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760–748) and two governors of his.^15 Again, such texts are typically
available only from the first half of the millennium.1.11 Inscriptions from Sfîre in northern Syria preserve in part the
terms of three treaties between Mati"-il of Arpad and an otherwise
unknown Bar-ga"yah of KTK.^16 It has been suggested that the lat-
ter was a pseudonym for A““ur-nerari of Assyria and that these
treaties are the Aramaic counterpart of a documented cuneiform
treaty between the same parties. Their terms are closely parallel to
those of the cuneiform treaty.^171.12 The Hebrew Bible contains scattered references to treaties and
to practices of international law, mostly from the periods of early
settlement and of the monarchy. It is also generally accepted by
scholars that the covenant between God and Israel, especially as rep-
resented in Deuteronomy, is modeled on ancient Near Eastern vassal
treaties. The metaphor is, however, used solely with respect to inter-
nal law. It does not provide independent information on international
treaties; rather, it relies on our knowledge of the cuneiform treaties.^18
The total lack or scantiness of information from the second half
of the millennium makes it impossible to present a balanced picture
of international law of the whole period on the basis of cuneiform
sources alone. Accordingly, this chapter will concentrate on the time
of the Assyrian Empire only, a period that is both well documented
and laid the foundations of the political order of subsequent peri-
ods. Evidence from later periods, to be cited occasionally below, indi-
cates that the picture presented by and large also applies to the latter
half of the millennium.(^15) von Weiher, “Marduk-apla-ußur.. .”; Brinkman, “Political Covenants.. .,” 95
and 99–101.
(^16) Ed. Fitzmyer, Aramaic Inscriptions...
(^17) See the discussion in SAA 2, xxvii–xxviii.
(^18) See McCarthy, Treaty and Covenant, for a general review of the theories. See
also Levinson, “Deuteronomy 13:10.. .”; Steymans, Deuteronomium 28.. .; Steymans,
“Eine assyrische Vorlage.. .”; Veijola, “Davidverheissung.. .” Gen. 31:44–54 recounts
the conclusion of an agreement between Jacob and his father-in-law Laban that
could be interpreted as a treaty delimiting the border between two political entities.
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