{"id":41,"date":"2021-03-29T18:28:03","date_gmt":"2021-03-29T18:28:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/mightyinbattle\/?post_type=chapter&p=41"},"modified":"2021-08-16T16:48:36","modified_gmt":"2021-08-16T16:48:36","slug":"3the-royal-battle-in-ane","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/mightyinbattle\/chapter\/3the-royal-battle-in-ane\/","title":{"raw":"3. The Royal Battle Narrative in the Ancient Near East","rendered":"3. The Royal Battle Narrative in the Ancient Near East"},"content":{"raw":"As seen in the last chapter, characters and themes shape and reshape the battle narrative, and this chapter considers a standard variation, the royal battle narrative. Here the roles of hero and leader are combined on both the human and divine levels. On the human level, the king takes the roles of both hero and leader; as such, he does not need to turn to any other human character for a commission. The official approbation and command to undertake the fight comes from the king\u2019s deity, who plays the role of the divine leader and also may fight as the divine hero. The fusion of the roles of hero and leader on both the human and divine levels identifies the king with the deity. The identification is not gratuitous but rather the point of the story.\r\n\r\nIn his famous work, Holy War in Ancient Israel<\/em>, Gerhard von Rad considered \u201choly war\u201d only as an Israelite institution without reference to the larger ANE context.[1]<\/a> However, Manfred\u00a0Weippert has shown that the literatures of Israel and Assyria reflect the same practices and ideologies of war.[2]<\/a> Instead of practices and ideology, I shall be dealing with motifs and patterns used in storytelling. Again we are faced with the differences between a historical and a literary approach. The two are not contradictory; rather, they should complement one another.\r\n\r\nWeippert confines his study to Assyria, but I wish to extend the boundaries both in time and space. Much of this material can be characterized as \u201croyal battle reports,\u201d for little or no attention is paid to the development of narrative tension or to the retardation of the story. The enemy\u2019s threat quickly gives way to the announcement of the king\u2019s victory. The bulk of the report is concerned most often with the extent of the destruction, the plunder taken, and the tribute offered by defeated or neighboring kings. As such, the battle report emphasizes the magnitude of the victory and the recognition paid to the king.[3]<\/a>\r\n\r\nIn his meticulous study, K. Lawson Younger, Jr. has analyzed these conquest accounts of the ancient Near East and used the information as a lens to view Joshua 9-12. For this, he generated a set of motifs corresponding to those developed in the previous chapter,[4]<\/a> and he uses these \u201csyntagms\u201d to analyze in great detail the Assyrian, Hittite, and Egyptian \u201cconquest accounts,\u201d and further refines these basic categories both in terms of actions and vocabulary. In the end, Younger uses his analysis to show that Josh 9-12 belongs to a literary genre and must be appreciated as such. His remarks are aimed mainly at historical critics who do not recognize \u201cthe figurative nature\u201d or \u201cthe use of hyperbole in the narrative.\u201d Therefore, \u201conce one admits this element into the interpretive process, there is no reason to maintain that the account in Josh 9-12 portrays a complete<\/em> conquest.\u201d[5]<\/a>\r\n

<\/a>3.1. The Literary Texts of Royal Battle Narratives<\/h3>\r\nThe royal battle narrative, as defined here, exploits the traditional possibilities for tension and retardation to tell a story and not merely to report the king\u2019s greatness. Even so, these texts vary in literary quality. Not all are of great length, and some are very fragmentary, yet all are more than a battle report.\r\n
    \r\n \t
  1. The Sargon King of Battle Epic,<\/em> found in an Old Babylonian version and a Tel el-Amarna version.[6]<\/a><\/li>\r\n \t
  2. The Cuthean Legend of Naram-Sin.[7]<\/a><\/li>\r\n \t
  3. The \u201cApology of \u1e2aattu\u0161ili.\u201d[8]<\/a><\/li>\r\n \t
  4. Pharaoh Ramesses II\u2019s \u201cLiterary Record\u201d of the Battle of Kadesh.[9]<\/a><\/li>\r\n \t
  5. Pharaoh Merneptah\u2019s defeat of the Libyans in the Great Karnak Inscription.[10]<\/a><\/li>\r\n \t
  6. Kurigalzu<\/em>: King Kurigalzu\u2019s two battles with the King of Elam.[11]<\/a><\/li>\r\n \t
  7. Ashur-uballi\u1e6d:<\/em> King Ashur-uballi\u1e6d\u2019s fight with the Kassites.[12]<\/a><\/li>\r\n \t
  8. Adad-narari Epic<\/em>: The triumph of King Adad-narari I over the Nazi-Maruttash, the Kassite king of Babylon.[13]<\/a><\/li>\r\n \t
  9. Tukulti-Ninurta Epic<\/em>: the battles of King Tukulti-Ninurta I against Kashtiliash.[14]<\/a><\/li>\r\n \t
  10. Shalmaneser in Ararat<\/em>: The campaign of King Shalmaneser III against Urartu.[15]<\/a><\/li>\r\n \t
  11. Esarhaddon<\/em>: King Esarhaddon\u2019s fight for the throne.[16]<\/a><\/li>\r\n \t
  12. The Moabite Stone: King Mesha\u2019s victory over the \u201cson of Omri.\u201d[17]<\/a><\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n

    <\/a>3.2. Characters<\/h3>\r\nWhereas the hero and helpless leader take the major roles in the heroic pattern, the king and his deity are central in the royal pattern. Their relationship is that of hero and leader, yet the king is also the human leader, and the deity may take the role of divine hero; neither is helpless.\r\n\r\nIn his study of Divine War in the Old Testament and the Ancient Near East,<\/em> Sa-Moon Kang shows the deity act as \u201ca warrior who fights against the enemy.\u201d Therefore the war is understood \u201cas originating from divine command,\u201d and the core of these divine wars \u201cis the divine intervention in battle by miracles of natural phenomena such as flood or rain-storms, or historical events of revolt amongst the enemies, or as the terror of the divine warriors themselves.\u201d Since the divine warrior is the true victor, the spoils of battle belong to him or her, and the king erects steles or monuments or builds temples to commemorate the victory of the divine warriors.\u201d[18]<\/a> The literary texts considered here certainly carry out these themes and exalt the human king, except for the Cuthean Legend of Naram-Sin. \u201cInitially, he is depicted as a self-willed individual, putting himself above the gods. Since Naram-Sin defies the will of the gods, he must be punished. He must realize and acknowledge his tragic error before he can receive assistance from the gods.\u201d[19]<\/a>\r\n\r\nHelpless characters make only an occasional appearance when the king, for some reason, is absent from the scene of the enemy threat. The other central character, the royal army, forms an extension of the king but has little personality otherwise. Counselors and religious personnel may play minor roles to carry out their functions.\r\n\r\nCharacters on the enemy side generally include only the enemy king and army who play their traditional roles as the representatives of chaos and destruction.\r\n\r\nIn the Tukulti-Ninurta Epic<\/em>, an elaborate exchange of letters creates a larger and more mimetic sense of the enemy king, Kashtiliash. With the ring of history, Tukulti-Ninurta reminds the enemy king of the long history of their relationship and accuses him of violating their treaty, perhaps, as Foster notes, with the possibility of reconciliation. Kashtiliash, however, replies with insults and refuses to let the Assyrian messengers return. Tukulti-Ninurta sends further indictments and calls upon the deity Shamash to vindicate him for keeping the treaty. Filled with fear at the impending trial by battle, Kashtiliash \u201coffers a soliloquy on his impending doom.\u201d[20]<\/a> Despite the realism, Kashtiliash plays the traditional role of the enemy king.\r\n

    <\/a>3.3. The Beginning: Description of the King, Threat and Helplessness<\/h3>\r\n

    <\/a>3.3.1. Description of the king<\/h4>\r\nSince the royal battle narrative serves to exalt the king, the story may open with a description of the hero. The only impediment which might keep a king from immediately resolving the enemy threat is his absence from the scene.[21]<\/a> Otherwise, the king appears as the complete hero.\r\n

    <\/a>3.3.2. Enemy\u2019s threat and power<\/h4>\r\nIn the Legend of Naram Sin<\/em> (lines 31-62), a monstrous enemy arrives to wreak great devastation. The threat, created both by the enemy\u2019s proximity and their terrible power, is also found in the Battle of Kadesh;<\/em> there, the Hittite troops arrayed before the Egyptians are said to be like the sands of the sea (P 66). In general, however, the enemy\u2019s strength is attenuated in these royal stories. This shift may well reflect the actual historical facts behind these narratives, but it also reflects a movement away from elements that would denigrate the magnificence of the king, the most powerful figure in the story. Still, something of the initial tension is lost in the exchange.\r\n\r\nThe enemy\u2019s threat divides into four different types of wars, which account for variations in the opening of the story:\r\n
      \r\n \t
    1. wars against outside aggressors who usually attack some outpost of the kingdom;<\/li>\r\n \t
    2. wars against rebels within the kingdom;[22]<\/a><\/li>\r\n \t
    3. wars of redress, i.e., wars waged to redress past atrocities by the enemy before the king\u2019s accession;[23]<\/a><\/li>\r\n \t
    4. wars of conquest.[24]<\/a><\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\nThe first two types are similar to the threat posed by the enemy in the heroic pattern. The wars of redress begin with a history of the suffering and defeat endured in the past at the enemy's hands. Kings wage wars of conquest to expand the kingdom in the name of their deity, and so the pattern begins with a scene of commission and preparation.\r\n

      <\/a>3.3.3. Reaction of helplessness<\/h4>\r\nIn the heroic battle narrative, the leader is the central character in the reaction of helplessness, but the motif is inappropriate for the kings because they are the battle heroes and the human leaders. Therefore, where the reaction of helplessness appears, the king must be absent from the scene of conflict.[25]<\/a> Furthermore, since the narrative is told from the king\u2019s point of view, often in the first person, the reaction of helplessness, where it appears, is not developed with the vigor seen in the heroic battle narratives. It may only be implicit in the need to call for the king.\r\n

      <\/a>3.4. The Middle: Call and Commission with the Preparation for Battle.<\/h3>\r\n

      <\/a>3.4.1. Call and commission of the king by the helpless<\/h4>\r\nSince the king is hero by virtue of his kingship, the search for a hero becomes inappropriate, and likewise, there are no false heroes.[26]<\/a> Where helpless inhabitants appear, a messenger must bring their call for help to the king, as in the case of a vassal besieged by an enemy.[27]<\/a>\r\n

      <\/a>3.4.2. King\u2019s reaction of righteous indignation<\/h4>\r\nAs seen in the previous chapter, the hero\u2019s stock response to the news of the enemy\u2019s threat is righteous indignation, and both Merneptah and Esarhaddon display their anger at the report of the enemy\u2019s villainy.[28]<\/a>\r\n

      <\/a>3.4.3. Divine call and commission of the king<\/h4>\r\nKingship brings a duty to wage war. Technically speaking, the king\u2019s primary call and commission come with his accession to the throne, and Merneptah\u2019s accession is incorporated into the battle narrative.[29]<\/a> As a result, the call motif does not have the prominence found in the heroic pattern. Still, a divine commission for each battle is a regular feature.\r\n\r\nThe patterns for the call and commission confirm almost exclusively to the first two patterns found in the heroic narratives:\r\n
        \r\n \t
      1. The divine leader (calls and) commissions the king, and the king accepts.[30]<\/a><\/li>\r\n \t
      2. The king calls for the divine commission, and the divine leader grants the divine commission.[31]<\/a><\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\nNormally, this scene contains no objection by either the king or the deity because it serves to underline the unanimity between the human and the divine.[32]<\/a>\r\n\r\nAs Kang says, \u201cThere was a profound conviction that no military action could succeed unless its plan had the prior approval of the gods.\u201d[33]<\/a> The king typically calls for the divine commission in one of four ways:\r\n
          \r\n \t
        1. direct personal prayer,[34]<\/a><\/li>\r\n \t
        2. sacrificia consultoria[35]<\/a><\/li>\r\n \t
        3. sacrifices entreating the favor of the gods,[36]<\/a><\/li>\r\n \t
        4. a vow which promises something in return for victory.[37]<\/a><\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\nThe divine oracle of commission, whether initiated by the god(s) or in answer to the king\u2019s call, is communicated in the following ways:\r\n
            \r\n \t
          1. to the king himself\r\na. by direct address,[38]<\/a>\r\nb. by a dream;[39]<\/a><\/li>\r\n \t
          2. a spontaneous oracle to a third person that is not a cultic person, for example, a person who reports a dream;[40]<\/a><\/li>\r\n \t
          3. an answer to sacrificia consultoria, <\/em>as interpreted by the proper cultic personnel.<\/span>[41]<\/a><\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\nThese three orders represent a descending scale of dramatic intimacy in which direct personal contact is sacrificed more and more to the constrictions of ordinary experience. The sacrifices entreating favor and especially the vows do not envision either a direct or indirect response; likewise, the king\u2019s prayer in some narratives receives no reply, with the assumption that it is affirmative.[42]<\/a>\r\n\r\nThe divine commission may appear without further elaboration, as in the Moabite Stone,<\/em> where the deity Chemosh says to King Mesha: \u201cGo, take Nebo from Israel\u201d (line 14). The assurance of divine presence and aid is added to Amon\u2019s commission of Ramesses II: \u201cStraight on! Forward! I am with thee; I am thy father! My hand is with thee, for I am worth more to thee than hundreds of thousands, and I am the strong lord who loves valor.\u201d[43]<\/a> The commission to Esarhaddon is shorter but similar: \u201cGo (ahead), do not tarry! We will march with you and kill your enemies.\u201d[44]<\/a>\r\n\r\nThe encouragement motif (\u201cDo not fear\u201d) does not fit well with the vision of the king as the great and mighty warrior.[45]<\/a> Merneptah receives the commission both by an oracle from Amun and in a dream by Ptah. In preparation for the battle, he receives the gift of a sword with these words: \u201cThen his majesty saw in a dream, as if a [statue] of Ptah were standing near Pharaoh, l.p.h. He was high [\u2026] He was saying to him: \u201cSeize (it) here! And expel the foul heart from yourself.\u201d[46]<\/a>\r\n\r\nThe text may add the \u201chand-formula,\u201d a formula whereby the divine leader announces that the enemy has been given into the hand of the king.[47]<\/a> The formula is an extension of the assurance of divine presence and aid; with its introduction into a narrative, all pretense of dramatic tension disappears.\r\n\r\nWithin the heroic tradition, the hero receives the divine commission as approval from the ultimate dimension within the hero\u2019s society. While this is a factor in the royal tradition, the divine commission also establishes a primary theme of the story: the identification of the king and deity in both person and action. The deity, particularly the head of the pantheon, is responsible for the protection and defense of the community, as is the king, who is the human manifestation of the divine king.\r\n

            <\/a>3.4.4. Preparation for battle: the arming of the leader and muster of the army<\/h4>\r\nThe Battle of Kadesh<\/em> recounts the arming of the hero with weapons, armor, and chariot for Ramesses\u00a0II.[48]<\/a> The muster of the army is the major motif of preparation in these narratives.[49]<\/a> The king may also call and commission the army and add an exhortation.[50]<\/a> Interestingly in the story of Ashur-uballi\u1e6d, the army delivers a speech and calls on the king to lead them into battle.[51]<\/a>\r\n

