The Assyrian and Hebrew Hymns of Praise

by Charles Gordon Cumming

—Psalm 147:2f.

There are many phrases in the Assyrian hymns to express the compassion of the deity for the sick and his power to heal. Two forms of expression are particularly interesting. The sick man is spoken of as one who is bound, his cure as the loosing of a captive; and a person extremely sick is spoken of as already dead, so that his cure is equivalent to the bringing of the dead back to life:

[Marduk Son of] the abyss, whose holy formula bestows life;

[Marduk], great magician of the gods who maketh alive the dead;

Terrible storm, which driveth away the great demons;

Lord of magic, before whom devils and demons of sickness hide themselves;

[Lord], who drives out sickness, destroys the mountains;

Prince of the world regions, guardian of life;

Who maketh alive the dead, sole ruler of heaven and earth.

—Hymn to Marduk No. 17.