A Primer on Ugaritic: Language, Culture, and Literature - enenuru

112
Legal Texts
do not translate the term, but merely transliterate it (e.g., Miller,
Fenton, Friedman). Some consider the mrzh as a “funerary society”
(e.g., Halpern). If the mrzh was not funerary, perhaps it was at least
a socio-religious club (e.g., Wyatt). Despite hints toward either of
these specific options, the only two elements on the mrzh that seem
clearly established are (1) a membership restricted to men who (2)
enjoy drinking alcoholic beverages. Thus, until further evidence
detailing more precisely the nature of the mrzh is discovered, we
consider the mrzh to be a drinking club for men. Of course, the
members, while they drank, probably discussed religion, politics,
the economy, and other lively topics.
Since the text itself does not explicate the mrzh, this indicates
that SÁamuœmaœnu's contemporaries understood the mrzh and wanted
to join. The word mrzh stands alone at the beginning of the text,
separated by a line as the title of the text. SÁamuœmaœnu is the one
who established it, and he will preside over it as chief. Although
some scholars have proposed that rb here is a verbal form relating
to going to court, thus lending a legal air to the mrzh, J.
McLaughlin seems to have established that proper syntactic
referents are lacking in this context; it is better to understand rb as
a nominal form. 5 If for any reason SÁamuœmaœnu expels a member of
the mrzh, the expeller will pay the “expellee” fifty silver pieces.
This amount may represent a restoration of the originating
membership fee. Reciprocally, an ungrateful member who ignores
his indebtedness to the rb mrzh for his hospitality and requests a
shekel from SÁamuœmaœnu shall be punished by having to pay twice
the sum that he asked for. As expected, witnesses validate the
document.
An overview of the contract structure is as follows:
Lines 1–4 Title regarding the establishment of the group.
Line 1 Title: mrzh
5 J. McLaughlin, “The Marzeah at Ugarit: A Textual and Contextual Study,” in
UF 23 (1991), 269.