In this volume, the contributors focus on ritual and law in the Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East. The studies included treat various texts and material culture, cultic ritual, and comparative mythology.

The authors of this volume celebrate the contributions of David P. Wright to the fields of biblical studies and ancient Near Eastern studies. They place particular focus on topics of ritual and law, the major concerns of Wright's scholarship. The studies included deal with various texts and issues in the Hebrew Bible, Mesopotamian texts and material culture, Hittite cultic ritual, and comparative mythology.

Autorentext
Born 1940; Ph.D. Harvard University (Assyriology); Rose B. and Joseph Cohen Professor of Assyriology and Ancient Near Eastern Religion; emeritus Brandeis University. Born 1970; 2006 PhD in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies (Bible and Ancient Near East) from Brandeis University (Waltham, Massachusetts); Professor of History at University of the Pacific (Stockton, California). Born 1977; 2006 PhD in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies (Bible and Ancient Near East) from Brandeis University (Waltham, Massachusetts); Professor of Hebrew Bible at the University of Chicago.

Inhalt
Jeffrey Stackert : Preface - Alan Lenzi : Introduction - Jeffery M. Leonard : Curses and the Composition of Deuteronomy - Tina M. Sherman: Exodus 34 and the Strategic Use of Law in the Construction of National Identity - Jason M. H. Gaines: On Moses's Foreskin: Narrative Repurposing of the Circumcision Ritual in the Priestly Source - Joel S. Baden: The Decalogue in Deuteronomy and (then) in Exodus - Tamar Kamionkowski : The Concept of Desecration in Leviticus - Marc Zvi Brettler: YHWH's Laws in Psalms - Bruce Wells Identifying the Form of Enslavement in Exodus 21:20-21 - Madadh Richey: Elisha and the Bears (2 Kings 2:23-25) - Jeffrey Stackert Typicality and Verisimilitude in Neo-Assyrian and Judean Figural Representation - Ada Taggar-Cohen: The Status of Women in the Hittite Cult as Mirrored in Royal Ideology and Prescribed Rituals - Alan Lenzi: Exploring Manners, Etiquettes, and Protocols with uila-Prayer Itar 1 - Tzvi Abusch / Emily Blanchard West: 'Awful Silence, Deathly Stillness': Fears and Anxieties among the Gods in Mesopotamian and Indic Literature