Yet the last lines of this same hymn are particularly suitable to a prayer of lamentation and petition:
Where thou dost regard, the dead live, the sick arise;
The afflicted is saved from his affliction, beholding thy face
and this same hymn to Ishtar opens with the words:
I pray unto thee, lady of ladies, goddess of goddesses,
Furthermore, in the hymnal portion is imbedded a lament of four lines, with the refrain:
How long wilt thou tarry?
Therefore this psalm, although containing hymnal material of exceptional beauty, is a single composition, a prayer with a hymnal introduction. On the other hand, Marduk No. 4 has sixteen lines extolling the exploits of the war god, when the text breaks off. The breaking of the text makes a decision difficult, but as there is no indication in any of the ascriptions of praise that a prayer is to follow, one would be inclined to pronounce it a fragment of a hymn rather than of a prayer.
Marduk No. 1 is actually followed by a prayer of an individual, but since the hymnal portion consists of thirty-eight lines describing in large measure mythical feats of the god, one is almost justified in regarding this hymnal portion as an independent hymn.
On the border line between prayer and hymn is Sarpanitum No. 1. The petition is a very general one, asking favor for the worshipper, the king and the sons of Babylon: