Dedications to the Sphere of Holiness (27:1–34)
If anyone makes a special vow (27:2). An Israelite could give such a votive offering to the Lord either (1) in hope of a future divine blessing or (2) in fulfillment of a promise to present the offering after a divine favor had been bestowed. Both kinds of voluntary agreements with deities—before or after divine blessings—have parallels elsewhere in the ancient Near East. As an example of type (1), a royal votive inscription of the Mesopotamian king Ibbi-Sin was originally carved on an animal sculpture (leopard?) that he dedicated to the deity Nanna “for the sake of his (Ibbi-Sin’s) (long) life.”299 A Hittite conditional promise to give a votive offering of type (2) is as follows:
[The queen] made the following vow [on behalf of] the royal prince, the king of Išuwa: “If the prince recovers from this illness, I will [ . . . . . . . . . ] and I will give to the deity on behalf of the prince, the king of Išuwa, a sword, a dagger(?), and one silver ZI-ornament of unspecified weight.”300
To dedicate persons to the LORD (27:2). In the ancient Near East, votive objects were various kinds of valuable items that worshipers of deities transferred to their sacred realm. They were often sculptures or replicas of items used in daily life and were often inscribed with prayers.301 Here in Leviticus 27, the votive object is the monetary work valuation of a person who would otherwise be literally pledged to service at the sanctuary, as Samuel was (1 Sam. 1:11, 25–28; 2:11).
Related to the vow of (the work valuation of) a human being is a situation in which a wealthy person vows to present a deity with a multiple of another person’s weight in precious metal. In an Ugaritic epic, King Kirta vows to give the goddess ʾAṯiratu double the weight of princess Hurraya in silver and triple her weight in gold if he succeeds in taking her as his wife.302 Compare m. Arak. 5:1, which tells how a mother vowed her daughter’s weight in gold and paid it at Jerusalem.
Sumerian statues from Tel Asmar placed in temple in connection with a vow
Courtesy of the Oriental Institute Museum
Set the value of a male between the ages of twenty and sixty at fifty shekels of silver (27:3). This expensive valuation of a man in the prime of life (2 Kings 15:20; cf. annual wage in Judg. 17:10) would have been reasonable as the price of a male adult slave in Mesopotamia.303 However, unlike slave prices, the fixed scale in Leviticus 27 does not fluctuate over time according to market conditions and treats individuals equally by not taking variable factors into account, such as a particular person’s strength or speed, which would affect actual productivity.
He must not exchange it (27:10). The Hittite Instructions to Priests and Temple Officials forbid cheating the deity by exchanging high quality animals for inferior ones.304 The present verse goes further by categorically ruling out any substitution, including even an exchange that could be regarded as upgrading the value: “a good one for a bad one, or a bad one for a good one.” So there can be no justification based on rationalizing relative values.
Bibliography
Beckwith, R., and M. Selman, eds. Sacrifice in the Bible. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1995. Essays by different authors trace the theme of sacrifice through the Bible and relate Israelite practices to sacrificial rituals elsewhere in the ancient Near East.
Cohen, M. The Cultic Calendars of the Ancient Near East. Bethesda, Md.: CDL, 1993. This comprehensive survey of ancient cultic calendars traces cyclical holy times through history in various regions of Mesopotamia.
Gane, R. Cult and Character: Purification Offerings, Day of Atonement, and Theodicy. Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 2005. Close reading and syntactic study of ritual texts (mainly in Leviticus) dealing with purification offerings reveal the underlying theme of divine justice, which relates in fascinating ways to some Sumerian and Babylonian festivals.
_____. Leviticus, Numbers. NIVAC. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2004. This recent commentary makes the timeless messages of Leviticus and Numbers accessible to modern readers by taking them from the original meaning of each passage through bridging contexts to contemporary application.
_____. Ritual Dynamic Structure. Gorgias Dissertations 14, Religion 2. Piscataway, N.J.: Gorgias, 2004. Developing and then applying a methodology for analyzing rituals as human activity systems, this work investigates and compares ancient Israelite, Babylonian, and Hittite festival days of sancta purification. An appendix contains the first published English translation of the Hittite texts pertaining to the Ninth-Year Festival of the god Telipinu.
Haran, M. Temples and Temple-Service in Ancient Israel. Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 1985. This important study explains various aspects of the Israelite sanctuary/temple institution and its priesthood, including the physical structure of the tabernacle and rituals performed there.
Hartley, J. Leviticus. WBC 4. Dallas: Word, 1992. For each section of Leviticus, this major commentary includes a bibliography, translation, text (including text-critical) notes, discussion of the form/structure/setting, comment on the content, and further explanation that includes connections with other parts of the Bible.
Klingbeil, G. A Comparative Study of the Ritual of Ordination as Found in Leviticus 8 and Emar 369. Lewiston, N.Y.: Mellen, 1998. Klingbeil offers a detailed comparison of an important Emar text and the biblical description of priestly consecration, specifying elaborate procedures for installation of the storm god’s high priestess.
Levine, B. Leviticus. JPS Torah Commentary. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1989. Utilizing his impressive grasp of ancient Near Eastern cultures and linguistics as well as rabbinic literature, Levine has produced a concise and insightful commentary.
Milgrom, J. Leviticus 1–16, Leviticus 17–22, Leviticus 23–27. AB 3, 3A, 3B. New York: Doubleday, 1991, 2000, 2001. These three volumes comprise the largest and most comprehensive commentary on Leviticus ever produced. For his exhaustive investigation, Milgrom draws on a wide variety of resources and approaches, which include ancient Near Eastern and rabbinic texts, archaeological data, and anthropology, in addition to close reading, lexical and grammatical study, linguistics, and analysis of literary structure.
Patrick, D. Old Testament Law. Atlanta: John Knox, 1985. Here is a clearly understandable introduction to the legal genre in biblical writings, including the structure, scope, formulation, and content of the various collections and series of laws, and relationships between them.
Ross, A. P. Holiness to the Lord: A Guide to the Exposition of the Book of Leviticus. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2002. This clear exposition opens up the theological themes of Leviticus and brings them to the modern reader.
Roth, M. T. Law Collections from Mesopotamia and Asia Minor. SBLWAW 6. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1995. Here are up-to-date translations of the Sumerian, Babylonian, Assyrian, and Hittite law collections all together in one handy volume.
Toorn, K. van der. Sin and Sanction in Israel and Mesopotamia. SSN 22. Assen: Van Gorcum, 1985. The author compares the civilizations of Israel and Mesopotamia in terms of their respective approaches to maintenance of moral order, a theme central to Leviticus.
Walton, J. H. Ancient Israelite Literature in its Cultural Context. LBI. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1989. This useful resource introduces the reader to comparison between biblical texts and pieces of ancient Near Eastern literature belonging to the same literary genres. It provides descriptions of ancient works, comparisons between them, discussion of interpretive issues, and bibliographic resources for further study.
Weinfeld, M. Social Justice in Ancient Israel and in the Ancient Near East. Jerusalem/Minneapolis: Magnes/Fortress, 1995. Weinfeld explores the biblical theme of maintaining social justice, which is prominent in Leviticus, within the larger context of the ancient Near East.
Westbrook, R., ed. A History of Ancient Near Eastern Law. 2 vols. Handbook of Oriental Studies/Handbuch der Orientalistik 72. Leiden: Brill, 2003. This current, comprehensive, and clearly organized survey of ancient Near Eastern (including Israelite) law, covering all major periods and geographical areas, is a major achievement by top scholars and serves as an indispensable reference tool.
