Thy weapon is a dragon from whose mouth no blood sprays.
But mere arrangement in couplets and close parallelisms seems insufficient to prove the presence of responses, for in a hymn to Nebo (Nebo No. 4) it is Nusku who speaks, though the couplet would suggest a response:
Lord, warlike art thou, perfect in understanding through thyself,
Ninib, warlike art thou, perfect in understanding through thyself.
Likewise the priest, we are informed, speaks in the following couplet:
Bel, to whom in his strength there is no equal,
Bel, gracious king, lord of the lands.
(Marduk No. 12.)
So also the hymnal introduction of the two following couplets is to the prayer of an individual:
Thou treadest in the high heavens, lofty is thy place;