Chapter I · Tablet 13963, Plate 10, Hymn to Bel

Obverse

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Reverse

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This composition is a hymn of praise to Bêl, who is directly addressed. His name, Mu-ul-lil, appears in 14 of the 25 lines of the hymn, in which he is called distinctively “father”, the title occurring 8 times.

The god is addressed in the second person, as is seen in line 16, where za-e, the personal pronoun of the second person, is applied to him, and also in the pronominal phase of the second person, za-da, found in lines 18 and 19, not to mention other less striking symbols of the second person singular.

The hymn consists of many laudatory epithets descriptive of Bêl’s divine nature and work. His fatherhood and lordship are dwelt upon. He is a righteous and all-wise father. His lordship extends not only over the land, but up into the air as well. He provides subsistence for the creatures of earth, being also the organizer of city and state. He superintends also the operations of nature in the atmosphere being the dread of heaven, the lord of gods, the occasion of fear among the birds and fishes, the shepherd of the storms (or stars).

The time of the origin of this hymn is a matter of conjecture. The form of the signs offers some evidence. What the early kings say of Bêl also throws some light on the subject. The signs are, of course, later than the picture-writing of the hieroglyph, and also later than the linear script suited to stone. These signs are made in clay, hence the wedge appears. The design of the signs used here has met with some transformation since the hieroglyph was used, but it has not yet reached the chaste and symmetrical form given by the hand of the Assyrian. In short the signs of this hymn are old Babylonian, almost identical with those used in the inscriptions of Eannatum, Entemena, Gudea and Ḥammurabi. There are, however, some later and even New-Babylonian signs among them, pointing perhaps to transcription subsequent to the original composition.

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There is no mention of any city in the hymn, as there is in the hymn to Sin, but this hymn probably had its origin in Nippur which was the great religious centre of Babylonia in the pre-dynastic period, when kings ascribed their successes to Bêl and brought their booty to Nippur, calling Bêl “the lord of the lands.”

Obverse

ù-mu-un means “being lord”, ù equalling “lord” and mu-un equalling “being”. ù-mu-un is a phonetic representation of umun = bêlu, (Br. 9475). umun is sometimes ideographically represented by the sign GIGURÛ, the corner wedge (Br. 8659), which signifies “depress”, “overpower”, “be powerful”, “rule”. umun may be shortened either to u, mun or un, giving to GIGURÛ three values for “lord”, u, un and umun. umun, which is ES, has an EK value, ugun. In line 17, we shall meet with another word for “lord”; viz., ga-šá-an.

ù: the sign IGI-DIBBU alone means “lord”. It has a well-known Assyrian equivalent, labâru, “be old”, (Br. 9464). Brummer explains the sign correctly as follows: IGI-DIBBU is a compound sign and equals ŠI, “eye”, plus LU, “take away”, hence the meaning “take away the eye”, “become old”, “elderly”, “lord”, (SVA. 2-7).

mu-un contracted to mun is cognate with me-en which equals bašû, “to be”, as in za-e-me-en (Br. 10404). We shall meet the form mu-un as a verbal prefix.

mu here is simply a dialectic form of me (MSL., p. 240). mu as a Sumerian value is attested by the sign-name MU. We shall meet with MU in the name Mu-ul-lil, also as a suffix and in other ways. The MU of our text is old Babylonian. It is the MU of Ur-Gur and Gudea (see brick of Ur-Gur, No. 90009, CT. XXI, and Gudea’s Cylinder A, Col. XVIII, line 27, in Déc. 36).

un is plainly cognate with en which is so commonly represented by the sign ÊNU. The sign UN we shall meet again with the value kalama. The UN of our text is a very ancient sign (see Cone of Eannatum, Col. I, CT. XXI, Tablet 30062).

na-àm-zu-ka consists of noun, na-àm-zu and postposition ka.

na-àm-zu is an abstract noun composed of the abstract prefix na-àm and the stem zu.

na-àm equals šîmtu, “fortune”, (Br. 1609 and HW. 654) and is a dialectic form of nam (Br. 2103) which is a common abstract prefix.

na is a Sumerian value of the sign NANÛ. The value is simply syllabic here. The sign originally signified “stone”. Our 25 NA is found both in old Babylonian tablets and in New-Babylonian inscriptions.

àm (ES) also is only syllabic here. The sign has the EK value ag and is used ideographically.

zu: the sign representing zu has only one value, presenting a rather uncommon circumstance in Sumerian. zu means “know”, also “be wise”, and may equal nîmeḳu, “wisdom”, (Br. 136), but the author preferred to say na-àm-zu, “the fortune of wisdom”.

ka, sign-name KÂGU, is a postpositive sign of the genitive. The sign KÂGU (discussed below) is often used in this way, but it has several values and is used to express a large number of ideas, ka as a postposition is a dialectic form of ge(KIT).

še-ir-ma-al is ES for the EK nir-gal, š changing to n and m to g (MSL. p. XI). It is translated into Assyrian by the word etellu. še-ir-ma-al consists then of two parts; stem še-ir and suffix ma-al. Strictly, še-ir is “lord” and še-ir-ma-al is “lordship”.

še-ir: e and i appear generally to be distinct sounds, but they combine, just as the two u’s combine in mu-un, making mun, and as the two a’s combine in na-àm, making nam. Evidently the weaker sound is absorbed by the stronger, hence še-ir becomes šêr, “ruler”, which could be represented by NISIGÙ (JA., 1905, p. 113, also Br. 4306).