Wright, D. P. The Disposal of Impurity: Elimination Rites in the Bible and in Hittite and Mesopotamian Literature. SBLDS 101. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1987. Wright investigates Israelite ritual impurities and their elimination, and compares them with somewhat analogous concepts and procedures in Hittite and Mesopotamian ritual texts.
Zevit, Z. The Religions of Ancient Israel: A Synthesis of Parallactic Approaches. London: Continuum, 2001. This major examination of ancient Israelite religious experience thoroughly integrates study of texts with analysis of a wealth of archaeological data.
Chapter Notes
Main Text Notes
1. On the message of Leviticus, see further R. Gane, Leviticus, Numbers (NIVAC; Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2004).
2. See, e.g., J. Milgrom, Leviticus 1–16 (AB; New York: Doubleday, 1991), 3–13, esp. 10–12; K. Kitchen, “The Tabernacle—A Bronze Age Artifact,” Bible and Spade 8 (1995): 1995; R. Gane, “Schedules for Deities: Macrostructure of Israelite, Babylonian, and Hittite Sancta Purification Days,” AUSS 36 (1998): 231–44, esp. 244.
3. COS, 2.155:419–21, 423–24.
4. Ibid., 1.95:299–301.
5. Ibid., 1.83:217–21.
6. Ibid., 2.19:106–19; 2.130—33:332–61; 2.153—54:408–14.
7. Ibid., 2.131:351–53; 2.154:413–14.
8. R. Gane, Ritual Dynamic Structure (Gorgias Dissertations 14, Religion 2; Piscataway, N.J., 2004), 58–61.
9. Speaking of complexity, “the polytheistic cults of Mesopotamia generated ever more deities and temples, 5580 of the former by one count and 1439 of the latter by another” (W. W. Hallo, “Sumer and the Bible: A Matter of Proportion,” in ibid., 3:liii).
10. Compare Gary A. Anderson, “Sacrifice and Sacrificial Offerings (OT),” ABD, 5:883; D. Baker, “Leviticus 1–7 and the Punic Tariffs: A Form Critical Comparison,” ZAW 99 (1987): 192–93.
11. COS, 1.123:431–36.
12. R. Knierim, Text and Concept in Leviticus 1:1—9: A Case in Exegetical Method (FAT; Tübingen: Mohr, 1992), 31, 65, 94–97, 98–106.
13. COS, 2.155:432. On the distinction between prescriptive and descriptive ritual texts in the Bible and elsewhere in the ancient Near East, see B. Levine, “The Descriptive Tabernacle Texts of the Pentateuch,” JAOS 85 (1965): 307–18; B. Levine and W. W. Hallo, “Offerings to the Temple Gates at Ur,” HUCA 38 (1967): 1967; COS, 3.124:275; A. Rainey, “The Order of Sacrifices in Old Testament Ritual Texts,” Bib 51 (1970): 495.
14. Compare other major biblical law collections in Ex. 20–23 and Deut. 12–26. For the Mesopotamian and Hittite collections, see COS, 2.153—54:408–14 (Sumerian); 2.130—133:332–61 (Akkadian); 2.19:106–19 (Hittite).
15. See J. H. Walton, Ancient Israelite Literature in its Cultural Context (LBI; Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1989), 78.
16. S. Paul, Studies in the Book of the Covenant in the Light of Cuneiform and Biblical Law (VTSup 18; Leiden: Brill, 1970), 43.
17. W. G. Lambert describes the difference between the Mesopotamian and Israelite worldviews: “The contrast was not, as among the Hebrews, between morally right and wrong, but between order and disorder. Civilization was the ideal: the well ordered society” (“Destiny and Divine Intervention in Babylon and Israel,” Oudtestamentische Studiën 17 (1972): 1972; cf. K. van der Toorn, Family Religion in Babylonia, Syria and Israel: Continuity and Change in the Forms of Religious Life (Leiden: Brill, 1996), 94–95; T. Abusch, “Ghost and God: Some Observations on a Babylonian Understanding of Human Nature,” in Self, Soul and Body in Religious Experience, ed. A. Baumgarten, J. Assmann, and G. Stroumsa (Studies in the History of Religions; Leiden: Brill, 1998), 381. On the related social-ethical implications of the Egyptian concept of maʾat, see J. Assmann, “A Dialogue Between Self and Soul: Papyrus Berlin 3024,” in Self, Soul and Body, 395–96, 401–3.
18. J. J. Finkelstein, “Bible and Babel: A Comparative Study of the Hebrew and Babylonian Religious Spirit,” in Essential Papers on Israel and the Ancient Near East, ed. F. Greenspahn (New York: New York Univ. Press, 1991), 368–73.
19. On the need for Mesopotamian law collections to express royal ideals of justice and deal with changes in society, versus the lack of such collections in Egypt because the pharaohs and gods existed by an order of rightness in nature and society (maʾat) that was built into the universe at creation, see Walton, Ancient Israelite Literature, 86–87, 91–92.
20. For an overview of the kinds of sacrifices practiced in various parts of the ancient Near East, including Ugarit, see M. J. Selman, “Sacrifice in the Ancient Near East,” in Sacrifice in the Bible, ed. R. Beckwith and M. Selman (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1995), 88–104. For examples of Ugaritic sacrificial procedures, including burnt and well-being offerings, see COS, 1.95:299–301. For some parallel kinds of Punic sacrifices, see ibid., 1.98:306–7. On Greek sacrifices, see Dennis E. Smith, “Meal Customs (Greco-Roman),” ABD, 4:653–55.
21. COS, 1.98:306–8.
22. D. P. Wright, “The Gesture of Hand Placement in the Hebrew Bible and in Hittite Literature,” JAOS 106 (1986): 443.
23. R. Gane, Cult and Character: Purification Offerings, Day of Atonement, and Theodicy (Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 2005), ch. 6.
24. B. Levine, In the Presence of the Lord: A Study of Cult and Some Cultic Terms in Ancient Israel (SJLA; Leiden: Brill, 1974), 123; D. P. Wright, The Disposal of Impurity: Elimination Rites in the Bible and in Hittite and Mesopotamian Literature (SBLDS 101; Atlanta: Scholars, 1987), 291–99; Milgrom, Leviticus 1–16, 1080–82; CAD, 8:179.
25. For the connection between blood and life, compare the fact that in the Babylonian epic Atraḫasis, human beings are created from the flesh and blood of a slain god (W. G. Lambert and A. R. Millard, Atra-Ḫasis: The Babylonian Story of the Flood [Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, repr. 1999; orig. 1969], 59). Regarding an animal ransoming a human life, compare Hittite Laws 166—“a man who sows seed over another man’s seed is torn apart by oxen, which are also killed”—with 167 (reformed law): “But now they shall substitute one sheep for the man and two sheep for the oxen. He shall give 30 loaves of bread and 3 jugs of . . . beer, and reconsecrate (the land?)” (M. T. Roth, Law Collections from Mesopotamia and Asia Minor [SBLWAW 6; Atlanta: Scholars, 1995], 233–34).
26. T. Abusch, “Blood in Israel and Mesopotamia,” in Emanuel: Studies in Hebrew Bible, Septuagint, and Dead Sea Scrolls in Honor of Emanuel Tov, ed. S. Paul et al. (VTSup; Leiden: Brill, 2003), 675–84; G. del Olmo Lete, Canaanite Religion according to the Liturgical Texts of Ugarit (trans. W. Watson; Bethesda, Md.: CDL, 1999), 41.
