Part 16 (1/2)

121. ”[We] will look unto the King of all the heaven and the earth at night when the place of all the G.o.ds is darkness (literally sadness).

122. ”He hath a.s.signed our dwelling in heaven and in earth in the time of trouble,

123. ”He hath allotted stations to the Igigi and the Anunnaki.

124. ”The G.o.ds themselves are magnified by his name; may he direct their sanctuaries.

125. ”ASAR-LU-DUG, is his name by which his father Anu hath named him.

126. ”Verily, he is the light of the G.o.ds, the mighty ...

127. ”Who ... all the parts of heaven and of the land

128. ”By a mighty combat he saved our dwelling in the time of trouble.

129. ”ASAR-LU-DUG, the G.o.d who made him (i.e. man) to live, did the G.o.d ... call him in the second place

130. ”[And] the G.o.ds who had been formed, whom he fas.h.i.+oned as though [they were] his offspring.

131. ”He is the Lord who hath made all the G.o.ds to live by his holy mouth.”

[Lines 132-139 are too fragmentary to translate, but it is clear from the text that remains that Lakhmu, and Lakhamu, and Anshar all proclaimed the names of Marduk. When the text again becomes connected Marduk has just been addressing the G.o.ds.]

140. In Up-shukkinaku[1] he appointed their council for them.

[Footnote 1: From this text it seems clear that Up-shukkinaku was the name of a chamber in the temple of E-Sagila. This name probably means the ”chamber of the shakkanaku,” i.e., the chamber in which the governor of the city (_shakkanaku_) went annually to embrace the hands of the G.o.d Bel-Marduk, from whom he thereby received the right of sovereignty over the country.]

141. [They said]:--”Of [our] son, the Hero, our Avenger,

142. ”We will exalt the name by our speech.”

143. They sat down and in their a.s.sembly they proclaimed his rank.

144. Every one of them p.r.o.nounced his name in the sanctuary.

SEVENTH TABLET.

1. O ASARI,--giver of plantations, appointer of sowing time,

2. Who dost make grain and fibrous plants, who makest garden herbs to spring up.

3. O ASARU-ALIM--who art weighty in the council-chamber, who art fertile in counsel,

4. To whom the G.o.ds pay wors.h.i.+p (?) reverent ...

5. O ASARU-ALIM-NUNA--the adored light of the Father who begat him,

6. Who makest straight the direction of Anu, Bel, [and Ea].[1]

[Footnote 1: This line seems to imply that Marduk was regarded as the instructor of the ”old” G.o.ds; the allusion is, probably, to the ”ways”