e. the non the Akkadians! [My I ride in a chariot or or head!” (ARMT VI 76 prising the population of Mari: West Semites (Hanear

but sJecondly you are the king of

ride a horse, Let my

ration of the kingdom), on the one hand,

the dominant tribal a veteran Akkadian compon the other.’ The symbiosi between these two elements left a general imprint on every walk of

life at Mari, including religion and cult

It is in this context that we can understand at Mari (and for the

nly at Mari) the coexistence

the two patterns noted above he future and revealing divine word. As at every other

here the typical Akk

amian centre, we find

1n divination as practised by specially trained

experts, above all the barim or haruspex. We are fam

experts at Mai

iar with sev

the best known of whom was Asqudum,

covered not far from

fined to such crucial matters as omens for the security of the

city.* Alongside this academic, supposedly “rati system, we are

confronted at Mari with an atypical phenomenon in Mesopotamia:

itive divinati wiring of the word d. Inc

ancient Near East. This type of prophecy should

properly be regarded as one of a chain of social and religious prac

ne and the Land of ph Hecker 1986; Parpol prop phetic mission is entirely Ms The texts have recently been potamia in general, and at Mari in par

Mari (p. 14; and cf the comp

INTUITIVE PROPHECY

to Mari and, in pi

Bible This informal type of at in a new perspective. Both phe mechanisms, which require profe

the product of psychic, non

of prophecy of thi

Mari places biblical

4) Spontancous prophetic manifestations resulting from ii or divine initiative (in contrast to mechanical, inductive ¢

which was usually initiated by th est for si

deity). In this connec m: the utter

who didn't ask for me; I was ready to t d by those who didn’t eck me, I said, ‘Here am I, here am I Isaiah 65:1

p) A consciousness of mission, the prophets taking a stand before the authorities « nit divinely inspired messages (cf. ch.

() An ecstatic component in prophec what problematic and complex characteristic. Th ep llowed a broad, liberal definition, enabling it to apply to a wide range of phenomena from autosuggestion to the divinely infused dream. Only in rare in: prophets alway ar and purposeful in thought, and fa from spouting mere gibberish.

These particular characteristics—not necessarily found in con junction—link the diviner-prophet at Mari with the Israelite pi more than with any other divinatory typ in the ancien Near East." Nevertheless, in compar i ni nore the great differences betw . uurce-material:

Noort 19)

prophesying at Ma ut his approach

An

ompositions which had

esses. Furthermore, the

entation conce hecy at Mari is mostly restricted to a

ort span of time, perhaps only to the final decade (or less) of

Lim's reign. In comparison, the activity

f the Israelite proph:

ets extended over a peric centuries.’ In other words, here to Mari represents a synchronous picture, a cross-section at one particular point in time, while the Bible gives a diachronous view, tracing the

development of the prophetic phenomenon 4 period of time

rites and Differenc

Despite the external, formal similarity between the diviner-prophets at Mari and the

arently, in the status of the prophets within the respec

tive societies and kingdoms. In. Israelite

iety, the prophet seem:

types of prophet were peripheral. At Mari, however, the prophets

apparently play ginal role,"° Admittedly, this distinction

might merely be illusor fos nature of the respective

jurce materials. In both societies many

phets, basing on

their place of origin and locale ties: in Ma Tekoa (Amos), M

Hananiah); but others resided in the respective capitals

from such towns as Terga and Tuttul, and in Judah, from

Micah), Anathot (Jeremiah) and Gibeon

As for contents, the ies at Mari are limited to material

demands on the king, such as the constructic ilding or a city r : a f we include, for : ; 962, pp 09 fh I f clasacal prophe Har ity eater Peters T ier the na and t Juda, w fh aid the "ha

gate in some provincial town (ARMT III 78; XU

of funerary sacrifices (ARMT I 90; IIL

abjects to various t A th

for a A. 1121; the refe is sur

by a sanctuary and its priestly

published Mari prophecies refer sbove all the welfare of the king and his He is warn

against conspirators at home and enemies abroad (ARMT X

0, Hammurabi, king of Babyk below), who wa nquer Mari. This sort of message is very distinct frot biblical prophecy, expressing a full-fledged religious ideology, a soc

ethical manifesto and a national purpose. But aring contrast might actually be something of a distortion. At Mari nearly all the prophetic” texts were discovere

the palace (Room 115), which

to concentrate on the king. P

presumably did exist but, on acc

preserved. In comparison, had 1

Samuel, Kings and Chro

with a picture closely resemblin

phecy, too, was oriented primar

mili A

who A Mari

ary enterprise glimmer of social-moral concern can, however, be seen at Mari prophetic message which is contained i cently joined frag is (A. L121 + A. 2731 iviner-prophet urges Zimri-Lim, in the ie of the god Adad of Aleppo: “Wh onged man or womar out to you, stand and let his/her case amand an exact parallel in Jeremial n ute justice morning deliver from the hand pressor: hin has been robbed” (Jeremial tangible example of the imposition of obligations on the king at

s found in one letter (ARMT X 100), in which a

sy, the divine th \ + Zien " 1 ake aw N Job's words: “T pe L away i initially p d by JOM. D A ° da fragment previously pul For stments of the fallowing pa r ind Malamat

64 PART TWO: PROPHECY

woman writes to the king i a third

a scribe may have i). The woman (whose

name i rently to be read Yanana) addressed Zimri-Lim in the

name of Dagan concernin; sung lady (her own da

perhaps a companion) who had been abducted when the two of the

were on a journey. Di peared to the woman in a dream and

sed that only Zim

deer

Id save and return the girl, Thus, a

turned to the king in secking redress, in

All told, the analogy between prophecy at Mari and that in Isracl is presently still vague, the et ap a gap of more than six centuries. Furthermore of the intervening links are missing”. It would thus be premature to regard Mari as the pi

type of prophecy in I But the earliest manifestation of intui tive prophecy among West Semitic tribes at Mari should not be belittled, notwithstanding its still enigmatic aspects. In this regard we

an put forward two assumptions (which are not mutually exclusive

a) Intuitive prophecy was basically the outcome of a specific so: ial si erstwhile non-urban, semi-nomadic, tribal society Urban sophistication, no matter how primitive, naturally engender institutionalized cult specialists, such as th haruspex), the fore ost of the di pes in Mesopotamia and part and parcel of the cult personnel of any self-respecting town or ruler

xtended across the West, from P tine and Syria to Anatolia, and as far as Mari in the east, ‘This

a particular Kiulturkreis: which

nption is based mainly on the ecstatic clement in prophecy thi ically). It is found phets of the Hittite source Tale of Wen-Amon), in Hamath), and in

att ut this region (albeit rather sp

a (in the Aramaic inscription «

bh N h ry on p. 109; 1 do reject, below n. 25. The West as a separate Kulturkreis from the Bast de religious elements has been

vel originated in the Arabian-Syrian desert; se Rendtortt Hittite sour ANET, p. 95a; forth

derives the Ekyp s which in the Aramaic inscription of Zakkur (see

INTUITIVE PROPHECY — A GENERAL SURVEY 65

Let us now delve deeper into the data at hand c ecy at Mari. Since 1948

all of them to Zimri-Lim) and containing reports

phecies and

divine revelations have been published. The senders were high rank ing officials and bureaucrats from all over the kingdom. About half were women, mostly ladies of the pala aded by Sibu, Zimri Lim’s principal queen. Several of the letters contain two individual

visions and thus the total nu of prophecies is some sixty. In

the correspondent was the prophet himself (though the

en written by scribes; one is remind elow ch. 1 par (A. 4260) the court lady Addu-Duri (ARMT X 50); and a woman named Yanana mentioned above; ARMT X 100). As already noted, the words of

of Baruch son of Neriah, Jeremiah’s an:

Thus, a prophet acting in the name of Sama’ of Siz

the diviner-prophets, whether transmitted through intermediaries or

dispatched directly to the king, were generally formul

writing. How much more is

ical proph:

nally have

the messages of the diviner-prophets at Masi 4

nated “Amorite”. Shoule th

be the case in ocuments before us,

ies (or at least some of them) wot

iginal words of the p

Akkadian—either by the officials writing or by their scribes. Such assumption could also serve to explain why the “prophetic” texts at Mari display a relatively greater number of West Semitic idioms an¢ linguistic forms than do the documents. If these assump-

tions orrect, the transm f phetic w

wrba, to the king wa iderably more complex than out

The diviner-prophets at Mari were of two types: professional or accredited” —recognisable by tive titk rere the biblical ra’ high, naif’ and iF *takim); and casual—lay persons who he

mal title (see below). Thus far, five different re known at Mar

66 PART TWO: PROPHECY

1) The title nab occurs in Mari only of the Hanean

pl. nabi, cognate of Hebrew nabi’, “prophet ARMT XXVI/1 216:7

tion.

as a prophet (ARMT X 51

in the Bible,

was Pashhur, son of Immer

referring to prophet

too, Ezekiel wa

who inter alia prophi 20:1, 6)

There are several references to the prophetic assinnum (ARMT X 6, 7, 80),"" though this term is not entirely clear in meaning. Based n later sources, it might ref a eunuch, a male prostitute or a cult musician, One such functionary served in a temple at Mari and prop in the name of Annunitum normally associ

rently while disguised as a woman (perhap:

4) In a few instances (ARMT X 8; XXVI/1 199, 203), a pr pears the title gammatum (or possibly n, to be derived from Akkadian gabiim, "speak, pr

5) One best know ie “accredited” prophets at Mari is the mubhiim (fem, mufitum)! who, as etymology would indicate, wa: some sort of ecstatic or frenetic.” The peculiar behaviour of this type of prophet led him to be perceived as a madman, similar to the biblical m/Sugga', a term occasionally used as a synonym for nab 2 Kings 9:11; Jeremiah 29:26; Hosea 9:7). We may also mention instances of the Akkadian verb immafu (3rd person preterite), derived from the ot as mubbiim, and in the N-stem, resemblinj Biblical Hebrew nibba’ (cf. also hitnabbe’). This word, innabe, means ‘became insane”, “went int ance” (ARMT X. 7:5 5-8), Be

ments, the recently publish f Mari documents” include

they served. These documents are lists ¢

sonnel receiving clothes

from the palace, In a previously published list, there is a reference to an dpilun (ARMT IX. 22:14; and sce below). This would imply that the mubhiim (as well as the dpilum) receiv support from the royal court. A surprising feature here is that four of the 1 him have strictly Akkadian (rather than West Semitic) names: Irra-gamil mubhiim of Nergal; E djyion of Itur-Mer (ARMT XX1 333:

'; XXIII 446:9', 19); Ea-mudamr shhiim of Ninhursag; and

the goddess Annunitum (ARMT XXII 167: 8 hen Of ‘Adadyaniént

Anu-tabni, mui

intriguing notation that he received a silver ring “when (he) delivered an oracle for the king” (ARMT XXV Anoth itun with court connections was nam batum; she sent le te Zimri-Lim concerning the two tribal groups, the Simalites and the Yaminite

Ic is possible that on the wh ese who were depend ent on the royal court of Mari, had already been assimilated into Akkadian culture to a great extent, hence their Akkadian names. In

any case, the direct contact with the royal court calls to mind the

court prophets in Israe ind Gad the Aieh served David and Sc

wh and Ashera prophet

(6) Finally, there w exclusive to Mari and m

the verb apdlum, “to ar ipilums on occasion act of prophets in the Bit tested in document with a

rthern Syria to Sipy

Sippar, addressing the king of Mari di demanded a throne for

Samal, as well as one of the kinj ughters?) for se

RMT XU; ARMT XXII; ARMT XXV; ARMT XXVI/1

68 PART TWO: PROPHECY

temple" He al

demanded objects for other deities (including an rated object): Adad of Aleppo, Dagan of Terqa and | of HubSalum (A. 4260). Another dpilum was in the Dagan

