The Assyrian and Hebrew Hymns of Praise

by Charles Gordon Cumming

—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.