malamat

From: Malamat, Abraham. "A Forerunner of Biblical Prophecy." In Ancient Israelite Religion, edited by Patrick Miller, Paul Hanson, and S. Dean McBride, 33-52. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1987.

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A FORERUNNER OF BIBLICAL PROPHECY: THE MARI DOCUMENTS by ABRAHAM MALAMAT
[33]        For the previous studies that we have devoted to prophecy at Mari and in the Bible we had at our disposal only ten out of the presently known twenty-eight "prophetic" documents from Mari (1). In the meantime eighteen documents have been added to the "prophetic" corpus from Mari and several works have appeared that discuss the entire material (save one new document published in 1975; see below). (2) The full body of data now available enables us to advance our understanding of the topic at hand, inviting at the same time certain revisions.
TWO PATTERNS OF PROPHESYING AT MARI        Let us commence our discussion in an unconventional manner. We cite a Mari letter that is not really related to our subject but that may possibly serve as a key for understanding the reality behind the practices of prophesying at Mari. Bahdilim, the palace prefect of Mari under its last king, Zimrilim, advises his lord: "[Verily] you are the king of the Haneans, [but] secondly you are the king of the Akkadians! [My lord] should not ride a horse. Let my [lord] ride in a chariot or on a mule and he will thereby honor his royal head!" (ARM VI 76:20-25). According to this statement, the two strata making up the population were, on the one hand, the West Semitic (Haneans, the dominant tribal federation of the kingdom) and, on the other hand, the old-time Akkadian component. The symbiosis between these two elements usually left its imprint on every walk of life, including religion and cult. We therefore witness at Mari, and for the present practically at Mari alone, the coexistence of two patterns of predicting the future and revealing the word of the gods.
        On the one hand we find at Mari, as at every Mesopotamian center, the practice typical of Akkadian civilizations, namely, divination and specifically the art of extispicy. This field was served by specially trained experts and above all by the baru, the haruspex. At Mari, we are familiar with a number of such experts. the best known of whom way Asqudum, whose [34] spacious mansion was recently uncovered east of the Mari palace (3). These professionals usually dealt with the crucial matters of the Mari kingdom, such as seeking omens for the security of the city, the conduct of war, and military enterprises (4).
        Alongside the academic and supposedly "rational" system of predicting the future, we are confronted at Mari, and chronologically for the first time ever, with an atypical phenomenon for Mesopotamia: the remarkable manifestation of intuitive divination or, rather, prophecy, acquiring the word of the god through informal channels. This type of prophesying should properly be seen as a link in a chain of social and religious practices exclusive to Mari and in part similar to what is found in the Bible. These include the covenant-making ceremony, the ban as penalty for transgression, and the more controversial procedure of census-taking accompanied with ritual expiation (5). This assemblage of procedures, which could be described as a system of interrelationships, is undoubtedly an expression of the other component of the Mari experience-the West Semitic tribal heritage.
        Does the above warrant the conclusion, not usually considered (6), that the message of the diviner-prophets was pronounced originally in West Semitic dialects, conventionally designated as "Amorite"? Should this be the case, then, in the documents before us the words of prophecy have already undergone translation into the chancery language, Akkadian, either by the officials writing to the king or by scribes who are not mentioned at all. Such an assumption may also explain the fact that the "prophetic" texts display a relatively greater number of West Semitic idioms and linguistic forms than the rest of the Mari documents. There is, however, still no basic study of this matter. If these assumptions are in fact correct, they point to a considerably complex process of transmission of the prophetic word-ipsissima verba-until it reaches the king's ear.
INTUITIVE PROPHECY        Whatever the case, informal prophesying at Mari places biblical prophecy in a new perspective, for inherent to both is the intuitive element. In neither of them is the prophecy the direct result of a mantic or magic mechanism that requires professional expertise but is the product of the experience of divine revelation, namely, a psychic, nonrational phenomenon. The essential nature of prophecy of this type entails certain dominant characteristics, three of which are most significant: (7)
    1. The prophetic manifestations are spontaneous and result from inspiration or divine initiative in contrast to the mechanical, inductive divination that is usually initiated by the king's request to acquire signs from the deity. Compare in this connection the utterance of the Israelite [35] prophet: "I was ready to be sought by those who didn't ask for me; I was ready to be found by those who didn't seek me. I said, `Here am I, here am I" (Isa 65:1).
    2. The prophets are imbued with a consciousness of mission and take their stand before the authorities to present their divinely inspired message.
