The Assyrian and Hebrew Hymns of Praise

by Charles Gordon Cumming

Teaching or Wisdom Psalms

There is a natural line of development from the psalm of faith to what may perhaps be called teaching or wisdom psalms. The believing psalmist assumes that God is in complete control of all the circumstances of life, and is convinced that God will protect him from all evil and give him success. This assumption of faith then becomes for many the all important, fundamental law of life, and as such it must needs be taught to youth. Thus doubtless originated the wisdom psalms; of which we have in the Psalter 1, 112, 34, 78, 127, 128, 133, 125, 73, 37, 49.

Psalm 1 is a splendid type of the wisdom psalm, since it begins with the characteristic opening words: “Blessed is the man,” and then sets forth the qualities of the good man and claims for him success, while it asserts for the wicked certain condemnation and ruin. Psalms 112 and 34 are also characteristic wisdom psalms, confined however in the artificial limitations of alphabetical acrostics. Psalm 78 teaches the same lesson as to the secret of success from history, recalling how Yahwe had again and again punished disobedience and rewarded obedience until he finally rejected Ephraim and accepted Judah, and chose David to be his servant.

If there were in Israel wise men, such as the author of Ecclesiastes, who taught that all life was vanity, there were other wise men such as the author of Psalm 127 who taught that while all human effort without God’s cooperation was vain, yet life with God’s cooperation was certain of happiness. God does give his help to man, and one of his very best gifts is children. Again 128 gives the assurance that he who walks in Yahwe’s ways will enjoy the fruits of his labor, and in happiness see his children and children’s children round about him. Psalm 133 pays simple and charming tribute to the joy of human fellowship.

The assertion that the righteous always prosper and that the wicked suffer misfortune was inevitably challenged by the sceptics and scorned by the scoffers, who mocked the believing psalmist in his distress saying: “Where is now your God?” It became necessary therefore to deal with this problem on the basis of the facts of life, and we get accordingly a somewhat different type of wisdom psalm. Psalm 125 testifies to the existence of this problem. Verses 1 and 2, to be sure, affirm the security of the righteous. Verse 3, however, attempts to justify the affirmation of the preceding verses by a rational argument. If the righteous were not certain to prosper in the world, why should men be righteous? Would not the righteous become wicked and the moral foundations of life crumble? The petition in verses 4 and 5 requesting Yahwe’s favor for the good and his punishment for the wicked, while properly no part of a teaching psalm, are further recognition that actually certain of the facts of life contradict the psalmist’s theory. Nevertheless, his own conviction is expressed in verse 1:

They who trust in Yahwe are as Mount Zion

Which cannot be moved but abideth forever.

Psalm 73 is the teaching of one who wrestled with this same problem of the theodicy. Verse 1 is an assertion of his faith:

Yes God is good to Israel

To those who are pure of heart.

But verses 2-20 tell how nearly the psalmist came to losing that faith as he saw the wicked prosper, while he himself suffered misfortunes, and how he recovered his faith with the conviction that the prosperity of the wicked was but temporary and their ultimate doom certain. Verses 23-28 are accordingly an assertion of the psalmist’s devotion to Yahwe as in a psalm of faith, but the main thesis of the psalm is stated in verse 1, and so may therefore be best grouped with the wisdom psalms.

Psalm 37 is composed in stanzas of four lines, the first letters of the first lines of the stanzas spelling out the alphabet. The author of the psalm is an old man who gives warning against fretting over the prosperity of the wicked, and who affirms on the basis of his long experience of life, that, while the prosperity of the wicked is short-lived, God never forsakes the righteous. The use of the acrostic form may itself be taken as evidence of this psalmist’s unquestioning belief in the above dogma.

The author of Psalm 49 has no certain promise of prosperity for the righteous, nor does he threaten the wicked with premature death, but he does smile at their fatuous confidence, since death must surely overtake them. Therefore he does not let their possession of wealth trouble him because it cannot be taken to Sheol. On the other hand there seems to be just a suggestion in verse 16 that God can relieve the pious from the grasp of death:

Surely God will redeem my life from the power of Sheol

For he will receive me.

Chapter II
HEBREW SANCTUARY HYMNS OF PRAISE

The hymn of praise is very similar to the psalm of thanksgiving. Indeed it is sometimes difficult to decide in which category a psalm belongs, as in the case of Psalm 103. The fundamental difference is that the psalm of thanksgiving expresses gratitude while the hymn of praise expresses adoration. The psalm of thanksgiving testifies to that which has actually been experienced, the hymn of praise voices enthusiasm for the wisdom and power and goodness that are in God. The psalm of thanksgiving is thus in its nature subjective, conscious of what the psalmist has experienced, while the genuine hymn is objective, forgetting self in adoration of Deity.

The question of the nature of the hymn of praise is involved with the question of its origin. Praise did not in the beginning burst forth spontaneously from the human heart. Religion arose out of a consciousness of need, and a feeling that there was a power to meet that need. In Babylonia, as in India and elsewhere the hymn of praise is often but little more than an introduction to a petition. The singer tells the Deity that He is wise and then asks for wisdom; or strong and asks for strength, or rich and asks for material blessings. Praise is suspiciously close to flattery and far from disinterested. In Israel also it is believed that the Deity desires praise. There is no profit for Yahwe in the death of the psalmist, since the dead praise not Yahwe. But in Israel praise is not a mere preliminary to a petition. The Old Testament psalmist does not praise God and then ask for favors. Almost no hymns are found in the psalter followed by what can actually be called a petition. The Hebrew hymn of praise has passed beyond that stage of development. As the expression of faith in Deity in the psalm of lamentation developed into the independent psalm of faith, so the words of praise that once introduced the petition for help have developed into the independent hymn of praise. Nor is the Old Testament hymn of praise just an expression of gratitude for the divine favors received; with or without anticipation of favors to come. The hymn of praise is not a mere variant of the psalm of gratitude. The hymn of praise has transcended the human experience of need and deliverance and forgets the self in adoration of Deity. Praise is an end in itself, desired of God, and necessary for the human spirit.

The first home of the hymn of praise, in the light of all that is known of the development of religion, must undoubtedly have been the sanctuary. This judgment is confirmed by the testimony of the Old Testament psalms:

Praise waiteth for thee, O God, in Zion.

—Psalm 65:2.

Enter into his gates with thanksgiving,

And into his courts with praise.

—Psalm 100:4.

Praise him ye servants of Yahwe,

Ye who stand in the house of Yahwe.

—Psalm 135:1, 2.

Sing unto Yahwe a new song,

His praise in the congregation of saints.

—Psalm 149:1.

Behold bless ye Yahwe, ye servants of Yahwe,

Who by night stand in the house of Yahwe.

—Psalm 134:1.

I will praise Yahwe with my whole heart,

In the assembly of the upright and the congregation.

—Psalm 111:1.

Such pious Hebrews as the authors of Psalms 42-43 and 84 longed for the sanctuary because it was preëminently the place for worship and praise. Typical sanctuary hymns of praise are Psalms 150, 148, 147, 146, 145, 111, 135, 117, 113, 33, 115.

The external form of the hymn of praise is very simple. It is introduced by the call to praise, originally addressed by the priesthood of the sanctuary to the worshippers. The characteristic form of the call was: “Praise ye Yahwe,” “Hallelujah.” So Miriam called upon her Hebrew sisters to praise Yahwe when the victory had been gained at the Sea of Reeds over Pharaoh’s forces:

Praise ye Yahwe, for he hath triumphed;

Horse and rider hath he thrown into the sea.

—Exodus 15:21.

This call to praise was followed by the body of the hymn setting forth in participial phrases, adjectival clauses, or independent sentences the reasons why men should praise Yahwe. Then the hymn was rounded out in good symmetrical form with the same concluding call to praise:—“Hallelujah.”

While the above is the standard form of the hymn, a few psalms repeat the call to praise at intervals throughout the psalm, creating somewhat the impression of a union of little hymns. Thus Psalm 147 is in three parts each introduced by a call to praise. Part I has the call to praise in verse 1, and the reasons for praise in verses 2-6. Part II has the call to praise in verse 7 and the reasons for praise in verses 8-11. Part III has the call to praise in verse 12 and the reasons for praise in verses 13-20. The whole hymn then concludes with “Hallelujah.” Likewise Psalm 148 is in two parts. Part I has the call to praise in verses 1-5a, and the reasons for praise in verse 5b and verse 6. Part II has the call to praise in verses 7-13a, and the reasons for praise in verses 13bc and 14abc. Again there is a concluding “Hallelujah.”

It is worth observing that in general the Old Testament hymn of praise speaks of Yahwe in the third person. Human being calls upon human being to praise Yahwe, and human being tells human being why Yahwe is worthy to be praised. Hymns which thus use the third person exclusively are Psalms 150, 149, 148, 147, 146, 134, 117, 113, 111, 100, 98, 96, 95, 47, 29, 24, 19:2-5b; 19:5c-7. Yahwe is addressed in the second person in the following verses: Psalm 135:13; Psalm 97:9; Psalm 99:3, 8; Psalm 115:1, 2; Psalm 93:2, 3, 5. The second and third persons are used in about equal degree in Psalm 68, 145, 194, while Psalms 8, 84, 67 use the second person exclusively. Now the use of the second person is of course characteristic of prayer. The fact therefore that in the standard Hebrew hymn of praise the third person is used, because Hebrew is calling upon his fellow Hebrew to Praise Yahwe, testifies rather powerfully to the social and democratic character of worship in Israel.

Taking up now the three divisions of the Hebrew hymn in order, it is to be noticed that the call to praise has undergone certain changes in the wording. While in the great majority of the hymns the call to praise is “Hallelujah” in Psalm 134 the call is: “Bless ye Yahwe”; and in Psalm 100 all the land is bidden: “Shout to Yahwe”; and in Psalm 33 the righteous are called upon to: “Rejoice in Yahwe.” Most impressive perhaps of all the calls to praise is that of Psalm 29, where the summons is addressed to the residents of heaven:

Ascribe to Yahwe, ye gods,

Ascribe to Yahwe glory and strength.

Again, when it is an individual who sings his hymn of praise, he must either address deity in the first person, as in Psalm 145:1:

I will extol thee, my God, O King;

And I will bless thy name for ever and ever;

or he must call upon himself to praise Yahwe as in Psalm 146:1:

Praise Yahwe, O my soul.

Still further variation from the standard form is found, when the call to praise takes the form of a petition to Yahwe, a petition however which is really an ascription of glory to him. This occurs very beautifully in Psalm 115:1:

Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us,

But unto thy name give glory.

So also in Psalms 67 and 68, the petitions of the opening verses are really that God will glorify his own name, and the petitions merge altogether naturally into the calls to praise that follow.

The calls to praise in the various hymns, however they vary, yet bear eloquent testimony to the enthusiasm which animated the Hebrew hymns. They were sung not only to the accompaniment of many musical instruments, but also with dancing. The singing was not limited to sanctuary choirs, but was participated in by the entire concourse of people. The call to praise goes out to those in the sanctuary Psalm 150:1; to priests, Levites, Israelites, proselytes Psalm 135:19ff; to Jerusalem Psalm 147:12; to all nations Psalm 117; to everything that hath breath Psalm 150:6; to all things animate and inanimate in heaven and earth Psalm 148.

The reasons given in the body of the hymns why men should praise Yahwe naturally vary somewhat. However one predominant reason is that God in wisdom and power created the entire physical universe as it was visible to the ancient Hebrew; the firmament with sun, moon and stars, and the waters above the firmament; the earth and everything upon the earth, and the waters beneath the earth. It is Yahwe who causeth the winds to blow, and the lightnings to flash, and hail and snow and rain to fall upon the earth; it is Yahwe who causeth all vegetation to grow, and giveth increase to the flock, and sustaineth life in everything that breatheth. (Psalms 148:5-6; 147:4, 8, 15-18; 146:6; 135:6, 7; 115:15; 104:2-32; 68:10, and 29:3-10.)

A second almost equally prominent reason for praising Yahwe is for his wisdom, might, and goodness revealed in his dealings with Israel. He had chosen the race for his own, had redeemed it from the power of Egypt, had revealed unto it his will in laws, statutes and commandments, had led it safely through the great desert, and had given it possession of the land of Canaan. (Psalms 148:14; 147:2,13,20; 135:4,9-12; 33:12.) It is noteworthy that little attention is given to the return from exile, partly, perhaps, because it may have been easier to see the hand of God in remote history, and partly because the return from Babylon and the subsequent history were not themes to create hymnal enthusiasm. On the other hand Israel did, as it will appear, look toward the future for Yahwe’s final and most glorious participation in human affairs.

A third potent reason for praising Yahwe is because of his merciful help extended to the weak and lowly on the earth, the widow, the orphan and the stranger, the oppressed and the troubled. Especially is he to be praised, because he saves the righteous and destroys the wicked. (Psalms 147:3; 146:7-9; 145:14, 18-20; 113:6-9; 103:13; 33:18-20; 68:6.)

Again the psalmist praises Yahwe for what he is in himself. His greatness is unsearchable. He is high above all Gods. His understanding is infinite. He is gracious and full of compassion. He is righteous in all his ways and holy in all his works. He is good, his mercy is everlasting and his faithfulness is extended to generation after generation. His name is holy and to be revered. (Psalms 150:2; 147:5; 146:7-9; 135:3, 5; 113:4; 111:4, 9; 100:5.)

Yet another reason for praising Yahwe is that he stands in such contrast to the gold and silver idols of the nations, which are the work of men’s hands, and powerless to see or hear or help. (Psalms 135:15-17; 115:4-8.) Likewise Yahwe is an infinitely more reliable and potent source of help than the mortal human prince who goeth so soon to the grave and whose thoughts and plans then perish forever. (Psalm 146:3, 4.)

As the hymns in praise of Yahwe quite fittingly begin with Hallelujah “Praise ye Yahwe,” so also the great majority of them come to a conclusion with “Hallelujah.” (Psalms 150, 149, 148, 147, 146, 135, 117, 115, 113, 104.) There are a few hymns which have not the Hallelujah at the close (Psalms 29, 33, 111, 145), but these are not typical hymns. Psalms 29 and 33 do not use “Hallelujah” in the opening call to praise, while 111 and 145 are individual and alphabetical hymns of praise, in which “Hallelujah” could not well be made an integral part of the hymn. On the other hand a number of hymns have a longer and stronger concluding call to praise than the simple “Hallelujah”:

Let everything that breatheth praise Yahwe.

Praise ye Yahwe.

—Psalm 150:6.

The praise of Yahwe shall my mouth speak;

And let all flesh bless his holy name

For ever and ever.

—Psalm 145:21.

The dead praise not Yahwe,

Nor any who go down into silence;

But as for us we will praise Yahwe

Both now and evermore;

Praise ye Yahwe.

—Psalm 115:17, 18.

House of Israel, bless ye Yahwe;

House of Aaron, bless ye Yahwe;

House of Levi, bless ye Yahwe;

Worshippers of Yahwe, bless ye Yahwe;

Blessed by Yahwe from Zion who inhabits Jerusalem;

Praise ye Yahwe.

—Psalm 135:19-21.

Such in general is the sanctuary hymn of praise, but each of the hymns in this group (Psalms 150, 148, 147, 135, 113, 145, 111, 146, 115, 33, 117) merits or demands at least brief individual mention. Of all these Psalm 150 deserves to be mentioned first because its position at the end of the psalter may be accepted as strong testimony of the great importance attached to praise in the worship of Israel. The psalm also merits consideration for its own sake because of the clarity and symmetry of its arrangement:

Call to praise Yahwe (verse 1a); where praise Yahwe (verse 1bc); wherefore praise Yahwe (verse 2); wherewith praise Yahwe (verses 3, 4, 5); concluding call to praise Yahwe (verse 6).

Psalm 148 is particularly notable for the universality of its call to praise. Verses 1-5 call upon everybody and everything in the heavens above to praise Yahwe, while verses 7-13 call to his praise everything and everybody on the earth beneath including:

Kings of the earth, and all people;

Princes, and all judges of the earth;

Both young men and maidens;

Old men and children.

After the tremendous universality of this call to praise, the brevity of the body of the hymn, with the reference to Yahwe’s supreme glory on the one hand, and the reference to his goodness to Israel on the other hand, is very effective:

Let them praise the name of Yahwe,

For his name alone is supreme.

His glory is above earth and heaven,

And he hath given victory to his people.

The praise is he of all his faithful ones,

Even of the Israelites, the people near to him,

Praise ye Yahwe.

Psalm 147 is a splendid example of the union of three little hymns in one composition. The absence of a concluding call to praise is surprising; it has doubtless been lost in process of transmission.

Psalm 135 has a number of little variations from the ordinary usage of the hymns. Verses 1 and 2 are a typical call to praise:

Praise ye Yahwe;

Praise ye the name of Yahwe;

Praise him, ye servants of Yahwe,

Ye who stand in the house of Yahwe,

In the courts of the house of our God.

But then verses 3 and 4 are two little hymns in themselves:

Praise Yahwe; for Yahwe is good.

Sing praises unto him, for he is gracious,

For Yahwe hath chosen Jacob for himself,

And Israel is his treasure.

With verse 5 one would expect a renewed call to praise, as for example:

Praise Yahwe for Yahwe is great,

but instead of the call to praise there is substituted an affirmation of faith:

For we know that Yahwe is great,

And our Lord above all gods.

