s of the enemy, he sends out his army,
Filled with enmity towards the people.

Dibbarra is represented as addressing this governor:

In the city whither I send thee,
Thou shall fear no one, nor have compassion.
Kill the young and old alike,
The tender suckling likewise--spare no one.
The treasures of Babylon carry off as booty.

Ishum continues his narrative:

The royal host was gathered together and entered the city.
The bow was strung, the sword unsheathed.
Thou didst blunt[1048] (?) the weapons of the soldiers,
The servitors of Anu and Dagan.
Their blood thou caused to flow like torrents of water through the
city's highways.
Thou didst tear open their intestines, and cause the stream to carry
them off.

Dagan is here used for Bel,[1049] and the phrase 'servitors of Anu and
Dagan' embraces the inhabitants of Babylon. Marduk, the lord of Babylon,
is enraged at the sight, but apparently is powerless.

The great lord Marduk saw it and cried "Alas!"
His senses left him.
A violent curse issued from his mouth.

At this point the tablet is defective, and when it again becomes
intelligible we find Ishum describing an attack of Dibbarra upon another
of the great centers of the Euphrates Valley--the city of Uruk. Uruk is
called the 'dwelling of Anu and Ishtar,' the city of the _Kizreti_,
_Ukhati_, and _Kharimati_[1050]--the sacred harlots. Uruk suffers the
same fate as Babylon:

A cruel and wicked governor thou didst place over them,
Who brought misery upon them, broke down (?) their laws.
Ishtar was enraged and filled with anger because of Uruk.

Her opposition, however, is as powerless to stem Dibbarra's attack as
was Marduk's grief at the onslaught on Babylon.

Dibbarra's greed is insatiable. Ishum continues his address to him:

O warrior Dibbarra, thou dost dispatch the just,
Thou dost dispatch the unjust,
Who sins against thee, thou dost dispatch,
And the one who does not sin against thee thou dost dispatch.

The following lines reveal the purpose of Ishum's long speech. A war
more terrible even than the conflicts recounted is planned by Ishum, one
that is to involve all creation and extend to the higher regions. Ishum
asks Dibbarra's consent to the fearful destruction held in view:

The brightness of Shul-pauddu[1051] I will destroy.
The root of the tree I will tear out
That it no longer blossom;
Against the dwelling of the king of gods, I