Setting out from the observation made in the social sciences that maternal grief can at times be a motor of societal change, Ekaterina E. Kozlova demonstrates that a similar mechanism operates also in the biblical world. Kozlova argues that maternal grief is treated as a model or archetype of grief in biblical and Ancient Near Eastern literature. The work considers three narratives and one poem that illustrate the transformative power of maternal grief in the biblical presentation: Gen 21, Hagar and Ishmael in the desert; 2 Sam 21: 1-14, Rizpah versus King David; 2 Sam 14, the speech of the Tekoite woman; Jer 31: 15-22, Rachel weeping for her children. Although only one of the texts literally refers to a bereaved mother (2 Sam 21 on Rizpah), all four passages draw on the motif of maternal grief, and all four stage some form of societal transformation.

This collection of fifteen essays on biblical and ancient Near Eastern texts, language, and culture is dedicated to Professor Kevin James Cathcart, Professor Emeritus of Near Eastern Languages, University College Dublin, on the occasion of his 80th birthday in gratitude for his extraordinary generosity as a teacher. Contributions to the volume come from his former students in Dublin and Oxford and share an approach focused on philology and close reading that reflects Professor Cathcart's own philological focus and wide-ranging interests in the fields of biblical studies, Semitic philology, and the ancient Near East