Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T08:53:00.309Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

10 - Law and Prayer

from Part IV - Biblical Law and Other Scriptural Discourses

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 April 2024

By
Shalom E. Holtz
Edited by
Bruce Wells
Bruce Wells
Affiliation:
University of Texas, Austin
Get access

Summary

This chapter explains the legal metaphors used in the poems and prayers in the Psalms and elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible. It shows how these metaphors reflect an understanding of God and his relations to humanity that is grounded in a legal, even litigious, perspective. It shows how and why individuals would appeal to the divine court in their quest for justice.

Keywords

divine courtroomprayingappealslaments
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Companion to Law in the Hebrew Bible , pp. 201 - 218
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Select Bibliography

Boyce, Richard Neslon. 1988. The Cry to God in the Old Testament. SBLDS 103. Atlanta: Scholars Press.Google Scholar
Brettler, Marc Zvi. 1989. God Is King: Understanding an Israelite Metaphor. JSOTSup 76. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press.Google Scholar
Dobbs-Allsopp, F. W. 1994. “The Genre of the Meṣad Ḥashavyahu Ostracon.” BASOR 295: 49–55.Google Scholar
Feder, Yitzhaq. 2013. “Pleading One’s Case Before God: A Hittite Analogy for תפלה.” ZAW 125: 650–53.Google Scholar
Gemser, B. 1960. “The rîb- or Controversy-Pattern in Hebrew Mentality.” Pages 120–37 in Wisdom in Israel and in the Ancient Near East. Edited by Noth, M. and Winton Thomas, D.. VTSup 3. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Holtz, Shalom E. 2011. “Praying as a Plaintiff.” VT 61: 258–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holtz, Shalom E. 2019. Praying Legally. BJS 364. Providence, RI: Brown Judaic Studies.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jeremias, Jörg. 1987. Das Königtum Gottes in den Psalmen: Israels Begegnung mit dem kanaanäischen Mythos in den Jahwe-König-Psalmen. FRLANT 141. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lam, Joseph. 2016. Patterns of Sin in the Hebrew Bible: Metaphor, Culture, and the Making of a Religious Concept. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Magdalene, F. Rachel. 2007. On the Scales of Righteousness: Neo-Babylonian Trial Law and the Book of Job. BJS 348. Providence, RI: Brown Judaic Studies.Google Scholar
Maul, Stefan. 1994. Zukunftsbewältigung: Eine Untersuchung altorientalischen Denkens anhand der babylonisch-assyrischen Löserituale (Namburbi). Mainz: Philipp von Zabern.Google Scholar
Schmidt, Hans. 1928. Das Gebet der Angeklagten im Alten Testament. BZAW 49. Giessen: Alfred Töpelmann.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Singer, Itamar. 2002. Hittite Prayers. SBLWAW 11. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature.Google Scholar
Szubin, H. Z., and Porten, Bezalel. 1983. “Litigation concerning Abandoned Property at Elephantine (Kraeling 1).” JNES 42: 279–84.Google Scholar
Westbrook, Raymond. 2009. “Witchcraft and the Law in the Ancient Near East.” Pages 1:289–300 in Law from the Tigris to the Tiber: The Writings of Raymond Westbrook. 2 vols. Edited by Wells, Bruce and Magdalene, F. Rachel. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • Law and Prayer
  • Edited by Bruce Wells, University of Texas, Austin
  • Book: The Cambridge Companion to Law in the Hebrew Bible
  • Online publication: 11 April 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108636322.015
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Law and Prayer
  • Edited by Bruce Wells, University of Texas, Austin
  • Book: The Cambridge Companion to Law in the Hebrew Bible
  • Online publication: 11 April 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108636322.015
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Law and Prayer
  • Edited by Bruce Wells, University of Texas, Austin
  • Book: The Cambridge Companion to Law in the Hebrew Bible
  • Online publication: 11 April 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108636322.015
Available formats
×