Legend of Keret
Epic of Kirta
Ancient Near East
Yassib also sits in the palace, and his inward parts instruct him. He says to himself, “Go to your father, Yassib. Speak to him and say: Listen, Keret the Noble, and hear me. You’ve done wrong. You were supposed to judge the case of the widow, to defend the cause of the wretched. But now you’ve become like a brother to the sickbed, a companion of suffering. Step down from kingship. I will be king. With your authority, I will sit on the throne.” Yassib the Lad goes to his father. He enters and raises his voice: “Listen, please, Keret the Noble. Hear me. You’ve let yourself fall into wrongdoing. You used to judge the widow’s case, to defend the oppressed, to drive out those who prey on the poor, to feed the orphan, to support the widow. But now you’ve become a brother to the bed of sickness, a companion of suffering. Step down from the kingship. I will be king. With your authority, I will sit.”
Date: 1500 B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Source
Isaiah 1:17
Hebrew Bible
15 When you spread out your hands in prayer, I look the other way; when you offer your many prayers, I do not listen because your hands are covered with blood. 16 Wash! Cleanse yourselves! Remove your sinful deeds from my sight. Stop sinning. 17 Learn to do what is right. Promote justice. Give the oppressed reason to celebrate. Take up the cause of the orphan. Defend the rights of the widow. 18 “Come, let’s consider your options,” says the Lord. “Though your sins have stained you like the color red, you can become white like snow; though they are as easy to see as the color scarlet, you can become white like wool.
Date: 7th-5th Centuries B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Source
Notes and References
"... Inheritance rights were part of customary law. It is hardly conceivable that a widow would turn to an official of the town administration with the request to overturn a valid legal procedure. Since her husband died childless, his brother became according to customary law the legal heir of the estate. The woman could hardly object to this. She could only appeal to a higher authority, if customary law was violated in one way or the other. The widow turned to the official because she wanted justice to be done (compare Isaiah 1:17, 23; 10:1-2) ..."
Marsman, Hennie J.
Women in Ugarit and Israel: Their Social and Religious Position in the Context of the Ancient Near East
(p. 641) Brill, 2003
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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