Part VII

The deep emotions aroused through the current beliefs regarding the relationship between gods and worshippers receive an impressive illustration in a class of prayers in which the sense of human weakness and the confession of guilt find an expression. While the conception of sin never rose beyond the point of one's becoming conscious of a wrong committed through some misfortune, affecting the country or the individual, yet within this limit we find the spirit of contriteness touchingly brought out, and the appeal to the angered god or goddess as eloquently made as in the finest of the Biblical Psalms.

While the penitent in the specimens at our disposal ^[1] is in most if not in all cases the king speaking at times for himself and at times for the whole people of which he is the representative, standing close to the gods by virtue of his august position, this is due in part to the accident of the provenance of the material from the official archives of the temple or the palace. To be sure, worship in Babylonia and Assyria always partook largely of an official state character, but on the other hand, there is plenty of evidence that the needs of the individual were also considered.

In general, it was in the case of public misfortune a defeat, a pestilence, the failure of crops or devastation through storms that the anger of the gods was felt.

For all that, the form of expression even on such occasions is often distinctly personal, and we are permitted to conclude that the individual likewise, when through illness or through some misfortune he became conscious of the divine anger, repaired to the temple to ascertain, perhaps through some form of divination, what god he had offended. There with the aid of the priest and with appropriate ceremonies he would seek to purify himself from sin and secure divine forgiveness.

The sin itself may have been a real transgression or a ceremonial omission or mishap. No distinction was drawn down to the latest periods between the two kinds of guilt, but with due recognition, likewise, of this limitation, the intensity of the emotions aroused by the sense of guilt is in no way affected.

The priest acts in these outpourings of the penitents as the mediator, bringing the appeal to the gods and emphasizing it by his own endorsement of it. In most of the specimens, therefore, the penitent and priest are introduced alternately. So, for example, in the following psalm addressed to a goddess. ^[2]

Penitent.

"(Look graciously) on the prostration of living beings!
(I), thy servant, full of sighs cry to thee.
The appeal of him who has sinned, do thou accept!
If thou lookest on a man, that man lives,
O almighty lady of mankind,
Merciful one to whom it is good to turn, accept my petition!"

Priest.

"Because his god and his goddess ^[3] are
Angry with him, he cries to thee.
(Turn thy countenance to him), take hold of his hand!"

Penitent.

"Except thee, there is no guiding deity,
Faithfully look on me, accept my petition,
Speak 'Atonement is granted', may thy liver be assuaged!
How long yet, my lady! Turn thy countenance to me!
As a dove I moan, satiated with sighs."

Priest.

"With woe and pain, his spirit is full of sighs,
Tears he weeps, he breaks forth in lament."

In another composition of this character, the priest as mediator sets forth in detail the sufferings of the penitent, who appears to have been stricken with a painful disease. ^[4]

Priest.

"(Loosen) his fetters, release his bonds,
(In mercy [?] ) look on the one bound !
. . . . .
(His heart is full of) misery and (woe).
Sickness, suffering, misery and distress,
Which have befallen him have weakened his sighing.
Those ^[5] who have overcome him have silenced his plaint.
He has sinned and weeps bitterly before thee.
His spirit ^[6] is depressed, he is consumed before thee.
Overpowered by tears that stream like a rainstorm,
Entirely overcome he sits as one no longer living.
Like a mourner he breaks forth in lamentation,
By imploring he manifests his misery.
What has my lord decided and planned in regard to his servant ?
May his ^[7] mouth proclaim what I do not know."

Penitent.

"Many are my sins which I have committed,
May I escape this (misfortune), may I be rescued from this distress!"

Priest.

"May the (sin and) misdeed be covered up ...
With distorted countenance, robbed of light, he is utterly crushed.
Because of thy misdeed thy hands are tied,
Whether he will release thee, I do not know."