27. H. Hoffner, “Second Millennium Antecedents to the Hebrew ʾob,” JBL 86 (1967): 390–92, 395–96, 399; see also M. Cohen, The Cultic Calendars of the Ancient Near East (Bethesda, Md.: CDL, 1993), 459; cf. 325.
28. COS, 1.70:176.
29. See Edwin Firmage, “Zoology (Fauna),” ABD, 6:1132.
30. G. R. Driver, “Ugaritic and Hebrew Words,” Ugaritica 6 (1969): 181–84.
31. Milgrom, Leviticus 1–16, 161–62, 253.
32. See, e.g., COS, 1.143:474. However, W. G. Lambert points out that in ancient Babylonia (unlike Israel), there was no custom of burning slaughtered animal victims to ashes. Incense was the only Babylonian offering material completely consumed by fire (“Donations of Food and Drink to the Gods in Ancient Mesopotamia,” in Ritual and Sacrifice in the Ancient Near East, ed. J. Quaegebeur [Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta; Leuven: Peeters, 1993], 194).
33. COS, 1.86:259.
34. Lambert and Millard, Atra-Ḫasis, 98–99.
35. H. Hoffner, Alimenta Hethaeorum: Food Production in Hittite Asia Minor (AOS 55; New Haven, Conn.: American Oriental Society, 1974), 216; COS, 1.60:159.
36. Gane, Ritual Dynamic Structure, 256, 361; cf. COS, 1.83:220.
37. Milgrom, Leviticus 1–16, 188–90.
38. Hoffner, “Second Millennium Antecedents,” 389, 391–92, 394–95; Cohen, Cultic Calendars, 459; cf. COS, 1.68:170 and 1.125:440–41. See comment on 1:5 regarding similar libations of blood.
39. Gane, Ritual Dynamic Structure, 210–13; cf. Cohen, Cultic Calendars, 447.
40. Milgrom, Leviticus 1–16, 191.
41. IVPBCCOT, 122.
42. Ibid., 220–21.
43. See, e.g., A. Blackman, “The Sequence of the Episodes in the Egyptian Daily Temple Liturgy,” Journal of the Manchester Egyptian and Oriental Society (1918–1919): 27–53; Hoffner, Alimenta Hethaeorum, 216; G. Barton, “A Comparison of Some Features of Hebrew and Babylonian Ritual,” JBL 46 (1927): 1927; E. Kingsbury, “A Seven Day Ritual in the Old Babylonian Cult at Larsa,” HUCA 34 (1963): 1963; ANET, 343–45.
44. A. L. Oppenheim, Ancient Mesopotamia (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1964), 191–92; cf. Selman, “Sacrifice,” 90–92.
45. Hoffner, Alimenta Hethaeorum, 217.
46. COS, 1.34:55; see comment on Lev. 16:2.
47. Selman, “Sacrifice,” 91; see also 92.
48. Lambert reminds us that in Sumerian and Babylonian literature, “the human race was created solely to serve the gods by providing their food and drink. The whole matter is conceived anthropomorphically. ‘Sacrifice’ is a misnomer applied to this conceptual world” (“Donations of Food and Drink,” 198).
49. COS, 1.29:47; cf. 1.114:416–17.
50. Ibid., 1.153:488; K. van der Toorn, Sin and Sanction in Israel and Mesopotamia (SSN 22; Assen: Van Gorcum, 1985), 94–97. On the problem of unwitting sin in the ancient Near East, see also Milgrom, Leviticus 1–16, 361–63.
51. COS, 1.78:205; cf. 204.
52. Ibid., 1.60:160; cf. 157.
53. The Hebrew term was derived from the same root as the verb for “purify” in Ex. 29:36 and Lev. 8:15; Milgrom, Leviticus 1–16, 253–54.
54. COS, 2.19:110.
55. Ibid., 1.153:490; cf. 487.
56. See, e.g., ibid., 3.138:307—announcement that a slave is freed.
57. Ibid., 2.131:338.
58. T. Frymer-Kenski, “Israel,” in A History of Ancient Near Eastern Law, ed. R. Westbrook (HO 72; Leiden: Brill, 2003), 2:994.
59. COS, 1.176:569.
60. A. Phillips, “The Undetectable Offender and the Priestly Legislators,” JTS 36 (1985): 1985.
61. See B. Schwartz, “The Bearing of Sin in the Priestly Literature,” in Pomegranates and Golden Bells: Studies in Biblical, Jewish, and Near Eastern Ritual, Law, and Literature in Honor of Jacob Milgrom, ed. D. Wright, D. N. Freedman, and A. Hurvitz (Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 1995), 8–15.
62. COS, 3.8:27; see also 28–30; cf. K. Koch, “Is There a Doctrine of Retribution in the Old Testament?” in Theodicy in the Old Testament, ed. J. Crenshaw; trans. T. Trapp (IRT; Philadelphia/London: Fortress/SPCK, 1983), 60–82; Gane, Cult and Character, ch. 16.
63. Milgrom, Leviticus 1–16, 298–302.
64. A Mesopotamian text contains passionate confession of a wide range of faults (W. G. Lambert, “dingir.šà dib.ba Incantations,” JNES 33 [1974]: 275, 281, 283, 285, 287).
65. COS, 1.179:574–75.
66. Ibid., 1.83:218–21.
67. Ibid., 220.
68. Milgrom, Leviticus 1–16, 339–45.
69. Ibid., 333–35, 343–44.
70. COS, 1.144:475; cf. 1.151:485.
71. Ibid., 1.57:151–53.
72. Roth, Law Collections, 65; cf. COS, 2.130:334; 3.10:32; 3.65:160.
73. COS, 1.47:117; cf. 118, 120.
74. Ibid., 1.83:220.
75. Gane, Ritual Dynamic Structure, 248, 252–53, 359; cf. COS, 1.124:437 regarding animal portions belonging to the supervising “diviner.”
76. COS, 1.83:218.
77. Ibid.
78. R. Gane, “‘Bread of the Presence’ and Creator-in-Residence,” VT 42 (1992): 194–98.
79. COS, 1.124:438–39.
80. Ibid., 1.98:305–9.
81. Ibid., 2.32:151.
82. Ibid., 2.33:152–53.
83. Regarding vows, see comments on 27:2.
84. D. Wold, “The Meaning of the Biblical Penalty Kareth” (Ph.D. dissertation, Univ. of California at Berkeley, 1978), 251–55; Milgrom, Leviticus 1–16, 457–60; Schwartz, “Bearing of Sin,” 13.
85. COS, 1.83:220; cf., 1.148:480.
86. On use of oil in ancient Near Eastern dedication ceremonies, see V. Hurowitz, I Have Built You an Exalted House: Temple Building in the Bible in Light of Mesopotamian and Northwest Semitic Writings (JSOTSup; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1992), 278–79. For oil and blood together (Lev. 8:30; 14:14–18, 25–29), cf. part of the Zukru festival at Emar: “Total: four calves and forty sheep for the consecration. After eating and drinking they rub all the stones with oil and blood” (COS, 1.123:433; see also 435).
87. COS, 1.70:176.
88. On anointing of Israelite kings and the ancient Near Eastern background of this practice, see T. Mettinger, King and Messiah: The Civil and Sacral Legitimation of the Israelite Kings (ConBOT; Lund: Gleerup, 1976), 185–232.
