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