CHAPTER XXIV
ILLUSTRATIONS OF PASSAGES IN THE PROPHETS
Uniqueness of the Prophetic Books. An Assyrian Prophetic Vision. Comparison with the Bible. The Egyptian Social Conscience. Tale of the Eloquent Peasant. Comparison with the Bible. An Ideal King; Extract from the Admonitions of Ipuwer. Comparison with Messianic Expectations. Sheol. Ishtar’s Descent to the Under-world. Comparison with Prophetic Passages. A Lamentation for Tammuz.
There is no other body of literature which closely corresponds to the books of the Hebrew prophets. The depth of their social passion and the power of their moral and religious insight form a unique combination. Nevertheless, texts which have come from Babylonia and Egypt do show that certain phases of prophetic thought were not without parallels elsewhere. At times they also illustrate for us thoughts and practices which the prophets abhorred. A few such texts are here translated.
1. A Prophetic Vision.
The following statement is taken from the annals of Ashurbanipal, King of Assyria, 668-626 B. C. It is the conclusion of a passage in which the king is relating his strenuous struggle with Tiuman, King of Elam. Ashurbanipal tells how he poured out a libation to Ishtar of Arbela and offered to her a long prayer against the Elamite king. The narrative then continues:[595]
In an hour of that night when I prayed to her, a seer lay down; he saw a prophetic dream. Ishtar caused him to see a vision of the night, and he announced it to me, saying: “Ishtar who dwells at Arbela entered, and on her right and left she was behung with quivers, she was holding a bow in her left hand, she brandished a heavy sword to make war. Thou wast sitting before her. She, like the mother who bore thee, was speaking to thee and talking to thee. Ishtar, the exalted one of the gods, was appointing thee a message: ‘Thou shalt expect to accomplish that[596] at the place which is situated before thee. I am coming.’ Thou wast answering her, saying: ‘Where thou goest I will go with thee, O lady of ladies.’ She repeated to thee, saying: ‘Thou ...... indeed dwellest in the place of Nebo. Eat food, drink wine, appoint rejoicing, exalt my divinity until I go and accomplish this undertaking ...... I will cause thee to accomplish the wish of thy heart. Thy face he shall not harm, thy feet he shall not resist; thy cry shall not come to nought.’ In the midst of battle she arms thee with the desolation of her goodness. She will protect thy whole body. Before her a fire is blown to capture thy foes.”
The night vision of this seer reminds one a little of Isaiah’s vision of Jehovah in the temple (Isa. 6) and of Zechariah’s vision of Joshua and Satan (Zech. 3:1). The Hebrew prophets as late as the time of Jeremiah often received their divine messages in dreams. (See Jer. 23:27.) Assyria had something of the same ideas as Israel as to the revelations of deity to a prophet, but she lacked Israel’s ethical deity.
2. The Egyptian Social Conscience.
A remarkable appreciation of the rights of the common people is revealed in an Egyptian story called the “Tale of the Eloquent Peasant,”—a story which has come down to us in copies made before 1800 B. C. It has been claimed that this tale indicates the existence of a social conscience in Egypt analogous to that of the Hebrew prophets. The principal part of the story is, accordingly, given here.