That he is right in calling Canaan at the time of the Exodus “A domain of Babylonian culture” is indicated by the testimony of the Tel-el-Amarna tablets, and is fully shown in the present work, Chapters V.-VII. In the notes appended to the first lecture he refers to the fact that there existed, in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem, a town called Bît (or Beth) Ninip, after the Babylonian god—“even though there may not have been in Jerusalem itself a bît Ninip, a temple of the god Ninip.”
The Sabbath.
In the present work, the Sabbath is referred to on pl. [II.], where photographs of two fragments (duplicates) explaining the word are given. Prof. Delitzsch calls attention, in the notes to his first lecture, to this text, together with the British Museum syllabary 82-9-18, 4159, col. I., l. 24, where ud (weakened to û), [pg 527] meaning “day,” is explained by šabattum, “Sabbath,” as “the day” par excellence, and from other passages he reasons that the old rendering of the word as “day of rest,” ûm nûḫ libbi, “day of rest of the heart”—cf. pl. [II.]—is the correct one.
The following list of Sumerian and Babylonian days of the month will serve to show exactly how the matter stands:—
| Sumerian. | Semitic Babylonian. | Translation. |
| U | ûmu | day. |
| U-maš-am | [mišil] ûmu | half a day. |
| U-gi-kam | [ûmu] kal | first day (Sum.), the whole day (Sem.). |
| U-mina-kam | ši-na [ûmu] | second day. |
| U-eši-kam | šela[štu ûmu] | third day. |
| U-lama-kam | irbit | fourth (day). |
| U-ia-kam | ḫamil[tu] | fifth (day). |
| U-âša-kam | šeš[šitu] | sixth (day). |
| U-imina-kam | sib[itu] | seventh (day). |
| U-ussa-kam | saman[atu] | eighth (day). |
| U-ilima-kam | tilti do. | ninth day. |
| U-ḫu-kam | êširti do. | tenth day. |
| U-ḫuia-kam | šapatti | fifteenth day (Sum.), Sabbath (Sem.). |
| U-mana-gi-lal-kam | ibbû | twentieth day less 1 (Sum.), the wrathful (Sem.). |
| U-mana-kam | êšrû | twentieth day. |
| U-mana-ia-kam | ârḫu bat[tu] | twenty-fifth day (Sum.), festival month (Sem.). |
| U-eša-kam | šelašâ | thirtieth day. |
| U-na-am | bubbulum | rest-day (Sum.), (day of) desire (Sem.). |
| U-ḫul-gala | u-ḫulgallum | evil day. |
| U-ḫul-gala | ûmu lim[nu] | evil day. |
| U-šu-tua | ûmu rimku | libation-day. |
| U-elene | ûmu têliltum | purification-day. |
From the above it will be seen, that the šapattum or Sabbath was the 15th day of the month, and that only. That it was a day of rest, is shown by the etymology, the word being derived from the Sumerian ša-bat, “heart-rest,” which probably has, therefore, no connection with the Semitic root šabātu, which, as far as at present known, is a synonym of gamāru, “to complete.” It was the day of rest of the heart, but being the 15th, it was also the day when the moon reached the full in the heart or middle of the month, and its name may, therefore, contain a [pg 528] play upon the two ideas which the word libbu contains. In accordance with the general rule, the consonants of words borrowed from the Sumerian were often sharpened when transferred to Semitic Babylonian, hence the form šapattum instead of šabattum, though the latter is also found.
The nearest approach to the Sabbath, in the Jewish sense, among the Babylonians, is the û-ḫulgala or ûmu limnu, “the evil day,” which, as we know from the Hemerologies, was the 7th, 14th, 21st, 28th, and 19th day of each month, the last so called because it was a week of weeks from the 1st day of the foregoing month. It is this, therefore, which contains the germ of the idea of the Jewish Sabbath, but it was not that Sabbath in the true sense of the term, for if the months had 30 days, the week following the 28th had 9 days instead of 7, and weeks of 8 and 9 days therefore probably occurred twelve times each year. The nature of this original of the Sabbath is shown by the Hemerologies, which describe how it was to be kept in the following words:—
(The Duties Of The 7th Day).
“The 7th day is a fast of Merodach and Zēr-panitum, a fortunate day, an evil day. The shepherd of the great peoples shall not eat flesh cooked by fire, salted (savoury) food, he shall not change the dress of his body, he shall not put on white, he shall not make an offering. The king shall not ride in his chariot, he shall not talk as ruler; a seer shall not do a thing in a secret place; a physician shall not lay his hand on a sick man;[299] (the day) is unsuitable for making a wish. The king shall set his oblation in the night before Merodach and Ištar, he shall make an offering, (and) his prayer[300] is acceptable with god.”
For the 14th, 21st, 28th, and 19th, the names of the deities differ, and on the last-named the shepherd of the great peoples is forbidden to eat “anything which the fire has touched.” Otherwise the directions are the same, and though generally described as a lucky or happy day, it was certainly an evil day for work, or for doing the things referred to. It is to be noted, however, that there is no direction that the day was to be observed by the common people.