Ner

temple at Tuttul (near the ¢

nfluen

¢ of the Baliby and the Euphrates

rivers) and there was an dpiltum in the Annunitum temple in the city of Mari itself. And an dpilum of Dagan, bearing the strictly Akkadian

from the ki the mubh

‘eived bronze objects

m the palace, like the “gifs d above.® It is notew

thy that the mubliim and nctioned in these very same sanctuaries as well, indi-

cating that two different types of diviner-prophets could be found

side by side. Indeed, in the Dagan temple at Terqa, three types of prophet were at work simulta

ously: a mubiim, a gammatum and a dreamer of dream: Affinities in Terminology and Contents—Mari and Israel

The terms dpilum and mubjiim would appear to have counterparts in

biblical Hebrew. The terms ‘“dndh and ‘ineh, “answer” and “answerer

respectively, can refer to mn. Most significantly, the

very verb ‘andh is used at times to describe the prophet's function a

God's mouthpiece, whether actually responding to a query put to

the deity or This is clearly seen, for instance, in 1 Samuel 9:17 ‘When Sa of whom I This is also

Hebrew term for prophetic ut

1 saw Saul, the Lord answered him; ‘Here is the man

oke to you! He is it who shall rule over my peop

\dicated by Jeremiah's condemnation (23:33 ff.) of one

and 2 Kings 9:25), and his commendation of the more “legiti-

Interesting! ance with this prophetic demand seems to be alluded to in the female corres Further on in our document the name of Zimri-Lim’ daughter is as Eriti-Aya. A woman by this name sent several to her parents from the temple at Sippar; ace ARMT X. 37:15; 43:16, ete. Cf. Kraus 964, p, 98 and n. 224; and Charpin & Durand 1985, py 34

Another dpe, of Marduk tioned in a Mari letter from Babylon con. cerning Time-Dagan, king of Asytia, denouncing him for delivering treasure king of Elam (A. 4 Charpin, ARMT XXV

the

what Balak king of Moab

I in Micah 3:7,

the oracles of Balaam: “Remember now, O my people, remember

rd said

answered birn’

prophetic orac

designated

apilum

the

It from Tell Deir ‘Alla in Tra

the «

century B.C

designated ‘nyh. The latter term most lik

ent

Abi’, was a prophet of t

1 its stead: “What has the Lord answered and what ha: h 23:37). The te it. “C aning the word of the Lord, occurs once in the Bible

Jerem ma‘anch

which also elucidates the use of ‘nk in connection with

Balam the son of Beor

vised and what Micah 6:5). The verb “anh here does not indicate

specific question put forth to Balaam but, rather, the

which Balaam was compelled to deliver in Israel’

sible that this non-Israelite diviner, wh

dpiluon (“answerer”) type. The be strengthened by the cultic acts performed by Balaam,

23:3, 14-15, 29), and by the band of

rest that the recently discovered “Balaam 1

jordan, from the late and written in either an Ammonite or “Israclite-Gileadite

Mari term ap

This

wing the refer

ains cogency through the phrase nan: rgkt mr whhnh, “a perfumer of myrrh and priest

ignificant is the Aramaic inscription of Zakkur, king

of Hamath, from about 800 B.C. In his hour of peril, Zakkur turned

Rot

tin Daich deity as is f Mar tex i” 5 (A. 4 f Daga Balak pre

AR A xplicily mentioned in a oO; f T hati Con rams which Balaam a inseript Hi & van d

i h oa). T

70 PART TWO: PROPHECY

onded to me (wy'ny) and Baalka- dn; Ml. 11-12)

A probable overlap of the prophetic activity of the dpilum and that of the

mayn [spoke to me

itum, imploring the ki

Mari not to leave the capital to wage

ARMT X50: 22. would be

declares: “I will anseer you constantly” (a

In other words, there are cases where a mubhiim

Before turning tc pets at Mari, let us exam:

ine two pr ag and the other

phecies of similar content, reminiscent of the biblical oracles

of an dpilum (curiously spelled here

fa man”, that is, a lay woman, Both re Kibri-Dagan, Zimri-Lim’s governor in the name of Dagan of Tuttul Why di

a net!... The houses of the seven confeder

port

‘and so he said as follows: ‘O Baby

I will gather thee inte ates and all their ARMT XIU 2

well known in the biblical

sessions 1 shall deliver into Zimri-Lim’s hand!

rating relations between Mari and

rabi's expan

nist aspirations. The other prophecy explicitly mentions Hammurabi as an enemy of Mari (ARMT XIII 114). A divinely ached Kibri-Dagan late one aftern onsolation: “The

pied woman apy with the

following wor Dagan sent me. S

lord; he shall not worry he of Babylon : d

was dispatched the

«worry. Hammurabi {king}

n broken].” The urgency of the matter i indica

From these two p

thecies—and possibly from most of the vision: oncerning the king’s safety—it is apparent that they were recorded a time of political and military distress at Mari. This, too, would 2 3 Mari sod that at Hamath, see Ro Especially th in a ring into the han hich are foun tly in both ancient Near Eastern and biblical literature in

f. and ef. Hein

be analogous to Israelite prophecy, which thrived particularly in times of national emergency—such as during the Philistine threat in the days of Samuel and Saul, during Sennach campaign against Jerusalem, and especially at the time of Nebuchadnezza ‘against Judah. ‘The crisis factor was certainly one of the principal forces engendering prophetic manifestations in both Mari and Israel However, in contrast to the Bible with its prophecies of doom and words of admonition against kin cople, the messages at Mari were usually optimist pught to placate the king rather than rebuke or alert him, Suc of succes alvation (sec ARMT X 4, 9, 10, 51, 80) by a touch of nationalism, liken the Mari pr 10 the “false prophe the corresponding prophecies are quite similar. I i nent “false prophets” in le, Hai aly rival, rashly proclaimed o not in the name of a foreign the impending ret e Judean exi for I will break the yoke of the king of Babyl How reminiscent is t he ap dictic gainst Babylon (see above, ARMT XIII 23). 1 ces the age is a whitewashing of the critic fi phe of peace served the “establishment” and ¢ ed its interests (cc pare the four hundred pr at Ahab’s court, who prophesy “wit one accord”; 1 Kir In contrast to Mari, the Bible is replete with propheci able to king and count ralds, : f ties. One well-known case is that of Amos who, at the royal sanctu: ary at Bethel; foretold of King Jer h and the exile of the pple (Amos 7:10~13). In : Amazi in, led the prophet to J and Zedekiah. Pashhur (the priest te lem), when confronted by the prophet f wrath This ha cated Bammura Mari ti f

venture against me-Dagan, king of Ashur. As noted, the mode of divination here is exceptional has led scholarly in. terpretations.* The key s at th ing ead

according to a recent ¢ ‘Concerning

a woman about the sign m) when I plied (them with drink) and the oracle (egerrim) for my lord is very favourable” (ARMT X 4:3-3:

Sibu immediately inquired of the fate of ime-Dagan, and the oracle was unfay juery concerning the fate of the enemy

recalls how kit ted the four-hundre

Arameans (1 Kings 22:6 ff.

his battle against th

cited the full prophecy proclaimed by the two persons, which con. tains several motifs found in biblical prophecies.® How are we tc perceive this kind of divination? It has been suggested that the man and woman themselves served ign and portent, partly on the basis of the words of Isaiah (Q Behold, I and the children the

Lord has given me are si Israel"—but such an in:

terpretation seem Rathe

likened to the divinatory method

proph P An prophets as well as transmitters of prophetic rep there was an unusually large proportion of women, mostly from Zimr Lim's court. Indeed, one of the king's daughters explicitly stated to her father: “No woman, may my father the On ARMT X 4, and the mod .

1982, Durand 19825 1 " Ww 2 flae'g* peer Mi i i hate ei , . ¢ =

rd harken unto my words. I will constantly send the word of the

ARMT X 10). S dreams sent their prophecies directly to the king, it a mediator (ARMT X 50, 100), Sibtu, more than anyone

= iermediary ing prophet : else, served as an intermediary for conveying prophetic messages to

ne prophetesses and fe

her husband. This would call to mind rather bizarre ep

out history, where a “prophet” or mystic used or exploited a queen

the ki

Among the edited” prophets, too—as we have seen

women, as there were in the Bible, The outstand

ing of these were Deborah, wife of Lapidoth (Judges 4:4) and Huldah, wile of Shallum (2 King 4). In both instances the Bible specificalh notes that they were married women, probably to stress their stabil: ity and reliability—as in the case of the “wife of a man of the Mari tesses (ARMT XIII 114:8), (See ch. 7 below

Are there any characteristics which distinguish the “accredited prophets from the lay ones? Two prominent features have been noticed by scholars: (a) Only i case of accredited” are the actual

Synonymous expressions are used in tion with the biblical prophets, as well (Deuteronomy 1:15, 18; 34:10; Jeremiah 1:1 tc.); note ticular Ezekiel: “And set me upon my feet” (Ezekiel and cf. Ezekiel 3:22-24; Daniel 8: 0:10-11; 2 Chronicles 24:2), (b) Among the lay prop dreaming is prevalent as the pro: phetic means, while this me is totally absent among the “ac

m Mari w

widespread phenome Israel.” At Mari

revelations thro non throughout

as in the Bible, we finc

alongside ordinary revelatory dreams

message was not intended for the drean ather for a third party (in the Bible, see Nu 1 25 A; 29:

Zachariah 10:2; ete

The two above categories of proph w clarify

a wonder Deuter ff). In ident involving Saul, the Bible is explicit i . hree distinct divinatory methods: “The Lord did not answer h ch by Urim or by prophets” (1 Samuel 28:6; and se Even Jeremial regarded the dreamer istinct prophet (Jeremiah 27:9) though he belittled thi jum, contra h “the word of God” and associati prop prophet whe has a dream tell the dream, but let hi rd speak n

1 faithfully. What has strav i

we Jn with wheat?” (J This deflated status of a source of pi inspiration also fin xpressi¢ R dictum com

paring sleep to death, just Cr red prophe

The Mari let un re usually sti on a regular sche he male or fi dreamer; (2) th ing formula of the dream—"(I 1m ar n

usly West Semitic form identical with Biblical Hebrew baf'lami 1 visual or an audit * and final he ommunicator’s comments, in mai : yg a statement that 4 lock of the pr phi hair and a pi the hem of his/her garment are being sent to the king a:

In one illuminating incident at Mari, where ¢ dream 4

10 whom al vision, The dre

as eventually repor Kibri-D: Thus he saw

An exact

oa and Hi 7

4 T ard Akkadia

76 PART TWO: PROPHECY

fa vision) as follows: ‘Build not this house .. ; if that house will be built I will make it collapse into the river!” On the day he saw that

dream he did not tell (it) to anyone, On the second day he saw again

the dream as follows: ‘It was a Build not this house; if

you will build it, I will

nake it collapse into the river!” Now, herewith ment and a lock of hair of his head I have sent to my lord ARMT XIII 112:1"=15"). The no previous prophetic experience, did

the hem of his

by, who apparently had

at first realize the source

of his dream; only when it recurred the next night did he become aware of its divine origin and of the mission imposed upon him. This immediately calls to mind young

le at Shiloh (1 Samuel 3:3 ff.

Samuel's initial prophetic ex

perience, while reposing in the tem

The Lord informed him, in a nocturnal vision, of the impending

demise of the Elide clan, In Samuel's case, it was only after the fourth

beckoning (though on the same night) that he comprehended the divine nature of the vision (see below ch. 7, p. 99).*

In general, novice and inexperienced prophets were unable to iden tify divine revelations when first encountered (as in the case of Samuel wee | Samuel 3:7). Hence we find the repetition of the manifestation, both at Mari a

illuminating: he too was reluctant to accept his prophetic

d in the Bible. Jeremiah’s initial call is also most alling,

pleading youthfulness (Jeremiah 1:6-7), After bolstering the yc

jested him by a vision; “And the word of the Lord

came to me saying: ‘Jeremiah, what do you see?’, and I said: ‘I see a rod of almond (Hebrew: s@géd).’ ‘Then the Lord said to me: ‘You

have seen well for I

watching (fogéd) over my word to perform it

Jeremiah 1:11-12). God, in his response, expressly confirmed. the reliability of the prophet’s perception—a totally unique event in the

realm of prophetic vision in the Bible—and thu

proving Jeremiah's

fitness to undertake his prophetic mission.”