            <\/a>3.4.5. Journey<\/h4>\r\nSince the enemy is generally at some distance, the journey continually appears in these narratives, but the motif is not developed except in Shalmaneser in Ararat,<\/em> in which the journey serves as the frame for the battle narrative.\r\n

            <\/a>3.5. The Resolution: Victory, Plunder, and Recognition<\/h3>\r\n

            <\/a>3.5.1. The verbal exchange between king and enemy<\/h4>\r\nThe king and enemy may carry out a verbal exchange, similar to that found in the heroic tradition. Typically it takes place through messengers rather than face to face on the battlefield as in the heroic pattern. Tukulti-Ninurta<\/em> offers the most interesting example with the exchange between messengers creating the central drama of the story.[52]<\/a> The enemy king may display his false confidence in this exchange or thereby add dramatic irony.[53]<\/a>\r\n

            <\/a>3.5.2. Fight and the victory by the deity, king, and army<\/h4>\r\nThe royal fight scene ends almost as soon as it begins, sometimes being reduced to a simple statement of victory.[54]<\/a> These narratives typically recount the meeting of faceless armies whose diffuse and simultaneous actions do not lend themselves easily to the storyteller\u2019s art.[55]<\/a> This speed of the victory comes not from a lack of imagination but signifies central themes.\r\n\r\nFirst of all, the speed underlines the divine aid promised the king. This promise may be fulfilled concretely in the story with the deity or deities taking part in the battle as the divine hero who leads the king into battle, marches at his side, and fights.[56]<\/a> Kang, in particular, has demonstrated that \u201cfrom the pre-Sargonic period\u2026, the gods began to intervene in wars.\u201d Various Hittite and Mesopotamian deities aided their kings. In Mesopotamia, \u201cthe major divine warriors were rain-storm gods.\u201d[57]<\/a> Therefore, the storm and other meteorological images point to the divine hand by recalling these weather deities.[58]<\/a> Amun-Re, the sun god, was the primary divine warrior in Egypt. Still, as Manassa points out, other deities join him in \u201cthe earliest depiction of warfare,\u201d and the Merneptah Inscription<\/em> (42) proclaims, \u201cAll the gods have felled him [the enemy king] on account of Egypt.[59]<\/a> She goes on to point out that war in Egypt is a \u201ccosmic struggle\u201d with \u201cthe equation of foreigners to chaotic elements,\u201d and Merneptah \u201cas the earthly embodiment of Re\u201d and therefore the representative of the divine hero.[60]<\/a> Ramesses II also rushes into battle \u201clike Mont \u2026 like Ba\u02bfal,\u201d that is, like a god (P\u00a077, 155), and Tukulti-Ninurta\u00a0I has vestiges of the storm god as \u201cthe raging, pitiless storm.\u201d[61]<\/a>\r\n\r\nSecondly, as G. Furlani has shown, Babylonia and Assyria conceived of every battle as a trial in which the righteous party necessarily won.[62]<\/a> From this perspective, a speedy victory represents a speedy verdict against the enemy and for the king.\r\n\r\nFinally, the speed is a sign of the king\u2019s magnificent power. Unlike the heroic narratives in which great power belongs to the enemy, the royal stories exalt the king\u2019s might which may be so great that it pre-empts the fight and leads directly to the enemy\u2019s recognition of defeat.[63]<\/a> The Hittite king, \u1e2aattu\u0161ili, announces that Ishtar goes before him and claims the heroic motif for himself: \u201cI personally conquered the enemy. When I killed the man who was in command, the enemy fled.\u201d[64]<\/a>\r\n\r\nThe poetic text of Ramesses II at Kadesh breaks the traditional royal pattern by having his army retreat leaving only the king surrounded by 2,500 Hittites chariots (P 83-87). He prays to Amun (P 92-127) and sends the enemy fleeing (P 128-165). Rebuking his cowardly army, he retells his victory, attributing it to Amun (P166-204). In a flashback, his shield-bearer begs him to stop, but he refuses (P 205-234). The army now recognizes the hero of the battle, and the king rebukes them again, saying: \u201cFair indeed is fame (\u201cname\u201d) won in battle, over and over.\u201d[65]<\/a> The single-handed combat brings this story closer to the heroic pattern, and so magnifies Ramesses\u2019 greatness.\r\n

            <\/a>3.5.3. The enemy\u2019s recognition of defeat and their destruction or capture<\/h4>\r\nAs in the heroic narrative, the victory brings about the enemy\u2019s recognition of defeat and leads to a reaction of helplessness: fear and flight. The royal army, already responsible for the victory, pursues and inflicts great or total destruction upon the enemy.[66]<\/a> Even so, the enemy king does not necessarily die in the conflict, unlike his counterpart in the narratives of single-combat. The enemy king may escape,[67]<\/a> or he may be captured[68]<\/a> and become part of the scene of recognition.[69]<\/a> These events rob the climax of its utter decisiveness but reflect a more realistic or even historical portrayal of the battle.\r\n\r\nIn the Merneptah\u2019s battle against the Libyans, the storyteller states that \u201cthere was none that escaped among them\u201d (the Libyans), yet he contradicts this by reporting that the Libyan king fled, \u201chis heart fearing.\u201d This news comes to the pharaoh with information about a new Libyan king who had opposed the old (\u00a7583-586). The specific details of the escape and new appointment have the marks of unique historical fact, yet this is mixed blithely with the traditional statement that no one escaped. In the royal tradition, however, the storyteller\u2019s fidelity to the tradition and even to history more often gives way to a more basic loyalty, the storyteller\u2019s loyalty to the king and the king\u2019s glory.\r\n

            <\/a>3.5.4, Plunder, Recognition,\u00a0 and Reward of the Deity and King<\/h4>\r\nPlunder figures prominently in the royal narrative, along with the recognition of the divine and human heroes. As Kang points out, \u201cit is natural that the spoils belong to the gods, for a war is the war of gods,\u201d[70]<\/a> Kang links this to the Moabite Stone where Mesha \u201ckilled every one of [it]\u2014seven thousand native men, foreign men, native women, for[eign] \/ women, concubines\u2014for I devoted (\u1e25rm<\/em>) it to \u02bfAshtar-Kemosh.\u201d[71]<\/a> Kang ties this to the \u1e25\u0113rem <\/em>or \u201cban,\u201d which plays a vital role in biblical texts, but it has not been found elsewhere in the ancient Near East beyond the Moabite Stone.[72]<\/a> The ban has, of course, received great attention from biblical scholars and theologians, but, for this study, the biblical \u1e25\u0113rem<\/em> or ban serves the recognition of the divine hero, whatever it may have meant historically or may mean for us today. [73]<\/a>\r\n\r\nIn Shalmaneser in Ararat<\/em>, the king carries out a festival and \u201cwith joy in A\u0161\u0161ur the lordliness of a lion [\u2026] with all his lands pronounced A\u0161\u0161ur [blessed].\u201d In the prose account the king says: \u201cI made for myself a large royal stele, [inscribed] on it the praise of A\u0161\u0161ur my lord and the power of my might of which I had given evidence in the land of Urartu.\u201d[74]<\/a>\r\n\r\nThe recognition of the human victory undergoes some alteration since a king cannot easily recognize himself as a hero though Merneptah does it.[75]<\/a> Most logically, perhaps, the divine leader (s) should recognize the hero-king, as in the Battle of Kadesh<\/em> on Ramesses\u2019 return to Egypt.[76]<\/a> A captured enemy king, accompanied by appropriate tribute, may assume for this duty.[77]<\/a> A neighboring king may offer the conquering king tribute, whether under duress or of their own accord.[78]<\/a> Finally, the army or even the enemy army in Kurigalzu<\/em> may acknowledge the hero.[79]<\/a>\r\n\r\nThe scene of recognition is of special importance for Esarhaddon. Though he has been appointed crown prince by his father, Esarhaddon has not yet become king when his rebel brothers assassinate their father. Esarhaddon pre-empts the fight with a brilliant show of power, interpreted in the imagery of divine heroes, and this causes the rebel army to defect and proclaim, \u201cThis is our king.\u201d The Assyrian people come next to kiss their king\u2019s feet, and then, as the hero of the battle, Esarhaddon takes possession of the royal city and the throne of his father. The scene of recognition ends with the gods registering their acknowledgment through portents, omens, and oracles.[80]<\/a> This narrative preserves the traditional tie between the victorious hero and the reward of kingship to justify Esarhaddon\u2019s accession.\r\n\r\nThe king may also set up a monument to mark the victory. As Weinfeld points out, this is connected with the establishment of a \u201cname forever.\u201d[81]<\/a> In several instances below, the erection of a stele is connected to the king\u2019s recognition of the god(s) as the divine hero, a motif expressed by sacrifice, etc.[82]<\/a> Weippert lists the return journey and the disbanding of the army as other concluding motifs.[83]<\/a>\r\n

            <\/a>3.6. Conclusion<\/h3>\r\nThis survey is by no means exhaustive. It does not attempt to isolate the peculiarities of specific cultures. Instead, I have tried to show that the royal pattern is a variation of the heroic pattern, which results from the combination of the human hero and leader into a single character\u2014the king. Appendix 2 provides a list of these motifs. Again this pattern is a theoretical model, a distillation of the tradition, as is the heroic pattern. Both are descriptive rather than prescriptive. The close between the two appears most clearly in the Battle of Kadesh,<\/em> where the lone king defeats a great army. However, the royal storytellers are less interested in the drama of the story than are their heroic counterparts. Narrative tension and retardation give way to the exaltation of the king and his identification with the deity. In short, the battle narrative has become a tool of royal propaganda.\r\n

