The Supreme God as Merciful
The wise and powerful God is also the merciful one, for mercy is an attribute of the Assyrian deities as of Yahwe:
Lord of all creatures, merciful unto the lands art thou,
—Hymn to Shamash No. 1.
Merciful one among the gods.
—Hymn to Marduk No. 7.
[Marduk] the merciful, whose turning [i.e. mercy] is near.
—Hymn to Marduk No. 4.
Merciful and gracious is Yahwe;
Slow to anger and plenteous in mercy.
—Psalm 103:8.
Gracious and merciful is Yahwe,
Slow to anger and great in mercy,
Good is Yahwe to all,
And his mercy is over all his works.
—Psalm 145:8f.
But thou, Lord art a god, merciful and gracious,
Slow to anger and plenteous in mercy and truth.
—Psalm 86:15.
The divine mercy is extended to the unfortunate, the oppressed the weak and the aged, the bowed down and the fallen, the obedient and those who fear the deity:
He has established the god-fearers, to the oppressed he has brought deliverance;
He has granted favors to the obedient, brought salvation to the just.
—Hymn to Marduk No. 2.
The fallen one thou seizest and raisest up,
A judgment of right and justice thou judgest.
—Hymn to Sin No. 4.
Yahwe executeth righteous acts,
And judgments for all oppressed.
—Psalm 103:6.
Who keepeth truth for ever,
Who executeth judgment for the oppressed.
—Psalm 146:6.
Thou liftest up the weak, thou increasest the small;
Thou raisest up the powerless, thou protectest the weak.
Marduk, unto the fallen thou grantest mercy;
Stands under thy protection the weakling ... thou commandest his raising up.
—Hymn to Marduk No. 12.
Merciful god, who raisest up the lowly,
Who protectest the weak.
—Hymn to Shamash No. 5.
Him who is bowed down I lift up;
The aged one I lift up.
—Hymn to Belit.
Yahwe upholdeth all who fall;
He raiseth up all who are bowed down.
—Psalm 145:14.
Assyrian usage supports the view that the poor and the needy of the psalms, and the barren woman of Psalm 113 are not to be interpreted as the Jewish nation, but as individuals. Yahwe, says the Psalmist, is the incomparable God, in that from his glorious seat in the heavens he bendeth low to help the needy upon the earth,
He raiseth from the dust the poor;
From the dunghill he lifteth up the needy,
To cause him to sit with princes,
Even with the princes of his people;
He maketh the barren woman to remain at home,
As a mother of children, joyous.
—Psalm 113:7ff.
The Hebrew hymn is, if anything more concrete than the Assyrian, in that it mentions not only the barren wife as above (one thinks of Sarah, Rachel, Hannah), but also the widow and the orphan and the sojourner, as special objects of the deity’s compassion.
Yahwe loveth the righteous:
Yahwe protecteth the sojourners;
The fatherless and the widow he upholdeth;
But the way of the wicked he perverteth.
—Psalm 146:9.
A father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widow,
Is God in his holy habitation.
—Psalm 68:6.
Yahwe’s mercy, as was that of the Assyrian deity, is extended in a special degree to those who keep his covenant and obey his commandments:
But the mercy of Yahwe is everlasting,
And his righteousness to children’s children,
To those who faithfully keep his covenant,
And remember his precepts to do them.
—Psalm 103:17-18.
Marvellously tender is the quality of that mercy extended to the exiles returning to Jerusalem:
Yahwe buildeth up Jerusalem:
The dispersed of Israel he gathers together:
He healeth the broken in heart,
And bindeth up their wounds.
—Psalm 147:2f.
There are many phrases in the Assyrian hymns to express the compassion of the deity for the sick and his power to heal. Two forms of expression are particularly interesting. The sick man is spoken of as one who is bound, his cure as the loosing of a captive; and a person extremely sick is spoken of as already dead, so that his cure is equivalent to the bringing of the dead back to life:
[Marduk Son of] the abyss, whose holy formula bestows life;
[Marduk], great magician of the gods who maketh alive the dead;
Terrible storm, which driveth away the great demons;
Lord of magic, before whom devils and demons of sickness hide themselves;
[Lord], who drives out sickness, destroys the mountains;
Prince of the world regions, guardian of life;
Who maketh alive the dead, sole ruler of heaven and earth.
