"Brother" and "sister" are terms frequently applied to lovers in these poems. Perhaps it arose from an ancient custom of marriages between brothers and sisters, which was perpetuated in the royal families of Egypt down to Roman times. The description of the physical attractions of the loved one reminds one of Cant. 4: 1-7. III1 Is my heart not softened by thy love-longing for me? Not will I allow it To depart from me. Although cudgeled even to the "Guard of the overflow," To Syria, with shebôd-rods and clubs, To Ethiopia, with palm-rods, To the highlands, with switches, To the lowlands, with twigs, Never will I listen to their counsel, IV3 The voice of the wild goose cries, I must, then, take home my net! I shall not set the snares today For thy love has caught me. This is a vivid description of the power of the tender passion. * Perhaps the name of a Nileometer station in the vicinity of Memphis. Müller, ibid., p. 22. Müller, ibid., p. 22. This is a continuation of the preceding. VI1 Thou beautiful one! My heart's desire is Thou hast changed me by thy love. In my soul, at my prayers: "I lack my commander tonight, I am as one dwelling in a tomb." Be thou but in health and strength,3 Then the nearness of thy countenance Sheds delight, by reason of thy well-being, Over a heart, which seeks thee (with longing). This poem expresses on the part of the man a longing similar to that expressed by the woman in Cant. 8:1-3. VII4 The voice of the dove calls, What have I to do outside? Stop, thou birdling! Thou chidest me! I have found my brother in his bed, My heart is glad beyond all measure. "I will not tear myself away." My hand is in his hand. I wander together with him To every beautiful place. He makes me the first of maidens, Nor does he grieve my heart. In this poem the loved woman speaks, as in Cant. 8:1-3. Sa'am-plants are in it, VIIIS In the presence of which one feels oneself uplifted! I am thy darling sister, I am to thee like a bit of land, With each shrub of grateful fragrance. 1 Müller, ibid., p. 23. * Married couples are usually so represented in Egyptian pictures. The Egyptian is here followed, rather than the German. • Müller, p. 24. Ibid., p. 27. It describes a walk in a garden. Lovely is the water-conduit in it, While the north wind cooled us. Thy hand in my hand, My soul inspired, Because we go together. New wine it is, to hear thy voice; I live for hearing it. To see thee with each look, Is better than eating and drinking. The figure of the garden, with which this poem begins, is also used in Cant. 5:1 and 6:2, 3. In ancient as in modern times wives loved fondly, while husbands gave way to drunkenness. The poems as a whole make it clear that in Egypt love, which lies at the basis of all home life, and is in the New Testament made a figure of the relation of Christ to the Church (see John 3: 29; Rev. 21: 2, 9), was as warmly felt as in Israel, and was likewise poetically and passionately expressed. 1 The garden again. CHAPTER XXIV ILLUSTRATIONS OF PASSAGES IN THE PROPHETS UNIQUENESS OF THE PROPHETIC BOOKS. AN ASSYRIAN PROPHETIC VISION. COMPARISON WITH THE BIBLE. THE EGYPTIAN SOCIAL CONSCIENCE. TALE OF THE ELOQUENT PEASANT. COMPARISON WITH THE BIBLE. AN IDEAL KING; EXTRACT FROM THE ADMONITIONS OF IPUWER. COMPARISON WITH MESSIANIC EXPECTATIONS. SHEOL. ISHTAR'S DESCENT TO THE UNDER-WORLD. COMPARISON WITH PROPHETIC PASSAGES. A LAMENTATION FOR TAMMUZ. THERE is no other body of literature which closely corresponds to the books of the Hebrew prophets. The depth of their social passion and the power of their moral and religious insight form a unique combination. Nevertheless, texts which have come from Babylonia and Egypt do show that certain phases of prophetic thought were not without parallels elsewhere. At times they also illustrate for us thoughts and practices which the prophets abhorred. A few such texts are here translated. 