    3. A more problematic characteristic is the ecstatic element in prophecy, for the definition of ecstasy is not unambiguous. We would do well to lend this concept a broad and liberal definition, letting it apply to anything from autosuggestion to the divinely infused dream. Only in rare instances does this quality appear in the extreme embodiment of frenzy, and even then it is not clear whether it is accompanied with loss of senses, for the utterances of the prophets are always sober and purposeful and are far from being mere gibberish.
        These particular characteristics, which are not necessarily found in conjunction, link the diviner-prophet at Mari to the Israelite prophet more than any other divinatory type known to us from the ancient Near East (except for the ragimu [fem. ragintu], "the pronouncer," "speaker" of the Neo-Assyrian period, addressing Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal). Nevertheless, in a comparative study of Mari and the Bible we must direct our attention to the great difference in the source material: firsthand documents versus compositions that underwent a lengthy, complex literary process. Furthermore, the documentation concerning prophecy at Mari is restricted to a very short span of time, perhaps the last five to ten years of Zimrilim's reign. In comparison, the activity of the Israelite prophets extended over an expanse of centuries, especially if we include for our present purposes both the early, "primitive," as well as the late, "classical," prophets, which were not so decidedly distinct from each other, as many scholars would have us think (8). In other words, Mari presents a synchronic picture, from one particular point in time, while the Bible permits a diachronic view that enables us to follow the development of the prophetic phenomenon.
SIMILARITY AND DIFFERENCES IN PROPHECY AT MARI AND IN THE BIBLE        Despite the external, formal similarity between the diviner-prophets at Mari and the Israelite prophets, there is an obvious gap in the content of the divine message and in the function it assumes and apparently also in the position occupied by the prophet within the society and the kingdom. In Israelite society it seems that the prophet usually enjoyed a more or less central position, even though there are kinds of prophets that are peripheral. At Mari, however, the prophets apparently played only a [36] marginal role (9). Admittedly, this distinction may be merely an illusion deriving from the nature of the sources at our disposal. Judging according to place of origin and activity, in both corpora many prophets are from rural localities-in Mari from the provincial towns of Terqa, Tuttul, and others, and in the Bible Amos from Tekoa, Micah from Moresheth, Jeremiah from Anathoth, and his rival Hananiah from Gibeon - while others reside in the respective capital cities.
        As for contents, the prophecies at Mari are limited to material demands on the king, such as constructing a building or a city gate in a provincial town (ARM 11178; XIII 112), urging the offering of funerary sacrifices (ARM 11 90; III 40), demanding the dispatch of valuable objects to various temples (A 4260), or requesting property for the god (A 1121; the reference is certainly to a landed estate granted to a sanctuary and its priestly staff). Furthermore, many of the more recently published prophecies refer to military affairs and, above all, the concern for the welfare of the king and his personal safety. He is warned against conspirators at home and enemies abroad (ARM X 7; 8; 50; 80), especially Hammurabi, king of Babylon (see below), who was actually about to conquer Mari in a short time. This sort of message is significantly distinct from biblical prophecy, which presents a full-fledged religious ideology, a socioethical manifest, and a national purpose alongside the universal vision. This picture of a glaring contrast may well be considerably distorted. At Mari, nearly all the "prophetic" documents were discovered in the royal-diplomatic archive of the palace (room 115), and this would explain their tendency to concentrate on the king. Prophecies directed toward other people presumably existed, but on account of their nature they were not preserved. In comparison, had only the historiographic books of the Bible - Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles - survived, we would be faced with a picture resembling that at Mari, in which Israelite prophecy as well was oriented primarily toward the king and his political and military enterprises.
        On the other hand, a recently published prophetic message from Mari (A 2731) contains a first glimmer of social and moral concern (10). A diviner-prophet in the name of the god Adad from Aleppo urges Zimrilim: "When a wronged man or woman cries out to you, stand and let his/her case be judged:' This command has an exact parallel in Jeremiah's prophecy concerning the kings: "Execute justice in the morning, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed" (Jer 27:12; cf. Jer 22:3).
A tangible example of imposing obligations on the king of Mari may be found in one letter (ARM X 100) in which a divinely imbued woman writes to the king directly, with no intervention of a third party (although [37] apparently a scribe was employed). The woman (whose name should be read Yanana) addresses Zimrilim in the name of Dagan concerning a young woman - perhaps her own daughter or perhaps a companionwho was abducted when the two women were on a journey. Dagan appears in the woman's dream and decrees that only Zimrilim is capable of saving and returning the lass to the writer. The gist of the matter is that a woman who was wronged turns to the king seeking justice in the spirit of the prophetic commands adduced above.