še is perhaps a Semitic value coming from šê’u, “grain”. The original sign is a picture of a head of grain like wheat or oats. The name of the sign is Û-UM. The sign occurs in line 20 as an ideogram.

ir is also Semitic value of the sign GAḲ-GUNÙ. We shall meet the sign used as a verb equal to kamû, “bind”.

ma-al, phonetically written for mal, is an ending which adds to šêr the idea of “having”; hence še-ir-ma-al means “having rule”.

ma: we shall find MAMÛ used mostly as a noun, but it may occur as a verbal prefix or as a phonetic complement.

al: the sign has only one value, al, whose use is principally syllabic. The sign-name is ALLU.

nì-te-na: nì-te is the main word with na as a suffix.

nì-te: nì and te stand related to each other as object and cognate verb, meaning “fear a fear”. The affinity of nì and te is shown by the fact that the sign for nì, called IMMU, may have the value tu (see Br. 8355), then the object and verb would be tu-te, “fear a fear” (see Fossey in JA., 1905, p. 128). nì-te may mean “self” just as nì may stand not only for “fear” but for that which causes fear as Rammânu, “the storm-god”, and then by way of erroneous association for ramânu, “self”.

nì: the sign IMMU is one of the principal signs that originally 26 denoted “the quarter of the heavens”. It is used to signify “storm” and many ideas connected with storm.

te: TÊMMÊNU originally meant “orientation”, then “to approach hostilely”; hence nì-te meant “approach of storm”.

na is an indeterminate suffix, but the context shows that it means “thy”, so that nì-te-na means “thyself” (see na above).

^dimmer: the sign AN here has the value dimmer. In the great bilingual penitential Psalm, K. 2811 (IV R. plate 10), instead of the single sign AN, we have the spelling dim-me-er (see lines 3, 7 and others). If this were an EK composition, the sign AN might be dingir, di-in-gir, but in the words ù-mu-un and še-ir-ma-al which we have already had, we have evidence that this is an ES composition, hence AN here is to be read dimmer.

Mu-ul-lil: Bêl has only one name in this hymn; namely, Mul-lil. In the two tablets, 29644 and 29623, following this tablet, Bêl is called En-lil (see the colophons). The word Mu-ul-lil divides into two parts, Mu-ul, which contracts into Mul, and lil.

Mu-ul: Mul is ES; En is EK. Both Mul and En mean “lord”, so that either Mul-lil or En-lil means “lord of fulness”. It is probable that mul (wul) is cognate with en (el).

mu (as a value is discussed in line 1).

ul: the sign is composed of GÊŠPU and GUṬṬU. The value ul is Semitic. We shall meet below this sign with the value rù meaning “perfect”.

lil: the name of the sign is KÎTU. lil in magic writings means “demon”, i. e., a spirit which may be either good or bad. Originally the sign indicated “structure”, from which idea comes the postpositional use of the sign with the value ge. šâru, “wind”, with the value lil is a secondary meaning of the sign.

ù-mu-un na-àm-zu-ka (occurring in line 1, was discussed there). The fragments following -ka do not give a sure clue as to what the signs were before the erasure. After ^dimmer Mu-ul-lil perhaps the whole of the second line was precisely like the first.

še-ir-ma-al nì-te-na (explained in line 1).

a-a is probably for ad-da, ad meaning “protector”. Exactly how a-a comes to be used in the place of ad-da may not be determined with certainty. The explanation may lie in the relation between “water”, “seed” and “father”. a-a also seems to be a 27 softened form of ad-da. a means “seed” or more primarily “water”. The sign is an ideographic picture of dripping water.

^dimmer Mu-ul-lil (explained in line 2).

ù-mu-un-e divides into the word ù-mu-un and the prolongation vowel e, possibly demonstrative in sense (see e farther on).

ù-mu-un is not elsewhere in this hymn lengthened to ù-mu-un-e, but ù-mu-un occurs nine times.

kur-kur-ra is the plural form of noun, kur, plus postposition ra.

kur-kur: in Sumerian the general way of denoting the plural in nouns is by doubling the root (see ASK. p. 140), whereas the doubled root in a verb means an intensified or causative stem. There are five other cases of doubling the root in the hymn: di-di, line 7, ma-ma, line 8, ir-ir, line 13, má-má, line 20; and da-da, line 23.

kur: the sign KÛRU in the old linear form represented pictorially “mountain tops”. The value kur has three very common Assyrian equivalents, šadû, “mountain”, irṣitu, “earth” and mâtu, “land”, all closely related to each other.

ra is a common postposition signifying “unto”. Perhaps ra sometimes serves merely as a vowel of prolongation, the r at the same time making a double of the final consonant of the preceding word. In such a case ra is called a phonetic complement, while it also helps to determine the value of the sign immediately preceding. To illustrate, the sign KÙRU being followed by RARÛ cannot be read gin nor mad. ra can also be the sign of the genitive (Br. 6367).

a-a ^dimmer Mu-ul-lil ù-mu-un (explained in lines 1, 2 and 3).

dug-ga: dug is the value of KÂGU to be used here, as is at once suggested by the phonetic complement ga.

dug: a very common meaning of dug is ḳibîtu, “command” (Br. 532).

ga is merely the vowel of prolongation a with the final g of the preceding stem.

zi-da: zi being followed by da gives the impression that it should be read zid with da as a phonetic complement. A final consonant in the first syllable, however, is not always a necessity. The name of the temple of Nabu at Borsippa is not read È-zid-da, but È-zi-da or È-zida.

zi here equals imnu, “right”. It may sometimes equal napištu (see below, line 25).

