Two Shepherds (11:4–17)

Thirty pieces of silver (11:12). While this amount is often connected to the price of a slave who was accidentally killed (Exod. 21:32), that price represents a different economic stage in Israel’s history. Since the thirty pieces of silver are being paid as a wage, this more likely reflects an ancient Near Eastern expression for an insultingly low wage.84

Jerusalem’s Enemies and Mourning for the One They Pierced (12:1–14)

The weeping of Hadad Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo (12:11). Both Hadad and Rimmon are names for West Semitic storm gods, which some Canaanite texts relate to Baal. The only time they appear in a compound form is this text. As a consequence, many have taken the “weeping” to refer to some ritual mourning festival associated with the death and return of a Canaanite deity. But it would be strange for the prophet to be using an idolatrous ceremony to illustrate an event that causes deep sorrow.

Others have noted that the “weeping” is not over Hadad Rimmon, so possibly the name is of a place or town. The “weeping” may be connected to the sense of loss the community experienced when Josiah was killed in battle on the plain of Megiddo, a lament that was made into a tradition (2 Chron. 35:24–5).85 Unfortunately, we do not know if the tradition was still being observed into the Persian period.

Cleansing from Sin (13:1–9)

These wounds (13:6). These may represent scars from past actions or wounds used by idolatrous prophets to enter into a prophetic state. Such actions are depicted in several places in the Old Testament, such as the prophets of Baal cutting themselves (1 Kings 18:28).

The Lord Comes and Reigns (14:1–21)

I will gather all the nations to Jerusalem to fight against it (14:2). As noted in the introduction, many scholars see the element of a cataclysmic final battle as part of the complex of apocalyptic literature.86 In this oracle, the prophet describes a battle in which all human hope seems to be extinguished until God intervenes directly to make war on “the nations.” The battle is not the primary interest of the prophet; rather, it is the result, which is God’s perfect world in which he is enthroned as king over all (v. 9). Unlike many latter apocalypses, there is no sense that this battle’s outcome is in question.

Mount of Olives (14:4). The Mount of Olives is located across the Kidron Valley to the east of Jerusalem. It runs north and south and its steep ascent impedes easy movement from Jerusalem toward the east and the Jordan River and Jericho. Though the Mount of Olives is well known from the Gospels, this is the only direct reference to it in the Old Testament.

View across the Temple Mount with the Mt. of Olives in the background

Z. Radovan/www.BibleLandPictures.com

The concept of splitting a mountain to make a way of escape is not attested in the ancient Near East. When deities are portrayed standing on mountains (e.g., as commonly done in Hittite iconography), the imagery is related to their role as the storm god thundering in the mountains or coming over the mountain.87 But this imagery is far removed in time and location and does not inform the imagery Zechariah is using.

Azel (14:5). The Hebrew text at this point is difficult to interpret. Azel may be the place name of a location near Jerusalem that is otherwise unknown. Or it may be a noun having the sense of “sides,” the new valley reaching to the sides of Mount Zion and the Mount of Olives.

Earthquake in the days of Uzziah (14:5). This likely refers to the earthquake mentioned in Amos 1:1.88 There is evidence of a sizeable earthquake in stratum VI of the excavations at Hazor, dated approximately to 760 B.C.

Unique day (14:7). The imagery of this passage takes the reader back to Genesis 1, where God set up the functioning cosmos. The regular rotation of day and night was the most central aspect of the order imposed on the cosmos. In the ancient world the orderly functioning of the cosmos was the most important focus of creative activity, more so than the material structure.89 Not only will the markers of time be set aside, but likewise the indications of weather variation.90 The total disruption of world order, the “world upside down” motif, occurs not only in the cosmic realm, but also in the social and political realms.91 Consequently, social roles will be reversed and political fortunes turned around. In this motif all that is considered foundational in the status quo will be undone.

Living water (14:8). “Living” water refers to that which is moving rather than the still waters of shepherding imagery (e.g., Ps. 23:2). Ideally, it refers to water from springs rather than simply runoff water in the wadis. In Jerusalem, the main source for living water was the Gihon Spring located on the eastern flank of the city of David. Three or four times a day it gushes water for about forty minutes and can provide up to 45,000 cubic feet per day.