The penitent sinner is compared to one languishing in prison, tied hand and foot, deprived of light. We may assume that accompanying the prayer were some exorcising rites to drive out the evil demons that had taken possession of him. The inquiry of the god, through some process of divination, to ascertain whether the sufferer will be relieved, appears to have led to a doubtful answer ; and, accordingly, we find the priest proceeding to a second appeal, again with certain rites and accompanied presumably by a further inquiry.

Not infrequently the penitent asserts that he is not aware of the deed for which he has been punished, nor what god or goddess he has offended. Misfortune or sickness, however, has come, with the inevitable conclusion that some god is angry for some wrong ceremonial or ethical committed. So in the course of a lamentation psalm, ^[8] too long to quote in full, the penitent exclaims:

"The transgression that I have committed, I know not,
The sin that I have committed I know not,
The unclean that I have eaten I know not,
The impure on which I have trodden I know not;
The lord in the anger of his heart has looked on me,
The god in the wrath of his heart has encircled me;
The goddess who is angry against me has made me like one diseased. ^[9]
A god, whoever he may be, ^[10] has oppressed me,
A goddess, whoever she may be, has brought misery on me.
I sought for help, but no one took me by the hand;
I cried but no one approached my side;
I broke forth in cries, but no one heard me.
Full of grief I am overpowered, I dare not look up.
To my merciful god, ^[11] I turn, imploringly,
The feet of my goddess I kiss, I touch;
To the god, whoever he may be, (I turn imploringly) .
O lord, (turn thy countenance to me, accept my petition)!
goddess, (look in mercy on me, accept my petition)!
God, whoever he may be, (turn thy countenance to me, accept my petition)!
Goddess, (whoever she may be), look in mercy on me, accept my petition!
How long yet, my god! — may thy heart be assuaged!
How long yet, my goddess — may thy liver be quieted!
God, whoever he may be, — may the wrath of thy heart return to its place!
Goddess, whoever she may be, — may thy hostile heart return to its place!"

The penitent closes with some general reflections on the stubbornness and senselessness of mankind.

"Mankind is stubborn, no one has understanding,
As many as there are who knows anything?
Whether they do shameful acts or good ones no one has understanding.
O lord, do not cast thy servant
Into the waters of the marsh ! Take hold of his hand !
The sin that I may have committed, turn to grace !
The transgression that I may have committed,
May the wind carry off.
Tear assunder my many misdeeds like a garment!
O my god, my transgressions are seven times seven, ^[12] forgive my transgressions.
O my goddess, my transgressions are seven times seven, forgive my transgressions!
O god, whoever he may be, my transgressions are seven times seven, forgive me my transgressions !
O goddess, whoever she may be, my transgressions are seven times seven, forgive me my transgressions !
Forgive my transgressions that I may in humility serve thee !
May thy heart like the heart of a mother return to its place ! ^[13]
Like the heart of a mother who has given birth, (the heart of) a father who has begotten return to its place!"

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

See. translations of most of them in Jastrow, Religion Babyloniens und Assyriens, II, pp. 75-116. See also above, p. 194, seq. t and 234 seq.

[2]:

Rawlinson, IV-2 , 29**, No. 5.

[3]:

The priest often refers thus indefinitely to a god or goddess who has shown his or her disfavor. Usually the special protecting deity of the individual is meant. At times, however, the indefiniteness indicates an uncertainty as to which one of the deities has been offended.

[4]:

Rawlinson, IV 2 , PI. 54, No. 1.

[5]:

The demons of sickness, etc., have so weakened him that he is no longer able to voice his complaint.

[6]:

Literally "his liver".

[7]:

I.e., the god's.

[8]:

Rawlinson, IV 2 , PI. 10.

[9]:

I.e., like one possessed by a demon of sickness.

[10]:

Literally "known or unknown".

[11]:

The penitent turns to his special protecting god and goddess.

[12]:

i.e., are very many.

[13]:

i.e., be as before, reconciled and gracious.