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siba equals rê’û (Br. 5688). The sign is compounded from PA and LU and means “staff-bearer”, since PA signifies “staff” and LU means “hold”, “seize”. The use of the sign is confined almost entirely to the idea of shepherd of animals and then figuratively to that of governor of men.

sag: the sign with the value sag, called SANGU or SAGGU, is the common sign to represent “head” which is expressed in Assyrian either by rêšu or ḳaḳḳadu (see Br. 3522 and 3513). The sign occurs in many compounds.

gig-ga: gig is the value of MI suggested by the phonetic complement ga.

gig: the sign is composed of the corner wedge U and the sign TATTAB and means “darkness”. The sign really signifies “entering into depression”. gi perhaps is a dialectism for mi.

ga = phonetic complement, sag gig-ga means a race of men, evidently here the Babylonians, the people in particular over whom Bêl exercised rule. The term is certainly not one of depreciation. It merely shows that the Babylonians were swarthy. On the other hand, “blackheaded” may be intended to mean the human race inhabiting the earth in contradistinction to the bright celestial beings (see CDAL. 878). Cyrus, in his Broken Cylinder, seems to use the phrase as meaning the Babylonians. His words are: nišê ṣal-mat ḳaḳḳadi šá ú-šá-ak-ši-du ḳa-ta-a-šu. “The blackheaded people whom he caused his hands to conquer” (V R. 35, 13).

i-de, phonetic representation of ide, which in the EK dialect is represented by the sign IGÛ with the value igi which in Assyrian means înu, “eye” (Br. 4004, 4003 and 9273). ide is ES for the EK igi. We have the sign IGÛ in the colophon where it occurs with ÂU, “water”, a-ide meaning “water of the eye”.

i is represented by GIṬṬÛ (“five”). The value i, however, is, of course, entirely syllabic here. Notice that there is a slight difference between the Babylonian GIṬṬÛ and the Assyrian GIṬṬÛ. In Assyrian, GIṬṬÛ consists of two wedges followed by three. In Babylonian it consists of three followed by two, and in the linear form the sign consists of three horizontal lines followed by two (see AL. p. 125, No. 105).

de represented by IZÛ and having the value bil means “fire”. The sign in its hieroglyphic form is probably a picture of building a fire by the friction of an instrument against a piece of wood. Hence the sign is properly composed of AM and GIŠ, AM representing something having a head and GIŠ meaning “wood”. The sign in our text is old Babylonian and may be found in Gudea 29 (Cylinder B, Col. IV, line 13, in Déc. Plate 34). Possibly i-de could be explained as if i were an abstract prefix and de as referring to the light of the eye, hence i-de means “eye”.

gaba is the common word for irtu, “breast” (Br. 4477). The sign GABBU is a double MU-sign meaning “fulness”. From this idea of “fulness” we easily derive the idea of “open” (Br. 4490). So that ide gaba means “open eyed”. The two MU’s appear entirely separate in the Babylonian form of the sign as they do not in the Assyrian form (see TC. p. 18). Our GABBU is not so old as the GABBU of the Stèleo des Vauturs, but is like Gudea’s GABBU (see Cylinder A, Cob XXI, line 25, in Déc. Plate 34). i-de gaba is about equal to “omniscient”.

nì-te-na may be rendered as in line 1, “thyself,” or perhaps we could say “only”.

ama: the meaning for AMMU with the value ama is rîmu, “bull”. AMMU may mean “lord”, bêlu (Br. 4543). In the sign AMMU we have the hieroglyphs for the bull’s head and the mountain combined. In the oldest Babylonian form, of course, lines are used instead of wedges. In Assyrian the sign has been reduced to two horizontal wedges placed before the sign DÛGU. AMMU represents “the bull of the mountains”. In line 9 we shall have the sign GUṬṬU which represents “the bull not of the mountains”, i. e. “the domestic bull” or “the ox”. The sign is the same in form as AMMU, except that the little inside wedges representing the mountains are wanting.

erim-na: erim is taken to be the right value rather than laḥ, because of the following na which serves as a phonetic complement, m and n being closely related because of their similar indeterminate nasal qualities.

erim affords a meaning that seems to suit the context. erim must be equal to the Assyrian ṣâbu which must like the Hebrew ṣābā have in it the idea of “service”. Such expressions as the following bring out the idea of “service”. erim-bal-ku-a, “slave employed at the water wheel” (OBTR. Plate 91, Obv.). erim-bal-gub-ba, “slave who carries a hatchet” (OBTR. Plate 17, Obv.). A common meaning for erim is “warrior”, but the warrior as a soldier rather a general. Then from the idea “soldier of the enemy”, we come to the idea “enemy”, which seems to be the meaning here.

na, while serving phonetically, is also here a pronominal suffix.

di-di can equal kašâdu (Br. 9529 and 9563). The judgment implied by di-di, accordingly, may be that executed on an enemy. 30 di-di is more than pronouncing sentence. It is inflicting the punishment.

di may be a value borrowed from the Assyrian dânu, “to judge”, but this is uncertain, as such an occurrence implies Semitic influence which could not have amounted to much if this hymn was written at a very early period.

ù-nê-la equals noun ù-nê = emûḳu, “power” and phonetic complement la.

