THE PROPHET AS SUMMONER * SHALOM E. HOLTZ YESHIVA UNIVERSITY 19 Israelite prophets, in formulating their messages, employ terminology that originates in the realm of lawsuits and courts of law. Most famous- ly, the identification of the so-called rîb, or “prophetic lawsuit,” has drawn scholarly attention to the use of legal metaphors in biblical prophecies. 1 Even those who question the very existence of this genre of prophecy accept the fact that biblical prophecies incorporate legal imagery. 2 * Abbreviations follow Alexander et al., The SBL Handbook of Style, §8.4, 89–152, and CAD. It is a privilege to contribute this study in honor of Professor Eichler, in gratitude for his continued mentorship. It was in his seminar on legal texts from Nuzi that I first encountered the manzaduÓlu. Over twenty years ago, he wrote of “a more sobering and responsible attitude toward the usefulness and importance of the Nuzi tablets for the study of the Bible,” but nevertheless remained confident that “in conjunction with other cuneiform documents, the Nuzi texts will continue to illuminate biblical law, institutions, and practices” (Eichler, “Nuzi and the Bible,” 119). This essay is humbly offered as an attempt to illustrate, and thus justify, the approach espoused in this latter assertion. Versions of this essay were read at “Tablet and Torah: Mesopotamia and the Biblical World: A Conference in Honor of Dr. Barry L. Eichler,” and at the University of Chicago Divinity School. I am grateful to the audiences at both of these forums for their useful comments, as well as to my father, Professor Avraham Holtz, who read earlier drafts. This essay was revised for publication during a junior faculty leave supported by a visiting fellowship in Jewish law and interdisciplinary studies at the Center for Jewish Law and Contemporary Civilization of Yeshiva University’s Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. Thanks for this fellowship are due to Suzanne Stone, director of the center, and to Yeshiva’s provost, Morton Lowengrub, who provided a supplemental grant. 1 Gemser, “The Rîb- or Controversy-Pattern,” 128–33. For the history of this area of inquiry, see the literature noted in Dijkstra, “Lawsuit,” 251 n. 1. 2 For examples, see De Roche, “Yahweh’s Rîb,” 571–572; Daniels, “Is There a ‘Prophetic Lawsuit’ Genre?,” 353–54; and Dijkstra, “Lawsuit,” 254. Pietro Bovati suggests that the legal terminology comes from informal, bilateral resolution of disputes, rather than from formal mediation by judges. Yet, Offprint from A Common Cultural Heritage: Studies on Mesopotamia and the Biblical World in Honor of Barry L. Eichler CDL Press, 2011, ISBN 9781934309377