The Supreme God as Powerful
The wise God is also the powerful God. The Assyrian deities, as well as Yahwe, are preëminently war gods. This fact is established by the astonishingly large number of references to their war activities. I will first cite examples to establish the fact that they are warriors:
O Shamash, warrior hero, be praised.
—Hymn to Shamash No. 4.
Destroyer of the enemy who in the midst of combat, amid the clash of weapons and confusion of battle, art fearless.
—Hymn to Marduk No. 1.
Mighty in battle whose attack is powerful.
—Hymn to Nusku No. 3.
Beside my father in battle I take my place;
Beside Bel in combat and battle I stand.
—Hymn to Ishtar No. 4.
Lord great warrior, endued with strength,
Inhabiting Imila casting down the foe.
—Hymn to Bel No. 2.
Am I not supreme I am the warrior.
—Hymn to Belit.
The warrior who at the decision of Ea into the terrible battle goes am I.
—Hymn to Ninib No. 3.
Warrior raging flood, destroyer of the hostile land.
—Hymn to Nergal No. 4.
There are very many references to Yahwe as warrior. His warlike titles are given in Psalm 24:
Yahwe, strong and mighty,
Yahwe, mighty in battle.
—Psalm 24:8.
Yahwe of hosts,
He is the king of glory.
—Psalm 24:10.
The Assyrian deity may be the commander of an army:
Terrible one to plunder the enemy’s land he assembles his army,
Ninib mighty god, warrior, prince of the Annunaki, commander of the Igigi
—Hymn to Ninib No. 21.
Yahwe also has his army:
The chariots of God are myriads
Against his enemies.
—Psalm 68:18.
Yahwe’s momentous title is:
Yahwe of hosts.
—Psalm 24:10.
Due homage is paid to the strength and prowess of the deity:
Before his might, the gods in his city humbly prostrate themselves.
—Hymn to Ninib No. 5.
Bel, filled with power,
With terrible brilliancy adorned, destructive storm, furnished with frightfulness.
—Hymn to Bel No. 1.
First-born of Ea, who in heaven and upon earth art overpowering
—Hymn to Marduk No. 7.
I will praise his power, reverence his strength.
—Hymn to Marduk No. 4.
Of tremendous power, whose blow is visible, crouches an evil demon at his side.
—Hymn to Nergal No. 5.
Powerful one
Most mighty one.
—Hymn to Nergal No. 6.
Likewise Yahwe is, to repeat again the words of Psalm 24:
Yahwe strong and mighty
Yahwe might in battle.
Ascribe ye strength unto God;
His excellency is over Israel,
And his strength is in the skies.
Terrible art thou, O God from the sanctuary.
—Psalm 68:35.
Yahwe’s strength is in his arm:
Hath wrought salvation for him his right hand
And his holy arm.
—Psalm 98:1.
To thee is an arm with strength;
Strong is thy hand, and high thy right hand.
—Psalm 89:14.
The attack of the war god is as the onrush of a terrible electric storm:
In the face of the battle when I take my place,
A storm whose power is exalted am I.
—Hymn to Ishtar No. 4.
Ninib, thy terrible shadow stretches over the land.
—Hymn to Ninib No. 4.
In the storm wind his weapons blaze forth.
—Hymn to Marduk No. 5.
A thundering storm over the world regions breaking,
A raging storm laying waste heaven and earth.
—Hymn to Ishtar No. 3.
Heaven and earth are shaken. The mountains are ablaze with flame. The ocean depths are stirred up:
The heavens I cause to quake, the earth to shake that is my glory.
—Hymn to Ishtar No. 5.
At whose battle heaven quakes.
—Hymn to Marduk No. 5.
Before the Lord tremble, O earth,
Before the God of Jacob.
—Psalm 114:7.
The earth shook, also the heavens dropped rain before God.
—Psalm 68:9.
With his flame steep mountains are destroyed.
—Hymn to Marduk No. 5.
The mountains I overwhelm altogether.
—Hymn to Ishtar No. 5.
The weapon which destroys the high mountains chosen for royal lordship am I.
—Hymn to Ninib No. 3.