Waters flowing through Ashurbanipal’s garden from shrine

Werner Forman Archive/The British Museum

But this verse is using imagery that goes far beyond the reality of the Gihon Spring. As can be seen in Ezekiel 47, living water flows from sacred space as a sign of the benevolent and fructifying presence and kingship of deity. This concept is depicted in iconography throughout the ancient world. This includes mythic scenes that portray the gods in connection with flowing waters (Canaanite El, Egyptian Nun) as well as the depiction of a variety of kings and deities holding jars from which waters flow.92

Geba to Rimmon (14:10). Both place names appear in the narratives of Nehemiah: Geba related to a village in the territory of Benjamin (Neh. 11:31) and Rimmon apparently several miles north of Beersheba (Neh. 11:29). This more or less delineates the provincial boundaries of Yehud in the Persian empire.

Like the Arabah (14:10). Often thought of as a flat desert area, the Arabah is the depression that contains the flats around the Dead Sea (Deut. 4:49). The contrast is that Jerusalem will be elevated while the rest of the province will be leveled.

Benjamin Gate (14:10). Since the territory of the tribe of Benjamin was to the north of Jerusalem, most believe this refers to a gate along the northern part of the city. It is not mentioned in Nehemiah’s rebuilding of the city’s fortifications (Neh. 3).

First Gate (14:10). This unique expression occurs only here. Many believe it refers to what is termed the “Old Gate” in Nehemiah 3:6; 12:39, although its placement would lead to the Mishneh section of the city, a relatively new district. Some have pointed out that the expression “site of the First Gate” may indicate there was no longer a gate there in Zechariah’s day.

Corner Gate (14:10). Like the Tower of Hananel, this structure is mentioned in Jeremiah 31:38 in anticipation of the rebuilding of the ruined city walls. It was in the preexilic fortifications on the north side of Jerusalem (2 Kings 14:13), to the west of the Temple Mount.

Tower of Hananel (14:10). This was located at the northeastern corner of the city, overlooking the temple complex. Its earliest mention is in Jeremiah 31:38, and it apparently was between the Fish Gate and the Sheep Gate (Neh. 12:39) during the governorship of Nehemiah. Later it became part of the Maccabean fortifications of the city, and it may have been incorporated into Herod the Great’s Fortress Antonia.

Feast of Tabernacles (14:16). There is some evidence that sukkôt, as the Feast of Tabernacles was called, attained a new prominence in the postexilic period, though the reasons for this are unclear. One new point the prophet is conveying is that the festival is intended for all nations, not just Israel.93

HOLY TO THE Lord (14:20). The same inscription was on the gold rosette or diadem fastened to the headpiece of the high priest (Ex. 28:36). Its appearance on horses and pots seems to function symbolically to transform a symbol of war (horses) and a symbol of prosperity (pots) into symbols of God’s presence within Jerusalem.94

In ceremonial contexts, the horses were often ornately caparisoned, including bells around the neck and rosettes on the bridle.

Caryn Reeder, courtesy of the British Museum

Sylvia Byerley, courtesy of the Louvre

Bibliography

Gershevitch, I., ed. The Cambridge History of Iran. Vol. 2 The Median and Achaemenian Periods. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985. A fine synthesis of the sweep of the Persian empire from its origins to its collapse.

Grabbe, Lester L. A History of the Jews and Judaism in the Second Temple Period. Vol. 1 Yehud: A History of the Persian Province of Judah. London: T. & T. Clark, 2004. Though often unnecessarily skeptical of biblical narratives, this is the most up-to-date synthesis of archaeological, biblical, and historical information on Palestine in the Persian period.

Meyers, C. L., and E. M. Meyers. Haggai, Zechariah 1–8: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary. AB; New York: Doubleday, 1987.

_____. Zechariah 9–14: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary. AB; New York: Doubleday, 1993. By far the most penetrating and extensive commentary to date on Haggai and Zechariah with extensive background information.

O’Brien, Julia M. Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi. Abingdon Old Testament Commentaries; Nashville: Abingdon, 2004. A short but clear synthesis of historical, literary, and theological issues on Zechariah.

