Moral Precepts. Mesopotamian society never developed a clearly stated set of divinely revealed moral precepts like the Ten Commandments. Yet, Mesopotamian collections of laws express wrong actions in accord with an unstated moral consciousness. In the ancient Near East, improper conduct included a large canvas of unacceptable behavior: reprehensible actions, misdeeds, and intentional and inadvertent cultic sins. Morally correct and ritually proper behaviors were considered as two sides of the same coin. A person who committed a moral offense or a criminal action, or who accidentally touched an impure object, was considered to have sinned against his or her god. The gods were equally angered by crime, false oath, consumption of ritually impure food, inadvertent contact with an unclean person, or oppression of a widow or orphan. All these transgressions were human violations (Sumerian: namtag) or trespasses against the divine order.

Sin...