11. The supreme God as judge.
This classification enables us to study at one and the same time the phraseology and the content of the Assyrian and Hebrew hymns. It may be said at the outset, that there are practically no specific cases where literary dependence can be demonstrated, but, what is more important, there is a very striking similarity of phraseology, implying similar religious ideas. This phraseology of the Assyrian hymns has its value for the interpretation of the Hebrew hymns, and their content, and a like value for the study of the Hebrew religion.
In comparing the phraseology of the Assyrian and the Hebrew hymns, the most obvious difference is that the Assyrian hymns are addressed to many different deities, each with its own proper name, Shamash, Sin, Marduk, Ninib, and many others. The existence of the other gods is implied in some Hebrew hymns, but the Hebrew hymnist never concedes to them an individual independent existence, much less a name. Furthermore, one meets everywhere in the Assyrian hymns the distinction of sex. There are husbands and wives, sons and daughters, among the gods:
Strong, lofty one, highest of the goddesses;
O Damkina, Queen of all the gods,
Strong wife of Ea, valiant art thou.
—Hymn to Sarpanitum.
Am I not the daughter of Bel?
—Hymn to Belit.
O strong son. First born of Bel;