In connection with the question as to what divinity was worshipped at Jerusalem, the tablet known as B. 105 is of importance. Line 14 of the letter in question reads: “The city of the land of Jerusalem, its name is Bît-Ninip, the city of the king, is lost—(it is) a place of the men of Kelti.” What was this “city of the king,” or “royal city”? The general opinion at first was, that the place meant was Jerusalem itself, for that must have been from the earliest times “a royal city” par excellence. Winckler, however, translates “A city of the land of Jerusalem,” which certainly seems a reasonable rendering. Properly speaking, however, the idiomatic Semitic Babylonian expression for “a city” would be išten âlu, “one city.” Though Winckler's rendering is a perfectly reasonable one, therefore, the first translation is not excluded, and in any case there remains the clear statement that a city of the territory of Jerusalem—that is to say a city which owned the sway of her kings—possessed, as its patron-deity, the god whom the Babylonians and Assyrians called Ninip, and worshipped under many names. Among these may be mentioned Madanunu, explained as “the proclaimed (?), the renowned, the high”; En-banda, probably meaning [pg 236] “the distinguished lord,” a name which he bore as “Ninip, he who takes the decision of the gods.” Another of his names was Ḫalḫalla, “Ninip, protector of the decision, father of Bêl”; and, more interesting still, he was called Me-maḫa (“supreme word”), as “Ninip, guardian of the supreme commands.” The Assyrians worshipped him both under the name of Ninip and Apil-Êšarra, “son of the house (temple) of the host.” It is this deity whose name occurs in the Assyrian royal names Tukulti-Ninip and Tukulti-âpil-Ê-šarra, or Tiglath-pileser.
On these points, as on many others, we must wait for more light from the East.
In the matter of Sarai, Abraham's wife, giving her handmaid Hagar to Abraham as a second or inferior wife, because she had no children herself, it is not improbable that we have a record of what was a common custom at the time. On p. [174] ff. translations of Babylonian tablets are given, which seem to have some analogies with what is stated in the Biblical narrative. In these inscriptions, however, the woman of inferior position, though she is expected to be the servant of the other, is raised, to all appearance, into a higher position, and described as the sister of the first wife, apparently by adoption, this supposition being based on the statement that Iltani was daughter of Sin-âbu-šu, though both Iltani and Taram-sagila were taken in marriage from Uttatum, their father. Apparently there was to be no difference in the status of the children of either of them, and it was apparently on account of the hope that Hagar's son would be as her own, that the patriarch's wife acted as she did.
With regard to the contract at Machpelah, that is, as has already been noticed more than once, evidently a legal document, or at least an abstract of such a document, and bears some likeness to the ancient contracts of Assyria and Babylonia, though the latter are generally composed in much shorter form, and [pg 237] with different phraseology. The descriptions of landed property given on pp. [167], [178] ff., and also such sales of land as the following give material for comparing the document in question—
“¼ of a gan, a field by the crossing, in the upper district of Tenu, beside (the property of) Qaranu the son of the palace, and beside (the property of) Ili-midi, its first end the road Aštaba(tum ?), its second end the property of the enclosure Tenunam, Il-šu-banî has bought from Nannara-manšum and Sin-banî, his brother, sons of Sin-âbû-šu, for its complete price. He has paid the money, he has passed the barrier, his transaction is complete—the silver, the price of their field, is complete, they are content. They shall not say ‘We have not received the money’—they have received it before the witnesses. At no future time shall Nannara-manšum and Sin-banî make claim upon the field. They have invoked the spirit of Šamaš, Merodach, and Zabium (the king).
“Claim of his brothers and his sisters [this would be better ‘their brothers and their sisters’], children of Sin-âbû-šu, Nannara-manšum and Sin-banî shall answer for.
“Before Ili-'adiwa, son of Amurru-banî; before Nannara-itti, son of Sin-naṣir; before Sin-rêmeni, son of Išmê-Sin; before Nannara-ki-aga (?), son of Sin-idinnam; before Munawirum; before Sin-bêl-ili; before Sin-ûblam; before Nannara-manšum; before Ubar-Ninip, the scribe, before Sin-êribam.”
In the following text the nature of the trees on the ground sold is specified—
“12 measures, a date-palm plantation, beside the plantation of Rîš-Šamaš, priest of the Sun-god, son of the woman Sâla, its first end (the property of) Girum, Aḫatāni, sun-devotee, daughter of Marum, has bought for its price in silver from Rîš-Šamaš, son of Sâla. She has paid the money, (and) is content—she has passed the barrier. The transaction is ended. At no [pg 238] future time shall they make claim against each other. (They have invoked) the spirit of Šamaš, Merodach, and Ḫammurabi (Amraphel).
“Before Amri-ili-šu, son of Naram-Êa; before Yati-îlu, son of Abil-Sin; before Ibi-Šamaš, before Êtil-šêp-Šamaš (?), sons of Buzia; before Izi-zarê; before Êrib-Sin, son of Sârabi; before Manum, son of Sin-idinnam; before Iṭur-âšdum, son of Ilu-ma-rabi (?); before Ili-âbû-Sin (?); before Êrib-Sin, son of Su-...; before Šamaš-binî-pî-ia; before Dimaḫum; before Rîš-Šamaš; before Ikunia, (son of?) ...-ninibu.”