PSALMS FROM BABYLONIA AND EGYPT

Character of Their Psalms. Babylonian Prayers to the Goddess Ishtar. Comparison with the Psalter. A Babylonian Hymn to the Moon-God. A Babylonian Hymn to Bel. An Egyptian Hymn to the Sun-God. Is the Hymn Monotheistic? An Egyptian Hymn in Praise of Aton. Comparison with the Psalter.

Both from Babylonia and from Egypt a large number of hymns and prayers have been recovered. Some of these are beautiful on account of their form of expression, the poetical nature of their thoughts, and the sense of sin which they reveal. Most of them are clearly polytheistic, and it is rare that they rise in the expression of religious emotion to the simple sublimity of the Old Testament Psalms. Such likenesses to the Psalms as they possess only serve to set off in greater relief the rich religious heritage which we have in our Psalter.

A few examples only of the many known hymns are here given.

1. A Babylonian Prayer to the Goddess Ishtar.[562]

O fulfiller of the commands of Bel ..........
............................................
Mother of the gods, fulfiller of the commands of Bel,
Thou bringer-forth of verdure, thou lady of mankind,—
5. Begetress of all, who makest all offspring thrive,
Mother Ishtar, whose might no god approaches,
Majestic lady, whose commands are powerful,
A request I will proffer, which—may it bring good to me!
O lady, from my childhood I have been exceedingly hemmed in by trouble!
10. Food I did not eat, I was bathed in tears!
Water I did not quaff, tears were my drink!
My heart is not glad, my soul is not cheerful;
....................... I do not walk like a man.
.............................................

Reverse

..................... painfully I wail!
My sighs are many, my sickness is great!
O my lady, teach me what to do, appoint me a resting-place!
My sin forgive, lift up my countenance!
5. My god, who is lord of prayer,—may he present my prayer to thee!
My goddess, who is mistress of supplication,—may she present my prayer to thee!
God of the deluge, lord of Harsaga,—may he present my prayer to thee,—
The god of pity, the lord of the fields,—may he present my prayer to thee!
God of heaven and earth, the lord of Eridu,—may he present my prayer to thee!
10. The mother of the great water, the dwelling of Damkina,—may she present my prayer to thee!
Marduk, lord of Babylon,—may he present my prayer to thee!
His spouse, the exalted offspring (?) of heaven and earth,—may she present my prayer to thee!
The exalted servant, the god who announces the good name,—may he present my prayer to thee!
15. The bride, the firstborn of Ninib,—may she present my prayer to thee!
The lady who checks hostile speech,—may she present my prayer to thee!
The great, exalted one, my lady Nana,—may she present my prayer to thee!

2. A Babylonian Prayer to Ishtar.[563]

........................... He raises to thee a wail;
........................... He raises to thee a wail;
[On account of his face which] for tears is not raised, he raises to thee a wail;
On account of his feet on which fetters are laid, he raises to thee a wail;
5. On account of his hand, which is powerless through oppression, he raises to thee a wail;
On account of his breast, which wheezes like a bellows, he raises to thee a wail;
O lady, in sadness of heart I raise to thee my piteous cry, “How long?”
O lady, to thy servant—speak pardon to him, let thy heart be appeased!
To thy servant who suffers pain—favor grant him!
10. Turn thy gaze upon him, receive his entreaty!
To thy servant with whom thou art angry—be favorable unto him!
O lady, my hands are bound, I turn to thee!
For the sake of the exalted warrior, Shamash, thy beloved husband, take away my bonds!
15. Through a long life let me walk before thee!
My god brings before thee a lamentation; let thy heart be appeased!
My goddess utters to thee a prayer, let thy anger be quieted!
The exalted warrior, Anu, thy beloved spouse,—may he present my prayer to thee!
[Shamash], god of justice,—may he present my prayer to thee!
20. .......... the exalted servant,—may he present my prayer to thee!
.......... the mighty one of Ebarbar,—may he present my tears to thee!
[“Thine eye turn truly] to me,” may he say to thee!
[“Thy face turn truly to] me,” may he say to thee!
[“Let thy heart be at rest”], may he say to thee!
25. [“Let thy anger be pacified”], may he say to thee!
[Thy heart like the heart of a mother who has brought forth], may it rejoice!
[Like a father who has begotten a child], may it be glad!3. Comparison of These Prayers with the Psalter.