9 ff. The phe ally from the De dination

INTUITIVE PROPHECY — A GENERA

Prophetic: Cr

ic” text from Mari (A. 2

In a relatively recently published “pr

© name of the recipi he other letters). We

the name of the writer has been lost, as

ent (who was probably Zimri-Lim, recipient of

The woman Ayala saw (iftul) in her dream as follow A woman from Sebrum (and) a woman from Mari in the g the temple of) Annunt missing/which is at th f ft am Thus (sa . from Sehrum to the woman from Mari: “Return to me my position as high prises (the wm may refer instead to ‘equipment either you sit or I 1 By the furnubird ha d this mi ce {the dream). Now her h A the hi nt Lam sending along, May my lord investigate the m

ess. The penultimate passage relates that the writer confirmed the validity of the vision by means of augury. This divinatory device well known in the classical world, appeared at a very early period in

Hither Asia." In this instance, the examination ‘proved’ that the

woman actually did se that is, she did see the vision she claimed to have seen. I h as the u, “to dream’ yhonymous and interchangeable ajalu, the inten: tion here seems to be that the woman was indeed competent and experienced in the art of dream oracles. Thi meaning is pre isely as the editor of the text translated: “Elle a bien eu ce songe just like God’s words to Jeremiah: “You have seen well” (habia lir

The document was published by D ki Lim); and see the comments in Sasson 19 The 1 : Divination b behavior i < Oppenheim 1964, pp. 209-210. ‘This pra Kammenhuber 1976, who deals only b he Kind of bi ed in our text: MUSEN BURR, for th s 4 ie McEwan 1980 an D: 9 sce CAD A. \ ‘ The statv . in the Mari idiom, and we ma f :

The writer did not suffice with his own examination of the dream, and sent the woman’s hair and the hem of her garment to the king

This unique and somewh th the M:

ccasions; that is, in a

ling practice, attested only in

he realm of speculation procedure was clearly related in some manner to the reliability of the diviner and of his message. In most f the cases, the prophet were presented to the king only a: recommendal the fi nto act upon them remaining in his hands; “Let my lord do what pleases him"; “Let my lord do

n his deliberation, pleases him." (In this matter

these prop! mm biblical prophecy, which i

ate and “non-negotiable”,) Several points should be note

The lock of hair and the hem garment are unequivocally personal objects," specific to. their idual owners, and seem to have served ort of “identity card”. In the Bible, we read how David took the fringe of Sau the cave near En-Gedi Samuel 24 v. 4), in order to show him that Saul had been entirely at his mercy. In other words, the Mari procedure may pri marily have ha gnificance, more a religio-magic mean. These personal items may also have been

of a diviner, and that the message was not simply a fabrication 0

the reporting official, who may have had some particular motive f

i 077; Malul 1986 vggests that not merely the hem but the ire gar if i. the private par involved; 6, p a ” fF and notes. For oth ce Uffenbcimer 1973, p meer 1968; Moran 1969, pp. RMIT X ting but problematic addition appea the hair and the heen; in the latter: “let th i - ding to Mor Ja, PE itis the a a that ll effect declare th an.” A X. p. 26 Noort 1977, ppp. 85-86, Se

peri pect also emenges fre Al dreame ince thi did not tak of hit he fringe as often verified and the accepted mantic device idered more reliable means than intuitive prophecy p Alongside th ure practice of sending the hem of a garment and a lock of the dreamer-prophet we encounter the following features: Sibtu wrote to Zimri-Lim thi he nally examined a prophe age ending it on > him, and 1 the report to be ARMT X 6), In another letter, a lady of al ported a vision, and cdvised the king: “Let my lord hi aruspex look into the matter ARMT X 94). In a thi >man implores the king to verify the visior p d ARMT X 1); the same advise ing, fol phecy of yan ec above, toh . nnter the cit without inqui f the x ast, in Israel the proph rd—whether accepted o rejected by the kin peopl never subjected ( ration by mantic mea was vindicated by the test of fulfilment £, Deuterc 1 22; E Tn sum, thi 1 of reliability existed whe atuitive prop flourished. It concerned the M: : n the biblical lawmaker true” prophets, from Mose miah—all of whor ought a yardstick for measur phetic authenticity. In ” one expert: “The prophets who precede d me fro cient times pr ed war, famine ar : oun: ries and great kis As for the prop prophesies peac when the word of t ph R il be k hat the Lord has truly sent the prophet cn Dossin 194 a

NTUITIVE. PROPHECY — A 1. SURVEY Haran, M., (1977). “From E te P Con Cha Hecker, i Ms 2 0 Heine, Jc a7) € i Helck, Wo, (19 b A 7 Herrman 15). Die prop s Holtjeer, J. & V K hi Les Holma, Hi, (1914). D F Hi Holscher, G., (1914), Die P Hossfeld, FL. & Meyer, LL, (19 F re Huffinon, HB, Prop the M c 92), “An a P Bible De New York 07) Mari A re Prophecy Prop 5 i rn Kammenhuber, A, (1967). "Die hethi « Kraus, Pi k v Lan, Be ie Ma i Landsberger, Bs, (1915). 1H Lemaire, A 0 a Arr 1,’ Pa Lindblom, J, (1962). P 4 c Liverani, ML The A DIW 1 Malamat, A., (1956). “Ps Mari Ds brew By : EVI r ory and M. E Revela New Docun M. 8 Proph N t ©. j Prop G. Foto, Berlin-New York " 367). "A Forerunner of P Mari Ds . Miller, PD. Hi S. Dean Mc r FM. Gs, Philad 369), (pb. edition s Lectures, 1984), The Bs L Ds Maiul, M., (1986), “Si kk Their Mt F Bir 5p, 20-36 Margueron, J.C. (19 o", AMA Rapp 9 1984), “Rapport pr 4 McCarter, P.K., (1980). “The B Deir “Alla: The First C ion”, RASOR 239, pp. 4 Moran,’ W.L., (19699). "New E M: Hi P O60). “Akkadian L N Nakata, 1, (1982) E s th fn BE

PROPHETIC REVELATIONS IN MARI AND THE BIBLE COMPLEMENTARY CONSIDERATIONS* The greatest relevance and most 5 parative } tudy of the Mari d id the Bible n the resear tionably, such ruc ay al: He ble contribution } already been shed on such ng cererin } the ban-enforcement as penalty f n and © con. } i } | © "The flowing sbbrevi This art , der iN } ae n P } 1, Pri ‘ i Mir (pul Parrot et G. De A. Malamat, “P Mari Ds R a, Hi c Hebrew, E 1 ELVA. Malumat, “Hi M Vol. V, 1958, pp f ~ D Sara a Tere, Mala ? Tribal © Triton Prony XLV, 1960, Se haa B L eines Masi-T M 057, pp. fy A. Malamat, “The B a Ena P EA. Speiser, "€ R M. is BASOR CXLIX,

PROPHETIC REVELATIONS IN MARI AND BL 5

to the phenomenon of intuitive divination and the very existence of

the prophetic emissary among West

Israelite prophets by centuries, despite the in lity to determine

as Asia Minor.* This viewpoint

cally throughout this region by such a person ob

essed by in Hittite sources, a prop! jos in the Egyptia ale of Wen-Amon and ecstatic wes in Syria described b classical writers.) Ye nut atte fivest Mari or Israelite prophecy of any ecstatic featur ast be gi to the sense of mission, Herein lies th lid . i analogy above all others as seen fr Moreover, considering that the gr a population de picted in the Mari document losel ied (ethnically and adic existence to Ist tors) and that divine revel tl but one of various points of contact between Mari and Israel is it not reasonable to assume a rather close relatic between these parallel manifestations? Granted this, prophecy in Mari appar ently reflects the early budding of the later, bri etic flowering in Israel Six documents from Ma tween 1954,” devoted to the appearance of diviners, have been under discussion by variou: = A. Goetse, Ki Orient), M r T for ecstat n zur F P am in I f M ned be . P Canaanit 1

rophecy, including two

the last ruler of Mari, by his officials

pear f Kallasu, od Adad, of Ale

a dream (RA XLII), th

rally located in the

jes as well) bear the specific title of diviner prophet Two Akkadian terms, mu ubiatuon) ard dpilum (fem. 4 are employed to designate the diviners, though a clear delinea tion of character of the two typ denied us because of paucity of atcrial at hand. ‘The former term, derived from a root mean to rave, to become frenzied”, has long since become famili in the form mabfiim) as a temple functionary of possible ecstatic nature F social status." Mari usage, however, is restricted to the dim, a nominal pattern denoting some defect." It HW, 1 ia it 1RM Vi und Gotterwor im Alten Testa i Gesamme Hien rr N 0 rn ¢ urch prophetische Wort it d Mari", W0 1 ff; H. Schmok Gi M. r L pp 53 fl; FM. Lingre Bah L Ausyrien und Israel", Op Wi also NH. Riddderbos, svcd Ph P r Haag 19 . Westermann, “Die Mari-Br die Prophe Alen 7 Manchen 1964, pp. 171 ft. a G. Fohrer, TAR, NE, X 063, Bp. 306 f Add n into Syria H. Klengel, “Der W mn Halab”, 7C8 XIX, 1965, pp 7 V . don of Kallasu with a illage of th A entific Klen 3). But, if Alaheum (desired by Adad Kall 7 Alalah (as Durand : G an 4S p. 391 5 Haldar, Assecatons of ¢ Pop v.< WZKM LIV The ter M. i RA XXXV 938, pp. 6 (L , f Assyrian vocab EF. W yo XI, 19) 0 Old Babylonian

is similar both in connotation and form to the Hebrew word mig possessed, mad”, which in some biblical instan synonym for prophet (II Kings ix xxix 2¢ worth noting that the absessed by the deity wa to this in Mari) rather than an inn i ay well hay wherever they are transmitted in the ¢ While the mantic personage allude Josely akin i frequently mentioned in Akkadian source plum othe pand, is intrinsic to the world of M ely known outside it. Recurrent reference to the latter is found in the epistle sent Mati from th Syria (R y i ane of these 1 inc the proclamation of th indicating that these d , ar to the prophetic band or coterie known from the Bible (1: Sam. x 5s xix 20 Kings xx 35 ff), In cont cordance with evi thus ranki 4 culteprophet.” Another i ary of Adad of Aleppo, with a further referer isionaries of this ca Mati prog The latter fact is further corroboratec ment from the Mari ar : snd ih ii i } ein ion by Landhberge aed the later t cx ti 1 6s pp 6 site, pd N M there ( i F The act : ible wholar, adh h

Hebrew proph Mowsinc i UL i P Ki s fr Haldar, A

‘Cult Pop AR f Pr Lert’, Cardiff 196: cy by HLH. R :

ved vestments from the royal court (ARM IX

This the dpilum to the royal palace is of considerable interest, althou does not bear out h t access to the king, which is actually indicated in a source other than Mari!" In any event, this evidence brings the dpilum into greater proximity to the

‘ourt prophets in the class of Nathan and Gad of David’s entourage or the Baal and Ashera prop b. F

One of the tie” texts from Mari (ARM XII 23) refers t a diviner spelled a-ap-lu-i-um (apliim) which may be another form for ipilum, Akkadian for “he who responds, respondent” (from apillun pond”), On the other hand this form is closer to term: d g rr di . recorded in various lexical li re in turn as quasi-synonyms for mahi and mubbikon ndeed, the appellative dpilum /aplin rived from the Akkadian verb “to answer, to respond”, then the title, as in the case of mubbiim ecalls biblical terminology pertinent to prophecy, as exemplified by the verb ‘uk and its der The verb ‘nh, “to answer, to respond”, is used repeatedly in the the response by God to an appeal by a prophet, or by an: ividual for that matter (1 Sam. xxviii 6 et passim), It is in turn

mployed by prophets entr deity for a divine sign or me

age as in the encounter of Elijah with the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel disputant pective deities with he same formula “Respond ¢ ipond to me"; “O Baal,

re of the Baal prophet

Reference i KAR 46 A re the apodos reads: “the king wi mn h that normal h " Weis true documents of Mari the " ign anid hi Yet qi ‘iment Far af a f 2

le ID. The former is i ted in the lexial series HAR. gud B VI: 135, lished ja N 1 CT XVIM, PL. 16 [Rem. $60), whe listed ofthe 8 reference supplied b diberger

hand this Sumerian te . h lexical

Haldar, 4 fC

reference to Bal We 1 obs who respi M that offers an off

This document is a letter from the dossier of a high: ranking official in the court of Mari. The Zimrilim, that upon completion of the sacrificial rite on behalf of his king there appeared before him a diviner designated apliom (for this unique spelling ee above n. 17), It is unclear what link exists between the offering and the diviner’s appearance.” Worthy of note in this re pect is the second instance he prophetic mission of this type of mantic personage, where the author of the mi

aced the vision with a report on the delivery of cattle m

sacrificial purposes (Robinson Volume ll 0 other

lished documents relate th pon royal officiald to make oblationary offeri the man

king of Mari, father of Z 90; 1

likely that the divi

involved in the pr 10 the deity for the well-being of the Mari sovereign.

