Commentary Subject: 1 Sam 28:16–18; 2 Sam 3:9–11; 2 Sam 9:7; 1 Kgs 11:12–14; Pss 7:11–13; Pss 65:6–8; Pss 74:12–15; Pss 89:8–10; Isa 27:1; 1 Sam 16:13; Exod 20:1; Exod 23:6; Ps 82:3–4; Isa 56:1; Mic 6:8; 1 Sam 3:10; Judg 1:1–2; Judg 20:1, 23, 28; 1 Sam 28:5–7; 1 Sam 30:8; 1 Kgs 22:5–7; 2 Kgs 3:11–12 This letter was sent by Nur-Sin to Zimri-Lim, the king of Mari. It is not certain what office Nur-Sin held in Zimri-Lim’s administration, but it is clear from his dossier that he was frequently privy to events in the western polity of Yamhad. In this letter, Nur-Sin recounted a message for the king from the āpi…

Subject: Canonical Compositions from the Biblical World; Egyptian Canonical Compositions; Royal Focus; Instructions Commentary The text is preserved in three fragmentary papyri which only partly complement one another. They are Papyrus Leningrad 1116A, dating from the second half of the 18th Dynasty; P. Moscow 4658, from the very end of the 18th Dynasty; and P. Carlsberg 6, from the end of the 18th Dynasty or later. Unfortunately, the most complete manuscript, P. Leningrad, is also the most corrupt. The numer…

Subject: Canonical Compositions from the Biblical World; West Semitic Canonical Compositions; Divine Focus; Ugaritic Myths Commentary The Baʿlu myth constitutes, by its length and relative completeness, the most important literary work preserved from those produced by the West Semitic peoples in the second millennium bce. Before the discovery of this and related lesser works in the third and fourth decades of this century, virtually all our knowledge of West Semitic religious beliefs came from later descriptions emanating from cultures mo…