Middle Assyrian Laws

Historical source page 27

26 Morris Jastrow, Jr. her, he may take, but he has no claim on the house of her father. 2 ' 27 If a woman enters a man's house 30 as a widow 31 and removes 32 her minor 33 son of her own accord 34 from the house of her brother who brought him up, but no document of his adoption had been drawn up, he does not receive any share from the estate 35 of the one who xeared him 36 ; nor can one take him as a pledge 37 (for debt). From the estate 38 of his parents he receives the share due to him. 38 though in other instances the amount given (19 shekels, Schorr No. 1, and 4 shekels, ib., No. 3) indicates the gradual shading over of the 'purchase price' to a money dowry for the wife. By special agreement, according to Babylon- ian usage (Schorr, ib., No. 1), the tirbatu may revert to the wife in case of divorce. We thus have four terms that must be distinguished from one another (1) nudunnu, the obligatory gift of the husband at the time of mar- riage, (2) dumdku, 'act of grace' or any voluntary gift given by the husband after marriage, (3) Serilftu, the gift of father to bride, and (4) tir^atu, originally purchase price and then the marriage settlement on the wife. *• The phrase used is a-na id bit a-bi-M la-a i-fca-ar-ri-ib, i. e., 'he is not to draw near to anything which is of the house of her father,' by which is clearly meant that he has no claim on his father-in-law's property, merely because his wife has chosen to live there. 80 1, e., remarries. 81 (aU)ma-<ii-tu (<=almantu) like Col. 4, 71. Cf. the corresponding Hebrew term 'almanSh. a na-sa-a-at, more literally 'plucks away'. 88 Read $d ur-da, from ridu 'lead', i. e., one whom one leads, to designate a small child. Riddu, from this stem is one of the terms for 'offspring' (Muss- Arnolt, Assyrian Dictionary, p. 956b.). 84 il-ti-Sd, as above §§8 and 23. 88 bltu, 'house', in the sense of 'estate', as in the preceding paragraph. " I. e., from the boy's uncle. 87 bu-bu-id-li is the common word for 'interest', but the original meaning of the underlying stem appears to be 'to pledge', as in Biblical Hebrew. The meaning 'interest' would therefore be a derived one, pointing to the view originally taken of 'interest' as a 'pledge' for the return of the debt in full. In fact, what became interest on a debt may originally have been partial payment in lieu of the whole, so that each payment actually diminished the amount of the debt. The intent of the paragraph is to provide that the boy is not to be held as a pledge for the debt of his uncle, since he was not legally adopted and therefore does not belong to him. It is clear from this restriction, that adopted as well as natural sons could be pledged for debt, as well as wives and daughters. 88 Again bUu, 'house'. •• fet'-i Jw-ti-iti 'according to his share'. See Text No. 2, § 1.