—Hymn to Marduk No. 17.
Merciful one among the gods
Merciful one who loves the awakening of the dead.
—Hymn to Marduk No. 7.
Shamash, to give life to the dead, to loosen the captive is in thy hand.
—Hymn to Shamash No. 6.
Thou leadest him that is without a leader, the man that is in need:
Thou graspeth the hand of the weak;
Thou raisest up him that is bowed down;
The body of the man that has been brought to the lower world thou dost restore.
—Hymn to Ninib No. 1.
Shining lord, who doeth good to the land, who through his word
The evil sickness seized, to its place banished it;
Merciful one, giver of life, restorer of the dead to life,
Who supporteth truth and justice, who destroyeth the evil.
—Hymn to Ninib No. 2.
Although the Hebrews in sickness prayed unto Yahwe and were cured Psalms 86:13, 16; 31; 38, yet there are few ascriptions of praise to Yahwe as the healer of disease. This may be because the cure of sickness was apt to be so largely a matter of magic:
Yahwe looseth the bound:
Yahwe openeth the eyes of the blind;
Yahwe raiseth up them that are bowed down.
—Psalm 146:7f.
Who forgiveth all thine iniquities:
Who healeth all thy diseases;
Who satisfieth thy desire with good things,
So that thy youth is renewed like the eagle.
—Psalm 103:3, 5.
In both the Assyrian and Hebrew hymns there are a few references to the deity as preserving life:
Preserver of life, prince of Emachtila, renewer of life.
—Hymn to Marduk No. 13.
Darling of Ea, giver of life;
Prince of Babylon, protector of life.
—Hymn to Nebo No. 1.
Who holdeth our soul in life,
And suffereth not our feet to be moved.
—Psalm 66:9.
The next two passages refer to Yahwe’s protection in time of famine and war:
Behold, the eye of Yahwe is unto those who fear him,
To those who wait for his loving kindness,
To deliver from death their soul,
And to keep them alive in famine.
—Psalm 33:18f.
God is to us a god of deliverance,
And to Yahwe our lord belongeth escape from death.
—Psalm 68:21.
There are in the Assyrian hymns a number of examples of the god’s mercy in forgiving sin:
He who has sin, thou forgivest quickly the sin;
He against whom his god [guardian] is angry, thou turnest to him with favor.
—Hymn to Sin No. 4.
He who has sinned thou sparest.
—Hymn to Marduk No. 16.
For him who possesses sin the sin thou dost remove;
The man with whom his [guardian] god is angry thou art quick to favor.
Just as there were few references in the biblical hymns to Yahwe as healing sickness, so there are astonishingly few references to him as forgiving sin. In fact there are but two, and they are both found in an individual hymn:
Who forgiveth all thy iniquities,
Who healeth all thy diseases.
—Psalm 103:3.
As far as the East is from the West,
So far hath he removed our transgressions from us.
—Psalm 103:12.
The mercy of the God is sometimes attested by the titles which he bears. Both in the Assyrian and the biblical hymns, the deity is called Shepherd. In the Assyrian hymns, the god is shepherd not only of the Assyrians, but of all peoples and of all living things:
Father Enlil, shepherd of the dark headed people.
—Hymn to Enlil.
Shepherdess of all lands of the world,
Which are submissive to thee, which remember to worship thee.
—Hymn to Ishtar No. 3.
The people of the countries all of them thou protectest;
What Ea the king, the prince has created of all thou art protector,
Thou shepherdest all created life together.
—Hymn to Shamash No. 7.
Given thee has Bel thy father the blackheaded race, all living creatures;
The cattle of the field, the living creatures he has entrusted to thy hand.
—Hymn to Nergal No. 1.
Humanity, the black headed peoples,
The living souls as many as are in the land,
The four world regions entire,
The divine beings of all heaven and earth, as many as there are,
To thee is their attention turned:
Thou art their god, thou art their guardian god;
It is thou who grantest them life;
It is thou who preserveth them unhurt.
—Hymn to Sin No. 5.
The Hebrew God is Shepherd of Israel, his own peculiar people.
For He is our God, and we are
The people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand.