            <\/a>3.7. Footnotes for Chapter 3<\/h3>\r\n
            \r\n
            \r\n\r\n[1]<\/a> Except for a passing reference to the Assyrian use of mercenaries, von Rad does not point to the larger ANE context; Holy War in Ancient Israel<\/em>, 124, n. 12.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[2]<\/a> M. Weippert, \u201cHeiliger Krieg,\u201d 460\u2011493.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[3]<\/a> W. Richter\u2019s work focused particularly on vocabulary; Traditionsgeschtliche Untersuchungen zum Richterbuch<\/em> (Bonner Biblishe Beitr\u00e4ge 18; Bonn: P. Hastein, 21966) 262\u2011266. For Assyrian other examples of the battle report, cf. the annalistic reports of Shalmaneser III in ANET<\/em>3, 276\u2011280. Cf. also Manfred Weippert, \u201cDie K\u00e4mpfe des assyrischen K\u00f6nigs Assurbanipal gegen die Araber: Redaktionskritische Untersuchung des Berichts in Prisma A,\u201d Die Welt des Orients<\/em>, 7.1 (1973) 39-85. This longer report offers a good example of a historical report with its many details and people. It makes clear that Ashurbanipal acts at the command of his many deities and that Umwaite\u1fbd receives the curses of the oath he has violated, but the text is not interested in narrative tension and resolution. Michael G. Hasel has also produced a descriptive survey of siege tactics and the destruction of life support systems in the ancient Near East; Military Practice and Polemic: Israel\u2019s Laws of Warfare in Near Eastern Perspective<\/em> (Berrien Springs, MI: Andrews University Press, 2005).\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[4]<\/a> K. Lawson Younger, Jr. Ancient Conquest Accounts: A Study in Ancient Near Eastern and Biblical History Writing<\/em>, Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, Supplement Series, 98 (Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1990), 72-79. His \u201csyntagms\u201d with correlation to this study in brackets are as follows: A. spatio-temporal coordinates; B. disorder [tension]; C. divine aid [divine commission]; D. gathering of the troops [muster]; E. move from place to place [journey]; F. presence of the deity [deity as hero]; G. flight; H. pursuit; I. combat; L. outcome of the combat [destruction of the enemy and plunder]; M. submission; N. exemplary punishment; O. consequences; P. acts of celebration [recognition of deity and king]; Q. return [journey]; R. supplemental royal activities on the campaign [recognition]; S. summary statement; T. geographic note. What I find interesting about Younger\u2019s motifs is the occurrence of flight and pursuit after the appearance of the deity and before the battle. As outlined in the heroic pattern, the enemy\u2019s flight is a reaction to the recognition of helplessness after the defeat of the enemy hero. The \u201ccombat\u201d comes here only after the pursuit of the enemy. This alteration of the pattern underlines the power of the deity and of the king.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[5]<\/a> Younger, Ancient Conquest Accounts, <\/em>243.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[6]<\/a> Joan Goodnick Westenholz, surveys the various fragments along with Amarna Recension in Text 9B: \u201cKing of Battle.\u201d in her Legends of the Kings of Akkad<\/em> (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1997), pp. 102-140. Also cf. Foster, Before the Muses<\/em>, vol. I, 103-108.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[7]<\/a> Cuthean<\/em> Legend<\/em> of<\/em> Naram<\/em> Sin: <\/em>Joan Goodnick Westenholz has published the various Babylonian texts related to this narrative which she renames \u201cNaram-Sin and the Enemy Hordes\u201d: The \u201cCuthean Legend,\u201d in her Legends of the Kings of Akkad<\/em>, Texts 20-22, pp. 263-368; Text 2: The Standard Babylonian Recension, pp. 294-331. Cf. also Peter Machinist\u2019s comparison of the historian\u2019s perspective in this text with that of the Deuteronomistic History in \u201cThe Voice of the Historian in the Ancient Near Eastern and Mediterranean World,\u201d Interpretation<\/em> 57. 2 (2003) 117-137. Westenholz has also gathered a number of literary texts recounting the heroic deeds of Sargon and Naram Sin. All are rather fragmentary; still, a few references are included below.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[8]<\/a> \u201cThe Apology of \u1e2aattu\u0161ili\u201d has been translated by Th. P. J. van den Hout, in Context of Scripture<\/em>, edited by William W. Hallo and K. Lawson Younger (Leiden: Brill, 2003) vol. 1, pp. 199-203. J. Randall Short comments extensively on the relationship of this text to the \u201cHistory of the Rise of David\u201d (1 Samuel 16 \u2013 2 Samuel 5) in his The Surprising Election and Confirmation of King David<\/em>, Harvard Theological Studies 63 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2010). As he shows, the text is a justification by \u1e2aattu\u0161ili for his rebellion. It is more of a historical document than a literary document. Still, it emphasizes his devotion and reliance particularly on Ishtar which fits with the typical call and commission in the royal pattern.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[9]<\/a> Battle<\/em> of<\/em> Kadesh<\/em>: A. Gardiner, The<\/em> Kadesh<\/em> Inscription<\/em> of<\/em> Ramesses<\/em> II<\/em> (Oxford: Griffith Institute, 1960) 7-14. Gardiner refers to the text in question by the letter \u201cP\u201d which stands for \u201cpoetic text\u201d although he notes that the text is not in verse. I have quoted the newer translation by K. A. Kitchen, \u201cRamesses II (2.5): The Battle of Qadesh: The Poem, or Literary Record,\u201d in Context of Scripture<\/em>, edited by William W. Hallo and K. Lawson Younger (Leiden: Brill, 2003) vol. 2, pp. 32-38.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[10]<\/a> Merneptah Inscription<\/em>: Colleen Manassa, The Great Karnak Inscription of Merneptah: Grand Strategy in the 13th Century B.C.<\/em> Yale Egyptological Studies (New Haven, CT: Yale Egyptological Seminar, 2003). Originally in J.H. Breasted, Ancient<\/em> Records<\/em> of<\/em> Egypt<\/em> (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1906\u20111907) III, \u00a7572\u2011592. Manassa divides the narratives into sixteen sections that correspond closely to the pattern of the battle narrative:\r\n\r\n1. List of enemies (1\u00a0with some text lost here and elsewhere) [= threat], 2.\u00a0Merneptah as a warrior (2-6); [= description of the warrior], 3.\u00a0vanguard of the enemy (7); [= threat], 4. the beloved land without a champion (8-9) [= reaction of helplessness], 5.\u00a0Merneptah: Champion of Egypt (10-12) [= hero], 6. One came to say: \u201cThe Libyans attack.\u201d (133-15a) [= threat], 7.\u00a0Merneptah\u2019s address: Pharaoh rages (15b-19) [= The king describes the threat ], 8. Conclusion of Merneptah\u2019s address and oath (21-25) [= He claims his role as hero.], 9. The oracle and preparation for battle (26-28a) [= divine commission], 10.\u00a0Message of Ptah: the divine dream (28-30a) [= divine commission], 11.\u00a0The victory of the battle of Perire (30b-40a) [= the victory; the Egyptian army destroys the enemy \u201cwithout a remnant amongst them\u201d and the enemy leader flees], 12.\u00a0Frontier report and speech of the captives (40b-44) [reports are unable to confirm the death of the enemy king], 13.\u00a0Aftermath of the Battle: Egypt rejoices (45-48a) [= army bearing plunder and recognition by \u201cthe entire land rejoicing\u201d], 14.\u00a0The plunder list 48b-61) [= plunder including the other enemy chiefs brought alive before the hero-king], 15.\u00a0Royal appearance and speeches of Merneptah (62-73a) [= recognition of the hero-king who appears and gives a speech announcing the death of the enemy king by his tribe and recognizing his deities], 16.\u00a0Speech of the Council of Thirty and concluding praise (73b-79) [= recognition of the hero-king by others].\r\n\r\nManassa classifies this text as a \u201cK\u00f6nigsnovelle\u201d (107) because it \u201cserves functionally as royal propaganda, specifically focused upon actions performed by the king in order to preserve cosmic order\u201d (109). Still from the standpoint of plot, the text belongs to the genre of the battle narrative.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[11]<\/a> Kurigalzu<\/em>: A fragment telling of the battle, the flight and capture of the enemy king is known: A.K. Grayson, Babylonian<\/em> Historical\u2011Literary<\/em> Texts<\/em> (Toronto Semitic Texts and Studies 3; Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1975) Ch. 5, esp. p. 52-55. As he says, \u201cThe main source for the Kurigalzu epic is oddly enough, Chronicle P. This chronicle quotes extensively from an epic in its description of two battles fought by Kurigalzu. It is possible that the fragment in chapter 5 in which the hostilities with Elam are narrated is part of the same epic\u201d (42). Chronicle P is found as \u201cChronicle 22\u201d in A.K. Grayson, Assyrian and Babylonian Chronicles<\/em>, Texts from Cuneiform Sources 5 (Locust City, NY: J.J. Austin, 1975) 170-177. The same text is also translated as \u201c\u201d45. Chronicles of the Kassite Kings\u201d in Jean-Jacques Glassner, Mesopotamian Chronicles<\/em>, edited by Benjamin R. Foster (Leiden: Brill, 2005) 278-281.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[12]<\/a> Ashur-uballi\u1e6d<\/em>: For the text see R.C. Thompson, \u201cVII. The Excavations on Nab\u00fb at Nineveh,\u201d Archaeologia<\/em> 79 (1929) 103-148, esp. 131\u2011132, and the commentary in Thompson, Annals<\/em> of<\/em> Archaeology<\/em> and<\/em> Anthropology<\/em> 20 (1933) 116\u2011117. This fragment tells of the army calling Ashur-uballi\u1e6d II (c. 1386-1369) to battle against the king of the Kassites.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[13]<\/a> Adad-narari Epic<\/em>: E. Weidner, \u201cAssyrische Epen \u00fcber die Kassiten K\u00e4mpfe,\u201d Archiv f\u00fcr Orientforschung<\/em>, 20 (1963) 113\u2011116. Grayson, Chronicles<\/em>, 57, n.\u00a065.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[14]<\/a> Tukulti-Ninurta Epic<\/em> is translated by Foster in Before the Muses<\/em>, vol. I, pp. 211-230 with information on the various text on p. 230, and for the citations, I have followed his indications. For the recent discussions dealing with the relation of this text to the Bible, cf. P. Machinist, \u201cLiterature as Politics: The Tukulti Ninurta Epic and the Bible,\u201d Catholic Biblical Quarterly<\/em> 36 (1976) 455\u2011482, and P.C. Craigie, \u201cThe Song of Deborah and the Epic of Tukulti Ninurta,\u201d Journal of Biblical Literature<\/em> \u00a088 (1969) 253\u2011265. On Ninurta as a divine warrior, cf. Kang, Divine War<\/em>, 24-31.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[15]<\/a> Shalmaneser in Ararat<\/em>: W.G. Lambert, \u201cThe Sultantepe Tablets: VIII. Shalmaneser in Ararat,\u201d Anatolian<\/em> Studies<\/em> 11 (1961) 143\u2011158. Lambert includes both a prose account and a poetic account which \u201cunlike the hundreds of other Assyrian royal inscriptions containing annalistic material this one is\u2014uniquely, so far as the present writer knows\u2014poetry\u201d (143). The prose account contains several battle reports (147-149). The poetic text contains only some sixty lines (149-153).\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[16]<\/a> Esarhaddon<\/em>: R. Borger, Die<\/em> Inschriften<\/em> Assarhaddons<\/em>, K\u00f6nigs<\/em> von<\/em> Assyrien<\/em> (Archiv f\u00fcr Orientforschung,<\/em> Beiheft 9; Graz: 1956; Osnabru\u0308ck: Biblio-Verlag, 1967) \u00a727; English translation in ANET<\/em>3, 289\u2011290; Weippert also discusses the text; \u201cHeiliger Krieg,\u201d 466\u2011468.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[17]<\/a> Moabite<\/em> Stone<\/em>: Kent P. Jackson and J. Andrew Dearman, \u201cThe Text of the Mesha\u02bf Inscription,\u201d and Kent P. Jackson, \u201cThe Language of the Mesha\u02bf Inscription\u201d in Studies in the Mesha Inscription and Moab<\/em>, ed. Andrew Dearman (Atlanta, GA: Scholars Press, 1989) 93-95, 96-130. Aarnoud van der Deijl, Protest or Propaganda: War in the Old Testament Book of Kings and in Contemporaneous Ancient Near Eastern Texts <\/em>(Leiden: Brill, 2008) 304-339.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[18]<\/a> Kang, Divine War<\/em>, 108-110.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[19]<\/a> Westenholz, Legends, <\/em>264.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[20]<\/a> Foster, Before the Muses<\/em>, 216-221.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[21]<\/a> Battle of Kadesh<\/em>, P 1-24; Legend of Naram Sin<\/em>, 1-30; Esarhaddon<\/em>, I 1-9. Except in the Legend of Naram Sin<\/em>, the king\u2019s absence from the scene of conflict is the only impediment to his dissolving the enemy\u2019s threat immediately.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[22]<\/a> Cf. Esarhaddon<\/em>, in which the hero\u2019s brother kills the old king and father, Sennacherib.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[23]<\/a> Moabite Stone<\/em>, 1\u20119; Merneptah Inscription<\/em>, 1, 7, 18-23.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[24]<\/a> Weippert, \u201cHeiliger Krieg,\u201d 469, 487\u2011488, 492; cf. Shalmaneser in Ararat <\/em>where the Assyrian king wages a fierce war of conquests which causes others to come with tribute; poetic text, 56-57. Weippert points out that the wars of conquest are undertaken at the will of the god; there is no qualm of conscience about undertaking an offensive war. Younger, Ancient Conquest Accounts, passim.<\/em>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[25]<\/a> Merneptah\u2019s Inscription<\/em>, 8-9: the narrator describes the situation before the pharaoh\u2019s appearance.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[26]<\/a> The retreating Egyptian army in the Battle<\/em> of<\/em> Kadesh<\/em>, (P 74\u201175) can be analyzed as a false hero whose failure brings the hero into the battle.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[27]<\/a> Merneptah Inscription<\/em> 15b: \u201craged like a lion\u201d; also Josh 10:6. The King<\/em> of<\/em> Battle<\/em> Epic<\/em> (Tel el\u2011Amarna edition), merchants call upon King Sargon to defeat the oppressive king, and they offer to pay for the campaign, a very businesslike reward (ll. 13-21); Westenholz, Legends<\/em>, 114-117.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[28]<\/a> Esarhaddon<\/em>, I 53\u201159; Merneptah Inscription<\/em> 15b.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[29]<\/a> Merneptah Inscription<\/em> 10-12. Esarhaddon<\/em>, I 8\u201122: The hero is designated as heir to the throne by his father, the gods, and the people; this likewise functions as a primary call and commission which allows Esarhaddon to act like a king even though his enthronement comes after the battle. Note also the \u201cApology of \u1e2aattu\u0161ili\u201d \u00a711 = 4:7-40; for most of this story, the hero is not a king in his own right and thus receives commissions to wage war from his brother the king; cf. \u00a75 = 1:66; \u00a76 = 2:20; \u00a77 = 2:35.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[30]<\/a> Merneptah Inscription<\/em> 26-28a contains an oracle announcing that \u201cAmun has assented,\u201d and in 28b-30a, Ptah appears in a dream saying \u201cSeize it here\u201d while giving Merneptah \u201cthe scimitar.\u201d A dream is found in Shalmaneser in Ararat<\/em>, poetic text, 25\u201130; \u201cApology of \u1e2aattu\u0161ili\u201d \u00a711 = 4:7\u201115; Moabite Stone, 14.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[31]<\/a> Battle<\/em> of<\/em> Kadesh<\/em>, P 92-123. Legend<\/em> of<\/em> Naram Sin<\/em>, 72\u201183, 99\u2011114+; Esarhaddon<\/em>, I 60\u201162. In Text 13: \u201cErra and Naram-Sin\u201d 1-15, Ishtar commissions the hero and grants him weapons; Westenholz, Legends, 192-195, ll. 1-15.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[32]<\/a> An exception is found in the Legend<\/em> of<\/em> Naram<\/em> Sin<\/em>. The king calls and gathers his seers to seek an oracle, but the gods refuse to grant the commission. Against their will, Naram\u2011Sin goes out against the enemy and meets with defeat, followed by a reaction of helplessness (72\u201183, 84\u201187, 88\u201198). In the fourth year, the gods at the behest of Ea (seemingly) grant the king an oracle of commission\u00a0 (99\u2011114+). The importance of seeking an oracle of commission is stressed again toward the end when the king is faced with deciding the fate of his prisoners. In the Tukulti-Ninurta Epic<\/em>, iii (A obv.) 41\u2019-46\u2019, the enemy king Kashtiliash complains that he is unable to obtain a divine commission by oracle or dream\u2014an indication of rejection by the gods; see also 1\u00a0Sam 28 where Saul has Samuel conjured up without effect.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[33]<\/a> Kang, Divine War<\/em>, 42.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[34]<\/a> Tukulti-Ninurta, ii (=A obv.) 11\u02b9-24\u02b9: prayer to Shamash; Esarhaddon<\/em>, I 59\u201160; Battle<\/em> of<\/em> Kadesh<\/em>, P 91\u2011125; Ashur-uballi\u1e6d<\/em>, ii 2\u201118. The first two kings receive a direct reply. Scholes and Kellogg note: \u201cPrayer, in particular, was designed in ancient literature to reveal thought and character with unquestionable validity, and this attitude persists right up through Shakespeare\u201d; Nature of Narrative<\/em>, 200-201.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[35]<\/a> Weippert, \u201cHeiliger Krieg,\u201d 470\u2011472. Sacrificia<\/em> consultoria<\/em> are found in the Legend<\/em> of<\/em> Naram<\/em> Sin<\/em> and in the Tukulti-Ninurta Epic<\/em> iii 41-46, the enemy king is denied omens and dreams. Cf. also Esarhaddon<\/em>, I 61. Kang discusses these sacrifices in some detail; Divine War,<\/em> 42-45, 56-65, 98-101.