The mountains skipped like rams,
The hills like lambs.
—Psalm 114:3.
Who looketh on the earth and it trembleth;
He toucheth the mountains and they smoke.
—Psalm 104:32.
His lightnings lightened the earth;
The earth saw, and trembled;
The mountains melted like wax before Yahwe,
Before the Lord of all the earth.
—Psalm 97:4f.
The sea also is affected by the attack of the war god:
At whose wrath the deep is troubled.
—Hymn to Marduk No. 5.
He overwhelmeth the expanse of the billowy ocean.
—Hymn to Marduk No. 5.
One can compare with this:
The sea saw and fled;
The Jordan turned backward.
—Psalm 114:3.
The attack of the war god is of course irresistible and his enemies suffer defeat. The great Marduk not even the gods can oppose:
At the point of whose weapon the gods turn back,
Whose furious attack no one ventures to oppose,
Storm flood, weapon against which no resistance is possible.
—Hymn to Marduk No. 14.
Who establishest defeat, who bringeth about victory,
King of the battle, wise one, powerful one, merciless,
Who destroyest all enemies.
—Hymn to Nergal No. 2.
Hero, whose snare casts down the foe.
—Hymn to Ninib No. 4.
Lance unresisting which destroys all enemies.
—Hymn to Ninib No. 2.
Similarly Yahwe is irresistible:
Terrible art thou, and who shall stand before thee,
Before the strength of thy anger?
—Psalm 76:8.
Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered,
And let those who hate him flee before him.
—Psalm 68:2.
For Yahwe most high is terrible,
A great king over all the earth.
He will trample nations beneath us,
And peoples beneath our feet.
—Psalm 47:3f.
I would soon subdue their enemies
And turn my hand against their adversaries.
—Psalm 81:15.
In the hymns a good deal of attention is paid to the weapon of the god. It may be a “bow”:
Before his terrible bow the heavens stand fast.
—Hymn to Marduk No. 4.
And this may mean that on the production of his terrible weapon, the enemy surrenders and the storm ceases, just as when Yahwe hangs up his bow after the conflict of the thunderstorm, one knows that the rain is over, and that there will be no flood. Or the weapon may be a lance:
Lance unresting which destroys all enemies
—Hymn to Ninib No. 2.
or more terrible still a dragon:
Thy weapon is a dragon, from whose mouth no poison flows;
The weapon is a dragon, from whose mouth no blood springs.
—Hymn to Nebo No. 2.
Yahwe certainly wields an effective weapon:
But God will smite through the head of his enemies
The hairy head of such a one as goeth on in his wickedness.
—Psalm 68:22.
Thou hast broken Rahab in pieces as one that is slain;
Thou hast scattered thy enemies with the arm of thy strength.
—Psalm 89:11.
Both Assyrian and Hebrew war god use fire as a weapon:
Nusku who burns up and overpowers the foe.
—Hymn to Nusku No. 3.
A fire goeth before him and burneth his enemies round about.
—Psalm 97:3.
The Assyrian hymns emphasize the impossibility of escape from the sight and power of the god:
Thy glance who avoids it,
Thy attack who escapes it?
—Hymn to Sin No. 4.
Thou gazest upon all inhabited places;
The evil doer thou destroyest quickly.
—Hymn to Marduk No. 3.
Bel who through his glance casts down the mighty
Bel, with thine eyes thou seest everything;
Over the wide heavens goes out thy mind.
—Hymn to Marduk No. 12.
When thou liftest up thine eyes, who can escape?
—Hymn to Nergal No. 6.
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?
—Hymn to Belit.
There is an incomparably finer conception of god’s omnipresence and omniscience in Psalm 139:7-12:
Whither shall I go from thy Spirit?
Or whither shall I flee from thy presence?
If I ascend up unto heaven thou art there;
If I make my bed in Sheol behold thou art there;
If I take the wings of the morning,
And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
Even there shall thy hand lead me,
And thy right hand hold me.
If I say: Surely the darkness shall overwhelm me,
And the light about me shall be night,
Even the darkness hideth not from thee,
But the night shineth as the day.
The darkness and the light are both alike to thee.