The cuneiform inscriptions and the Old Testament - The Search For ...

BOOK OF ISAIAH XIII XIV. 79
12. "intt'"|3 7Tn bright star, son of the daion. Similarly
the planet Venus' is called In Assyrian m u s t i 1 1 1 t'pnn^i'O
"the shining star" (in a syllabary III Rawl. 5 7, 60; see
Oppert). Regarding the other name of the planet 389
Dil-bat i. e. A^Xicfar see the note on Judg. II. 13 in
Vol. I, p. 167.
13. li^'iO llj '^mount of assembly". I regard it as
convincingly shown from Lenormant's intimations, refer-
red-to in Delitzsch Parad. pp. 117 foil., that there existed
likewise among the Assyrians or Babylonians an analogous
conception of a world-mountain, which was also the dwelling
of the gods. The most important passage is in Sargon's
Khors^b^d- inscription, where he speaks of the temples
founded and erected by him at Diir-Sarrukin. The
passage runs thus : 155. la. Sin, Samas, Nabft, 156.
Adar u hi-ra-ti-§u-nu ra-ba-a-ti sa i-na ki-rib
r. HAR. SAG. GAL. KUR. KUR. RA mat A-ra-al-li
ki-nis '-al-du Is-ri-ti nam-ra-a-ti 15 7. zuk-ki
nak-lu-ti ina ki-rib iv Dtir-Sarrukin ta-bi§
ir-mu-u i. e. "I'a (Aos), Sin, Samas, Nebo, Adar, and
their exalted consorts, who amid the house Charsaggalkur-
kurra (i. e. the house of the mountain-summit of lands) of the
Aralli mountain * in eternity are born, founded gleaming
* Delitzsch takes sadii Aralli (so he transcribes the cuneiform)
as in apposition to Echarsaggalkurkurra and regards Aralli as the
special name for the mountain of the gods. The introduction of such
a designation would, however, be disturbing in this passage, and,
besides thisj it is sufficiently ascertained, from the passage cited below
II Rawl. 24 b, 7/8, that there was a land Aralli. Charsaggalkurkurra i. e.
"the summit of lands" lay in the land Aralli, at or above it i. e. at
the entrance to the lower world. It is no argument against this view
to say that we find sad Aral u (A-ra-lu) in a list of mountains and
mountain-ranges, appeai-ing as one of them, in which hurasu 'gold'