Chapter Notes

Main Text Notes

1. Lester L. Grabbe, A History of the Jews and Judaism in the Second Temple Period. Volume 1 Yehud: A History of the Persian Province of Judah (London: T. & T. Clark, 2004), 27–30. For a detailed study of the demographics of the province, see Charles E. Carter, The Emergence of Yehud in the Persian Period: A Social and Demographic Study (JSOTSup 294; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1999).

2. See J. L. Berquist, Judaism in Persia’s Shadow: A Social and Historical Approach (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1995), 17–18.

3. For insightful literary relationships between the parts of Zechariah, see P. L. Redditt, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi (NCBC; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995).

4. V.A. Hurowitz, I Have Built You an Exalted House: Temple Building in the Bible in Light of Mesopotamian and Northwest Semitic Writing (JSOTSup 115; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1992). See also R. E. Averbeck, “Sumer, the Bible and Comparative Method: Historiography and Temple Building,” in Mesopotamia and the Bible: Comparative Explorations, ed. M. W. Chavalas and K. L. Younger Jr. (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2002), 88–125. See also D. Edelman, The Origins of the “Second” Temple: Persian Imperial Policy and the Rebuilding of Jerusalem (London: Equinox, 2005), 131–32, which delineates the basic components of the temple-building narrative; B. Halpern, “The Ritual Background of Zechariah’s Temple Song,” CBQ 40 (1978): 167–90.

5. COS, 2, 311.

6. Ibid., 2, 312.

7. A helpful overview of the dimensions of apocalyptic literature may be found in B. L. Bandstra, Reading the Old Testament: An Introduction to the Hebrew Bible (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1995), 471–73.

8. A helpful summary of the literary evidence may be found in E. M. Yamauchi, Persia and the Bible (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1990), 395–419.

9. See the appendix in Grabbe, A History of the Jews and Judaism, 361–64, for some major methodological issues in trying to discern Persian religious influence in biblical literature.

10. L. Waterman, “The Camouflaged Purge of Three Messianic Conspirators,” JNES 13 (1954): 73–78.

11. See J. Kessler, “Persia’s Loyal Yahwists: Power, Identity, and Ethnicity in Achaemenid Yehud,” in Judah and Judeans in the Persian Period, ed. O. Lipschits and M. Oeming (Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 2006), 91–121.

12. M. Nissinen, Prophets and Prophecy in the Ancient Near East (SBLWAW 12; Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2003), 14–16.

13. F. H. Cryer, Divination in Ancient Israel and Its Near Eastern Environment: A Socio-Historical Investigation (JSOTSup 142; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1994), 157–59.

14. See No. 38 in Nissinen, Prophets and Prophecy in the Ancient Near East, 62–64.

15. No. 43 in ibid., 69.

16. Dandamaev, A Political History, 130–31.

17. O. Keel, Wirkmachtige Siegeszeichen im Alten Testament (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1974), 123–46.

18. See A. K. Grayson, Assyrian Royal Inscriptions. Part 2: From Tiglath-Pileser I to Ashur-Nasir-apli II (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1976), 119. “I, Ashur-nasir-apli, strong king, king of the universe, unrivalled king, king of all the four quarters….”

19. J. M. Cook, The Persian Empire (New York: Shocken, 1983), 100.

20. “Admonitions of an Egyptian Sage,” in The Literature of Ancient Egypt: An Anthology of Stories, Instructions, and Poetry, ed. William Kelly Simpson, new ed. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale Univ. Press, 1973), 220.

21. Day, Adversary, 80–81; C. Breytenback and P. L. Day, “Satan,” DDD², 728.

22. M. Weiss, The Story of Job’s Beginning (Jerusalem: Magnes, 1983), 36–37; see also C. Meyers and E. Meyers, Haggai, Zechariah 1–8: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary (AB; New York: Doubleday, 1987), 185–86.

23. T. Mullen, The Assembly of the Gods (Atlanta: Scholars, 1980); L. Handy, Among the Host of Heaven (Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 1994). See, e.g., the Kirta Epic, COS, 1.102. See Meyers and Meyers, Zechariah 1–8, 182.

24. COS, 2.31:iv.1.

25. COS, 1.111.

26. B. Halpern, “Ritual Background of Zechariah’s Temple Song,” CBQ 40 (1978): 173.

27. Cf. Meyers and Meyers, Zechariah 1–8, 208, for discussion.

28. CAD, 1:158.

29. The translation of this Nabopolassar text is from CAD, A/1, 58b; see R. Ellis, Foundation Deposits in Ancient Mesopotamia (YNER 2; New Haven, Conn.: Yale Univ. Press, 1968), 131–35.