ù: IGI-DIBBU might be confounded with ḤUL. It is rather carelessly written here. ù, we have seen in line 1, may mean “lord” in the sense of being “elderly”. ù might mean “mountain”; if so it would be in the sense of being an “ancient mountain”. ù here, however, must be an abstract prefix (MSL. p. XVII). ù, for example, is used as such a prefix with tu, ù-tu being equal to “offspring” (Br. 9470).

nê: PIRIḲḲU in passing from the old Babylonian form which we have in our text meets with much change. The form in our text comes near to being that of the oldest known. Even in Ḥammurabi it begins to take the form of the Assyrian PIRIḲḲU (see CḤ. XLIV. 24. Plate LXXXI). PIRIḲḲU with the value gir which is EK for the ES ner is the common sign for “foot” (Br. 9192). With the meaning of “power” it generally has the value nê (Br. 9184).

la: LALÛ here is essentially the same as the old linear picture which may readily be found in old Sumerian script, given also by Delitzsch (see AL. p. 122, No. 31). la means “fulness” like the Assyrian lalû, but its use in our text is entirely phonetic. We should rather expect ra here. Note that in line 10, we have ra where we should expect la, and in line 12, we have da-ma-al-la where the la is regular, just as ra is regular in kur-kur-ra of line 3.

ma-ma: MAMÛ in its original form is an old hieroglyph representing the earth, so that “earth” or “the land” is a common meaning for ma and equal to the Assyrian mâtu which probably comes from Sumerian ma, “land”, and da, “strong” = DADDU (see line 1 for further comment).

ama, which in line 7 was rendered by “lord”, must mean here “bull”, as the word nà-a limits us to this meaning. nà-a means 31 “pasture”. nà-a could be taken as an adjective, descriptive of the attitude of the bull, i. e., that of lying down quietly. We have nà-a again in line 14. a is simply phonetic here (see line 3).

nà: the sign for the value nà has no sign-name. In almost this form, the sign is easily found in the text of Gudea (see Cylinder B, Col. XVI, line 19, in Déc. 35). The form in our text is very near to the original linear form and differs much from the Assyrian. The ordinary meaning of nà is given by the Assyrian rabâṣu “lie down”, kindred to the Hebrew rābăṣ.

gù, the value here for GUṬṬU, is commonly rendered in Assyrian by alpu “ox”. The sign represents the bull’s head with horns. Historically the sign has three forms, the old Babylonian linear form, the old Babylonian wedge-form and the Assyrian wedge-form. The old Babylonian linear and wedge-forms are the same, except that wedges occur in the latter where simple straight lines appear in the former. The Assyrian form is composed of two horizontal wedges, one upright wedge and two little corner wedges (AL. p. 128, No. 164). The difference between GUṬṬU and AMMU is significant (see note on line 7).

ne-sig: ne-sig-ga equals kamû, “bind” (Br. 4626). The meaning “bind” fits here.

ne is not an unusual indeterminate verbal prefix (see MSL. p. XXIX).

sig = PA, probably with the value sig, may equal kamû (Br. 5575). Hence ne-sig is a verb, ne being the prefix and sig the stem.

gan-nu: the value gan is indicated by the following nu.

gan with complementary nu is represented here by an ancient form of the sign which is very different from the Assyrian form. The meaning here must be expressed by daḥâdu, “plenty”, kindred to alidu (IV R. 9, 24a).

ki: the KIKÛ of our text is New-Babylonian (see the Cyrus Cylinder, I R. 35, line 4). The early linear form is well represented by the wedge-form of Ḥammurabi (CḤ. Col. I, line 10, plate I). A picture of the earth was probably attempted in the archaic linear form. It should be noted that space is represented conventionally by parallel horizontal lines included in a rectangle, orientated to the four quarters of the heavens.

^dimmer Mu-ul-lil (see line 2 for notes).

nin in the sense of bêlu, “lord”, gives a good context.

ḳar-ra equals noun ḳar and postposition ra; ḳar = “plenty” (see MSL. 123). The text however may be dam-ḳar-ra.

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Note that ra may be taken as a postposition of the genitive as well as phonetic complement (see on line 3).

ki (see on line 9).

damal-ra equals adjective plus postposition.

damal, ES for the EK dagal, with the meaning of rapšu, “extensive” (Br. 5452). The sign name is AMÛ. The sign is composed of two signs one within the other, PISANNU, “house”, the outer sign, and ANÛ, “high”, the inner sign, hence the meaning “large space”, “extensive”.

ù-mu-un (see line 1 for note).

mu-ud-na may equal “creator” or “begetter”, just as muḥ-na equals the Assyrian a-lid (IV R. 9, 32a). mu-ud is a phonetic representation of the word mud, whose sign is MUŠÊN-DUGÛ, ḤU plus ḤI (Br. 2273). The word mud is equal to the Assyrian banû (Br. 2274).

dú: here we must let the sense govern us in deciding on a form which may be read either as KAK or NI. KAK with the value du equal to banû (Br. 5248) gives a meaning that fits smoothly with what precedes and follows. In their original forms KAK, NI and IR are similar yet entirely distinct signs. In the archaic linear form, KAK is a triangle with one of the angles pointing to the right. NI is a triangle with one of the angles pointing to the right and one upright line passing through the triangle. IR also is a triangle with one of the angles pointing to the right and two upright lines passing through the triangle.

sag-ma-al equals noun sag, plus suffix ma-al. It could stand for sag-ga just as sag-mal can stand for sag-ga (Br. 3595). sag equals “head” (as in line 5). ma-al: if ma-al is taken a suffix (as in line 1), it stands for the sign PISANNU meaning šakânu, “establish”, or bašû, “exist”, and is ES for the EK gal.

ki (see line 9).

