164 HEATH DEWRELL scribe did not feel certain that his audience would have known the cul- tural significance of the garment mentioned in 2 Sam 13,19. He thus adds an explanation for his readers in advance. That the gloss is a later insertion is suggested by the clumsy way it is added, interrupting the flow of the narrative to provide this necessary background information. Regarding the use of an item of clothing to mark social and sexual status, one finds a striking parallel in the Middle Assyrian Laws (MAL), among which are stipulations about which kinds of women can be “veiled”. For instance, MAL A §40 (= VAT 10000; KAV 1 v 42-106) begins 11: lu aššāt a’īle lu [almanātu] The wives of a man, or [widows], u lu sinništātu [Aššurayātu] or [Assyrian] women ša ana rebēte u[ṣṣâni] who g[o out] to the street: qaqqassina [la pattu] their head [shall not be uncovered]. mārāt a’īle [ ] The daughter of a man [ ] lu TÚG ša ri-[ ] with either a garment of [ ] lu TÚG.ḪI.A 12 lu [ ] or garment(s) or [ ] paṣ[ṣuna] is to be veiled. qaqqassin[a ] Her head [...] [...] [...] Several lines lost due to a break [...] [...] ina ūme ina rebēte [ ] In the daytime, when they walk illakāni uptaṣ[ṣanamma] in the street, they will be veiled. esiritu ša ištu bēlti[ša] A concubine who goes with her lady ina rebēte tallukun[i] into the street paṣṣunat is to be veiled. qadiltu ša mutu aḫzušini A qadiltu whom a man has married ina rebēte paṣṣunatma is to be veiled in the street; ša mutu la aḫzušini one whom a man has not married, ina rebēte qaqqassa pattu her head is to be uncovered in the street, la tuptataṣṣan she will not be veiled. ḫarīmtu la tuptaṣṣan A prostitute will not be veiled; qaqqassa pattu her head is to be uncovered. [An extended list of penalties — including stripping, beating with rods, and physical mutilation — for violating these rules follows.] 11 The restorations here follow M. RoTH, Law Collections from Mesopotamia and Asia Minor (SBLWAW 6; Atlanta, GA 21997) 167-168. 12 While the Sumerogram TÚG in the previous line and its plural form, TÚG.ḪI.A, here clearly refer to a garment of some sort, the particular Assyrian word that would have corresponded to these signs is uncertain. Roth leaves the first untranslated and renders the second ṣubātī, but this Akkadian word is poorly attested after the old Babylonian period. It is possible that the Assyrian word intended here is lubultu (see CAD Ṣ 225), but this is not certain either.