Verses 6-12 proceed in normal course reciting the greatness of Yahwe in creation and in history, but verse 13 contains its surprise, for the third person is exchanged for the second and Yahwe is directly addressed:

Thy name, O Yahwe, endureth for ever,

Thy remembrance, O Yahwe, to all generations.

The second person is the natural usage of prayer, and the subject of verse 14 would have been appropriate for petition:

For Yahwe will deliver his people,

And he will show mercy to his servants.

Possibly this very fact accounts for the use of the second person in verse 13. The thought of rescue naturally suggests the idea of the idol worship of the oppressors (verses 15-18), and the contrast between the impotent idols and Yahwe lends enthusiasm to the mighty concluding call to praise (verses 19-21).

In this group of sanctuary hymns, Psalm 113 undoubtedly deserves a unique place. The call to praise is distinctive both for its sublimity of conception and the beauty of the language:

Praise ye Yahwe;

Praise, ye servants of Yahwe,

Praise the name of Yahwe.

Blessed be the name of Yahwe

Now and evermore;

From the rising of the sun to its going down

Yahwe’s name is to be praised.

—Verses 1-3.

However the rarest beauty and chiefest charm of this hymn is in the unexpected contrast between the Yahwe exalted high above all nations and Yahwe stooping from on high to the poorest and weakest of the earth. There is here a beautiful illustration of the characteristic Hebrew tendency to make truth concrete, in the case of the childless wife whom Yahwe remembers, and saves from being divorced, causing her to remain at home the joyful mother of children:

High above all nations is Yahwe;

Above the heavens his glory.

Who is like Yahwe our God,

Who dwelling in high heaven,

Stoopeth to look upon the earth?

He raiseth up poor men from the dust;

From the dung hill he lifteth needy men,

To seat them beside princes.

Even with the princes of his people.

He causeth the barren woman to live at home

The mother of children joyful.

Praise ye Yahwe.

It is safe to say that no greater hymn of praise is to be found in the psalter than Psalm 100. It is great in its originality, clarity, and strength. It is addressed to the congregation entering the temple, and though not sung by the procession might yet be called a processional hymn. It is perhaps a question how wide the application of verse 1 is, whether the call to praise goes out to all the earth and all humanity, or whether the call is intended simply for all the land of Palestine. Verses 3 and 4 seem to make it reasonably clear that the call to praise is here meant not for humanity but for the Jewish people. The psalm is not then an eschatological hymn as the wider application of verse 1 might suggest. The hymn falls into two divisions of almost equal lengths, verses 1-3 and verses 4-5. In the first division verses 1 and 2 constitute the call to praise:

Shout to Yahwe all the land:

Serve Yahwe with gladness;

Come in before him with singing.

Verse 3 makes up the body of the hymn in this division, and it is to be noted that while the actual content of verse 3 is characteristic reason for praise, yet the introduction of “Know ye” adds another to the succession of imperatives in this psalm, increases its strength, and is reminiscent of the fact that there were requirements for those who would enter Yahwe’s temple as Psalm 24:3-5 makes clear:

Know ye that Yahwe is God:

It is He who hath made us, and we are

His people and sheep of his pasture.

In the second division verse 4 is the call to praise:

Enter his gates with thanksgiving,

His courts with praise;

Be thankful to him, bless his name,

and verse 5 the body of the hymn:

For good is Yahwe: unto everlasting his mercy

And to all generations his faithfulness.

There is no further conclusion and assuredly none is needed.

Psalm 134 is a simple liturgical hymn of a night service in the Jerusalem temple. Some one representing the congregation standing without calls upon the priests in the sanctuary to lift up hands to the Holy of Holies and bless Yahwe (verses 1-2). The priests from within replying invoke Yahwe’s blessing upon the worshipper.

Another very beautiful liturgical hymn of praise is Psalm 24. Verses 1 and 2 are sung by the congregation approaching the sanctuary, and are hymnal in character. Arrived at the sanctuary the question is asked, who are worthy to enter Yahwe’s sanctuary (verse 3), and the answer is given in verses 4, 5. These three verses belong to the category of the teaching psalms. In verse 6 the congregation announces that it seeks the God of Jacob. However the temple doors are closed and the congregation demands that the gates be lifted up to permit the King of Glory to enter, verse 7. Verse 8 brings the challenge from within the temple: “Who is this king of glory?” and the answer is returned by the company without: “Yahwe strong and mighty, Yahwe mighty in battle.” Again the demand is made that the temple gates be lifted up (verse 9), but again the challenge comes from within: “Who is this king of glory?” And now the company returns the age-old title of the king, “Yahwe of hosts, he is the king of glory,” and we are to understand that the gates did lift up, and that the mighty God passed in.

It is clear that this liturgical hymn is made up of what were once independent literary units. This is sufficiently obvious from the fact that in verse 6 the worshipping company are seeking the deity’s presence, as indeed is presupposed by verses 3-5, while in verses 7-10 the company is seeking entrance for Yahwe himself into the temple or more probably into the city. The whole constitutes a noble liturgical hymn of praise.

Psalms 111 and 145 have little claim to recognition other than that they are alphabetical psalms, the twenty-two lines of 111 beginning with the twenty-two successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet, while the first lines of the twenty-two couplets of Psalm 145 likewise begin with the twenty-two successive letters of the alphabet.

Psalm 146 opens in the characteristic style of an individual hymn of praise:

Praise ye Yahwe:

Praise Yahwe, O my soul;

While I live I will praise Yahwe;

I will sing praises unto my God, while I exist.

Then, however, there are three verses in the manner of wisdom literature, although introduced by verse 3 in the hortatory style of the prophet:

Trust ye not in princes,

Nor in man in whom is no help:

His breath goeth out, he returneth to his ground;

In that day his thoughts perish.

Happy is he who has Jacob’s God for his help,

Whose hope is in Yahwe his God,

Maker of heaven and earth.

Verses 6-9 give the standard reasons why men should praise Yahwe, and verse 10 closes the hymn with that hopeful outlook for the future so significant, and so characteristic of the Hebrew religion and the Hebrew hymn of praise:

Yahwe shall reign forever,

Thy God, O Zion, unto all generations.

Praise ye Yahwe.

Psalm 115 varies so widely from the standard hymn of praise that it is just a question whether it belongs with the hymns, or with the psalms of petition. As previously pointed out, the introductory call to praise here takes on the form of a petition, fortified moreover as in prayers of petition with reasons why Yahwe should answer it.

Not to us, Yahwe, not to us,

But to thy name give glory,

For thy mercy’s sake, for thy truth’s sake.

Why should the nations say,

Where is their God?

—Verses 1, 2.

What would ordinarily be the body of the first division of the hymn begins with verse 3 and runs on to verse 8 contrasting the God who is in the heavens and who has power to do whatever he wills with the impotent and useless idols of the nations (verses 3-8).

A new section clearly begins with verse 9. In a hymn proper verses 9-11 would constitute a renewed call to praise, but here they are a summons to Israelites, priests, proselytes to trust Yahwe:

Israel, trust in Yahwe:

Their help and their shield is he.

House of Aaron, trust in Yahwe;

Their help and their shield is he.

Worshippers of Yahwe, trust in Yahwe;

Their help and their shield is he.

There follows in verses 12-14 not reasons why Yahwe should be trusted, corresponding to the manner in which the body of a hymn gives reasons why Yahwe should be praised, but rather a strong affirmation of confidence, which again is a common feature of the prayer of petition.

Yahwe remembers us and will bless,

He will bless the house of Israel.

He will bless the house of Aaron.

He will bless the worshippers of Yahwe,

The small with the great,

Yahwe will increase you,

You and your children.

Blessed are ye of Yahwe,

Maker of heaven and earth.

Finally where in verses 16-18 would ordinarily be expected a renewed call to praise, we have here something that resembles the vow of a prayer of petition, although it is hymnal to the extent that it promises to praise Yahwe for evermore.

It ought also to be observed that the psalm has a number of features that indicate it to be liturgical in character. Verses 1-8, it may be supposed, were sung by the congregation made up of Israelites, and proselytes, led by priests and Levites. Then verses 9-11 constitute an antiphonal response to their petition, one choir singing: “O Israel, trust in Yahwe,” while the second choir responded: “He is their help and their shield.” The whole congregation that first sang verses 1-8 now sings verses 12-13, and in reply to their affirmation of faith, the temple choir gives the comforting assurance of Yahwe’s favor in verses 14-15. Then the congregation sings the hymnal vow of verses 16-18. It remains accordingly a question whether we have in Psalm 115 a liturgical hymn of praise, or a liturgical psalm of petition in which the hymnal spirit and form has a prominent place.

Psalm 33 is also difficult of classification. Verses 1-3 are a typical hymnal call to praise and verses 4-7 give customary reasons for praising Yahwe. Then verse 8 issues a renewed call to worship Yahwe and verses 9-11 again give customary reasons for so doing. But when we arrive at verse 12 we have the characteristic introduction to a wisdom psalm:

Happy the nation whose God is Yahwe,

The people he hath chosen for his inheritance.

and there follow in verses 13-19 the sententious utterances, characteristic of the wisdom literature, teaching that neither men nor nations are saved by physical might, but only by the mercy of Yahwe extended to those who fear him. Not inappropriately there follows, in verses 20 and 21, an affirmation of faith in Yahwe, which is followed in turn by the brief petition:

Let thy mercy, O Yahwe, be upon us,

According as we have trusted in thee.

The first half of the psalm, verses 1-11 is a hymn of praise; the second half, verses 12-22, despite the petition at the close is perhaps best called a wisdom psalm.

In the very short Psalm 117 the call to praise goes out in verse 1 to “all nations” and to “all peoples.” It is a question however whether the mercy of Yahwe in verse 2 is extended to all peoples or limited to the Hebrews. In any case this little hymn of praise forms a suitable transition to the special group of eschatological hymns of praise.

Chapter III
HEBREW ESCHATOLOGICAL HYMNS

The sanctuary hymns of praise which we have been studying have for, the most part, the backward look through Israel’s history to the creation of the world. A few of them also have in small degree the forward look calling for Yahwe’s praise because of what he will yet accomplish in the world; and certainly many of the hymns are characterized by an enthusiasm for Yahwe’s greatness that asserts or presupposes his supremacy in the universe. Nevertheless it is right to gather together a special group of hymns which look forward more definitely and concretely to the actual triumphant consummation of Yahwe’s plan, and the achievement of Israel’s glorious destiny. These hymns are sung in contemplation of Yahwe’s great final victory. He has at long last appeared to judge the world; his mightiest enemies have suffered complete and final defeat. He has taken his rightful position upon his throne, and all nations acknowledge his authority. The physical world will now yield its abundant increase, and the divine reign of peace and righteousness will begin. Such hymns, fittingly called eschatological, are Psalms 96, 98, 149, 47, 99, 97, 93, 82.

One not inconspicuous difference in these eschatological hymns is in the call to praise. Many eschatological hymns indeed seem to have been introduced simply by the triumphant shout: “Yahwe is king.” (Psalms 99, 97, 93.) The announcement of the momentous fact, that at last Israel’s God has actually ascended his throne to take to himself power and sovereignty over the earth, does of itself inspire hymnal enthusiasm. Quite probably the abruptness of the announcement corresponds to the suddenness and unexpectedness of the event itself. However hymns beginning with the shout: “Yahwe is king” sometimes follow up that announcement with a summons to praise Yahwe. Indeed the very fact that Yahwe has become king is reason why men and nations should be called upon to praise him. So while Psalm 93, beginning with “Yahwe is king,” has no further call to praise, Psalm 97 does complete the great announcement with a brief call to praise:

Yahwe is king, let the earth rejoice;

Let the many shores be glad.

And Psalm 99 follows up the announcement not with one but with repeated calls to worship Yahwe (verses 1, 3, 5, 9).

Another group of eschatological hymns (Psalms 96, 98, 149) begins indeed with a call to praise, but feels the utter inadequacy of the old songs. The amazingly new world situation demands a new song. Consequently they start with:

Sing to Yahwe a new song.

They may later make explicit announcement that Yahwe has become king as in Psalm 96:10:

Say among the nations, Yahwe is king,

or that fact may be made implicitly understood by the general context of the hymn.

Shout before the king Yahwe.

—Psalm 98:6.

Let Zion’s sons rejoice in their king.

—Psalm 149:2.

Undoubtedly there were also in Israel eschatological hymns, which issued the great call to praise in varied and impressive ways, following up the call to praise with the momentous announcement of Yahwe’s assumption of world government. Of such hymns Psalm 47 is a representative. It calls the peoples to the praise of Yahwe in verse 2 and announces the great fact of his newly accepted kingship in verse 3:

All ye peoples, clap your hands,

Shout to God with the voice of triumph,

For Yahwe most high is to be feared,

A great king is he over all the earth.

It was observed in the study of the sanctuary hymns that certain of them (147, 148) repeated the call to praise at intervals throughout the hymn, creating somewhat the impression of a union of little hymns in one. This phenomenon seems to be particularly conspicuous in the eschatological hymns. Thus Psalm 96 may be divided into three hymns: I, verses 1-6; II, verses 7-10; III, verses 11-13. So also Psalm 98 divides into: I, verses 1-3; II, verses 4-6a; III, verses 6b-9. Likewise Psalm 99: I, verses 1-4; II, verses 5-8; III, verse 9. Psalm 47 breaks into two parts: I, verses 1-5; II, verses 6-9; and Psalm 149 likewise: I, verses 1-4; II, verses 5-9. In all these hymns the repeated calls to praise represent growing momentum and power of hymnal enthusiasm for Yahwe, the great king.

Turning from the introductions to the conclusions of the eschatological hymns we find that Psalm 149 is the only one of those found in the psalter that does actually end with, “Hallelujah.” Others, however (Psalms 97, 99, 96, 98), do end with the hymnal note of praise and all conclude with the note of triumph. In Psalm 149 it is Israel’s national triumph:

To execute vengeance upon the nations,

Punishments upon the peoples,

To bind their kings with chains,

And their nobles with fetters of iron,

To execute upon them the Judgment written,

An honor is it for all His faithful ones.

—Verses 7-9.

In Psalm 47 it is Yahwe’s great political triumph:

For to God belong the shields of the earth;

He is greatly exalted.

Psalms 96 and 98 close with the joyous anticipation that the reign of Justice is at hand:

... For he has come to judge the earth;

He will judge the world with righteousness,

And the peoples with equity.

It is interesting that three other psalms conclude with the thought of the holiness of Yahwe and Yahwe’s house:

Exalt Yahwe our God,

And worship at his holy hill,

For holy is Yahwe our God.

—Psalm 99:9.

Rejoice ye righteous in Yahwe,

And give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness.

—Psalm 97:12.

Thy testimonies are very sure:

Holiness becometh thy house,

O Yahwe, forever.

—Psalm 93:5.

In the study of the standard hymns of praise it was observed that Deity is regularly spoken of in the third person, while in only a very few instances the second person, the usage of prayer, is employed. Of the eschatological hymns we have examined there are four in which the second person occurs, Psalms 97, 99, 93, and 82. Psalm 97 is a hymn in three sections. The first section, verses 1-6, makes the announcement of Yahwe’s appearance on earth and the third person is used. The second section, verses 7-9, speaks of Yahwe’s supremacy over the gods, and where the psalmist is speaking of the joy of Jerusalem and Judah’s towns over Yahwe’s victory he uses the second person. But the third section, treating of Yahwe’s deliverance of the righteous again uses the third person. It is difficult to account for the use of the second person in the second section of this hymn, unless it is that the very thought of Judah’s joy over Yahwe’s triumph brought Yahwe nearer to the consciousness of the psalmist, and so put the psalmist into the attitude of mind of a suppliant toward Yahwe, with the consequent use of the second person, as in prayer.

Psalm 99 seems to be a hymn of four sections. The first section consists of verses 1, 2, 3, containing six lines ending with the refrain: “Holy is he.” The second section consists of verses 4 and 5 containing also six lines and ending likewise with the refrain: “Holy is he.” There is furthermore a natural line of division at the end of verse 7, and if we can suppose that the refrain was here inadvertently omitted, we should again have six lines ending with the same refrain. This leaves us in verses 8 and 9 a fourth section of six lines ending in the refrain slightly expanded: “For holy is Yahwe our God.” Moreover the hymn is divided into two main divisions of twelve lines each, each ending with a little hymn of three lines, which is substantially the same:

Exalt ye Yahwe our God,

And worship at his footstool,

Holy is he.

—Verses 5, 9.

Again there is in this hymn the same difficulty in accounting for the use of the second person as in Psalm 97, and again the same explanation is to be offered. In verse 3a, to be sure, there may be a mistake in the text, for it is scarcely felicitous to have the second person in verse 3a and the third person in verse 3b. In verses 4 and 8 however, the very subject matter is that which would ordinarily be followed by petitions, and which would bring about the attitude of the mind in prayer, and the consequent direct address to God:

Thou has restored equity;

Thou has executed justice and righteousness in Jacob.

Yahwe, our God, thou didst answer them:

A forgiving god wast thou to them,

And one avenging their wrongs.

Again Psalm 93 may be divided into four sections, though not all four of equal length. Verse 1, of three lines, makes the great announcement in the third person that Yahwe is king. Verses 2 and 3, of four lines, are addressed to Yahwe in the second person and inform him that his throne is from everlasting, but that mighty foes are in rebellion against him. Then verse 4, of three lines, makes the reassuring announcement in the third person that Yahwe is mightier than the foes. Verse 5 addresses Yahwe in the second person, expressing confidence that his divine authority will endure, and his house retain forever its sanctity. It seems not improbable that the verses employing the third person, and the verses employing the second persons were sung by different choirs, and that we have in this psalm a liturgical eschatological hymn.