ù-mu-un (see line 1 for note).

zal: NI means “oil”. The Babylonian KAK, NI and IR should be distinguished from the Assyrian. In Assyrian the horizontal wedges are parallel and do not come to an angle at the right.

laḥ-na: zal laḥ-na means “his shining oil”, and the thought appears to be that Bêl causes food to be produced to sustain successive generations. His oil is milk for many generations. 33 zal-laḥ is somewhat like the expression “finest oil” found in Assyrian inscriptions.

laḥ: the signs ḤISSU and ṢÂBU find their nearest approach to each other in the value laḥ. Both signs have this value with the meaning “brightness”.

na here is a suffix of the third person; sometimes it is second person (see line 1).

ga: our sign here is the old Babylonian GÛ which with its common value ga means šizbu, “milk”. The archaic linear form represents the teat of the breast. ga occurs often as a phonetic complement (see line 4).

nunuz-ám means “is multitudinous”. nunuz: NUNUZ in this form is, as Delitzsch observes (HW. p. 525b), New-Babylonian. In Assyrian it is composed of ṢAB and ḤI and in New-Babylonian of ṢAB and ŠE. Here it is equal to the Assyrian lîpu, German “Nachkomme”.

ám: A.AN, equalling ám, is a well recognized verbal suffix used like the verb “to be”; for instance, dingir-ra ám means “is a god” and gal-la ám means “is great” (see SVA. p. 56).

da-ma-al-la is composed of the adjective da-ma-al and the phonetic complement la. da-ma-al is the phonetic representation in ES of the sign AMÛ meaning rapšu (see line 10).

silim-ma-a-ni means “his decree”. Thus, silim-ma-a equals noun, plus phonetic complement, plus vowel prolongation. silim: we have had the sign SARARÛ (in line 7), where it was given the value di; here, however, the phonetic complement suggests the choice of the value silim, from which we derive the meaning “decree”, although “salutation” is a more primary meaning expressed by the Semitic value silim (from šulmu). The sign is apparently New-Babylonian.

ni is one of the common nominal suffixes of the third person. Note that Bêl is addressed in the third person in this line, but we shall find him addressed in the second person again in line 16.

eri is ES for the EK uru. This value is substantiated by the name of the city of Eridu = Eri-ṭu, (see MSL. p. 105). The name of the sign is ALU. Our sign is old Babylonian and is not very different from the hieroglyphic form which is supposed to represent a city (see AL. p. 121, No. 21). It differs considerably from the New-Babylonian ALU which is much like the Assyrian.

ir-ir is an intensive form of the verb and therefore may be causative. Bêl is supposed to have aided kings especially in capturing cities. ir may mean “bind”, expressed by kamû, but kamû 34 is not so often represented by IR as by DIBBU or LALLU. kamû may be represented by PA (see line 9). Although ir is said to be a Semitic value, it is used in this hymn syllabically and is the only value of the sign preserved (see line 1 and also dù in line 11 for further comment).

dù: the sign giving this value has two origins, one of which is represented by the value dul, meaning “cover” (Br. 9582). The other is represented by the value dù and means “dwelling-place”, rendered in Assyrian by šubtu (Br. 9588). dù really means “prescribed space”.

nà-a-ni means “his lying-down place”. nà-a defines with more particularity the nature of the dwelling as “a lying-down place”, “a permanent place of rest”. Here we have dù nà-a; above we have ama nà-a (line 9).

à: IDU and DADDU come from the same ideogram which is the picture of the hand and the forearm, the fingers pointing to the left. The value id is supposed to be of Semitic derivation, from the root appearing in Assyrian as idu, “hand”. The sign IDU also means “side”, “wing”, “horn”, “power”. Hence I render “powerful” here, making it qualify dù nà-a-ni. The sign in our text is old Babylonian; yet it seems to be a form that is approaching the Assyrian form. TA is also related to ID and DA and is used as DA sometimes is, as a postposition.

àm-e, composed of prefix àm and stem e. àm: we have had the sign used phonetically (line 1). Here it is undoubtedly an abstract prefix (MSL. p. XVII), qualifying the following e. The sign is old Babylonian, readily found in old Babylonian inscriptions. It is a composite sign. The enclosure contains the sign IZÛ which is also composite. IZÛ however, as explained above (line 6), means “fire”. So àm is primarily the “fire of love”, hence the usual meaning “love”.

e: it is clear that e can equal ḳabû, “speak” (Br. 5843 and HW. 578a). Hence àm-e must mean “speech”. The sign is old Babylonian, as may be seen, for instance, by examining Ḥammurabi. It is called ÊGÛ. The New-Babylonian form comes nearer to the old Babylonian than the Assyrian does. This fact goes to show that the Assyrian signs are as a rule farther away from the archaic forms than the New-Babylonian signs are. The sign ÂU represented “water”, but the sign ÊGÛ represented the “waterditch”, “canal”. How e comes to mean ḳabû may perhaps be explained by its relation to the value i of KÂGU which equals amâtu, “word”.

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gal-la: gal, “great”, is often followed by the phonetic complement la.

kur (see on line 3).

^dimmer Babbar-ê-ta equals ideogram for “the sun”, plus verb ê = “coming out”, plus postposition “from”. ^dimmer Babbar is the ordinary ideogram for ^ilu Šamaš used of “the sun”, as well as of “the god Šamaš”. Babbar is a value of ḤISSU which means “to be white”.