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[36]<\/a> Shalmaneser in Ararat<\/em>, poetic text, 41: sacrifices are offered even though the king has received a divine commission in a dream.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[37]<\/a> There are no vows in this selection of royal narratives, but Weippert treats vows in \u201cHeiliger Krieg,\u201d 476, n. 74. Alice Logan also discusses the vow during biblical warfare found in Num 21:23; Joshua 6-7; Judg 8:4-21; Judg 11:30 and 1 Sam 14; she notes that \u201call underscore the seriousness of wartime pledges and the encumbrances that deals with the deity placed on those who made them\u201d; \u201cRehabilitating Jephthah,\u201d Journal of Biblical Literature<\/em> 128.4 (2009) 665-685. Younger does not list it as a motif in his Ancient Conquest Accounts.<\/em>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[38]<\/a> Battle<\/em> of<\/em> Kadesh<\/em>, P 125\u2011127: Amun says: \u201cForward! I am with you. I am your father, my hand is with you! I am more useful to you than hundred-thousands of men, I am the Lord of Victory, who loves bravery.\u201d Moabite Stone<\/em>, 14. Kang in Divine War<\/em> discusses oracles and signs in Mesopotamia (42-43), Anatolia (56-62), in Syro-Palestine (79-80) and Egypt (98-99).\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[39]<\/a> Merneptah Inscription<\/em>, 28b-30a; Manassa also discusses dreams in Egyptian texts, 117-119; Shalmaneser in Ararat<\/em>, poetic text, 25\u201130 according to Lambert\u2019s text: \u201cA\u0161\u0161ur inspired me with confidence and [showed me a dream,]\u201d (25). Dreams play an important role in the \u201cApology of \u1e2aattu\u0161ili,\u201d \u00a73 = 1:9-21; \u00a79 = 3:1-13; in \u00a711 = 4:7-40, the goddess appears to his generals and to his wife saying: \u201c\"I will march ahead of your husband and all of Hattusa will turn to (the side) of your husband.\u201d\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[40]<\/a> Weippert has used the term \u201cspontane<\/em> Orakel<\/em>\u201d; \u201cHeiliger Krieg\u201d 471. He cites an example of a dream to a third person in the Prism of Ashurbanipal<\/em> A, III 118\u2011127.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[41]<\/a> Weippert, \u201cHeiliger Krieg,\u201d 470\u2011471.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[42]<\/a> Ashur<\/em>\u2011uballi\u1e6d<\/em>, ii 2\u201118.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[43]<\/a> Battle<\/em> of<\/em> Kadesh<\/em>, P 125\u2011130.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[44]<\/a> Esarhaddon<\/em>, I 61\u201162. Shalmaneser in Ararat<\/em>, poetic text, 25\u201130: \u201cA\u0161\u0161ur inspired me with confidence and [showed me a dream], the rest is largely obliterated except for the assurance of divine presence and aid, \u201cMay Ninurta go before you, may Girru follow at your rear.\u201d\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[45]<\/a> For the motifs of assurance and encouragement in a different context, cf. \u201cApology of \u1e2aattu\u0161ili\u201d \u00a74 = 1:37\u201138.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[46]<\/a> Merneptah Inscription<\/em>, 28b-29. According to Manassa, the command to \u201cexpel the foul heart from yourself\u201d refers to the \u201cfoul heart\u201d of the enemy king; Great Karnak Inscription <\/em>118. Breasted, however, translated it: \u201cand banish thou the fearful heart from thee\u201d (\u00a7 582) which would be more traditional. While Manassa tries to exclude this reading on the basis of grammar (the preposition \u0131<\/em>\u0357m<\/em> can imply both \u201cwithin\u201d and \u201cfrom\u201d) and also the lack of other indications that \u201cMerneptah\u2019s heart ever possessed the quality of \u1e25w\u025c<\/em>,\u201d the tradition does not always follow logic.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[47]<\/a> Weippert, \u201cHeiliger Krieg,\u201d 472\u2011473, n. 54. The biblical tradition is surveyed by von Rad in Holy War in Ancient Israel<\/em>, 42-44; also C. Westermann, Prophetic Oracles of Salvation in the Old Testament, <\/em>translated by. Keith Crim (Louisville, KY: Westminster\/John Knox Press, 1991) 24-25 where \u201c\u00dcbergabeformel\u201d is translated as the \u201cconveyance formula\u201d; in this text I have referred to it as the \u201chand-formula.\u201d Kang discusses the formula in a Mari letter; Divine War<\/em>, 43-45, 67. Also van der Deijl, Protest or Propaganda, <\/em>289-290.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[48]<\/a> Ramesses, informed of his army\u2019s retreat, girds for battle and mounts his chariot drawn by \u201cVictory of Thebes,\u201d he being \u201clike his father Mont...like Ba\u02bfal\u2026\u201d; Battle<\/em> of<\/em> Kadesh<\/em>, P 76\u201180. Note also the sword given to the pharaoh in Merneptah Inscription<\/em> 29. Manassa notes that \u201cthe image of the god handing the khepesh scimitar to the king is a ubiquitous motif in the New Kingdom reliefs and inscriptions\u201d and \u201cis accompanied by statements proclaiming the inevitable victory of the king over the enemies to be smitten with the divinely given weapons; Great Karnak Inscription, <\/em>117-118.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[49]<\/a> Cf. Iliad<\/em> XVI 155\u2011220; also Battle<\/em> of<\/em> Kadesh<\/em>, P 25\u201128 following the initial description of Ramesses. In Weippert\u2019s pattern of motifs, the muster of the troops follows immediately after the report of the enemy threat; \u201cHeiliger Krieg,\u201d 269. In the Merneptah Inscription <\/em>15b-25, 30, the pharaoh gives his army or people a speech to lay out the enemy threat and encourage them who \u201care trembling like birds,\u201d and at the beginning of the battle the army gathers in rank. In Cf. also Shalmaneser in Ararat, <\/em>poetic text 17-19. In Ashur-uballi\u1e6d<\/em> and Esarhaddon<\/em>, the muster follows the divine commission as in the heroic pattern. The army may also be called and commissioned; typically an exhortation is included. For the muster see also Kang, Divine War<\/em>, in Egypt, 100-101.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[50]<\/a> King<\/em> of<\/em> Battle<\/em> Epic<\/em> (OB edition) 1\u20119; Battle<\/em> of<\/em> Kadesh<\/em>, P 167\u2011195, 250\u2011277; Shalmaneser in Ararat<\/em>, poetic text 17\u201124. In Text 13: \u201cErra and Naram-Sin\u201d 1-15, the hero receives weapons from Ishtar; Westenholz, Legends<\/em>, 195, l. 16. Kang notes the ritual of the soldier\u2019s oath in Anatolia; Divine War<\/em>, 63.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[51]<\/a> Ashur-uballi\u1e6d<\/em>, ii\u00a02\u201122: This speech ends with the prayer (ii 22): \u201cAnd may the Sun-god cause our lord [i.e. Ashur-uballi\u1e6d] to attain in the revolt a glorious name o\u2019er the king of the Kassites!\u201d\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[52]<\/a> Tukulti-Ninurta Epic<\/em>, ii (=A obv.) 26ff; ii (= F col. \u201cx\u201d) 10\u2019; iii (=A obv.) 1\u2019-20\u2019; iv (A rev.) 11\u2019-33\u2019. In Adad\u2011narari Epic<\/em>, the verbal exchange is the only extant part of the story. See also in Westenholz, Legends<\/em>, Text 12: \u201cNaram-Sin and the Lord of Api\u0161al,\u201d col v and vi, pp. 182-187; Text 13: \u201cErra and Naram-Sin,\u201d ll. 19-23, p. 95.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[53]<\/a> King<\/em> of<\/em> Battle<\/em> Epic<\/em> (Tel el\u2011Amarna edition), ll. rev. 3-7; Weippert, \u201cHeiliger Krieg,\u201d 478, n. 84.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[54]<\/a> An exception would be Ashur-uballi\u1e6d <\/em>ii 23-45 which describes the deities leading the hero into battle as he cries: \u201cI am Ashur-uballi\u1e6d, the destroying giant\u201d\u2014with his army \u201ceager for the fray\u201d like lions and whirlwinds.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[55]<\/a> In the Legend<\/em> of<\/em> Naram<\/em> Sin<\/em>, three initial failures by the king extend the battle scene. The ambush would also seem to be a conventional way of drawing out a battle; cf. Tukulti-Ninurta Epic<\/em> iv (=A rev.) 36\u2019-40 where the enemy tries to ambush the Assyrians but fail; Joshua 8; Judg 9:34\u201145; 20:29\u201148.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[56]<\/a> Ashur-uballi\u1e6d<\/em>, 25\u201132 lists Ashur, Bel, Anu, the Crescent Moon, Adad, the Sun-god, Ninurta and Ishtar leading the king at the forefront of his army; Esarhaddon<\/em>, I 72; \u201cApology of \u1e2aattu\u0161ili\u201d \u00a76 = 2:24; \u00a77 = 2:37; \u00a711 = 4:8: \u201cMy Lady, marched ahead of me.\u201d In the \u201cDeeds of \u0160uppiluliuma\u201d translated by Harry A. Hoffner, Jr., the Hittite text repeats thirteen times the phrase: \u201cThe gods (of my father) marched before PN\u201d; in Context of Scripture<\/em>, vol. 1, pp. 185-191. Cf. also von Rad, Holy War in Ancient Israel<\/em>, 48-49. Rowlett, Joshua<\/em>, 54-65.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[57]<\/a> Kang, Divine War<\/em>, 23. 45-46, 101-105, and his summary 108-109.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[58]<\/a> Weippert, \u201cHeiliger Krieg,\u201d 479; cf. King<\/em> of<\/em> Battle<\/em> Epic<\/em> (OB edition), 59\u201163. Both the heroes of Baal<\/em> and<\/em> Yamm <\/em>and Ullikummis are storm gods; note also Marduk\u2019s army of meteorological forces.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[59]<\/a> Manassa, The Great Karnak Inscription<\/em>, 119.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[60]<\/a> Manassa, The Great Karnak Inscription<\/em>, 122-124.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[61]<\/a> Tulukti Ninurta, iv (=A rev.) 41\u02b9.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[62]<\/a> G. Furlani, \u201cLe guerre quali guidizi di dio presso i Babilonesi e Assiri,\u201d Miscellanea<\/em> Giovanni<\/em> Galbiati<\/em> (Fontes Ambrosiani 27; Milan: U. Hoepli, 1951) III, 39\u201147, esp. 47. Also R.M. Good, \u201cThe Just War in Ancient Israel,\u201d Journal of Biblical Literature<\/em> \u00a0104.3 (1985) 385-400; Kang, Divine War,<\/em> 14-15 and 108 where he notes that the \u201clawsuit chiefly appears in the Hittite and Mesopotamian historical sources, but not in the Egyptian historical sources\u201d; Younger, Ancient Conquest Accounts<\/em>, 236-237.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[63]<\/a> King<\/em> of<\/em> Battle<\/em> Epic<\/em> (OB edition), 65\u201168; Esarhaddon<\/em>, I 72\u201173; Weippert, \u201cHeiliger Krieg\u201d 477.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[64]<\/a> \u201cApology of \u1e2aattu\u0161ili\u201d \u00a77 \u2013 2:31-47. See also Harry A. Hoffner, Jr., \u201cA Hittite Analogue to the David and Goliath Combat of Champions?\u201d Catholic Biblical Quarterly\u00a0<\/em>30 (1968) 220-225. He translates the short Hittite text. Hoffner argues that this is a contest of champions parallel to the fight between David and Goliath in which a fighter from each side fights as a representative. Roland de Vaux suggested this phenomenon existed in Greece and the ancient Near East in his \u201cLes combats singuliers dans l\u2019Ancien Testament,\u201d Bibica <\/em>40 (1959) 495-508; translated as \u201cSingle Combat in the Old Testament\u201d in The Bible and the Ancient Near East, <\/em>translated by Damian McHugh (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1971) 122-135.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[65]<\/a> P257: Kitchen\u2019s translation.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[66]<\/a> Younger notes that the outcome of the battle results in either destruction or acquisition. In the Assyrian texts and Hittite text, the destruction is massive; war in the ancient Near East brought slaves, and so total destruction was against the interests of the victor. Under hyperbole Younger cites the common phrase in Egyptian military accounts: \u2018who makes them non-existent\u201d; Ancient Conquest Accounts<\/em>, 75-76, 190-192. In Text 13: \u201cErra and Naram Sin,\u201d ll. 33-45: Erra and Naram-Sin join forces in the battle against Enlil and in the \u201cattack (on) the cities of the enemies [\u2026]. Westenholz, Legends of the Kings of Akkad<\/em>, 197-199. Kurigalzu, in Chronicle P ii 4-6: \u201cdid not leave a soul\u201d; even so, another battle takes place in column iii.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[67]<\/a> Merneptah Inscription<\/em> 40b-44; Esarhaddon<\/em> I 82\u201184. In the \u201cApology of \u1e2aattu\u0161ili,\u201d the Hittite king spares the life of Ur\u1e2bite\u0161ub, but when the enemy king \u201cplotted another plot against me, and wanted to ride to Babylon\u2014when I heard the matter, I seized him and sent him alongside the sea\u201d; \u00a711 = 4:7-40. The passage shows the marks of being shaped by historical rather than traditional forces.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[68]<\/a> In Kurigalzu<\/em> obv.(?) ii (?) 17-19, the enemy king \u201cretreated, he headed toward the mountains\u201d \u2026 but \u201cthey overtook\/captured<\/em> him.\u201d\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[69]<\/a> King<\/em> of<\/em> Battle<\/em> Epic<\/em> (Tel el\u2011Amarna edition), ll. rev 19-23. Similarly, in the Battle<\/em> of<\/em> Kadesh<\/em>, (P\u00a0295\u2011332), the Hittite king sues for peace, and Ramesses graciously accedes; in the Hittite version (ANET<\/em>3, 319), the Egyptians are defeated. In each case, the historical reality is subordinated to a traditional ending of the battle narrative. In Text 13: \u201cErra and Naram Sin,\u201d the victory ends with the building of a temple and the blessing of Naram-Sin and the giving to King Naram Sin, \u201cthe might weapon, the scimitar\u201d; ll. 46-67, pp. 197-199.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[70]<\/a> Kang, Divine War<\/em>, 46.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[71]<\/a> Jackson, \u201cThe Language of the Mesha Inscription,\u201d 98.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[72]<\/a> Kang, Divine War<\/em>, 80-82. For the exclusion of the \u1e25\u0113rem<\/em> elsewhere in the ancient Near East, he cites C.H.W Brekelmans, De \u1e24erem in het Oude Testament <\/em>(Nijmegen: Centrale Drukkerij, 1959) 128-145.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[73]<\/a> So also Kang, Divine War<\/em>, 224.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[74]<\/a> Shalmaneser in Ararat<\/em>, poetic text, 61-62; prose text, 55. Merneptah Inscription <\/em>48b-61: a long plunder list with some enemy chiefs brought alive before the pharaoh.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[75]<\/a> Merneptah Inscription<\/em>, 62-73a.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[76]<\/a> Battle<\/em> of<\/em> Kadesh<\/em>, P 339\u2011345: the gods receive Ramesses on his return. \u201cApology of \u1e2aattu\u0161ili\u201d \u00a76 = 2:30: Ishtar proclaims the hero\u2019s name after the battle in \u00a7 12a = IV 47\u201148: \u201cAnd my Lady Ishtar gave me the kingship of the land of Hatti also, and I became a great king. \/ My Lady Ishtar took (as a) prince and placed me on the throne.\u201d In Ashur-uballi\u1e6d<\/em> ii 22, the army prays before the battle that the Sun-god grant the king \u201ca glorious name\u201d for victory over the enemy.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[77]<\/a> King<\/em> of<\/em> Battle<\/em> Epic<\/em> (Tel el\u2011Amarna edition), ll. rev 19-23.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[78]<\/a> In Battle<\/em> of<\/em> Kadesh<\/em>, P 335-345: The gods of the land <come> to him in greeting saying: \u201cWelcome, our beloved Son, King of Southern and Northern Egypt, Usima[re] Setepenre, Son of Re, Ramesses II, given life! \u2013 according as they have granted him a million jubilees and eternity upon the throne of Re, all lands and all foreign lands being overthrown and slain beneath his sandals, eternally and forever.\u201d Shalmaneser in Ararat<\/em>, poetic text, 55\u201157. Kurigalzu in Chronicle P, iii 17-19: Hurbatila, king of Elam, recognizes Kurigalzu.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[79]<\/a> Merneptah Inscription<\/em>, 73b-79: the Council of Thirty recognize Merneptah as the hero; Battle<\/em> of<\/em> Kadesh<\/em>, P 235-250: Ramesses army praises him for saving them single-handedly. Kurigalzu<\/em> Chronicle P, ii 9-14: the enemy army recognizes Kurigalzu.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[80]<\/a> Esarhaddon<\/em>, I 77 \u2011 II 10.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[81]<\/a> M. Weinfeld, Deuteronomy<\/em> and<\/em> the<\/em> Deuteronomic<\/em> School<\/em> (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972) 193, n.4.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[82]<\/a> Shalmaneser III says in the \u201cMonolith Inscriptions\u201d (ANET<\/em>3, 277): \u201cAt that time, I paid homage to the greatness of (all) the great gods (and) extolled for posterity the heroic achievements of Ashur and Shamash by fashioning a (sculptured) stela with myself as king\u00a0...\u00a0.\u201d For a larger discussion of A\u0161\u0161ur, cf. Kang, Divine War<\/em>, 40-42. Cf. also Esarhaddon\u2019s \u201cSinjirli Stela\u201d in ANET<\/em>3, 293. In the \u201cApology of \u1e2aattu\u0161ili\u201d \u00a712B = 4:48-80, \u1e2aattu\u0161ili makes peace with the previous allies and with those who had been enemies of his father and grandfather; then he gives \u201cIshtar, My Lady, the property of Armatar\u1e2bunta\u201d and sees to the erection of her statue and the worship of her as \u201cIshtar the High.\u201d For a fuller discussion of Ishtar as a warrior, see Kang, Divine War<\/em>, 31-36.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
            \r\n\r\n[83]<\/a> Weippert, \u201cHeiliger Krieg,\u201d 486; here Weippert also gives a schema for the royal battle narrative which focuses on the praxis of war in the ancient Near East; as such, it is more restrictive than my own proposal for the traditional pattern.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>","rendered":"