The actual content of the eschatological hymns has to some extent been shadowed forth in this discussion. The one great fact in the hymns is the triumphant intervention of Yahwe in the affairs of the world. His appearance on the earth is accompanied by the most spectacular physical phenomena. The heavens declare his glory and the earth trembles. While clouds and darkness surround his person, his lightnings illuminate the world; the hills melt like wax beneath his feet, and a fire goeth before him and destroyeth his enemies (Psalm 97:2-6; Psalm 99:1). The appearance of Yahwe on the earth is followed by his complete and final victory. Turbulent and mighty as the waves of the great ocean, all his enemies are speedily vanquished. His right hand and his holy arm achieve for him the victory, and all the ends of the earth witness the salvation achieved by God (Psalm 98:1; Psalm 93:3, 4). In virtue of this great victory Yahwe is now to be feared above all gods; indeed he is recognized as the one and only god. All those who had served graven images and boasted of their idols are put to shame. Yahwe reigns from his temple in Jerusalem, and the peoples of the earth bring their offerings into his courts, as they worship him, ascribing to him all glory and strength (Psalm 96:3, 4, 7, 8; Psalm 97:7). Yahwe’s sovereignty extends into the political realm. He who is great in Zion is high above all peoples. He is the great king over all the earth. His sovereignty means the extention of his favor to Israel, the rescue of his faithful servants from the might of wicked oppressors, and the elevation of the Hebrew race to power:

He subdueth peoples under us,

And nations under our feet.

Indeed according to Psalm 149 it means the most complete and vindictive vengeance of Israel upon the nations (verses 6-9). However, in hymns broader and more generous of conception it means the establishment of a reign of righteousness and peace over all the earth, for which not only the peoples but the physical world itself will rejoice. The world is to be established so that it can not be moved. The earth will give her increase. Yahwe will bless his people and the very ends of the earth will fear him (Psalms 96:13; 98:9, 67; 82).

Unique in the group of eschatological hymns is Psalm 82. It has no call to praise, no summons to the Israelites, nor to the nations, nor to the physical universe, to rejoice at God’s appearing; it does not even announce that God has become king. What it does is to single out from all the momentous events of God’s final victory on earth one scene, but the description of that one scene is of itself such as to kindle hymnal enthusiasm and to give the psalm the atmosphere and character of a hymn.

God takes his place as judge in the council of the gods (verse 1). He arraigns the gods for their protection of the wicked, and exhorts them to do justice to the poor and the fatherless, and to rescue them from their oppressors. He realizes, however (verse 5), that appeal to these judges is hopeless. They are without understanding and in darkness, while the very moral foundations of the world tremble. Therefore God pronounces final judgment upon the judges. They had been given the status of gods but now they are to die like men (verses 6, 7). This pronouncement, implying as it does that God will now himself give justice to the earth, calls forth the petition of verse 8:

Arise O God, judge the earth,

For thou shalt inherit all nations.

Despite this anticipatory petition at the close, Psalm 82 is essentially a positive announcement of God’s triumph, and calling forth as it does hymnal enthusiasm, is itself essentially a hymn.

Similarly Psalm 2 must be assigned to the group of eschatological hymns. Here again there is no call to praise, no summoning of the nations to welcome God’s appearing, no proclamation that Yahwe has become king over all the earth. Like Psalm 82 this psalm also selects and describes a single situation out of the many that go to make up Yahwe’s final establishment of his kingdom upon earth. It is presupposed in the psalm that Yahwe has already proclaimed his sovereignty over the earth and established his own anointed king upon the throne of the world in Jerusalem. But (verses 1-3) the nations of the world are plotting rebellion against Yahwe and against his anointed king. Their rebellion (verses 4-6) simply provokes Yahwe to derisive laughter. Over against their impotence he simply reaffirms his inflexible decision:

As for me I have set my king

Upon my holy hill of Zion.

Then the king takes up the word (verses 7-9) and announces the divine decree. Yahwe had formally adopted him as son, and had given to him the kingdoms of the earth with power over them to break them in pieces. The king has spoken. Another voice makes the practical application (verses 10-12) and warns the kings and the rulers of the earth to make their humble peace with Yahwe, and with his anointed, before his wrath is fully aroused.

Chapter IV
HEBREW NATURE HYMNS

The abode of the hymns already discussed was the sanctuary and their place was in sanctuary worship, but there is a group of hymns, the real background of which was Nature’s great out of doors. These hymns include Psalms 29; 19:1-5b; 19:5c-7; 104; and 8. Of these Psalm 29 resembles most closely in its literary form the standard hymns. It has the call to praise, the body of the hymn setting forth the greatness of Yahwe; and it has a conclusion, though the conclusion is not a renewed summons to exalt the deity. The hymn as a whole expresses the reaction of the psalmist to a thunder and lightning storm. He watches it rise in the Lebanon mountains in the North, and follows it with his eye and ear and imagination until it loses itself in the desert of Kadesh. He observes the forked lightning (verse 7) but is vastly more impressed by the thunder to which he attributes the destructive power of the storm. The significant fact is that the storm does not create in the psalmist fear, but moves him to adoration of his great God, and to renewed faith and confidence. The introductory call to praise (verses 1-2) summons the gods above to worship Yahwe and to ascribe to him glory and strength. The body of the hymn celebrates the thunder, “The Voice of Yahwe,” somewhat as Psalm 19:8-10 celebrates: “The Law of Yahwe.” Verse 9c: “But in his temple every one saith Glory” forms a transition to the conclusion in verses 9-10, which remembers that the God of the thunder storm was also the God of the flood, the eternal king, who because of his eternal existence and his great power can give strength and peace to his people.

Psalm 19 contains two short nature hymns or more probably two fragments of hymns. The first Psalm 19:1-5b seems to be a hymn of the night. It does not call upon the heavens to praise God, as the typical hymn would do, but simply announces that the heavens do declare God’s glory. This they do without language or words or sounds over all the earth, ceaselessly declaring his glory from day to day, from night to night, from age to age. Psalm 19:5c-7 has no introductory nor concluding call to praise, and the few lines that we have, effective though they are, are probably only a fraction of the body of the original hymn. Moreover the original was undoubtedly a hymn to Shamash the Assyrian Sun God. The Assyrians watched with reverent eye the Sun God’s glorious journey across the heavens. They knew also of his wearisome return in the underworld from West to East, and they were glad to think of the bride and the repast awaiting him in his tent on the edge of the heavenly ocean. The Hebrew like the Assyrian had great admiration for the illuminating rays and the fervent heat of the sun, but he would go no further than to compare the sun to a bridegroom, and a strong man. It does seem strange that the psalmist has retained in verse 4c the sun’s tent: “For the sun he hath set a tent in the sea,” but even so it is Yahwe who has placed the tent there, even as it is Yahwe who has placed the sun in the heavens. The Hebrew who used this fragment of a poem saw God’s glory revealed in the progress of the sun across the sky by day, even as he saw that glory revealed in the star studded heavens by night.

Psalm 104 differs from the standard Hebrew hymns of praise in two respects. It is addressed in considerable part directly to Deity in the second person, while the standard Hebrew hymn regularly uses the third person. Also it has a petition at its close, which the standard hymn has not. In these two respects Psalm 104 resembles a prayer. However the petition is very brief, formal, almost incidental; it can scarcely be said to grow out of the psalm, and certainly the hymnal portion (verses 1-34) can not be regarded as introductory to it. Psalm 104 is also remarkable among Hebrew hymns for its length, as a hymn devoted exclusively to the activity of God in nature. Of the other nature hymns in the Psalter, Psalm 19:1-5b and Psalm 19:5c-7 are mere fragments, and Psalms 8 and 29 are relatively short, but Psalm 104 contains seventy-nine lines of which the first seventy-one are dominated by the theme:

How manifold are thy works, O Yahwe!

All of them in wisdom thou hast made.

—Verse 24.

As it stands in the text Psalm 104 has a hymnal introduction and conclusion. The brief introduction may indeed be a liturgical addition. In it the psalmist calls upon himself to praise Yahwe: “Bless my soul Yahwe.” The conclusion is longer and expresses the psalmist’s life long devotion to his God:

I will sing to Yahwe while I live;

I will sing praises to my God so long as I exist.

May my meditation be pleasing to him;

As for me I rejoice in Yahwe.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Bless my soul Yahwe

Praise ye Yahwe.

Verses 33, 34, 35cd.

Again it may be noted that the petition in verse 35ab: “Let sinners be consumed, out of the earth, and let the wicked be no more,” has no real organic connection with the hymn, and certainly the concluding “Hallelujah” may well be an addition.

The analysis of the body of the hymn is clear. Verses 1-4 praise the God of heaven; verses 5-9, the God of creation; verses 10-18, the God of the earth, the domestic animals, and man; verses 19-21, the God of the night; verses 22-24, the God of the day; verses 25-26, the God of the sea; verses 27-30, the God who giveth life to everything that liveth. The body of the hymn then culminates in the pious wish that Yahwe’s glory may endure forever and that the mighty God may rejoice in his works, even he who causes the earthquake and the volcanic eruption. Here also comes the petition, but a petition has really no place in a genuine Hebrew hymn of praise.

It is clear that Psalm 104 is predominatingly and essentially a hymn of praise. Yet it has in its use of the second person; in the presence of the petition; and perhaps also in its length, since it is a nature hymn, features that seem unhebraic. It is perhaps also significant that its close resemblance to the famous Egyptian hymn of Pharaoh Iknaton has often been observed. We have, it would seem, in Psalm 104 a very probable example of the influence of foreign literature, Egyptian, Assyrian, or both.

Psalm 8 might be considered an impressionistic soliloquy of the starry night, were it not dominated by the thought of God, and addressed directly to God. It begins with an exclamation for the psalmist is overwhelmingly impressed with the realization of the glory of God:

Yahwe our God,

How sublime is thy name in all the earth,

Thou who hast placed thy glory upon the heavens.

—Verse 2.

Yet how strange that the great God of the universe should have revealed himself to the weak children of Israel. It is assuredly the knowledge of God as the creator of the heavens that is to overcome arrogant rebellion against God, such rebellion as actually prevails in the psalmist’s world. May it not be true that the great God hath chosen through the testimony of the humble to confound the mighty:

Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou has established strength

To bring to silence the enemy and the rebel.

But how marvelous this condescension of God to stoop to man in his weakness, and then what a marvelous place God has given man in the universe! The psalmist feels first the insignificance of man:

As I look at thy heavens, the fine workmanship of thy fingers,

The moon and the stars which thou hast shaped,

What is man that thou should’st remember him?

Even the son of man that thou should’st care for him?

—Verses 4-5.

Then, however, he pays tribute to the place that God has given man:

Yet thou hast made him but a little lower than God,

And crownest him with glory and honor,

Thou causest him to rule over the works of thy hands;

Everything hast thou placed beneath his feet,

Sheep and oxen all of them,

And also the beasts of the field,

The birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea,

That which passeth on the paths of the sea.

—Verses 6-9.

And now in recognition both of the glory of God revealed in the heavens and also of the goodness of God to man, the psalmist again exclaims out of the fullness of his heart:

Yahwe our lord,

How sublime is thy name in all the earth.

Psalm 8 takes a unique position among the Old Testament hymns of praise. It is addressed altogether in the second person to Yahwe, and to that extent takes on the form and nature of a prayer. But it has no suggestion of a petition, nor does it make any definite effort to express gratitude. It has something of the reflective attitude, as it seems to ponder over man’s place in the universe, but it is assuredly not a teaching nor a wisdom psalm. It has been maintained by some scholars that the first two and last two lines were meant to be sung by a chorus, while the body of the hymn is a solo. However, it is more natural to suppose that in the use of the plural, “Yahwe our Lord,” the psalmist is simply recognizing himself as one of the many followers of Yahwe, rather than that a choir is singing. The truth is that the psalm is intensely individualistic and dominated from beginning to end by the feeling of adoration for Yahwe, the Hebrews’ God and only God, whose name is glorious in all the earth. It is a hymn of praise, but one that stands apart because of the originality and beauty of its literary form, and the sincerity and profundity of the spiritual experience that inspired it.

Chapter V
HEBREW HYMNS IN PRAISE OF SACRED INSTITUTIONS

But there were in Hebrew religious poesie not only hymns in praise of deity, but also hymns in praise of sacred institutions. Especially prominent were hymns in praise of the sanctuary. Naturally however, only those that were written in praise of the temple in Jerusalem, or could be so interpreted had a chance for survival, and of those we have in the Psalter only 84, 122, 48, and 87.

It is best to begin with Psalm 84, for it represents a transition stage between the psalm of lamentation and petition and the hymn of praise. In great part Psalm 84 is addressed in the second person to deity, and it actually has, in verses 9, 10, a petition for Yahwe’s favor. The request in these verses is not explicit, yet the context, especially verses 3 and 11, makes it clear that our psalmist, like the author of Psalms 42-43, earnestly desires the privilege of worshipping in the temple. Moreover the petition of verses 9, 10 is reinforced by a profession of devotion in verses 11-13 that corresponds to the affirmation of faith, so characteristic a feature of the prayer of supplication. In so far this psalm is also itself a psalm of lamentation and supplication. On the other hand verses 2-8 are essentially an expression of devotion to the temple:

How lovely is thy dwelling,

O Yahwe of hosts!

Longeth, yea fainteth my soul

For the courts of Yahwe;

My heart and my flesh cry out unto the living God.

—Verses 2-3.

He envies the birds which nest in the temple (verse 4), the priests who are continually in the sanctuary praising God, and the men who, by God’s favor, are privileged to pilgrimage to Jerusalem, to pass from rampart to rampart, and to behold God in Zion. Psalm 84 therefore deserves to be grouped with the hymns in praise of the temple.

As Psalm 84 has kinship with the psalms of lamentation and supplication, so Psalm 122 has a certain kinship with the psalms of faith. In the latter the psalmist has a joyous confidence in Yahwe, in this psalm he has great joy in the temple and the holy city. Verses 1 and 2 affirm his joy in the temple, and his positive intention of attending in company with others the great festivals:

I am glad whenever they say unto me,

Let us go to the house of Yahwe.

Our feet shall assuredly stand

Within thy gates O Jerusalem.

Then follows, in verses 3-5, his praise of Jerusalem the city of David:

Jerusalem that is built

As a city compact and solid,

Whither go up Yahwe’s tribes.

A law is it for Israel to give thanks to Yahwe’s name,

For there abide the thrones of justice,

The thrones of the house of David.

Having thus praised the city, the psalmist exhorts others to pray for it:

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem,

May thy dwellings prosper,

May peace be within thy walls,

Prosperity in thy palaces.

—Verses 6, 7.

The psalm then closes with his personal protestation of devotion to the city:

For the sake of my brethren and companions

I will say: “Peace be in Thee.”

For the sake of the house of Yahwe our God

I will seek thy good.

—Verses 8-9.

It has been said above that this psalm has some similarity to the psalms of faith. It is possible that it also, in verses 6-9, reflects the influence of prophetic style. But, since the spirit that animates it is one of enthusiasm for the holy city, it is best classed among the hymns of praise.

Psalm 48 is also, in a sense, a transition hymn, for it praises, not God alone, but both God and the city in which he dwells. Verse 2 praises Yahwe, and verse 3 the city:

Great is Yahwe and to be praised exceedingly

In the city of our God on his holy mountain.

Beautiful for situation, the joy of all the earth,

Is Mount Zion, on the Northern slope,

The city of the great King.

Then verses 4-8 record the city’s chief glory, that Yahwe has been in its midst, its mighty defender against its foes:

God is known in her palaces as a defense:

For lo, kings assembled;

They invaded her together;

They saw, so they marveled;

They were troubled, they fled.

Fear seized them there,

As pain seizes a woman in travail,

While thou didst shatter them,

As an east wind the great merchantmen.

Our psalmist and his associates are obviously pilgrims to Jerusalem. They had previously heard of such events as the deliverance of Jerusalem from Sennacherib; they have now seen with their own eyes the sacred sites which testify to such deliverances. They have meditated on Yahwe’s goodness in the holy temple, and are certain of his universal fame. Therefore, they can bid Zion and the towns of Judah rejoice in their God:

As we have heard, so have we seen

In the city of Yahwe of hosts, in the city of our God.

God will establish it forever.

We have thought O God of thy loving kindness

In the midst of thy temple.

As thy name O God,

So is thy praise unto the ends of the earth.

Victories fill thy right hand.

Let Mount Zion rejoice,

Let the towns of Judah be glad

Because of thy deliverances.

It is evident that the closing verses (13-15) must have been spoken in Jerusalem, and it is perhaps equally clear that they must have been spoken, not by the pilgrims to residents of Jerusalem, but rather by residents of Jerusalem, probably the temple choir to the pilgrims, exhorting them to make their final procession around the city, that they may know it and be able to tell the story of the city to the oncoming generation, and so inspire in them reverence and loyalty for the God of their fathers:

Walk about Zion and go round her:

Count up her towers;

Give heed to her ramparts;

Consider her palaces,

That you may tell it to the coming generation,

For this God is our God forever and ever;

He will be our guide even unto death.