89. COS, 2.152:407.
90. See CAD, 10/1:187.
91. Milgrom, Leviticus 1–16, 587.
92. COS, 1.102:335; cf. 1.95:301.
93. ANEP, 89 and 91, showing submission to superior Egyptian forces.
94. Cf. CAD, 10/2:9–10, on the Akkadian word melammu, which refers to “radiance, supernatural awe-inspiring sheen (inherent in things divine and royal).”
95. COS, 2.155:431–32; cf. 2.123A:312 regarding celebration that attended restoration of the Ehulhul temple in Haran by the Neo-Babylonian King Nabonidus. See also Baal’s inaugural banquet upon completion of his palace (ibid., 1.86:261–62, The Baʾlu Myth).
96. Ibid., 1.34:55.
97. Ibid., 1.108:382.
98. See, e.g., ANET, 338–41, 343 (in Mesopotamia).
99. COS, 1.97:303–4; 1.111:396–97; ANET, 66.
100. On šēkār (so-called “strong/fermented drink”) offered in the Israelite tabernacle, see Gane, Leviticus, Numbers, 750–51.
101. COS, 1.83:220.
102. See Firmage, “Zoology,” 1120.
103. Ibid., 1125–26.
104. Gane, Leviticus, Numbers, 206–8, referring to M. Douglas, Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1966), 41–57; E. Firmage, “The Biblical Dietary Laws and the Concept of Holiness,” in J. A. Emerton, ed., Studies in the Pentateuch (Leiden: Brill, 1990), 177–208; Milgrom, Leviticus 1–16, 735; J. Moskala, The Laws of Clean and Unclean Animals of Leviticus 11: Their Nature, Theology, and Rationale (an Intertextual Study) (ATSDS 4; Berrien Springs, Mich.: Adventist Theological Society Publications, 2000).
105. Firmage, “Zoology,” 1125.
106. COS, 1.83:217, 220.
107. W. G. Lambert, Babylonian Wisdom Literature (Oxford: Clarendon, 1960), 215.
108. Firmage, “Zoology,” 1131–35.
109. COS, 2.155:427.
110. Ibid., 1.95:300; cf. 301.
111. Milgrom, Leviticus 1–16, 763–65; G. Beckman, Hittite Birth Rituals, 2nd ed. (SANE 29; Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1983), esp. 251; M. F. Small, “A Woman’s Curse? From Taboo to Time Bomb: Rethinking Menstruation,” The Sciences (January/February 1999), 24–29.
112. Beckman, Hittite Birth Rituals, 135, 137, 143, 219.
113. Since slight vaginal bleeding can occur in a newborn girl, perhaps the doubled time of the mother’s purification could be based on the actual and potential genital discharge of both females (J. Magonet, “‘But If It Is a Girl She Is Unclean for Twice Seven Days . . .’: The Riddle of Leviticus 12.5,” in Reading Leviticus: A Conversation with Mary Douglas, ed. J. Sawyer [JSOTSup 227; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1996], 152).
114. Milgrom, Leviticus 1–16, 765.
115. H. Maccoby, Ritual and Morality: The Ritual Purity System and its Place in Judaism (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1999), 49; see also 31–32, 48, 50, 207–8; cf. Milgrom, Leviticus 1–16, 767–68, 1002–3; idem, “The Rationale for Biblical Impurity,” JANES 22 (1993): 1993.
116. See also J. Milgrom, Leviticus 23–27 (AB; New York: Doubleday, 2001), 1913, but in v. 3, where the disease is pronounced impure, he renders “scale disease.”
117. E. V. Hulse, “The Nature of Biblical ‘Leprosy’ and the Use of Alternative Medical Terms in Modern Translations of the Bible,” PEQ 107 (1975): 1975; Milgrom, Leviticus 1–16, 817. Greek lepra, from which our word “leprosy” is derived, was used for scale disease in the LXX and the New Testament (Matt. 8:3; Mark 1:42; Luke 5:12–13). R. K. Harrison makes a detailed medical argument that biblical scale disease could have at least included an ancient form of what we now call “leprosy” (“Leper; Leprosy,” ISBE, 3:103–6; idem, Leviticus: An Introduction and Commentary [TOTC; Leicester: Inter-Varsity Press, 1980], 136–45, 241–46).
118. COS, 1.120:426.
119. On Gehazi’s offense as sacrilege in the sense that he robbed God of credit for healing Naaman, cf. van der Toorn, Sin and Sanction, 74.
120. Milgrom, Leviticus 1–16, 820–21; see also van der Toorn, Sin and Sanction, 73.
121. Milgrom, Leviticus 1–16, 820; van der Toorn, Sin and Sanction, 30–31, 73–75.
122. ANET, 333; Cohen, Cultic Calendars, 445–46.
123. On Israelite, Mesopotamian, and Hittite ritual use of birds to carry away evils, see Wright, Disposal of Impurity, 75–86. For use of cedar in Mesopotamian rituals, compare ANET, 335–36; CAD, 4:277–78.
124. Wright, Disposal of Impurity, 83.
125. Ibid., 81, 84.
126. Cf. the “water of life” motif in Mesopotamia (COS, 1.164:534 and 1.170:549–50).
127. Gane, Ritual Dynamic Structure, 261–62, 265–66, 273, 358–59.
128. ANET, 332; Cohen, Cultic Calendars, 444.
129. Milgrom, Leviticus 23–27, 1917.
130. COS, 1.120:424.
131. Ibid., 1.68:168–71.
132. Blennorrhea urethrae or Gonorrhoea benigna, not to be confused with the venereal Gonorrhoea virulenta, which has appeared more recently. See M. M. Kalisch, A Historical and Critical Commentary on the Old Testament, with a New Translation: Leviticus (London: Longman, Green, Reader, and Dyer, 1872), 2:155.
133. J. V. Kinnier-Wilson, “Medicine in the Land and Times of the Old Testament,” in Studies in the Period of David and Solomon, ed. T. Ishida (Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 1982), 358.
134. B. Levine, Numbers 1–20 (AB; New York: Doubleday, 1993), 185.
135. Erica Reiner, Šurpu: A Collection of Sumerian and Akkadian Incantations (AfOB 11; Graz, Austria, 1958), 16.
136. M. J. Geller, “The Šurpu Incantations and Lev. V.1–5,” JSS 25 (1980): 188.
137. COS, 1.120: 425.
138. H. Hoffner, “Some Contributions of Hittitology to Old Testament Study,” TynBul 20 (1969): 1969; Milgrom, Leviticus 1–16, 927; cf. COS 2.19:118 (Hitttite Laws 190).
139. COS, 1.83:220; Walton, Matthews, and Chavalas, IVP Bible Background Commentary, 130.
140. AHw, 2:827–28; R. Gane and J. Milgrom, “pārōket,” TDOT, 12:95; see also 96.
141. COS, 1.120:424.
142. Ibid., 2.155:427.
143. Cohen, Cultic Calendars, 444; cf. ANET, 332.
144. Cohen, Cultic Calendars, 445; ANET, 333; cf. Gane, Ritual Dynamic Structure, 221–22.
145. See further in Gane, Cult and Character, ch. 11; Gane, Leviticus, Numbers, 273–74, 288–91.
146. David P. Wright, “Day of Atonement,” ABD, 2:74.
147. Wright, Disposal of Impurity, 57. For analysis of the Israelite “scapegoat” ritual in relation to a number of Hittite and Mesopotamian parallels, see 15–74. For an apparent Ugaritic parallel, in which an elimination ritual involves driving a goat away to a far place, see K. Aartun, “Eine weitere Parallele aus Ugarit zur kultischen Praxis in Israels Religion,” BO 33 (1976): 288; O. Loretz, Leberschau, Sündenbock, Asasel in Ugarit und Israel (UBL; Altenberge: CIS–Verlag, 1985), 35–49.
