Illumine him like a vessel of ——[426]
Like the copper of a polished tablet,[427] let him be bright.
Release him from the ban.
The same incantation occurs at the close of another hymn to Shamash, addressed to the sun upon his rising.[428] The colophon furnishes the opening line of the next tablet, which also begins with an address to Shamash. We have here a clear indication of a kind of Shamash ritual extending, perhaps, over a number of tablets, and to which, in all probability, the hymn just quoted also belongs.
The opening lines of the second hymn read:
O Shamash! out of the horizon of heaven thou issuest forth,
The bolt of the bright heavens thou openest,
The door of heaven thou dost open.
O Shamash! over the world dost thou raise thy head.
O Shamash! with the glory of heaven thou coverest the world.