Unchangeable shall be whatever I do,
Irrevocable and irresistible, be the command of my lips.
The declaration foreshadows the result.
The third tablet is taken up with the preliminaries for the great contest, and is interesting chiefly because of the insight it affords us into Babylonian methods of literary composition. Anshar sends Gaga[717] to the hostile camp with the formal announcement of Marduk's readiness to take up the cause of the gods. Gaga does not face Tiâmat directly, but leaves the message with Lakhmu and Lakhamu:
Go Gaga, messenger (?) joy of my liver,
To Lakhmu and Lakhamu I will send thee.
The message proper begins as follows:
Anshar your son has sent me,
The desire of his heart he has entrusted to me.
Tiâmat, our mother is full of hate towards us,