The writers of these lamentations, like the Hebrew Psalmist (see Psa. 17:1; 18:6), cried unto a deity for help. They were both in great distress, and naturally inferred that their deity was angry, as do Psalms 85:5; 90:7. There is, however, no great consciousness of sin in these Babylonian complaints. They simply express distress. Unlike the Biblical Psalms these are polytheistic and their authors call upon other deities to intercede for them with the goddess, to whom the prayer is addressed and whom, for the time being, they regard as supreme. The author of this last penitential psalm asks “How long?” as does Psa. 6:3; 74:10; 90:13. The idea seems to be that the suffering of the penitent will either atone for sin or touch the heart of the deity so that the suffering shall be abated.

4. A Babylonian Hymn to Sin, the Moon-god.[564]

O brilliant barque of the heavens, ruler in thy own right,
Father Nannar, lord of Ur,
Father Nannar, lord of Ekishshirgal,
Father Nannar, lord of the brilliant rising,
5. O lord, Nannar, firstborn son of Bel,
Thou standest, thou standest
Before thy father Bel. Thou art ruler,
Father Nannar; thou art ruler, thou art guide.
O barque, when standing in the midst of heaven, thou art ruler.
10. Father Nannar, thou thyself ridest to the brilliant temple.
Father Nannar, when, like a ship, thou goest in the midst of the deep,
Thou goest, thou goest, thou goest,
Thou goest, thou shinest anew, thou goest,
Thou shinest anew, thou livest again, thou goest.
15. Father Nannar, the herd thou restorest.
When thy father looketh on thee with joy, he commandeth thy waxing,
Then with the glory of a king brilliantly thou risest.
Bel a scepter for distant days for thy hands has completed.
In Ur as the brilliant barque thou ridest,
20. As the lord, Nudimmud, thou art established;
In Ur as the brilliant boat thou ridest.
...........................................

Reverse

...............................................
The river of Bel (?) [Nannar] fills with water.
The brilliant (?) river [Nannar] fills with water.
The river Tigris [Nannar] fills with water.
5. The brilliance of the Euphrates [Nannar] fills with water.
The canal with its gate Lukhe, [Nannar] fills with water.
The great marsh and the little marsh Nannar fills with water.The preceding hymn is made up of a description of the movements and changes of the moon, together with the expression of a superstition, which is still widely prevalent, that the moon’s changes control the rainfall. It is a fair example of a Babylonian nature-psalm. It lacks the inspired and inspiring power of such Hebrew nature-psalms as Psalms 8, 19, 146, 147, and 148.

5. A Babylonian Hymn to Bel.[565]

O lord of wisdom ................ ruler in thy own right,
O Bel, lord of wisdom .......... ruler in thy own right,
O father Bel, lord of the lands,
O father Bel, lord of truthful speech,
5. O father Bel, shepherd of the black-headed ones,[566]
O father Bel, who thyself openest the eyes,
O father Bel, the warrior, prince among soldiers,
O father Bel, supreme power of the land,
Bull of the corral, warrior who leadest captive all the land.
10. O Bel, proprietor of the broad land,
Lord of creation, thou art chief of the land,
The lord whose shining oil is food for an extensive offspring,
The lord whose edicts bind together the city,
The edict of whose dwelling place strikes down the great prince
15. From the land of the rising to the land of the setting sun.
O mountain, lord of life, thou art indeed lord!
O Bel of the lands, lord of life, thou thyself art lord of life.
O mighty one, terrible one of heaven, thou art guardian indeed!
O Bel, thou art lord of the gods indeed!
20. Thou art father, Bel, who causest the plants of the gardens to grow!
O Bel, thy great glory may they fear!
The birds of heaven and the fish of the deep are filled with fear [of thee].
O father Bel, in great strength thou goest, prince of life, shepherd of the stars!
O lord, the secret of production thou openest, the feast of fatness establishest, to work thou callest!
25. Father Bel, faithful prince, mighty prince, thou createst the strength of life!

A line at the end states that the hymn consisted of 25 lines.

