Profound changes have occurred in the study of early Israel over the past four decades. In recent years, the pendulum of scholarship has swung toward literary and theological readings that are not significantly informed by the literature of the ancient Near East. Jack M. Sasson’s commentary to the first twelve chapters of the book of Judges is a refreshing corrective to that trend. It aims to expand comprehension of the Hebrew text by explaining its meaning, exploring its contexts, and charting its effect over time. Addressed are issues about the techniques that advance the text’s objectives, the impulses behind its composition, the motivations behind its preservation, the diversity of interpretations during its transmission in several ancient languages, and the learned attention it has gathered over time in faith traditions, Jewish, Christian, and Muslim. In its pages also is a fair sampling from ancient Near Eastern documents to illumine specific biblical passages or to bolster the interpretation of contexts. The result is a Judges that more carefully reflects the culture that produced it. In presenting this fresh translation of the Masoretic text of Judges as received in our days, Sasson does not shy away from citing variant or divergent readings in the few Judges fragments and readily calls on testimonies from diverse Greek, Aramaic, and Latin renderings. The opinions of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim sages are reviewed, as are those of eminent scholars of recent times. With his Introductory Remarks, Notes, and Comments, Sasson addresses specific issues of religious, social, cultural, and historical significance and turns to ancient Near Eastern lore to illustrate how specific actions and events unfolded elsewhere under comparable circumstances. This impressive new appreciation of Judges will be of immense interest to bible specialists, theologians, cultural historians, and students of the ancient world.

The noun tsara'at appears about two dozen times in the Hebrew Bible, almost exclusively in Leviticus, where it is used to describe a state of ritual defilement manifested as a scaly condition of the skin, a condition of cloth, leather, and the walls of houses. In the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, negac tsara'at was translated as aphe lepras; in the Latin Vulgate, this became plega leprae. These words in Greek and Latin implied a condition that spread over the body, not a term of ritual impurity. Tsara'at has continued to be translated as "leprosy," even though this term is not appropriate, as there was no leprosy as we know it in the Middle East during the time period the Hebrew Bible was written. Others have suggested that the proper translation of tsara'at is "mold." The recent identification of a specific mold (Stachybotrys sp.) that contaminates buildings and causes respiratory distress, memory loss, and rash, and the fact that mold has been present for millennia, lend support to the translation of tsara'at as "mold."

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I shall return it to you all." Perhaps the best parallel is found in the letter of Biridiya of Megiddo (near Taanach) to the Pharaoh: ui zurata laqf-mi kaspe iptersu ina qdtisu / ba-de-u,26 " And Zurata received his ransom (bribe) price in his hand / in his hands." 27The failure of the docket to record the exact amount of the payment is surprising. However, the omission is understandable if the payment were in fact a bribe agreed upon by the principals, or if the payment were a predetermined sum, a fine, levy, or even a temple impost. INSTANCES OF MOBILITY AMONG MARI ARTISANS JACK M. SASSONIt should require no more than a hurried glance through the thirteen volumes of the Archives royales de Marin to render it quite evident that Mari society was indeed an active one. As a city strategically located on the Euphrates, Mari played an important role in the distribution of goods among the ancient powers. These included the CyproMinoan west, shipper of the elegant pot and the rough copper; the Syro-Anatolian north, exporter of woods, stones, minerals, and some agricultural products; the Mesopotamian south, manufacturer of finished commodities; and the Elamite east, distributer of tin. For this reason, it surprises us little to discover that Mari's community had achieved a significant division of its labor force. This paper will focus on a class of workers possessed of a certain skill which, as a rule, was obtained after a period of apprenticeship. Further, our attention will be directed to that portion of this class which seems to have, willingly or otherwise, shuttled from one city, one region, or even one country to another. The positions held by these ambulating artisans will vary enormously, ranging from those of Salomes, who performed with seven veils (ARMT XIII: 22: 41), to those of diviners. Except for the purpose of presenting what seems to be a curious-but perhaps incidental-phenomenon, there will be no attempt at differentiating between the Samsi-Adad and Zimri-Lim periods. Messengers, army personnel, or merchants whose professions naturally required extensive travelling will not be considered.It is possible to arrange the documents at our disposal in three categories. The first deals with single individuals whose talents were sought involves groups of workers, usually not as skilled as the members of the within the confines of Mari and its immediate dependencies. The second 26 We are to read the gloss /badew/

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