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The article consists of seven units. Part I presents the various ways in which a king could lessen an economic burden. Part II discusses the establishment of justice as a motif in the king’s self-presentation. Part III deals with the establishment of justice by illegitimate successors or those whose legitimacy is under threat. Part IV expands on this topic, discussing exemptions granted to particular cities throughout history and showing that these exemptions were the main way in which illegitimate rulers might “lighten a yoke” (cf. 1 Kings 12:4). Part V discusses the granting of exemptions to particular cities in some literary texts and letters that were not connected to the royal court. These texts shed light on their composers’ expectation that the king respect these exemptions. Part VI attempts to explain the failure of royal legitimizing texts to mention cancellation of private debts. Finally, Part VII compares the approach to royal legitimacy illustrated in Parts III–V with other concepts of royal legitimacy that are also based on the manner in which power is exercised.

The Late Babylonian fragment BM 42105 gives correlations between liver parts and the objects a diviner used during a ritual before the gods. The correlations between liver parts and the gods are identical with the ones of the Late Babylonian text SpTU IV 159 from Uruk. The incipit of BM 42105 proves that this text and SpTU IV 159 are excerpts from the missing 16th tablet of the series multabiltu, which is the tenth chapter of the extispicy series. The new text further proves that the text describing the qualifications of the diviner, the ritual of the diviner known from Neo-Assyrian tablets from Nineveh, and the series multabiltu, are all not only related but interlinked, since passages from multabiltu 16 correspond to some in the other texts.

In two cases, Ben Sira deals with the ambivalence of shame: 4,21-24 and 41,14 – 42,8. There are cases in which shame is negative and brings about bad things, and there are cases in which shame is desirable and good. While the negative sense of shame is the common meaning in Biblical Hebrew, the positive sense may belong to the Hellenistic period. In these two pericopes the meaning of the expression פנים נשא, which parallels the verb בוש (Sir 4,22; 42,1), seems also to have undergone a semantic shift, but its exact meaning is disputed. This essay suggests a solution to the dispute regarding the expression פניםנשא by tracing its translational tradition in the Septuagint, and by examining the related expression פנים הכיר. A novel approach is adopted in interpreting these passages, using the Septuagint as a dictionary for the Hebrew of the Hellenistic period. In order to understand the semantic development of both this expression and the concept of shame in general during the Hellenistic period, the second part of the paper draws attention to the ambivalence of the concept of shame in Greek literature. This data may shed new light on the reason for the semantic shift of these terms in Ben Sira’s time. Furthermore, this may also contribute to the expanding discussion of Jewish wisdom literature from the Hellenistic period against the background of its time and place.

The paper intends to clarify the meaning of the adjective καινός in the Gospel of Mark. The analysis of the pericopes where this term is present (Mk 1,21-28; 2,18-22; 14,22-25) aims at highlighting its meaning in these narrative contexts. It shows that Mark links the adjective καινός to the notion of “kingdom of God”, in particular to the three moments of it: approach (Mk 1,15), growth (Mk 4,26-32) and final fulfilment (Mk 9,1; 14,25).

Exod 17,1-7 relates a conflict about the lack of water. But the more important conflict is about the divine presence in situations of distress. How can this divine presence be adequately understood? Will Yhwh be visibly present in an epiphany at the rock? Will he wait for Moses? Will he assist him? The proper understanding and translation of Exod 17,6 is the key to answer these questions, but unfortunately this verse is not easy to understand. This article examines critically different proposed solutions and argues that a visible epiphany is recounted in Exod 17,1-7.