It is a hymn to Bel of Nippur, whose Sumerian name was Enlil. It reveals an exalted conception of Bel as supreme ruler, as a god who gives life, as a god of justice whose rule holds society together, but it lacks both the poetical sublimity and the religious depth and fire of the Hebrew psalms.6. An Egyptian Hymn to the Sun-god (about 1400 B. C.).[567]

Hail to thee, beautiful god of every day!
Rising in the morning without ceasing,
[Not] wearied in labor.
When thy rays are visible,
5. Gold is not considered,
It is not like thy brilliance.
Thou art a craftsman shaping thy own limbs;
Fashioner without being fashioned;
Unique in his qualities, traversing eternity;
10. Over ways with millions under his guidance.
Thy brilliance is like the brilliance of the sky,
Thy colors gleam more than the hues of it.
When thou sailest across the sky all men behold thee,
(Though) thy going is hidden from their sight.
15. When thou showest thyself at morning every day,
...... under thy majesty, though the day be brief,
Thou traversest a journey of leagues,
Even millions and hundred-thousands of time.
Every day is under thee.
20. When thy setting comes,
The hours of the night hearken to thee likewise.
When thou hast traversed it
There comes no ending to thy labors.
All men—they see by means of thee.
25. Nor do they finish when thy majesty sets,
For thou wakest to rise in the morning,
And thy radiance, it opens the eyes (again).
When thou settest in Manu,[568]
Then they sleep like the dead.
30. Hail to thee! O disc of day,
Creator of all and giver of their sustenance,
Great Falcon, brilliantly plumaged,
Brought forth to raise himself on high of himself,
Self-generator, without being born.
35. Firstborn Falcon in the midst of the sky,
To whom jubilation is made at the rising and the setting likewise.
Fashioner of the produce of the soil,
...............................................
Taking possession of the Two Lands (Egypt), from great to small—
40. A mother profitable to gods and men,
A craftsman of experience, ..........
Valiant herdsman who drives cattle,
Their refuge and the giver of their sustenance,
Who passes by, running the course of the sun-god,
45. Who determines his own birth,
Exalting his beauty in the body of Nut,
Illuminating the Two Lands (Egypt) with his disc,
The primordial being, who himself made himself;
Who beholds that which he has made,
50. Sole lord taking captive all lands every day,
As one beholding them that walk therein;
Shining in the sky a being as the sun.
He makes the seasons by the months,
Heat when he desires,
55. Cold when he desires.
He makes the limbs to languish
When he enfolds them,
Every land is in rejoicing
At his rising every day, in order to praise him.

This hymn is, so far as its expressions go, monotheistic. One would not dream from it that there was any god but the sun-god. Nevertheless, other gods were worshiped. The monotheism here expressed was not of the intolerant kind which prevailed in Israel, and which ultimately put down the worship of all rival deities.

Such an intolerant monotheism was introduced into Egypt by Amenophis IV (see Part I, p. 29), who took an old name for the sun disc, Aton, as the name of the one god, and who tried to suppress the worship of all other gods. The movement failed, but while it lasted it produced the following beautiful hymn.

