All Neo-Assyrian treaties were sworn treaties, and those which were not kept turned into a curse against the treacherous party - a curse, or rather curses, literally written in the treaty itself. Compare the following episode from the inscriptions of Assurbanipal with the curses in Text 2 v 1ff:
"Yauta' the son of Hazael, king of Qedar, who had submitted to me, appealed to me about his gods and entreated my lordship. I had him swear an oath by the great gods and gave the god Atar-samain back to him. Later he sinned against my treaty (adê), did not respect my favours, threw off the yoke of my dominion, stopped asking about my health and withheld my audience gift. He incited the people of Arabia to revolt with him, and they repeatedly plundered Syria.
"I dispatched against him my troops which were stationed at the border of his land and they defeated him. They struck down with weapons all the Arab people who had risen in rebellion, set on fire and burnt down the tents where they dwelt, and took as spoils countless numbers of cattle, sheep, asses, camels and slaves... As for Yauta' and the rest of the Arabs, his troops who had not kept my treaty, who had fled before my weapons, the warrior Erra struck them down; famine broke out among them, and to still their hunger they ate the flesh of their own children.
"Aššur, Sin, Šamaš, Bel, Nabû, lštar of Nineveh and lštar of Arbela, the great gods, my lords, brought upon them word for word all the curses that were prescribed in their treaty. Young camels, young asses, calves and spring lambs sucked their nursing mothers seven times and still could not satisfy their stomachs with milk. People in the Arab land, one after the other, kept asking one another: 'Why has this misfortune befallen the Arab land? Because we did not keep the great treaty of Aššur, and sinned against the favour of Assurbanipal, the king whom the god Illil loves."' (Piepkorn Asb p. 80ff; cf. Streck Asb p. 74ff.)
A letter (ABL 350) from the Assyrian governor who carried out this punitive operation is extant, and it is important to note how he reports on the result of his mission:
"As to the Qedarites concerning whom the king my lord gave me orders, I went to the country and by the king my lord's destiny afflicted a crushing defeat on them.
"They have become terrified; and as the king my lord's treaty (adê) has overcome them, those who escaped the iron sword will die of hunger. "
The inevitability of the treaty curses stressed here is a constantly recurring theme in the royal inscriptions:
"At that time Nabû-zer- kitti-lišir, son of Merodach-Baladan, governor of the Sealand, who did not keep the treaty (adê) and was not mindful of the favours of Assyria, forgot the favours of my father, and during the confusion in Assyria mustered his troops... This seditious rebel heard of the approach of my troops and fled to Elam like a fox. Because he had transgressed the oath by the great gods, Aššur, Sin, Šamaš, Bel, Nabû imposed upon him a heavy punishment and killed him with a weapon in Elam..." (Borger Esarh. p. 46f.)
Urtaku, king of Elam, who had not kept friendship with me, met a premature death, perished and oozed away in weariness, setting no more his feet on the ground of the living: his life ended the very same year and he passed away. Bel-iqiša the Gambulean who had cast off the yoke of my dominion lost his life through the bite of a rat. Dropsy, accumulation of fluid, carried off Nabû-šum-eriš, the governor of Nippur who did not keep the treaty (adê). Marduk king of the gods, imposed his heavy punishment on Marduk-šum-ibni, his eunuch, the instigator who had induced Urtaku to plan evil. In a single year they all laid down their lives, one after another." (Piepkorn Asb p. 58f.)
Simo Parpola
Simo Parpola, 'Broken Treaties', Neo-Assyrian Treaties and Loyalty Oaths, SAA 2. Original publication: Helsinki, Helsinki University Press, 1988; online contents: SAAo/SAA02 Project, a sub-project of MOCCI, 2020 [http://oracc.org/saao/saa02/treatiesasinstrumentsofimperialism/brokentreaties/]