“ But the effects of Adad’s power so artistically set forth in this hymn are secondary, as placed beside the dignity of the god himself. The word of Adad is absolute and all-powerful. He is a god of great wrath. He is a real bull-god, of heaven and earth. He can put the heavens out of sight. He can make day as black as the darkest night. He can split the earth with his lightning. He can flood the land with water. He can pelt its inhabitants with stones. Yet in all this he consults with father Bêl.
Obverse
1. [ḥad] -ê-a mu-zu an [-zak-ku]
In the lightning flash thou proclaimest thy name! ”

“ The relation of the night to the calendar also shows that the rank of Nannar was superior to that of Šamaš. The day began at evening; not with the morning. The sun too was the son of the night; that is, it issued forth from the night, in the morning. Kings, thinking of this fact, that the sun was born of the night, often addressed Šamaš as the offspring of the god Sin. The rising of the moon in the night to send forth its light into the darkness also impressed the Babylonian with the power of the moon. The waxing and waning of the moon left the same impression on the Babylonian mind. ”

“ The god is not an object like Nannar, but a force; then the force is personified and he is spoken of as a person. Ḥammurabi puts him in the second triad of gods. He is the third person of that triad, Sin being the first person and Šamaš the second. Generally Ištar has the third place in the second triad. In that case Ramman falls outside of that triad and takes position among all the gods as seventh in importance. The order is as follows: Anu, Bêl, Ea, Sin, Šamaš, Ištar, Adad (Ramman) . As a Babylonian god we find Ramman’s name appears in Ḥammurabi’s time as a common name in literature. ”

“ The storm of the hour is lengthened into one of days. It becomes a deluge of judgment on the earth. The words say seven days, but in such poetic discourse seven might perhaps simply mean “many”. Finally, there is a decided change in the scene. The flood has passed away. The death-destroying hail-storm falls upon us, not simply the little hail-stones, but the great hail-stones. ”

“ In Assyria we can trace his history back to some extent by means of inscriptions in which his name appears as an element in the compound names of kings. For example, we find his name in the name of the ancient Assyrian king Šamaš-Ramman, and from an inscription of Tiglath-pileser I. we learn also that Šamaš-Ramman built a temple to the god Ramman. So we have historical evidence that the cult of Ramman is older in Assyria than this king, who was reigning in 1820 B. C. How much older it may be we do not know. Jastrow thinks that the cult is indigenous to Assyrian soil. ”

“ Sin is a man sitting in the half circle of the moon and sailing across the firmament of the heavens as in a majestic ship. mà: the sign MÙ was originally pictorial and represented the rudder of the ship. The sign of our tablet is New-Babylonian and can be found in the inscriptions of Nebuchadrezzar II. It is half way between the old pictorial and the usual Assyrian MÙ. gur: the sign ḤAR probably refers to the body of the ship as “an enclosure”, or more particularly to “the crescent form” of the ship, since ḤAR means “circular enclosure”. ”

“ Nin-lil is the Sumerian name of Bêlit, the consort of Bêl. Nin equals Bêltu, “lady”. lil has the same meaning as in En-lil or Mul-lil (see Hymn to Bêl, line 2) . Nin-lil is exactly the reverse with respect to sex of En-lil. Bêlit, like Bêl, had a temple at Nippur which dates back apparently to the time 63 of the early dynasties of Ur. It was, however, simply a dim shadow of the temple of Bêl. The goddess of the divine family never achieved the popularity attained by the god, the father of the family. ”

“ It was at this point that political lordship seemed to pass from the old Bêl to the new, namely to Marduk. Ḥammurabi, one of the early kings at Babylon, speaks of Bêl as voluntarily transferring his power to Marduk. In the Assyrian legend of the Creation this transfer is dramatically enacted. The task of overcoming the monster Tiâmat naturally belonged to Bêl. But Marduk, the youthful god of Eridu, the son of Ea, was urged to attempt the feat. When he had slain the monster, there was joy among the gods. They vied with each other in bestowing honor on the victor. ”