7. An Egyptian Hymn in Praise of Aton.[569]

Thy dawning is beautiful in the horizon of the sky,
O loving Aton, Beginning of life!
When thou risest in the eastern horizon,
Thou fillest every land with thy beauty.
5. Thou art beautiful, great, glittering, high above every land,
Thy rays, they encompass the lands, even all that thou hast made,
Thou art Re,[570] and thou carriest them all away captive;
Thou bindest them by thy love.
Though thou art far away, thy rays are upon the earth;
10. Though thou art on high, thy footprints are the day.
When thou settest in the western horizon of the sky,
The earth is in darkness like the dead;
They sleep in their chambers,
Their heads are wrapped up,
15. Their nostrils are stopped,
And none seeth the other,
While all their things are stolen
Which are under their heads,
And they know it not.
20. Every lion cometh forth from his den,
All serpents, they sting.
Darkness ................
The world is in silence;
He that made them resteth in his horizon.
25. Bright is the earth when thou risest in the horizon.
When thou shinest as Aton by day
Thou drivest away the darkness.
When thou sendest forth thy rays,
The Two Lands (Egypt) are in daily festivity,
30. Awake and standing upon their feet
When thou hast raised them up.
Their limbs bathed, they take their clothing,
Their arms uplifted in adoration to thy dawning.
(Then) in all the world they do their work.
35. All cattle rest upon their pasturage,
The trees and the plants flourish,
The birds flutter in their marshes,
Their wings uplifted in adoration to thee.
All the sheep dance upon their feet,
40. All wingÈd things fly,
They live when thou hast shone upon them.
The barques sail upstream and downstream alike.
Every highway is open because thou dawnest.
45. The fish in the river leap up before thee.
The rays are in the midst of the great green sea.
Creator of the germ in woman,
Maker of seed in man,
Giving life to the son in the body of his mother,
50. Soothing him that he may not weep,
Nurse (even) in the womb,
Giver of breath to animate every one that he maketh!
When he cometh forth from the body ...... on the day of his birth,
Thou openest his mouth in speech,
55. Thou suppliest his necessities.
When the fledgling in the egg chirps in the shell,
Thou givest him breath therein to preserve him alive.
When thou hast brought him together,
To (the point of) bursting it in the egg,
60. He cometh forth from the egg
To chirp with all his might.
He goeth about on his two feet
When he hath come forth therefrom.
How manifold are thy works![571]
65. They are hidden from before (us),
O sole God, whose powers no other possesseth.
Thou didst create the earth according to thy heart
While thou wast alone:
Men, all cattle large and small,
70. All that are upon the earth,
That go about upon their feet;
[All] that are on high,
That fly with their wings.
The foreign countries, Syria and Kush,
75. The land of Egypt;
Thou settest every man into his place,
Thou suppliest their necessities.
Every one has his possessions,
And his days are reckoned.
80. The tongues are divers in speech,
Their forms likewise and their skins are distinguished.
(For) thou makest different the strangers.
Thou makest the Nile in the Nether World,
Thou bringest it as thou desirest,
85. To preserve alive the people.
For thou hast made them for thyself,
The lord of them all, resting among them;
Thou lord of every land, who risest for them,
Thou Sun of day, great in majesty.
90. All the distant countries,
Thou makest (also) their life,
Thou hast set a Nile in the sky;
When it falleth for them,
95. It maketh waves upon the mountains,
Like the great green sea,
Watering their fields in their towns.
How excellent are thy designs, O lord of eternity!
There is a Nile in the sky for the strangers
100. And for the cattle of every country that go upon their feet.
(But) the Nile, it cometh from the Nether World for Egypt.
Thy rays nourish every garden;
When thou risest they live,
They grow by thee.
105. Thou makest the seasons
In order to create all thy work:
Winter to bring them coolness,
And heat that they may taste thee.
Thou didst make the distant sky to rise therein,
110. In order to behold all that thou hast made,
Thou alone, shining in thy form as living Aton,
Dawning, glittering, going afar and returning.
Thou makest millions of forms
Through thyself alone;
115. Cities, towns, and tribes, highways and rivers.
All eyes see before them,
For thou art Aton of the day over the earth.
.............................................
Thou art in my heart,
120. There is no other that knoweth thee
Save thy son Ikhnaton.[572]
Thou hast made him wise
In thy designs and in thy might.
The world is in thy hand,
125. Even as thou hast made them.
When thou hast risen they live,
When thou settest they die;
For thou art length of life of thyself,
Men live through thee,
130. While (their) eyes are upon thy beauty
Until thou settest.
All labor is put away
When thou settest in the west.
...............................................
135. Thou didst establish the world,
And raise them, up for thy son,
Who came forth from thy limbs,
The king of Upper and Lower Egypt,
Living in Truth, Lord of the Two Lands,
140. Nefer-khepru-Re, Wan-Re (Ikhnaton),
Son of Re, living in Truth, lord of diadems,
Ikhnaton, whose life is long;
And for the chief royal wife, his beloved,
Mistress of the Two Lands, Nefer-nefru-Aton, Nofretete,
145. Living and flourishing for ever and ever.

8. Comparison with the Psalter.

This long hymn contains many beautiful passages, and, in addition to the line “How manifold are thy works!” often reminds one of Psa. 104, though in religious feeling it falls well below that psalm. Ikhnaton speaks of himself toward the end of his hymn as the one “whose life is long,” but the poor fellow died before he was thirty years old.[573] His mummy was found a few years ago, and it is that of a young man. Vain were his hopes, unless his words refer to the immortal life.

These Egyptian hymns, like the Babylonian, exhibit a high degree of poetic and intellectual power, and much deep religious feeling, but the men who wrote them somehow lacked that deep religious insight and simple power of emotional expression that were given to the Hebrews. Their compositions but set in clearer relief the beauty, depth, and inspirational power of the Hebrew Psalms.