But if verses 9-12 were spoken by the pilgrims, and verses 13-15 by the temple choir, then it is probable that likewise verses 2-4 were spoken by the pilgrims, and verses 5-8 by the temple choir. Thus Psalm 48 may be considered a liturgical hymn of praise, rendered in the temple on one of the great religious festivals that brought the pilgrims of the diaspora to the holy city.

Psalm 87 is a hymn devoted entirely to the praise of the temple and the holy city. Unfortunately the text is in disorder. Probably verse 5b should be brought back to verse 1, and then the introductory verses 1-3 would read:

Its foundation is in the holy mountains,

And the Most High doth sustain her.

Yahwe loveth the gates of Zion

More than all the dwellings of Jacob.

Glorious things he speaketh concerning thee,

O city of God.

The rest of the psalm is exceedingly difficult. Verse 3 leads us to expect a divine pronouncement regarding Zion’s future glory. In that day Egypt and Babylon, Philistia and Tyre, together with far distant Ethiopia, will recognize it as a distinction to be a Hebrew. Verses 4 and 5 perhaps read:

I will cause Egypt and Babylon to remember thy children,

Behold Philistia and Tyre with Ethiopia,

They shall say of Zion, “This one and that one was born in her.”

Then the psalmist informs us (verses 6, 7) that Yahwe himself will count up the scattered Jews of the diaspora, and they in turn in that great day will be proudly mindful of the mother city:

Yahwe will count them in the midst of the peoples

This one and that one was born there;

And princes as common people will say

We shall all make our home in thee.

Two psalms, 119 and 19:8-15, are in praise of the Jewish law. Since Psalm 119 is an alphabetical psalm, each successive eight lines beginning with the twenty-two successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet, its one hundred seventy-six lines are necessarily a very mechanical and mediocre production. Psalm 19:8-15, on the other hand, is a much finer piece of craftsmanship. The first six lines (verses 8-10) which are strikingly uniform in style, draw attention to six complementary virtues of the law. Then four lines (verses 11-12) express in general terms the joy that is to be found in knowledge of the law and the practical benefit to be derived from obedience to it. Verses 13 and 14 present his humble petition that he be delivered from violating the law unwittingly or presumptuously, while verse 15 dedicates the hymn so carefully written, not to any princely patron but to Yahwe, his strength and redeemer.

Another little group of hymns deals with the king, who as the anointed of Yahwe was also a sacred institution. From a modern standpoint however Psalm 45 is purely secular in character, celebrating as it does the king’s wedding day. Verse 2 is introductory in which the author announces himself as a clever poet. Verses 3-10 are in characteristically extravagant praise of the king. Verses 11-16 are devoted to the bride, while verse 17 makes tactful and appropriate reference to the princes yet to be born. Verse 18 concluding the poem, makes the naïvely modest promise that the pen of the poet will guarantee immortal fame to the king.

Psalm 101 is likewise secular, for it is evidently a king’s proclamation. As such it may have been used in the coronation service in the temple, and so preserved in the sanctuary song book. Quite naturally, as is always to be expected, the king promises to walk uprightly in his own private life, to choose wise counsellors, to turn a deaf ear to slanderers, to give protection to honest men, and to suppress the wicked.

Psalm 72 might likewise be fitted into the coronation service, being then the prayer offered for a just and successful reign. This would mean translating the successive sentences of the psalm from verse 1 to verse 11 and from verse 15 to verse 17 as petitions. Thus verse 2 would be translated:

May he judge thy people with righteousness

And thy poor with justice,

and the other verses correspondingly, and the psalm would accordingly be classed as a prayer of supplication. On the other hand if the successive sentences, with the necessary exception of verse 1 are to be regarded as predictions of a glorious reign, then the psalm is to be regarded as a hymn in praise of the Messiah, or possibly of an ordinary king who has just ascended the throne.

Psalm 110 and Psalm 2 are clearly hymns in praise of the king. Psalm 110 brings to the king in verse 1 the oracle of Yahwe:

Oracle of Yahwe to my lord, sit on my right hand

Until I make thy enemies my footstool.

Then in verses 2-7 the priest supplements this oracle with his assurance of Yahwe’s effective support, and the king’s great triumph over all his enemies. The imagery describing Yahwe’s activity belongs to eschatology, and we undoubtedly have here an eschatological hymn in praise of the king.

Psalm 2 is likewise an eschatological hymn, dealing with that same feature of the last days as Psalm 110, and the last futile rebellion of the nations against the will of Yahwe and Yahwe’s king. In verses 1-3 some one, perhaps a layman, asks why the nations are so foolish as to rebel against Yahwe:

Why do the nations rage,

And the peoples plan a mad thing?

The kings of the earth take their stand,

And princes plot together

Against Yahwe and against his anointed:

“Let us break their bands

And cast from us their cords.”

Then in verses 4-5 a priest, one who knows the plan of God, gives answer:

He that sitteth in the heavens laugheth;

The lord is scornful of them.

Presently he will speak to them in his anger,

And terrify them in his rage:

“I, on my part, have set my king

Upon Zion, my holy hill.”

And now it is for the king himself to add a final authoritative word concerning Yahwe’s plan, for to the king himself Yahwe had actually spoken:

I will declare the decree;

Yahwe said to me: “You are my son;”

I this day have adopted you.

Ask me, and I will make the nations your inheritance,

And the entire earth your possession.

You can beat them with an iron rod;

You can break them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.

Yahwe’s decree, bestowing such power over the nations upon Israel’s king, having thus been made known, it only remained to advise the nations to make humble submission to Yahwe and to Yahwe’s representative upon the throne in Zion:

And now, O kings, be prudent;

Take warning, ye judges of the earth.

Worship Yahwe with reverence,

Submit to him with trembling.

Do homage to the son, lest he be angry and ye perish,

For his anger is quickly kindled.

Happy are all who secure his protection.

Here again, as in Psalm 110, because of the prominence of the king in this dramatic setting forth of one of the important features of the last days, Psalm 2 must be classed as an eschatological hymn in praise of the king.

Division II
ASSYRIAN HYMNS OF PRAISE

Chapter VI
ASSYRIAN HYMNAL INTRODUCTIONS TO PRAYERS

As in the case of the Hebrew hymns of praise, so also it is right to attempt to see the Assyrian hymns in relation to the whole body of Assyrian religious poetry. Assyrian communities and Assyrian individuals inevitably had their afflictions, and like their kinsmen the Hebrews they called out unto deity in their distresses in prayers of lamentation and supplication. They experienced also on various occasions what they believed to be deliverances out of their troubles, and when they could attribute those deliverances to the aid of deity, they felt gratitude and expressed their gratitude by sacrifices and thanksgiving to the gods. Furthermore the Assyrians felt adoration for deity, trusted in deity, reflected upon the will of deity and the secret of the prosperous life, and like their kinsmen the Hebrews they strove to express their ideas and their emotions in poetry. Accordingly we have in Assyrian religious poetry much that corresponds to what is found in the Old Testament psalter.

However, one striking difference between Hebrew and Assyrian religious poetry confronts us at the very outset. The Hebrew poetry is concerned with the one god Yahwe, while Assyrian poetry has to do with many gods, Shamash, Sin, Nebo, Ninib, Nergal, Adad, Nusku, Bel, Marduk, and others. This might seem to make it very difficult, if not impossible, to form any unified conception of Assyrian religion, or to make any satisfactory comparison between the psalms of Assyrian and Israel. But from the beginning there were many points of similarity between the Assyrian gods of the various city states, who frequently bore, to be sure, different names, but who represented or were associated with the same objects or forces in nature. Furthermore the growth of political unity in Mesopotamia was accompanied there, as it has been elsewhere, by a growth in religious unity. As one city gained authority over other cities, its god not only acquired greater prestige, but he also extended his authority in greater or lesser measure over the conquered cities and over the gods of those cities. Moreover he tended to take to himself the chief prerogatives and attributes of the conquered deities. With the growth and organization of empire there developed, in the exaltation of one god to a supreme place, a tendency toward monotheism; and with the inevitable interchange of religious ideas a gradually increasing similarity in the attributes and prerogatives of the chief gods. Especially is it to be recognized that hymnal enthusiasm tends to blot out for the time the consciousness of other deities, and to exalt in wisdom and power and goodness the deity which is being worshipped, so that for the moment the attitude of the worshipper may be practically that of a monotheist. Accordingly the many names for deity have relatively little significance; they offer no serious obstacle to the student who would compare the religious ideas and experiences of Mesopotamia with the religious ideas and experiences of Israel.

Here again, however, it must be borne in mind that the literature of Assyria which has survived is only a small fraction of that which once existed, and what we now have owes its survival in part, to be sure to merit, but in part also to mere chance. Nevertheless sufficient literature exists to justify two general observations. The first is this, that the closest correspondence between Assyrian and Hebrew religious poetry is to be found in the psalms of lamentation and supplication, which represent and express only the lowest level of religious experience in the Hebrew psalms. The second general observation is that while Hebrew religious poetry develops, and clearly differentiates into independent literary species, the Assyrian religious poetry does not achieve so full a development, nor so clear a differentiation. The one explanation of this fact would seem to be that Assyrian religion did not go so far in emancipating itself from superstition and formalism, and in achieving a lofty conception of deity and a profound religious experience. Certain it is that Assyria did not develop to the same degree as did Israel the independent prayer of thanksgiving, the independent psalm of faith, the independent wisdom psalm, nor the independent hymn of praise.

The number of Assyrian hymns copied, transliterated, and translated by Assyriologists, is between sixty and seventy. The number can not be definitely fixed, since many texts are but mere fragments because of the breaking and marring of the clay tablets. The fact that so many hymnal compositions are incomplete necessarily makes the task of interpreting the individual hymns and of arriving at well founded general conclusions much more difficult. The sixty odd hymns, it may be of interest now to note, are distributed among the Assyrian deities as follows: Marduk 14, Nergal 8, Shamash 7, Ninib 7, Ishtar 6, Sin 5, Adad and Nusku 3 each, Nebo, Bel, and Belit two each, Enlil, Asshur, Sarpanitum, Damkina one each.

Perhaps the most important general fact about the Assyrian hymns is that the great majority of them are addressed directly to the deity in the second person, which is the usage of prayer. Moreover a very large proportion of these can not be called independent literary compositions, since they are followed by, and are introductory to, prayers, or magical ceremonies, or the offering of sacrifices. In some cases the prayer is much longer than the hymn, while in others the prayer shrinks to a very brief petition, couched in general terms. This has occasioned much confusion of terminology, some calling a poem a hymn, others naming it a prayer. It is necessary therefore at this point to attempt to distinguish clearly between the hymn and the prayer.

The purpose of the hymn is to praise the deity and the emotion behind the hymn is enthusiasm for the great and glorious god; for his power, for his wisdom, for his great achievements. The genuine hymn, accordingly, is objective rather than subjective. The prayer, on the other hand, is concerned with the relationship of worshipper and deity. The worshipper is in trouble and looks to the deity for forgiveness, or prosperous and turns to the deity with gratitude. The prayer is accordingly subjective rather than objective. In the hymn, the deity is prominent; in the prayer the worshipper. Prayers are most naturally addressed to the deity in the second person, while the hymn, in which the worshipper recedes into the background and the thought is of God alone, would more naturally employ the third person. Since then these Assyrian hymns are in the second person, which is the usage of prayer, and since the vast majority of these hymns are actually followed by prayers, it is best to begin with the hymns which are clearly only hymnal introductions to prayers, and then to pass by way of those, in which the petition is secondary and unimportant, to that which approaches the genuine independent hymn. It seems at least possible that the Assyrian hymn is an evolution from the hymnal introduction of the prayers.

Beginning then with class I of Assyrian hymns, the hymnal introductions to prayers, it is to be further observed, that these prayers are temple prayers. Marduk No. 9 has fourteen lines of directions for the performance of certain ceremonies, after which the priest is instructed to take the hand of the sick man and repeat the psalm, of which lines 17 to 44 are the hymnal portion, and 45 to 94 the prayer proper. So also Marduk No. 12 states in lines 1 to 5 of the text that the Urugallu priest is to arise in the first hour of the night on the second day of Nisan, wash in river water, put on a linen garment, and repeat the psalm; of which lines 6 to 28 are hymnal, 29 to 32 petition the favor of the deity for the city Babylon and the temple Esagila.

In a hymn to Marduk No. 11, the connecting link between the hymnal portion and the petition is: “I, the Urugallu priest of Ekur, would speak the favorable word.”

A hymn to Ishtar No. 3 is followed by an enumeration of the sacrifices for the goddess and of presents for the temple servants. Above all, the hymns are in such a uniform and formal style, and the gods are so frequently addressed as lords of such and such temples that one is compelled to look to the temple as the birthplace and home of many of these Assyrian hymns.

It is altogether natural that there should be a hymnal introduction to the temple prayer. The Assyrian god in his temple is as the king in his palace. He must not be approached abruptly or brusquely. Indeed the Assyrian gods are kings, queens, princes. Consequently the formal court style is used in addressing them. It is not used rigidly in all hymns, but it is the norm from which it is advisable to take our departure. An example of this formal court style is Nergal No. 1.

O lord mighty and exalted, first born of Nunammir,

Prince of the Annunaki, lord of the battle,

Offspring of Kutushar, the mighty queen,

O Nergal, strong one of the gods, darling of Ninnenna.

Thou treadest in the high heavens, lofty is thy place.

Thou art great in Hades, there is none like thee

With Ea, in the multitude of the gods, is thy council preëminent.

With Sin in the heavens thou see’st through everything.

Given thee has Bel, thy father the black headed race, all living creatures,

The living creatures of the field he has entrusted to thy hand.

Assyrian hymns of class I can be divided into two portions, the first portion, the invocation, the second portion, the ascription of praise. It is especially the invocation in which the court style is seen. Every member at the court of a monarchy has an official title, be that member king, queen, prince or noble. That title consists first of all in the lineage or genealogy by virtue of which he has his rank. So it is with the Assyrian deity. Thus the hymn to Nebo No. 1 begins:

O lord, first born of Marduk,

O Nebo lofty offspring of Sarpanitum.

A hymn to Ninib No. 1:

O strong son, first born of Bel,

Great perfect son of Isara.

A hymn to Nergal No. 1:

O lord, mighty and exalted, first born of Nunammir,

Prince of the Annunaki, lord of the battle.

Offspring of Kutushar, the mighty queen, Ninnenna,

O Nergal, strong one of the gods, darling of Ninnenna.

Hymn to Marduk No. 7:

O mighty, powerful, strong one of Eridu,

O noble, exalted, first-born of Ea.

Just as the king’s title includes mention of the provinces and countries over which he holds sway, so the god is to be addressed as lord of those cities and temples, in which he is recognized and honored. Nebo is:

Lord of Ezida, protection of Borsippa.[1]

Marduk is:

Marduk, the mighty, who causeth Itura to rejoice;[2]

Lord of Isagila, help of Babylon, lover of Ezida.

Sin is:

Father Nannar, lord of Ur, chief of the gods,[3]

Father Nannar, lord of Egissirgal, chief of the gods.

Nusku is:

God of Nippur, leader and counsellor of the gods.[4]

The sway of the gods was extended however far beyond their temples and temple cities. Marduk is not merely “King of Ezida, lord of Emachtila,” he is “Marduk, lord of the lands,” and “Marduk, king of heaven and earth.”[5] So also Ishtar is “Ishtar, queen of all peoples, directress of mankind”;[6] while Shamash is:

Shamash, king of heaven and earth,[7]

Ruler of things above and below.

It would be expected that the gods would have official duties at the heavenly court, and that these offices would be included in their titles. Opposed to this, however, must have been the tendency of the worshippers to exalt their own special deity to a supreme position; and this would tend to bring with it the elimination of all titles that would suggest a subordinate position, and they would be inclined at the same time to attribute to their own deity those offices, for which other deities were famed. Nebo however is addressed as

Nebo, bearer of the tablets of destiny of the gods, director of Esagila.[8]

Nusku is:

Protector of the sacrificial gifts of all the Igigi,[9]

Messenger of Anu, who brings Bel’s commands to fulfilment.

Founder of the cities, renewer of the sanctuaries,[10]

a title quite appropriate for an earthly king but seemingly rather incongruous when applied to a god.

It is Nusku, leader and counsellor of the great gods,[11] Ninib is

Ninib, mighty god, warrior, prince of the Annunaki, commander of the Igigi.[12]

It may be said here that we probably owe to the court style the ever recurring adjectives: “strong,” “mighty,” “powerful,” “perfect,” “unique,” “glorious,” “noble,” “exalted,” and such nouns as “ruler,” “governor,” “judge,” “lord,” “prince,” “king,” which have been transferred from the earthly sovereigns to the gods they worshipped. Here too it may be pointed out that it is altogether in harmony with court style that the god’s prowess as a warrior, or wisdom as a counsellor, or ethical virtues as a ruler should be expressed in his titles, even as such qualities have been expressed in the titles of earthly kings.

Not all hymns, however, of class I are, strictly speaking, temple hymns. The Assyrian deities were not limited to their temples and the cities over which their sway extended. They were also identified with natural forces and the heavenly bodies, the sun, the moon and the stars. The Babylonians and Assyrians were impressed by the glory of the rising and the setting sun, the beauty of the waxing and waning moon; by the brilliancy of the evening star and the planets and by the grandeur of the thunder-storm. Certain phenomena also had their deep significance. An eclipse of the moon might well bode disaster for king and court and land. The rising of the sun was the auspicious moment for the banishing of all the demons and all the powers of darkness.

