Zimri- Lim, King

Saul hurls his spear in rage. David refuses to seize it. Two centuries later, David’s spear appears in the Temple at Joash’s coronation. In the ancient Near East, the king’s spear is more than a weapon—it is a symbol of royal authority and judicial responsibility.

Already in the early 2nd millennium B.C.E., people knew that diseases were contagious, and fear of contagion plays a key role in the Torah’s laws regarding the skin ailment, tzaraʿat. What does this mean for understanding other kinds of tum’ah?

Understanding the practice of dream interpretation in the Joseph story by using the ANE interpretive traditions as background.

In the Prophets, Israelite leaders such as Joshua, Saul, David, and Ahab use divination to help them make decisions, just as their ancient Near Eastern counterparts did. The Torah sidesteps the divinatory character of these objects and practices, and instead, emphasizes their ritual and religious character.