The Babylonian Legends of the Creation Part 17

30. The Merciful One in whose power it is to give life.

31. His words shall endure for ever, they shall never be forgotten,

32. In the mouth of the Black-headed[1] whom his hands have made.

[Footnote 1: Here the t.i.tle "Black-headed" refers to all mankind, but it is sometimes used by the scribes to distinguish the population of the Euphrates Valley from foreign peoples of light complexions.]

33. O G.o.d TUTU, who art the G.o.d MU-AZAG in the fifth place--let their mouth recite a holy incantation [to him],

34. Who by his own holy incantation hath destroyed all the evil ones.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Portion of a tablet inscribed in a.s.syrian with a text of the Seventh Tablet of the Creation Series. [K. 8522.]]

35. O G.o.d SHAZU, the wise heart of the G.o.ds, who searchest the inward parts of the belly,

36. Who dost not permit the worker of evil to go forth by his side,

37. Establisher of the company of the G.o.ds ... their hearts.

38. Reducer of the disobedient ...

[Lines 39-106 are wanting. The positions of the fragmentary lines supplied by duplicate fragments are uncertain; in any case they give no connected sense.]

107. Verily, he holdeth the beginning and the end of them,[1]

verily ...

[Footnote 1: Compare the language of the Kur'an (Surah II, v. 256), "He (Allah) knoweth what is before them and what is behind them."]

108. Saying, "He who entered into the middle of Tiamat resteth not;

109. "His name shall be 'Nibiru' the seizer of the middle.

110. "He shall set the courses of the stars of the heavens,

111. "He shall herd together the whole company of the G.o.ds like sheep.

112. "He shall [ever] take Tiamat captive, he shall slit up her treasure (variant, life), he shall disembowel her."[1]

[Footnote 1: These lines suggest that the fight between Marduk and Tiamat was recurrent; it is incorrect to translate the verbal forms as preterites.]

113. Among the men who are to come after a lapse of time,

114. Let [these words] be heard without ceasing, may they reign to all eternity,

115. Because he made the [heavenly] places and moulded the stable [earth].

116. Father Bel proclaimed his name, "Lord of the Lands."

117. All the Igigi repeated the t.i.tle.

118. Ea heard and his liver rejoiced,

119. Saying, "He whose t.i.tle hath rejoiced his fathers

120. "Shall be even as I am; his name shall be Ea.

121. "He shall dispose of all the magical benefits of my rites,

122. "He shall make to have effect my instructions."

123. By the t.i.tle of "Fifty times" the great G.o.ds

124. Proclaimed his names fifty times, they magnified his going.

EPILOGUE.

125. Let the first comer take them and repeat them;

126. Let the wise man and the learned man meditate upon all of them;

127. The father shall repeat them to his son that he may lay hold upon them.

128. Let them (i.e., the names) open the ears of the shepherd and the herdsman.[1]

[Footnote 1: "To open the ears"--to give understanding.]

129. Let [man] rejoice in Marduk, the Lord of the G.o.ds,

130. That his land may be fertile and he himself abide in security.

131. His word is true, his command altereth not.

132. No G.o.d hath ever brought to the ground that which issueth from his mouth.

133. They (i.e., the G.o.ds) treated him with contempt, he turned not his back [in flight],

134. No G.o.d could resist his wrath at its height.

135. His heart is large, his bowels of mercy are great.

136. Of sin and wickedness before him ...

137. The first comer utters his complaint of humiliation before him.

[Lines 138-142 are too fragmentary to translate.]