“ IDU and DADDU come from the same ideogram which is the picture of the hand and the forearm, the fingers pointing to the left. The value id is supposed to be of Semitic derivation, from the root appearing in Assyrian as idu, “hand”. The sign IDU also means “side”, “wing”, “horn”, “power”. Hence I render “powerful” here, making it qualify dù nà-a-ni. The sign in our text is old Babylonian; yet it seems to be a form that is approaching the Assyrian form. TA is also related to ID and DA and is used as DA sometimes is, as a postposition.
àm-e, composed of prefix àm and stem e. ”

“ One god might be more important than another, according to the importance of the circle in which his virtue was effective, or according to the importance of the political power the circle of whose sway was under the special tutelage of some particular god. Babylonian worship cannot be said to be polytheistic in the grosser form, nor had it reached the higher ideal that lies in monotheism. ”

“ Bêl was at first a local deity, but as the circumference of the political territory of which Nippur was the religious centre was enlarged, so Bêl’s cult was extended. Other cities included in the same political domain with Nippur, recognized Bêl as lord. Bêl was a sort of war god. Kings rivaled one another in courting his favor. The victorious king attributed his success to Bêl and brought the spoil to Bêl. The king of the south, whether of Lagaš, Erech or Ur, and the king of the north, whether of Kîš or Agade, always went to Nippur to celebrate his victory. ”

“ He seems to be presented to us just as though he were a man.
Our first paragraph may describe him as a resident of one of the ancient cities of southern Babylonia. The city of his residence was Eridu on the banks of the Euphrates. His official title is that of sun-god and his occupation is to care for the growth of plants. The name of his father was Ea, the lord of the city of Eridu, whose duties consisted in governing the waters of the river on whose shore the city rested. Tammuz had a mother, whose name was Davkina, the mistress of the vine. ”

“ The god is addressed in the second person, as is seen in line 16, where za-e, the personal pronoun of the second person, is applied to him, and also in the pronominal phase of the second person, za-da, found in lines 18 and 19, not to mention other less striking symbols of the second person singular.
The hymn consists of many laudatory epithets descriptive of Bêl’s divine nature and work. His fatherhood and lordship are dwelt upon. He is a righteous and all-wise father. His lordship extends not only over the land, but up into the air as well. ”

“ The sign IGÛ can be read either ide, which is ES, or ige, which is EK.
ḥùl-la equals noun ḥùl, plus phonetic complement la. ḥùl equals ḥadû, “joy” (Br. 10884) . The sign giving this value is not to be confounded with another sign which also has the value ḥul meaning “evil”, expressed by limuttu (Br. 9503) .
mu-e-ši-in-maš is a verb consisting of verbal prefix mu, verbal infixes e and ši-in and root maš. mu (see Hymn to Bêl, lines 1 and 18) . e (see Hymn to Bêl, line 18) . ši-in: an objective verbal infix naturally has its person determined by the object to which it refers. ”

“ On closer analysis, ḥu must be a prefix of generalization; for example ḥu may equal amêlu, “man” (Br. 2050) . láḥ must be the real verb; it is equal to galâtu (Br. 6166) . e must be a vowel of prolongation. The usual phonetic complement after láḥ is ḥa.
The fear of the lightning of Adad in this hymn is somewhat like that expressed in the Babylonian Epic of Gilgameš, Eleventh Tablet. The lord of the storm caused the heavens to rain heavily. There arose from the foundation of heaven a black cloud. ”

“ The lord whose shining oil is milk for an extensive progeny!
ù-mu-un (see line 1 for note) .
zal: NI means “oil”. The Babylonian KAK, NI and IR should be distinguished from the Assyrian. In Assyrian the horizontal wedges are parallel and do not come to an angle at the right.
laḥ-na: zal laḥ-na means “his shining oil”, and the thought appears to be that Bêl causes food to be produced to sustain successive generations. ”

