Reading akkadian PRayeRs & Hymns An Introduction

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READING AKKADIAN PRAYERS AND HYMNS: AN INTRODUCTION
closing formulae of Mesopotamian prayers, see UFBG, 323–24. For discussion of the closing
promise in shuilla-prayers, see Abusch, “Promise to Praise” as well as his “Blessing and
Praise in Ancient Mesopotamian Incantations,” in Literatur, Politik und Recht in Mesopotamien:
Festschrift für Claus Wilcke (ed. W. Sallaberger, K. Volk, and A. Zgoll; Orientalia
Biblica et Christiana 14; Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2003), 1–14.
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COMPARATIVE SUGGESTIONS:
Though there are no prayers addressed to cultic agents in the Hebrew Bible,
there are still important resonances between this prayer and religious phenomena
from ancient Israel and Judah. The various uses for salt attested across the
ancient Near East correspond closely with those described in the Hebrew Bible.
For example, biblical texts reference salt as a flavor enhancer (Job 6:6, Ezra
4:14, 6:9) and medicine (Ezek 16:4). Priestly sacrificial rules require the application
of salt to food offerings presented to the deity (Lev 2:13, Num 18:19, Ezek
43:24). Salt is also added to biblical incense offerings (Exod 30:35), employed as
a healing agent in prophetic magic (2 Kgs 2:20–22), and dispersed as part of
cursing rituals (Deut 29:20–26). 1
The conceptualization of sacrifice as the food meant to solicit divine favor is
especially prominent in the opening address of this prayer. Within the Hebrew
Bible, a similar view obtains (see, e.g., Lev 3:11, 16; 21:6, 8, 17, 21, 22; 22:25;
Num 28:2, 24; Ezek 44:7, 16; Mal 1:6–12), although there is also some attempt
to rebut this conception of sacrifice (e.g., Ps 50:12–13). In the case of Ps 50, by
offering a polemic against sacrifice as divine food, the psalmist reinforces the
normative status of this understanding. 2
1 The relation between salt and curse—and by extension, salt and covenant—has been explored
extensively within biblical studies. See, e.g., F. Charles Fensham, “Salt as Curse in the Old Testament
and the Ancient Near East,” BA 25 (1962), 48–50; H. Eising, “חלמ,” TDOT 8:331–33 (at
333). For broader connections between salt and covenant and especially sacrificial aspects, see
Baruch A. Levine, Leviticus (JPS Torah Commentary; Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of
America, 1989), 13; Idem, Numbers 1–20 (AB 4; New York: Doubleday, 1993), 449; and Jacob
Milgrom, Leviticus 1–16 (AB 3; New York: Doubleday, 1991), 191–92.
2 For discussions of sacrifice as divine food and enticement in the ancient Near East, see, inter
alia, W. G. Lambert, “Donations of Food and Drink to the Gods in Ancient Mesopotamia,” in
Ritual and Sacrifice in the Ancient Near East (ed. J. Quaegebeur; OLA 55; Leuven: Uitgeverij Peeters
en Departement Oriëntalistiek, 1993), 191–201; Tzvi Abusch, “Sacrifice in Mesopotamia,” in
Sacrifice in Religious Experience (ed. Albert I. Baumgarten; Leiden: Brill, 2002), 39–48; JoAnn
Scurlock, “Animal Sacrifice in Ancient Mesopotamian Religion,” in A History of the Animal World
in the Ancient Near East (ed. B. Collins; Leiden: Brill, 2002), 389–403; Ronald Hendel, “Table and
Altar: The Anthropology of Food in the Priestly Torah,” in To Break Every Yoke: Essays in Honor
of Marvin L. Chaney (ed. R. B. Coote and N. K. Gottwald; Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press,
2007), 131–48; David P. Wright, “The Study of Ritual in the Hebrew Bible,” in The Hebrew Bible:
New Insights and Scholarship (ed. Frederick E. Greenspahn; New York: New York University Press,
2008), 120–38 (esp. 124–34).