5. This outrage. Literally “my injustice” in objective construction:
the injustice done to me; the possessive is adequately reflected by “this,” as
happens so often in interchanging possessive and defined forms, cf. “the boys”:
“my men,” 14:24. For Heb. ḥāmās
“lawlessness, injustice,” cf. 6:11; it is a strictly legal term, which trad.
“violence” fails to show adequately. The same force is reflected in the Akk.
verb ḫabālum “to deprive someone of
his legal rights,” adjective ḫablum
“wronged.” The Code of Hammurabi states explicitly that a slave girl who was
elevated to the status of concubine must not claim equality with her mistress
(par. 146). Sarah is thus invoking her legal rights, and she holds her husband
responsible (literally “it is against you”) for the offense.
I myself put my maid in your lap. This is not just a fanciful
expression, but recognized legal phraseology. For the identical usage, cf. the
old Sum.-Akk. dictionary of legal expressions known as ana ittišu (B. Landsberger, MSL I, 1937): “he placed his daughter
in [the other’s] lap,” Tablet 3, column iv, line 34. (E. A. Speiser,
Genesis: Introduction, Translation, and Notes [AYB 1; New Haven: Yale
University Press, 2008], 117-18)
