Plate II. Fragments of tablets (duplicates), giving the words for the different fasts, festivals, etc., of the Babylonians and Assyrians. Line 4 of the small piece, and 16 of the large one, have the words ûm nûh libbi, "day of rest of the heart," explained by sapattum (from the Sumerian sa-bat, "heart-rest"), generally regarded as the original of the Hebrew Sabbath. Sapattum, however, was the 15th day of the month. The nearest approaches to Sabbaths were the 7th, 14th, 21st, 28th, and 19th, which were called u-hul-gallu or ûmu limnu, "the evil day" (the 19th being a week of weeks, from the 1st day of the preceding month), because it was unlawful to do certain things on those days.
The fifth tablet of the Babylonian story of the Creation is a mere fragment, but is of considerable interest and importance. It describes, in poetical language, in the style with which the reader has now become fairly familiar, the creation and ordering, by Merodach, of the heavenly bodies, as the ancient Babylonians conceived them to have taken place. The text of the first few stanzas is as follows—
“He built firmly the stations of the great gods—
Stars their likeness—he set up the Lumaši,
He designated the year, he outlined the (heavenly) forms.
He set for the twelve months three stars each.
From the day when the year begins, ... for signs.
He founded the station of Nîbiru, to make known their limits,