—Psalm 95:7.
Know that Yahwe, He is God:
He made us, and we are His,
His people, and the sheep of his pasture.
—Psalm 100:3.
The Assyrian deity is frequently addressed in the hymns as father. Probably it originally meant father of the gods in a physical sense. In some instances it may have meant no more than the supreme god:
Father Nannar, lord Anshar, chief of the gods.
—Hymn to Sin No. 5.
Father Enlil—lord of lands.
—Hymn to Enlil.
The title of Father is also assigned to the deity as creator of men and all living things:
Father, begetter of gods and men,
Who dost build dwellings and establishest offerings.
—Hymn to Sin No. 5.
Father, begetter of all things,
Who lookest upon all living things.
—Hymn to Sin No. 5.
With the same significance the deity is addressed in the following couplet:
Mother womb begetter of all things
Who has taken up his exalted habitation among living creatures.
—Hymn to Sin No. 5.
Religious meaning is put into the term in the following two examples:
O merciful gracious father,
Who hath taken into his care the life of the whole world.
—Hymn to Sin No. 5.
Thou art lord, as Father and mother [among men] art thou.
—Hymn to Marduk No. 9.
Yahwe is elsewhere in the Old Testament the father of the Hebrew nation (Hosea), and the father of the Messiah (Psalm 2), but in the hymns he is not actually called father, though his compassion is likened to that of a father for his children.
Like as a father pitieth his children,
So Yahwe pitieth those who fear him.
For He, indeed, knoweth our frame;
He remembereth that we are dust.
—Psalm 103:13f.
Chapter XIV
THE SUPREME GOD AS KING AND JUDGE
The final significance and supreme importance of deity for Assyrian and Hebrew hymnists is perhaps best summed up in the words: “King” and “Judge.” To be sure the person in sickness of any kind could and did have recourse to the god who had wisdom and power to work deliverance. But, even as the life of the Assyrian and Hebrew peoples revolved around the earthly king upon his throne, so they sought for authority and leadership, protection and prosperity, in a heavenly king, whose right it was to reign in heaven and on earth. It is not strange then that many Assyrian hymns do homage to the deity as, “King of heaven and earth”:
Shamash king of heaven and earth governor of things above and below.
—Hymn to Shamash No. 6.
Lord of the lands, king of heaven and earth, who heaps up abundance.
—Hymn to Marduk No. 3.
Marduk king of heaven and earth.
—Hymn to Marduk No. 6.
Marduk regent of heaven and earth.
—Hymn to Marduk No. 1.
He whose sovereignty glitters to the borders of heaven and earth am I.
—Hymn to Ninib No. 3.
Here may be placed the corresponding title of the goddess:
Queen of heaven above and below let it be spoken.
—Hymn to Ishtar No. 5.
There are three references to the throne:
Thou placest on the glittering heavens thy throne.
—Hymn to Sin No. 2.
When he sits upon the great throne of the holy chamber,
On the festal day when he takes his seat in joy, raising himself in brilliancy.
—Hymn to Ninib No. 4.
Amid shouts of joy as king ascendest thou.
—Hymn to Sin No. 3.
Twice the sceptre is referred to:
A sceptre for remote days has Bel finished for thy hand.
—Hymn to Sin No. 3.
Marduk holds in his hand the sceptre.
—Hymn to Marduk.
While the god’s throne is in heaven, it is his sovereignty over the earth which the hymnist has especially in mind:
In powerful sovereignty thou rulest the lands,
Thou placest on the glittering heavens thy throne.
—Hymn to Sin No. 2.
Bel, gracious king, lord of the lands.
—Hymn to Marduk No. 12.
Ninib, king, whose father made submissive to him distant lands.
—Hymn to Ninib No. 7.
The “king of heaven and earth” is at the same time:
King of Babylon, lord of Esagila,
King of Ezida, lord of Emachtila.
—Hymn to Marduk No. 6.
Kingship may be entrusted to the particular deity by the supreme god:
A sceptre for remote days has Bel furnished for thy hand.
—Hymn to Sin No. 3.
On the other hand, a certain measure of independence of the supreme god seems to be assigned in the same two hymns to the two deities:
Ninib King son of Bel, who of himself is exalted.
