O my goddess, my transgression is great; my sins are many. O my god, that knowest that I knew not, my transgression is great; my sins are many. 25 O my goddess, that knowest that I knew not, my transgression is great; my sins are many. The transgression that I committed I knew not. The forbidden thing did I eat. The forbidden thing did I trample upon. 30 My Lord in the wrath of his heart has punished me. God in the strength of his heart has overpowered me. The goddess upon me has laid affliction and in pain has set me. God who knew, though I knew not, hath pierced me. The goddess who knew, though I knew not, hath caused darkness. 35 I lay on the ground and no man seized me by the hand. I wept, and my palms none took. II I cried aloud; there was none that would hear me. To my god my distress I referred; my prayer I addressed. 5 To my god, who knew, though I knew not, my prayer I addressed. To my goddess, who knew, though I knew not, my prayer [The next four lines are lost.] How long, O my god, shall I suffer? THE LAMENT OF THE PIOUS RULER 1 (THE BABYLONIAN JOB) I 2 My eyeballs he obscured, bolting them as with a lock; My ears he bolted, like those of a deaf person. A king - I have been changed into a slave, At the cry of my lament, open a hole for him,3 The month cries, the year- distress. II 4 I had reached and passed the allotted time of life; Misery had increased, justice was gone, I cried to my god, but he did not show me his countenance; spection, The necromancer did not through an offering justify my suit, The zakiku-priest 5 I appealed to, but he revealed nothing, 1 Reprinted, by permission of the J. B. Lippincott Co., from "The Civilization of Babylonia and Assyria," by Prof. M. Jastrow. 2 In the first tablet, beginning with the praise of "lord of wisdom" -originally no doubt Enlil of Nippur, but transferred in the course of further redaction to Marduk, the head of the later Babylonian pantheon, we have a description of the evil that has overwhelmed Tabi-utul-Enlil. This tablet is much damaged. 3 Meaning "himself." ♦ The second tablet opens with a reflection on the sadness of life's experiences and the difficulty of penetrating the ways of the gods to ascertain how to please them; and, as in the case of Job, the reflections are interspersed with laments about his own forlorn condition. 5 An oracle priest. The chief exorcizer did not by his rites release me from the ban. The like of this had never been seen; Whithersoever I turned, trouble was in pursuit. As though I had not always set aside the portion for the god, And had not invoked the goddess at the meal, Had not bowed my face, and brought my tribute, As though I were one in whose mouth supplication and prayer were not constant, Who had set aside the day of the god, neglected the newmoon festival, Been negligent, spurned their images, Not taught his people fear and reverence, Not invoked his god, eaten of his (the god's) food;8 Neglected his goddess, and did not offer to her a libation. With the oppressor who has forgotten his lord, Who has profaned the sacred name of his god, am I rated. The day of worship of the gods the joy of my heart, Its celebration - my delight. I taught my country to guard the name of the god, To honor the name of the goddess I accustomed my people. The glorification of the king I made like unto that of a god, And in the fear of the palace I instructed the people. I thought that such things were pleasing to a god.10 6 His punishment seems inexplicable to him, as he proceeds to set forth how he always endeavored to perform his duties toward the gods and men punctiliously. TI.e., the festival. 8 Tabooed food. Note the characteristically Babylonian view of the king as demanding homage, only second to that accorded to the gods. 10 Despite all this, the pious ruler was smitten with disease and, accordingly, he indulges in the gloomy thought that the ways of the gods are mysterious. One can never be certain of pleasing them. The fate of man is uncertain. Joy changes to grief suddenly, and apparently without cause or reason. What, however, seems good to oneself, to a god is displeasing, What is spurned by oneself finds favor with a god; Who is there that can grasp the will of the gods in heaven? The plan of a god full of mystery-who can understand it? How can mortals learn the way of a god? He who was alive yesterday is dead to-day; In an instant he is cast into grief, of a sudden he is crushed; For a moment he sings and plays, In a twinkling he wails like a mourner. Like opening and closing,11 their (mankind's) spirit changes; If they are hungry they are like a corpse, Have they had enough, they consider themselves equal to their god; If things go well, they prate of mounting to heaven, If they are in distress, they speak of descending into Irkalla.12 An evil demon has come out of his lair; 13 It bent my high stature like a poplar; Like a plant of the marsh, I was uprooted, thrown on my back. Food became bitter and putrid, The malady dragged on its course. Though without food, hunger diminished; The sap of my blood he 16 drained. Nourishment was withheld My flesh was wasted, my body grew wan. I took to my bed, unable to leave the couch. The house became my prison; As fetters for my body, my hands were powerless, As pinions for my person, my feet were stretched out, 11 Explained in the commentary "like day and night.” 12 One of the names of the netherworld. 18 The sufferer here reverts to his sufferings and describes how the demons of disease have laid him low. 14 The color of his skin, at first yellow, becomes pale. 15 I.e., the sickness. 16 I.e., the demon of disease. My discomfiture was painful, the pain severe. At night he granted me no respite whatever, I was saturated like a sheep in my excrements; The disease of my joints baffled the chief exorcizer, And my omens were obscure to the diviner, The exorcizer could not interpret the character of my disease, And the limit of my malady the diviner could not fix. No god came to my aid, taking me by the hand, No goddess had compassion for me, coming to my side.17 The grave was open, my burial prepared, Though not yet dead, the lamentation was over. The people of my land had already said "alas" over me.18 My enemy heard it and his face shone; As the joyful tidings were announced to him his liver rejoiced, I knew it was the day when my whole family, Resting under the protection of their deity, would be in distress. 19 He sent a mighty storm to the foundation of heaven, 17 The sufferer, paralyzed, bed-ridden, totally helpless, blind, deaf, unable to take food, racked with unceasing pain, was thus brought to the brink of despair. 18 As over a dead person. 19 All hope had fled, and his friends and family already mourned him as dead. 20 The third tablet beginning "His hand is heavy, I can no longer endure it" (furnished by the colophon of the second tablet), evidently continued the plaint, but soon passed on to an account of a dream sent to the sufferer in which Ur-Bau, described as a strong hero decked with a crown," appears and apparently gives him a reas 66 |