148. Wright, Disposal of Impurity, 58.
149. Ibid., 58–60; cf. H. Hoffner, “Hittite-Israelite Cultural Parallels,” in COS, 3:xxxii; see also Walton, Matthews, and Chavalas on the “scapegoat” concept in the ancient Near East, The IVP Bible Background Commentary, 131.
150. See also Milgrom, Leviticus 23–27, 1921; cf. NJPS: “for Azazel.”
151. For surveys of suggested explanations, see B. Levine, Leviticus (JPS Torah Commentary; Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1989), 250–53; Wright, Disposal of Impurity, 21–22; Milgrom, Leviticus 1–16, 1020–21; A. Treiyer, The Day of Atonement and the Heavenly Judgment from the Pentateuch to Revelation (Siloam Springs, Ark.: Creation Enterprises International, 1992), 231–58.
152. G. R. Driver, “Three Technical Terms in the Pentateuch,” JSS 1 (1956): 1956.
153. Loretz, Leberschau, 56–57.
154. B. Janowski and G. Wilhelm, “Der Bock, der die Sünden hinausträgt: Zur Religionsgeschichte des Azazel–Ritus Lev 16, 10.21f,” in Religionsgechichtliche Beziehungen zwischen Kleinasien, Nordsyrien und dem Alten Testament, ed. B. Janowski, K. Koch, and G. Wilhelm (OBO 129; Freiburg/Göttingen: Universitätsverlag/Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1993), 134–62.
155. C. D. Ginsburg, Leviticus (The Handy Commentary; Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1961), 151; cf. S. R. Driver and H. A. White, The Book of Leviticus (SBONT; New York: Dodd, Mead, 1898), 81.
156. R. Gane, Altar Call (Berrien Springs, Mich.: Diadem, 1999), 248–50; Gane, Cult and Character, ch. 11.
157. A. Noordtzij, Leviticus, trans. R. Togtman (BSC; Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1982), 162–63; B. Levine, “Leviticus, Book of,” ABD, 4:315. For Babylonian belief in alu-demons who lived in deserted wastelands, see CAD, 1:376. On the Azazel episode in 1 Enoch, see P. D. Hanson, “Rebellion in Heaven, Azazel, and Euhemeristic Heroes in 1 Enoch 6–11,” JBL 96 (1977): 220–27.
158. Y. Kaufmann, The Religion of Israel, trans. and abridged M. Greenberg (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1960), 114.
159. Cohen, Cultic Calendars, 446; see also ANET, 334.
160. However, blood was used for purifying a new Anatolian temple: COS, 1.70:176.
161. Ibid., 1.162:530; cf. T. Jacobsen, The Harps That Once . . .: Sumerian Poetry in Translation (New Haven, Conn.: Yale Univ. Press, 1987), 138.
162. Gane, Ritual Dynamic Structure, 261–62, 264–66, 273, 358–59.
163. Ibid., ch. 5; see also ANET, 333–34; Cohen, Cultic Calendars, 445–46. On the ritual events of this festival and their function, see further in J. Bidmead, The Akitu Festival: Religious Continuity and Royal Legitimation in Mesopotamia (Piscataway, N.J.: Gorgias, 2002).
164. Kaufmann, Religion of Israel, 103–5; Milgrom, Leviticus 1–16, 1068–69.
165. For further explanation, see Gane, Leviticus, Numbers, 169, 276–77; Gane, Cult and Character, ch. 8; cf. J. Milgrom, “Confusing the Sacred and the Impure: A Rejoinder,” VT 44 (1994): 557–58.
166. ANET, 333; Cohen, Cultic Calendars, 445–46.
167. See also the behavior of Jews at Elephantine (Egypt) in a time of disaster: COS, 3.51:127–28.
168. See Gane, Cult and Character, ch. 14.
169. Ibid., 1.147:478.
170. Ibid., 1.162:528. For further analysis of this text and comparison with Leviticus, see Gane, Cult and Character, ch. 17. For other Mesopotamian texts in which New Year days are days of inspection, see COS, 1.173:557–58; W. Heimpel, “The Nanshe Hymn,” JCS 33 (1981): 1981; K. van der Toorn, “Form and Function of the New Year Festival in Babylonia and Israel,” in Congress Volume: Leuven, 1989, ed. J. A. Emerton (VTSup 43; Leiden: Brill, 1991), 5.
171. J. Milgrom, Leviticus 17–22 (AB; New York: Doubleday, 2000), 1462.
172. Compare Milgrom, Leviticus 1–16, 1021, 1072. H. Tawil, “ʾAzazel The Prince of the Steppe: A Comparative Study,” ZAW 92 (1980): 1980.
173. Milgrom, Leviticus 1–16, 1072.
174. Hoffner, “Second Millennium Antecedents,” 395.
175. M. Schwartz, “The Old Eastern Iranian World View According to the Avesta,” in The Cambridge History of Iran, ed. I. Gershevitch (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1985), 2:656. Regarding incest among Elamite kings, see F. Vallat, “Susa and Susiana in Second-Millennium Iran,” in CANE, 2:1029.
176. COS, 2.131:345; 2.19:118. Interestingly, a negative confession in the Egyptian Book of the Dead refers to a kind of sexual activity that is not mentioned in the Bible: “I have not masturbated” (ibid., 2.12:61).
177. See also Deut. 22:30; 27:20; 1 Cor. 5:1.
178. However, “If anyone sleeps with an arnuwala-woman, and also sleeps with her mother, it is not an offense” (Roth, Law Collections, 237).
179. S. Rattray, “Marriage Rules, Kinship Terms and Family Structure in the Bible,” SBLSP 26 (1998): 542. A Hittite treaty condemns sex with one’s sister, cousin, or sister-in-law (G. Beckman, Hittite Diplomatic Texts, 2nd ed. [SBLWAW; Atlanta: Scholars, 1999], 31–32).
180. Roth, Law Collections, 236. Cf. COS, 1.120:425 (a Mesopotamian omen).
181. Roth, Law Collections, 236.
182. A. Tosato, “The Law of Leviticus 18:18: A Reexamination,” CBQ 46 (1984): 202–8; cf. Temple Scroll 57:17–18, trans. Y. Yadin, in The Temple Scroll (Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society, 1983), 2:407; Damascus Document 4:21, trans. G. Vermes, The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English (New York: Allen Lane/Penguin, 1997), 130.
183. Roth, Law Collections, 236.
184. Regarding how this legislation applies today, see Gane, Leviticus, Numbers, 325–30.
185. H. Hoffner, “Incest, Sodomy and Bestiality in the Ancient Near East,” in Orient and Occident, ed. H. Hoffner (AOAT 22; Kevelaer/Neukirchen-Vluyn: Butzon and Bercker/Neukirchener, 1973), 81–90.
186. COS, 1.120:425.
187. Roth, Law Collections, 160.
188. COS, 2.12:60 n. 8.
189. Ibid., 1.86:261–62.
190. See, e.g., Dragons, Monsters and Fabulous Beasts, ed. J. G. Westenholz (Jerusalem: Bible Lands Museum, 2004).
191. COS, 2.19:118. Although copulating with a horse or mule is a sin and prevents a man from approaching the king or ever becoming a priest, it is not a punishable offense (ibid., 118–19).