Dagan, as is well k pccupied a cent ition in the pan theon of the West Semitic tribes specifically in the Mari region. Thi we find on four occasions in th documents that diviners are sent by this divinity (RA XLII; ARM If 90; TIL 40; XII 114). Wherea: the latter instances, however, refer to Dagan of the city of Terqa- our case is the first to mention a pr f Dagan, the the city of Tuttul, Most instructive is the fact that thi

already been noted some five centuries earlier in the insc

Sargon the Great

there is a reference to his we f Day Tuttul, the god who had granted him dominion over Mari and the lands west of it This serves as evidence for the importance of Tuttul as a culti center of Dagan and the deity’s prominence in the Ma

a. Addi

divinity, even in as far west as the Levantine coast, can now struction ing. of olocn B Num, x Ejah-Ba " Mount Carmel (2 K Or " i B Me 064 (Pravin de fe Paris, X), P WC. Kai : Shoe 7 Young), Wins ANET Camb. Ane. Hi XIX, Cam.

be adduced from

Hebrew

The locatic with Tall Bi'a

ative A), i.e. Dagan (who tum:

on the confluence of the E

PART TWO: PROPHECY

a new Ugaritic ¢

cument. Among a listing of dei

tilh (the final letter apparently corresponding to the

wards the city of Tuttul,

phrates and Balih river and

was excavated in the 1980s, and 1990s." A southern Tuttul is to be identified with modern Hit lying on the Euphrates south of Mari near he Baby jorder. The western center,” in fact, was inestimably

uuperior in em locality local Mari dynasty may and Zimrilim

In the aplim whic phetic dis pund

the ruler

The

alr of Mi

King of Mari, Tuttul and

tance during the Old Baby

he south:

nian period f its particularly esteemed position within the both Yahdunlim of Hana’

deduced from the titles

ied at the kingdom of

Babylon. The short pro-

of previously between Hammurabi, king of Babylon and

jon to the north a

attitude between the two erstwhile alli

tof Mari in th

Babylonian king’s 32nd

respect to the prophetic burden of the dpilum a

transmitted in the letter of the Robinson Volume. At the same time, the

in the Mar

mulated than found elsewhere

phecies, which may account for flaws at the hands of

1962, p._50. The complete the heading “Sapat la déesse du

RA LXVIII (1977), pp. 25-34; for : MDOG CXIX (1987), pp. 7-49 and MDOG CXXVI (1995), pp

43-55. On this ‘st been OB ind hundreds of Mar-like ti Tuttul see f W. Hallo, JCS XVII, 1964, p. 79; mp two western cities of the d + he identifies with Tell . r nd of the Euphrates, Goetze a western Tuttul, refer

E, Sollberger, A/O XIX,

ps, RA XXXII, 1936, pp. 4 jerween the i Zino M. a f. most discussion by Ci. Gadd,

PROPHETIC REVELATIONS IN MARI AND THE BIBLE 3

the scribe in the letter v

Although

13; erasure of one sigi tances which gave rise t d

omprehensible, There is the

denunciation of Babylon an Mari’s ruler

uring up association utterances of Israel's proph ets, Biblical rhetoric is furt n y the similes in the oracle (also present in other ancient Near Eastern source

I shall. gathe in a reference to the ensnaring of the

my in the hunter's or fisherman's net by the deity. Evidence de

ing the antiquity of this motif in Mesopotamia is readily apparent in the “vultures stele” of Eannatum, ruler of Lagash, dating to the middle of the third millennium B.C. Th f Lagash is shown smiting the defeated people with a mace ht hand, ai they fl about helplessly ina la grasps in the left.” The accompanying inscription emy lly that the ensnaring in the net by th pnstitutes special punishment for violation of a treaty, ar ¢ which is apparently th for our prophecy. Biblical imagery, especially i th +t Proph cts, is familiar with the theme of the defeated enemy being likened to creatures trapped in the net of the hu jerman (Ez. xii 3; xvii 20; xix 8; xxxii 3; Hi Hal 5-17; Job xix 6)

The prophecy concludes on a note of ¢ agement to Zimrilim and the deity's nce that he (Zimrilim) would subjugate the seven onfederates (a typological number) or allies of Babylon with all their possessions, The ates may be an allusion to Babylon's royal vassals which nut ome ten to fifteen kings, acc toa diplomatic report of Zi agen possible that the remark refers to tribal chieftains which may have come under Hammurabi’s rule, in similar fashion to the “7 kings, the fathers (aba) of Hana (sic he seven Hanaean tribal heads) sub-

nim, ruler of Mari (Dise inserig

In a formula similar to that of our letter, the

jugated by Yahe

the deity of Ter

ANEP, No. 298, For in ZA. Bar R pions ofS Abad, New Hi , Bp F i zed ” Su ANE N

that had been actively opposing Mai

he remainder of the letter is defe missing. From the legible remains it made a second appearance with an ad¢ vious document (ARM III 78:20 ff), we phetic message reappearing before the of the oracle’s desire to increase U

contains « prophecy on Babylor

forcefulne

ARM XII 114

kings’ of the Yaminites” in “Zimrilim’s hand” (RA XLII, ll. 30-31 Here again the reference is to the chieftains of a tribal federatic

cctive and its end completely ears however, that the diviner tional, curt address. In a pre also find the bearer of a pro- authorities, obviously because

first document is of special significance, as it is one of the few Mari texts with an oracle concerning another people, proclaiming condemnation and doom in the manner familiar to us from the bib lical prophecies against the nations. While the next document also

only the opening

ARM XIII 114 = XXVI/1 210 To my lo peak Thus (speaks) Di On the which T send this my table and as to Baby 10. thus she spoke to me as follow The god Dagan h a Send (a m hy lord Let him not be anxious and { ] Let him not be anxiou 15 Hammurat King olf Baby’ The re of et is illegible iges are the words

XL1, 1964, p. 111 Euphrates region, Durand

The author of this, as of the two remaining “prophetic” epistles (ARM XIII 112, 113), is Kibri-Dagan, governor of Terq: + Zimrilin

The previously published correspon of this official already three letters dealing with diviner-prophets (4RM II 90; III 40, 8). It comes as no surprise that hetic” de ts are included in the correspondence of the governor of Ter promin of the god Dagan and the religious focus of the Mari kingdom, T deity’s ten oned in particul fF th a 1 XLID, un erved as focal point for prophetic activity. Th unique feature, however ¢ three recen 7 contra: distinctic heir predecessors, where i re designated ubbim (in ARM I 90. the ter dossib] restored in the lacuna of |. 16), is the lack of any phetic appellative for the bearer livine message. Mor put, they were nc professional prophe lividual ated mer uth free)man” and “wife of a (free)man”, ¢ examples of personal harisma, contingent neither ug ‘ The f y in ow b he “wife of a (free}man ness of her and her me Nevertheless, a + Ma Da led to specify the diviner We hay 4 femal in the Mari documents, The femal c as expert f , T oval ur her in the f ata woman ha: a ine emissary without be i fess, while in pr vious texts female di were designated mubbiitum (ARM VI 45: 9, 1 dpiltum (Robinson V 0 The Bible, too, knows prophet such as Deb ¢ wife of Lappidoth (Jud. Hu f Sh: n of n of Harhas (2 King 14) and Noadiah (Neh. vi 14). We may note that in the first two inst biblical ces fit to mention fact of their married sta in the Mari case. In additior relatively high social standing is imputed to Huldah’s spouse, who The compound uss married recurs several tn he H c RD C. Miles, 7

ial of the tem

the fate

palace. Huldah’s prophecy, as well, concerned itself wit

Mari visionary, she was chai g out the word of God

on the initiative of the king, whe cial delegation to her for his very Kings xi 12 ff

he first 0 where the female oracle’s words are tran-

batim. Ful ciow he divine me he is about

1¢ authoritic commences phetic addr

declaring: “Dai mula also found in other Mar

oracles (ARM II 90: 19; III 40: 1 cf RA XLT, |, 32), This

fact testifies that amon Mari visionaries this typical message

formula had already taken root. A parallel formula, representative of

Israelite prophec well,® is attested by Moses’ proclamation be

Ph rd, the God of the Hebrews, sent me

6) and down to Jeremi dress to the ministers: “The Lord sent

j As in the fe ument, the prophec

lates to Babylon f imrilim uttered by the

ty, undoubted! m danger of Hammurabi to

the Mari kingdom. ‘Thi 1 quently, be dated to the

last yeai rule, The urgency of the matter at hand i

evinced bo the woman's appearance before the governor of Terqa

at eventide and the latter's haste in pitting her encouraging

In the remaining ¢ cu ARM XIII 112, 113), « special

ategory of divination 4a prophetic revelation by mean:

one of particular dream”, i.e, where the 1, however, for further

PROPHETIC REVELATIONS IN MARI AND THE BIBLE cific delineation between the bulk of dreams relating to the dreame himself and to the typ dream whose message is meant for an. other subject. The Mari dream-reports belong to the latter group. This distinction is applicable to the Bit for alongside visi pertaining to the dreamer (e.g. tho: ed by the patriar and Solomon at Gibeon), is one containing a message to another person (cf, Num. xii 6; Jer, xxiii 25 ff; xxix 8; Zech. d other The visionaries of Mari, whose reve was promy cam, bear no particular title of diviner. T fe referred to merel outh’ rum, ARM XII ar an” (auetlum, it the latter appellation also designating the sole dreamer known to u from previous documents (RA XLII, ll. 7, 40). With the exception of the “wife of a (free}man” (ARM XIIL hose appearance at dusk may hint at a nocturnal vision ‘camer the remaining cases of Mar if tide net. Thi inc

ignificanc

the dreamer of dream A similar di

2 ff), and we are

by dream: iii 6; ef. v. 15

Jeremiah, as well, views the dre on one occasion as a distinc within the visionary framework xxvii 9), True, the ‘at Near East

dividing line is not always distinct concerning

resort to the dream as a inspiration (e.g. Num. xii 6

In the course of time Jiminished the

potency of the dream as a legitimate medium of divine revelation,

especially in the polemics of Jeremiah against the

prophets (Jer. xxiii 25 ff

(On dreams in the Bit EL Ehrlich, Der T Aken Testam AW, Baik. LXXI, 1955; A. Cacp s ental Mant and the Bil Op Near E as T : 4 est of Ish . pall. Hi Mari and the B

PROPHETIC REVELATIC

MARI AND THE BIBLE 99

message recalls the prophet Nath

n coming before David on on of a House of God (2 Sam. vii 4f achieved divine revelation in a nocturnal vision and on

God

Nathan als

s essentially a prophetic mission nce of Kibri-Dagan (ARM

related in prev

II 78), Here, too, the diviner (mubhiim) appeared before

of a gate) having been sent bi deity cith impede or, a

we presume, to hasten the work (ef. EZ IV, p. 79 Of particul

ortance is the fact of the dream’s recurrence and identity of content on both occasions. It appears that the first vision left the dreamer vague as to the full meaning of his experience which he dared not relate to a soul. It was only with the re-appearance of the dream the fol ‘

We imm

the doom of Eli’s house rev

fer, in contrast to our Mari

imes, during the very same night

nacle at Shilob (1 Sam. i

and Samuel transmits the

to conceal anything from him.