            As seen in the last chapter, characters and themes shape and reshape the battle narrative, and this chapter considers a standard variation, the royal battle narrative. Here the roles of hero and leader are combined on both the human and divine levels. On the human level, the king takes the roles of both hero and leader; as such, he does not need to turn to any other human character for a commission. The official approbation and command to undertake the fight comes from the king\u2019s deity, who plays the role of the divine leader and also may fight as the divine hero. The fusion of the roles of hero and leader on both the human and divine levels identifies the king with the deity. The identification is not gratuitous but rather the point of the story.<\/p>\n

            In his famous work, Holy War in Ancient Israel<\/em>, Gerhard von Rad considered \u201choly war\u201d only as an Israelite institution without reference to the larger ANE context.[1]<\/a> However, Manfred\u00a0Weippert has shown that the literatures of Israel and Assyria reflect the same practices and ideologies of war.[2]<\/a> Instead of practices and ideology, I shall be dealing with motifs and patterns used in storytelling. Again we are faced with the differences between a historical and a literary approach. The two are not contradictory; rather, they should complement one another.<\/p>\n

            Weippert confines his study to Assyria, but I wish to extend the boundaries both in time and space. Much of this material can be characterized as \u201croyal battle reports,\u201d for little or no attention is paid to the development of narrative tension or to the retardation of the story. The enemy\u2019s threat quickly gives way to the announcement of the king\u2019s victory. The bulk of the report is concerned most often with the extent of the destruction, the plunder taken, and the tribute offered by defeated or neighboring kings. As such, the battle report emphasizes the magnitude of the victory and the recognition paid to the king.[3]<\/a><\/p>\n

            In his meticulous study, K. Lawson Younger, Jr. has analyzed these conquest accounts of the ancient Near East and used the information as a lens to view Joshua 9-12. For this, he generated a set of motifs corresponding to those developed in the previous chapter,[4]<\/a> and he uses these \u201csyntagms\u201d to analyze in great detail the Assyrian, Hittite, and Egyptian \u201cconquest accounts,\u201d and further refines these basic categories both in terms of actions and vocabulary. In the end, Younger uses his analysis to show that Josh 9-12 belongs to a literary genre and must be appreciated as such. His remarks are aimed mainly at historical critics who do not recognize \u201cthe figurative nature\u201d or \u201cthe use of hyperbole in the narrative.\u201d Therefore, \u201conce one admits this element into the interpretive process, there is no reason to maintain that the account in Josh 9-12 portrays a complete<\/em> conquest.\u201d[5]<\/a><\/p>\n

            <\/a>3.1. The Literary Texts of Royal Battle Narratives<\/h3>\n

            The royal battle narrative, as defined here, exploits the traditional possibilities for tension and retardation to tell a story and not merely to report the king\u2019s greatness. Even so, these texts vary in literary quality. Not all are of great length, and some are very fragmentary, yet all are more than a battle report.<\/p>\n

              \n
            1. The Sargon King of Battle Epic,<\/em> found in an Old Babylonian version and a Tel el-Amarna version.[6]<\/a><\/li>\n
            2. The Cuthean Legend of Naram-Sin.[7]<\/a><\/li>\n
            3. The \u201cApology of \u1e2aattu\u0161ili.\u201d[8]<\/a><\/li>\n
            4. Pharaoh Ramesses II\u2019s \u201cLiterary Record\u201d of the Battle of Kadesh.[9]<\/a><\/li>\n
            5. Pharaoh Merneptah\u2019s defeat of the Libyans in the Great Karnak Inscription.[10]<\/a><\/li>\n
            6. Kurigalzu<\/em>: King Kurigalzu\u2019s two battles with the King of Elam.[11]<\/a><\/li>\n
            7. Ashur-uballi\u1e6d:<\/em> King Ashur-uballi\u1e6d\u2019s fight with the Kassites.[12]<\/a><\/li>\n
            8. Adad-narari Epic<\/em>: The triumph of King Adad-narari I over the Nazi-Maruttash, the Kassite king of Babylon.[13]<\/a><\/li>\n
            9. Tukulti-Ninurta Epic<\/em>: the battles of King Tukulti-Ninurta I against Kashtiliash.[14]<\/a><\/li>\n
            10. Shalmaneser in Ararat<\/em>: The campaign of King Shalmaneser III against Urartu.[15]<\/a><\/li>\n
            11. Esarhaddon<\/em>: King Esarhaddon\u2019s fight for the throne.[16]<\/a><\/li>\n
            12. The Moabite Stone: King Mesha\u2019s victory over the \u201cson of Omri.\u201d[17]<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

              <\/a>3.2. Characters<\/h3>\n

              Whereas the hero and helpless leader take the major roles in the heroic pattern, the king and his deity are central in the royal pattern. Their relationship is that of hero and leader, yet the king is also the human leader, and the deity may take the role of divine hero; neither is helpless.<\/p>\n

              In his study of Divine War in the Old Testament and the Ancient Near East,<\/em> Sa-Moon Kang shows the deity act as \u201ca warrior who fights against the enemy.\u201d Therefore the war is understood \u201cas originating from divine command,\u201d and the core of these divine wars \u201cis the divine intervention in battle by miracles of natural phenomena such as flood or rain-storms, or historical events of revolt amongst the enemies, or as the terror of the divine warriors themselves.\u201d Since the divine warrior is the true victor, the spoils of battle belong to him or her, and the king erects steles or monuments or builds temples to commemorate the victory of the divine warriors.\u201d[18]<\/a> The literary texts considered here certainly carry out these themes and exalt the human king, except for the Cuthean Legend of Naram-Sin. \u201cInitially, he is depicted as a self-willed individual, putting himself above the gods. Since Naram-Sin defies the will of the gods, he must be punished. He must realize and acknowledge his tragic error before he can receive assistance from the gods.\u201d[19]<\/a><\/p>\n

              Helpless characters make only an occasional appearance when the king, for some reason, is absent from the scene of the enemy threat. The other central character, the royal army, forms an extension of the king but has little personality otherwise. Counselors and religious personnel may play minor roles to carry out their functions.<\/p>\n

              Characters on the enemy side generally include only the enemy king and army who play their traditional roles as the representatives of chaos and destruction.<\/p>\n

              In the Tukulti-Ninurta Epic<\/em>, an elaborate exchange of letters creates a larger and more mimetic sense of the enemy king, Kashtiliash. With the ring of history, Tukulti-Ninurta reminds the enemy king of the long history of their relationship and accuses him of violating their treaty, perhaps, as Foster notes, with the possibility of reconciliation. Kashtiliash, however, replies with insults and refuses to let the Assyrian messengers return. Tukulti-Ninurta sends further indictments and calls upon the deity Shamash to vindicate him for keeping the treaty. Filled with fear at the impending trial by battle, Kashtiliash \u201coffers a soliloquy on his impending doom.\u201d[20]<\/a> Despite the realism, Kashtiliash plays the traditional role of the enemy king.<\/p>\n

              <\/a>3.3. The Beginning: Description of the King, Threat and Helplessness<\/h3>\n

              <\/a>3.3.1. Description of the king<\/h4>\n

              Since the royal battle narrative serves to exalt the king, the story may open with a description of the hero. The only impediment which might keep a king from immediately resolving the enemy threat is his absence from the scene.[21]<\/a> Otherwise, the king appears as the complete hero.<\/p>\n

              <\/a>3.3.2. Enemy\u2019s threat and power<\/h4>\n

              In the Legend of Naram Sin<\/em> (lines 31-62), a monstrous enemy arrives to wreak great devastation. The threat, created both by the enemy\u2019s proximity and their terrible power, is also found in the Battle of Kadesh;<\/em> there, the Hittite troops arrayed before the Egyptians are said to be like the sands of the sea (P 66). In general, however, the enemy\u2019s strength is attenuated in these royal stories. This shift may well reflect the actual historical facts behind these narratives, but it also reflects a movement away from elements that would denigrate the magnificence of the king, the most powerful figure in the story. Still, something of the initial tension is lost in the exchange.<\/p>\n

              The enemy\u2019s threat divides into four different types of wars, which account for variations in the opening of the story:<\/p>\n

                \n
              1. wars against outside aggressors who usually attack some outpost of the kingdom;<\/li>\n
              2. wars against rebels within the kingdom;[22]<\/a><\/li>\n
              3. wars of redress, i.e., wars waged to redress past atrocities by the enemy before the king\u2019s accession;[23]<\/a><\/li>\n
              4. wars of conquest.[24]<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                The first two types are similar to the threat posed by the enemy in the heroic pattern. The wars of redress begin with a history of the suffering and defeat endured in the past at the enemy’s hands. Kings wage wars of conquest to expand the kingdom in the name of their deity, and so the pattern begins with a scene of commission and preparation.<\/p>\n

                <\/a>3.3.3. Reaction of helplessness<\/h4>\n

                In the heroic battle narrative, the leader is the central character in the reaction of helplessness, but the motif is inappropriate for the kings because they are the battle heroes and the human leaders. Therefore, where the reaction of helplessness appears, the king must be absent from the scene of conflict.[25]<\/a> Furthermore, since the narrative is told from the king\u2019s point of view, often in the first person, the reaction of helplessness, where it appears, is not developed with the vigor seen in the heroic battle narratives. It may only be implicit in the need to call for the king.<\/p>\n

                <\/a>3.4. The Middle: Call and Commission with the Preparation for Battle.<\/h3>\n

                <\/a>3.4.1. Call and commission of the king by the helpless<\/h4>\n

                Since the king is hero by virtue of his kingship, the search for a hero becomes inappropriate, and likewise, there are no false heroes.[26]<\/a> Where helpless inhabitants appear, a messenger must bring their call for help to the king, as in the case of a vassal besieged by an enemy.[27]<\/a><\/p>\n

                <\/a>3.4.2. King\u2019s reaction of righteous indignation<\/h4>\n

                As seen in the previous chapter, the hero\u2019s stock response to the news of the enemy\u2019s threat is righteous indignation, and both Merneptah and Esarhaddon display their anger at the report of the enemy\u2019s villainy.[28]<\/a><\/p>\n

                <\/a>3.4.3. Divine call and commission of the king<\/h4>\n

                Kingship brings a duty to wage war. Technically speaking, the king\u2019s primary call and commission come with his accession to the throne, and Merneptah\u2019s accession is incorporated into the battle narrative.[29]<\/a> As a result, the call motif does not have the prominence found in the heroic pattern. Still, a divine commission for each battle is a regular feature.<\/p>\n

                The patterns for the call and commission confirm almost exclusively to the first two patterns found in the heroic narratives:<\/p>\n

                  \n
                1. The divine leader (calls and) commissions the king, and the king accepts.[30]<\/a><\/li>\n
                2. The king calls for the divine commission, and the divine leader grants the divine commission.[31]<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                  Normally, this scene contains no objection by either the king or the deity because it serves to underline the unanimity between the human and the divine.[32]<\/a><\/p>\n

                  As Kang says, \u201cThere was a profound conviction that no military action could succeed unless its plan had the prior approval of the gods.\u201d[33]<\/a> The king typically calls for the divine commission in one of four ways:<\/p>\n

                    \n
                  1. direct personal prayer,[34]<\/a><\/li>\n
                  2. sacrificia consultoria[35]<\/a><\/li>\n
                  3. sacrifices entreating the favor of the gods,[36]<\/a><\/li>\n
                  4. a vow which promises something in return for victory.[37]<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                    The divine oracle of commission, whether initiated by the god(s) or in answer to the king\u2019s call, is communicated in the following ways:<\/p>\n

                      \n
                    1. to the king himself
                      \na. by direct address,                      [38]<\/a>
                      \nb. by a dream;                      [39]<\/a><\/li>\n
                    2. a spontaneous oracle to a third person that is not a cultic person, for example, a person who reports a dream;[40]<\/a><\/li>\n
                    3. an answer to sacrificia consultoria, <\/em>as interpreted by the proper cultic personnel.<\/span>[41]<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                      These three orders represent a descending scale of dramatic intimacy in which direct personal contact is sacrificed more and more to the constrictions of ordinary experience. The sacrifices entreating favor and especially the vows do not envision either a direct or indirect response; likewise, the king\u2019s prayer in some narratives receives no reply, with the assumption that it is affirmative.[42]<\/a><\/p>\n

                      The divine commission may appear without further elaboration, as in the Moabite Stone,<\/em> where the deity Chemosh says to King Mesha: \u201cGo, take Nebo from Israel\u201d (line 14). The assurance of divine presence and aid is added to Amon\u2019s commission of Ramesses II: \u201cStraight on! Forward! I am with thee; I am thy father! My hand is with thee, for I am worth more to thee than hundreds of thousands, and I am the strong lord who loves valor.\u201d[43]<\/a> The commission to Esarhaddon is shorter but similar: \u201cGo (ahead), do not tarry! We will march with you and kill your enemies.\u201d[44]<\/a><\/p>\n

                      The encouragement motif (\u201cDo not fear\u201d) does not fit well with the vision of the king as the great and mighty warrior.[45]<\/a> Merneptah receives the commission both by an oracle from Amun and in a dream by Ptah. In preparation for the battle, he receives the gift of a sword with these words: \u201cThen his majesty saw in a dream, as if a [statue] of Ptah were standing near Pharaoh, l.p.h. He was high [\u2026] He was saying to him: \u201cSeize (it) here! And expel the foul heart from yourself.\u201d[46]<\/a><\/p>\n

                      The text may add the \u201chand-formula,\u201d a formula whereby the divine leader announces that the enemy has been given into the hand of the king.[47]<\/a> The formula is an extension of the assurance of divine presence and aid; with its introduction into a narrative, all pretense of dramatic tension disappears.<\/p>\n

                      Within the heroic tradition, the hero receives the divine commission as approval from the ultimate dimension within the hero\u2019s society. While this is a factor in the royal tradition, the divine commission also establishes a primary theme of the story: the identification of the king and deity in both person and action. The deity, particularly the head of the pantheon, is responsible for the protection and defense of the community, as is the king, who is the human manifestation of the divine king.<\/p>\n

                      <\/a>3.4.4. Preparation for battle: the arming of the leader and muster of the army<\/h4>\n

                      The Battle of Kadesh<\/em> recounts the arming of the hero with weapons, armor, and chariot for Ramesses\u00a0II.[48]<\/a> The muster of the army is the major motif of preparation in these narratives.[49]<\/a> The king may also call and commission the army and add an exhortation.[50]<\/a> Interestingly in the story of Ashur-uballi\u1e6d, the army delivers a speech and calls on the king to lead them into battle.[51]<\/a><\/p>\n

                      <\/a>3.4.5. Journey<\/h4>\n

                      Since the enemy is generally at some distance, the journey continually appears in these narratives, but the motif is not developed except in Shalmaneser in Ararat,<\/em> in which the journey serves as the frame for the battle narrative.<\/p>\n

                      <\/a>3.5. The Resolution: Victory, Plunder, and Recognition<\/h3>\n

                      <\/a>3.5.1. The verbal exchange between king and enemy<\/h4>\n

                      The king and enemy may carry out a verbal exchange, similar to that found in the heroic tradition. Typically it takes place through messengers rather than face to face on the battlefield as in the heroic pattern. Tukulti-Ninurta<\/em> offers the most interesting example with the exchange between messengers creating the central drama of the story.[52]<\/a> The enemy king may display his false confidence in this exchange or thereby add dramatic irony.[53]<\/a><\/p>\n