        All told, it is, for the present, difficult to determine the nature of the analogy between the prophecy at Mari and that in Israel, the two being set apart by a gap of more than six centuries. Furthermore, there are no intermediary links whatsoever. It would be therefore premature to adopt the view that Mari presents the prototype of prophecy in Israel (11). But one cannot belittle this earliest manifestation of intuitive prophecy among West Semitic tribes at Mari, which is still an enigma. Nonetheless, we can put forward in this regard two reasonable assumptions that are not mutually exclusive:
    1. Intuitive prophesying was basically the outcome of a specific social situation-an originally nonurban, seminomadic, tribal society. Urban sophistication, no matter how primitive, naturally engenders institutionalized cultic specialists, such as the baru (haruspex), the foremost of the diviner types in Mesopotamia and part and parcel of the cult personnel of any self-respecting town or ruler.
    2. The phenomenon of intuitive prophecy was a characteristic of a particular cultural sphere, which extended across the west, from Palestine and Syria to Anatolia in the northwest and to the east as far as Mari. This assumption is based mainly on the ecstatic element in prophecy, attested throughout this region, albeit rather sporadically. It is found outside the Bible, in such cases as the prophets in Hittite sources, at Byblos mentioned in the Egyptian Tale of Wen-Amon, and in Syria in the Aramaic inscription of Zakkur, king of Hamath, and according to references in classical literature (12).
        After these general observations, let us now present the data at hand concerning prophecy at Mari. Since 1948, twenty-eight letters have been published, all addressed to the king and containing reports on prophecies and divine revelations. The senders of the letters are high-ranking officials and bureaucrats from all over the kingdom. About half are women, mostly ladies of the palace headed by Shibtu, Zimrilim's major queen. Several of the letters contain two separate visions, and thus the total number of prophecies reaches as many as thirty-five - a very respectable quantity. In a few cases the correspondent is the prophet himself (even though we deem the letters to have been written down by a scribe; [38] compare Baruch son of Neriah, Jeremiah's amanuensis). Thus we find correspondents prophesying in the name of Shamash of Sippar (A 4260), the court lady Addu-Duri (ARM X 50), and a woman named Yanana (mentioned above; ARM X 100). As we already noted at the outset, the words of the diviner-prophets, whether transmitted through intermediaries or even if dispatched directly to the king, were generally formulated with utmost lucidity, a fact perhaps due to the time elapsed between the actual prophetic experience and committing the vision to writing. How much more so is this the case in connection with biblical prophecy, which underwent continuous editing, even though certain prophecies may have been preserved in their original form.
PROFESSIONAL PROPHETS AT MARI AND THEIR RESEMBLANCE TO ISRAELITE PROPHETS        The diviner-prophets at Mari were of two types: professionals, recognizable by their distinctive titles (as were the biblical ro'eh, hozeh, nabi', and 'is 'elohim), and lay people, with no title whatsoever (see below). We know thus far five different titles at Mari, which may be seen as designating "cultic" prophets, if we may use a term accepted in biblical studies.
    1. A priest (sangum) is mentioned once as a prophesier (ARM X 51). He was imbued with a prophetic dream containing a warning for Zimrilim; in the Bible too the prophet Ezekiel was originally a priest, and so too the priest Pashhur son of Immer prophesied (Jer 20:1-6).
    2. There are three references to prophesying assinnus (ARM X 6; 7; 80), (13) a term not yet completely elucidated. On the basis of later sources, he had been considered a eunuch, a male prostitute, or a cultic musician. This functionary served in a temple in Mari and prophesied in the name of the goddess Annunitum, apparently while disguised and acting like a woman, perhaps like a present-day transvestite or coccinell. Therefore, he prophesies in the name of a female deity, who would normally be associated with women rather than men.
    3. In one solitary case a prophetess is mentioned bearing the title qabbatum (not to be read qamatu!) (ARM X 8), derived undoubtedly from the Akkadian verb qabu ("to speak," "to proclaim"). (14). It is tempting to link this term to the Hebrew root qbb, mentioned frequently in connection with the prophecy of Balaam, who announces mah' eggob lo' qabboh 'el . . . (Num 23:8; the form gabboh is irregular and possibly it is to be derived from a root qbh).