ê: = two signs, UD and DU, equivalent to this value, meaning aṣû, “come out”, or “go out”. The sign UD is a picture of the sun, and represents the rising sun; hence = “come forth”.

ta is a postposition meaning in this case “from”, but often “in, into”. TA in our text is old Babylonian and much like the linear form in early tablets. Nearly the same form can be found in Ḥammurabi also. But on the whole, the old Babylonian, the Assyrian and the New-Babylonian all differ from each other much. TA has a close relation to DA and ID (see on line 14).

^dimmer Babbar-šu-šù equals ideogram for “the sun”, plus šu = “going in”, plus postposition “to”.

šu equals erêbu, “enter in”. Ideographically, ŠU means “bent over”, or “depressed”.

šù is a value of KU, as a postposition, meaning “unto”. The sign is of rectangular form and has many values, consequently many meanings starting with the idea “enclosure”. The governing force of šù here reaches back over kur in the middle of the line, just as the governing force of ta goes back over kur at the beginning of the line.

The beautiful expression of this line occurs more than once in Sumerian and Babylonian literature. As early as Lugalziggisi it appears in royal writings. Lugalziggisi speaks of his kingdom as extending “from the rising sun to the setting sun”. Babbar-ê-ta (UD.UD.DU.TA) Babbar-šu-šù (UD.ŠU.KU) (OBI. No. 87, Col. II, 12 and 13). And Esarhaddon in Cylinder A says that “From the rising sun to the setting sun he marched without a rival”. ul-tu ṣi-it ^ilu Šam-ši a-di e-rib ^ilu Šam-ši it-tal-lak-u-ma ma-ḥi-ra la i-šu-u (I R. 45, Col. I, 7 and 8).

kur-ra (see on line 3).

ù-mu-un (see on line 1).

36

nu-um-ti occurs also in the next line and no doubt equals balâṭu, “life”.

nu-um seems to be an abstracting prefix of the nature of nam as in nam-ti-la = balâṭu (Br. 1697). nu-um-ti, however, may be a phonetic representation of nim, also written num which means elîtu, “height” (Br. 1982 and 9011). According to this view, nu-um-ti might mean “the acme of life”, just as nam-ti equals “the fortune of life”; hence “life in general”. Or it might be suggested that num is really for nam, as a is known to differentiate sometimes into u; ga for instance becomes gu (MSL. p. X).

ti equals balâṭu, “life”, and has its fuller form in tin, also equal to balâṭu “live”.

za-e equals atta, “thou” (Br. 11762, also ASK. p. 139).

ab-da-me-en equals “thou thyself art”. The form consists of verbal prefix, infix and verb, as follows: ab, being an indeterminate prefix, may therefore be used of the second person (MSL. p. XXV). ÊŠU is an old Babylonian sign pictorially representing “enclosed space”, hence the meaning of “enclosure”. It means, with the value éš, “house”, and, with the value ab, “sea”. da is like à(ID) (line 14), ideographically represented by the picture of the hand and forearm (line 4). It means “side”, also “strength”. It is sometimes a reflexive verbal infix (MSL. p. XXIV). me-en equals bašû (Br. 10404). me also equals bašû (Br. 10361) and the longer me-a equals bašû (Br. 10459). en, therefore, is not an essential part of the word which means “be”. me-en has no connection with ma-e, the personal pronoun of the first person. men, in fact, can be used of the second person and even of the third as well. The defining pronoun za-e here compels us to take me-en in the second person.

Reverse

^dimmer Mu-ul-lil (see line 2 for note).

kur-kur-ra (see line 3 for note).

ga-šá-an, like ù-mu-un (line 1), equals bêlu, “lord”, and is a phonetic form of gašan which is usually represented by GÊŠPU-GUNÛ (Br. 6989 and MSL. p. 129). ga is only a syllable here (see lines 4 and 12 for further comment). ŠÁ is an old sign; here it is old Babylonian and represents closely the linear form. The sign is much used in Assyrian with the syllabic value šá, especially in the place of NITÛ(ša) which is often a relative pronoun.

nu-um-ti (see on line 16).

37

nin-zu means “lord of wisdom”. nin equals bêlu (Br. 10985; see line 10). On zu (see line 1).

ab-da should evidently be ab-da-me-en (see line 16).

e-lum equals kabtu (Br. 5888), and appears to stand for elim which also equals kabtu (Br. 8885). lum is clearly syllabic here, but the sign, old Babylonian here, is indicative of plant-growth, consisting of waving lines.

nì equals puluḥtu, “fear”, here (see on line 1).

an-na: an equaling šamê, “heavens”, is a value of ANÛ attested by the phonetic complement na. The sign ANÛ in our text is old Babylonian and is the same as the original ideogram of the star, except that wedges have taken the place of straight lines. In our Hymn to Adad (CT. XV, Tablet 29631) the transition from the Babylonian to the Assyrian ANÛ may be clearly seen all on one page, wedges however are used, not straight lines. There is the original form, there is the Assyrian form, and there are intermediate forms enough to show how the Babylonian star passes into the Assyrian ANÛ. The NANÛ of our text may be found exactly in the Brick of Ur-Gur (CT. XXI, Tablet 90000, plate 8). In Nebuchadrezzar I. (CT. IX, Tablet 92987), the internal horizontals have disappeared, but the sign has not fully reached the Assyrian NANÛ.

a-kad: perhaps this word a-kad is a loan-word from the Assyrian ekdu. It is better to take a as a vocalic abstract prefix and to consider kad as the root. There are three signs that give this value kad (Br. 1364, 1365 and 2700). The sign GADU means kitû, “clothing material” (Br. 2704 and WH. 361; see also MSL. p. 114). The context alone suggests here that some idea of power may be expected in the word a-kad. Perhaps royal power is meant, which could be symbolically represented by a garment, especially a royal robe.

za-da no doubt stands for za-e-da and would be equal to “thou thyself”, “thou indeed” (see line 16).