Accordingly we have a group of hymns which do not belong so much to the temple as to the great out-of-doors. In other words they are nature hymns. They have such invocations as the following:

O lord, chief of the gods, who alone is exalted on earth and in heaven.[13]

or thus:

O Sin, O Nannar, mighty one,[14]

Sin who art unique, thou that brightenest

That giveth light unto the nations,

or this:

Sarpanitum, shining star, dwelling in Endul,[15]

Strongest of the goddesses, whose clothing is the light;

Who crossest the heavens, who passest over the earth,

Sarpanitum whose station is lofty.

or this:

Lord, illuminator of the darkness, opener of the face of heaven[16]

or this:

To Nusku mighty lord (lofty) judge,[17]

Shining Light, illuminator of the night, god ...

The following first lines of a hymn are neither invocation nor ascription, yet how naturally does an appeal made to the sun-god for freeing of the king from the ban resting upon him, at the moment of the scattering of darkness before the rising sun, begin with such an hymnal introduction, as this:

O Shamash, when out of the great mountain thou comest forth,[18]

Out of the great mountain, the mountain of the springs, thou comest forth,

When out of the mountain, the place of destinies, thou comest forth,

Where heaven and earth meet together out of the heaven’s foundations,—

So far we have been dealing with the first portion of the hymnal introduction, namely the invocation. We have seen that the court style would prescribe that the god be addressed by his proper title, which includes his lineage and his sovereignty over temple and city, or his exalted place in nature, or both. Naturally however when the sway of the god extended far beyond temple and city to all lands, to heaven and earth, it was not so necessary to salute the god as lord of city and temple. And similarly when the god was exalted to a supreme position among the gods, the matter of pedigree became secondary. Perhaps this explains the shortening of the invocation in certain hymns to a single line:

(Holy) Ishtar, heroine among goddesses,[19]

Thy seat ... in the midst of the bright heavens,

or even to a single word

Lord, warlike art thou, perfect in understanding thro’ thyself,[20]

Ninib, warlike art thou, perfect in understanding thro’ thyself,

Shamash, when out of the great mountain thou comest forth[21]

Shamash, from the foundation of the heavens thou shinest forth[22]

On the other hand, it was easy to expand indefinitely the invocation from its natural length of four to six lines, until the invocation became itself hymnal praise of the god. So with Sin No. 5 where the hymnal invocation to Sin covers 23 lines.

Following the invocation in the hymnal introductions of Assyrian prayers is the ascription of praise, just as modern prayers frequently begin with the elements of invocation and ascription. The ascription of praise may be quite similar in content, but while the invocation assumes certain attributes of the deity as already recognized and known by everyone and as having become official titles of the deity, the ascription definitely assigns virtues or attributes to the deity. The invocation consists of phrases and adjectival clauses: it makes no statement. It is simply an extended nominative of address. The ascription consists of independent sentences, asserting certain attributes of the deity. It is altogether natural that the humble worshipper, approaching the god, should assign to that god greatness and wisdom and authority and might, for this not only pleases the god, but also tends to awaken sympathy for the helpless and suffering suppliant, and reminds the deity of his responsibility for the worshippers.

More particularly it is also to be expected that the worshipper assigns those special virtues or powers to the deity, to which he is about to make his appeal. Man posits in God that which corresponds to his own need. Accordingly, correspondence between the ascriptions and the petitions show the unity of the whole composition and indicate that it is a prayer. Frequently the suppliant is a sick person, and so naturally reference is made to the power of the deity to heal:

Shamash, to give life to the dead, to loosen the captive is in thy hand.[23]

Where thou dost regard, the dead live, the sick arise,

The afflicted is saved from his affliction, beholding thy face.[24]

The cause of his misfortune, the Babylonian seeks not in natural causes, but in the displeasures of the deity, and this displeasure may be due to sin. To Ninib he prays:

Free me from sin, remit the transgression,[25]

Take the shame away, remove the sin

and this petition is made to the god of whom he says in the ascription:

From him who sin possesses thou dost remove the sin,[26]

The man with whom his god is angry thou art quick to favor.

If, however, the worshipper feels that he has been unjustly treated, then he appeals to the justice of God:

The law of all men thou directest.

Eternally just in Heaven art thou.

The just wisdom of the lands art thou.

The pious man thou knowest, the evil man thou knowest[27]

Shamash honors the head of the just man;

Shamash rends the evil man like a thong;

Shamash, the support of Anu and Bel, art thou;

Shamash, lofty judge of heaven and earth art thou.

Here follows the plea for the healing of the king.

As healing of sickness was a magical performance, magical powers are attributed to the gods, in the hymnal introduction. Thus:

Heaven and earth are thine;

The space of heaven and earth is thine;[28]

The magic of life is thine;

The spittle of life is thine;

The pure incantation of the ocean is thine.

In a Nusku magical text No. 3 Nusku is addressed as:

Mighty in battle, whose attack is powerful,

Nusku, who burns up and conquers the fire

and there follows in the petition:

Burn the sorcerer and the sorceress;

May the life of my sorcerer and my sorceress be destroyed.

In Sin No. 4 the suppliant is one with whom his god and goddess were angry, upon whom destruction and ruin had come, whose heart was darkened and soul troubled. It is appropriate that he should say to his god,

The fallen one whom thou seizest thou raisest up;

A judgment of right and justice thou judgest.

The fallen one whom thou seizest thou raisest up;

A judgment of right and justice thou judgest.

He who has sin thou forgivest quickly the sin;

Him against whom his god is angry thou regardest with favor.

In Marduk No. 12 the petition:

To thy city Babylon show favor

corresponds to the ascription:

Bel, thy dwelling is Babylon, Borsippa thy crown.

It has been seen in the case of the invocations that they vary in length from a single word to twenty-three lines, and it is fairly obvious that the increasing length of the invocation gives it more and more of hymnal character. There is a similar variation in the length of the ascriptions. There are some of a single line:

Thy name is altogether good in the mouth of the people.[29]

Thy name is (spread) in the mouth of men, O protecting God,[30]

Among all gods thy deity is praised.

In other hymnal introductions the ascription is three, six, eight, eleven, and more lines in length. As the ascription increases in length, and as the lament and petition of the prayer likewise diminish in length, and as the ascription of praise changes in character, no longer corresponding to the petitions of the suppliant, we get the evolution of the hymn.

In the well-known prayer to Ishtar (No. 7), the hymnal introduction consists of thirty-seven lines. In it occur such rhetorical questions as:

Where is thy name not heard, where not thy decrees?

Where are thy images not made, where are thy temples not founded?

Where art thou not great, where art thou not exalted?

Anu, Enlil and Ea have exalted thee; among the gods have they increased thy dominion.

Yet the last lines of this same hymn are particularly suitable to a prayer of lamentation and petition:

Where thou dost regard, the dead live, the sick arise;

The afflicted is saved from his affliction, beholding thy face

and this same hymn to Ishtar opens with the words:

I pray unto thee, lady of ladies, goddess of goddesses,

Furthermore, in the hymnal portion is imbedded a lament of four lines, with the refrain:

How long wilt thou tarry?

Therefore this psalm, although containing hymnal material of exceptional beauty, is a single composition, a prayer with a hymnal introduction. On the other hand, Marduk No. 4 has sixteen lines extolling the exploits of the war god, when the text breaks off. The breaking of the text makes a decision difficult, but as there is no indication in any of the ascriptions of praise that a prayer is to follow, one would be inclined to pronounce it a fragment of a hymn rather than of a prayer.

Marduk No. 1 is actually followed by a prayer of an individual, but since the hymnal portion consists of thirty-eight lines describing in large measure mythical feats of the god, one is almost justified in regarding this hymnal portion as an independent hymn.

On the border line between prayer and hymn is Sarpanitum No. 1. The petition is a very general one, asking favor for the worshipper, the king and the sons of Babylon:

To the servant who graciously calls upon thy name, be gracious;

For the king who fears thee determine a good fate;

To the sons of Babylon give generously.

It would seem that this petition might be little more than a pious conclusion, or even a postscript to the hymn. If this be true, then the main purpose of the psalm is that of praise, and one must class it among the hymns, remembering however that it is an evolution from the hymnal introduction of the prayer.

Very similar is the case of Sin No. 5. In this psalm are twenty-three lines of invocation, fifteen lines of ascription, and eleven lines of petition. Moreover the portion which we have called ascription opens with a couplet of question and answer:

Who is exalted in heaven, thou alone art exalted;

Who is exalted on earth, thou alone art exalted.

This couplet is followed by eight lines in praise of the word of Sin, expressed however in the second person, not the third. Unfortunately, the translation of four of the remaining lines is so uncertain that no conclusion can be drawn from them as to the nature of the whole psalm. However, the petition at the close is a general one in behalf of temple and city, and the calling upon the various gods of the pantheon to placate Sin is a recognition of the supreme place of that deity. Here again then, as in the case of the hymn to Sarpanitum, we have a hymn, standing at the end of the line of development of the hymnal introductions.

We have left of the hymns of Class I, two hymns which have no petition at the close. The first of these, however, the hymn to Enlil, may be regarded as introductory to the offering of sacrifices. Nevertheless it is practically an independent hymn and sung, as the conclusion shows, by a congregation:

Father Enlil, with song majestically we come. The hymn to Shamash (No. 7) is unique among the Assyrian hymns, because of its length, being four hundred and twenty-four lines. The style is uniform throughout. In the beginning of the poem line four is a repetition of line two, and line three simply adds the name Shamash to line one. As in other hymns so here the god’s name is held back from the first line in order that it may be inserted with greater emphasis in the second line. Here too there are repeated invocations to the god, that is we have an invocation and ascription of praise, then a second invocation and ascription of praise. Throughout the poem nearly every line is complete by itself and there is no strophic arrangement. Nor are there rhetorical questions, nor questions and answers, to relieve the monotony. Portions of it read like wisdom literature:

He who receives not a bribe, who has regard for the weak,

Shall be well pleasing to Shamash, he shall prolong his life,

The judge, the arbitrer who gives righteous judgment,

Shall complete a palace, a princely abode for his dwelling place.

He who gives money at usury, what does he profit?

He cheats himself of gain, he empties his purse.

These two features, the great length of the hymn and the presence of these wisdom passages would seem to indicate a late and somewhat blasé development of the hymn. Not great enthusiasm for the deity, but sober reflection and the pious wish to say everything possible about the deity controlled the writer. The complete absence of any magical element, whether of ceremonies or prayers, shows that there must have been a considerable hymnal literature of which unfortunately we are not in possession.

We have seen that the great majority of Assyrian hymns are addressed in the second person to deity, which is the usage of prayer; that the temple is the home of these hymns but that a few of them might be called Nature hymns; that they may be divided into two portions, the invocation and the ascription of praise; that they are written in the court style, employing the honorific titles of royalty and nobility; that with very few exceptions they are followed by petitions for divine help, and that the ascriptions of praise are frequently so worded as to be little else than introductory to such petitions; that, as the hymnal portion is lengthened, and as the lament and petition are shortened until they disappear entirely, we have the evolution of the hymn; that it begins with something approaching flattery of the god, as introductory to the appeal for aid, and develops into a genuine expression of adoration for deity.

The invocation of the Assyrian hymn corresponds in a loose way to the call to praise of the Hebrew hymn, and the Ascription of praise corresponds much more closely to the body of the Hebrew hymn. It exalts the deity as being great in the midst of the gods, as bearing a glorious name, as possessor of temples and cities, and as ruler over wide areas, as the creator and preserver of the physical universe, and as being himself wise, and powerful, and merciful, a king and judge among gods and men. Closer attention will be given to the content of the Assyrian hymn when comparing that content with the content of the Hebrew hymns of praise.

It ought to be observed that in many instances the Assyrian hymnal introduction to prayer is clearly attested to be the vehicle of individual rather than congregational worship. In certain hymns we have examples of god addressing god in hymnal language, and in connection with other hymns there are directions for the priest to repeat himself both hymnal introduction and the petition which follows it. Moreover in the petition which follows the hymnal introduction a space is frequently left for the insertion of the name of the suppliant. Still more important is the fact that in the hymnal introductions themselves the first personal pronoun frequently occurs:

I pray unto thee, lady of ladies, goddess of goddesses.[31]

I reverence thy name, Marduk, powerful one of the gods,[32]

Regent of heaven and earth.

Lord, leader of the Igigi, I am obedient to thy word.[33]

Strong one, glorious one, begotten of Nunammir

Who art clothed with sublimity, powerful one I will praise thy name.[34]

On the other hand there is but one example of the actual use of the first person plural in the hymnal introductions:

Father Enlil with song majestically we come,

The presents of the ground are offered to thee as sacrifice.[35]

It is not contended that the hymnal introductions are strongly individual in character, showing the marks of individual originality and genius; on the contrary they are on the whole rather stereotyped and monotonous in their sameness: neither is it urged that the god of these hymnal introductions seems to be in any very marked way the god of the individual human being, but that the hymnal prayer does provide a way for the individual to approach deity in the sanctuary, and that worship was accordingly individual as well as social.

For very many of the Assyrian Hymnal Introductions there is no clear and certain way of determining whether the hymn is congregational or individual, although the general character of the titles and attributes ascribed to deity suggests in many instances the social rather than the individual hymn. However we do have two examples of the processional hymn. Above we quoted the first two lines of a twenty-five line Sumerian processional hymn to Enlil. In this case the worshippers are advancing into the sanctuary bringing with them their sacrificial gifts:

O lord of Sumer figs to thy dwelling we bring.

We have another splendid example of a processional hymn in the hymn to Marduk, No. 13. It is a hymn of thirty-seven lines, of which the first thirty lines welcome the god to his temple, while the last seven lines implore his favor for the cities of Nippur and Sippar and especially for Babylon and his temple Esagila:

Thy city Nippur cast not away let her cry to thee: O lord peace.

Sippar cast not away let her cry to thee: O lord peace.

Babylon the city of thy peace cast not away let her cry to thee: O lord peace.

Look graciously upon thy house look graciously upon thy city let them cry to thee: O lord peace.

This hymn was sung while the great god, Marduk was being conducted in triumphant procession to his temple:

Return lord, on thine entrance into thy house, may thy house rejoice in thee.

In the first thirty lines this pious wish is repeated with a succession of titles for the deity. Then not only the city, but the great Gods one by one greet Marduk, wishing him on his entrance into his house peace. But processional hymns were also sung when the god was carried forth from the temple:

Arise, come out, O Bel the king expects thee.

Arise, come out, our Belit the king expects thee.

Bel comes out from Babylon the lands bow before him.

Sarpanitum comes out fragrant incense is burned.

Tashmitum comes out frankincense full of cypresses is burned.

It has been mentioned that a common motif for praise was the possession of sanctuaries. It is of interest that out of such hymnal lines as the following developed the independent hymn in praise of the sanctuary:

Thy house Izida is a house incomparable;[36]

Thy city Borsippa is a city incomparable.

In Ekur, the house of festivals, is thy name exalted.[37]

In Ekur, the temple of holiness, exalted are his decrees.[38]

In Marduk No. 7 and Bel No. 1 we have two fragments of hymns which apparently were devoted entirely to the praise of the sanctuary, as these two hymns are not addressed in the second person to deity, the discussion of them is postponed for a later section.

It is also of interest that hymnal lines in praise of the divine word tended to develop into the independent hymn in praise of the word. Such lines are:

Thy word, when it extends to the sea the sea is frightened;[39]

Thy word, when it extends to the marsh the marsh laments.

Thy word, when it is proclaimed in heaven, the Igigi prostrate themselves.[40]

Thy word, when it is proclaimed on earth, the Annunaki kiss the ground.

Thy word, when it sounds on high like a stormwind, makes food and drink to abound.

Thy word, when it sounds over the earth, vegetation springs up.

Thy word, it makes fat stall and stable, it multiplies living creatures.

Thy word, it causes truth and righteousness to arise so that men speak the truth.

Thy word, it is like the distant heaven, the hidden underworld, which no man can see.

Thy word, who can know it, who can compare (anything) with it.

Before concluding this chapter on Assyrian hymnal introductions to prayers, it is well to give one complete example of such a hymn, the home of which was the sanctuary:

Strong son, first born of Bel,[41]

Great perfect offspring of Isara,

Who art clothed with might, who art full of fury,

Storm god, whose onslaught is irresistible,

Mighty is thy place among the great gods,

In Ekur, the house of festivals, is thy head exalted.

Bel thy father has granted thee

That the law of all the gods thy hand should hold;

Thou renderest the judgment of mankind;

Thou leadest him that is without a leader, the man that is in need;

Thou graspest the hand of the weak, thou raisest up him that is bowed down;

The body of the man that to the lower world has been brought down thou dost restore.

From him who sin possesses the sin thou dost remove;

The man with whom his guardian god is angry, thou art quick to favor.

Ninib, prince among the gods, a warrior art thou.

[There follows a petition for the forgiveness of sins.]

The following hymn, which belongs not so much to the sanctuary as to Nature, is of peculiar interest because of the light it throws upon Psalm 19:40-6. Here indeed the Sun god not only runs his course but is in very truth a bridegroom, and has his tent, and, refreshed by the banquet he has enjoyed, is strong to run his race:

Shamash, at thy entrance into the midst of heaven,[42]

May the door of the pure heaven greet thee,

May the gate of heaven bless thee;

May justice, thy beloved messenger, direct thy way;

In Ebarra the seat of thy sovereignty, let thy sublimity shine,

May Ea, thy beloved wife, come before thee with joy,

May thy heart be at rest,

May for thy divinity a banquet be prepared.