        But the best known of the professional prophets at Mari are the muhhum and the apilum, whom we have already discussed in the past. Suffice it here to add certain new details and examine problems that have arisen in the meantime.
[39] 4. The muhhum (fem. muhhutum), as the etymology indicates, was some sort of ecstatic or frenetic. The purrusum form of the noun is peculiar to Mari (in other Akkadian sources we find the form mahhum). This nominal form designates bodily defects and is functionally like the Hebrew qittil form used in such words as `iwwer ("blind"), pisseah ("lame"), and gibben ("hunchback"). Thus this type of prophet, because of his peculiar behavior, was perceived of as a madman, similar to the biblical meshugga`, a term used occasionally as a synonym of nabi' (2 Kgs 9:11; Jer 29:26; Hos 9: 7). To these conclusions, which we have already reached in our previous studies (15), we should now add the instances of the verb immahu (third person preterite) derived from the same root as muhhum. The verb is used in the N stem resembling nibba' (see also hitnabbe') in the Bible and has the ingressive meaning "became insane," "went into a trance" (ARM X 7:5-7; 8:5-8).
        In addition to the five nameless muhhus mentioned in the "prophetic" documents, there is now new administrative material available in three recent volumes of the Mari documents (16). They do not contain the prophetic messages as such but list four muhhus by name along with the deities they serve. These prophets figure in lists of personnel who received clothes from the palace, just as in previous lists there was already one reference to an apilum (ARM IX 22:14 and see below). These data certainly imply that these two prophetic types derived material support from the royal court. But it is surprising that all four muhhus have strictly Akkadian and not West Semitic names: Irra-gamil, muhhum of Nergal; Ea-masi, muhhum of Iturmer (ARM XXI 333:33'/4'; XXIII 446:9', 19'); Ea-mudammiq, muhhum of Ninhursag; and lastly a prophetess named Anu-tabni, muhhutum of the goddess Annunitum (ARM XXII 168:8' and 326:8-10), as befitting women who appear in the service of female deities. I have no satisfactory explanation for the nature of the names of the newly attested prophets, for we would generally expect West Semitic names. It is, however, possible that those prophets who were dependent on the court of Mari had already assimilated into Akkadian culture. In any case, the direct contact with the royal court calls to mind the court prophets in Israel, the likes of Nathan, the nabi and Gad, the hozeh, who served David and Solomon, or the Baal and Asherah prophets, who functioned in the court of Ahab and Jezebel.
    5. Finally, we turn to the apilum (fem. apiltum), a prophetic title exclusive to Mari, meaning "answerer," "respondent" (derived from the verb apalum, "to answer"). (17) In contrast to the noun, the verb is frequently associated with mantic techniques. Unlike the rest of the prophets, the apilum acts on occasion in concert, in groups similar to the bands of prophets in the Bible hebel/lahaqat nebi'im). He is attested over a [40] wider expanse than any of the other prophets, from Aleppo in northern Syria to Sippar near Babylon in the south.
        The apilum of Shamash of Sippar addresses the king of Mari directly without any intermediary, demanding a throne for Shamash and one of the king's daughters for service in his temple (18). He also requests objects for other deities, among them an assaku (a consecrated object) for Adad of Aleppo (A 4260). Within these geographical extremities we find an apilum of the Dagan temple in Tuttul (near the confluence of the Balih with the Euphrates) and an apiltum in the Annunitum temple in the city of Mari itself. It is noteworthy that in these very same sanctuaries both the muhhum and the muhhutum functioned as well, indicating that two essentially different types of diviner-prophets could be found side by side. Furthermore, in the Dagan temple of Terqa even three types of prophets were at work simultaneously: a muhhum, a qabbatum, and a dreamer of divine dreams.
AFFINITY TO HEBREW TERMINOLOGY AND CONTENT OF BIBLICAL PROPHECY        It seems that the very terms apilum and muhhum have counterparts in biblical terminology concerning divine revelations. To the biblical terms `anah, `oneh ("answer," "answerer"), as indications of divine revelation, discussed by us elsewhere (19), we may now add several pertinent passages.
