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.