A History of Ancient Near Eastern Law

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5.3.3.2.2 The adoption of a son-in-law (5.1.1.3 above) usually involved

the duty of support; sometimes the father-in-law granted an inheri-

tance (Emar 213; AO 5:14; RE 25; TBR 46, 73, 75) and even paid

offthe son-in-law’s debts (RE 25, 63; TBR 39, 40). In Emar 213,

a widow adopted her son-in-law who paid off his mother-in-law’s

debts.

5.3.3.2.3 In most cases, the adoptee was an apparent stranger. He

(or she—see Emar 181) often received an inheritance share among

the adopter’s other children.^34 The commercial nature of the trans-

action is clearest where the adoptee also pays the adopter’s debts

(TBR 78). Where a financier is involved, the adoption is reduced to

the barest of fictions. In RE 10, adoption terminology is not used;

there is a straight exchange between support and paying offdebts

on the one hand and acquisition of the debtor’s estate on the other.^35

5.3.3.2.4 Adoption was used in the manumission of slaves, so as to

ensure their continuing obligation to support their owner. They were

definitively freed on the owner’s death (Emar 91; RE 26; TBR 41;

possibly Emar 176; see also RE 82). In TBR 32, where there is no

support clause, complete freedom appears to have been immediate.

5.3.3.2.5 The existence of matrimonial adoption is alluded to in

the lawsuit Westenholz 3. The brother of four women receives their

ter¢atuwhen a man marries their (widowed) mother and adopts them.

The man would thus acquire the right to marry them off.

5.3.4 Dissolution

5.3.4.1 Form

Adoption could be ended unilaterally by either party making a for-

mal declaration: “You are not my son/daughter,” or “You are not

my father/mother.” In Emar 30, the son’s declaration adds: “I will

not honor (you).” In RE 10 and 13, where the commercial charac-

ter is barely disguised, the declaration is solely a refusal to support

(“honor”) or be supported.

(^34) See Abr. Nah.; Emar 5, 30, 32; Dalley 1; Fales 67; RE 28, 30; TBR 48.
(^35) The creditor failed to provide the promised support and in RE 13, the debtor’s
brother paid offthe creditor and took over the position of heir, with only the barest
allusion to adoption (vb. leqû); he may have been the nearest heir, anyway.
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