        Most significantly, the verb 'anah is at times used to describe the prophet's acting as God's mouthpiece, whether actually responding to a query put to the deity or not. This is clearly seen, for instance, in 1 Sam 9:17: "When Samuel saw Saul, the Lord answered him, `Here is the man of whom I spoke to you! He it is who shall rule over my people: " This is also the case of Jeremiah's words that invalidate the use of the expression massa' YHWH as a legitimate designation for a divine revelation, requiring in its stead the figure of speech: "What has the Lord answered and what has the Lord said?" (Jer 23:37). The term ma'aneh 'elohim (lit. "God's answer") denoting the word of the Lord occurs once in the Bible, in Micah's prophecy (Mic 3:7), which also makes the illuminating use of `nh in connection with the oracles of Balaam: "Remember now, O my people, remember what Balak king of Moab devised and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him" (Mic 6:5). The verb `anah does not indicate here any response to a specific question that Balak put forward to Balaam but rather the prophetic oracle Balaam was compelled to deliver on behalf of Israel. It is not impossible that this foreign diviner, who is never called nabi', was a prophet of the apilum ("answerer") type. That is hinted at also by the cultic performances resorted to by Balaam, on the one hand (Num 23:3, 14-15, 29), and by the band of the apilu on the [41] other (A 1121, esp. lines 24-25), both aimed at acquiring the divine word (20).
        It is of interest that the recently discovered Balaam inscription from Deir `Alla, dating to the end of the eighth or early seventh century B.C.E., and apparently composed in either an Ammonite or an Israelite-Gileadite dialect, enumerates various types of sorcerers, including a woman designated `nyh. The term most likely means "female respondent," that is, a semantic equivalent of the Mari term apiltum (21). This interpretation gains cogency by the following words referring to the woman: rght mr wkhnh ("a compounderess of myrrh and a priestess"). Even more significant is the Aramaic inscription of Zakkur, king of Hamath, from about 800 B.C.E. In his hour of peril, the king turns to his gods "and Baalshamayn responded to me (wy'nny) and Baalshamayn [spoke to me] through seers and diviners (`ddn)" (lines 11-12). (22)
        The possible intersection between the prophetic activity of the apilum and the muhhum is probably indicated in a letter containing the message of a muhhutum - a prophetess. She implores the king of Mari not to leave the capital to wage war and declares: "I will answer you constantly" (attanapal; ARM X 50:22-26). In other words, there are cases where a muhhum would be involved in the act of "answering" (apalum).
        Before turning to the lay prophets, let us examine two prophecies of similar content and reminiscent of the biblical "oracles against the nations," one of an apilum (spelled here peculiarly aplum) and the other of "the wife of a man," that is, a lay person. Both reports were transmitted to Kibri-Dagan, Zimrilim's governor of Terqa. The apilum/aplum "arose" in the name of Dagan of Tuttul "and so he said as follows: `O Babylon! Why doest thou ever (evil)? I will gather thee into a net! . . . The house of the seven confederates and all their possessions I shall deliver into Zimrilim's hand!"' (ARM XIII 23:6-15). The prophecy, which contains several motifs well known from biblical prophecies of doom (23), reflects the deteriorating relations between Mari and Babylon on account of Hammurabi's expansionist aspirations. The other prophecy explicitly mentions the name of Babylon's king, Hammurabi, as an enemy of Mari (ARM XIII 114). A divinely inspired woman approaches Kibri-Dagan late one afternoon with the following words of consolation: "The god Dagan sent me. Send to your lord; he shall not worry [ . . . ], he shall not worry. Hammurabi [king] of Babylon . . :" (continuation broken). The urgency of the matter is indicated by the fact that the letter bearing this encouraging message was dispatched the very day after the utterance.