—Hymn to Ninib No. 7.
Thou placest on the glittering heavens thy throne.
—Hymn to Sin No. 2.
There are two statements related to the quality of the kingly rule:
Father Nannar, whose kingship is perfect.
—Hymn to Sin No. 5.
King of kings, exalted, whose decrees none rival.
—Hymn to Sin No. 5.
“King of kings” occurs only here in the Assyrian hymns. It is a title that would come naturally into use, where city kings were compelled to pay homage to royal founders of empires.
Turning to the biblical hymns, it is noteworthy that, while Yahwe is spoken of several times as the “Maker of heaven and earth,” he is no where called “King of heaven and earth.” This would be such an appropriate title for Yahwe that its absence tends to indicate that there was little verbal borrowing of Hebrew hymnists from the Assyrian. Reference is made however in the biblical hymns to Yahwe’s throne:
Yahwe hath established his throne in the heavens,
And his kingdom ruleth over all.
—Psalm 103:19.
which is quite similar to the following passage from Hymn to Sin No. 2:
In powerful sovereignty thou rulest the lands,
Thou placest on the glittering heavens thy throne.
In both cases the throne (1) is in the heavens, (2) is established by deity himself, (3) is the seat from which wide sovereignty is exerted over the earth.
God reigneth over the nations,
He sitteth upon his holy throne.
—Psalm 47:9.
One is tempted to translate this: “He sitteth upon the throne of his sanctuary,” which is parallel to the following passage from Hymn to Ninib No. 7:
When he sits upon the great throne of the holy chamber.
This translation is supported by Psalm 150:1: “Praise God in his sanctuary.” There are two references to the throne in the biblical hymns:
Established is thy throne of old.
—Psalm 93:2.
Righteousness and justice are the establishment of his throne.
—Psalm 97:2.
In both Assyrian and Hebrew hymns, the ascension to the throne is referred to as a joyous occasion:
Amid shouts of joy as king ascendest thou;
A sceptre for remote days has Bel furnished for thy hand.
—Hymn to Sin No. 7.
God is gone up with a shout,
Yahwe with the sound of a trumpet.
—Psalm 47:6.
There is no reference to the sceptre as in Yahwe’s hand, in the biblical hymns, although the sceptre is in the hands of the Messiah. (Psalm 2) As in the Assyrian hymns, emphasis is placed upon Yahwe’s sovereignty over the earth:
For Yahwe most high is terrible
A great king over all the earth.
—Psalm 47:3.
For God is the king of all the earth.
—Psalm 47:8.
God reigneth over the nations.
—Psalm 47:9.
Say among the nations, Yahwe is king.
—Psalm 96:10.
Yahwe is king; let the earth rejoice.
—Psalm 97:1.
Yahwe reigneth, let the people tremble;
He sitteth above the cherubims, let the earth be moved.
—Psalm 99:1.
There can be no question of Yahwe’s subordination to any other God or accepting sovereignty from any other deity:
For a great God is Yahwe and a great king over all gods.
—Psalm 95:3.
Sin has been given by Bel: “a sceptre for remote days,” but:
Yahwe will be king forever,
Thy God, O Zion, unto all generations.
—Psalm 146:10.
Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
And thy dominion endureth throughout all generations.
—Psalm 145:13.
Not only will Yahwe reign forever, but Yahwe has been reigning from the beginning:
Established is thy throne of old.
—Psalm 93:2.
Yahwe sat at the flood,
Yea Yahwe sitteth as king forever.
—Psalm 29:10.
It is perhaps important for Old Testament scholarship to bear in mind that the conception of the deity as king is so very old, and that it is present in the biblical hymns which can not be classed as eschatological. It is in Psalm 103 that one finds the words:
Yahwe in the heavens hath established his throne,
And his kingdom ruleth over all
and in Psalm 95 which can not be called eschatological, we have:
For a great God is Yahwe,
And a great king over all gods
—Psalm 95:3.
while in Psalm 48:3, Jerusalem is the: “City of the great king.” While therefore “Yahwe is King” is actually the opening line of several eschatological hymns, and while those hymns exult in the complete triumph of Yahwe yet it is only the completeness of the triumph that distinguishes in the matter of kingship the eschatological hymns from the others.