The Assyrian and Hebrew Hymns of Praise

by Charles Gordon Cumming

Hymns to Shamash

1. Rawlinson, Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia, IV: 2, 28 No. 1; translated by Jastrow, Die Religion Babyloniens und Assyriens, I, 426; and by Fossey, La Magie Assyrienne, No. 30. It is a hymn of fourteen lines, introducing a petition to Shamash for the healing of the king. The first two lines of the obverse and reverse sides of the tablet are missing.

2. R. IV: 2, 20 No. 2, translated by Jastrow, I, 427. There remain only the first five lines of a hymn, introducing a prayer to Shamash at the rising of the sun.

3. R. V, 50; translated by Jastrow, I, 428; by Zimmern, Babylonische Hymnen und Gebete in Auswahl, Der Alte Orient, 1905, page 15; and by Fossey, La Magie Assyrienne, No. 42. It is a hymn of eleven lines, introducing a petition to Shamash for the freeing of the king from the ban resting upon him, the prayer being offered at sunrise.

4. Abel-Winckler, Keilschrifttexte, pages 59 to 60; translated by Jastrow, I, 429. It is a hymn of twelve lines addressed to Shamash at sunset, wishing the God a safe return and glad welcome to his home from Ea his wife.

5. R. IV: 2, 19 No. 2; translated by Jastrow, I, 429; and by Zimmern, Der Alte Orient, 1905, page 15. It is a hymn of ten lines addressed to Shamash at sunrise. After this hymnal section the poem goes on to describe how the gods inhale the odor of the sacrifice and refresh themselves with the “food of heaven.” This suggests that the rising of the sun was the signal for the offering of sacrifice and the praise of Shamash, even as it was also the favorable moment for the banning of the powers of darkness which troubled men. (See Jastrow, I, 430.)

6. Craig, Assyrian and Babylonian Religious Texts, II, 3; also Gray, The Shamash Religious Texts, IV; translated by Jastrow II, 72; by Zimmern, Der Alte Orient, 1905, page 15; by Martin, Textes religieux Assyriens et Babyloniens, pages 14-26. It is a hymn of six lines, followed by a prayer, in which an individual petitions for release from the ban occasioning his sickness.

7. Gray, The Shamash Religious Texts, pages 9-23; translated by Gray; also by Jastrow, I, 432. It is a hymn, complete in four columns of four hundred and twenty lines, and is entirely free from any reference to incantation.