        From these two prophecies, and possibly from most of the visions concerned with the king's safety, it is apparent that they were recorded at a time of political and military distress afflicting Mari. This too would be [42] analogous to Israelite prophecy, which particularly thrived in times of national emergency, such as during the Philistine threat in the days of Samuel and Saul, Sennacherib's campaign to Jerusalem, and especially Nebuchadnezzar's invasion of Judah. The crisis factor was certainly one of the principal forces engendering prophetic manifestations both in Mari and in Israel (24). However, in contrast to the Bible with its prophecies of doom and words of admonition against the king and the people, the messages at Mari were usually optimistic and sought to please the king rather than rebuke and alert him. Such prophecies of peace and salvation (see ARM X 4; 9; 10; 51; 80), colored by a touch of nationalism, liken the Mari prophets to the biblical prophets of peace or "false prophets," and surely the corresponding prophecies are greatly similar. Indeed, one of the prominent "false" prophets in the Bible, Hananiah of Gibeon, Jeremiah's rival, rashly proclaims in the name of the Lord (and not in the name of a foreign god) the impending return of the Judean exiles from Babylonia, "for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon" (Jer 28:4). How reminiscent this is of the apilum's prediction against Babylon (see above, ARM XIII 23). In both instances the message is pleasant to the ear and whitewashes the crisis situation, for the prophets of peace serve the establishment and express its interest (compare the four hundred prophets at Ahab's court who prophesy "with one accord"; 1 Kgs 22:13). (25)
        In contrast to Mari, the Bible is replete with prophecies unfavorable to the king and to the people. Their heralds, the so-called prophets of doom or "true" prophets, are constantly harassed by the authorities. One well-known case is Amos, who in the royal sanctuary at Bethel foretells King Jeroboam's death and the exile of the people (Amos 7:10-13). In reaction the priest Amaziah, by order of the king, expels the prophet disgracefully to Judah. Jeremiah provokes an even more violent response, in the days of both lehoiakim and Zedekiah. Pashhur, the priest in charge of the Temple in Jerusalem, when confronted with the prophet's words of wrath, "beat Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks that were . . . in the house of the Lord" (Jer 20:2).
        On the other hand, at certain times we find close cooperation between the king, the priest, and the prophet. A priest occasionally officiated as an intermediary between king and prophet, as when King Hezekiah sent emissaries to Isaiah (2 Kgs 19:20 = Isa 37:2-4) and Zedekiah to Jeremiah (Jer 21:1-2; 37:3). Similarly, Hilkiah, the high priest, headed the royal delegation that Josiah sent to the prophetess Hulda (2 Kgs 22:12-20). The roles are inverted at Mari, where a prophet's report could be conveyed to the king via a priest. According to two documents (ARM VI 45; X 8), prophetesses appear before the priest Ahum, who served in the temple of Annunitum located in Mari proper. Once Ahum [43] reports the message to Bahdilim, the palace prefect, to be relayed to the king, and at another time he transmits the prophetic words to Queen Shibtu (26). In this latter case, a new element appears to which we have only briefly alluded previously-the frenetic here was a mere maidservant, called Ahatu, who had no prophetic title, being simply a lay person. This brings us to the lay prophets.
LAY PROPHETS        More than half of the "prophetic" documents from Mari deal with lay persons not functioning as professionals attached to a sanctuary. Among these so-called lay prophets we find such designations as a "man," a "woman," a "man's wife," a "youth," a "young woman" (or "maidservant"), and certain persons who are mentioned merely by their personal names. In one case, we encounter a prophetic message elicited from a "man and a woman" (lit. "male and female"), who prophesy jointly (ARM X 4). Because this latter manner of prophecy is uncommon and astounding in Mari, it should be examined briefly.
        Queen Shibtu writes to her husband that she has asked a man and a woman to foretell the fortunes of Zimrilim's forthcoming military expedition against Ishme-Dagan, king of Ashur. The mode of predicting the future here is exceptional and has led to different interpretations among scholars (27). We present here the key sentence at the opening of Shibtu's letter in accordance with a recent collation: "Concerning the report on the military campaign which my lord undertakes, I have asked a man and a woman about the signs (ittatim) when I plied (them with drink), and the oracle (egerrum) for my lord is very favorable" (ARM X 4:3-37). Shibtu immediately inquires about the fate of the enemy Ishme-Dagan and the oracle "was unfavorable." Further on, Shibtu cites in full the prophecy proclaimed by the two persons, which contains several motifs found in biblical prophecies (28). How are we to perceive this kind of divination? It has been suggested that the man and the woman themselves served as a sign and portent, partly on the basis of the words of Isaiah (Isa 8:18): "Behold, I and the children the Lord has given me are signs and portents in Israel," but this interpretation seems forced. It seems, rather, that the queen turned randomly to select a man and a woman and offered them a drink, perhaps wine, so as to loosen their tongues and acquire an egerrum oracle, which is based on "chance" utterances. It has already been suggested that this type of oracle is reminiscent of the divinatory method referred to as a bat qol (lit. "a trace of a voice," usually translated "echo") in Talmudic sources, where it serves as a substitute for authentic prophecy (29).