Shamash, warrior hero, be praised.

Lord of Ebarra, may thy course be guided aright,

Walk the straight path, go upon the course permanently fixed for you.

Shamash, judge of the world, determiner of its decisions art thou.

The following delightful fragment of a hymn to Shamash seems to belong even more to Nature’s out of doors than the preceding hymn:

[Beginning of tablet broken.]

Lord, illuminator of the darkness, opener of the face of [heaven][43]

Merciful God, who raisest up the lowly, who protectest the weak,

For thy light wait the great gods

The Annunaki all of them gaze upon thy face

The mortals all together as a single individual thou leadest.

Expectant with raised head they look for the light of the sun;

When thou appearest they exult and rejoice;

Thou art their light unto the ends of the distant heaven.

Of the wide earth the object of attention art thou;

There gaze upon thee with joy numerous peoples.

[Text breaks off.]

Corresponding to this hymn to the Sun God, the following hymn to the Moon God, Sin, is likewise very beautiful:

O Sin, O Nannar, mighty one,[44]

Sin who art unique, thou that brightenest,

That givest light unto the nations,

That unto the human race art favorable,

Bright is thy light in heaven,

Brilliant is thy flame like the fire god.

Thy brightness fills the broad earth;

The mortals rejoice, they grow strong who see thee.

O Anu of the heavens whose purpose no man understands,

Overwhelming is thy light like Shamash thy first born;

Before thy face the great gods bow down, the fate of the world is determined by thee.

Chapter VII
ASSYRIAN ANTIPHONAL HYMNS

There is also among the Assyrian hymns addressed in the second person to deity a group of hymns, which are distinguished by refrains, frequent repetitions of a phrase or clause, or marked parallelisms of lines. It is, however, in most cases very difficult to know whether the hymn is actually antiphonal or not.

Nergal No. 4 is a hymn fragment of ten lines. For the first eight lines, the second half of each line is the refrain: “Destroyer of the hostile land,” while the first half of each line gives a separate title of the god. Thus:

Warrior raging flood ..., destroyer of the hostile land;

Warrior, lord of the underworld, destroyer of the hostile land;

God that comest forth from Shitlam, destroyer of the hostile land;

Great steer, mighty lord, destroyer of the hostile land.

One would be inclined to suggest that a priest chanted the first half line and a choir the refrain. The difficulty is that elsewhere we have such refrains where an individual is the speaker.

In a hymn to Ramman (No. 3) Enlil thus addressed his son Ramman:

Thou, O my son, thou storm with all seeing eyes,

Thou storm god with vision from on high;

Ramman, thou storm,

Thou storm god with vision from on high;

Thou storm who like the seven demons flieth,

Thou storm god with vision from on high.

Storm, may thy sonorous voice give forth its utterance,

Thou storm god with vision from on high.

The lightning thy messenger send forth,

Thou storm god with vision from on high.

The next five lines, still continuing the message of Enlil to his son, has the refrain: “Who can strive with thee.”

My son, go forth, go up, who that cometh can strive with thee?

If the foe do harm, the father is over thee, who can strive with thee?

With the small hail stones thou art skillful, who can strive with thee?

With the great hail stones thou art skillful, who can strive with thee?

Let thy small and great stones be upon him, who can strive with thee?

Since these two refrains are both in a passage spoken by an individual, it must be concluded that in this hymn at any rate the refrain is used, not for antiphonal rendering, but for impressiveness, perhaps for magical power.

In the light of the above fact, it is altogether possible that the refrain occurring eight times in the invocation to Sin (Sin No. 5) may have been recited by the priest, and not by the choir in antiphonal response to the priest. The refrain differs from the preceding examples in that the titles of deities which lend variety to the lines are imbedded in the middle of the refrain:

Father Nannar, lord Anshar, chief of the gods;

Father Nannar, lord great Anu, chief of the gods;

Father Nannar, lord Sin, chief of the gods;

Father Nannar, lord of Ur, chief of the gods;

Father Nannar, lord of Egishirgal, chief of the gods;

Father Nannar, lord of the tiara, brilliant one, chief of the gods;

Father Nannar, whose rule is perfect, chief of the gods;

Father Nannar, who dost go forth in the robe of majesty, chief of the gods.

A fragment of a hymn to Nebo (Nebo No. 2) has in a passage of five lines yet a different use of the refrain. The refrain which makes up the second half of each line is varied in three lines by the introduction of a new word from the first half line:

O lord, thy might is a might incomparable;

O Nebo, thy might is a might incomparable;

Thy house Ezida is a house incomparable;

Thy city Borsippa is a city incomparable;

Thy district of Babylon is a district incomparable.

The carrying forward in the refrain of the important word of the first half line does suggest very forcibly that an individual chanted the first half line, and a choir the second half line. The same arrangement would hold for the couplet that follows the above lines, the second line of the couplet being a response to the first.

Thy weapon is a dragon from whose mouth no poison flows;

Thy weapon is a dragon from whose mouth no blood sprays.

But mere arrangement in couplets and close parallelisms seems insufficient to prove the presence of responses, for in a hymn to Nebo (Nebo No. 4) it is Nusku who speaks, though the couplet would suggest a response:

Lord, warlike art thou, perfect in understanding through thyself,

Ninib, warlike art thou, perfect in understanding through thyself.

Likewise the priest, we are informed, speaks in the following couplet:

Bel, to whom in his strength there is no equal,

Bel, gracious king, lord of the lands.

(Marduk No. 12.)

So also the hymnal introduction of the two following couplets is to the prayer of an individual:

Thou treadest in the high heavens, lofty is thy place;

Thou art great in Hades there is none like thee.

With Ea in the multitude of the gods is thy counsel preëminent

With Sin in the heavens thou see’st through everything.

(Nergal No. 1.)

There are two long hymns to Nergal (Nergal No. 5 and No. 6) in which the antiphonal response seems to be a certainty. In Nergal No. 5 the response, coming in the second line, consists of the words: “God Nergal” followed by an additional word or phrase borrowed from the preceding line.

Warrior whose terribleness ...

God Nergal, Warrior;

Prince of the shining face and flaming mouth ...

God Nergal, Prince of the Shining Face;

Legitimate son, favorite of Bel, Great Guardian ...

God Nergal, Legitimate Son;

Chief of the great gods Clothed in grandeur and splendor ...

God Nergal, Chief;

Mighty one over the Annunaki Whose splendor is terrifying ...

God Nergal, Mighty One

Lord of the raised head, Lofty one, favorite of Ekur ...

God Nergal, Lord of the Raised Head

High one of the great gods Whose judgment and decision ...

God Nergal, High One

Lofty giant Who spittest out poison ...

God Nergal, Lofty Giant

Of gigantic size with terrible limbs, raging demons to right and left of him,

God Nergal, of Gigantic Size

Of tremendous power, whose blow is effective, crouches a demon at his side,

God Nergal, of Tremendous Power;

Great sword god, at the noise of whose feet the barred house opens,

God Nergal, Great Sword God

Lord who goeth about by night, to whom bolted doors open of themselves,

God Nergal, Lord Who Goeth by Night;

Warrior his whip cracks and men cry: “The noise of his weapon”

God Nergal, Warrior His Whip Cracks;

Perfect one, whose strength is overwhelming ...

God Nergal, Perfect One;

Combatter of the enemy of Ekur, the foe of Duranki thou combattest,

God Nergal, Combatter of the Enemy;

Frightful one, raging fire god ...

God Nergal, Frightful One;

Storm flood which overwhelms the disobedient land ...

God Nergal, Storm Flood which Overwhelms.

[Tablet breaks off.]

Since the second line of each of the twenty-five couplets above begins with the words: “God Nergal” and, then adds the first word or phrase of the preceding line, it may be called a refrain with variations. Moreover it would seem probable that a priest chanted the longer first line, and a choir the second line in response.

Nergal No. 6 opens with an introductory couplet:

Flood watering the harvest knows any one thy name?

Powerful one, flood watering the harvest knows any one thy name?

This usage of repeating the first line and adding a word to it, suggests that the second line was repeated with greater emphasis, and possibly by a choir in response to a priest. After this introductory couplet there follow eleven couplets with a double refrain, made up of the first half lines of each couplet. Thus:

Powerful one, mighty one, lord of the kingdom of the dead,

Most mighty one, divine scion of Shitlam;

Powerful one, great strong steer,

Most mighty one, lord of Gushidi;

Powerful one, ruler, divine prince of Erech,

Most mighty one, lord of Kutha.

For the eleven such couplets one is inclined to surmise a choir chanting the refrains, and a priest announcing the titles of the deity. This seems more probable than that one choir repeated the first line and a second choir the second line. After two ordinary couplets, marked only by fairly close parallelism, there follows a triplet in praise of the incomparable god:

Lord who is like thee who rivals thee?

Most mighty one who is like thee who rivals thee?

Nergal who is like thee who rivals thee?

With the change of the invocation from “Lord” to “Most mighty one” to “Nergal” the lines undoubtedly grow in intensity until the name Nergal, which is held back until the third line, would be thundered forth in that third line with the greatest enthusiasm. Here again it seems highly probable that a choir chanted the refrain: “Who is like unto thee, who rivals thee?” The second part of this hymn consists of eighteen lines in couplets and triplets in praise of the word of Nergal. The ease with which the second half line follows from the first half line suggests that here the priest chanted the first half line, and a choir the second half line.

In this same class of Antiphonal hymns belong two hymns with a veritable din of repetitions. The first is Sin No. 3. It opens with the formal invocation:

Thou whose glory in the sacred boat of heaven is self created,

Father Nannar lord of Ur,

Father Nannar lord of Ekissirgal,

Father Nannar lord of the new moon.

Lord Nannar first born son of Enlil.

It is easy to suppose that a priest chanted the entire first line, and that a choir chanted the first half lines of the next four lines while the priest supplied in the second half lines the titles of the deity. There follows what might be regarded as an imitation of the huzzas of a crowd welcoming a sovereign. Here it is welcoming the ascent of the moon god in the heavens:

When thou ascendest, when thou ascendest,

When before thy father before Bel thou art glorious,

Father Nannar when thou art glorious, when thou pursuest thy way,

When in the boat that in the heavens ascendest thou art glorious,

Father Nannar when unto Esaguz thou mountest,

Father Nannar when like skiff upon the floods thou ascendest,

When thou ascendest, when thou ascendest, thou when thou ascendest,

In thy rising and in thy completion of thy course, yea in thine ascension.

After one further couplet the long subordinate clause ends, and the principal statement is made:

“Hail thou that in the majesty of a king daily rises.”

In the above, the clause: “when thou ascendest” is repeated nine times and may well have been shouted by the choir or concourse of worshippers.

Nergal No. 7 is a hymn with an even greater complexity of repetitions, and is somewhat suggestive of the repetitions characteristic of the Hindu hymns sung to the accompaniment of the rattling Indian drums. The first fourteen lines are:

Nergal’s heroism I will praise (I will sing)

When with a shout the house of the hostile land the lord attacked,

When Shitlam’s scion the house of the hostile land the lord attacked,

Shitlam’s scion who alone is a warrior,

(When with a shout) the house of the hostile land the lord attacked,

When with rejoicing the house of the hostile land the lord attacked,

The great steer the strong one who alone is a warrior,

When with rejoicing the house of the hostile land the lord attacked,

When with a shout the house of the hostile land the lord attacked, an ox bound in the yoke,

When Shitlam’s scion the house of the hostile land the lord attacked, his creative implement ...

When with a shout the house of the hostile land the lord attacked, whose reed is in process of growth,

When the great steer the strong one the house of the hostile land the lord attacked, his raven is black,

When with a shout the house of the hostile land the lord attacked,

When Shitlam’s scion the house of the hostile land the lord attacked, his raven is white.

[Gap in text.]

As to the rendering of this first part of Nergal No. 7, the first line “Nergal’s heroism, I will praise, I will sing” makes it certain that an individual, probably a priest or a choir leader, sang the first line, and highly probable that he recited the beginnings of each line, and the new additions to the lines, leaving to the choir to recite the refrain. The main purpose of the hymn, as announced in the opening line, was to narrate the heroic exploits of the gods in war against the enemy. The narration was sung by the leader, and the repetitions, giving clarity and emphasis, and possibly magical power, were evidently sung by the choir. The second portion of the hymn, as it is continued beyond the gap in the inscription until the tablet breaks off, differs from the first part, in that it largely lacks the repetitions, and in that it does not employ the third person of the verb, but is addressed directly to deity. It belongs accordingly among the hymnal introductions.

Finally there is now appended to this chapter the discussion of three hymns, which might perhaps be better called dramatic rather than antiphonal compositions. The first hymn is Ishtar No. 6, and it has three distinct parts. Part I is addressed by the worshipper to the deity, and consists of eleven lines. In lines 1-7 the worshipper attempts to set forth clearly certain prominent characteristics of the deity he is seeking:

Light of heaven, which flames like fire over the earth thou art;

Goddess when over the earth thou standest

One who as the earth stands firm thou art;

Unto thee the way of truth pays homage;

When thou enterest a man’s house,

A leopard gone forth to seize the lamb thou art;

A lion which strides over the plains thou art.

And having thus stated her attributes, the worshipper goes on to summon the goddess by her names:

Storming Virgin Ornament of heaven,

Virgin Ishtar Ornament of heaven,

Thou who art adorned with the brilliancy of sparkling stones Ornament of heaven,

Sister of Shamash Ornament of heaven.

Part II is the reply of the deity to the worshipper, announcing first in a strophe of four lines her appearance and the purpose thereof:

To give omens I rise I arise in perfection;

Beside my father to give omens I rise I arise in perfection;

Beside my brother Shamash to give omens I rise I arise in perfection;

In the bright heavens to give omens I rise I arise in perfection.

In the next strophe of four lines she expresses her gratification over her praise, possibly in allusion to the hymnal lines just sung by her worshipper or worshippers:

In joy over my praise, in joy over my praise

In joy a goddess I walk proudly.

Ishtar goddess of the evening I am

Ishtar goddess of the evening I am.

Part II concludes in a strophe of seven lines, each line setting forth a great feat of Ishtar’s, and ending with the clause: “that is my glory.” Here again it is shown that the presence of a refrain is no certain proof of antiphonal rendering, since the repetition is in the mouth of the individual Ishtar. Part III is the petition.

The hymn to Ramman (Adad No. 3) is also a composition in three parts. Part I, lines 1-14 is a hymn of praise addressed in the second person directly to Ramman, of which the first ten lines are in praise of the name of Ramman. The lines are in three divisions, and the first six lines end with the refrain: “Bull mighty and glorious, is thy name exalted God.”

Ramman the glorious, bull mighty and glorious, is thy name exalted God;

Lord Ramman, bull mighty and glorious, is thy name exalted God;

Ramman heaven’s child bull mighty and glorious, is thy name exalted God;

Lord of Karkar, bull mighty and glorious, is thy name exalted God;

Ramman, lord of plenty, bull mighty and glorious, is thy name exalted God;

Companion of Lord Ea bull mighty and glorious, is thy name exalted God.

The next three lines introduce variety into the second division, while the tenth line is uniform with the first six, save for a change of wording in the first division:

Father Ramman lord that rideth the storm is thy name exalted God;

Father Ramman that rideth the great storm is thy name exalted God;

Father Ramman that rideth the great lion is thy name exalted God;

Ramman lion of heaven bull mighty and glorious is thy name exalted God.

The last four lines of Part I pass over from the praise of the name of Ramman to praise of the activity of the god of the storm:

Thy name doth dominate the land;

Thy majesty covers the land like a garment;

At thy thunder the great mountain father Mullil is shaken;

At thy rumbling the great mother Ninlil trembles.

Part II of this hymn, lines 15-26, is made up of Enid’s summons to his son Ramman to go up with sonorous voice, with lightning, and with small and great hail stones against the hostile land. This section has already been discussed earlier in this chapter. Part III is in reality a brief conclusion to the hymn. It relates in four lines that Ramman obeyed the summons of Enlil:

Ramman gave ear to the words which his father spoke to him;

The father Ramman went out of the house storm of sonorous voice;

Out of the house, out of the city went he up, the youthful lion;

Out of the city took his way the storm of sonorous voice.

The third hymnal composition of this group, the so-called litany to Asshur, is in two parts. Part I is a long hymn addressed by an individual, possibly Asshurbanipal, to Asshur, of which the chief distinguishing characteristic is the oft repeated vow of the individual to praise the deity. Nineteen of the twenty-two lines of Part I are as follows:

Mighty lord of the gods, all knowing one;

Powerful stately lord of the gods, determiner of fates;

Asshur mighty lord, all knowing one;

Powerful stately lord of the gods, determiner of fates;

Asshur almighty one, lord of the gods, lord of the lands;

His greatness (I will praise), his sublimity proclaim;

The memory of Asshur I will glorify, his name I will magnify;

The sublimity of him who dwells at Ekharraggalkurra I will proclaim;

His might I will praise, to his will I will submit;

He who dwells at Ascharra, Asshur determiner of fates;

To reveal (his glory) to the inhabitants of the land

That later generations may learn of his fame

I will for ever praise his lordship

Mighty one with broad understanding potentate of the gods;

Mighty creator of the heavens, builder of the mountains;

Mighty creator of the gods, begetter of the goddesses;

Of great heart and deep understanding

O glorious one, whose name arouses fear;

O Asshur, whose decrees reach into the distance.