šá in Sumerian may represent the Assyrian lû, “verily”, (Br. 7047). šá, simply as a syllable, occurs above (see line 17).

mu-e-da-mal is a verb. mu is an indeterminate verbal prefix. Whether it is first, second or third person may be determined by the context. Here, however, the za-da of the context shows mu to be second person (see on line 1). e here is a verbal infix, corroborative in character (see MSL. p. XXIV, also lines 3 and 14). da is also a verbal infix (see line 16). mal equals bašû, “to be”, (Br. 2238).

38

u equals bêlu, “lord”, and is a very common ideogram for “lord” (see ù-mu-un, line 1). en also equals bêlu, “lord”, but evidently the text is imperfect at this point (see line 16, on en).

dimmer-ri-ne means “gods”. ri is a phonetic complement; ne is a purely phonetic plural ending used both for nouns and verbs (see SVA. p. 69).

za-da šá mu-e-da-mal (see line 18).

a-a ^dimmer Mu-ul-lil (see on lines 2 and 3).

mu-lu is a phonetic representation of mulu (Br. 6398). mulu is ES; EK would be gulu (Br. 6395). mu-lu frequently means the Assyrian relative pronoun ša (Br. 6406).

gu: GÛ is a composite sign whose original parts are NI and BE and which means “full of death”. According to the derivation, GÛ then may be read as “destruction” (MSL. p. 156). GÛ has also an Assyrian equivalent gû meaning “plant”, “vegetation” (Br. 11138 and HW. p. 582). The consideration of GÛ as meaning “vegetation” looks only on the perishable side of the object. The sign has few values. Here, it is clearly old Babylonian resembling the linear form.

má-má-me-en here equals aṣû, “go out”, used of plants and trees (Br. 4303). The more generally used word for aṣû is ê (UD.DU) (see on line 15).

má: the name of the sign is NISIGÛ (see note on še-ir, line 1). The sign is old Babylonian here. me-en (see on line 16).

še: the sign is old Babylonian here. Its most common Assyrian equivalent is šê’u, “grain” (see line 1). If we gave Û-UM the broader meaning of “production”, at the same time reading GÛ as “destruction”, we would have the fine antithetical parallelism: “O father Bêl, who bringest forth destruction and who bringest forth production.” Such a reading would give quite correctly the course of thought, for Bêl is god of the atmosphere, lord of the clouds, and commander of the rain-storms which are either sources of growth on earth or of ruin. On the other hand, the translation which I have adopted seems perhaps preferable.

me-lam-zu: from the combination of ME and LAM we get the Assyrian melammu, “glory”. me: MIMÛ with the value išib 39 means ellu, “bright” (see line 16 for further comment). lam: one of the values of IZÛ, seems to equal išâtu, “flame”, but the usual value of IZÛ for išâtu is bil (see line 6, de), me-lam literally means “bright flame”. zu, besides being an ideogram for idû, “know”, is the usual pronominal suffix of the second person singular (see on zu, line 1), as in this passage.

gúr-ra gives a good sense, though the signs resemble KU and RA giving šù-ra, a double postposition. The text however is defective. gúr-ra equals kabtu (Br. 10183), making the phrase read “before thy great glory”. gúr: KIL also has the value gurun equal to ebnu, “fruit” (Br. 10179). ra (see on line 3).

ḥa: KÙA is the usual Sumerian sign used with a verb, to give a precative sense as here. The sign here is old Babylonian and resembles the pictorial form which is clearly that of “a fish” (see on line 22). The original pictorial figure is one of the few to be found in which curved lines predominate.

mu-ni-ib-( )-ne-ne: strangely enough the verb seems to be omitted in the sentence of this line. Perhaps the omission is due to scribal error. mu is a verbal prefix of the third person here (see on line 18). ni-ib is a verbal infix (see MSL. p. XXXIII). The infixes are generally personally indeterminate. They incorporate, between the verbal prefixes that represent the subject and the verb, the object in pronominal form, whether it be direct or indirect. ni-ib really equals “before it”. The translation disregards ni-ib for the sake of smoothness. ni (see on line 13). ib stands to ni as postposition to pronoun. The sign for ib is old Babylonian; it is really composite and signifies “side”. ne-ne is a personal pronoun of the third person (see ASK. p. 139). ne is syllabic here (see de, line 6, about its ideographic value; also lam, line 21).

ḥu-e equals iṣṣuru, “bird”. ḥu: simple ḥu is used elsewhere for iṣṣûru. The sign MUŠÊNNU here is old Babylonian. The archaic form is supposed to be the picture of a bird in flight. mušên, another value of MUŠÊNNU, also means “bird”. e is not a necessary part of the word, being here only a vowel of prolongation probably indicating the definite article (see lines 3 and 14).

an-na (see on line 18).

ḥa-e equals nûnu, “fish”. ḥa alone equals nûnu (see on line 21). e serves the same purpose as in ḥu-e.