        Among the lay prophets, as well as among the transmitters of prophetic [44] reports, there is an unusually large proportion of women, mostly from Zimrilim's entourage. One of the king's daughters turns to her father, stating explicitly: "Now - even though I am (only) a woman - may my father and lord harken unto my words. I will constantly send the word of the gods to my father" (ARM X 31:7'-10'). Some women, including female dreamers, send their prophecies directly to the king without mediation (ARM X 50; 100). More than anyone else, Queen Shibtu serves as an intermediary for conveying prophetic messages to her husband, the king. Also among the professional prophets, as we have seen, there are a considerable number of women. This brings to mind the prophetesses in the Bible, the outstanding ones being Deborah wife of Lappidoth (Judg 4:4) and Huldah wife of Shallum (2 Kgs 22:14). In both instances, the Bible specifies in particular that they were married, probably to stress their stable position and reliability; this is the case of the "wife of a man," one of the Mari prophetesses (ARM XIII 114:8).
        Are there any characteristics that separate the professional prophets from the lay? Two prominent distinguishing features have been noticed by scholars: (1) In the case of the professional, and only the professional, the actual message is preceded by the verb "to arise" (tebu)-"he/she arose"-which alludes to the stimulation of the prophets in the temple (perhaps getting up from a sitting or crouching position). (30) Synonymous expressions are used as well in connection with the prophets of the Bible (Deut 13:2; 18:15, 18: 34:10; Jer 1:17; etc.), and note in particular Ezekiel: "And set me upon my feet: (Ezek 2:2; cf. 3:22-24; Dan 8:1718; 10:10-11). (2) Among the lay prophets the dream is prevalent as a prophetic means, while this medium is totally absent among the professionals.
PROPHETIC MESSAGE DREAMS        From a third to a half of all the published prophecies from Mari originated in dreams. Thus, phenomenologically speaking, there are two distinct categories of acquiring the divine word. The professional prophets enjoyed direct revelations while awake; the lay persons, on the other hand, were usually dreamers of dreams. Divine revelations through dreams were a widespread phenomenon throughout the ancient Near East, including Israel (31). But at Mari, as well as in the Bible, alongside regular revelatory dreams we find a specific subcategory of "message dream," namely, a dream in which the message was not intended for the dreamer himself but rather for a third party (as for the Bible, see Num 12:6; Jer 23:25-32; 29:8; Zech 10:2).
        The above two categories of prophesying now illuminate with greater clarity the parallel distinction made in the Bible, especially in the legal [45] corpora: "If a prophet arises among you, or a dreamer of a dream, and gives you a sign or a wonder. . :" (Deut 13:1-S). In an incident involving Saul, the Bible explicitly differentiates between as many as three distinct divinatory methods: "The Lord did not answer him, either by dreams or by Urim or by prophets" (1 Sam 28:6; and see v 15). (32) Jeremiah still regarded the dreamer as a distinct type of prophet (Jer 27:9). But he already belittles the dream, contrasting it with "the word of God" and associating it with the false prophets: ".Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream, but let him who has my word speak my word faithfully. What has the straw common with wheat?" (Jer 23:28). This deflated status of the dream as a source of prophetic inspiration finds clear expression in the rabbinic dictum comparing sleep to death just as "a dream is withered prophecy" (Gen. Rab. 44:17).
        The letters that report dream revelations are usually structured according to a regular scheme: the writer's presentation of the male or female dreamer; the opening formula of the dreamer: "(I saw) in my dream" - (ina suttija), which is an obviously West Semitic form identical with biblical Hebrew bahalomi (Gen 40:9, 16; 41:17); (33) the content of the dream which is based on a visual or, more often, on an auditory experience (hearing the voice of the god); finally, comments of the writer of the letter. In many cases these include a statement that, along with the report of the prophet, a lock of his or her hair and the hem of his or her garment are dispatched to the king.
        Let us dwell here upon one illuminating incident at Mari where the same dream recurred twice, night after night. The dreamer was a mere youth (suharum) to whom a god appeared in a nocturnal vision. The dream was eventually reported to the king by Kibri-Dagan: "Thus he saw (a vision) as follows: `Build not this house. . .; if that house will be built I will make it collapse into the river!' On the day he saw that dream he did not tell (it) to anyone. On the second day he saw again the dream as follows: `It was a god (saying): "Build not this house; if you will build it, I will make it collapse into the river!"' Now, herewith the hem of his garment and a lock of hair of his head I have sent to my lord . . :' (ARM XIII 112:1'-15'). The boy, who apparently had no previous prophetic experience, did not at first realize the source of his dream; only when it recurred the next night did he become aware of its divine origin and of the mission imposed upon him. This immediately calls to mind young Samuel's initial experience while reposing in the temple at Shiloh (1 Samuel 3). The Lord informs him in a nocturnal vision of the impending demise of the Elide clan, but in this case it was only after the fourth beckoning (on the very same night) that Samuel became convinced of the divine nature of the vision (34).
