The preceding hymn is made up of a description of the movements and changes of the moon, together with the expression of a superstition, which is still widely prevalent, that the moon’s changes control the rainfall. It is a fair example of a Babylonian nature-psalm. It lacks the inspired and inspiring power of such Hebrew nature-psalms as Psalms 8, 19, 146, 147, and 148.
5. A Babylonian Hymn to Bel.[565]
O lord of wisdom ................ ruler in thy own right,
O Bel, lord of wisdom .......... ruler in thy own right,
O father Bel, lord of the lands,
O father Bel, lord of truthful speech,
5. O father Bel, shepherd of the black-headed ones,[566]
O father Bel, who thyself openest the eyes,
O father Bel, the warrior, prince among soldiers,
O father Bel, supreme power of the land,
Bull of the corral, warrior who leadest captive all the land.
10. O Bel, proprietor of the broad land,
Lord of creation, thou art chief of the land,
The lord whose shining oil is food for an extensive offspring,
The lord whose edicts bind together the city,
The edict of whose dwelling place strikes down the great prince
15. From the land of the rising to the land of the setting sun.
O mountain, lord of life, thou art indeed lord!
O Bel of the lands, lord of life, thou thyself art lord of life.
O mighty one, terrible one of heaven, thou art guardian indeed!
O Bel, thou art lord of the gods indeed!
20. Thou art father, Bel, who causest the plants of the gardens to grow!
O Bel, thy great glory may they fear!
The birds of heaven and the fish of the deep are filled with fear [of thee].
O father Bel, in great strength thou goest, prince of life, shepherd of the stars!
O lord, the secret of production thou openest, the feast of fatness establishest, to work thou callest!
25. Father Bel, faithful prince, mighty prince, thou createst the strength of life!
A line at the end states that the hymn consisted of 25 lines.
It is a hymn to Bel of Nippur, whose Sumerian name was Enlil. It reveals an exalted conception of Bel as supreme ruler, as a god who gives life, as a god of justice whose rule holds society together, but it lacks both the poetical sublimity and the religious depth and fire of the Hebrew psalms.
6. An Egyptian Hymn to the Sun-god (about 1400 B. C.).[567]
Hail to thee, beautiful god of every day!
Rising in the morning without ceasing,
[Not] wearied in labor.
When thy rays are visible,
5. Gold is not considered,
It is not like thy brilliance.
Thou art a craftsman shaping thy own limbs;
Fashioner without being fashioned;
Unique in his qualities, traversing eternity;
10. Over ways with millions under his guidance.
Thy brilliance is like the brilliance of the sky,
Thy colors gleam more than the hues of it.
When thou sailest across the sky all men behold thee,
(Though) thy going is hidden from their sight.
15. When thou showest thyself at morning every day,
...... under thy majesty, though the day be brief,
Thou traversest a journey of leagues,
Even millions and hundred-thousands of time.
Every day is under thee.
20. When thy setting comes,
The hours of the night hearken to thee likewise.
When thou hast traversed it
There comes no ending to thy labors.
All men—they see by means of thee.
25. Nor do they finish when thy majesty sets,
For thou wakest to rise in the morning,
And thy radiance, it opens the eyes (again).
When thou settest in Manu,[568]
Then they sleep like the dead.
30. Hail to thee! O disc of day,
Creator of all and giver of their sustenance,
Great Falcon, brilliantly plumaged,
Brought forth to raise himself on high of himself,
Self-generator, without being born.
35. Firstborn Falcon in the midst of the sky,
To whom jubilation is made at the rising and the setting likewise.
Fashioner of the produce of the soil,
...............................................
Taking possession of the Two Lands (Egypt), from great to small—
40. A mother profitable to gods and men,
A craftsman of experience, ..........
Valiant herdsman who drives cattle,
Their refuge and the giver of their sustenance,
Who passes by, running the course of the sun-god,
45. Who determines his own birth,
Exalting his beauty in the body of Nut,
Illuminating the Two Lands (Egypt) with his disc,
The primordial being, who himself made himself;
Who beholds that which he has made,
50. Sole lord taking captive all lands every day,
As one beholding them that walk therein;
Shining in the sky a being as the sun.
He makes the seasons by the months,
Heat when he desires,
55. Cold when he desires.
He makes the limbs to languish
When he enfolds them,
Every land is in rejoicing
At his rising every day, in order to praise him.
This hymn is, so far as its expressions go, monotheistic. One would not dream from it that there was any god but the sun-god. Nevertheless, other gods were worshiped. The monotheism here expressed was not of the intolerant kind which prevailed in Israel, and which ultimately put down the worship of all rival deities.
Such an intolerant monotheism was introduced into Egypt by Amenophis IV (see Part I, [p. 29]), who took an old name for the sun disc, Aton, as the name of the one god, and who tried to suppress the worship of all other gods. The movement failed, but while it lasted it produced the following beautiful hymn.
7. An Egyptian Hymn in Praise of Aton.[569]