1. A Prophetic Vision. c. The following statement is taken from the annals of Ashurbanipal, King of Assyria, 668-626 B. C. It is the conclusion of a passage in which the king is relating his strenuous struggle with Tiuman, King of Elam. Ashurbanipal tells how he poured out a libation to Ishtar of Arbela and offered to her a long prayer against the Elamite king. The narrative then continues:1 In an hour of that night when I prayed to her, a seer lay down; he saw a prophetic dream. Ishtar caused him to see a vision of the night, and he announced it to me, saying: "Ishtar who dwells at Arbela entered, and on her right and left she was behung with quivers, she was holding a bow in her left hand, she brandished a heavy sword to make war. Thou wast sitting before her. She, like the mother who bore thee, was speaking to thee and talking to thee. Ishtar, the exalted one of the gods, was appointing thee a message: "Thou shalt expect to accomplish that at the place which is situated before thee. I am coming.' Thou wast answering her, saying: 'Where thou goest I will go with thee, O lady of ladies.' She repeated to thee, saying: "Thou.... indeed dwellest in the place of Nebo. Eat food, drink wine, appoint rejoicing, exalt my divinity until I go and accomplish this undertaking......I will cause thee to accomplish the wish of thy heart. Thy face he shall not harm, thy feet he shall not resist; 'Translated from Rawlinson's Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia, III, 32, 16, f. 21.e., the thing thou hast prayed for. thy cry shall not come to nought.' In the midst of battle she arms thee with the desolation of her goodness. She will protect thy whole body. Before her a fire is blown to capture thy foes." The night vision of this seer reminds one a little of Isaiah's vision of Jehovah in the temple (Isa. 6) and of Zechariah's vision of Joshua and Satan (Zech. 3:1). The Hebrew prophets as late as the time of Jeremiah often received their divine messages in dreams. (See Jer. 23: 27.) Assyria had something of the same ideas as Israel as to the revelations of deity to a prophet, but she lacked Israel's ethical deity. 2. The Egyptian Social Conscience. A remarkable appreciation of the rights of the common people is revealed in an Egyptian story called the "Tale of the Eloquent Peasant," a story which has come down to us in copies made before 1800 B. C. It has been claimed that this tale indicates the existence of a social conscience in Egypt analogous to that of the Hebrew prophets. The principal part of the story is, accordingly, given here. The Eloquent Peasant1 There was a man, Hunanup by name, a peasant of Sechet-hemat, and he had a wife,.... ....by name. Then said this peasant to his wife: "Behold, I am going down to Egypt to bring back bread for my children. Go in and measure the corn that we still have in our storehouse,........bushel." Then he measured for her 8 (?) bushels of corn. Then this peasant said to his wife: "Behold, 2 bushels of corn shall be left for bread for thee and the children. But make for me the 6 bushels into bread and beer for each of the days [that I shall be on the road]." Then this peasant went down to Egypt after he had loaded his asses with all the good products2 of Sechet-hemat. This peasant set out and journeyed southward to Ehnas. He came to a point opposite Per-fefi, north of Medenit, and found there a man standing on the bank, Dehuti-necht by name, who was the son of a man named Iseri, who was one of the serfs of the chief steward, Meruitensi. Then said this Dehuti-necht, when he saw the asses of this peasant which appealed to his covetousness: "Oh that some good god would help me to rob this peasant of his goods!" The house of Dehuti-necht stood close to the side of the path, which was narrow, not wide. It was about the width of a......-cloth, and upon one side of it was the water and upon the other side was growing grain. Then said Dehitu-necht to his servant: "Hasten and bring me a shawl from the house!" And it was brought at once. Then he spread this shawl upon the middle of the road, and it extended, one edge to the water, and the other to the corn. The peasant came along the path which was the common highway. Then said Dehuti-necht: "Look out, peasant, do not trample on my clothes!" The peasant answered: "I will do as thou wishest; I will go in the right way!" As he 1 Translated from the German of Vogelsang und Gardiner, Klagen des Bauern, Leipzig, 1908. The original contains a list of plants, stones, birds, etc., the modern equivalents of which are not known. |