[46]     In general, novice and inexperienced prophets were unable to identify revelations when they first encountered them (in the case of Samuel see 1 Sam 3:7); hence the repetition of the manifestation, whether at Mari or in the Bible. As for the latter, most illuminating is the initial call vision of Jeremiah, who is reluctant to accept his prophetic mission, pleading his youthfulness before God (Jer 1:6-7). After having had his confidence bolstered, God tests him by a vision: "And the word of the Lord came to me saying: 'Jeremiah, what do you see?' and I said: `I see a rod of almond (saqed).' Then the Lord said to me, `You have seen well for I am watching (soqed) over my word to perform it" (Jer 1:11-12). God in his response confirms the reliability of the prophet's perception, a totally unique event in the realm of prophetic visions in the Bible. It proves that Jeremiah passed the test and is fit to undertake the prophetic mission (35).
A NEW PROPHECY FROM MARI AND THE QUESTION OF PROPHETIC RELIABILITY        We shall conclude our discussion of prophetic dreams with the last one to be published - one that has not yet been brought to bear upon the issue of prophecy at Mari (36). In this fragmentary document (A 222) the name of the male or female writer has been lost as has been the name of the recipient, most likely King Zimrilim, as in the rest of the letters. We read:

(The writer): The woman Ayala saw (ittul) in her dream as follows:
(The dreamer): "A woman from the place Shehrum (5) (and) a woman from Mari in the gate of (the temple of) Annunitum [line missing] which is at the edge of the city - quarreled among themselves. Thus (said) the woman from Shehrum (10) to the woman from Mari: `Return to me my position as high priestess (enutum); either you sit or I myself shall sit. '"
(The writer): By the Hurru-bird I have examined this matter and (15) she saw (the dream well-natlat). Now her hair and the hem of the garment I am sending along (20). May my lord investigate the matter!

        The nature of the dispute between these two women is not entirely clear, although it may involve rivalry between two localities and their representatives over the seat of the high priestesshood. But highly illuminating is the concluding passage where the writer reports that he confirmed the validity of the vision by means of augury, referring probably to examination of the behavior and flight patterns of the birds. This divinatory device, well known in the classical world, was performed at a very early period in West Asia (37). The examination proved that the woman actually did see (natlat). On the basis of the synonymous and interchangeable verb for "to see (a dream)" (amaru), the intention could be that the woman was indeed competent and experienced in the art of [47] dream oracles (38). Thus the meaning is, as the editor of the text translated: "Elle a bien en ce songe!" just like the words of God to Jeremiah, "You have seen well" (hetabta lir'ot)! The writer does not stop with his own examination of the dream but sends the woman's personal items - her hair and the hem of her garment - to the king for his own examination. This unique practice, attested in connection with the Mari prophets, is mentioned on nine different occasions, that is, in a third of all the "prophetic" letters. This peculiar procedure has led to several scholarly interpretations, all of which remain in the realm of speculation. Since a lock of hair and a piece of garment were very personal objects - objects that could have served as some sort of ID card, we may assume that this procedure was assigned to determine the identity and even the very existence of the prophet and to confirm the authenticity of his or her message, as we have tried to demonstrate elsewhere (39).
        The credibility of prophetic revelation was obviously a sensitive matter, not to be taken for granted. Thus it was often verified by means of accepted mantic devices, which were considered more reliable and preferable to intuitive prophesying (40). If we ignore the still obscure practices of sending the hem of the garment and the lock of hair of the prophesier, we encounter the following examples: Queen Shibtu writes to Zimrilim that she personally examined a prophet's message prior to sending it to the king and found the report to be trustworthy (ARM X 6); in another letter, a lady of the royal household reported a vision and then advised the king: "Let my lord have the haruspex look into the matter. . :" (ARM X 94); in a third letter, another woman implores the king to verify the vision of an apiltum by divinatory means (ARM X 81); the same woman advises the king following the prophecy of a qabbatum (see above) to be alert and not to enter the city without inquiring of omens (ARM X 80).
        In contrast, in Israel the prophetic word, whether accepted or rejected by the king or the people, is never subjected to corroboration by cultic means; it is simply vindicated by the test of fulfillment (cf. Deut 18:22; Jer 28:9; Ezek 33:33).