Despite the contrasting circumstances, the significant fact underly ing both cases is that these dreams, which bear a fundamentalh auditory ch c. the deity’s voice is actually heard), recur until the dreamer fully apprehends their inner import. This phenomenon becomes readily apparent once it is realized that both occurren concem individuals whose youthful years precluded initiation into the mysteries of prophetic revelation.* Consequently, they were incapable of penetrating its actual core of mear the initial experience, as explained by the author of the Samuel story: “Now Samuel did 1

yet know the Lord, neither was the word of the Lord yet revealed

him” (ib, t Samuel ha while si anctuary. Never In this J articular wisen it outh (Jer 16-7). On another parallel between Mari a Eb's adj of Samuel and "Di P rom Mari (ARM XXV1 c

now VA. Hu VT XLIV (198

100 PART TWO: PROPHECY

in the M: ful incubatio

in this instance, and even less case, to the effect that

the dream was the result of av which the dreamer

had anticipated.” (On the “prophetic” dream see also above ch. 6, pp. 74 After a verbal transcription of the dream, Kibri-Dagan informs

the king that he has sent him the yo

th’s fringe or hem of g

issiktu in Akkadian) and a lock of hair. A similar procedure is re-

lated in two previous documents: 1) Bahdilim, the prefect of the Mari palace, in a memorandum sent to the king concerning the prophecy of a certain female diviner (mubhiitum), encloses “her hair” (implying and the hem of her

a curl of hai nent; 2) an official named

Tturasdu reports to his lord a divine message revealed once again in

a dream. The letter concludes by stating that the official is unable to

send the visionary along to the king and emphasizes “because he is

a trustworthy man I have not taken his hair nor the hem of his garment RA XLII, 1. 53)." On this peculiar ps

ments (EI IV, pp. 81, 84 and now ch. 6, pp. 77 £. above). In this

context we noted the biblical story of David coming upon the unat

tice see our previous treatment of these docu:

tended Saul in the cave, where he cut the hem of his pur 1 Sam. xxiv 4 f£). In his review of ARM VIM. Noth mentions the

same parallel and while attributing to the hem/hair motif the power

to control a person, secs in it primarily a magic-religious significance." The more important factor, however, remains the legal symbolism of

exercise of power over an individual through possession of his per- sonal articles, as suggested by various scholars."

See Ehrich, op cit, pp. 45 Mf. In one of the new Mari documents mention may

have been made of a “youth of (the goddess) Ishtar”, Le. a servant in the Ishiar

in the event that the reference ti not imply a proper noun

{RM XII 150. 5 and the edi relate a similar asumption

to the “youth” in our document, namely his having served in a Terqa temple

Trandation of passage isin accordance with Oppenbeitn, Inapreation of Dream p. 195. Instead of Dostin's reading h nd of offical, this keyword should read lik-l, “trustworthy”, as proposed by Oppenheim, INES XI, 1952, p. 134

ISS 1, 19% 327 ff. For the Saul-Da of the cane bem con Ul alt (hem of ne, “Fimbria vyestimenti", VD XXV, 1947, pp. 2 rccasionally

ig SVT 1988, nat Vit tn tgiicanee

see Ur cae Liane nelschanas ca achat heed

Posts Kise, Lape 193, mi ipeal id bones

tis debe (AR 4297 Ena BB, Tada 198 p. } sage apap oh Lwin |

EPISODES INVOLVING SAMUEL AND SAUL PROPHETIC TEXTS FROM MARI*

AND THE

ral Towns by a Diviner

In ARM 26/1, 88 [= ARM 5, 65:15-28) (Durand 1988; 32 f,, 226 f Asqudum, the chief diviner at the Mari palace in the Old Babylonian

period (on this person see Durand 1988; 71-228) writes to Yasmah-

Addu, the viceroy of Mari, infer alia about his visit to four towns in

order to perform extispices there for the well-being of their inhabit

ants (cf. Cryer 1994: 202 £). The towns are Saggaritum (on the lower

Habur river), Terqa (near the a) and finally Mari, the h

located in the heartland of the Mari kingdom

nfluence of the Habur and Euphrates)

Suprum (south of Te All the above sites We do ni

me-base of Asqudum,

ponths (1. 19)

he

aritum was valid for six

Asqudum’s rounds, but his extispicy

Turning to the Prophet Samue reports that he made

ds to four n m the seat of sanctu:

aries, within the tribal area of B Gilgal, Mispah, where S: Israel. “Th and there too he would judge Israel" (1 Sam. 7:16-17; Smith 1 54 f; McCarter 1980; 148; Klein 1983; 69 £

Thus, we h

‘njamin, the heartland of Israel: Bethel,

muel administer

justice to the F

he would return

Ramah, for his home wai

we in Mari and in the Bible an analogue of the functions

and activities of a major cu

personage, who made the rounds to

four places, alth Asqudum covered larger distances than Samuel.

The mention s in the circuits of each one of the dental. We know, at |

Mari, that a “quartet” of places may indicate a stable, administrative

unit or district (cf. Durand 199

Asses Gone Astn One of the best-known tales in the First Book of Samuel concern: the lost asses of Kish, Saul’s father. Kish asks Saul to return the missing animals to him (1 Sam, 9: Hertzber 0 ff; Kle Saul, in the con 1, searched for the ut the © I a at

The servant drew f Saul to the hat in the vicinit of their wanderings dwelt a prophet (ie. Samuel), wh he know where to find the a d a visit to hin be beneficial (on the remuneration given to the prophet see Malamat 1989: 62 £). In deed, asse found, but t Jc junte between Samuel and Saul was to appoin a ing of Israe

The reality of a h a quent phe nomenon, but it is reported onl A hy parallel tc the biblical tale is the M A. 6/1, 63 (Durand 1988; 206 f). Again Asqud i King Zi Lim. The text first reports that ZimrieLim ha red an ass, Then it records that other a ad bi nfirmed by ar inquiry of Asqudu latte re in Qattunai provincial town in the north of the M: Zimnri-Lin kn the asses of : T

itwati us. Asses at ti " C. An “Old M i Prop

In a fragment prophecies

J.-M. Durand i 6, Di e c

it 3u.gi) is mentior D. While 1 he

address een Zimri-Lim. We sh he

readin, ons of th JM. S hout adhe

Th hi Y S

mai D: ine W ite

ter g Hi 7 M

jent-shtine, Durand reste Daga 2

Kiein, X s BC . Kleiner, NL Malamat, A., (1980). “A Ma PS GF 3 Tl. Material R Carter, PK. A ‘6 Wh, ML. (1968), Aimige 1 BRAY peniice Z K, veo Le and A. Sel : yan Le Leuven, pe ‘ hilt, BB, (1995). “The W Ent re ae Ancient Me Rial Prey, L mith, HE ett

A MARI PROPHECY AND NATHAN’S DYNASTIC ORACLE*

A. 11 wi lished G 1} translit a and Preach) andaton! tnd fou ta Alou) wan alae and edited by B. Lafont, who, upon a ruggestion of JM. Durand cai he small agment A. 2781 (our fet B belo

riginally by G. Dossin, only in French, Since the initial publication, variou lations and treal Mari proph published

th a brief English at ng a Hebrew tr u h ussion of the text, its historical bi plications for biblical proph been unappreciated till ne ep © passing remarks): the ature of t . ment as a “dynastic oracle,” and

it J the . terial in the Bible, It is th

the major fragme This is followed by an E the letter (A. 2731). Ie is providi ender and the king «

Tw

Now, mor Adad, L as residing hich they tell

spoken

dof Halab,

oF poss paired with cukn

ace G, Dossin dru festival at

High Pr

For a

KI, might tend « means decisive, Fir nyms, but it may be as well. Furthermor it might simp

Alabtum, meri

ally occurs without B. Landsberge remark in JAOS 191: 6; V4), and Akkadian im

Akkadian docu

JG. Heine st preserved Men’ hi

HI Sam, 24:18 fF (D; at the ef Araui 1 Ki f the threshing-floor near the The idiom e . c HI Kin For the t J. Milg L T > L claim (the field the best se th AF Mani, 1956 V 0 Das Wort (des Gi H T ak oA 7 nc . of h ich Adad, Lord Ri ext AV b, wh nd wh

nes in text A precludes a clear ter In th tof text B, were tly F he two gods, whether they are merely le of Kallassu, which is gen icinity of Halab, if not an actual herwise." In any event, though both Zimri-Lim to his throne, there is an he nthe demands put to him: in 2 niblatum, while in B (the he Lord of Halab p for a just < unter in a newly publish ter? Ac interpret bivalent political relationship, Halab as its capital) and Mari 1 (after almost two decades of exile in ning the of Mari after forciny an viceroy." He was aided by Yarim: acle, see ARM XII ila), and A. 4 A Halak 7 c il M. h. 4 E f f Halab) may awe i. if a eullenaiun rophet Hebrew y M: HK ¥

tes while se fr pewor Therefore, in biblical ‘ The ver AK wor

welation—ie. the Hebi f on ployed for divine r ! Signif ! Hebrew vert t ' pons fio

ortal_me God. F f functior M

arouser and ad ic). In M Balaam’s oracle we read at Bi f ' : the son of Be In this I t, the recently pub: lished wall inscriptions from Deir ary BA which tell of visions of Balaan B :

amaic Zakur inser 00 B.C pl 1 Ba‘alshamayn answered 1 rough 1 through diviners” (side A, ll. HI-1

Her function of t . + apy L. Ran y

‘On pp. 130-131 D

Het t Gt the sncepe HE pretation, cf alo H. R u

Pete biblical é M He and ho mpared with the M

al prophet Mari, four additional

Mari prophetic texts hi

wealed by apilum /apiltun A. 4260 (only through a French translation); ARM X, 9; ARM X, and ARM X, These in: stances shed light on Nur-Sin’s statement (our A: 29-31) that, while

of Shamash

: texts. In ARM X, 9, pilum-diviner ate to conve message to the queen, Shibtu, Lim. ‘These and other fi how that the

p ners wer ore intimat ct with the royal palac her liviner-p at Mari. This relationshi logy with the bit he