192. Ibid., 1.47:120.
193. Ibid., 1.162:526–31; Heimpel, “Nanshe Hymn,” 65–139; Jacobsen, Harps That Once . . ., 125–42; cf. comment on Lev. 16:29.
194. See, e.g., COS, 1.35:65; A. Berlejung, “Washing the Mouth: The Consecration of Divine Images in Mesopotamia,” in The Image and the Book: Iconic Cults, Aniconism, and the Rise of Book Religion in Israel and the Ancient Near East, ed. K. van der Toorn (Leuven: Peeters, 1997), 45–72; E. M. Curtis, “Images in Mesopotamia and the Bible: A Comparative Study,” in The Bible in the Light of Cuneiform Literature—Scripture in Context III, ed. W. W. Hallo, B. W. Jones, and G. L. Mattingly (Ancient Near Eastern Texts and Studies; Lewiston, N.Y.: Mellen, 1990), 31–56; M. B. Dick, ed., Born in Heaven, Made on Earth: The Making of the Cult Image in the Ancient Near East (Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 1999); W. W. Hallo, “Cult Statue and Divine Image: A Preliminary Study,” in Scripture in Context II: More Essays on the Comparative Method, ed. W. W. Hallo, J. C. Moyer, and L. G. Perdue (Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 1983), 1–17; V. Hurowitz, “Picturing Imageless Deities: Iconography in the Ancient Near East,” BAR 23/3 (1997): 1997, 51, 68; J. J. M. Roberts, “Divine Freedom and Cultic Manipulation in Israel and Mesopotamia,” in Unity and Diversity: Essays in the History, Literature, and Religion of the Ancient Near East, ed. H. Goedicke and J. J. M. Roberts (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 1975), 181–90; J. M. Sasson, “On the Use of Images in Israel and the Ancient Near East: A Response to Karel van der Toorn,” in Sacred Time, Sacred Place: Archaeology and the Religion of Israel, ed. B. M. Gittlen (Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 2002), 63–70.
195. COS, 2.17B:96; cf. 2.17C:99.
196. See the eloquent Egyptian Instruction of Amenemope, which exhibits a number of similarities to biblical law and wisdom teachings (ibid., 1.47: 116, 118, 119, 120, 121; cf. 1.35:62, 65).
197. Ibid., 2.152:408; cf. 2.153:409 (Ur-Namma); 2.154:411 (Lipit-Ishtar); 2.131:351 (Hammurabi); 1.162:526, 530 (Nanshe Hymn).
198. See, e.g., ibid., 1.117:418 and 1.165:534.
199. Ibid., 1.162:526.
200. Ibid., 1.47:118.
201. Ibid., 2.36:156.
202. C. Zaccagnini, “Nuzi,” in HANEL, 1:614.
203. COS, 2.132:355.
204. Ibid., 2.18:102–3.
205. Ibid., 2.128:330.
206. J. Black and A. Green, Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia: An Illustrated Dictionary (Austin: Univ. of Texas Press, 1992), esp. 64–65.
207. Milgrom, Leviticus 17–22, 1658–65.
208. Levine, Leviticus, 130; Milgrom, Leviticus 17–22, 1671. For alternative interpretations of key terminology in this law, see Frymer-Kenski, “Israel,” 1034.
209. COS, 2.153:409–10 and 2.130:334.
210. J. Milgrom, Leviticus 23–27, 1926.
211. J. Grintz, “Do Not Eat on the Blood,” ASTI 8 (1972): 1972. Regarding eating on the blood in the narrative of 1 Sam. 14:31–34, see Z. Zevit, The Religions of Ancient Israel: A Synthesis of Parallactic Approaches (London: Continuum, 2001), 280–85.
212. Ibid., 1.86:267–68.
213. Ibid., 2.12:60.
214. Ibid., 2.131:342.
215. Ibid., 1.47:119; cf. 120.
216. Cf. 1 Kings 11:5; 2 Kings 16:3, etc. Regarding Molech and his cult, see further J. Day, Molech: A God of Human Sacrifice in the Old Testament (UCOP 41; Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1989); G. Heider, The Cult of Molek: A Reassessment (JSOTSup; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1985); Selman, “Sacrifice,” 100.
217. COS, 2.19:119; cf. punishments in the Middle Assyrian Laws for a man who sees a veiled prostitute and fails to apprehend her: ibid., 2.132:357–58.
218. L. Stager and S. Wolff, “Child Sacrifice at Carthage—Religious Rite or Population Control?” BAR 10/1 (1984): 1984. Child sacrifice “was also practiced in Syria and Mesopotamia during the Assyrian period (eighth and seventh centuries B.C.)” (IVPBBCOT, 132–33). See further in A. Green, The Role of Human Sacrifice in the Ancient Near East (ASORDS; Missoula, Mont.: Scholars Press, 1975).
219. On Jephthah’s sacrifice of his daughter (Judg. 11), see R. Gane, God’s Faulty Heroes (Hagerstown, Md.: Review and Herald, 1996), 91–95.
220. M. Greenberg, “Some Postulates of Biblical Criminal Law,” in Yehezkel Kaufmann Jubilee Volume, ed. M. Haran (Jerusalem: Magnes, 1960), 12–13; A. Phillips, “Another Look at Adultery,” JSOT 20 (1981): 1981.
221. Excluding incest, homosexuality, bestiality, and cases in which offenses are not apprehended by human beings or require divine aid to resolve suspicion (e.g., Num. 5:11–31).
222. Cf. Greenberg, “Some Postulates,” 12; J. J. Finkelstein, “Sex Offenses in Sumerian Laws,” JAOS 86 (1966): 355–72; see also COS, 2.19:118 (Hittite Laws).
223. For translations, see COS, 2.130—32:332–60; 2.153:408–10; ANET, 159–88; Roth, Law Collections, 13–35, 57–142, 153–94. Preserved sections of the Neo-Babylonian Laws and the Laws of Lipit-Ishtar do not include legislation relevant to this topic. R. Westbrook gives the dates (all B.C.) of the Mesopotamian law collections as follows: Ur-Namma—c. 2100; Lipit-Ishtar—c. 1900; Eshnunna—c. 1770; Hammurabi—c. 1750; Middle Assyrian—fourteenth century; Neo-Babylonian—seventh century (R. Westbrook, “The Character of Ancient Near Eastern Law,” in A History of Ancient Near Eastern Law, 1:8–9).
224. Compare Roth, Law Collections, 237 (Hittite Laws—sixteenth to twelfth centuries)—“If the woman’s husband discovers them in the act, he may kill them without committing a crime”; see also a Sumerian “model court case,” belonging to the scribal school curriculum, which describes the remarkable trial of an adulteress whose husband caught her in the act (COS, 3.140:311).
225. Westbrook, “The Character of Ancient Near Eastern Law,” 80.
226. For the harsh penalty of burning inflicted on a woman with special cultic status, see also COS, 2.131:342 (Laws of Hammurabi). In this case the crime is opening a tavern or entering a tavern for some beer.
227. Ibid., 1.109:384–89.
228. See, e.g., the Hittite king Tudḫaliya IV, who spoke of his father, Ḫattušili III: “But when my father at that time became a god (i.e., died)” (ibid., 2.18:103); cf. a Phoenician funerary inscription at ibid., 2.58:184.