30. Meyers and Meyers, Zechariah 1–8, fig. 12 (after p. 288).

31. Ibid., fig. 13.

32. E. Stern, Material Culture in the Land of the Bible in the Persian Period, 538–332 B.C. (Warminster: Aris and Phillips, 1982), 129. Only three examples are cited in 1982 (Tell es-Safi, Tell Sandhannah, and En-Gedi).

33. Halpern, “Ritual Background,” 176–77.

34. O. Keel and C. Uehlinger, Gods, Goddesses and Images of God in Ancient Israel (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1998), 305. For more detail see O. Keel, Jahwe-Visionen und Siegelkunst: Eine neue Deutung der Majestätsschilderungen in Jes 6, Ez 1 und Sach 4 (Stuttgarter Bibel Studien 84/85; Stuttgart: Katholisches Bibelwerk, 1977), 274–320.

35. A. Laato, “Zachariah 4.6b–10a and the Akkadian Royal Building Inscriptions,” ZAW 106 (1994): 53–69.

36. D. L. Petersen, Haggai and Zechariah 1–8: A Commentary (OTL; Philadelphia: Westminster, 1984), 241–42.

37. COS, 2.155. In this case it is a foundation brick, and the construction of it is described in cylinder A, xvii.29–xix.15.

38. CAD, M/1:109; A. H. Konkel, “,” NIDOTTE, 1:603.

39. Ellis, Foundation Deposits, 106; CAD, Q:307–10.

40. Meyers and Meyers, Zechariah 1–8, 296–97; S. Marenof, “Note Concerning the Meaning of the Word ‘Ephah,’ Zechariah 5:5–11,” AJSLL 48 (1931–32): 264–67.

41. Meyers and Meyers recognize this problem and decide on suggesting a double entendre, Zechariah 1–8, 296.

42. Ellis, Foundation Deposits, 176, 191.

43. Ibid., 46–94; E. Braun-Holzinger, “Apotropaic Figures at Mesopotamian Temples in the Third and Second Millennia,” in Mesopotamina Magic, ed. T. Abusch and K. van der Toorn (Groningen: Styx, 1999), 152–54.

44. Ellis, Foundation Deposits, 70.

45. S. Parker, Ugaritic Narrative Poetry (SBLWAW 9; Atlanta: SBL, 1997), 183:10–12.

46. ANEP, fig. 526; A. Green, “Ancient Mesopotamian Religious Iconography,” CANE, 1843.

47. Cf. ANEP, fig. 656; Green, “Ancient Mesopotamian Religious Iconography,” 1837–55; F. A. M. Wiggermann, Mesopotamian Protective Spirits: The Ritual Texts (Groningen: Styx, 1992).

48. Wolter H. Rose, Zemah and Zerubbabel: Messianic Expectations in the Early Postexilic Period (JSOTSup 304; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 2000), 248–51. Rose’s study is a comprehensive consideration of the interpretation of this passage.

49. Meyers and Meyers, Zechariah 1–8, 202.

50. M. Weinfeld, Social Justice in Ancient Israel and in the Ancient Near East (Jerusalem: Magnes, 1995), 64.

51. CAD, 12:417.

52. Weinfeld, Social Justice, 65–67; H. Tadmor, “History and Ideology in the Assyrian Royal Inscriptions,” Assyrian Royal Inscriptions: New Horizons in Literary, Ideological, and Historical Analysis, ed. F. M. Fales (Rome: Istituto per l’Oriente, 1981), 13–34 (esp. 27); idem, The Inscriptions of Tiglath-Pileser III King of Assyria (Jerusalem: Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, 1994), 40–41 (Calah Annals 1a-b, line 1; 94–95, Stele 1A, line 23; see CAD, 12: 416–18 pirʾu).

53. See A. Demsky, “The Temple Steward Josiah ben Zephaniah,” IEJ 31 (1981): 100–102, who cites cognates in Neo-Assyrian and Aramaic.