                      <\/a>3.5.2. Fight and the victory by the deity, king, and army<\/h4>\n

                      The royal fight scene ends almost as soon as it begins, sometimes being reduced to a simple statement of victory.[54]<\/a> These narratives typically recount the meeting of faceless armies whose diffuse and simultaneous actions do not lend themselves easily to the storyteller\u2019s art.[55]<\/a> This speed of the victory comes not from a lack of imagination but signifies central themes.<\/p>\n

                      First of all, the speed underlines the divine aid promised the king. This promise may be fulfilled concretely in the story with the deity or deities taking part in the battle as the divine hero who leads the king into battle, marches at his side, and fights.[56]<\/a> Kang, in particular, has demonstrated that \u201cfrom the pre-Sargonic period\u2026, the gods began to intervene in wars.\u201d Various Hittite and Mesopotamian deities aided their kings. In Mesopotamia, \u201cthe major divine warriors were rain-storm gods.\u201d[57]<\/a> Therefore, the storm and other meteorological images point to the divine hand by recalling these weather deities.[58]<\/a> Amun-Re, the sun god, was the primary divine warrior in Egypt. Still, as Manassa points out, other deities join him in \u201cthe earliest depiction of warfare,\u201d and the Merneptah Inscription<\/em> (42) proclaims, \u201cAll the gods have felled him [the enemy king] on account of Egypt.[59]<\/a> She goes on to point out that war in Egypt is a \u201ccosmic struggle\u201d with \u201cthe equation of foreigners to chaotic elements,\u201d and Merneptah \u201cas the earthly embodiment of Re\u201d and therefore the representative of the divine hero.[60]<\/a> Ramesses II also rushes into battle \u201clike Mont \u2026 like Ba\u02bfal,\u201d that is, like a god (P\u00a077, 155), and Tukulti-Ninurta\u00a0I has vestiges of the storm god as \u201cthe raging, pitiless storm.\u201d[61]<\/a><\/p>\n

                      Secondly, as G. Furlani has shown, Babylonia and Assyria conceived of every battle as a trial in which the righteous party necessarily won.[62]<\/a> From this perspective, a speedy victory represents a speedy verdict against the enemy and for the king.<\/p>\n

                      Finally, the speed is a sign of the king\u2019s magnificent power. Unlike the heroic narratives in which great power belongs to the enemy, the royal stories exalt the king\u2019s might which may be so great that it pre-empts the fight and leads directly to the enemy\u2019s recognition of defeat.[63]<\/a> The Hittite king, \u1e2aattu\u0161ili, announces that Ishtar goes before him and claims the heroic motif for himself: \u201cI personally conquered the enemy. When I killed the man who was in command, the enemy fled.\u201d[64]<\/a><\/p>\n

                      The poetic text of Ramesses II at Kadesh breaks the traditional royal pattern by having his army retreat leaving only the king surrounded by 2,500 Hittites chariots (P 83-87). He prays to Amun (P 92-127) and sends the enemy fleeing (P 128-165). Rebuking his cowardly army, he retells his victory, attributing it to Amun (P166-204). In a flashback, his shield-bearer begs him to stop, but he refuses (P 205-234). The army now recognizes the hero of the battle, and the king rebukes them again, saying: \u201cFair indeed is fame (\u201cname\u201d) won in battle, over and over.\u201d[65]<\/a> The single-handed combat brings this story closer to the heroic pattern, and so magnifies Ramesses\u2019 greatness.<\/p>\n

                      <\/a>3.5.3. The enemy\u2019s recognition of defeat and their destruction or capture<\/h4>\n

                      As in the heroic narrative, the victory brings about the enemy\u2019s recognition of defeat and leads to a reaction of helplessness: fear and flight. The royal army, already responsible for the victory, pursues and inflicts great or total destruction upon the enemy.[66]<\/a> Even so, the enemy king does not necessarily die in the conflict, unlike his counterpart in the narratives of single-combat. The enemy king may escape,[67]<\/a> or he may be captured[68]<\/a> and become part of the scene of recognition.[69]<\/a> These events rob the climax of its utter decisiveness but reflect a more realistic or even historical portrayal of the battle.<\/p>\n

                      In the Merneptah\u2019s battle against the Libyans, the storyteller states that \u201cthere was none that escaped among them\u201d (the Libyans), yet he contradicts this by reporting that the Libyan king fled, \u201chis heart fearing.\u201d This news comes to the pharaoh with information about a new Libyan king who had opposed the old (\u00a7583-586). The specific details of the escape and new appointment have the marks of unique historical fact, yet this is mixed blithely with the traditional statement that no one escaped. In the royal tradition, however, the storyteller\u2019s fidelity to the tradition and even to history more often gives way to a more basic loyalty, the storyteller\u2019s loyalty to the king and the king\u2019s glory.<\/p>\n

                      <\/a>3.5.4, Plunder, Recognition,\u00a0 and Reward of the Deity and King<\/h4>\n

                      Plunder figures prominently in the royal narrative, along with the recognition of the divine and human heroes. As Kang points out, \u201cit is natural that the spoils belong to the gods, for a war is the war of gods,\u201d[70]<\/a> Kang links this to the Moabite Stone where Mesha \u201ckilled every one of [it]\u2014seven thousand native men, foreign men, native women, for[eign] \/ women, concubines\u2014for I devoted (\u1e25rm<\/em>) it to \u02bfAshtar-Kemosh.\u201d[71]<\/a> Kang ties this to the \u1e25\u0113rem <\/em>or \u201cban,\u201d which plays a vital role in biblical texts, but it has not been found elsewhere in the ancient Near East beyond the Moabite Stone.[72]<\/a> The ban has, of course, received great attention from biblical scholars and theologians, but, for this study, the biblical \u1e25\u0113rem<\/em> or ban serves the recognition of the divine hero, whatever it may have meant historically or may mean for us today. [73]<\/a><\/p>\n

                      In Shalmaneser in Ararat<\/em>, the king carries out a festival and \u201cwith joy in A\u0161\u0161ur the lordliness of a lion [\u2026] with all his lands pronounced A\u0161\u0161ur [blessed].\u201d In the prose account the king says: \u201cI made for myself a large royal stele, [inscribed] on it the praise of A\u0161\u0161ur my lord and the power of my might of which I had given evidence in the land of Urartu.\u201d[74]<\/a><\/p>\n

                      The recognition of the human victory undergoes some alteration since a king cannot easily recognize himself as a hero though Merneptah does it.[75]<\/a> Most logically, perhaps, the divine leader (s) should recognize the hero-king, as in the Battle of Kadesh<\/em> on Ramesses\u2019 return to Egypt.[76]<\/a> A captured enemy king, accompanied by appropriate tribute, may assume for this duty.[77]<\/a> A neighboring king may offer the conquering king tribute, whether under duress or of their own accord.[78]<\/a> Finally, the army or even the enemy army in Kurigalzu<\/em> may acknowledge the hero.[79]<\/a><\/p>\n

                      The scene of recognition is of special importance for Esarhaddon. Though he has been appointed crown prince by his father, Esarhaddon has not yet become king when his rebel brothers assassinate their father. Esarhaddon pre-empts the fight with a brilliant show of power, interpreted in the imagery of divine heroes, and this causes the rebel army to defect and proclaim, \u201cThis is our king.\u201d The Assyrian people come next to kiss their king\u2019s feet, and then, as the hero of the battle, Esarhaddon takes possession of the royal city and the throne of his father. The scene of recognition ends with the gods registering their acknowledgment through portents, omens, and oracles.[80]<\/a> This narrative preserves the traditional tie between the victorious hero and the reward of kingship to justify Esarhaddon\u2019s accession.<\/p>\n

                      The king may also set up a monument to mark the victory. As Weinfeld points out, this is connected with the establishment of a \u201cname forever.\u201d[81]<\/a> In several instances below, the erection of a stele is connected to the king\u2019s recognition of the god(s) as the divine hero, a motif expressed by sacrifice, etc.[82]<\/a> Weippert lists the return journey and the disbanding of the army as other concluding motifs.[83]<\/a><\/p>\n

                      <\/a>3.6. Conclusion<\/h3>\n

                      This survey is by no means exhaustive. It does not attempt to isolate the peculiarities of specific cultures. Instead, I have tried to show that the royal pattern is a variation of the heroic pattern, which results from the combination of the human hero and leader into a single character\u2014the king. Appendix 2 provides a list of these motifs. Again this pattern is a theoretical model, a distillation of the tradition, as is the heroic pattern. Both are descriptive rather than prescriptive. The close between the two appears most clearly in the Battle of Kadesh,<\/em> where the lone king defeats a great army. However, the royal storytellers are less interested in the drama of the story than are their heroic counterparts. Narrative tension and retardation give way to the exaltation of the king and his identification with the deity. In short, the battle narrative has become a tool of royal propaganda.<\/p>\n

                      <\/a>3.7. Footnotes for Chapter 3<\/h3>\n
                      \n
                      \n

                      [1]<\/a> Except for a passing reference to the Assyrian use of mercenaries, von Rad does not point to the larger ANE context; Holy War in Ancient Israel<\/em>, 124, n. 12.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [2]<\/a> M. Weippert, \u201cHeiliger Krieg,\u201d 460\u2011493.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [3]<\/a> W. Richter\u2019s work focused particularly on vocabulary; Traditionsgeschtliche Untersuchungen zum Richterbuch<\/em> (Bonner Biblishe Beitr\u00e4ge 18; Bonn: P. Hastein, 21966) 262\u2011266. For Assyrian other examples of the battle report, cf. the annalistic reports of Shalmaneser III in ANET<\/em>3, 276\u2011280. Cf. also Manfred Weippert, \u201cDie K\u00e4mpfe des assyrischen K\u00f6nigs Assurbanipal gegen die Araber: Redaktionskritische Untersuchung des Berichts in Prisma A,\u201d Die Welt des Orients<\/em>, 7.1 (1973) 39-85. This longer report offers a good example of a historical report with its many details and people. It makes clear that Ashurbanipal acts at the command of his many deities and that Umwaite\u1fbd receives the curses of the oath he has violated, but the text is not interested in narrative tension and resolution. Michael G. Hasel has also produced a descriptive survey of siege tactics and the destruction of life support systems in the ancient Near East; Military Practice and Polemic: Israel\u2019s Laws of Warfare in Near Eastern Perspective<\/em> (Berrien Springs, MI: Andrews University Press, 2005).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [4]<\/a> K. Lawson Younger, Jr. Ancient Conquest Accounts: A Study in Ancient Near Eastern and Biblical History Writing<\/em>, Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, Supplement Series, 98 (Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1990), 72-79. His \u201csyntagms\u201d with correlation to this study in brackets are as follows: A. spatio-temporal coordinates; B. disorder [tension]; C. divine aid [divine commission]; D. gathering of the troops [muster]; E. move from place to place [journey]; F. presence of the deity [deity as hero]; G. flight; H. pursuit; I. combat; L. outcome of the combat [destruction of the enemy and plunder]; M. submission; N. exemplary punishment; O. consequences; P. acts of celebration [recognition of deity and king]; Q. return [journey]; R. supplemental royal activities on the campaign [recognition]; S. summary statement; T. geographic note. What I find interesting about Younger\u2019s motifs is the occurrence of flight and pursuit after the appearance of the deity and before the battle. As outlined in the heroic pattern, the enemy\u2019s flight is a reaction to the recognition of helplessness after the defeat of the enemy hero. The \u201ccombat\u201d comes here only after the pursuit of the enemy. This alteration of the pattern underlines the power of the deity and of the king.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [5]<\/a> Younger, Ancient Conquest Accounts, <\/em>243.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [6]<\/a> Joan Goodnick Westenholz, surveys the various fragments along with Amarna Recension in Text 9B: \u201cKing of Battle.\u201d in her Legends of the Kings of Akkad<\/em> (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1997), pp. 102-140. Also cf. Foster, Before the Muses<\/em>, vol. I, 103-108.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [7]<\/a> Cuthean<\/em> Legend<\/em> of<\/em> Naram<\/em> Sin: <\/em>Joan Goodnick Westenholz has published the various Babylonian texts related to this narrative which she renames \u201cNaram-Sin and the Enemy Hordes\u201d: The \u201cCuthean Legend,\u201d in her Legends of the Kings of Akkad<\/em>, Texts 20-22, pp. 263-368; Text 2: The Standard Babylonian Recension, pp. 294-331. Cf. also Peter Machinist\u2019s comparison of the historian\u2019s perspective in this text with that of the Deuteronomistic History in \u201cThe Voice of the Historian in the Ancient Near Eastern and Mediterranean World,\u201d Interpretation<\/em> 57. 2 (2003) 117-137. Westenholz has also gathered a number of literary texts recounting the heroic deeds of Sargon and Naram Sin. All are rather fragmentary; still, a few references are included below.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [8]<\/a> \u201cThe Apology of \u1e2aattu\u0161ili\u201d has been translated by Th. P. J. van den Hout, in Context of Scripture<\/em>, edited by William W. Hallo and K. Lawson Younger (Leiden: Brill, 2003) vol. 1, pp. 199-203. J. Randall Short comments extensively on the relationship of this text to the \u201cHistory of the Rise of David\u201d (1 Samuel 16 \u2013 2 Samuel 5) in his The Surprising Election and Confirmation of King David<\/em>, Harvard Theological Studies 63 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2010). As he shows, the text is a justification by \u1e2aattu\u0161ili for his rebellion. It is more of a historical document than a literary document. Still, it emphasizes his devotion and reliance particularly on Ishtar which fits with the typical call and commission in the royal pattern.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [9]<\/a> Battle<\/em> of<\/em> Kadesh<\/em>: A. Gardiner, The<\/em> Kadesh<\/em> Inscription<\/em> of<\/em> Ramesses<\/em> II<\/em> (Oxford: Griffith Institute, 1960) 7-14. Gardiner refers to the text in question by the letter \u201cP\u201d which stands for \u201cpoetic text\u201d although he notes that the text is not in verse. I have quoted the newer translation by K. A. Kitchen, \u201cRamesses II (2.5): The Battle of Qadesh: The Poem, or Literary Record,\u201d in Context of Scripture<\/em>, edited by William W. Hallo and K. Lawson Younger (Leiden: Brill, 2003) vol. 2, pp. 32-38.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [10]<\/a> Merneptah Inscription<\/em>: Colleen Manassa, The Great Karnak Inscription of Merneptah: Grand Strategy in the 13th Century B.C.<\/em> Yale Egyptological Studies (New Haven, CT: Yale Egyptological Seminar, 2003). Originally in J.H. Breasted, Ancient<\/em> Records<\/em> of<\/em> Egypt<\/em> (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1906\u20111907) III, \u00a7572\u2011592. Manassa divides the narratives into sixteen sections that correspond closely to the pattern of the battle narrative:<\/p>\n

