From this point on the tablet is too broken for connected translation. Dr. Langdon calls this the lament of a Sumerian Job, but his woes, in so far as this fragment recounts them, are due to the conquest of his land by an enemy, and to famine due to a failure of the rivers to overflow. The parallelism to Tabu-utul-Bêl and to Job might be closer, if we had the whole tablet. As this tablet is in the script of the first dynasty of Babylon, it is evident that this kind of lamentation was as early as 2000 B. C.
CHAPTER XXI
PSALMS FROM BABYLONIA AND EGYPT
Character of Their Psalms. Babylonian Prayers to the Goddess Ishtar. Comparison with the Psalter. A Babylonian Hymn to the Moon-God. A Babylonian Hymn to Bel. An Egyptian Hymn to the Sun-God. Is the Hymn Monotheistic? An Egyptian Hymn in Praise of Aton. Comparison with the Psalter.
Both from Babylonia and from Egypt a large number of hymns and prayers have been recovered. Some of these are beautiful on account of their form of expression, the poetical nature of their thoughts, and the sense of sin which they reveal. Most of them are clearly polytheistic, and it is rare that they rise in the expression of religious emotion to the simple sublimity of the Old Testament Psalms. Such likenesses to the Psalms as they possess only serve to set off in greater relief the rich religious heritage which we have in our Psalter.
A few examples only of the many known hymns are here given.
1. A Babylonian Prayer to the Goddess Ishtar.[562]
O fulfiller of the commands of Bel ..........
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Mother of the gods, fulfiller of the commands of Bel,
Thou bringer-forth of verdure, thou lady of mankind,—
5. Begetress of all, who makest all offspring thrive,
Mother Ishtar, whose might no god approaches,
Majestic lady, whose commands are powerful,
A request I will proffer, which—may it bring good to me!
O lady, from my childhood I have been exceedingly hemmed in by trouble!
10. Food I did not eat, I was bathed in tears!
Water I did not quaff, tears were my drink!
My heart is not glad, my soul is not cheerful;
....................... I do not walk like a man.
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