54. P. A. Kruger, “Grasping the Hem in Zech. 8:23: The Contextual Analysis of a Gesture,” in “Feet on Level Ground”: A South African Tribute of Old Testament Essays in Honor of Gerhard Hasel, ed. Koot van Wyk (Pretoria: Hester, 1996), 172–92.

55. COS, 1, 476.

56. P. Briant, From Cyrus to Alexander: A History of the Persian Empire, trans. P. Daniels (Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 2002), 364.

57. S. Parpola and M. Porter, The Helsinki Atlas of the Near East in the Neo-Assyrian Period (Helsinki: Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project, 2001), 8; A. Rainey is more inclined to identify it with modern Homs, another 50–60 miles north, though he remains tentative (A. Rainey and S. Notley, Sacred Bridge [Jerusalem: Carta, 2006], 221).

58. K. Lawson Younger, “Some of What’s New in Old Aramaic Epigraphy,” NEA 70 (2007): 139–46.

59. OEANE, 2:466–68.

60. Grabbe, A History of Jews and Judaism in the Second Temple Period. Vol. 1 Yehud, 159–62.

61. Ibid., 163–64.

62. NEAEHL, 1:100.

63. COS, 3.54.

64. N. Bierling, Giving Goliath His Due (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1992), 241; NEAEHL, 3:1052; OEANE, 4:30–35.

65. C. Meyers and E. Meyers, Zechariah 9–14 (AB; New York: Doubleday, 1993), 118; cf. 2 Chron. 8:7–8.

66. For example in biblical texts see 2 Sam. 13:29; 18:9.

67. KAR, 430 r. 19 (see CAD, 7:113).

68. COS, 1.71.

69. COS, 1.86:iv 1–19, though even here there is discussion about the terminology, see footnote 148 there.

70. See also Judg. 5:10 and consider that Saul is seeking them in 1 Sam. 9. In Akkadian texts it is clear that mules are significant and valued animals (see CAD entries on parû A and kūdanu, but the specific reference to them as royal mounts is slim).

71. K. C. Way, “The Ceremonial and Symbolic Significance of Donkeys in the Biblical World” (Ph.D. diss.; Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College, 2006).

72. D. L. Petersen, Zechariah 9–14 and Malachi: A Commentary (OTL; Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1995), 63.

73. For treatment of the motif, see the following: F. M. Cross, “The Divine Warrior in Israel’s Early Cult,” in Biblical Motifs, ed. A. Altmann (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. Press, 1966), 11–30; A. R. W. Green, The Storm-God in the Ancient Near East (Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 2003); Sa-Moon Kang, Divine War in the Old Testament and in the Ancient Near East (New York: de Gruyter, 1989); T. Longman and D. Reid, God Is a Warrior (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1995); P. D. Miller, The Divine Warrior in Early Israel (Atlanta: SBL, 1973; 2006); M. Weinfeld, “Divine Intervention in War in Ancient Israel and in the Ancient Near East,” in History, Historiography and Interpretation: Studies in Biblical and Cuneiform Literatures, ed. H. Tadmor and M. Weinfeld (Jerusalem: Magnes, 1986), 121–47.

74. For a full discussion of the storm gods of the ancient world, see Green, Storm-God.

75. Ibid., 287.

76. K. van der Toorn, “The Nature of the Biblical Teraphim in the Light of the Cuneiform Evidence,” CBQ 52 (1990): 203–22; idem, Family Religion in Babylonia, Syria and Israel: Continuity and Change in the Forms of Religious Life (Leiden: Brill, 1996), 218–25; T. J. Lewis, “Teraphim,” DDD², 844–50; H. Hoffner, “Hittite Tarpiš and Hebrew Teraphim,” JNES 27 (1968): 61–68.

77. P. A. Porter, Metaphors and Monsters (Lund: Gleerup, 1983), 64–120.

78. Grayson, Assyrian Royal Inscriptions Part 2, 183.

79. See, e.g., his mandate “to keep the land in order, to exercise shepherdship over the people, to sustain the cult places, renew the temples” (quoted in Porter, Metaphors and Monsters, 90).

80. OEANE, 1:362.

81. See discussion in M. Oeming, “,” TDOT, 11:586–87; Meyers and Meyers, >Zechariah 1–9, 200.

82. For the use of a cone peg as the finishing touch to a temple see the Old Assyrian inscription at Assur by Erišum, RIMA, 1:20 lines 19–22. For foundation pegs see Ellis, Foundation Deposits, 46–93.