                      1. List of enemies (1\u00a0with some text lost here and elsewhere) [= threat], 2.\u00a0Merneptah as a warrior (2-6); [= description of the warrior], 3.\u00a0vanguard of the enemy (7); [= threat], 4. the beloved land without a champion (8-9) [= reaction of helplessness], 5.\u00a0Merneptah: Champion of Egypt (10-12) [= hero], 6. One came to say: \u201cThe Libyans attack.\u201d (133-15a) [= threat], 7.\u00a0Merneptah\u2019s address: Pharaoh rages (15b-19) [= The king describes the threat ], 8. Conclusion of Merneptah\u2019s address and oath (21-25) [= He claims his role as hero.], 9. The oracle and preparation for battle (26-28a) [= divine commission], 10.\u00a0Message of Ptah: the divine dream (28-30a) [= divine commission], 11.\u00a0The victory of the battle of Perire (30b-40a) [= the victory; the Egyptian army destroys the enemy \u201cwithout a remnant amongst them\u201d and the enemy leader flees], 12.\u00a0Frontier report and speech of the captives (40b-44) [reports are unable to confirm the death of the enemy king], 13.\u00a0Aftermath of the Battle: Egypt rejoices (45-48a) [= army bearing plunder and recognition by \u201cthe entire land rejoicing\u201d], 14.\u00a0The plunder list 48b-61) [= plunder including the other enemy chiefs brought alive before the hero-king], 15.\u00a0Royal appearance and speeches of Merneptah (62-73a) [= recognition of the hero-king who appears and gives a speech announcing the death of the enemy king by his tribe and recognizing his deities], 16.\u00a0Speech of the Council of Thirty and concluding praise (73b-79) [= recognition of the hero-king by others].<\/p>\n

