Note 745 — Chapter VII · THE BABYLONIAN “EVIL DAYS” AND THE SHABATTUM

The Rev. C. H. C. Johns has pointed out that in Babylonian calendars many days are indicated as nubattu, a term signifying rest, pause, and especially a god’s connubial rest with his consort goddess. “The observance of such days was a bar to attending even to important diplomatic business or setting out on a journey.... It is quite possible that shabattum and nubattum are from the same root and originally denoted much the same thing—a pause, abstention, from whatever cause or for ceremonial purposes” (Encyclopædia Britannica,¹¹ xxiii, 961 sq.). A calendar of the intercalary month of Elul cites the 3d, 7th, and 16th days as the nubattu of Marduk and his consort Sarpanit (Lagrange, op. cit., p. 284 n.⁶; Schrader, Keilinschriften,³ p. 371).