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What shall the passive and lackluster do
if the pious and accomplished are swiftly felled by angels?
Quake, nations, and rich and poor fear ye the judgment day.
When the…
Laws of Hammurabi on Babylonian Stela, eighteenth century BCE. The stela was originally placed in the temple of the god Marduk in the city of Babylon. Inset shows part of the prologue.
Vassal Treaty of Esarhaddon, King of Assyria (reigned 681–669 BCE). This copy of the treaty was found in the inner sanctum of the Assyrian temple in Tell Tayinat (in southeastern Turkey), where it was…
Uzziah’s reinterment inscription, Jerusalem. King Uzziah (reigned 785–733 BCE) was a leper and therefore, according to the book of Chronicles, could not be buried in the royal tombs and so had to be…
The flood story in the Atrahasis Epic, Babylonia, 17th century BCE. The epic relates the early history of humanity from creation through the flood. Apart from its polytheistic perspective, it has many…
The panel shown here is part of an obelisk that contains a long inscription summarizing the triumphs of the Assyrian king Shalmaneser III (r. 858–824 BCE) until the thirty-third year of his reign. The…
Legal complaint on ostracon, Metsad Hashaviahu, Israel, from the late 7th century BCE. A worker states that a superior took his garment despite the laborer having fulfilled his work requirements…
The Samarians, who had come to an agreement with a [hostile (?)] king not to do service or to render tribute to me, did battle. In the strength of the great gods, my lords, I fought with them; I…
As for Hezekiah, the Judean, I besieged 46 of his fortified walled cities and surrounding smaller towns, which were without number. Using packed-down ramps and applying battering rams, infantry…
I mobilized the kings of Hatti and “Beyond-the-River”: Baal, king of Tyre; Manasseh, king of Judah; Kaus-gabri, king of Edom; Mutsuri, king of Moab; Tsilli-Bel, king of Gaza; Mitinti, king of Ashkelon…