83. Cook, The Persian Empire, 102–3.

84. E. Reiner, “Thirty Pieces of Silver,” JAOS 88 (1968): 186–90.

85. Meyers and Meyers, Zechariah 9–14, 343–45.

86. S. L. Cook, The Apocalyptic Literature (Nashville: Abingdon, 2003), 14–17.

87. M. Smith, Early History of God (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1990), 54; Green, Storm-God, 156.

88. See the discussion in M. J. Boda and M. H. Floyd, eds., Bringing Out the Treasure: Inner Biblical Allusion in Zechariah 9–14 (JSOTSup 370; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 2003), 181–82.

89. J. Walton, Ancient Near Eastern Thought and the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2006), 179–99.

90. Time and weather are not only the issues of the first two days of creation in Gen. 1, they are shown to be the principal elements of order in Gen. 8:22.

91. R. C. van Leeuwen, “Proverbs 30:21–23 and the Biblical World Upside Down,” JBL 105 (1986): 599–610, esp. 602–3. Van Leeuwen gives a number of examples from Egyptian literature.

92. P. Seely, “The Geographical Meaning of ‘Earth’ and ‘Seas’ in Genesis 1:10,” WTJ 59 (1997): 231–55, esp. 244; I. Cornelius, “Visual Representation of the World in the Ancient Near East and the Hebrew Bible,” JNSL 20 (1994): 193–218, esp. 216, fig. 8; see O. Keel, The Symbolism of the Biblical World (New York: Seabury, 1978), 47–49 and fig. 42; L. Stager, “Jerusalem as Eden,” BAR 26:3 (May/June 2003): 36–47, esp. 38; G. K. Beale, The Temple and the Church’s Mission (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2004), 66–80; S. Tuell, “The Rivers of Paradise: Ezekiel 47.1–12 and Genesis 2.10–14, ” in God Who Creates, ed. W. P. Brown and S. D. McBride Jr. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000), 171–89.

93. W. Harrelson, “The Celebration of the Feast of Booths according to Zech. 14:16–21,” in Religions in Antiquity: Essays in Memory of Edwin Ramsdell Goodenough, ed. J. Neusner (Leiden: Brill, 1968), 88–96.

94. Meyers and Meyers, Zechariah 9–14, 479–80.

Sidebar and Chart Notes

A-1. Most of the details for this recitation of events are based on the extensive study of M. Dandamaev, A Political History of the Achaemenid Empire, trans. W. J. Vogelsang (Leiden: Brill, 1989), 81–133; see also A. T. Olmstead, History of the Persian Empire (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1970), 107–18, and Grabbe, A History of the Jews and Judaism, 268–69.

A-2. The list here is drawn from Hurowitz, I Have Built You an Exalted House, 326–27.

A-3. Ibid., 326.

A-4. AEL, 1:115.

A-5. Ibid., 1:118.

A-6. Enuma Elish 4.141–46. S. Dalley, Myths from Mesopotamia (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1991), 255; cf. COS, 1.111 (where B. Foster’s translation differs in some details).

A-7. The relevant literature on Satan includes: P. L. Day, An Adversary in Heaven (Atlanta: Scholars, 1988); N. Forsyth, The Old Enemy (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton Univ. Press, 1987); J. B. Russell, The Devil (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell Univ. Press, 1977); S. H. T. Page, Powers of Evil (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1995); J. Walton, “Satan,” in Dictionary of the Old Testament: Wisdom, Poetry and Writings (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2008), 714–17.

A-8. Day, Adversary, 127–28.

A-9. See D. S. Russell, The Method and Message of Jewish Apocalyptic (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1964), 254–55.

A-10. Breytenback and Day, “Satan,” 728.

A-11. J. Niehaus, God at Sinai (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1995).

A-12. A. Annus, The God Ninurta in the Mythology and Royal Ideology of Ancient Mesopotamia (SAA 14; Helsinki: Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project, 2002).

A-13. R. Otto, “Human Rights: The Influence of the Hebrew Bible,” JNSL 25 (1999): 1–20, see p. 7.