Reading akkadian PRayeRs & Hymns An Introduction

442
READING AKKADIAN PRAYERS AND HYMNS: AN INTRODUCTION
life” (see Tawil, ALCBH, 244). Finally, in the second line of our prayer the supplicant
confesses “I repeatedly swore a solemn oath on your life in vain (lit.,
lightly)” (nīška kabtu qalliš azzakkar). Semantically, this is very close to the
Decalogue’s commandment about pronouncing (literally, lifting [אשׂנ]) 1 the divine
name אוְ ָשּׁ ַל, “in a worthless or groundless manner, in vain” (Exod 20:7, Deut
5:11). 2 Although the biblical text does not explicitly mention swearing, the idiom
“to lift a name” may have originally been its equivalent or, rather, a broader
action that subsumed it. In any case, earliest interpretations seem to have identified
the commandment with a prohibition on swearing falsely. 3 These similarities
in language once again suggest the conceptual proximity of Mesopotamian
and ancient Israelite religious worldviews.
Shuilla-prayers typically begin with a long hymnic introduction, which, as
argued in the general introduction, is part of the formal greeting appropriate for
addressing a high god in the pantheon. We have seen how this formal greeting is
also reflected in some of the prayers of the Hebrew Bible on page 238. In contrast
to shuillas, the dingirshadibba-prayers attest very brief invocations, sometimes
as brief as one word, “my god” (ilī, see line 1). When epithets are used,
they are few and always reflect the personal nature of the relationship between
the personal god and the supplicant (see, e.g., lines 18–19). As I have argued
elsewhere, 4 one need not formally address one’s personal god in a dingirshadibba
as one would a high god in a shuilla because one is already on intimate,
informal terms with the personal deity. This same mode of brief and informal
address may be seen in the Psalter’s laments of the individual (3; 5; 6; 7; 13; 17;
22; 25; 26; 27:7–14; 28; 31; 35; 38; 39; 42; 43; 51; 54; 55; 56; 57; 59; 61; 63;
64; 69; 70; 71; 86; 88; 102; 109; 120; 130; 140; 141; 142; and 143). 5 In most
laments of the individual the invocation is simply ה וֹה ָ ְי,
“O Yahweh” (see, e.g.,
Pss 3:2 and 6:2), or םי הִ
לֹאֱ
, “O God” (see, e.g., 43:1 and 51:3 in the Elohistic
Psalter). Other invocations are just as short, consisting of a single word (Ps 59:2,
י הלֹאֱ
, “O my god”), or only slightly longer with brief invocations in parallelism
with one another in the opening verse or two (see Pss 28:1, י רִ
וּצ / ה וֹה ָ ְי,
“O
Yahweh / my rock”; 70:2, ה וֹה ָ ְי / םי הִ
לֹאֱ
, “O God / O Yahweh”; 25:1–2, י הָ
לֹא
ֱ / הוֹה
ָ ְי,
“O Yahweh / my god”; and 130:1–2, י נָ
ֹדאֲ
/ הוֹה
ָ ְי,
“O Yahweh / my lord”). The
ָ
1 The BH use of אשׂנ in the phrase םשׁ ֵ אשׂנ, “to pronounce a name,” is similar to the Akkadian use
of the cognate verb našû in the phrase šipta/šuʾillakka našû, “to recite an incantation/a shuilla”
(see Tawil, ALCBH, 249–50 and CAD N/2, 108–9). An even closer equivalent to the Akkadian
phrase is BH’s הלָּ ִפתּ ְ אשׂנ in, e.g., 2 Kgs 19:4.
2 See HALOT, 1425–26. The word was not originally equivalent to “falsely,” though it was eventually
understood in that way. See the next note.
3 See Brevard S. Childs, The Book of Exodus: A Critical, Theological Commentary (OTL; Louisville:
Westminster Press, 1974), 410–12 for a brief and useful discussion.
4 This comparative point is developed more fully in Alan Lenzi, “Invoking the God: Interpreting
Invocations in Mesopotamian Prayers and Biblical Laments of the Individual,” JBL 129 (2010),
303–15.
5 This listing follows Hermann Gunkel, Introduction to Psalms: The Genres of the Religious Lyric of
Israel, completed by Joachim Begrich (trans. James D. Nogalski; Mercer Library of Biblical Studies;
Macon: Mercer University Press, 1998), 121.