06_An_Cranz_586-598_coopia_586-598 10/12/15 10:35 Pagina 594 594 ISABEL CRANZ 594 motif is observed in the Assyro-Babylonian ritual. In BAM 323, the fig- urine of the evil demon or ghost is sealed in a karpatu-vessel, while the Late Babylonian ritual from Uruk and text 2 (CT 23, 19-21) require the figurine to be contained in a laḫannu-vessel. Third, it can be argued that both ritual and vision dispatch the entity on a journey which removes it from the sphere of ritual enactors or prophets. In the Assyro-Babylonian rituals the figurines are buried and in this way banished to the netherworld as their place of origin. In Zech 5,5-11, two winged women carry the ephah “to build her a house in the land of Shinar” where they will “set her there onto her place” (htnkm-l[ hxynh) 35. The usage of the term Shi- nar in this passage has elicited a fair amount of attention. Although Shinar is generally associated with Babylon, the Hebrew Bible also uses the term in primeval contexts, most famously in the story of the tower of Babel (Gen 11,1) 36. On account of this usage of Shinar, several scholars have suggested that the vision is meant to evoke the concept of wickedness as being rooted in human arrogance as is implied in the Tower of Babel story 37. The usage of Shinar in the Hebrew Bible in general and in Zechariah in particular may not provide sufficient evidence for this type of interpretation. In either case, it may be inferred that wickedness in Zech 5,11 is removed to a remote lo- cation where it can dwell without causing harm to humans 38. The Assyro- Babylonian exorcisms are comparable to the vision in so far as both juxtapose their respective spheres of life to an uninhabitable and hostile en- vironment, which will receive the evil they seek to cast out. Ghosts and 35 In secondary literature one often finds the assumption that the house, which will be established in the land of Shinar, is a kind of temple. Therefore htnkm is translated as “her pedestal.” See JEREMIAS, Die Nachtgesichte des Sacharja, 197. However, this vision lacks compelling evidence that the woman is in fact a goddess; also the term tyb can be translated as “house”, while the word htnkm in combination with a suffix and the preposition l[ should rather be rendered as “in her place” as it appears elsewhere in the He- brew Bible. Cf. DELKURT, Sacharjas Nachtgesichte, 263-265. The only other case where we find this term with suffix and the preposition l[ is in Ezra 3,3 where it means “site” or “place”. Cf. HALOT, 579. 36 For further examples of the usage of Shinar, see Gen 10,10; 11,2; 14,1, 9; Jos 7,21; Isa 11,11; Dan 1,2. 37 KÖRTING, “Sach 5,5-11”, 488; DELKURT, Sacharjas Nachtgesichte, 265- 266; HALLASCHKA, Haggai und Sacharja 1–8, 247. 38 The custom of building a house for an evil entity is known from the canonical Lamaštu-incantations where the demoness is provided with gifts and sent to live in a house of clods. Frans Wiggermann suspects that this is a form of “mock-cult”. F.A.M. WIGGERMANN, Birth in Babylonia and the Bible. Its Mediterranean Setting by Martin Stol (CM 14; Groningen 2000) 240.