229. Ibid., 1.26:41, 42.
230. H. Hoffner, “Hittite-Israelite Cultural Parallels,” in ibid., 3:xxxiii.
231. Ibid., 1.83:217. Compare Egyptian preparations to say a spell: ibid., 2.12:63.
232. Ibid., 2.155:419; cf. 427.
233. Regarding animal defects, compare an Ugaritic text that derives omens from misformed births of sheep and goats: ibid., 1.90:287–89.
234. Ibid., 1.83:218.
235. Ibid., 1.95:299–301 and 3.34:63–64. For detailed discussions of the sacred times in Lev. 23 and Num. 28–29, see Milgrom, Leviticus 23–27, 1950–2080; J. Milgrom, Numbers (JPS Torah Commentary; Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1990), 237–49, 486–88; Gane, Leviticus, Numbers, 387–414, 749–59.
236. Gane, “Schedules for Deities,” 243–44.
237. COS, 1.123:434. For a comprehensive survey of ancient Near Eastern festivals, see Cohen, Cultic Calendars.
238. G. Beckman, “The Religion of the Hittites,” BA 52 (1989): 1989; V. Ardzinba, “On the Structure and the Functions of Hittite Festivals,” in Gesellschaft und Kultur im alten Vorderasien, ed. H. Klengel (Berlin: Akademie, 1982), 16.
239. Van der Toorn, “Form and Function,” 3; cf. COS, 1.111:399–402 (Enuma Elish epic).
240. Ibid., 1.95:299; cf. ibid., 2.31:150, referring to sacrifices at the time of plowing and at the time of reaping (Phoenician). For a brief summary of the agricultural cycle in the land of Israel, see the Gezer Calendar (ibid., 2.85:222).
241. Cohen, Cultic Calendars, 6–7; van der Toorn, “Form and Function,” 1–2; m. Roš Haš. 1:1.
242. Gane, Cult and Character, ch. 14; cf. M. Weinfeld, “Social and Cultic Institutions in the Priestly Source against Their Ancient Near Eastern Background,” Proceedings of the Eighth World Congress of Jewish Studies; Panel Sessions: Bible Studies and Hebrew Language (Jerusalem: World Union of Jewish Studies/Perry Foundation for Biblical Research, 1983), 116–17; Cohen, Cultic Calendars, 447–48.
243. H. Steible, Die Altsumerischen Bau- und Weihinschriften (Wiesbaden: Steiner, 1982), 1:304–5. Note that an older reading for the name of this king is Urukagina.
244. Laying out loaves of bread in multiples of twelve also played a role in Babylonian ritual (H. Zimmern, Beiträge zur Kenntnis der babylonischen Religion [Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1901], 94–95). For twelve loaves, see also part of the ritual for installing a high priestess at Emar: COS, 1.122:428.
245. Gane, “‘Bread of the Presence,’” 179–203.
246. Ibid., 199–200.
247. COS, 2.86:223.
248. Ibid., 1.26:42.
249. CAD, 9:211; cf. 17:445. Compare a negative confession in the Egyptian Book of the Dead: “I have not reviled a god . . . I have not cursed a god” (COS, 2.12:62).
250. A. Catagnoti, “Ebla,” HANEL, 1:236.
251. COS, 2.128:330.
252. Ibid., 2.36:158.
253. Ibid., 2.153:409.
254. Ibid., 2.19:107, 110.
255. Ibid., 2.130:334 and 2.131:348.
256. Ibid., 1.76:198; see also 2.132:354.
257. Greenberg, “Some Postulates of Biblical Criminal Law,” 13–20; idem, “More Reflections on Biblical Criminal Law,” in Studies in Bible, ed. S. Japhet (ScrHier; Jerusalem: Magnes, 1986), 1–17; Gane, Leviticus, Numbers, 799–806.
258. COS, 2.131:349–350.
259. Ibid., 2.19:113.
260. Ibid., 2.131:343, 348–49.
261. Paul, Studies in the Book of the Covenant, 76; cf. A. S. Diamond, “An Eye for an Eye,” Iraq 19 (1957): 1957.
262. CAD, 1/2:115–17.
263. Westbrook, “The Character of Ancient Near Eastern Law,” 16. For analysis of and comparisons between proclamations of freedom, mainly in Mesopotamia, but also in Syria, Anatolia, and Israel, see M. Weinfeld, Social Justice in Ancient Israel and in the Ancient Near East (Jerusalem/Minneapolis: Magnes/Fortress, 1995), 75–96.
264. For example, COS, 2.134:362 (Ammi-saduqa; 1646–1626 B.C.); J. J. Finkelstein, “Ammisaduqa’s Edict and the Babylonian ‘Law Codes,’” JCS 15 (1961): 1961; R. Westbrook, Property and the Family in Biblical Law (JSOTSup; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1991), 44–50.
265. J. Lewy, “The Biblical Institution of derôr in the Light of Akkadian Documents,” ErIsr 5 (1958): 1958.
266. COS, 2.134:363–64 and 3.100:250; W. W. Hallo, “Slave Release in the Biblical World in Light of a New Text,” in Solving Riddles and Untying Knots: Biblical, Epigraphic, and Semitic Studies in Honor of Jonas C. Greenfield, ed. Z. Zevit, S. Gitin, and M. Sokoloff (Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 1995), 79–93.
267. COS, 3.108:257; see also 3.103:254 and 3.105:255. Compare Roth, Law Collections, 88: “the field, orchard, or house of a soldier, a fisherman, or a state tenant will not be sold” (Laws of Hammurabi).
268. COS, 1.35:64. Regarding prosperity through individual land ownership in modern Tonga and South Korea, see Milgrom, Leviticus 23–27, 2248, 2271.
269. See G. Chirichigno, Debt-Slavery in Israel and the Ancient Near East (JSOTSup; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1993), 36–49; Urbanization and Land Ownership in the Ancient Near East, ed. M. Hudson and B. Levine (Institute for the Study of Long-term Economic Trends; Cambridge, Mass.: Peabody Museum, Harvard Univ., 1999).
270. On aspects of debt in the ancient Near East, including use of loans, credit, interest, and pledges, as well as debt remission, see Debt and Economic Renewal in the Ancient Near East, ed. M. Hudson and M. van de Mieroop (Institute for the Study of Long-term Economic Trends; Bethesda, Md.: CDL, 2002).
271. See, e.g., ibid., 3.6:21 (Egypt). On various ways to become a slave in Mesopotamia and Syria, see B. Lafont and R. Westbrook, “Neo-Sumerian Period (Ur III),” HANEL, 1:199; R. Westbrook, “Old Babylonian Period,” ibid., 1:381–82; R. Westbrook, “Emar and Vicinity,” ibid., 1:664–65.
272. I. Mendelsohn, Legal Aspects of Slavery in Babylonia, Assyria and Palestine (Williamsport, Pa.: Bayard, 1932), 14; see also Chirichigno, Debt-Slavery, 67–72.
273. COS, 2.131:343.
274. R. Gane, “The Laws of the Seventh and Fiftieth Years,” JAGNES 1 (1990): 1990; Chirichigno, Debt-Slavery, 328–43. Chirichigno argues that the insolvent Israelite in Lev. 25 is probably not paying off a prior debt, in which case he is not really a debt-slave.