The promise of the poet here to make the fame of Asshur known to later generations corresponds to the promise of the author of Psalm 45 for the fame of the reigning Hebrew king. In Part II of this litany to Asshur, first Anu, Bel, and Ea, the lords of the gods proclaim Asshurbanipal as ruler of Assyria, promising him many years of sovereignty, lines 1-6; and then Asshur appoints him to lordship over lands and men, lines 7-8. The concluding couplet, lines 9-10 is suggestive of the close relationship between the fame of the king, and the fame of the patron god of the kingdom.

Through the mouth let it be proclaimed continually let the ear hear it,

That I Asshur have named you to lordship over lands and men.

May the memory of Asshur be praised, his divinity be exalted,

So that the exaltation of Asshur, the lord of lords, may be known.

Common to these three compositions and of great interest to the Old Testament student is the appearance and message of the deity, since there are parallels to this in the Old Testament. Especially close is the parallel to the decree of Yahwe in Psalm 2, and the oracle of Yahwe in Psalm 110.

Chapter VIII
ASSYRIAN SELF-LAUDATIONS OF THE GODS

In addition to the hymnal introductions to prayers, and the antiphonal hymns, there was in Assyrian poesie a distinct and notable group of hymns in which the gods praise themselves. It is of course presupposed in the hymnal introductions that the gods desire and welcome the praise of men. The gods do praise one another. Enlil praised Ramman in the hymn to Ramman No. 2 which was discussed in the last chapter. Also Nusku praises Ninib in Ninib No. 4:

Nusku the lofty messenger of Bel in Ekur met him,

Unto Lord Ninib greeting he spoke:

Lord warlike art thou, perfect in understanding through thyself,

Ninib warlike art thou, perfect in understanding through thyself.

Thy dazzling brilliancy covers Bel’s house as a garment.

Thy wagon, because of its thundering noise,

At its going shakes heaven and earth;

At the raising of thy hand darkness stretches itself out.

The Annunaki, the great gods are terrified.

Since the gods thus welcome the praise of gods and men, there is no reason why the Assyrian god should not appear to proclaim his greatness and to challenge the admiration of gods and men. In the hymn to Ishtar No. 6, which was studied in the preceding chapter, the goddess in response to the opening hymn of praise announced her appearance to give omens, and proclaimed in hymnal lines her own glory.

But there are other hymns sung by the gods in their own praise. Ninib No. 5 is a fragment of a hymn, fourteen lines in length, sung by Ninib in his own honor. Some of the lines are:

King who by day shines like Anu I am:

He whom Anu in her sovereign power hath chosen I am.

The warrior, who at the command of Ea into the terrible battle goes, I am.

He whose sovereignty shines to the borders of heaven and earth I am;

The mighty one among the gods, robed in brilliancy I am.

Similarly Ninib No. 6 is another hymnal fragment of fourteen lines in which the deity praises himself. Some of the lines exalting his prowess are:

Against my terrible brilliancy which like Anu is mighty who raises himself?

Storm god with fifty mouths my divine weapons I carry;

A warrior who destroys mountains, merciless storm I carry;

A weapon like a corpse-eating dragon I carry;

Mountain destroyer, the heavy weapon of Anu I carry.

More impressive is a hymn of some fifty lines, though the tablet is broken off, sung by Belit in her own honor. The theme of the hymn is the supremacy of Belit. Thus she announces herself:

Am I not the daughter of Bel?

Am I not supreme? I am the warrior.

Am I not the goddess? The warlike daughter of Bel I am.

The high placed daughter of Bel I am.

Her power is irresistible:

The waters which I stir up do not become clear;

The fire which I kindle does not go out;

The house of heaven, the house of earth unto my hand he has entrusted;

The city which I plunder is not restored;

The utterance of my exalted command destroys the land of the foe.

Belit is supreme in heaven and in earth:

At the lifting of my hand the heavens stand still, and the lofty powers of heaven supplicate me.

I am supreme, the hand of him who contends with me shall not stand against my hand.

My mighty pace fills the earth

I am supreme, the foot of him who contends with me shall not stand against my foot.

Who is there before me? Who is there behind me?

From the lifting up of mine eyes who can escape?

From the rush of my onslaught who can flee?

Yet this warlike goddess is apparently not without some tenderness:

The exalted daughter of Bel I am,

The noble heroine of my father Sin I am,

I am supreme, the legitimate wife of Ea I am,

Him who is bowed down I lift up, the aged one I lift up.

Similar in its theme is a hymn to Ishtar (No. 4), for it begins thus:

Who is equal to me me?

Who is comparable to me me?

Goddess I am I am mistress;

Small and great I uproot, I lay low.

She is like Belit a goddess of war:

In the midst of the battle when I take my place,

The heart of battle, the arm of valiant courage, the strength of heroism I am.

Behind the battle when I approach,

A conquering power which fiercely attacks I am.

She is the goddess of the evening star, and of the earth’s vegetation, the goddess of fertility:

In the heavens in the evening when I take my place,

The lady who fills the firmament of heaven I am.

Through my appearance fear is established in the heavens;

Through my radiance the fishes are affrighted in the deep.

In the heavens I take my place, and send rain;

In the earth I take my place, and cause the vegetation to spring forth.

Who is equal to me me?

Who is equal to me me?

There are three strophes in praise of the name of the goddess, beginning with the announcement of the seven names of the deity, after this fashion:

My first name is I am Ishtar

My second name is Lady of the lands

My third name is The lofty one who causes the heavens to tremble, the earth to quake;

My fourth name is Flaming fire.

The last and twenty-third strophe is almost identical with the first strophe, in obedience to the same instinct or artistic principle, which causes the Hebrew hymn of praise to return in its conclusion to the opening call to praise:

Who is equal to me me?

Who is comparable to me me?

I am Ishtar I

Small and great I uproot, I lay low.

Rather effective is the single line in response to the hymn of the goddess:

Resplendent goddess, art thou not an overwhelming flood?

Is this line a pious gloss, the comment of a devout reader of the hymn, or is it an integral part of the hymnal composition? If the latter, then this hymn would belong in the same group with hymn to Ishtar No. 6, Ramman No. 2, and the litany to Asshur.

There is a second hymn to Ishtar (No. 5), of which the first lines are broken off, and which is followed by a priest’s short prayer, but which is spoken altogether by Ishtar in her own praise. At the beginning we have a strophe of nine lines, four couplets, and an additional line. The first half line of each couplet continues the same, “She who in the days of long ago,” and the first half line of the second line of each couplet remains just the name: “Ishtar.” The second half lines of each couplet are almost identical, and the second half of each couplet differs from the second half of the preceding couplet only by the changing of a single word. If the hymn were not in the first person, and thus put into the mouth of Ishtar herself, one would say that the first line of the couplet was recited by a priest, and that the second line was shouted by a choir in response:

She who in the days of long ago in the earth was magnified am I

Ishtar who in the earth is magnified am I

She who in the days of long ago in all lands was magnified am I

Ishtar who in all lands is magnified am I

She who in the days of long ago in the sanctuary was magnified am I

Ishtar who in the sanctuary is magnified am I

She who in the days of long ago in all sanctuaries was magnified am I

Ishtar who in all sanctuaries is magnified am I

She who in the days of long ago in the holy sanctuaries is magnified am I.

There follows a strophe of six lines, of which the first half lines give different titles of Ishtar, and the second half lines have the refrain, “in the temple of my riches am I.” Then after three broken lines this hymnal composition closes with a brief petition of four lines repeated by the priest in behalf of the temple.

The five hymns, just reviewed, are all in the nature of a self-introduction of the gods and goddesses as powerful, incomparable beings. This is what one would expect. There is among gods as among kings a great deal of rivalry about prestige. The God must sound abroad his own glory. Beyond that, however, is the fact that in every religion a god must be, to a large extent, an unknown deity. His self-manifestations can be only occasional, and never clearly apprehended by man, so that when the god appears, man must necessarily ask: “Who art thou?” and the deity must reply, as did Ninib and Belit and Ishtar: “I am ...” These self-introductions of deity inevitably recall to the mind of the Old Testament student Yahwe’s introduction of himself to Moses in Exodus 3:6; and again the self-introduction of Yahwe that precedes the promulgation of the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20:2. Especially are they, however, suggestive of the repeated self-announcements of deity, that occur in almost every chapter of Isaiah 40-55. Here also we have again and again the rhetorical question, and the emphasis upon the power, the wisdom, the fame, and the incomparable status of Yahwe. Just a few of these hymnal lines are here quoted:

Who raised up from the East the man who is ever victorious?

Who delivers to him the nations, and makes him rule over kings?

Who hath indeed done this, He who calls the generations from the beginning;

I Yahwe am the first, and I am the last, I am he.

—Isaiah 41: 2, 4.

I am Yahwe, that is my name;

I yield my glory to no one, nor my praise to idols.

—Isaiah 42:8.

I, I am Yahwe besides me there is no saviour;

I have foretold and I have saved;

I and no foreign god among you, thereto are ye my witnesses.

—Isaiah 43:11f.

I am Yahwe and there is none else, besides me there is no god.

I form the light and create darkness

I make peace and cause calamity

I Yahwe do all things.

—Isaiah 45:5, 7.

These and a great many similar lines have a good deal of the phraseology and the atmosphere of the Assyrian hymns of Belit and Ishtar, and in so far support the Babylonian origin of Isaiah 40-45, but there is in the Assyrian hymns no such clear relationship of the deity to history as is characteristic of the Hebrew hymns in Isaiah 40-45.

There remains of Assyrian hymns still to be recognized a small and distinct group in which deity is praised by man in the third person. One of these, Nergal No. 7, has been included among the Antiphonal hymns and already studied. That portion, which is in the third person is simply narrative, with many repetitions, telling of Nergal’s heroic attack upon the hostile land. It is mythological and epic material adapted to hymnal purposes. Similarly the hymn to Ramman No. 2 was included among the Antiphonal hymns, beginning as it does with fourteen lines spoken by man in praise of Ramman, and continuing with Enlil’s charge to Ramman in the next twelve lines. However, this hymn comes to its conclusion in the next four and last lines with the use of the third person, telling how Ramman obeyed the bidding of his father Enlil:

Ramman gave heed to the words which his father spoke to him;

Father Ramman went out of the house, the storm of sonorous voice,

Out of the house, out of the city he went up, the youthful lion,

Out of the city he took his way, the storm of thunderous voice.

Beside this can be placed the fragment of eight lines, Ramman No. 1. Heaven and earth quake before Ramman’s anger. The gods flee to the heights and to the depths before the mighty god of the tempest. This hymn invites comparison with Psalm 29, the Hebrew hymn in praise of the “Voice of Yahwe”:

The lord in his fury, the heavens quake before him;

Ramman in his fury, the earth trembles;

The great mountains break to pieces before him.

Before his anger, before his fury,

Before his roaring, before his thunder;

The gods of heaven to heaven ascend;

The gods of earth to earth retire;

To the heights of heaven they penetrate;

Into the depths of the earth they enter.

In Marduk No. 4, following the hymnal invocation of six lines addressed in the second person to the deity, there is a section of fifteen lines making up the rest of the hymn, and extolling the greatness of Marduk, especially his might in war. When he attacks, the heavens above and the earth beneath are troubled; the gods flee; his weapons flash forth and destroy mountains. However the hymn is not a narrative of any event. Though the language is of a myth, yet the poem is not in its nature an epic. It is recited not to inspire interest, but to arouse enthusiasm for the deity. It is thus, along with Ramman No. 1, more hymnal in character than the narrative portions in Nergal No. 7 and Ramman No. 2:

The direction of conflict and battle is in the hands of Marduk, the leader of the gods;

At whose wrath the heaven quakes;

At whose wrath the deep is troubled;

At the point of whose weapon the gods turn back;

Whose furious attack no one ventures to oppose;

The mighty lord, to whom there is no rival in the assembly of the gods.

In the bright firmament of heaven, his course is powerful;

In Ekur, the temple of holiness, exalted are his decrees.

In the storm wind his weapons blaze forth;

With his flame steep mountains are destroyed.

He overwhelms the expanse of the billowy ocean.

Son of Esara is his name, warrior of the gods his title.

From the depths is he lord of the gods and men.

Before his terrible bow the heavens tremble,

Who the lofty house of death’s shadow overthrows and destroys.

In the chapter on Assyrian Hymnal Introductions, it was observed that in Sin No. 3 and Sin No. 5 there were hymnal lines in praise of the divine word, addressed directly to deity in the second person:

Thy word, when it sounds over the earth, vegetation springs up.

In Marduk No. 5 there are five hymnal lines in praise of the word of deity, in four of which the third person is used, although one would hesitate to say that the hymn ceases to be addressed to deity, or that the change of person is here particularly significant:

Thy word is a lofty net which over heaven and earth thou spreadest out.

Unto the sea it turns, the sea it takes fright.

Unto the marsh it turns, the marsh laments.

To the flood of Euphrates it turns,

The word of Marduk stirs up the bottom

Lord, thou art lofty, who equals thee?

In the hymn to Nergal No. 7 there is a large hymnal passage in praise of the word of deity. It begins apparently with the last line on the obverse side of the tablet, in which the second person of the direct address to deity is used:

Thy word is a lofty net Which stretches out over heaven and earth.

Unfortunately the first lines on the reverse side of the tablet are lost, but the lines which remain are all in the third person, and unlike the preceding hymn deity is not being directly addressed. We have here then the hymnal form which is characteristic of the Hebrew hymn of praise. It is however somewhat difficult to account for this use of the third person. Possibly it is because the word when once spoken has its independent existence, and cannot be recalled, but goes forth to exert its harmful or helpful influence. Consequently in thinking of the effects to be accomplished by Nergal’s word one can completely forget Nergal, since the word has left the god behind and goes on its own way, whither soever it was directed. It is to be noted that the effects of the word mentioned in this hymn are all harmful. There is no record of any magical ceremony or magical use of the word following the hymn, although the language of the hymn would almost seem to be introductory to such a use of the mighty word of Nergal. Possibly then it can be conjectured that we have actually here a genuine hymn in praise of the aweful word of deity. The hymn as preserved is as follows:

Thy word is a lofty net which stretches out over heaven and earth

. . . . . . . . .

His word goes to the seer, the seer takes fright;

His word goes to the enchanter, the enchanter takes fright.

His word is announced to an afflicted man, that man laments;

His word is announced to an afflicted woman, that woman laments.

His word when it goes softly ruins the land;

His word when it goes powerfully destroys the houses.

His word is as a closed vessel its innermost thoughts who can learn?

His word is as a covered net in which he snares.

His word within is not understood, without it tramples down;

His word without is not understood, within it tramples down;

His word makes the people sick, the people it makes weak.

His word when it goes on high the land makes sick;

His word when it goes below destroys the land.

Warrior Nergal, below he commands below he tramples underfoot

His word when there are five in a house drives out five;

Warrior Nergal when there are ten in a house drives out ten.

The word of the lord when it hastens on high I am troubled;

The word of the lord because of its destructiveness I sit and lament.

At his word on high the heavens become dark, mighty is his word.

It has also been observed in the chapter on Hymnal Introductions, that in Nebo No. 1 there was a couplet, and in Ninib No. 1 there was a hymnal line, both in praise of the sanctuary, and both addressed in the second person to deity. Furthermore there is in the hymn to Marduk No. 4, reproduced above in this chapter a line in praise of the temple in Ekur:

In Ekur, the house of festivals, is thy name exalted.

Beyond this we have, however two hymnal fragments, which so far as they remain to us, are devoted to the praise of sanctuaries. The first of these is Marduk No. 7:

... day when he named Babylon faithfully by its name,

The lord of the crown built at the door of the ocean the house which he loved.

The land with exultation and joy he filled;

Its head like the heavens he made high;

A house at the door of the ocean endowed with grandeur and glory for the honor of his godhead is suitable.

... Nebo and Sarpanitum a glittering sanctuary inhabit;

... he caused to inhabit a dwelling of luxury.

[Tablet breaks off.]

The second fragment, hymn to Bel, No. 1, consists only of five lines, which unfortunately are not altogether intelligible. Apparently the sanctuary of Enlil is compared first to a mountain, whose peak reaches to the heavens, and then to a majestic wild ox stretched out in the mountains, whose horns glitter in the rays of the sun. These hymnal fragments recall the Old Testament psalms in praise of Zion, and perhaps especially Psalm 48:2:

Beautiful for situation, the joy of all the earth

Is Mount Zion, on the northern slope

The city of the great King.

The above small group of hymns are the only hymns or hymnal passages in which the third person is exclusively used. As has been seen, the great majority of Assyrian hymns employ the second person and are really only hymnal introductions to prayers. A small but notable group is made up of the self-laudations of the gods. On the other hand the vast majority of Hebrew hymns speak of Yahwe in the third person in their praise of him, and their praise is disinterested; it is not introductory to a petition. It is likewise significant that where Yahwe speaks in hymnal praise of himself in Isaiah 40-45, it is to convince despairing, doubting Israel of his intention and power to save Israel, and to use Israel in the fulfillment of his eternal purpose. Here again one might say that while the Assyrian deities haughtily and arrogantly proclaim their own greatness, seeking thereby only their own glory, Yahwe’s praise of himself is almost altogether disinterested, since his concern is to achieve salvation of Israel and the world. In the Hebrew sense of the word then, the genuine hymn is only beginning to emerge in Assyrian poetry.