"the type represented by G: 1 Nathan, With this, we arrive at

he principal th uur discussion, that is, the bearing of the Mari

documents quoted al A and B) on similar prophetic me in the Bible, specifically Nath concerning the kingship. Nathan's prophecy 0: Davidie dynasty, often known as the

ant", should preferably be regarded as a dynastic

text of this prophecy, in II Sa is parallele

with minor variations) in I Ch 15; its poctic counterpart ap- pears in Ps. 89, an interpretative exposition of the original,” while Ps 132 mt tic reflect ume oracle. It ha bee fa voluminous literature—especially since L. Rost

of Il Sam, 7—such as the various literary strata, the Deuteronomistic beyond our present scope, and din the li noted above. Suffice it a ahecy per se come from the period of Mon: th a Davidie nucleu and an adaptation under Sc An oft-applied com with extra-biblic es perceives thi literary type of prophecy as a sort of Kin mn the Egyptian pattern. This ha cen re cently F who instead looks toward Mesopo ing on comparative material from the neo-Assyrian a Bat scription He intimates even a possibl West Semitic trac : Nathan's oracle. In out 1 study, we focus upon the relevan comparative material in Mari and in the Bil her implying no Nathan's oracle displays several ements held in comm with our Mari prophecy, despit ther distinctly contrastin features, Amongst the later, the prom Adad, Lord of Kalla the solemn pledge David ftional, f if David strays from the way of the Lor 1 take my steadla love from him" (II Sam, 7:15 and ef. Ps. 89: MT v. 34-38} but sce the conditional reinterpretat P In oth words, the one is obli while the other is promi Anott No. NT r \ ‘ 19%, END. Metin : ae 158 Tor f Cf. 3. ntaries PK. MeCarter Il Aa H Ds hh KAT) 1991, 20 S, Herrman he Ki A 41 peg 3 (1935/54 Sam VI i the Egyptian ‘K ry Grol, opt, 19 An Gore, Guth Rede in 1" x EK 158 (196

nin M. iv 8 DB

adamant in dB)

und, and the

PARALLELS BETWEEN THE NEW PROPHECIES FROM MARI AND BIBLICAL PROPHECY* LP De Royal Infant

An abundance of new prophecies from Mari, published recently by J.-M. Durand in Volume T Six, Part One of the series of Mari |

icuments,' presents a challenge for comparative study with biblical prophecy. From among the arallels, alongside numerou: differences, which can be pointed out on the basis of leafing through

have chosen two which are of particular interest Let us first examine a prophecy the like of which ach at Mari and in the Bible P , so that reporting it would have However, as is demonstrated by two examples, ances were liable to warrant the description of such calamities. We ite here the Mari document {initially published in ARM X 106 and newly collated in ARM XXVI n its entirety, noting thi although it is damaged on the left side it can be restored with reason: To Darisibar 1 . * This ar N Dries et J: Durand, ‘ XVI/1 = Archies Ep Mo’ (MEM) 1/1 B Biblical Prophecy: The Mar D inci! I Baap Honor of EM. PH. Miller

[concerning the er olf the Qi [Th er At th Thu: a

15, [She will Before the k N th daugh

) Perish the thought M the k

Daritlibor, to whom the lett P

to that of the sender, and is a

Zimri-Lim, the last king of Mari. T

rpo. for news that the baby gitl recently bi i of the king’s spouse i . Ith Lady” seems to indicate his fir of the esier, Irra-gau k fi hich he explicitly be i im, name or: literally “lunatic”, eq Hebi used as a designation for prophets) The ps use the nominal D i nethele

The point of the letter and havi ie he en . Mar in and

See ARM XVI »

For thi r N "

The name

r le apart when compared il i c rom Mari

peak , wughter, there are certain par poth cases the death of the kin,

fi istration (note the elders of David Hou To be sure, at Mari the official intentionally £ i Jobian ni hile in the Bible

ten he dis y). Even so, it weems that b 1ses was actually identical—con: cern for the pi avior of the kin ne of and grief At Mari, restraint and self control were to t whereas in the Bible, loss of control over ions, even to the point of self It is reasonable to assume that prophesiers and prophets of all sort

ials, pre

ead OF Xx 4

r , proph when (the prophesier) rep

Turning fre to the

re find th f the female proph fer nt. In y f prophesi entioned w ope in the name of Dagan of Terqa. F h 4 speci f were ported her proph he \c Mari palace. Al fl earns a large 1 h T men add letter 206:1 hi {RM XIV 8). In thi case the proph 4 his prophec ff Zirori-Lim’s salvat Jemands th . t of

the prog por i the deity, or more specifi peaks in the name of the g f 1 c out being asked, it is atural he prophe 1 fir charge. For this reason, biblical h ally of the latter type, all n asion mpensation fi utter typ prophet. Indeed fit for proph disrepute, ef, Am and esp Mic who rel livine for pay.” Furthermore, ¢ phe is approached the ab M ecies, in brief I

F Mt

See H, Limet, ARM XXV. P

F yn F

does not en For example, Jeroboam’s w with va tems of food—u as fallen ill 1 Ki himself tri ti non ing. The king promise

ena present by those who

resents the prophet Ahiah in Shiloh ves, some wafers and a jug of

f the Lord concerning her son who oO asion King Jeroboam man of Ged” to come to hi mare's cerning his own feed him and give him a gift (ibid in ance with YHWH’s com

mand. In the Elish the ns to Damascus when Ben: Hadad, king of Ai ick (I Kings 8:7 ff). Hazael suggests that the k ke along some tribute so that Elisha will inquire of the I Will I this illne The . b nsisted of “forty camel all the b the prophet’s words omy, announcin tined to In two other ren the prophet are suits of clothes and/or pieces of silver, a at Mari. When Naaman, the army ommander of Aram Damascus, turns to Elisha to be cured of the kin inflammation afflicting him (II King the prophet refuse to accept any € n whatsoever (vs. 16), But his squire Gehazi who fancies the presents which Naaman has brought with him (cf 5), runs after him, unknown to his master, in order to collect the vayment arily intended for the prophet (vs. 20-27). Gehaz demands a talent of silv ges of clothes, supposedly for two lads fron and his request is granted, Gehazi is punished b Dt afflicted himself with he skin disease. The other incident is more ancient, dating to the ime of Saul, before he was king, and Samuel the prophet. It is in: tegrated into the popular tale ching for the asses lost by Saul father, Kish (1 Samuel 9 I's attendant lad suggests locating F m Fl Kin he comment A. Sanda, Die B Ringe (Exeg. Handbu AT) | Minster 1911 63 EW Die Bicher der Kenge (TD), 1. Ki

03; JA,

asts b ‘Man of God”, for he will certaink

int out the prog he lost animals. Saul remarks that it woul " to the prophe but none is avail ge T happen to have a quarter-s er. I can give it to the man and he will tell us about rand” (vs. 7-9)

All the cases from Mari and the Bible lead sion that when a prophetic vi : rophet expect carn material nsation for th ish . SWR rived ©: AL P Samuel 9,7: A\ F

cently H.R. Co leper

Moreaver, Jeremiah :

an audience in the Templ quarter the office of the court scribe Naturalh i in Jerusal nqui f al pr ¢ dictation nd asked Baruch: “Tell i r : WwW his dictation?” Bs wered them: “He dic it z I” (Jer. 36: 1 dictate h Ruling out the Mari. The ca Yasin-E his Io Mari kingdom. We quote the P ARM 26 no. 41 Anothe A 0 of 1 Shai jeribe that Th 1 has appointed Published by FJ L 1

WO: PROPHECY

Zimri-Lim that a prophet designated “answerer

ell-known typ

f diviner in the Mari document

ribe in order to take down a message

or the king. The Akkadian spelling for “scribe

al or rather

he scribe would have served fant

rs of a secret nature, presumably

Baruch with reg emiah. ‘The

intended for the king’s ear only

10 have been of utmost urgency to the

fe here a singular case in the prophetic and, furthermore

the pi 1 governors, who of Mari, Even if

le ad no proper More reasonable is the assur

: ly populated Hurrian envi , d to render the prophecy in for ti I scribes at the Mari palac t lie in the very contents of the me

NEW LIGHT FROM MARI (ORM XXVIE 31

Selo Campaign Route by Or

In an additional letter of Yasim-El (ARM 404)" the appli cation of an oracle is again attested, having its parallel in biblical prophecy. This time the divinat ns alludes to a military aff the specific manner of an Yasim-E P report records, a igns of Au k

Andariq (and not the

the Jebel Sinjar region

Atamrum, together wit of his vassal kis dan auxili army of 500 soldiers, is on his way to Mari, Atamrum has previc jumed down an offer to assist Babylon and decides to negotia with Zimri-Lim. The particular route k rder to 8 Mari, however, remains undecided. The relevant section of the text reads (ll, 81-85)

He (Atamrur a) Saggarat a Terqa [or via

Malri. Concernin r r

ticular) route wh al May

my lord {kn i The significance of the right lusive. No prophet i mentioned here and in the a of 1 word for oracle h been suggested by the e¢ Indi f . diviners or mantic devices, per se, frequent in the reportin, ing three routes i nee of Pharaoh ‘Thutmosi IIT (first half of the 15th century B.C.) depend ation means of strategic character ick Meggido in Palestine

The Bible makes only one r lc simi the above incident, not surpri B. i ntext. Yet the contr in the choice of the tal Ma routes lead Paris 196 60-26

H abso AH

& F i in Mi

road junction partin W 1. D

role 0 Eup 0: ea -

o-167; ck ARM XXL 6

city, whereas in the Bible ing to Nebuch:

B.C., Ezekiel my halting at the junction

Ezekiel 21-24-27 [MT; NJPS;

° : which the sword of the kin Babylon n poth issuing from the same country; and a Rabbah of the Ammonites ot Jerusalem in Judah. (26) For the king of Babylon has stood ai he fork rel), wh roads branch off, to pe form di He had shal od teraphim, and in P hi he In his right hand came up the z i im... (Hebrew pplicd)

The description refer ardly, to the performance of a symbolic action by the prophet, as if to set up signposts at the fork of the road, pointing to Rabbath Ammon, on the one hand, and Jerusalem, on the other, Yet in contradistinction to 1 mentators, this prophecy is certainly not entirely imaginary, but rather on a realistic, con rete ba 4. Without entering here into a complex textual analy

a junction al nain route (most likely at Damascus), Which di.

rection should his ar suc, the more eastern route leading t¢ Rabbath Ammon or the western (or right hand)'* route towards Jerusa- len? ‘The decison reached by conpuliing an oracle traced throught arious mantic means, Thr h devices, well-known in ancient ¢ shaking of (inscribed

y.'* In particular, the last

The oracle points to the road Je tn hich »nform: ith strate ider ring an tack Rabbath Ammon), Ezekiel must have been fami h 1 tional d of Nebuchadne well polit tellation of the West where Ammor he ch only ally of Judah and thu n adversar Eg. A. Malamat, Ki

oracle for the army's safety. The di re ther urning to the king so that he ma sariinsaddor th do this doty. Furthos: more, Ibal-pi-ll expels the diviners from the secret counc i biblical terminolog mmurabi in Babylon, ‘The divir protest against the ambassador: “I : ft, and we an with him, He detests u her words, the diviners are pe turbed that the onger fi . nd request king of Mari to right the wrong. However, it m: at the re tion by the ambassador wa rbitrary bi It of conflictin In conne th this document, J-M. D itor ‘0 as yet unpublished tablets (p. 26 M. 6845; “In sum; 23 mer it in the presence of the king in the se I.” A docu: ment deals with a complaint: "W " yi secret council? It is required ¢ rd keep a rec , his servants th: ar hat are Lord 1 The second document, 1 . Ibal-pi-ll to Zimri-Lim that di ropl ant for the king, As in the Bible, k 1 i and the secret council or “M0. In Mari, wh: a a ith the biblical pi r er : ¢) three gen: erals in the army o D. M: h rival Assyrian dj and heir of King SI Adad. The arm make th into th : H. in close Here bi is spoken al-pill doc le ded for the perform r a mentioned toy Hali-Had dy met) and Inib-Shamash. The apy . i ri hostil Ibal-p he AV pmurat A I report the omi pr a

The any As stated in her documents (i

phenomer nd Unlike mi i

h ith

In Mari, the council

foremost, is a royal

what wel have isn we are on the th is a projection memb he the main participary

fM:

are also paralle 5:17) and in the in Akkadian. and Hebrew

with the pre caning not always bein To of r ones” (Ps. 89:8[7 iprigh appare P. a doe men’ P. 7 timate grouy 4 phrase 1 ate friend: tot present at an assembly wh b, abhor anc n Mari, Ibal-pi-ll detests ' sec council The general importance ention th Jo not arify the a In both r it 7. In Gen. 49:6 it aid of th I oO m their coune pi not joir a In our opinion, the “council” spoken , her than th nint assembly of the two tribes, ar i i for the opening (previous) ver Simeon an , brother Je sense of ning th term 7, Ps. 83:4(3], ca pr T lay crafty plan: against ; rn her agai thy protected ony One m: ume th re spok apparently during a milita tation in i Ali ain ‘eferenc " E at as the chapte 1 , or al Children of Israel I f F and elsewh th Ma The term 70 is ab Bi without detailing hor e hi . How here are in the B ke at M: fF : among th I ph ety (Isa. 6) o the introduct B Job re (v. € is the section on the pi M r jh

like event in Mari document mentioned above (ARM 26;

