“... 6:11. punishment for disobedience. It is common for treaties and royal decrees to end with a curse or clause threatening punishment for disobedience to the stipulations of the document. It would be possible to compare Joshua’s curse on the man who would rebuild Jericho in Joshua 6:26 and the curse on any prince who replaces the gate constructed by King Azitawada of Karatepe with this injunction. Such a statement is also found in the epilogue to the Code of Hammurabi, charging future rulers to provide justice or face a curse from the gods. The punishment of impalement is depicted in Assyrian Lachish reliefs and mentioned in a number of royal archives. The practice was to impale the corpse of the executed victim on a pointed stake in public view. Impalement is known in Persia, for instance in Amestris’s execution of Inaros (leader of a Libyan revolt) during the reign of her son, Artaxerxes. The victim was thus denied proper burial, as the birds and insects devoured the remains. One curse used by Darius in his inscriptions is: “If you should blot out these words, may Ahura Mazda slay you and your house be destroyed,” while another says “What you make, may Ahura Mazda pull down.” ...”