Esarhaddon's Succession Treaty
Treaty at Tell TayinatWhoever changes, neglects, violates, or voids the oath of this tablet and transgresses against the father, the lord, and the adê of the great gods and breaks their entire oath, or whoever discards this adê-tablet, a tablet of Aššur, king of the gods, and the great gods, my lords, or whoever removes the statue of Esarhaddon, king of Assyria, the statue of Assurbanipal, the great crown prince designate, or the statues of his brothers and his sons which are over him—you will guard like your god this sealed tablet of the great ruler on which is written the adê of Assurbanipal, the great crown prince designate, the son of Esarhaddon, king of Assyria, your lord, which is sealed with the seal of Aššur, king of the gods, and which is set up before you.
Deuteronomy 4:2
1 Now, Israel, pay attention to the statutes and ordinances I am about to teach you, so that you might live and go on to enter and take possession of the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving you. 2 Do not add a thing to what I command you nor subtract from it, so that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I am delivering to you. 3 You have witnessed what the Lord did at Baal Peor, how he eradicated from your midst everyone who followed Baal Peor.
Notes and References
"... In addition to making an oath effectual and divinely enforced, writing the oath down also meant that it would endure through time without losing power of efficacy. A neo-Assyrian loyalty oath would use language indicating that the vassal commitment to the suzerain is everlasting: “Never to break the adê which is henceforth valid for ever” (VTE 377-384:33) for all generations of the vassals “who will exist in days to come after the treaty”. Due to the material efficaciousness of individual instantiations of loyalty oaths, as documents they often included prohibitions against alteration of the writing. The Esarhaddon and Aramaic Sefire treaties alike establish an injunction to never alter or destroy the physical document, which Deuteronomy 13:1 echoes in order to portray the covenant as unchangeable and permanent: “You must diligently observe everything that I command you; do not add to it or take anything from it.” Deuteronomy 4:2 also states, “You must neither add anything to what I command you nor take away anything from it.” Bernard M. Levinson reminds that “The formula [in Deuteronomy 13:1] actually has a long pre-history in the ancient Near East, where it originally sought to prevent royal inscriptions, including law collections and treaties (compare 1 Maccabees 8:30) from being altered.” ..."
Cleath, Lisa Joann Reading Ceremonies in the Hebrew Bible: Ideologies of Textual Authority in Joshua 8, 2 Kings 22-23, and Nehemiah 8 (p. 37) George Fox University, 2016