“ O twin, lord, bull-god of heaven and earth, in the mighty thunder and the lightning flash thou declarest thy name.
bar-tab-ba equals tu’âmu, “twin” (Br. 1896) . maš equals tu’âmu (Br. 1811) , while the cognate bar equals tappû, “companion” (Br. 1807) . maš, which represents the idea “cut”, is more primitive than bar which represents the idea “side”. maš is also equal to mâšu, “twin”, a Sumerian loan-word in Assyrian. tab equals tappû (Br. 3775) . tab may have been inserted, that bar “companion” should be taken rather than the narrower word “twin” (Hymn to Sin, line 16) . ”

“ In the temple, the shining one of Ištar, who is the foundation of the land!
10. mulu ka-áš-ka-sa-ge (KIT) nu mu-un-su (SUD,SUG) -ga-mu
The one of much wine, who is not far away!
11. azag dimmer Nanâ-ge (KIT) šà (LIB) -mu ú-sun mu-un-si-mal (IG)
The shining one of Ištar, whose heart is full of plant-production!
12. mulu ḥul-mal (IG) nu mu-un-su-ga-mu
The one enduring evil, who is not far away!
13. dimmer mutin (GEŠTIN) An-na-ge (KIT) kaš (BI) -ra-bi mu-un-šub (RU)
The wine-god of Anu, to whom they present their offering! ”

“ He holds a unique and exalted position in heaven and on earth above all other beings. To him the angels of heaven and spirits of earth bow, and at his command the forces of nature perform their marvellous functions.
3. Adad
The storm-god is known by the Sumerian ideogram Im. The sign IMMU in the El-Amarna tablets (1500 B. C.) has the reading Adad, a name connected with the Syrian Hadad. Oppert thinks Adad is the god’s oldest name. It seems evidently a foreign equivalent for Im. The Assyrian name Ramman is a provisional name meaning “thunderer”, and probably only an epithet. ”

“ They were simply repairers of the temple, like many other kings. Many kings down to the last king of the last empire took much pride in rebuilding temples. There must have been a temple at Nippur when En-šag-kušanna presented the spoil of Kîš to Bêl. Excavations at Nippur show that, as there are great deposits of debris above the temple pavements made by Sargon and his son, so beneath these pavements there is a further great layer of debris, proving that the founding of E-kur must reach far back into the darkness of pre-historic antiquity. ”

“ Brummer explains the sign correctly as follows: IGI-DIBBU is a compound sign and equals ŠI, “eye”, plus LU, “take away”, hence the meaning “take away the eye”, “become old”, “elderly”, “lord”, (SVA. 2-7) .
mu-un contracted to mun is cognate with me-en which equals bašû, “to be”, as in za-e-me-en (Br. 10404) . We shall meet the form mu-un as a verbal prefix.
mu here is simply a dialectic form of me (MSL., p. 240) . mu as a Sumerian value is attested by the sign-name MU. We shall meet with MU in the name Mu-ul-lil, also as a suffix and in other ways. The MU of our text is old Babylonian. ”

“ The sign is old Babylonian, yet quite different from the archaic linear form.
da-da means “strength” (see on line 16) .
maḥ has three common Assyrian equivalents, ma’adu, “many”, rabû, “great” and ṣîru, “high”. maḥ here equals rabû. There is still another Assyrian equivalent, maḥḥu which must be a loanword in Semitic.
mu-e-gin as prefix, infix and verb means “he indeed goes”. mu-e (see on line 18) . gin is a value of the sign ARAGUBBÛ (see ê, line 15) .
sag-e-zi equals “head” (line 5) plus vowel of prolongation (line 3) and “of life” (line 4) . ZÎTU equals napištu as well as imnu and kînu. ”

“ NUNUZ in this form is, as Delitzsch observes (HW. p. 525b) , New-Babylonian. In Assyrian it is composed of ṢAB and ḤI and in New-Babylonian of ṢAB and ŠE. Here it is equal to the Assyrian lîpu, German “Nachkomme”.
ám: A.AN, equalling ám, is a well recognized verbal suffix used like the verb “to be”; for instance, dingir-ra ám means “is a god” and gal-la ám means “is great” (see SVA. p. 56) .
da-ma-al-la is composed of the adjective da-ma-al and the phonetic complement la. da-ma-al is the phonetic representation in ES of the sign AMÛ meaning rapšu (see line 10) . ”