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The psalms in the Hebrew Bible have often been compared with the religious texts of Mesopotamia, Egypt and Canaan. Roger Tomes shows, in this incisive monograph, how the letters of the ancient Near East, from Mari, Amarna, Ugarit, Nimrud and Nineveh, are an equally rewarding analogue. In them we find suppliants, caught in crisis situations, appealing to their rulers; they use the same arguments to persuade them to act as the psalmists in their appeals to God: protestations of innocence, confession of faults, promises of loyalty, descriptions of plight, appeal to the other's own interests, direct reproaches and quotation of the reproaches of enemies, and expressions of dependence. These are parallels that have much to teach us about the social position of the psalmists and their relationship to the cult.
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‘I HAVE WRITTEN TO THE KING, MY LORD’
Hebrew Bible Monographs, 1 Series Editors David J.A. Clines J. Cheryl Exum Keith W. Whitelam
‘I HAVE WRITTEN TO THE KING, MY LORD’ Secular Analogies for the Psalms
Roger Tomes
SHEFFIELD PHOENIX PRESS 2005
Copyright © 2005 Sheffield Phoenix Press Published by Sheffield Phoenix Press Department of Biblical Studies, University of Sheffield Sheffield S10 2TN www.sheffieldphoenix.com
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system, without the publishers’ permission in writing.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Typeset by Forthcoming Publications Printed on acid-free paper by Antony Rowe, Chippenham, Wiltshire ISBN 1-905048-092
CONTENTS Abbreviations Preface Acknowledgments Chapter 1 COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE PSALMS
vii xi xii 1
Chapter 2 OLD TESTAMENT PRAYERS AND ANCIENT NEAR EASTERN LETTERS
10
Chapter 3 PROTESTATIONS OF LOYALTY AND CONFESSION OF FAULTS
31
Chapter 4 DESCRIPTION OF PLIGHT
44
Chapter 5 APPEAL TO KING’S OR GOD’S OWN INTERESTS
52
Chapter 6 QUOTATION OF ENEMY’S REPROACHES
56
Chapter 7 DIRECT REPROACHES
59
Chapter 8 EXPRESSIONS OF DEPENDENCE
64
Chapter 9 IMPLICATIONS AND LIMITATIONS
96
Appendix THE AMARNA LETTERS AND CANAANITE HYMNS
108
Bibliography Index of References Index of Modern Authors Index of Subjects Index of Names
116 126 137 140 143
1
ABBREVIATIONS ABL
R.F. Harper, Assyrian and Babylonian Letters (14 vols.; London: British Museum; Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1892– 1914) AEM Archives Épistolaires de Mari (Archives royales de Mari, XXVI; Paris: Editions Recherche sur les Civilisations, 1988) AfO Archiv für Orientforschung AJSL American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures AnBib Analecta biblica ANET James B. Pritchard (ed.), Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1950) AOAT Alter Orient und Altes Testament AOTS D. Winton Thomas, Archaeology and Old Testament Study (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1967) ARAB D.D. Luckenbill, Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia (2 vols.; Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1926–27) ARE J.H. Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt (5 vols.; Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1906–1907) ARM Archives royales de Mari ARW Archiv für Religionswissenschaft BA Biblical Archaeologist BASOR Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research Before the Muses B.R. Foster, Before the Muses: An Anthology of Akkadian Literature (2 vols.; Bethesda, MD: CDL Press, 2nd edn, 1996) BM Egyptian Holdings in the British Museum BZAW Beihefte zur ZAW CAD Ignace I. Gelb et al. (eds.), The