My mouth, which had been covered, so that with difficulty I uttered sounds,

He purified, like copper he made it shine.

My teeth, which had been seized so that they were pressed together, 27

He opened a space between them and strengthened their base. 28

The tongue, which was swollen so that I could not move it, He took away its coating so that speech returned.

The throat, which was compressed, closed up like that of a

corpse,

He healed so that my breast resounded like a flute.

My spittle, which had been shut off so that it could not come forth,29

He loosened the bonds, opening them like a door.

To the opulent 30 who had been reduced to starvation, enchained like a guilty one,

He brought food and provided drink.

My neck, which had been twisted and bent low,

He made erect and like a cedar raised up.

He made my stature like one of perfect strength,

Like one released from a demon, he polished my nails.

He cured me of scurvy, healed me of the itch.

My knees, that had been fettered like those of a bird of the

My entire body he restored,

He wiped away the blemish, making it 32 resplendent,

The oppressed stature regained its splendor,

27 The teeth were pressed together as in lockjaw.

28 I.e., fixed them firm in their sockets.

29 Like Job, he was unable to swallow or spit out the saliva.

30 Though a king with all things at his command, he is wasted like

one dying of famine, since he could not eat nor drink.

31 I.e., he could not walk.

82 I.e., the body.

On the banks of the stream where judgment is held over

The brand of slavery was removed, the fetters taken off.

Let him who sins against E-sagila,34 let him learn from me, Into the jaw of the lion, about to devour me, Marduk inserted a bit.

Marduk has seized the snare of my pursuer, has encompassed his lair.35

33 Referring to a ceremony of cleansing from sin by immersion into a stream.

34 The name of Marduk's temple at Babylon, here used for the god. 85 In this strain no doubt the poem continued to the close-in illustration of the lesson to be derived from Tabi-utul-Enlil's terrible yet marvelous experience. Like the Biblical poem, detailing Job's sufferings and the discourse of the problem involved, our composition ends in a kind of non sequitur. The problem is not solved, at least not to our satisfaction, for the just and innocent continue to suffer. The consolation, however, remains that the mercy of the gods in the end never fails. Even though one may be already in the jaws of death, a god if he be so inclined as was Marduk or as was Enlil, the god of Nippur, in the original form of the story, can still save one. Though diviners and exorcizers fail, Marduk can intervene directly and restore the wasted body to perfect vigor. So all ends happily — at least for Tabi-utul-Enlil.

(2100-1100 B.C.)

THE TEL-EL-AMARNA LETTERS

"The Babylonian tongue was used as the means of communication among different nations, even by the distant and powerful Egyptians."