                      Manassa classifies this text as a \u201cK\u00f6nigsnovelle\u201d (107) because it \u201cserves functionally as royal propaganda, specifically focused upon actions performed by the king in order to preserve cosmic order\u201d (109). Still from the standpoint of plot, the text belongs to the genre of the battle narrative.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [11]<\/a> Kurigalzu<\/em>: A fragment telling of the battle, the flight and capture of the enemy king is known: A.K. Grayson, Babylonian<\/em> Historical\u2011Literary<\/em> Texts<\/em> (Toronto Semitic Texts and Studies 3; Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1975) Ch. 5, esp. p. 52-55. As he says, \u201cThe main source for the Kurigalzu epic is oddly enough, Chronicle P. This chronicle quotes extensively from an epic in its description of two battles fought by Kurigalzu. It is possible that the fragment in chapter 5 in which the hostilities with Elam are narrated is part of the same epic\u201d (42). Chronicle P is found as \u201cChronicle 22\u201d in A.K. Grayson, Assyrian and Babylonian Chronicles<\/em>, Texts from Cuneiform Sources 5 (Locust City, NY: J.J. Austin, 1975) 170-177. The same text is also translated as \u201c\u201d45. Chronicles of the Kassite Kings\u201d in Jean-Jacques Glassner, Mesopotamian Chronicles<\/em>, edited by Benjamin R. Foster (Leiden: Brill, 2005) 278-281.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [12]<\/a> Ashur-uballi\u1e6d<\/em>: For the text see R.C. Thompson, \u201cVII. The Excavations on Nab\u00fb at Nineveh,\u201d Archaeologia<\/em> 79 (1929) 103-148, esp. 131\u2011132, and the commentary in Thompson, Annals<\/em> of<\/em> Archaeology<\/em> and<\/em> Anthropology<\/em> 20 (1933) 116\u2011117. This fragment tells of the army calling Ashur-uballi\u1e6d II (c. 1386-1369) to battle against the king of the Kassites.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [13]<\/a> Adad-narari Epic<\/em>: E. Weidner, \u201cAssyrische Epen \u00fcber die Kassiten K\u00e4mpfe,\u201d Archiv f\u00fcr Orientforschung<\/em>, 20 (1963) 113\u2011116. Grayson, Chronicles<\/em>, 57, n.\u00a065.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [14]<\/a> Tukulti-Ninurta Epic<\/em> is translated by Foster in Before the Muses<\/em>, vol. I, pp. 211-230 with information on the various text on p. 230, and for the citations, I have followed his indications. For the recent discussions dealing with the relation of this text to the Bible, cf. P. Machinist, \u201cLiterature as Politics: The Tukulti Ninurta Epic and the Bible,\u201d Catholic Biblical Quarterly<\/em> 36 (1976) 455\u2011482, and P.C. Craigie, \u201cThe Song of Deborah and the Epic of Tukulti Ninurta,\u201d Journal of Biblical Literature<\/em> \u00a088 (1969) 253\u2011265. On Ninurta as a divine warrior, cf. Kang, Divine War<\/em>, 24-31.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [15]<\/a> Shalmaneser in Ararat<\/em>: W.G. Lambert, \u201cThe Sultantepe Tablets: VIII. Shalmaneser in Ararat,\u201d Anatolian<\/em> Studies<\/em> 11 (1961) 143\u2011158. Lambert includes both a prose account and a poetic account which \u201cunlike the hundreds of other Assyrian royal inscriptions containing annalistic material this one is\u2014uniquely, so far as the present writer knows\u2014poetry\u201d (143). The prose account contains several battle reports (147-149). The poetic text contains only some sixty lines (149-153).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [16]<\/a> Esarhaddon<\/em>: R. Borger, Die<\/em> Inschriften<\/em> Assarhaddons<\/em>, K\u00f6nigs<\/em> von<\/em> Assyrien<\/em> (Archiv f\u00fcr Orientforschung,<\/em> Beiheft 9; Graz: 1956; Osnabru\u0308ck: Biblio-Verlag, 1967) \u00a727; English translation in ANET<\/em>3, 289\u2011290; Weippert also discusses the text; \u201cHeiliger Krieg,\u201d 466\u2011468.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [17]<\/a> Moabite<\/em> Stone<\/em>: Kent P. Jackson and J. Andrew Dearman, \u201cThe Text of the Mesha\u02bf Inscription,\u201d and Kent P. Jackson, \u201cThe Language of the Mesha\u02bf Inscription\u201d in Studies in the Mesha Inscription and Moab<\/em>, ed. Andrew Dearman (Atlanta, GA: Scholars Press, 1989) 93-95, 96-130. Aarnoud van der Deijl, Protest or Propaganda: War in the Old Testament Book of Kings and in Contemporaneous Ancient Near Eastern Texts <\/em>(Leiden: Brill, 2008) 304-339.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [18]<\/a> Kang, Divine War<\/em>, 108-110.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [19]<\/a> Westenholz, Legends, <\/em>264.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [20]<\/a> Foster, Before the Muses<\/em>, 216-221.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [21]<\/a> Battle of Kadesh<\/em>, P 1-24; Legend of Naram Sin<\/em>, 1-30; Esarhaddon<\/em>, I 1-9. Except in the Legend of Naram Sin<\/em>, the king\u2019s absence from the scene of conflict is the only impediment to his dissolving the enemy\u2019s threat immediately.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [22]<\/a> Cf. Esarhaddon<\/em>, in which the hero\u2019s brother kills the old king and father, Sennacherib.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [23]<\/a> Moabite Stone<\/em>, 1\u20119; Merneptah Inscription<\/em>, 1, 7, 18-23.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [24]<\/a> Weippert, \u201cHeiliger Krieg,\u201d 469, 487\u2011488, 492; cf. Shalmaneser in Ararat <\/em>where the Assyrian king wages a fierce war of conquests which causes others to come with tribute; poetic text, 56-57. Weippert points out that the wars of conquest are undertaken at the will of the god; there is no qualm of conscience about undertaking an offensive war. Younger, Ancient Conquest Accounts, passim.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [25]<\/a> Merneptah\u2019s Inscription<\/em>, 8-9: the narrator describes the situation before the pharaoh\u2019s appearance.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [26]<\/a> The retreating Egyptian army in the Battle<\/em> of<\/em> Kadesh<\/em>, (P 74\u201175) can be analyzed as a false hero whose failure brings the hero into the battle.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [27]<\/a> Merneptah Inscription<\/em> 15b: \u201craged like a lion\u201d; also Josh 10:6. The King<\/em> of<\/em> Battle<\/em> Epic<\/em> (Tel el\u2011Amarna edition), merchants call upon King Sargon to defeat the oppressive king, and they offer to pay for the campaign, a very businesslike reward (ll. 13-21); Westenholz, Legends<\/em>, 114-117.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [28]<\/a> Esarhaddon<\/em>, I 53\u201159; Merneptah Inscription<\/em> 15b.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [29]<\/a> Merneptah Inscription<\/em> 10-12. Esarhaddon<\/em>, I 8\u201122: The hero is designated as heir to the throne by his father, the gods, and the people; this likewise functions as a primary call and commission which allows Esarhaddon to act like a king even though his enthronement comes after the battle. Note also the \u201cApology of \u1e2aattu\u0161ili\u201d \u00a711 = 4:7-40; for most of this story, the hero is not a king in his own right and thus receives commissions to wage war from his brother the king; cf. \u00a75 = 1:66; \u00a76 = 2:20; \u00a77 = 2:35.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [30]<\/a> Merneptah Inscription<\/em> 26-28a contains an oracle announcing that \u201cAmun has assented,\u201d and in 28b-30a, Ptah appears in a dream saying \u201cSeize it here\u201d while giving Merneptah \u201cthe scimitar.\u201d A dream is found in Shalmaneser in Ararat<\/em>, poetic text, 25\u201130; \u201cApology of \u1e2aattu\u0161ili\u201d \u00a711 = 4:7\u201115; Moabite Stone, 14.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [31]<\/a> Battle<\/em> of<\/em> Kadesh<\/em>, P 92-123. Legend<\/em> of<\/em> Naram Sin<\/em>, 72\u201183, 99\u2011114+; Esarhaddon<\/em>, I 60\u201162. In Text 13: \u201cErra and Naram-Sin\u201d 1-15, Ishtar commissions the hero and grants him weapons; Westenholz, Legends, 192-195, ll. 1-15.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [32]<\/a> An exception is found in the Legend<\/em> of<\/em> Naram<\/em> Sin<\/em>. The king calls and gathers his seers to seek an oracle, but the gods refuse to grant the commission. Against their will, Naram\u2011Sin goes out against the enemy and meets with defeat, followed by a reaction of helplessness (72\u201183, 84\u201187, 88\u201198). In the fourth year, the gods at the behest of Ea (seemingly) grant the king an oracle of commission\u00a0 (99\u2011114+). The importance of seeking an oracle of commission is stressed again toward the end when the king is faced with deciding the fate of his prisoners. In the Tukulti-Ninurta Epic<\/em>, iii (A obv.) 41\u2019-46\u2019, the enemy king Kashtiliash complains that he is unable to obtain a divine commission by oracle or dream\u2014an indication of rejection by the gods; see also 1\u00a0Sam 28 where Saul has Samuel conjured up without effect.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [33]<\/a> Kang, Divine War<\/em>, 42.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [34]<\/a> Tukulti-Ninurta, ii (=A obv.) 11\u02b9-24\u02b9: prayer to Shamash; Esarhaddon<\/em>, I 59\u201160; Battle<\/em> of<\/em> Kadesh<\/em>, P 91\u2011125; Ashur-uballi\u1e6d<\/em>, ii 2\u201118. The first two kings receive a direct reply. Scholes and Kellogg note: \u201cPrayer, in particular, was designed in ancient literature to reveal thought and character with unquestionable validity, and this attitude persists right up through Shakespeare\u201d; Nature of Narrative<\/em>, 200-201.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [35]<\/a> Weippert, \u201cHeiliger Krieg,\u201d 470\u2011472. Sacrificia<\/em> consultoria<\/em> are found in the Legend<\/em> of<\/em> Naram<\/em> Sin<\/em> and in the Tukulti-Ninurta Epic<\/em> iii 41-46, the enemy king is denied omens and dreams. Cf. also Esarhaddon<\/em>, I 61. Kang discusses these sacrifices in some detail; Divine War,<\/em> 42-45, 56-65, 98-101.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [36]<\/a> Shalmaneser in Ararat<\/em>, poetic text, 41: sacrifices are offered even though the king has received a divine commission in a dream.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [37]<\/a> There are no vows in this selection of royal narratives, but Weippert treats vows in \u201cHeiliger Krieg,\u201d 476, n. 74. Alice Logan also discusses the vow during biblical warfare found in Num 21:23; Joshua 6-7; Judg 8:4-21; Judg 11:30 and 1 Sam 14; she notes that \u201call underscore the seriousness of wartime pledges and the encumbrances that deals with the deity placed on those who made them\u201d; \u201cRehabilitating Jephthah,\u201d Journal of Biblical Literature<\/em> 128.4 (2009) 665-685. Younger does not list it as a motif in his Ancient Conquest Accounts.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [38]<\/a> Battle<\/em> of<\/em> Kadesh<\/em>, P 125\u2011127: Amun says: \u201cForward! I am with you. I am your father, my hand is with you! I am more useful to you than hundred-thousands of men, I am the Lord of Victory, who loves bravery.\u201d Moabite Stone<\/em>, 14. Kang in Divine War<\/em> discusses oracles and signs in Mesopotamia (42-43), Anatolia (56-62), in Syro-Palestine (79-80) and Egypt (98-99).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [39]<\/a> Merneptah Inscription<\/em>, 28b-30a; Manassa also discusses dreams in Egyptian texts, 117-119; Shalmaneser in Ararat<\/em>, poetic text, 25\u201130 according to Lambert\u2019s text: \u201cA\u0161\u0161ur inspired me with confidence and [showed me a dream,]\u201d (25). Dreams play an important role in the \u201cApology of \u1e2aattu\u0161ili,\u201d \u00a73 = 1:9-21; \u00a79 = 3:1-13; in \u00a711 = 4:7-40, the goddess appears to his generals and to his wife saying: \u201c”I will march ahead of your husband and all of Hattusa will turn to (the side) of your husband.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [40]<\/a> Weippert has used the term \u201cspontane<\/em> Orakel<\/em>\u201d; \u201cHeiliger Krieg\u201d 471. He cites an example of a dream to a third person in the Prism of Ashurbanipal<\/em> A, III 118\u2011127.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [41]<\/a> Weippert, \u201cHeiliger Krieg,\u201d 470\u2011471.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [42]<\/a> Ashur<\/em>\u2011uballi\u1e6d<\/em>, ii 2\u201118.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [43]<\/a> Battle<\/em> of<\/em> Kadesh<\/em>, P 125\u2011130.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [44]<\/a> Esarhaddon<\/em>, I 61\u201162. Shalmaneser in Ararat<\/em>, poetic text, 25\u201130: \u201cA\u0161\u0161ur inspired me with confidence and [showed me a dream], the rest is largely obliterated except for the assurance of divine presence and aid, \u201cMay Ninurta go before you, may Girru follow at your rear.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [45]<\/a> For the motifs of assurance and encouragement in a different context, cf. \u201cApology of \u1e2aattu\u0161ili\u201d \u00a74 = 1:37\u201138.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [46]<\/a> Merneptah Inscription<\/em>, 28b-29. According to Manassa, the command to \u201cexpel the foul heart from yourself\u201d refers to the \u201cfoul heart\u201d of the enemy king; Great Karnak Inscription <\/em>118. Breasted, however, translated it: \u201cand banish thou the fearful heart from thee\u201d (\u00a7 582) which would be more traditional. While Manassa tries to exclude this reading on the basis of grammar (the preposition \u0131<\/em>\u0357m<\/em> can imply both \u201cwithin\u201d and \u201cfrom\u201d) and also the lack of other indications that \u201cMerneptah\u2019s heart ever possessed the quality of \u1e25w\u025c<\/em>,\u201d the tradition does not always follow logic.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [47]<\/a> Weippert, \u201cHeiliger Krieg,\u201d 472\u2011473, n. 54. The biblical tradition is surveyed by von Rad in Holy War in Ancient Israel<\/em>, 42-44; also C. Westermann, Prophetic Oracles of Salvation in the Old Testament, <\/em>translated by. Keith Crim (Louisville, KY: Westminster\/John Knox Press, 1991) 24-25 where \u201c\u00dcbergabeformel\u201d is translated as the \u201cconveyance formula\u201d; in this text I have referred to it as the \u201chand-formula.\u201d Kang discusses the formula in a Mari letter; Divine War<\/em>, 43-45, 67. Also van der Deijl, Protest or Propaganda, <\/em>289-290.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [48]<\/a> Ramesses, informed of his army\u2019s retreat, girds for battle and mounts his chariot drawn by \u201cVictory of Thebes,\u201d he being \u201clike his father Mont…like Ba\u02bfal\u2026\u201d; Battle<\/em> of<\/em> Kadesh<\/em>, P 76\u201180. Note also the sword given to the pharaoh in Merneptah Inscription<\/em> 29. Manassa notes that \u201cthe image of the god handing the khepesh scimitar to the king is a ubiquitous motif in the New Kingdom reliefs and inscriptions\u201d and \u201cis accompanied by statements proclaiming the inevitable victory of the king over the enemies to be smitten with the divinely given weapons; Great Karnak Inscription, <\/em>117-118.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [49]<\/a> Cf. Iliad<\/em> XVI 155\u2011220; also Battle<\/em> of<\/em> Kadesh<\/em>, P 25\u201128 following the initial description of Ramesses. In Weippert\u2019s pattern of motifs, the muster of the troops follows immediately after the report of the enemy threat; \u201cHeiliger Krieg,\u201d 269. In the Merneptah Inscription <\/em>15b-25, 30, the pharaoh gives his army or people a speech to lay out the enemy threat and encourage them who \u201care trembling like birds,\u201d and at the beginning of the battle the army gathers in rank. In Cf. also Shalmaneser in Ararat, <\/em>poetic text 17-19. In Ashur-uballi\u1e6d<\/em> and Esarhaddon<\/em>, the muster follows the divine commission as in the heroic pattern. The army may also be called and commissioned; typically an exhortation is included. For the muster see also Kang, Divine War<\/em>, in Egypt, 100-101.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [50]<\/a> King<\/em> of<\/em> Battle<\/em> Epic<\/em> (OB edition) 1\u20119; Battle<\/em> of<\/em> Kadesh<\/em>, P 167\u2011195, 250\u2011277; Shalmaneser in Ararat<\/em>, poetic text 17\u201124. In Text 13: \u201cErra and Naram-Sin\u201d 1-15, the hero receives weapons from Ishtar; Westenholz, Legends<\/em>, 195, l. 16. Kang notes the ritual of the soldier\u2019s oath in Anatolia; Divine War<\/em>, 63.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [51]<\/a> Ashur-uballi\u1e6d<\/em>, ii\u00a02\u201122: This speech ends with the prayer (ii 22): \u201cAnd may the Sun-god cause our lord [i.e. Ashur-uballi\u1e6d] to attain in the revolt a glorious name o\u2019er the king of the Kassites!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [52]<\/a> Tukulti-Ninurta Epic<\/em>, ii (=A obv.) 26ff; ii (= F col. \u201cx\u201d) 10\u2019; iii (=A obv.) 1\u2019-20\u2019; iv (A rev.) 11\u2019-33\u2019. In Adad\u2011narari Epic<\/em>, the verbal exchange is the only extant part of the story. See also in Westenholz, Legends<\/em>, Text 12: \u201cNaram-Sin and the Lord of Api\u0161al,\u201d col v and vi, pp. 182-187; Text 13: \u201cErra and Naram-Sin,\u201d ll. 19-23, p. 95.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [53]<\/a> King<\/em> of<\/em> Battle<\/em> Epic<\/em> (Tel el\u2011Amarna edition), ll. rev. 3-7; Weippert, \u201cHeiliger Krieg,\u201d 478, n. 84.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [54]<\/a> An exception would be Ashur-uballi\u1e6d <\/em>ii 23-45 which describes the deities leading the hero into battle as he cries: \u201cI am Ashur-uballi\u1e6d, the destroying giant\u201d\u2014with his army \u201ceager for the fray\u201d like lions and whirlwinds.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [55]<\/a> In the Legend<\/em> of<\/em> Naram<\/em> Sin<\/em>, three initial failures by the king extend the battle scene. The ambush would also seem to be a conventional way of drawing out a battle; cf. Tukulti-Ninurta Epic<\/em> iv (=A rev.) 36\u2019-40 where the enemy tries to ambush the Assyrians but fail; Joshua 8; Judg 9:34\u201145; 20:29\u201148.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [56]<\/a> Ashur-uballi\u1e6d<\/em>, 25\u201132 lists Ashur, Bel, Anu, the Crescent Moon, Adad, the Sun-god, Ninurta and Ishtar leading the king at the forefront of his army; Esarhaddon<\/em>, I 72; \u201cApology of \u1e2aattu\u0161ili\u201d \u00a76 = 2:24; \u00a77 = 2:37; \u00a711 = 4:8: \u201cMy Lady, marched ahead of me.\u201d In the \u201cDeeds of \u0160uppiluliuma\u201d translated by Harry A. Hoffner, Jr., the Hittite text repeats thirteen times the phrase: \u201cThe gods (of my father) marched before PN\u201d; in Context of Scripture<\/em>, vol. 1, pp. 185-191. Cf. also von Rad, Holy War in Ancient Israel<\/em>, 48-49. Rowlett, Joshua<\/em>, 54-65.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [57]<\/a> Kang, Divine War<\/em>, 23. 45-46, 101-105, and his summary 108-109.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [58]<\/a> Weippert, \u201cHeiliger Krieg,\u201d 479; cf. King<\/em> of<\/em> Battle<\/em> Epic<\/em> (OB edition), 59\u201163. Both the heroes of Baal<\/em> and<\/em> Yamm <\/em>and Ullikummis are storm gods; note also Marduk\u2019s army of meteorological forces.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [59]<\/a> Manassa, The Great Karnak Inscription<\/em>, 119.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [60]<\/a> Manassa, The Great Karnak Inscription<\/em>, 122-124.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [61]<\/a> Tulukti Ninurta, iv (=A rev.) 41\u02b9.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [62]<\/a> G. Furlani, \u201cLe guerre quali guidizi di dio presso i Babilonesi e Assiri,\u201d Miscellanea<\/em> Giovanni<\/em> Galbiati<\/em> (Fontes Ambrosiani 27; Milan: U. Hoepli, 1951) III, 39\u201147, esp. 47. Also R.M. Good, \u201cThe Just War in Ancient Israel,\u201d Journal of Biblical Literature<\/em> \u00a0104.3 (1985) 385-400; Kang, Divine War,<\/em> 14-15 and 108 where he notes that the \u201clawsuit chiefly appears in the Hittite and Mesopotamian historical sources, but not in the Egyptian historical sources\u201d; Younger, Ancient Conquest Accounts<\/em>, 236-237.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [63]<\/a> King<\/em> of<\/em> Battle<\/em> Epic<\/em> (OB edition), 65\u201168; Esarhaddon<\/em>, I 72\u201173; Weippert, \u201cHeiliger Krieg\u201d 477.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [64]<\/a> \u201cApology of \u1e2aattu\u0161ili\u201d \u00a77 \u2013 2:31-47. See also Harry A. Hoffner, Jr., \u201cA Hittite Analogue to the David and Goliath Combat of Champions?\u201d Catholic Biblical Quarterly\u00a0<\/em>30 (1968) 220-225. He translates the short Hittite text. Hoffner argues that this is a contest of champions parallel to the fight between David and Goliath in which a fighter from each side fights as a representative. Roland de Vaux suggested this phenomenon existed in Greece and the ancient Near East in his \u201cLes combats singuliers dans l\u2019Ancien Testament,\u201d Bibica <\/em>40 (1959) 495-508; translated as \u201cSingle Combat in the Old Testament\u201d in The Bible and the Ancient Near East, <\/em>translated by Damian McHugh (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1971) 122-135.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [65]<\/a> P257: Kitchen\u2019s translation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [66]<\/a> Younger notes that the outcome of the battle results in either destruction or acquisition. In the Assyrian texts and Hittite text, the destruction is massive; war in the ancient Near East brought slaves, and so total destruction was against the interests of the victor. Under hyperbole Younger cites the common phrase in Egyptian military accounts: \u2018who makes them non-existent\u201d; Ancient Conquest Accounts<\/em>, 75-76, 190-192. In Text 13: \u201cErra and Naram Sin,\u201d ll. 33-45: Erra and Naram-Sin join forces in the battle against Enlil and in the \u201cattack (on) the cities of the enemies [\u2026]. Westenholz, Legends of the Kings of Akkad<\/em>, 197-199. Kurigalzu, in Chronicle P ii 4-6: \u201cdid not leave a soul\u201d; even so, another battle takes place in column iii.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [67]<\/a> Merneptah Inscription<\/em> 40b-44; Esarhaddon<\/em> I 82\u201184. In the \u201cApology of \u1e2aattu\u0161ili,\u201d the Hittite king spares the life of Ur\u1e2bite\u0161ub, but when the enemy king \u201cplotted another plot against me, and wanted to ride to Babylon\u2014when I heard the matter, I seized him and sent him alongside the sea\u201d; \u00a711 = 4:7-40. The passage shows the marks of being shaped by historical rather than traditional forces.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [68]<\/a> In Kurigalzu<\/em> obv.(?) ii (?) 17-19, the enemy king \u201cretreated, he headed toward the mountains\u201d \u2026 but \u201cthey overtook\/captured<\/em> him.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [69]<\/a> King<\/em> of<\/em> Battle<\/em> Epic<\/em> (Tel el\u2011Amarna edition), ll. rev 19-23. Similarly, in the Battle<\/em> of<\/em> Kadesh<\/em>, (P\u00a0295\u2011332), the Hittite king sues for peace, and Ramesses graciously accedes; in the Hittite version (ANET<\/em>3, 319), the Egyptians are defeated. In each case, the historical reality is subordinated to a traditional ending of the battle narrative. In Text 13: \u201cErra and Naram Sin,\u201d the victory ends with the building of a temple and the blessing of Naram-Sin and the giving to King Naram Sin, \u201cthe might weapon, the scimitar\u201d; ll. 46-67, pp. 197-199.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [70]<\/a> Kang, Divine War<\/em>, 46.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [71]<\/a> Jackson, \u201cThe Language of the Mesha Inscription,\u201d 98.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [72]<\/a> Kang, Divine War<\/em>, 80-82. For the exclusion of the \u1e25\u0113rem<\/em> elsewhere in the ancient Near East, he cites C.H.W Brekelmans, De \u1e24erem in het Oude Testament <\/em>(Nijmegen: Centrale Drukkerij, 1959) 128-145.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [73]<\/a> So also Kang, Divine War<\/em>, 224.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [74]<\/a> Shalmaneser in Ararat<\/em>, poetic text, 61-62; prose text, 55. Merneptah Inscription <\/em>48b-61: a long plunder list with some enemy chiefs brought alive before the pharaoh.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [75]<\/a> Merneptah Inscription<\/em>, 62-73a.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [76]<\/a> Battle<\/em> of<\/em> Kadesh<\/em>, P 339\u2011345: the gods receive Ramesses on his return. \u201cApology of \u1e2aattu\u0161ili\u201d \u00a76 = 2:30: Ishtar proclaims the hero\u2019s name after the battle in \u00a7 12a = IV 47\u201148: \u201cAnd my Lady Ishtar gave me the kingship of the land of Hatti also, and I became a great king. \/ My Lady Ishtar took (as a) prince and placed me on the throne.\u201d In Ashur-uballi\u1e6d<\/em> ii 22, the army prays before the battle that the Sun-god grant the king \u201ca glorious name\u201d for victory over the enemy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [77]<\/a> King<\/em> of<\/em> Battle<\/em> Epic<\/em> (Tel el\u2011Amarna edition), ll. rev 19-23.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [78]<\/a> In Battle<\/em> of<\/em> Kadesh<\/em>, P 335-345: The gods of the land <come> to him in greeting saying: \u201cWelcome, our beloved Son, King of Southern and Northern Egypt, Usima[re] Setepenre, Son of Re, Ramesses II, given life! \u2013 according as they have granted him a million jubilees and eternity upon the throne of Re, all lands and all foreign lands being overthrown and slain beneath his sandals, eternally and forever.\u201d Shalmaneser in Ararat<\/em>, poetic text, 55\u201157. Kurigalzu in Chronicle P, iii 17-19: Hurbatila, king of Elam, recognizes Kurigalzu.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [79]<\/a> Merneptah Inscription<\/em>, 73b-79: the Council of Thirty recognize Merneptah as the hero; Battle<\/em> of<\/em> Kadesh<\/em>, P 235-250: Ramesses army praises him for saving them single-handedly. Kurigalzu<\/em> Chronicle P, ii 9-14: the enemy army recognizes Kurigalzu.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [80]<\/a> Esarhaddon<\/em>, I 77 \u2011 II 10.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [81]<\/a> M. Weinfeld, Deuteronomy<\/em> and<\/em> the<\/em> Deuteronomic<\/em> School<\/em> (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972) 193, n.4.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [82]<\/a> Shalmaneser III says in the \u201cMonolith Inscriptions\u201d (ANET<\/em>3, 277): \u201cAt that time, I paid homage to the greatness of (all) the great gods (and) extolled for posterity the heroic achievements of Ashur and Shamash by fashioning a (sculptured) stela with myself as king\u00a0…\u00a0.\u201d For a larger discussion of A\u0161\u0161ur, cf. Kang, Divine War<\/em>, 40-42. Cf. also Esarhaddon\u2019s \u201cSinjirli Stela\u201d in ANET<\/em>3, 293. In the \u201cApology of \u1e2aattu\u0161ili\u201d \u00a712B = 4:48-80, \u1e2aattu\u0161ili makes peace with the previous allies and with those who had been enemies of his father and grandfather; then he gives \u201cIshtar, My Lady, the property of Armatar\u1e2bunta\u201d and sees to the erection of her statue and the worship of her as \u201cIshtar the High.\u201d For a fuller discussion of Ishtar as a warrior, see Kang, Divine War<\/em>, 31-36.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                      \n

                      [83]<\/a> Weippert, \u201cHeiliger Krieg,\u201d 486; here Weippert also gives a schema for the royal battle narrative which focuses on the praxis of war in the ancient Near East; as such, it is more restrictive than my own proposal for the traditional pattern.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"menu_order":2,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[48],"contributor":[],"license":[],"part":28,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/mightyinbattle\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/41"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/mightyinbattle\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/mightyinbattle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/mightyinbattle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/mightyinbattle\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/41\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":359,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/mightyinbattle\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/41\/revisions\/359"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/mightyinbattle\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/28"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/mightyinbattle\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/41\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/mightyinbattle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/mightyinbattle\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=41"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/mightyinbattle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=41"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/mightyinbattle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=41"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}