ṭú-ra equals apsû, “sea”. ṭú alone equals apsû (Br. 10217). ra may be taken as a sign of the genitive (see on line 3).

šà-nì equals “in the midst of fear”. šà: ŠÂGU, with the 40 value šà, equal to libbu or kirbu, is one of the few Sumerian prepositions. It precedes its object as a noun in the construct state, nì (see on line 18).

ma-ni-ib-si consists of prefix, infix and verb. ma is not a very common verbal prefix. It is indeterminate, but the sense requires the third person (see MSL. p. XXIV). ni-ib is second person here (see on line 21). si: the most common meaning of si is malû, “fill”. The sign is Babylonian and can be found either in the Code of Ḥammurabi or the Cyrus Cylinder.

a-a ^dimmer Mu-ul-lil-li (see on line 2). li is merely phonetic complement. We might give it an ideographic value and connect it with da-da and render “abundant in strength”. The common meaning of LILÛ is rašû, “abound”. With the value gub, however, it means ellu, “bright”. The sign is old Babylonian, yet quite different from the archaic linear form.

da-da means “strength” (see on line 16).

maḥ has three common Assyrian equivalents, ma’adu, “many”, rabû, “great” and ṣîru, “high”. maḥ here equals rabû. There is still another Assyrian equivalent, maḥḥu which must be a loanword in Semitic.

mu-e-gin as prefix, infix and verb means “he indeed goes”. mu-e (see on line 18). gin is a value of the sign ARAGUBBÛ (see ê, line 15).

sag-e-zi equals “head” (line 5) plus vowel of prolongation (line 3) and “of life” (line 4). ZÎTU equals napištu as well as imnu and kînu.

si-ba-e divides into siba and e. si-ba is the same as siba (line 5), only here the word is given syllabically rather than ideographically. e is a vowel prolongation (as in line 3).

e-nab is naturally treated as though e were a vocalic prefix and nab the root. e as an abstract prefix, no doubt, is possible (MSL. p. XVII). nab: instead of NABBU, perhaps the sign is ANA-ÊŠŠÊKU with the last component omitted; then the value should be mul, equal to kakkabâni, “stars”, and the clause reads: “shepherd of the stars”. e may equal mû “water” (see line 14), and nab may equal šamû, “heaven”; then we have the reading: “shepherd of the water of heaven”.

41

ù-mu-un (line 1).

ka: KÂGU here is a noun with the value ka equal to pû, “mouth”, (Br. 538). The sign originally represented the head, and its first meaning was gu equal to ḳibû. The sign is old Babylonian (see on lines 1 and 4).

na-àm-gá is a noun. na-àm is an abstract prefix (line 1). gá equals šakânu, “cause to be”, (Br. 5421). The sign is PISANNU. We have had the sign phonetically represented by ma-al (line 11) used as a suffix. Here gá is not a suffix, but the root.

iz-ba is a verb. iz is an indeterminate prefix, shown by the context to be of the second person. ba equals pitû, “open”. The sign is old Babylonian. The archaic form of the sign signified “divide”.

eri (see on line 13).

ga (see line 12). ga can be used as an adjective meaning “prolific”, one of the derived ideas of ga as “milk”.

mu-e-gin (see line 23).

gín equals ḳanû, “reed”. The sign is sometimes followed by the phonetic complement na. The sign is old Babylonian.

si equals “fulness” (see on line 22).

ti-šù means “unto life”. ti (see line 16); the sign here, however, really resembles BALA which primarily means “breaking into”. Then we have the derived meaning palû, “weapon”, then “insignia of royal authority”, and consequently “rule”, “government”. If we read bal instead of ti, then Bêl is “a full reed unto royalty”, which makes little sense. šù (see line 15).

me-a is the same as me-en (see on line 16). a is phonetic (see on line 9).

a-a ^dimmer Mu-ul-lil (see lines 2 and 3). sag (see line 5).

zi equals napištu like ti (see line 16, also 23). nê-la (see on line 8).

šú equals ḳâtu, “hand”. The sign also has a value kád which is evidently derived from the Semitic ḳâtu.

ti (see on line 24). If we read the sign as TIL, then Bêl is “the power of life”. If we read BALA, then Bêl is “the power of royalty”, signifying perhaps that royal authority is vested in Bêl.

ba-ni-ib-ag is a verb, ba is an indeterminate verbal prefix, but is much used for the second person (MSL. p. XXVI). ni-ib (see on line 21). ag equals epêšu, “make”. The sign is old Babylonian.

42

šú-gil equals napḥaru, “what is collected”, “totality”, “entirety”. šú is a prefix to the causative stem (see on line 25). gil equals paḥâru, “collect”.

nišĭa: the signs for the numerals twenty and five are the same as in Assyrian, niš is the Sumerian numeral for “twenty”. ĭa is the Sumerian numeral for “five”.

mu-bi im: mu-bi equals “his name”, each line of the Hymn being considered a name of Bêl. In our translation we may read “its lines”. im, the same sign as nì (line 1). im is sometimes equal to ṭîṭu, “clay”, or duppu, “tablet”.

êr is a value derived from two signs, A and ŠI, taken together. The most common meaning of the value is bikîtu, “lamentation”, or “song” (see i-de, line 6).

lim-ma: the phonetic complement ma indicates that the preceding value should end with m. Dr. Lau regards this as the sign lib(m) = kûru, “woe”, (Br. 7271); hence êr-lim-ma would mean a penitential psalm.