[468] Compare the relationship existing between Ea and Marduk, noted above, p. [276]. Similarly, Nusku was the messenger to Bel. See p. [279].
[469] On the wider aspects of this conception of the priest among ancient nations, see Frazer, The Golden Bough, passim.
[470] Zimmern, no. 1; IVR. 29, no. 5.
[471] Lit., 'accepts.'
[472] In the original appears a phrase which signifies literally 'when at last,'—an abbreviation for 'when will there be rest,' and which has become a kind of technical phrase to indicate, again, the hoped-for pacification of the deity.
[473] The colophon to one of them (IVR. 10, Reverse 52) declares that the production in question is a "penitential psalm for any god whatsoever."
[474] IVR. 10. Zimmern, no. 4.
[475] I.e., be pacified.
[476] I.e., 'whoever he may be,' as we would say.
[477] Among many nations fasting is resorted to as a means of atonement. It must have been common among the Hebrews during the period of the Babylonian exile—perhaps through Babylonian influence. See Isaiah, lviii. 3.