Ahab asse c c vicinit he gate of the mili nture and, most likely in the

name of ney prophesy a brilliant victory for the forces of I m7 emphasizes that their prophecy was “with f tified with this. biased,

f ¢ four hundred, a resort to a kind of counter-pra Mic en Imlah, prophet of the Lord 1 He, as we phesies the complete opposite « ciety of prog he f ¢ total defeat of Israel, ased upon the word of the Lon ff), It may be that here the M: c ha ps of prophet

i He hou ese groups are general

presented bj Only as things continue does the riblical description tru f nly sc ind the divine bly M is a visionary participant (v, 19 ff)" The Lord is sitting on His th ¢ heavenly host standing on Hi right and left, as i ary in the king’s council. A divine dialogue b as a resul hich the spirit of cepts the mi ion of misleading all the i.e., the aforementioned four hun: dred). Obvion . ical description of the divine 70 which, as we a hing other than a derivative of the earthly

the Ame heavenl}

NEW MARI DOCUMENTS AND PROPHECY IN EZEKIEL*

We shall examine, first and foremost, the relatively new ¢

ri 26/1 and 2 (see notes 4 and 5)

fivination both in Mari and in the

A. The Power of God's Hand

the material from Mari and then turn to the

¢ Akkadian expression equivalent to the biblical

be” (often translated 6") oF to the expre 4 St with th found in Mesopotamian literature outside Mari. In contrast to most

‘God's hand” i verb added, and is also

f the insta Hl as in Mari, the expression in Akkadian literature scted with adver ach as some kind of calamity o: this meaning is also commonly found in the W h as in the documents from Tall al hich were likewise « 1 in the Akkadian lan

guage, c he Mari On documents from Tall al Rimah mentic puths who were struck, one after the other by the f the dein The young man (ie. the second youth! wh n 1 of god’ is continually ill 65,1. 16

ff). The your was, without doubt, a diviner, as testified by

in Mari among diviners, b en and wom

prophe 2 112. The illness, in ases and in othe doubt involve from Ma in volume 26 he and i ix incidents (and tion an unnamed god, and usually in a t caus ickness. We shall jh dent hich the documents have b 1) In ARMT 26/1 N eis unt i is intended. Asqudum, the . atic palace at Mari, sends a let y M : the ruler of Mari at that time. T I sulted (has said) “T dof A R u of Ekallatum, The goddess put until she (the cu kness di not lose its grip (on ¢ h yentioned at th be the letter)” (Ul. 9-16). H

The h .

5. The wr Yasmah-A\

Addu, bh ‘ a

Bib) YHWH, ar

f a . Then the ki I he hand of the Lord Th fall/fell” ase viritual awak f Ezek ' to the prophe The prophetic , pected.” As for pl i k t Akkadiar M: Bible prog i . motif i ible, « l k Ex. 9 hand of the Lo: hi

Mari the i

nes in the Book of Ezcki cuttings 0 fi rc hand ine stick he two. divided f Hi f Joseph (E

Land of Israel, Th ey shall be in M importance both for Egypt pressions in Mari d : r all ation

This is in contrast to Mari, as we ind usually acted benignly, brin tween Mari ar prophecy lies ions disc ab he Bible, as erves as an introduction to the prophe he actual prophecy itself, whereas in dal formula within the actual ore extensively than would by Ez, 37:19)

iately after the Vision Dr the prophet must take in hi ph 1 the sticks together in hi

ng the future unificat people—the House of Judah ar T parts of the people are ' vision, will return to the he two t ribed in a metay to each other, so that they become i 9). The sticks are thi : a metaphor of recognized indin well as for Akkadian ex all see forthwith. ‘The prophet ever again shall they be divided prophecy in Egyptian paintings which

er and Lower E Moreover catio E However pecame er”, (Maybe the ¢ 1 contained in the Biblical expres ‘ 1 this light,) Although one docume Mari descr i = as published in 1950 (AR Jocut c Mari in vol. 2 i n , f Jmilar instances.” We shall hey appear in ARM No. 392, lis If A r alin 2) Document No. 438, lin W f two?” (the word: t th . 3) Document No. 449, line The far 5 were one house and one fin 4) No. A. 4206, line tablet ha published, but the passage t re was included i b 5/6) To these examples must t ycument No. A. 4026, lr and document No. A. 232 Hana (ie. the ds) and the land of Idamaras have al 1 BJ. Kemp, A L nl 1 Biblical Proph je Char (RM WL n A = ‘Uruk and Ba AF Yi rr it

lips

Isaiah v

roll

Ha

ing, on the

Mari, the eni

A NEW PROPHETIC MESSAGE FROM ALEPPO AND IT'S BIBLICAL COUNTERPARTS*

Durand recently publishe g ment from Mi 168), namely, « letter by Nur-Sin, M: mbassador to Alep to his lord Zimri-Lim (Durand 1993; for anc f Nur-Si regarding a prophe \ 7 tain 1 relatively lengthy prophecy ti phet, designated th God Ad: i Alepy about it is difficult and. pre : Aleppo. I shall nt here the ent , ions which u milar to ARMT 1 Yasmah Adad to a deity, the fortun he in M \c i lined (Charpin and Durand 1985: 297-98, 339-42). The Yahdun-Lim, the first k M: , i him. Yahdun-Lir ay a Saméi-Ad i rival Amorite dynasty, whi ablishe Assyria (cf below). But me harsh fate jun-L ow befell accessor Samsi-Adad. In th a ¢ table name was surely men King Zimri-Li d § Adad dynasty out of Mar re k Mari. (Fe details of the actual expul s: Charpin and Durand This a c Prophas (FS GW. A T thank Pr ,

B 1 Zimnri-Lim| rn : which 1 haye Ad . he Si patron Z Mari (f ilar M : dun he supe i " " he sea. N already bi . ks (Chary Durand 198¢ t (Bord: Pardi f iterature. | M. o F N

993: 53, T f for T CoM 1 hth my luminosit ea Near E Bible (see below), but ¢ K 963). In Mari this is the f , we reservation may have beer! a ». 18 and n, 19), Several ecm ur in connection with the Hittite kings, in Ugarit

a. a EL-An FA 3447-5 5-9). May we

\ M

pass th f

This proce¢

leity demandit mear Durand 1988: 44

his d h in many M. Mu

F Th

uently in hetic N ” forward for th : two personal i r Turning n the Bible i hi

Mari proph

ather, because the biblical episode of S 1 David. H het, Samuc whe on ti i

ages relatis . And Si i Sa The Lord has torn the kingdom of I id David, 1 Sam, 15:21 I

of your hand, and gi 7 David. Because you lid not obey the voi the Lo s In M:

Mari piblical monotheistic faith there is no place for a sep eat h. But there are in the Bible certain ech h xistence of deity, although the atter been de a Sea monster (Kissfeldt 1966; Gassuto 1975: 70 ff jolts against the God of Israel and is abel him. For thi in the Bibl for example, Isa, 19-10; P. Job 7:12 (and see Bingen 1992 Day 1992 and ch 0-31, above C. The ar king in Judah and Israel is a significant -omponent of the ceremony (Kutsch 1963; Weisman 1976: d re 199; ants Of ik or oven seven! royal ouisione ments there is an ex f to this clement: Saul (1. Sam 3:16); David (1 Sam. 16:13 ete,); Absalom, trying to usurp the throne Sam. 19:11); S Ki 4 etc,), Jeh el (1 Ky 19:16 etc:), Joash (2 Kj finally Jehoachaz. (2 Kgs. 23:30) To these cases must be added the anointing of Hazacl, king of Dama y the prophet Elisha (1 Kgs, 19:15), Also indicative here i ¢ anointed one, attributed in the Bible, inter to King Gyrus, the Persia D. Demanding just and moral behaviour from the ‘king ts: com: mon to biblical proph hhereas in Mari there are only two proph: this ¢ above). As for Bi in general Whitelam 1979: 29 ite Jeremiah’s sermon concerning the duct of the last Jud rs: “Execute justice in the morning and deliver from the hand of the oppressor” (Jer. 21:12); “Thus say the Lord: “Do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand ypressor him n robbed. And do no wrong or jolence to the alien r Conceming Ki jah we have a specific stat le by J h that this king afforded terest to nd { whereas in Mari the motifs G and D . other, in the Bible they are organically Se 45:7 (MT love righteousness and hate wick h J, your God, has anoint 1 with the oil of gladness at fellows.” The king’s anointment i 1 his righ behaviour towards the people * J but ceverse phecy. Similarly, it p that D and E ar and of the pe

Israel within the wh

DEITY REVOKES KINGSHIP

REASONING IN MARI

thec I+ reason We shall first ¢ M: m Aleppo, published text (A. 2 letter from M. ‘ontains a prog for King Z peaks in the name of Addu (Ad: n al Mesopotamia, in eds. JJ. F Philadelphia 196 Tmmedi A L Sippar Neve ah Sippar Library 1 18th century B.C h ed. AR. Milla Frith, 7 ARI 7 41S. Pe bove). On A Rolle der Stadt Al C

ELLECTUAL

AND IN THE BIBLE* M: h 9d Dd E em: J-M. D i i T p ; d of Aleppo, wh Western 1 Man F BTA

Mari, Yahdun-Lim, was granted “all the

e ki sed of abandoning U

L jected by Addu (Adad) and

m hin en to King Samsi-Addu of

er Yahdun-Lim lay in

Alep Yambad) to Esnunna,

[ mitted by Yahdun-Lim

Yaminite tribes, who were then allied

ty of Emar from the ruler of

ede { Yarim-L

Yahdun-Lim was also suffered

al kin Addu, There foll

£ Yahdun-Lim and last king B.C, according to ¢ Mari cs, Z N » of Si © Mari. Ou fath

nature to the but siding with

Addu at Ma ated letter com:

10 a deity whose

G. D That the letter

ah-Addh deity was first recognized by

hat 1 was Dagan.’ In a new r, Charpin and Durand have may have

Yahdun-Lim and S;

Kabkabu, the f

but later Y

y the of a-Kabkal ho def and th

the even

Yamam, an

following sentenc 4 P y

Charpin—Dui Th ery h former k

Addu

fr e ruler to anoth Mari letter o \ ur initial

r n unnamed high Yarim-Lim, king

ily cites Yarim-Lim: “Zimri er, having respected

ed. Once he (Sumu-Epul Addu gave to Samsi him attack th J which Addu Ad , Sumu-Epub)

lu has not been vexed with me ning from MARI 56). Yarim-Lim of h himself and his father did

t explicit late to Ki pectivel The kir

Mari, t

Zimi-l The L

62 PART TWO: PROPHECY

Because you are guilty of this [ with

and the laws which I enjoined

m away from 1 Kings

ary, ive. Ahija because he aban:

He had not walked ing to Me, or kept My laws and

ules as his father David di Kin; 20 poarn nherited most of David’s and Solomon en Dut Bible display simil phic patterns hip and the choice of a successor ruler ot bare records but interpretative ac els. The theological reasoning in both i herent in the behaviour of the king ne hand or committing an offense against

