Note 20 — Chapter I · THE HEBREW PATRIARCHS

Amurru, ‘the Amorite god,’ was a name which had been given by the Sumerians, the earlier population of Chaldæa, to the Syrian Hadad whom the Babylonians identified with their Ramman or Rimmon (cf. Zech. xii. 11). A cuneiform text published by Reisner (Sumerisch-babylonische Hymnen nach Thontafeln griechischer Zeit, p. 139, lines 141-144) couples Amurru, ‘the lord of the mountains,’ with Asratu, the Canaanitish Asherah, ‘the lady of the plain.’ Asratu is identified with the Babylonian Gubarra.