Division III
A COMPARISON OF THE ASSYRIAN AND THE HEBREW HYMNS

Chapter IX
THE LITERARY FORM OF THE ASSYRIAN AND THE HEBREW HYMNS

The comparison of the Assyrian and the Hebrew hymns ought naturally to begin with the consideration of their literary form. This brings us to the first and most obvious distinctive mark of poetry in both literatures, the relatively uniform length of the lines in each poem. Wherever a line lengthens out unduly it is clear that there is a lapse into prose. A second phenomenon that meets the eye frequently in the Assyrian poems and even more often in the Hebrew psalms, is the falling of the line into two divisions:

He who accepts no bribe, who takes the side of the weak,

Is well pleasing to Shamash, prolongs his life.

—Hymn to Shamash No. 6.

Shining Fire God, who surveys the tops of the mountains

Mighty Fire God, illuminator of the darkness.

—Hymn to Nusku No. 1.

Who leadest the rivers in the midst of the mountains,

Who openest the springs in the midst of the hills.

—Hymn to Marduk No. 2.

What is man, that thou should’st remember him?

Even the son of man, that thou should’st care for him?

—Psalm 8:5.

The law of Yahwe is perfect, converting the soul:

The testimony of Yahwe is sure, making wise the simple;

The statutes of Yahwe are right, rejoicing the heart.

—Psalm 19:8.

Mouths to them, but they speak not;

Eyes to them, but they see not.

—Psalm 115:5.

Occasionally the lines in both Assyrian and Hebrew psalms fall into three divisions:

When thou ascendest, when thou ascendest, when thou ascendest

—Hymn to Sin No. 3.

In heaven thou art lofty, on earth thou art king, clever adviser of the gods.

—Hymn to Marduk No. 1.

Father Ramman, Lord that rideth the storm, is thy name exalted God.

—Hymn to Ramman No. 3.

Yahwe our Lord, how glorious thy name, in all the earth!

—Psalm 8:2.

God will bless us, and shall fear him all the ends of the earth.

—Psalm 67:8.

Who is this king of glory? Yahwe strong and mighty, Yahwe mighty in battle.

—Psalm 24:8.

However the most conspicuous feature of both Assyrian and Hebrew poetry is the occurrence of two parallel lines in the distich or couplet. Parallelism may also occur between the parts of the line, and hence it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between the two half lines and the couplet, and between the line of three divisions and the tristich. In the Assyrian hymns, as in the Hebrew hymns, the most common form of parallelism is the synonymous, the second line practically repeating the thought of the first line:

Thou treadest in the high heavens, lofty is thy place:

Thou art great in the lower world, there is none like thee.

—Hymn to Nergal No. 1.

The living creatures, all of them thou shepherdest;

Thou art the protector of those, which are above and below.

—Hymn to Shamash No. 7.

More to be desired than gold, than much fine gold,

And sweeter than honey, yea than honey from the comb.

—Psalm 19:11.

Yahwe has made known his salvation, before the nations he has revealed his righteousness

He has remembered his mercy to Jacob, and his loyalty to the house of Israel.

—Psalm 98:2.

Very common in the Assyrian hymns, but not so frequent in the Hebrew hymns is tautological parallelism, where the second line repeats the thought of the first line in almost the same words. The frequency of this form in the Assyrian hymns is most certainly in part due to the magical potency attached to the repetition of significant lines.

O Lord, who is like thee, who can be compared to thee?

Mighty one, who is like thee, who can be compared to thee?

—Hymn to Sin No. 3.

When thou callest inside, the people within thou killest;

When thou callest outside, the people outside thou killest.

—Hymn to Nergal No. 7.

Sing praises to God, sing praises:

Sing praises unto our king, sing praises.

—Psalm 47:7.

Let peoples thank thee O God;

Let peoples all of them thank thee.

—Psalm 67:4.

The synthetical parallelism, in which the second line continues the thought of the first line is relatively common in both Assyrian and Hebrew hymns:

Bel, thy father, has granted thee,

That the law of all the gods thy hand should hold.

—Hymn to Ninib No. 1.

From all countries, so many as speak with the tongue,

Thou knowest their plans, their walk thou observest.

—Hymn to Shamash No. 6.

The mountains rose, the valleys fell

Unto the place, thou hadst appointed for them.

—Psalm 104:8.

Sing to Yahwe a new song, for wonders he hath done;

Hath helped him his right hand and his holy arm.

—Psalm 98:1.

It is one indication of the superior literary quality of the Hebrew hymns that antithetical parallelism, in which the thought of the second line is opposed to that of the first line, occurs quite frequently in the Hebrew hymns, and almost not at all in the Assyrian hymns:

I said, ye are gods, and sons of the Most High all of you;

But ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the demons.

—Psalm 82:6f.

The dead do not praise Yahwe, nor any who go down into silence,

But we will bless Yahwe from henceforth and forever.

—Psalm 115:171f.

Shamash honors the head of the just man;

Shamash rends the evil man like a thong.

—Hymn to Shamash No. 1.

Beyond the couplet, strophes of three, four, five, six, and more lines are common in the Assyrian hymns, even as in the Hebrew Psalter. Perhaps the fact that interests the Old Testament student most in the strophic arrangement is that the number of lines in the strophes in the same hymn is by no means always uniform. Accordingly if one may draw a conclusion from Assyrian usage for the Old Testament, the effort often so zealously made to restore by elimination of lines a uniform strophic arrangement, is a grievous error. Variety rather than uniformity was often the end sought.

Another characteristic feature of both Assyrian and Hebrew hymns is the occasional appearance of the refrain. This refrain does not however appear artistically at the end of the strophe, as in Psalm 99 where the refrain, “Holy is He,” is to be found at the end of verses 2, 5, 9, and probably ought to be inserted at the end of verse 7. Rather the refrain usually forms the second half of the individual lines for a succession of three, five, seven, ten, or more lines. The same hymn may employ a variety of refrains. The hymn to Ramman No. 3 has for the last two thirds of the first six lines:

—Mighty Bull and glorious is thy name exalted God—

Then for three lines it repeats only the last third of the refrain:

—is thy name exalted God—

returning to the full refrain however for the tenth line. Then lines 16 to 20 have for the last third of the line the refrain:

—thou storm with elevated vision—

while lines 21 to 25 have for the last third of the line the refrain:

—who can stand with thee?—

In general this use of the refrain in the Assyrian hymns would seem to correspond to what we have in Psalm 115:9-11:

O Israel, trust in Yahwe; their help and their shield is He.

O house of Aaron, trust in Yahwe; their help and their shield is He.

Ye fearers of Yahwe, trust in Yahwe; their help and their shield is He.

In a number of instances the refrain of the Assyrian hymn occurs in the first third or half of the line, and the occurrence of the double refrain is also frequent:

She who in the days of long ago in the earth was magnified am I;

Ishtar who in the earth is magnified am I.

—Hymn to Ishtar No. 5.

No such skill in the use of the double refrain is shown, however, as in Psalm 107.

Yet another feature common to Assyrian and Hebrew hymn is the prominence of the rhetorical question:

O Lord who is like thee, who can be compared to thee?

Mighty One who is like thee, who can be compared to thee?

—Hymn to Sin No. 3.

Who is equal to me, me?

Who is comparable to me, me?

—Hymn to Ishtar No. 4.

Who is like Yahwe our God, in heaven or on earth

Who has placed his throne on high, who stoops to regard the earth?

—Psalm 113:5f.

How many are thy works, O Yahwe? all of them in wisdom thou hast made.

—Psalm 104:24.

It has already been pointed out in a previous chapter, that the use of the refrain in the Assyrian hymns, as in the case of the Hebrew hymns, indicates antiphonal responses between priest and choir, and choir and choir. Likewise the hymns of both literatures have been seen to take on more decided liturgical character with the introduction of the divine pronouncement through the priest as in the Litany to Asshur and the second Psalm. Both literatures have the sanctuary hymn, and the processional and the recessional hymn. The most significant difference between the Assyrian hymn and the Hebrew hymn would seem to be that the former is usually addressed in the second person to deity, and is accordingly of the nature of prayer, while the Hebrew hymn is the response to the summons to praise deity, is expressed in the third person, and is more genuinely hymnal in character.

Chapter X
THE SUPREME GOD AMONG THE GODS

Having compared the Assyrian and Hebrew hymns, with reference to their external form, and the circumstances under which they were sung, it is now proper to examine more closely the actual contents of the hymns. The subject of all genuine hymns is God. It is an argument for the common nature of the Assyrian and Hebrew hymns that practically all the hymnal phrases can be classified under the following heads:

1. The supreme God among the gods.

2. The glory of His name.

3. The supreme God a heaven’s god.

4. The supreme God in his sanctuary.

5. The supreme God as creator.

6. The supreme God as God of nature.

7. The supreme God as wise.

8. The supreme God as powerful.

9. The supreme God as merciful.

10. The supreme God as king.

11. The supreme God as judge.

This classification enables us to study at one and the same time the phraseology and the content of the Assyrian and Hebrew hymns. It may be said at the outset, that there are practically no specific cases where literary dependence can be demonstrated, but, what is more important, there is a very striking similarity of phraseology, implying similar religious ideas. This phraseology of the Assyrian hymns has its value for the interpretation of the Hebrew hymns, and their content, and a like value for the study of the Hebrew religion.

In comparing the phraseology of the Assyrian and the Hebrew hymns, the most obvious difference is that the Assyrian hymns are addressed to many different deities, each with its own proper name, Shamash, Sin, Marduk, Ninib, and many others. The existence of the other gods is implied in some Hebrew hymns, but the Hebrew hymnist never concedes to them an individual independent existence, much less a name. Furthermore, one meets everywhere in the Assyrian hymns the distinction of sex. There are husbands and wives, sons and daughters, among the gods:

Strong, lofty one, highest of the goddesses;

O Damkina, Queen of all the gods,

Strong wife of Ea, valiant art thou.

—Hymn to Sarpanitum.

Am I not the daughter of Bel?

—Hymn to Belit.

O strong son. First born of Bel;

Great perfect offspring of Isara.

—Hymn to Ninib No. 1.

O lord, first born of Marduk,

O ruler, lofty offspring of Sarpanitum.

—Hymn to Nebo No. 1.

The father who begot thee Ea thou excellest.

—Hymn to Marduk No. 3.

Sister of Shamash, Ornament of heaven

—Hymn to Ishtar No. 5.

Sin, bright brilliant god, Ninnar, first born of Ekur, son of Bel.

—Hymn to Sin No. 2.

First born of Ea.

—Hymn to Marduk No. 1.

Lord, mighty and exalted, first born of Nunnammir,

Offspring of Kutushar the mighty queen.

—Hymn to Nergal No. 1.

One would expect that the god to whom the hymn is addressed would be regarded as the supreme God, but in some hymns his subordinate relationship to other gods is recognized:

Shamash, the support of Anu and Bel art thou.

—Hymn to Shamash No. 1.

He whom Anu in his lofty power hath chosen I am.

—Hymn to Ninib No. 3.

Mighty art thou among the gods, Ea has made thee splendid;

(Through the proclamation) of the oracle has Bel made thee great.

O Nebo, bearer of the tables of destiny of the gods,

Messenger of Anu, who brings Bel’s commands to fulfillment.

—Hymn to Nusku No. 3.

The Assyrian refers altogether naturally to his deity as a god among gods, and frequently ascribes to him only a relative degree of strength and power:

A mighty one among the gods art thou.

—Hymn to Sin No. 4.

O Marduk, powerful one of the gods.

—Hymn to Marduk No. 2.

Great one, ruler of the gods, Marduk mighty one.

—Hymn to Marduk No. 3.

Thou art great among the gods, mighty is thy command.

—Hymn to Damkina.

It is only when the Assyrian hymn applies to its deity the superlative degree, that it touches common ground with the Hebrew hymn. For both Assyrian and Hebrew worshippers praise their deity as the incomparable god. Such passages from Assyrian hymns are:

O mighty God, to whom there is no rival in the assembly of the great gods.

—Hymn to Marduk No. 5.

Marduk, among all gods thou excellest.

—Hymn to Marduk No. 6.

(Prince) of heaven and earth who hath not his equal.

—Hymn to Marduk No. 7.

Bel to whom in his strength there is no opponent.

—Hymn to Marduk No. 12.

Among the goddesses is none like unto her.

—Hymn to Sarpanitum.

King of kings, exalted one, whose decrees none can oppose,

No god is like unto thy divinity.

—Hymn to Sin No. 5.

And some Hebrew hymns recognize the existence of the gods in asserting the absolute superiority of Yahwe:

For I know that Yahwe is great,

Even our Lord than all gods.

—Psalm 135:5.

For a great God is Yahwe,

And a great King over all gods.

—Psalm 95:3.

For great is Yahwe, and to be praised exceedingly;

Terrible is He above all gods.

—Psalm 96:4.

Also the existence of many gods is implied in the rhetorical questions common to the Assyrian and Hebrew hymns. Assyrian:

O lord who is like thee, who can be compared to thee;

Mighty one, who is like thee, who can be compared to thee;

Lord Nannar who is like thee, who can be compared to thee?

—Hymn to Sin No. 5.

Identical in form is the question addressed to Nergal:

O lord who is like thee, who can be compared to thee;

Most mighty one, who is like unto thee, who can be compared to thee;

Nergal who is like thee, who can be compared to thee?

—Hymn to Nergal No. 6.

Ishtar herself asks the question:

Who is equal to me, me;

Who is comparable to me, me?

—Hymn to Ishtar No. 4.

The question is followed by the answer in the following examples:

Who is exalted in heaven, Thou alone art exalted;

Who is exalted on earth, Thou alone art exalted.

—Hymn to Sin No. 5.

What god in heaven or earth can be compared to thee,

Thou art high over all of them

Among the gods superior is thy counsel.

—Hymn to Marduk No. 3.

Biblical examples of such rhetorical questions are:

For who in the skies can be compared unto Yahwe,

Who is like Yahwe among the gods?

—Psalm 89:7.

Yahwe god of hosts who is like thee?

Strong art thou Yahwe and thy faithfulness is round about thee.

—Psalm 89:9.

Who is like Yahwe our God, in heaven or in earth,

Who sittest on high, who peereth into the depths?

—Psalm 113:5f.

Moreover there is, for Assyrian, as for Hebrew, the council of the gods, in which one god is the supreme judge.

O mighty god to whom there is no rival in the assembly of the great gods.

—Hymn to Marduk No. 3.

Then come the great gods for trial before thee.

—Hymn to Shamash No. 3.

Yahwe takes his stand in the council of gods:

In the midst of gods he judgeth.

—Psalm 82:1.

A God very terrible in the council of the holy ones,

And to be feared above all them that are round about Him.

—Psalm 89:8.

Furthermore, both in Assyrian and Biblical hymns, the gods themselves do homage to the highest god:

O Sin, at thy appearance the gods assemble;

Kings, all of them, prostrate themselves.

—Hymn to Sin No. 3.

There bow before thee the Igigi, the Annunaki, the gods, the goddesses.

—Hymn to Marduk No. 1.

Worship him all ye gods.

—Psalm 97:7.

Ascribe unto Yahwe Ye sons of God,

Ascribe unto Yahwe Glory and strength.

—Psalm 29:1.

Yahwe, who is thus worshipped by the gods, can appropriately be called “God of gods and Lord of lords”:

O give thanks unto the God of gods.

—Psalm 136:2.

O give thanks unto the Lord of lords.

—Psalm 136:3.

The Assyrian hymn passes beyond the point where the deity is exalted above other gods:

Whose great glory through Bel the regent of heaven,

Is exceedingly high over all gods,

—Hymn to Marduk No. 1.

to the point where the god alone is exalted:

O lord chief of the gods, who alone is exalted on earth and in heaven;

Who is exalted in heaven, thou alone art exalted;

Who is exalted on earth, thou alone art exalted.

—Hymn to Sin No. 5.

Likewise the Hebrew hymn speaks of the exaltation of Yahwe and passes beyond the point where Yahwe is high above all gods.

For thou art high over all the earth,

Thou art gone up exceedingly above all gods.

—Psalm 97:9.

High over all nations is Yahwe;

Over the heavens his glory.

—Psalm 113:4.

to the point where Yahwe alone is exalted in the earth:

Be still and know that I am God:

I will be exalted in the earth;

I will be exalted among the nations.

—Psalm 46:11.

It was said above that certain Hebrew hymnal passages recognize the existence of other gods. It might have been pointed out there that one of those passages,

For great is Yahwe and to be praised exceedingly;

Terrible is he above all gods

—Psalm 96:4.

is followed by:

For all the gods of the peoples are idols;

But Yahwe made the heavens

—Psalm 96:5.

and Psalm 135:5:

For I know that Yahwe is great,

Even our Lord than all gods

is followed by 135:15:

The idols of the nations are silver and gold,

The work of men’s hands.

Yet this may not be an outright denial of the existence of all gods, nor an interesting example of the retention of phraseology which the religion had outgrown. The Israel of most of the hymns was very much a nation among the nations. With feeling, at once intensely national and intensely religious, Israel poured its contempt upon idolatry, and declared that the nations had no god. On earth Yahwe is the supreme God, and in heaven in the heavenly court he reigns supreme, and the gods who are there, serve him and enhance his glory.