CUSTOMS AND SOCIETY

A RECENTLY DISCOVERED WORD FOR “CLA

MARI AND ITS HEBREW COGNATE* As exp t peared. The L I H 10 r H Ak RN f duel zZ N \ oO ne Old E P Recently, sor L ha . inized ni hi f the name H. A 1 n Accord I \ he DINGIR di Surprisingly, D N f I. ¢

pe of this note, The Durand

tain clan or tribe (M. 6060) till unpublished (A. 2090) The clan in question was

Linum bs red py ly in lexical texts, where it is parallel he m, also meaniny The synonym now appear a Mari text, published by Lafont.’ The text contains a list of people including the idiom ferring twice to a large number of women, Text 12 records 7 and text 19 mentions a ni-re-um of + women were perhap imply groups, but rather formal Ie i hat in Ugarit, or rather, Ugaritic, we encounter the lp with referring to a people or clan

al with the Mari word. On the other hand, the archaic

for a tribal unit or even an biblical Hebrew. Like the ame to entire peoples or nat contrar ye as still attested at Mati While a d, in the Bible it anges t ik much” in mi’éd in Hebrew Limum has har¢ inne wit al archaic form dm

Lem

Prov 1:1, 4), as some assun sw af c thesis). In the Bible w i nly an ety parallel with Mari but also a semant L Akkadiar including Mari Akkadian, also stands for the number 1000, whic may designate a multitude

lp." "The most common exph pis 1000. Thu

Addendum: On limum an u P ee now M. Bonechi, “Lexic i c a . rienne,” MARI 8 (199

Bible [Atk re him” or

HALA bw Ill; DR. M Ne i Het H F

\ NOTE ON THE RITUAL OF TREATY MAKING IN IARI AND THE BIBLE*

M M i 7 Ibal-t Ida-M sat Up Habu : aty bet f os on) people of Ida-Mar - \ Ida-Maras) a puppy and : From the continuat ble for sacrifi ; Ibal-ll ordered the foal of a , i irae : of \ peor Ja-M. T lished (in MARI 156) containing al pase : her \ lime-Addu, governor of the city o Ainak Ida-M sap ye i

Document A. 105¢ ; rain ritual, Whil : he Lat cad s

and a she-goat three da ram three years old and a d He brought all he other, but He +10), A number of animals

ff these and

ifer and a she-g above-mentioned doc mm Mari. There is nc

With regard to the of i in the Bible—made be tween King Zedek fi he people at the time of the

¢ of Jerusalem, with the intention of freeing the slave from Mari (No. 9); how he Jerusalemites later violated the treaty—possibly t jonian siege on the city had been the f 1 ke like the calf which they cut in two and p tween its parts: th pf Judah and the princes of Jerusale 7 t of the calf” (Jer. 34:18

the Covenant Pieces in Genesis, in which a number of other

animals besides the heifer were brough , dered a later adit

While in Mari and elsewhere" an a r he ritual Bible, as was the custom in cer rovine a Mar kingdom. It may be assumed that the unclean I in th Bible, was considered unfit for treaty maki it was in the sacrifice of the firstlings."® The first Sw fi din the same way as other animals, but was ¢ lc

or had its neck broken, ef, Exod y I set ay unto the Lord all that first opens the wom And every fi

of an a hall redeem with a la dif fn

you shall break its neck”. Neverthele

See SE. L z 8 Bal T i S Law, Shetbie

IS THERE A WORD FOR THE ROYAL HAREM IN THE BIBLE? THE INSIDE STORY*

Ashlakka (north of M , King 2 m daughter ARMT 10 74 king of Ashlakk

her stay in a comer and

the complains that in. thi :

The tert : hed lett K Samii-Adad to his son, th - ming the ar

of the royal women. Our a: r this purpose and Bible prime example of tl 5 a nous Israelite MT); “T . fi he Het JeM. D J. M M. ©. See JM. i r and M For additional i

A. Mal

er train, her companions are presented to you. glance the word périmé “inside, interior > th ¢ as such (in one case regarding the palace

2 Chr. 29:18), but on closer examination it

: harem proper. Besides mentioning the prin belongir he text describes how the princes

to the king (from the “i robed in royal apparel and accompanied by her entourage of maidens (Ps. 45:15). The custom

escorting a royal harem to the king is illustrated by

the story of Que of Ahai mmanded

her beauty” (Esth. 1:9-17

Another insta

urs in 2 Kgs. 7:11 ¢ passage one of the Aramaean-lIsraelite wars: “The gatekeeper called out and the news was passed on int the king's palace (in Samaria). The king (of Israel) rose in the night and said to his courtie NJPS)

We may surmise that here too the word pénimd, “into,

inside”, all alace per se, as the

ludes to the women’s quarters rather than to the abe

mentators have it, It appears that

the king passed the night in the harem, presumably in a separate

In sum, the appellation p ike the term fubgum in Mari, ha: its own logic an ies the harem, since the latter was usually located in the innermost parts of the palace, if only for security rea: ons, Ind hroughout history until moder times the harem ha yen a ded, well-guarded unit. As in many other cases, an in- mal expre upplant al term:

For the usual . inmentaries on the book of Pualms, such as: AA. AV Book of Psalms (NCB; 2 vols; Grand Rapids Mich." Ee > DW. Rog d SM. Mackay, Ph 7] CBCOT, Cai c Press 19 M, Dahood, Pins 1 AB \6; Garden City, N.Y” Dout 79) is the RSV rightly

sting that “inte pecifcally 00 the harem

Tn E

f as A. M mery, A C E Books of nburgh: T. & T. Clark i Tings (NCBC Rapids: Berdiman i04), 2457; TR Kings (WBC: Waco: Word 1985), 86-93; A. Sanda Ne B kin HAT. Mi Aschendorfischer 19 61. The

THE CORRESPONDENCE QUEEN OF MARI IN The latest volume to appear in the seri

Mari” (Vol. X) correspondenc

translation is still f panion volume is only appropriate i ments as they contain an abundat female activity in the Mari realm. Si he new material Near East in general The present volume cont 1 women of the palace of Mari or dispatch Near East, Outstanding here is the cor Zimnrilim, the last king of Mar 6 the mi lo ic The do this queen cont her husband ich she receive G. Douin, 4 i

OF SIBTU ARM X*

ild be ascribed Hi Tarishattu’s superior po:

bed ¢ i . Ikani’s father, Kibri-Day ho qui M. ! the district of Terg ul Before conc th Sie rrespondence with ba , , letters with the high ici M. he new volume there is onl

h metals of the palace (ef, ARM VIL

n letters from dif Sibtu (N 64), deal " ‘ ect ween offic my lad he lady!” (No. 15%

M i k fi fe Mari texts, fo

ample I 1, wh Mar tive in the city Nabur and : hp a ‘ourt of the capital, Hi two letters addresse he que n preserved in a ver fragmented condition (N ontrast, the letter of Kibri: Dagan, Z Ja (situated on the Euphrate act herwise ¢ pondence comprises ARM Ill and part of volume XIII). We learn from his leter (No. 153) that Kibri Da quest i ice for the queen wh had ~ arify i atter of days, th reason f c im) of a certain woman, As much as this re a a cs Sibtu, neverthel

Tigr 10) 1 in, Hal Bali of the

M.

Thus (said) [Sib}tu

conquer may he he wife coat and

religion and specific ¢ inspection of or 7 on in the Mari texts, She fi pices that omen: Zimrilim’s fate, in particular with the pi . ments on the battefi afegu n in other prec , However, § he he omens whick ) aid); "The ulted in the response): The enem delive Subsequent k . k actually fallen into his h him about the we he p: M Another method of divina M rc ing biblical manifestation. M Sibu pa hese letters (Nos. 4, € , ‘ of detailed studies we not con For a prelimi , yon comprehens W.1- Moran, "R t ' E, Eller f 4

ARM VIL 230; ts (GLPISAN

ARM VI

| Bunuma-Addu (g “aes Nibriy i M. A KU.BABBAR DINGIR.MES rem 1LU.LU.MES , much grain as th ich ther : fended to forward to a ir of Yarimlim a £ Queen Sibtu, ; nd pp. 2 No. . M bears the fol ey = ‘ M n -

186 PART THREE: CUSTOMS AND SOCIETY

cellar in the Mari palace; ARM IX, No

of a special variety of wine called kardnum san

Letter No. 1 d wine” It

speak

appears to have been of such an expensive quality that Zimrilim

lly over the fi

requested his wife to watch pers

casks and to hand them over to Babdilim, who was in

fterward

the palace, In a third letter, No. 133, Zimrilim instruct

his wife te h a con of wine to Babylon, as “Hammu-

of Babylon, has written to 1

rabi, the king ‘ening the wine

1. 9). The ab

dence the fact that the Mari palace

gnments, just as it played

an active role in transit trade in general

The royal pair, in their exchange of letters, are occasionally con- cerned with various troubles which befell the capital, Once Sibtu reported to her husband on a natural disaster (letter No, 25): (6) . .uy um 24-KAM (7) Ja-mu-um biit-{tum) (9) i-na Ma-ri (KI) ig-nu-un

ib-bi (11) i-ki-im Hi (12) &-pu-Su (13) muti 1 qaniim (= GI)

14) iz-zfi-ie-zw-niJm—"(6) On the 24th day (of the month) (7) the rain's (8) largest amount (9) fell in Mari. (10) In midst (11) the canal

which my Jord (12) has built (13) there is 1 gand- (height; cf, the

biblical measure géné) of water (14) standing

Letters Nos. 129-130 deal with a woman afflicted with an appar ently contagious disease. In letter No. 129, the king instructs his wie on preventive measures to be taken in order to curtail the spreading f the disease: (4) e-me-e-ma SAL Na-an-na-me (3) s-im-ma-an® mar-sa at (6) i it-ti chal (7) ma-ga-al wa-ai-ba-at-ma (8) SAL.MES ma-da-tim

it-ti-fa-ma (9 bi-ik® (10) i-navan-na dan-na-tim Ju-uk-ni-ma (11) i na kavds i-Fa-at-tu-i (12) ma-am-ma-an la inia-at-ti (1) i-na kusst Sa tia bu (14) ma-am-ma: if-fa-ab (15) i-na exiim (= GIS.NA) ia it-ti-il tu (16 n la it-te-e-el-m 4) I have heard that the woman Nanname (5) k with the simmum-disease® (6) and with

the palace (personne!) (7) she spends a lot of time (8) and many women 9) she afflicts (= infects?) with herself.” (10) Now give strict orders

On thi ARM IX 271 & 40a). On simam, “red” see now B. Laid S21 (1967), 140

sip ian Lanes, Th imma), and FR. Kraus, JESHO 12 (1969), 210. Si ghtly from our int A. Finet, AIPHOS 14 (1954-57), 129.

word from the Hebrew root 4b, German: “verflechten! “(Die Kranke) seter sich dazwi

11) from ¢ nd ncation of hi bs In conclusion, Queen § Final a N cerning $i to Mari, The fact th rs d 1S PN, “T § r and-so”) at he high rank thors. Henc : the author of the first letter (N than the reno y § ther. A per if simi ure a Sarnii-A f c Hammui Jon, whe e North S Yambad t if ' pial Old Bal

With

Kibri

{RM XII

‘ Jear th finite Royal Hi ‘ shadowed be Sunship".” A ed down : oms, lon : GK, {the Sun}, K I ; God D Th HW B ¢ bel dents. Mi I

KING LISTS OF THE OLD BABYLONIAN

BIBLICAL GENEALOGIES*

Biblical genealogie i c the tribal logies a i a: f 1 Chronicle literature of the ancient Nea Oo u period did Arab chronograph tables, encomp h Ni An extraordi Hammuray forth GHD ‘i stein,” Old Bab h th AKI BA i

onal N t obviow re Hana/H yi f bly M. Most have definite af : linguistic (es GHD by Finkelste tock could nec . West Si peoples i oO

Abnentafeln” of the Baby in both AKI

The character and mak mind the scheme of the H Abraham (Gi 0 tock of the people of I eral other related peoples. Qi om Adam to Noah (Gen the antediluvi f no relevar . al Interestingly Adam, i ih Ak AL 1 P JR.