275. Roth, Law Collections, 65.
276. COS, 3.134B:301; cf., 3.134A:301.
277. Ibid., 3.136B:303 and 3.69:169; cf. 2.131:341.
278. Ibid., 2.131:339, 341–42.
279. G. DeFord, “Desert Shrines Dedicated to Imageless Gods,” BAR 23/3 (1997): 1997; cf. Hurowitz, “Picturing Imageless Deities,” 48, 51, 68; T. Mettinger, No Graven Image? Israelite Aniconism in its Ancient Near Eastern Context (ConBOT; Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell, 1995), 33, 169–73. For more information on standing stones (also referred to by modern scholars as “stela,” plural of “stele”), some plain and some decorated, which have been found by archaeologists at cult places of various periods in the territory of Israel and its neighbors, see Zevit, The Religions of Ancient Israel, 151–52, 166–67, 178, 191–96, 205, 217–18, 253, and esp. 256–62.
280. Ibid., 257.
281. V. Hurowitz, “Wish Upon a Stone: Discovering the Idolatry of the Even Maskit,” BRev (October 1999): 1999.
282. COS, 2.131:351–53 (Hammurabi); 2.154:413–14 (Lipit-Ishtar).
283. G. Mendenhall, “Covenant Forms in Israelite Tradition,” BARead 3 (1961): 1961.
284. See, e.g., G. Beckman, “International Law in the Second Millennium: Late Bronze Age,” HANEL, 1:760. For a convenient summary, with explanation of components and differences between treaties (such as use of historical prologues in earlier Hittite treaties and more lopsided emphasis on curses in Syria and Assyria), see Walton, Ancient Israelite Literature, 101–5. For more detail regarding the structure and second millennium B.C. dating of the biblical covenant formulations, by comparison with ancient Near Eastern treaties, see K. Kitchen, On the Reliability of the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003), 284–94.
285. J. W. Watts, Reading Law: The Rhetorical Shaping of the Pentateuch (BibSem; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1999), 54–55.
286. COS, 1.25:38.
287. Ibid., 2.35:155.
288. Ibid., 2.23:137–38; cf. Deut. 32:30, Josh. 23:10.
289. Ibid., 2.17B:98.
290. Ibid., 2.23:137.
291. Ibid., 1.44:105.
292. Ibid., 2.34:154. For the idea that an offended deity rejects human attempts to interact, cf., e.g., Ps. 66:18; Isa. 1.
293. S. Parpola and K. Watanabe, eds., Neo-Assyrian Treaties and Loyalty Oaths (Helsinki: Helsinki Univ. Press, 1988), 51.
294. COS, 1.60:157.
295. Roth, Law Collections, 140.
296. K. L. Younger, “The ‘Contextual Method’: Some West Semitic Reflections,” COS, 3:xxxvii–xxxix.
297. For example, Parpola and Watanabe, eds., Neo-Assyrian Treaties, 46, 52–53.
298. COS, 2.23:137 and 2.135:366.
299. Ibid., 2.142:395; cf. 2.143:395 and 2.125:317.
300. Ibid., 3.36:67. Regarding vows as conditional promises to deities, see T. W. Cartledge, Vows in the Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East (JSOTSup; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1992).
301. COS, 2.125:317.
302. Ibid., 1.102:336.
303. G. Wenham, “Leviticus 27:2–8 and the Price of Slaves,” ZAW 90 (1978): 264–65; idem, Leviticus (NICOT; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1979), 338; cf. I. Mendelsohn, Slavery in the Ancient Near East (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1949), 117–19. Joseph’s brothers sold him for twenty shekels of silver (Gen. 37:28), which is the valuation of a five- to twenty-year-old male in Lev. 27:5.
304. COS, 1.83:221.
Sidebar and Chart Notes
A-1. COS, 1.102:335.
A-2. O. Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel (Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 1987), 90; M. Silver, Prophets and Markets: The Political Economy of Ancient Israel (Boston: Kluwer-Nijhoff, 1983), 92.
A-3. S. A. Reed, “Bread,” ABD, 1:777–80; F. F. Leek, “Teeth and Bread in Ancient Egypt,” JEA 58 (1972): plates 29–30, 32; W. J. Darby, P. Ghalioungui, and L. Grivetti, Food: The Gift of Osiris (London: Academic Press, 1977), 2:501–28.
A-4. Cf. 1 Kings 8:65; G. A. Klingbeil, “Ritual Time in Leviticus 8 with Special Reference to the Seven Day Period in the Old Testament,” ZAW 109 (1997): 500–513; COS, 2.155:432 note 74, regarding numerous multiples of seven in connection with the building and dedicating of temples; E. Kingsbury, “A Seven Day Ritual in the Old Babylonian Cult at Larsa,” HUCA 34 (1963): 1963.
A-5. COS, 1.122:427–31; see also D. E. Fleming, The Installation of Baal’s High Priestess at Emar: A Window on Ancient Syrian Religion (HSS 42; Atlanta: Scholars, 1992). For extensive comparison with the consecration of Israelite priests, see G. A. Klingbeil, A Comparative Study of the Ritual of Ordination as Found in Leviticus 8 and Emar 369 (Lewiston, N.Y.: Mellen, 1998).
A-6. COS, 1.34:55.
A-7. Walton, Matthews, and Chavalas, IVP Bible Background Commentary, 131; Lambert, “Donations of Food and Drink,” 193.
A-8. COS, 1.128:445.
A-9. When Gudea sought an oracle through a dream, he burned juniper, and “cedar resin, being the fragrance of the god, gave off its incense” (COS, 2.155:422; cf. 425).
A-10. K. Nielsen, “Incense,” ABD, 3:404–9; see also idem, Incense in Ancient Israel (VTSup 38; Leiden: Brill, 1986).
A-11. Milgrom, Leviticus 17–22, 1686–89; see also A. K. Guinan, “A Severed Head Laughed: Stories of Divinatory Interpretation,” in Magic and Divination in the Ancient World, ed. L. Ciraolo and J. Seidel (Ancient Magic and Divination; Leiden: Brill/Styx, 2002), 18: “magic acts to affect a result directly or to influence events while divination produces signs—a text to be read.” On magic in Mesopotamia, see Mesopotamian Magic: Textual, Historical, and Interpretative Perspectives, ed. T. Abusch and K. van der Toorn (Ancient Magic and Divination; Groningen: Styx, 1999).
A-12. In 1 Sam. 28:7, the Hebrew words translated “medium” refer to the owner of a ritual hole in the ground, through which to communicate with the underworld (see comment on Lev. 1:5).
A-13. E. Leichty explains: “In Mesopotamia, ritual, propitiation of the gods, religion, and divination were all hopelessly intertwined. It would appear that whenever a victim was ritually slaughtered the exta were read to ascertain the omens which the gods had ‘written’ on them” (“Ritual, ‘Sacrifice,’ and Divination in Mesopotamia,” 237). On cognitive and psychological processes behind omens, which people can construct by turning events into signs to overcome fear of the unknown, see Guinan, “A Severed Head Laughed,” 7–40.
A-14. For example, Egyptian magical curses (execrations) by smashing pottery bowls or figurines inscribed with names of their enemies (COS 1.32:50–52; ANET, 328–29). Compare Balaam’s attempts to magically curse Israel (Num. 22–23).
A-15. COS, 1.76:198; 2.19:114, 119; 2.131:337; 2.132:359; 3.9:30–31.
A-16. Gane, Ritual Dynamic Structure, 204–5, following the interpretation of F. Thureau-Dangin, according to which the twelve usual/regular offerings are understood to be loaves of bread rather than meats, which are specified in the previous line (Rituels Accadiens [Paris: Ernest Leroux, 1921], 142); cf. Cohen, Cultic Calendars, 446—“twelve regular offerings.”